Logan quickly tracked down a taller tree.
With his physical attributes heavily enhanced, his agility and explosive power left yesterday’s baseline far behind.
He scrambled up the trunk, clearing ten meters to the top of the canopy in a few swift leaps.
The view opened up completely.
From this height, the entire camp looked like a small wooden diorama, surrounded by an endless expanse of dark green forest.
"Looks like we need to build a watchtower up here and set up a rotating guard rotation."
The thought crossed his mind, making more sense the longer he weighed it.
A permanent high-altitude post would dramatically expand the camp’s early-warning perimeter.
Just as he prepared to pull his gaze back, his peripheral vision caught an unnatural flicker in the distance.
Logan froze, instantly locking all his attention onto that exact vector.
It was a patch of low-lying brush over three hundred meters away.
The movement was subtle enough that a casual glance would write it off as wind shifting the foliage.
Yet Logan’s visual reflexes were razor-sharp. He stared right at it, and his chest tightened.
Wrong!
Wind blowing through leaves moved with chaotic randomness, but that sway carried a distinct rhythm and cadence.
People!
The realization detonated in his mind, and an instant later, a second and third dark silhouette detached themselves from the tree line’s shadows.
Logan’s pulse quickened.
He counted fast: seven... no, eight!
That fast?
The scar-faced leader’s crew had tracked them down already?
No time to waste. His body reacted before his conscious mind caught up.
He slid down the thick tree trunk at breakneck speed.
The soft thud of his boots hitting the ground drew the eyes of everyone in the camp.
Reading the grim set of his jaw, the girls felt their stomachs drop.
"Enemy attack!"
Logan didn’t waste breath, dropping a harsh order.
"Everyone behind the fence—ready for combat!"
The peaceful atmosphere of the camp plunged below freezing in an instant.
"Hurry! Grab your weapons, prep for defense!"
"Everyone grab an acid bomb from my stash!"
Wang Ke moved the fastest, rallying the girls to grab their machetes and secure positions behind the newly erected wooden palisade.
Bai Nian scrambled to her pack, hauling out the freshly brewed mushroom bombs to distribute.
After a brief wave of commotion, the entire camp snapped into active war footing.
Crouched behind the vine-woven fence, everyone peered through the gaps with bated breath, tracking the outer treeline.
The jungle remained dead silent aside from the rustle of wind through leaves.
Noticing their pale, taut faces, Logan realized the tension had ratcheted up a bit too high.
He offered a reassuring cue. "Don’t stress too much. Might just be passing survivors wandering past, not necessarily hunting us."
Even as the words left his mouth—
Clear voices drifted over from the nearby brush.
"Huh, look at that. There’s an actual settlement here."
A young, surprised male voice rang out.
Followed immediately by a second, more measured tone:
"Xiaoboyu, we should probably keep moving. Don’t go sticking our noses in other people’s business."
The boy called Xiaoboyu immediately pushed back:
"No need to be paranoid. Since we’re here, we might as well check out the locals. We’re all from Earth; maybe we can form an alliance later!"
Listening to the exchange, everyone behind the fence blinked in surprise.
The tone and phrasing... didn’t sound anything like a pack of bloodthirsty thugs.
Logan’s tense posture eased slightly.
These guys probably weren’t from the Brotherhood. Mercenaries didn’t throw around words like "alliance."
Still, whether they were friendly or hostile remained to be seen.
Besides... the name Xiaoboyu rang a bell. He felt like he had heard it somewhere before.
Logan didn’t dwell on it.
He signaled the group behind him to hold their positions, then stepped forward to investigate personally.
"No way!" Bai Nian lunged forward, grabbing his sleeve and shaking her head frantically. "You can’t go out there alone, it’s too dangerous!"
Her expressive almond eyes brimbed with raw worry.
"Wang Ke, Gu Xinran... let’s go with him!"
She pulled a few other hunter-class and braver girls into the squad.
"Got it."
Wang Ke and the others didn’t hesitate, gripping their blades and stepping squarely to Logan’s side.
Lin Bing rose in silence too, shouldering her AK as she slotted into the front rank.
With the cold, hyper-competent mechanic backing him up, Bai Nian relaxed a fraction.
Logan led the crew slowly toward the camp’s crude wooden gate.
Taking a deep breath, he unlatched the heavy log barricade and pushed it open.
Outside, seven young figures stood frozen, clearly caught off guard by the sudden opening of the gate. They flinched backward instinctively, raising their guards.
Logan swept his gaze across them.
Four guys, three girls.
Just like his own group, they looked to be around twenty years old—fellow students.
They wore battered modern streetwear, smeared with dirt and the clear exhaustion of a long trek, but their overall morale seemed decent. Their weapons were basic stuff like axes and machetes.
The leader was a bespectacled boy with clean, pale features—easily the neatest-looking one in the bunch.
He was clearly the one who had just pitched the alliance.
As Logan and Wang Ke stepped out, Xiaoboyu blinked in surprise, opening his mouth to speak.
Then his gaze drifted past Logan, locking onto Bai Nian, Gu Xinran, and Tang Yuqing standing right behind him. The speech died in his throat.
Though tense and alert, the girls possessed striking, diverse features.
The pure and gentle Bai Nian, the alluring Gu Xinran, the fierce and athletic Wang Ke...
Even dragged down by the grime and rugged gear of the wild, their looks refused to be masked.
Xiaoboyu’s Adam’s apple bobbed involuntarily.
A mixture of shock and unmasked envy flashed across his eyes.
He slapped a friendly, welcoming smile onto his face a second later to mask it.
"Hey there, I’m Xiaoboyu."
"Chief of Settlement 777, Fire Controller class. Took down a giant bear that raided our camp in one shot."
"Mind telling me your names, brother, and the lovely ladies with you?"