Everyone's attention was drawn to James and Marcus. It was as though they had seen a light shining in an abyss of darkness.
The atmosphere sank into silence. The sounds of sobbing, crying, and praying slowly faded away, leaving only a faint sniffle here and there.
Seeing this, Lilian smiled with satisfaction and wasted no time. She raised her voice and said, "Everyone, please listen to me. This might be a test set up by the professor, a way to evaluate our abilities and select us for a new project."
Seeing that everyone was finally listening, Lilian quickly seized the opportunity and added, "The professor won't forget us or leave us here forever. They will definitely come for us if we face danger. So for now, all we need to do is form a group and stay close together."
As she finished speaking, she glanced at Marcus. Sensing her gaze, Marcus stepped forward and said loudly, "Yes, I agree with her. My father told me that after the announcement of the new project, we would have to face a test."
Hearing the pride of the family say this was only a test made everyone relax all at once. When Lilian first spoke, none of them believed her, but after hearing Marcus confirm it, they accepted it without a doubt.
Normally they wouldn't side with Marcus, since his reputation in the family household was very bad. But now, faced with something so strange that they couldn't even think of anything to do besides curling up and crying, they chose to believe him.
Everyone wiped away their tears after hearing Marcus's words. But someone among the crowd suddenly stepped out.
He wore a white shirt with short sleeves and short brown pants. His hair was black, cut into two blocky layers. His name was Ryan.
The moment he stepped out, the first thing he did was glance at Marcus and inquire, "Are you being for real that this is just a test set by the family?"
Marcus seemed at a loss for words since this was the first time someone outside his small circle had asked him something directly. It made him uncomfortable. It was fine when his friends asked him things, but when others did, he never knew how to respond.
"Ye… yes, it was my father who told me about this, but he didn't tell me the details, so I won't… know much."
Just as Ryan was about to ask more, James cut him off, "Ehh, why do you ask so much? Do you not trust the lord's son?"
James was a very talkative person. He always maintained good terms with most members of the household, and he knew many of them. Ryan was also one of his friends, but they were no longer on good terms ever since James tried to convince Ryan to read a novel, and Ryan refused. Their relationship had gotten worse from there.
Just as Ryan was about to respond to James, Lilian's voice cut through the air, "Stop. This isn't the time for you two to argue. The night is about to fall, we need to find a place to stay first."
Ryan's face twisted slightly, but he didn't say anything.
Seeing Ryan's face, Marcus let out a quiet laugh.
Poor guy, he stepped out and got cut off twice in a row.
Hearing Lilian's words, someone quickly asked, "But how do we find a place to stay in this creepy forest?"
The one who spoke was the girl who had spoken to Lilian before they came here.
She wore a black shirt with short sleeves, black trousers covered by a black skirt, and her hair was slightly brown. Her name was Lumian.
Lumian always tried to get close to Lilian by bringing up topics like studying or other things Lilian liked most. She also tried to get close to Marcus and James, but those two were like stone whenever talking to girls.
All they ever did was nod and exchange uneasy looks with each other.
Hearing her question, Lilian pondering before answered, "Good question. In this creepy forest, it's very hard to find a safe place to stay."
Her eyes darted left and right, but all she saw were thick trees, towering trunks, and long vines. The entire forest was deep, only darkness existed between the branches.
Leave without ang choose and not knowing where to stay, Lilian quickly made a decision. "We can't stay away from this platform, because only here has light and is very safe. When the professor comes, they will teleport to here."
Hearing her decision, no one objected, since this was a very good idea. Looking at the entire forest, only this platform had light shining through.
Without any thoughts, everyone quickly got off the platform and circled around it to find a spot to settle.
The platform was in the middle, but around it was flat land without anything, and eight meters away from the platform was the forest.
After circling for a while, they finally found a spot to settle in.
But after finding a place to settle, another problem came they didn't have food.
In the forest, food was very important. Even if we have a camp or place to stay, without food we would still die because of hunger.
"So now the next step is we have to find food to eat. Does anyone have any idea?"
Hearing Lilian's words, everyone quickly thought of ideas, but no one knew how to get food since this was their first time in the forest.
After pondering for a bit, Marcus quickly voiced his thoughts. "I have read a novel before, it was called Night Hideout. It describes life in the forest, and I remember that one chapter described food in the forest."
He paused for a moment before continuing,
"But all the food is mainly in the forest. Only by entering it can we find it."
The most common things are seeds, fruits, mushrooms, and wild soil potatoes. Those can usually be found everywhere inside the forest.
How were they supposed to get it, since they couldn't even get close to the forest?
Upon hearing Marcus talk about the novel he had read, everyone there couldn't help but blink their eyes slightly, as though they were about to burst into laughter.
Ryan frowned slightly upon hearing Marcus's words. "What do you think you're doing bringing up a novel here? Do you think it's gonna help us solve the problem?"
"It's useless. A novel is just a weird imagination of an author. Do you think it's real?"
After hearing Ryan's words, everyone there nodded their heads slightly, agreeing with him.
Since novels were created, no one believed they were real. They believed it was just a wild imagination of an author to fool the readers.
Only the stories told by the tale wanderer did people believe were real.
Because novels were newly established, it was very hard to tell whether the stories in them were real or fake. Also, there were thousands of novels created each year, each with its own story.
But tale wanderer stories were almost real, and also happened in history. They believed that the stories coming from the tale wanderer were true.
Hearing this, Marcus was at a loss for words. Seeing that Marcus didn't respond, Ryan quickly added, "If you think your idea will work, then go enter the forest yourself. We will wait for you to prove that your idea from the novel is real."
Hearing Ryan's addition, Marcus didn't know how to respond, since he also couldn't tell whether it was fake or real.
But he believed that the Night Hideout novel was the real experience of the author himself. Because at the end of the book, there was a paragraph saying that the story happened in reality, it was the author's own experience.
Just as he was about to say that the novel was real, James suddenly joined the conversation and said to Ryan in a furious tone, "Then tell me, if we don't enter the forest, how the hell are we supposed to get food? From before?"
"Now look at this land and the platform, is there anything we can eat here besides the air?"
"And the story is written by the author from his experience, and he even said that in the book. If you think every novel is just a fake story, then the books the professor always teaches us with are also fake."
Hearing James's words, Ryan was stunned on the spot. Even though he always said novels were fake stories, he never thought about the fact that the books the professor used for teaching would also be fake.
He was completely speechless at James's words. Seeing that the situation was getting bad, Lilian quickly stopped the two of them.
"You two, please stop. Why do you always argue about such a minor thing?"
"Even though some novels are fake, among them there are also real ones. But we can't tell which is fake or real aside from those superhero stories."
Superhero novels were a hundred percent fake, no one believed they were real.
She paused for a moment before continuing, "I believe the book Marcus mentioned just now is real since I have read a lot of books about ingredients and food, and in those books it was also mentioned."
Hearing that Lilian agreed with Marcus's idea, everyone there also agreed. Since they were now in the same boat, they chose to believe him now.
Seeing that everyone agreed with him, Marcus gathered his thoughts and added,
"But all of it is inside the forest. Without entering, we can't get it."
Here came another problem, all the food they could get was in the forest, and they couldn't even get close, let alone step inside.
Lilian tried to find any solution to get food to eat, but everything required entering the forest.
Everyone's gazes now landed on her. This made her very nervous, unsure of what to do next.
"I have an idea!"
Suddenly a female voice rang out among them. Following the sound, it was actually Lumian who said that.
She had been silent the entire time, but now she finally spoke.
Seeing everyone's gazes filled with anticipation, waiting for her explanation, she quickly said in a serious tone, "My idea is that we divide the people here into groups. One group will go find food, and the other will stay here and wait, ready to help the group that goes to find it. Of course, we can only search nearby."