Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Glacial Realm 4
"Besides, based on my experience in the wastelands, our group of captured players is actually pretty lucky. To make players obey, some of the more cruel natives will kill one group of players in front of another, just to make a point.
That’s also why I chose to leave now.
If we wait until tomorrow, they’ll register us, and it will be much harder to escape."
Perry Yates nodded. If that was true, then leaving now was definitely the best option.
Besides, they were small. As long as no one was specifically looking for them, they could hide almost anywhere and be difficult to find.
As for why they didn’t just leave the village, well, Perry Yates hadn’t forgotten how she’d been captured in the first place.
It was better to stay inside the village than to be on edge outside, never knowing when they might be caught again.
Hiding in plain sight, after all.
Besides, just as the young man had said, they were lucky this time to have encountered relatively mild-mannered natives. What if next time they ran into a brutal bunch?
Honestly, Perry Yates wasn’t confident she’d be able to escape.
While it was still dark, the two decided to find temporary hiding spots.
"A team of two is too big of a target. We should hide separately. That way, if one of us is discovered, the other can try to stage a rescue."
Perry Yates thought his proposal made a lot of sense, so they each chose a different spot.
The snow throughout the village had been swept clean, even from the rooftops, so hiding in a snowdrift wasn’t an option.
But the rooftops...
Even without any snow, a rooftop was still a good hiding spot.
’Most importantly, those big guys probably wouldn’t just look up at the rooftops for no reason.’
With that thought in mind, Perry Yates didn’t hesitate, scrambling up toward the roof with her hands and feet.
After her Spider Armor reached four-star Ascension, its climbing ability was enhanced, and it could also sprout eight spikes like Spider Legs from her back.
She could control these spikes with her thoughts, and they were also coated in poison.
Upon successfully reaching the roof, Perry Yates discovered it was thatched with dried straw.
She burrowed underneath the straw. It was both concealed and warm. From her vantage point, she could clearly see everything below, including the young man’s hiding spot.
He’d used some unknown method to bore a hole in a pillar and squeeze himself inside.
Using her X-ray vision skill, Perry Yates could clearly see the scene inside the room.
A male and female giant were fast asleep, their snores like thunder. Not far from them was an exquisitely crafted cradle, in which a baby was sleeping soundly.
’If I’m not mistaken, that must be the child of those two giants.’
Honestly, unlike its parents who looked like the Bull Demon King, the baby looked much more human—pale skin, normal features, except for...
...the two small horns on its head.
’Right, I wonder if the Identification Device can identify the race of these giants.’
As she thought this, a tablet-like object appeared in Perry Yates’s hand, though it was only a quarter the size of a normal one.
This was the Identification Device. You just had to scan an object or take a picture of it, and the device would identify the species.
Before using it, Perry Yates remembered to switch it to silent mode.
Just as she prepared to take a picture of the family of three inside, she suddenly realized it couldn’t capture anything.
’Then it hit her. She could see inside because of her X-ray vision, but the Identification Device couldn’t.’
’Oh well. I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.’
After observing the room’s layout for a moment, Perry Yates quickly looked away, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
「The second day of the game.」
Perry Yates was jolted awake by the deafening cries of a child.
Her eyes shot open. The crying came from the house directly beneath her, and Perry Yates felt the entire roof begin to vibrate faintly with the sound.
Fortunately, the ear-splitting wails didn’t last long.
Perry Yates lay on the roof and used her X-ray vision skill, allowing her to see clearly what was happening inside the room.
A female giant was gently cooing to her child.
Just then, the other giant walked over and took the now-quiet child from his wife’s arms.
"Are you busy today?" his wife asked.
"Yeah. The new ’shipment’ needs to be trained, and it has to be done as quickly as possible. After all, these things disappear completely after thirty days. We’ve been preparing for this day for a long time."
A look of joy spread across the wife’s face. "With them, we won’t have to worry about the cold wave this year."
"We have less than twenty days. Take some people today and do an inventory of our supplies. See how much we have left and how long it will last."
"All right, I will."
’A cold wave?’
From the two giants’ conversation, Perry Yates gleaned a vital piece of information: a cold wave would arrive in less than twenty days.
By her calculations, that would likely be the twentieth day of the game.
And the main reason these giants were capturing and domesticating players was to use them to get supplies from treasure boxes, to survive the coming cold wave.
’For something to scare even these giants, this cold wave must be no small matter.’
’It looks like I’ll have to leave before the twentieth day of the game,’ Perry Yates thought to herself.
After the female giant left the room, Perry Yates quickly pulled out her Identification Device and snapped a picture of her retreating back.
After about three seconds, the Identification Device provided an answer in text form.
[Snow-Ox Clan: A race native to the Frostfell Plateau. Seemingly docile, but in fact easily enraged. Possess immense strength and are skilled at running on snow. They can also hide within the snow, then use their pair of sharp horns to deliver a fatal blow to their enemies.]
’So they’re the Snow-Ox Clan. No wonder they look so much like the Bull Demon King.’
With that thought, Perry Yates popped a piece of dried meat into her mouth, letting her saliva soften it little by little before she chewed and swallowed.
She watched as the members of the Snow-Ox Clan finished their meal and left the village one by one.
Based on yesterday’s experience, Perry Yates guessed they were going out to search for more players.
The remaining members of the Snow-Ox Clan were mostly female. Some of the older ones were tasked with watching the children, while the others were busy with their work.
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