Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse
Chapter 149 - 148 Treehouse Defense

Chapter 149: Chapter 148 Treehouse Defense

Xu Xin immediately got out of bed and looked out the window.

The jungle seemed to show no abnormalities at this moment, with the sun just rising and a gentle breeze blowing, which even gave him a slight sense of comfort.

Checking the map, there were still no red dots on either the explored or unexplored areas.

But Xu Xin knew that beneath this calm, a huge crisis was hidden.

The weakening of the treehouse’s protection meant that those underground monsters were likely to break through the defenses and appear directly within the protected area.

No, they have already appeared!

The situation last night was probably a consequence of the treehouse’s weakened protection after the rainy season!

"Oomph..." Xu Xin’s movements woke Keke, who rolled over and sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes with her small paws.

"Go back to sleep, it’s still early." Xu Xin patted Keke’s head. Today’s activities probably had little to do with Keke.

"Oomph..." After hearing this, Keke laid her head back down and went to sleep while hugging her tail.

The regional channel had already become lively.

"Treehouse protection weakened? What does this mean?"

"It’s said that some monsters will appear if you walk out of the protected area. Has anyone gone out?"

"Those who went out have grass three feet high over their graves."

"The event started this early in the morning? Isn’t it usually at nine..."

"Friends! Whatever you do, don’t leave your treehouse! I just went down to check the situation, and just after taking a couple of steps, a vine thicker than my arm suddenly emerged from the ground! If I hadn’t quickly returned to the treehouse, I might have been done for!"

Seeing someone say this in the regional channel, Xu Xin showed an expression of "as expected."

Indeed, the ground is now completely unsafe! Those underground monsters that couldn’t appear in the protected area are now on the surface!

"Oh my God!! That vine is attacking my treehouse, what should I do? It’s even attacking the trunk of the treehouse!"

"Attacking the treehouse?!"

"Is this... is this the treehouse defense battle? It’s no longer safe even inside the treehouse now..."

Are the vines attacking the trunk?

Xu Xin suddenly remembered that he had installed something called the [Treehouse Wooden Armor] defense facility on his treehouse’s trunk a long time ago.

Xu Xin checked his crafting list and found the armor that could protect the treehouse’s trunk.

[Treehouse Wooden Armor (Green): Armor mounted on the treehouse trunk, effectively reducing damage from beast attacks on the treehouse. Requires Log (Green) *2]

Xu Xin recalled that the shape of this armor was similar to a cylinder cut vertically in half, requiring two armors for each meter of trunk.

Although the description mentioned beast attacks, it should also be effective against mutated creatures, right?

He directly sent a private message to the person being attacked: "What’s the situation like, is the damage to the treehouse trunk significant?"

The other party replied instantly: "It’s Boss Xu!!! Help me!!"

Xu Xin: "Don’t panic, describe the situation!"

"The... the vine outside... it keeps attacking the trunk, whipping it! I can hear the sound of the trunk being shaved each time it whips, and the whole treehouse is shaking!"

"Is the vine launching penetration attacks on the treehouse?"

"Yes! Yes! But they seem unable to penetrate the trunk, so they’ve stopped that kind of attack and are whipping wildly, each lash taking off a layer of bark! Boss, save me!"

"Do you have logs? Give them to me, and I’ll make armor for your treehouse!"

"I do, I do!" The other party grabbed onto hope and became excited, immediately trading over a hundred logs. This many logs must be all of his stocks.

"You have a low treehouse?"

"Yes, Boss!"

The trunk under the canopy of a low treehouse is only about three meters, so six pieces of wooden armor can fully cover the exposed trunk.

Xu Xin made twelve pieces for him: "Install these on your treehouse’s trunk!"

"Understood, Boss!!"

Installing the armor only requires selecting a position within the treehouse, similar to setting up a crossbow, so he was still quite safe.

A few tens of seconds later, the other party responded: "Thank you, Boss!! You saved my life!!"

Xu Xin giving him the wooden armor was meant to test its effectiveness: "How’s the protection, is it holding up?"

"Yes, it’s holding up! After installing the armor, the treehouse trunk is completely covered. Those vines continue to whip at the armor, but the effect has weakened considerably!"

"By how much?"

"Well... when the vine lashes the trunk, it leaves a fairly deep mark and focuses on a single spot, which could probably break the treehouse after several hundred hits! But after installing the armor, although the armor gets damaged with each lash, it only leaves shallow marks! A set of armor can definitely last for a while!"

"The vine doesn’t attack the treehouse itself? I mean, the treehouse crown."

"No, no, they’re currently only attacking the trunk!"

After understanding the situation, Xu Xin relaxed a bit. For the time being, the armor seemed capable of warding off the vine’s attacks. He just didn’t know, in this treehouse defense battle, what other kinds of monsters might appear besides the vines.

"Alright, I’ve given you six extra pieces of armor. Replace it immediately if any armor gets destroyed. Contact me as soon as the vines outside stop attacking or if your armor is destroyed." Xu Xin wanted to see how long this piece of armor could last.

"Got it, Boss! I’ll complete the task for sure!"

Xu Xin looked outside the treehouse again. It seemed as long as he didn’t go out, for now, those mutant vines wouldn’t appear actively.

In the regional channel, some people brought the mutant vines out from underground by leaving their treehouses for various reasons, and now they’re all complaining.

Some didn’t even step outside, just stuck their heads out of the window, and the vines emerged from the ground to attack. This reminded him of the red mist yesterday, where a small bird flew into the mist and was immediately pierced and pulled underground.

For now, the emerging threats were just vines, not the large Cannibal Flowers or Venus Flytraps Xu Xin had encountered in the dungeon before, nor were there any mutant beasts.

He immediately posted a message in the regional channel: "Everyone, stop running outside, and don’t stick your heads out of the treehouse. Even if you’re not stepping onto the ground, appearing outside the treehouse will get you targeted by the mutants underground. The best strategy now is to stay inside the treehouse and not go anywhere. This way, you won’t face any problems for the time being!"

His words were promptly reposted several times by other survivors.

"Listening to the Boss will keep you alive longer."

"Haha, even if the Boss doesn’t say it, I’m not going down."

"Thanks, Boss! I almost went out, was just about to go down and pick fruits from the tree I ripened yesterday...Forget it, I’d rather starve, starving for a few days won’t kill me, better than getting the treehouse attacked."

The past couple of days, with no food in the jungle, some people figured out a way to use points to exchange for green-level fertilizers from the points mall to ripen green-level fruit trees, which could bear fruit the next day. But unexpectedly, the next day, they couldn’t even get out of the treehouse.

"Boss! Boss! Help! Tons of vines are coming up from the ground, continuously attacking the treehouse trunk!"

"Why didn’t Boss say earlier? If you had said so, I wouldn’t have gone down!"

From the regional channel situation, merely within these few dozen minutes, hundreds of people were complaining incessantly, and he also saw a sudden drop of over forty people in the regional channel count, probably pierced directly by the vines without realizing it.

Better help them out.

Within [Explorers], Ji Chaoyang also spoke: "Xu Xin is right on the regional channel; don’t go out now, better observe the situation first."

Wen Guixin: "No worries, even if they come out, I can kill them."

Zhao Xiaochuan: "So confident? These are monsters outside the protected zone, surely strong!"

Xu Xin: "The battle strength of these vines isn’t very strong individually, only slightly stronger than the mutant beasts in the dungeon, but they are numerous, all over the place, could appear in dozens or even hundreds at once."

Wen Guixin: "Numerous? Humph, I like lots of small creatures."

Wang Lei: "Has Boss Xu dealt with these kinds of vines?"

Xu Xin narrated the two types of vines he had encountered and their attack methods.

Ji Chaoyang: "So, I encountered them too during exploration activities. The copper treasure chest was obtained at the root of a few Blood Patterned Vines."

Li Wenxi: "Oh, me too, my guardian beast near the copper treasure chest was also a vine!"

Qi Xuefei: "I thought everyone was different. I also encountered vines back then."

Qin Yunlong: "...Not me, mine was a giant groundhog."

The others also spoke one after another, claiming it wasn’t vines but some animals.

Though unclear why, Xu Xin didn’t want to talk about it now; he went straight to his thoughts: "We’ve all obtained silver treasure chests, can create [Treehouse Wooden Armor], and can now sell it to others."

He explained the armor he just made for that person and its effectiveness to them.

Previously, they had sold a batch of treehouse crossbows, but few bought them due to scarce materials and past activities not related to treehouses, often requiring distance from them, making it less useful to invest heavily in arming treehouses.

But now it’s different. This event revolves entirely around treehouses, not just the crossbows, but even the wooden armor, being absolute necessities.

Wang Lei: "Made it before but never used it, almost forgot about the wooden armor; turns out, it’s quite useful."

Ji Chaoyang: "Indeed, the vines here attacking the treehouse have hardly damaged my wooden armor."

Xu Xin, somewhat surprised, asked: "You went down?"

Ji Chaoyang: "Yeah, after seeing the regional channel’s message, I ventured down bravely. Based on my experience, the alert range of the vines is about five meters in height. Staying suspended by the treehouse roots above five meters won’t draw the vines’ attention."

This guy’s actions are swift; aren’t they afraid the vines would genuinely damage the treehouse?

"Can these vines attack above five meters?" Xu Xin pointedly asked.

"No."

Ji Chaoyang’s response made him raise his eyebrows.

Can’t reach?

The vines Xu Xin had previously encountered, whether guarding copper treasure chests, those outside the protected zone, or those in the red mist, could reach attack heights over ten meters, even going straight up to ten meters with their first strike from underground.

This height could threaten the base of Xu Xin’s first-level treehouse.

If it’s really like Ji Chaoyang said, current vines having only five-meter attack height, it makes things much more convenient.

No wonder he didn’t draw vines’ attention when he stuck his head out.

It seems, although the treehouse protection has weakened, it’s not completely absent, at least capable of somewhat limiting the vines’ activities.

"I kept slowly descending, trying different heights, until I went below five meters, then suddenly a dozen vines emerged from the ground. Frankly, it startled me. I immediately rose up a few meters, and the vines couldn’t reach me, instead started attacking the treehouse trunk."

Ji Chaoyang explained, then warned them, "Don’t copy me! My actions were reckless this time, better stay in the treehouse."

Ji Chaoyang’s information is very useful!