Chapter 116 Endless Mode 5

Chapter 116 Endless Mode: Part 5

The rain poured relentlessly for an entire day and night.

At 9 a.m. on the 7th day, the system’s mechanical voice announced that Su Han had obtained 4 bottles of milk, 1 piece of black bread, 1 piece of Pork Floss Cream Bread, 1 piece of chocolate cake, 5 Nutrition Capsules, as well as 3 handmade soaps and 2 lilac soaps—an incredible haul.

Zhong Rui couldn’t help but admire how capable his partner was!

They split the bread and milk between them.

Su Han wondered, "Is it alright to just leave the piranhas in the water? Should we feed them some meat?"

"Don’t worry. They hunt just fine—they’re ruthless," Zhong Rui chuckled.

As he spoke, three strange-looking birds skimmed low over the river, causing ripples.

In a flash, several piranhas burst from the water, fiercely biting into the birds. With a twist of their bodies, they tore off chunks of flesh before plunging back into the water.

In mere moments, the three birds were reduced to skeletons.

"That’s savage," Su Han shook her head and sighed. Despite her words, the corners of her lips curled upward in satisfaction—guardian beasts were supposed to be fierce. How else could they defend the camp?

The rain kept falling, and the ground slowly turned soggy.

Bored out of his mind, Zhong Rui took out a dagger and a block of wood and began carving. Although their Portable Storage was well-stocked, there were still many items they lacked.

Su Han zoned out, occasionally pondering their next course of action.

By the next morning, the rain finally began to let up.

Su Han stepped out of the tent, took a deep breath, and found the air exceptionally fresh.

"Want to go for a walk?" Zhong Rui invited. "We can catch some piranhas while we’re at it."

"Let’s go." Having stayed indoors for two days, Su Han was eager to stretch her limbs and readily agreed.

To thoroughly scout the surroundings of their camp, the two deliberately took a different route.

Perhaps because of the recent rain, their path was suspiciously clear—they encountered no trouble at all.

Wait—something’s off! Zhong Rui halted, his expression grave as his eyes scanned the surroundings, as if searching for something.

"What’s the matter?" Su Han asked, puzzled.

"Ancient forests are crawling with predators—it’s almost impossible to encounter a dead zone. Unless..." Zhong Rui pressed his lips together and said coldly, "Unless this is the private territory of some top-tier predator."

Su Han immediately grasped the severity of the situation. If it truly was a top-tier predator, it would likely be packing deadly force!

After a moment’s thought, she said, "We should turn back." If the unknown creature was merely residing in its own territory, then as long as they didn’t provoke it, it wouldn’t attack them.

Just as Zhong Rui was about to agree, a monstrous spider dropped from the sky! It was easily a hundred times bigger than a normal spider!

His face went white, and he shoved Su Han aside on reflex.

The Giant Spider had jagged fangs, which now lanced straight for Zhong Rui.

The fangs glinted wickedly—dripping with venom.

Zhong Rui threw everything he had into it, narrowly avoiding the strike.

The Giant Spider's bristles instantly stood on end, its front claws slicing relentlessly through the air.

Su Han glanced over and saw the maniacal gleam in the Giant Spider's eyes—clearly, it was a kill-or-be-killed showdown with no chance of reconciliation. Without hesitation, she swiftly pulled out a grenade and hurled it at the Giant Spider.

Miraculously, the grenade landed right beside the Giant Spider's mouthparts, instantly staggering it.

Capitalizing on the opening, Su Han drew her Desert Eagle and took aim.

Meanwhile, Zhong Rui seized the moment to quickly distance himself from the Giant Spider before pulling out his pistol and firing rapidly.

Despite their fierce assault, the Giant Spider's HP barely dipped to 55%.

Su Han was shocked. "Just how much HP does this thing have? It's both high DPS *and* tanky—is this a bug?"

But the final boss battle was simply cheap by design.

The relentless attacks enraged the Giant Spider. It went berserk, scratching its back frantically with its hind legs. The next moment, toxic barbs scattered into the air.

Su Han instinctively dodged but still inhaled a few of the hairs.

A system prompt appeared: "You have triggered the negative status 'Spider Poisoning.'"

"-1 HP/min."

What did "-1 HP/min" mean? When Su Han first entered the nuclear radiation zone and was fully exposed to the air, her HP had drained at the same rate. Clearly, the Giant Spider's venom was incredibly potent—fitting for an apex predator.

"We held back, and now you're asking for it!" Zhong Rui snarled, deciding to go all out.

In the next instant, he shouldered an RPG and fired at the Giant Spider.

"Hiss—"

The Giant Spider grew even more furious, slashing wildly with its front limbs.

Zhong Rui fired again.

At the same time, Su Han lobbed a Timed Charge at the Giant Spider's feet.

Explosions rang out one after another. Finally, the Giant Spider collapsed, defeated.

Zhong Rui scanned the surroundings, relieved to see no trees had caught fire. He popped one antidote himself and handed the other to Su Han.

Without hesitation, Su Han downed it in one go.

Surprisingly, after taking the antidote, the "Spider Poisoning" debuff didn't disappear—it merely weakened from "-1 HP/min" to "-1 HP every two minutes."

Frowning, Zhong Rui took another pill, but this time, the debuff remained unchanged.

"God damn it! Looks like we'll have to drink a Vitality Potion," Su Han announced helplessly.

Such a huge spider—inedible, incredibly tough to deal with, and now costing them a Vitality Potion! Zhong Rui felt scammed.

**

Ten minutes later, the two finally reached the stream. Zhong Rui immediately threw a net, but this time, only bait-tier fish were caught.

Zhong Rui realized instantly, "The rest of the piranhas have already swum away."

Even fishing had a time limit... Su Han was done with this BS.

Piranhas couldn't coexist with other fish. When starving, they'd even cannibalize. So when no piranhas were found, Su Han quickly understood—this trip had been a total bust.

Zhong Rui remained silent for a long while before suddenly saying, "How about walking further along the stream? Maybe the piranhas haven’t gotten too far yet."

Su Han figured it was a good idea and agreed.

The two continued forward.

Su Han believed that after encountering the Giant Spider earlier, nothing else could shake her. Yet soon enough, she realized she was still too naive.

After walking for about half an hour, they spotted a Caiman up ahead, casually eating its meal.

Its nearly two-meter-long frame was extremely imposing. Even lying lazily on the ground, it looked downright scary.

Su Han tugged at Zhong Rui’s sleeve, signaling that the outside was too dangerous and they should retreat.

Zhong Rui nodded, preparing to quietly withdraw.

Just then, a pain-filled roar of the Caiman echoed nearby.

"You’re at the top of the food chain—why are you even screaming?" Su Han was puzzled and couldn’t help but glance back.

What she saw next was absolutely terrifying—an anaconda, at least four to five meters long, had coiled around the Caiman and was squeezing tighter and tighter.

Su Han stood close enough to even hear bones crunching.

The Caiman thrashed wildly but couldn’t break free from the anaconda’s grasp. In fact, the snake’s coils only tightened further.

Only after the Caiman died did the anaconda finally gulp down its prey.

This was way too much! Without another word, Su Han quickly walked away.

Walking fast, nearly running, the two swiftly distanced themselves from the anaconda’s location. Only when they were certain they were safe did they stop to catch their breath.

"Payback’s quick," Su Han mused. "Caimans eat young anacondas, and adult anacondas eat Caimans."

"One that big—how strong must it be? Would we even have enough supplies to take it down?" Zhong Rui began wondering if they stood a chance.

Su Han waved her hand dismissively and said wearily, "Forget it, let’s just go back."

Turns out, their camp wasn’t peaceful either.

Dozens of water snakes had crawled in from the ditch, seemingly eyeing the river as their new home.

The original residents—the piranhas—were not messing around and immediately went on a killing spree, treating themselves to a feast.

The water snakes fought back fiercely. Unfortunately, being non-venomous, their attacks were pretty weak, and they were soon overwhelmed.

In the end, only two water snakes managed to escape, while the rest were devoured by the piranhas.

"Well done," Su Han praised. She dug out a wooden plank, intending to cross the river.

Feeling bold after their feast, halfway across, several piranhas leaped out of the water, trying to bite her.

Su Han’s Portable Storage contained kitchenware. Without hesitation, she pulled out a frying pan and whacked the fish back into the water with a series of loud *whacks*.

Stunned, the piranhas splashed back into the river, having gained nothing, and finally backed off.

Back at the camp, Zhong Rui abruptly suggested, "Let’s make a new plank—wider and thicker this time, so we don’t have to worry about attacks while crossing."

"Is that necessary?" Su Han doubted. "This plank works just fine."

Is it really okay? Zhong Rui gave a bitter smile and casually pointed at the wooden plank.

That’s when Su Han noticed numerous holes in the plank, like some animal had been gnawing on it.

"What if the plank breaks while crossing the river..." Zhong Rui trailed off.

Su Han’s expression soured. They’d end up in the water as piranha food!

"My bad. I thought since there were only the two of us on the server, and the animals weren’t smart enough to know how to use the plank, so I left it aside without worry," Zhong Rui sighed softly. "Who knew they’d chew on it..."

"We’ll make a new one later and store it in the Portable Storage to carry with us. Anyway, with the current shortage of supplies, the storage isn’t full yet."

"Sure," Su Han said briskly.

On the 9th day of the game, Su Han and Zhong Rui each drank a Vitality Potion, finally curing the "Poisonous Spider Toxin" debuff.

After that close call, Su Han dug in her heels and refused to leave camp, no matter what.

Zhong Rui took the time to craft two wider and taller wooden planks, giving one to each of them to store in their Portable Storage.

When they got bored, they’d wander around camp, clearing out any potential dangers along the way.

Life was oddly peaceful—it hardly felt like a desperate struggle for survival, more like playing a management game.

On the 10th day of the game, Zhong Rui started urging his companion to build a wooden hut, complaining about how cramped the tent was.

Su Han firmly disagreed. She shot him a sidelong glance and said, "Give it a rest, will you? The replenishment rate of daily supplies has only just caught up with consumption. If we keep building this and that, we’ll just deplete our stock again."

"Better to start now than wait," Zhong Rui said earnestly. "Who knows how long we’ll be staying here? We should at least provide ourselves with a better living environment."

That made Su Han uneasy. She wondered to herself, how long would the two of them have to live in this primeval forest? Surely they couldn’t stay here forever?

Author’s note: Had to browse through the "beautiful photos" of the spider family to write this chapter.

[I] burst out crying.