Chapter 286
"There seem to be signs of camping up ahead."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone immediately reacted, becoming fully alert and moving towards the direction Chloe was pointing.
The paths in the Forest of Life were complex and intertwining. Daniel, who was leading the way, would cut away vines and branches that obstructed their path.
Any that were missed would be pushed aside by Anderson, who was behind Chloe.
As a result, Chloe's journey was quite effortless, with nothing to worry about except watching her step.
Chloe felt like she was the team's human detector, only needing to be beautiful on her own.
By the time they finally reached the clearing that seemed to have been used as a campsite, it was already high noon.
Daniel circled around once before shaking his head and sighing, "Were they trying to make sure everyone knew they had camped here?"
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Indeed, it was strange.
There were even tents left behind in this clearing that hadn't been packed up. Inside the tents, various living utensils hadn't been put away, dirty clothes were strewn about in piles, looking extremely messy.
Chloe wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and said, "Let's rest here for a bit and search these abandoned tents while we're at it. See if we can find any important clues."
But these words were just for show.
After all, with the tents left behind like this, what useful clues could they possibly leave for them?
Since they hadn't destroyed any evidence, it meant this campsite didn't have anything that could expose their whereabouts.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have...
At this thought, Chloe's train of thought came to an abrupt halt.
Something seemed off.
This was indeed an abandoned campsite, but everything here seemed to be preserved a bit too perfectly.
For example, the campfire in front of her hadn't fully burned out. There was still a large pile of dry wood inside, but it had been extinguished with water, as if someone had hurriedly come to put it out.
Why? Had something happened to them?
Chloe furrowed her brow and suddenly stood up.
At the same time, voices of Qin Huaibei and the others rang out from various tents:
"Come quick, you need to see this!"
Hearing this, Chloe and Anderson outside exchanged a glance before quickly running over.
Inside the spacious tent, they saw a huge sand table.
The sand in the table appeared to be arranged into a topographical map. Judging by the terrain, it seemed to be depicting the Forest of Life.
The Forest of Life covered a vast area with rugged terrain. On the various hills and plains built up in this sand table, flags had been inserted in some places.
As for what these flags represented, probably only the Viper Group members knew.
Looking at this enormous sand table, the group didn't know what to do for a moment.
Qin Huaibei stroked his chin, muttering, "Would the Viper Group really be so careless as to leave this sand table here?"
"Isn't this practically handing over evidence on a silver platter?"
Chloe also said, "I've always hoped and cursed that the Viper Group were a bunch of idiots, but I didn't think they'd actually turn out to be idiots."
If they were really this stupid, wouldn't the various races who had been fooled by such stupid criminals for so many years be even more foolish?
Chloe took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them again, she no longer focused solely on the sand table, but carefully examined the entire interior of the tent.
Besides the sand table, there were many other things that hadn't been taken away.
These included clothes, food, and some basic living utensils.
Washbasins, toothbrushes, towels, and so on - there were many items.
Chloe's eyebrows raised slightly.
She finally realized what seemed off.
"They didn't leave voluntarily. It's more like they saw something, or were frightened by something, and fled in a hurry,"
Chloe said as she picked up a piece of clothing with footprints on it from the ground. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have left so many things behind."
As she said this, everyone reacted.
It did seem that way.
Daniel hissed, "But if that's the case, what could have scared those desperate criminals of the Viper Group so badly?"
Chloe: "That, I don't know."
Her gaze fell on the messy interior of the tent, concealing the depth in her eyes. "Let's just wait and see for now."
As she spoke, Chloe took out her terminal, scanned the entire sand table, and copied it into the terminal's internal storage. She then sent the file to Ren Yunying, her voice calm:
"Anderson, go out and cook. The rest of you, keep searching the tents for a while longer, see if there's anything important."
"If there is, they might come back looking for it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Chloe stood up, connecting to Ren Yunying's incoming communication while walking towards another tent.
"Yes, we did discover it, but we haven't figured out what those flags are for yet."
"They could be campsites, or they could be areas they plan to wreak havoc on."
As she spoke, Chloe rummaged through the items in the tent.
The items here were even more numerous and complex than in the tent Qin Huaibei and the others had initially searched.
Chloe guessed that whoever lived here must have held a fairly high position.
She even found a gold statue on the table.
Chloe tapped it twice.
Pure gold, the kind without any impurities.
Her eyes immediately lit up.
"Damn, that's valuable."
Ren Yunying, still analyzing the sand table on the other end, saw her action and couldn't help but say:
"Leave it there. You're a vampire princess, what don't you have? Why do you want some silly gold statue?"
Scolded, Chloe reluctantly put down the gold statue, pouting, "You know, how could anyone dislike having more money?"
Moreover, this gold statue... looked quite special.
It was in the shape of a viper, quite fitting for the Viper Group, with a body of pure gold and eyes made of rubies.
It was indeed very beautiful.
When Ren Yunying wasn't looking, Chloe stroked it once more.
Then she turned to search for other items.
Ren Yunying's voice came from the light screen: "Whatever those flags on the sand table represent, you should go check them out."
"Rest for a while first, we'll talk after lunch. Thank you all for your hard work this time."
Chloe replied lazily, "It's no trouble at all. Working for The No.1 Military Academy, maintaining world peace, how could it be troublesome?"
Although it was meant to be a nice thing to say, for some reason, Ren Yunying felt like the other person was somewhat asking for a beating.
She held back again and again, feeling that it wasn't the right time to crush the child's confidence, so she said, "You're right. Well then, carry on with your work."
Chloe stared at Ren Yunying with a look of accusation usually reserved for capitalists, then scolded, "I say something nice and you really take advantage of it? Not letting me rest, is this how a decent person acts?"
With that, she abruptly cut off the communication and darted out of the tent, shouting:
"Is the food ready yet, Anderson!"