Perhaps it was because his appearance was quite pleasant, his tone friendly, and there was an adorable little creature perched on his shoulder, constantly chirping, that the person in the treehouse poked his head out once more.
The owner of the treehouse was a man of average appearance, seemingly in his early twenties, around the age of a college student.
"Hey, where did you come from?" the man asked cautiously.
"I came all the way from the north, walked the entire day, and now itās almost dark; I found your treehouse just in time."
"From the north?" The man was taken aback for a moment and then murmured under his breath, "Oh man, could it be the big shot from the north?" He continued, "So, what brings you here?"
"I just thought that with the expansion of the protection zone, thereās a chance to find other survivors, so I came out to see. Itās been too long communicating with others only via voice channels, feels like Iām becoming a shut-in." Xu Xin expressed with excitement, "After searching for so long, finally found a real person, thatās wonderful! By the way!"
Xu Xin took out a piece of mutated beast meat from his backpack that he had brought with him, his expression sincere, "Nowadays many people are hungry, you probably donāt have much food either, so hereās some meat as a welcome gift."
He wasnāt afraid that this person might get greedy and try to harm him; if that happens, heād have no qualms about taking this guy down and seizing the treehouse. After all, they werenāt in the same district, and chances are, theyād end up clashing eventually.
"Whoa! Meat!" The mutated beast meat Xu Xin took out made the man exclaim in surprise; he swallowed hard and wiped his mouth, not with ill intent but rather excitement, "This... is really for me?"
Despite having been through life-and-death trials, dealing only with beasts and mutated monsters, and constantly chatting with others on the regional channel, he had not cultivated much wariness towards people. On the contrary, he felt a sense of kinship; itās been such a long time since he saw a real person.
Xu Xin could also sense that when he heard his call from below, the manās exclamation contained more excitement than fear.
"Of course, although I donāt have much either, this meat will spoil easily, and I canāt finish it all by myself," Xu Xin waved the meat in his hand.
"Eee!" Keke waved its little paw at the man above, its adorable appearance charming to all, making the man want to reach out and touch it.
"Is that... a little panda?" he asked tentatively.
"Thatās right, found it in the jungle; itās so cute, and being alone is too lonely, so I kept it," Xu Xin petted Kekeās little head, and Keke snuggled against him voluntarily.
"Wow... impressive! Itās a protected animal!" The man said enviously.
The pair of man and beast indeed appeared harmless.
"So... would you... want to come up and sit for a while?" he couldnāt help but say, though he regretted it immediately. Was he being too impulsive?
"Hmm..." Xu Xin showed a hesitant expression, "Maybe itās better not to, we just met..."
Seeing Xu Xinās seemingly cautious demeanor, as if fearing him, the man felt more confident that the person in front of him wasnāt one of those strong bad types, and quickly said, "Hey, weāre all lone survivors in this world; whatās there to fear! Weāve got to stick together!"
With that, he vanished from the window, followed by a rustling beneath the tree canopy, and he emerged from the treehouse to the ground below.
This man had an ordinary appearance, neither ugly nor handsome, slightly shorter than Xu Xin, over one-seventy meters tall, with a build neither fat nor thin, dressed in green-level leather armor. Simply put, there was nothing striking about his appearance; he was the kind of person who could blend into the crowd unnoticed.
To put it simply, he was an ordinary person, a very typical ordinary person.
Xu Xin handed over the mutated beast meat to him.
"Oh, how embarrassing!" The man said this, quickly accepting the meat, clearly very tempted by that piece of meat in Xu Xinās hand.
Having received the meat, he visibly became much friendlier, even extending his hand, "Letās get to know each other a bit, Iām Le Youfang, you mightāve heard my name; Iām quite active on the regional channel."
It seemed Le Youfang thought that given the close proximity, they must be from the same zone.
"Uh... sorry, I donāt really recognize. My name is Xu Feng." Xu Xin glanced at his hand and extended his own.
He didnāt divulge his real name; after all, his name was at the top of both the rainy season rankings and the first place in the recent defense battle, unknown only to a few even in other regions.
"Iāve shared a bunch of strategies! During the last rainy season, I was the first one to suggest everyone move their things upstairs quickly! Ring any bells?" The person seemed quite confident about his own notoriety.
"...Did you? I donāt seem to recall," Xu Xin pretended to be oblivious.
"Really? Youāre not from Jungle 187 zone?"
Zone 187! Thatās a neighboring zone!
This made Xu Xin breathe a sigh of relief. With a neighboring zone, the distribution should not be too complex, likely sorted in sequence and intermixed. He was worried it was something like zone 3 or zone 56; thatād be troublesome with mixed-up area distribution.