Building My Empire in the Frozen Apocalypse (Riley Carter) novel Chapter 135

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Chapter 135 Camouflage

Chapter 135 Camouflage

One glance at the screen, and her brows immediately knitted together in a tight frown

The usually chaotic World Channel was gone-completely silent.

Inside their three-person Hustle Crew group chat, every avatar had turned gray, unclickable and inactive.

Next to Pineapple Beer and TartKing’s names on her friends list, a bright red exclamation mark now glowed ominously.

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The entire interface felt hollow, with only one chat window still lit up, flooded by a frantic stream of garbled messages and distress calls.

“Current Channel: Regional (3mi Radius)

“Online Players: 18/10000 (Updates in real time based on your location. You can only receive messages from survivors within range. Your messages will only be seen by those nearby.)”

Only eighteen people within three miles.

“RageGuy: What the hell? Where am I? It’s all trees-I just spawned and landed straight in a mud pit! Anyone else around? Drop your coordinates if you’re close!”

“LittleRed: Is anyone there? I’m seriously freaking out… It’s pitch black here. I can’t even see my own hands… Someone please help.”

“Stalker: Send me your coordinates. I’ll come get you.”

“LittleRed: I don’t think coordinates show up inside the dungeon/”

“RandomGuy: Oh my god… I swear I just saw a tree move. Am hallucinating?”

Riley watched the messages scroll by but didn’t type a word.

In an unknown place like this, giving your location to strangers was basically asking for trouble.

That “LittleRed” might get lucky if a decent person found her-but if some desperate killer was lurking, she’d be nothing more than

easy prey.

She closed the channel and took stock of her surroundings.

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If the frozen world outside had been all dead grays and whites, this place was a full-on assault of wild, vibrant color.

It was a forest-but nothing like any forest back on Earth.

“They’re just… too big.”

Riley tilted her head back. Even with her goggles on, the sight filled her with deep awe-and that primal, instinctive fear humans carry toward things of enormous scale.

Every tree around her was ridiculously huge.

The trunks had a tough, metallic look to them, a deep iron gray. Each had to be at least 15 feet across, standing like massive pillars

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Chapter 135 Camouflage

holding up the sky.

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The bark was rough and deeply grooved with age, some cracks oozing a dark, reddish resin that glowed faintly like cooling magma.

Looking up, she couldn’t even see the canopy-just countless thick aerial roots dangling from hundreds of feet above, twisting together like a net of frozen serpents.

Sunlight barely made it through the thick layers of branches and leaves.

But the forest wasn’t dark.

The light came from the plants themselves.

The edges of the fern leaves along the path emitted a soft, electric blue glow, like neon strips running through the undergrowth. Vines coiled around tree trunks bore tiny pale-purple flowers, their stamens flickering gently like little fairy lights swaying in a faint

breeze.

Further off, she could make out giant mushrooms several yards tall, their caps dusting the air with a hazy, dreamlike pink spore glow.

The whole place felt ancient, untamed, and unnervingly beautiful.

The air hung thick and humid, heavy with a strange floral perfume mixed with something else-a sweet, almost cloying scent she couldn’t quite name.

Riley tightened her grip on her twin axes and took a careful step forward.

The ground felt weird under her boots.

A thick carpet of glowing moss covered the forest floor.

It was spongy to walk on. With each step, the moss sank down, oozing a sticky fluorescent sap before slowly springing back.

“Check for threats first.”

Riley didn’t let the strange beauty distract her.

She kept recalling the dungeon rule about Visible Health Bars.

Any living creature would show a health bar above its head.

She scanned her surroundings cautiously, eyeing every plant, every shadow.

The bushes to her left… no health bar.

The vines dangling overhead… nothing.

The moss underfoot… still clear.

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