The Big Tree

"Ji, ji ji...ji ji ji..."

Dimly, a sound echoed in Raymond's ears, like a child singing a nursery rhyme, the sound was tender and blurred.

His whole body ached and his head was dizzy.

Like being surrounded by cotton, the floating feeling made Raymond a little sleepy.

But suddenly realizing that he was no longer in the life support chamber, he immediately opened his eyes. In his sight appeared a thick tree trunk and dense foliage.

A gentle breeze blew on his face, feeling comfortable. The green leaves that appeared before his eyes were palm-sized, each swaying in the breeze.

Blocked by the leaves were scattered red fruits hanging on the branches, swaying, looking very edible.

At this point, Raymond recalled the previous scene. The rustling footsteps and the faint nursery rhyme sounded very close, as if just beside him.

He hurriedly got up from the ground and followed the sound. When Raymond saw what was making the noise, his face turned pale and his hair stood on end.

"Ji, ji ji...ji ji ji..."

The sound of the nursery rhyme was crisp and tender, still echoing. Raymond, whose face looked extremely ugly, gave orders to the chip: "Scan the surrounding 10 meters!"

"Task established, analyzing..." The mechanical chip executed the commands.

Red bloodshot eyes gleamed in the pupils, making Raymond's jet-black pupils a little strange. Seeing the waterfall-like data appearing in his vision, the cold sweat on Raymond's face became more and more.

Thousands of leaves circled around the roots of the big tree. On the palm-sized leaves grew limbs like hands and feet. The small mouths on the leaves kept opening and closing, gathering into this nursery rhyme.

These little hands of the leaves held each other, slowly moving their little feet to the rhythm of the nursery rhyme. The gathered sound became higher and higher. All the little feet of the leaves stomped on the ground, making a rustling sound.

"Unknown energy fluctuations detected, insufficient data, unable to fully resolve." The mechanical chip sound soon appeared in Raymond's mind. The bizarre scene before him made his scalp tingle and his head explode.

His body trembled uncontrollably. Raymond, twisting his neck, saw that dozens of meters to his right was a weed-covered sloping hillside. An obvious mark in the weeds showed that he had rolled down from above.

And at the foot of the slope, dozens of meters from Raymond's body, roots as thick as fingers densely formed a protrusion several meters in diameter. From the ochre roots, a large amount of purplish black liquid flowed out.

The ochre plant roots contracted and writhed slowly. Under the chip's rapid comparison, a small piece of beast skin the size of a thumb with black mane was exposed in the roots, but was soon covered up by the roots again.

"It's that bear-like fierce beast!" Raymond frowned and concluded silently.

"Ji, ji ji...ji ji ji..."

The loud nursery rhyme suddenly became very clear. Rustling footsteps came from behind Raymond. Raymond twisted his spasmodic neck. Muscle spasms had made Raymond's neck stiff like rust.

In just a short time, the leaves dancing and singing around the tree roots had surrounded Raymond without knowing it. On the back of his supporting hands were the little feet of the leaves, tingling.

Greatly surprised, Raymond immediately lifted his hands from the ground and shrank them in front of his chest.

The leaves that had been trampling on the back of his hands let out exclamations, slowly drifting down from the air. The leaves with small mouths swayed left and right, as if looking for their original positions.

But the leaves that had just circled around Raymond had reconnected the interrupted part. Seeing the anxious leaves running back and forth on the ground with their little feet, trying to join the ranks, Raymond's face became more and more ugly.

A bleak, slow voice suddenly sounded in Raymond's ear, asking, "Awake?"

Raymond frowned. The old face that gradually became clear on the trunk of the big tree dozens of meters away opened his gray-white eyelids. The eyes that appeared on the trunk were deep, wise and full of exploration.

"I'm awake!" Answering cautiously, Raymond, whose eyes were bloodshot, got the chip detection results. The big tree in front of him was still shrouded in unknown energy fields and could not be probed.

Even the leaves next to him singing nursery rhymes, the chip could not detect any abnormalities.

The old face appearing on the tree trunk looked very serious. After a long pause, it said slowly: "According to the principle of equal exchange between wizards, you now need to compensate me for my loss."

Raymond's scalp tingled. The few leaves that had not found a place angrily beat him on the thighs with their tiny limbs, and the small mouths on the leaves puckered, making sobbing sounds.

After another long pause without Raymond's answer, the eyes on the old face of the big tree became severe: "The beast chasing you was killed, so you need to pay some extra compensation. Otherwise, I can only conclude that you violated the wizard's principle first!"

With the sound from the big tree, the chip's urgent alarm sounded at the same time: "Alarm! Alarm! Unknown intensity radiation detected, evacuate over 300 meters immediately!"

Raymond could not act according to the chip's prompt. He hurriedly groped to open the backpack behind him, carefully pushed the leaves that had climbed onto his legs to the ground, and poured all the contents of the backpack onto the grass in front of him. His voice was out of tune: "All my things are here, pick whatever you want!"

With a rustling sound, the face appearing on the tree trunk showed a trace of gratification. The branches extending slowly drove the leaves singing on the ground to the side.

A slender branch with two or three buds gently brushed over Raymond's legs, touching the bottles and jars laid out on the ground, as well as the few black stones.

When the green tender leaves brushed over Raymond's thighs, his exposed skin trembled slightly.

The tender branch gently rolled up a thumb-sized black stone and slowly retracted it. Raymond saw the face on the tree trunk open its big mouth and swallow the stone...