Chapter 324 - 141: Natives Arrive on the Island
The rewards contained in the second anniversary gift package seem to indicate a certain attitude—
"We hope you live a stable life and cultivate some hobbies that match your interests.
But if you insist on taking adventurous actions, the gift package also has corresponding rewards; whether it’s nunchaku or arrows, they can serve as weapons for defense or attack."
...
Between these two attitudes, Chen Zhou momentarily chose the second one.
In order to rescue and tame the indigenous people, he has put in too much effort and completed too much preparation. At the same time, he believes that the natives are not dispensable companions, but a necessary part of life on the island.
If he didn’t have this initial help, he wouldn’t be able to seize that enticing wealth when the Spanish plundering ship, affected by a storm, is forced to come to the island twenty years later.
In modern society, for hundreds of thousands or even millions, there are countless people who would disrupt family ties and turn against brothers.
Now, placed on a lonely island facing temptations worth tens or even hundreds of millions, even knowing the risks, having twenty years of preparation time, Chen Zhou is unwilling to easily give up.
...
Spend three days to fully digest the second anniversary gift package.
Plant leeks under the window, and store nunchaku, bamboo flutes, Xuan paper inkstones, and paints in dry places carefully, while researching the coal production cycle of the small black box, Chen Zhou uses new arrowheads to create sharp arrows.
The appearance and structure of the small black box predestined it to be a "foolproof instrument"; understanding its internal structure might be as difficult as climbing to heaven, but figuring out its usage method is simple enough for even a monkey to do.
On the morning of September 21, estimating that 24 hours had passed since the button was pressed the previous day, Chen Zhou pressed the button on the box.
The box body generated a familiar wave and soon spat out a piece of new coal, making him quite delighted—
Producing a piece of high-quality smokeless coal every day is adequate for him to forge personally, using it sparingly might even allow him to spare some coal for firing ceramics.
Coincidentally, there is some space left in the rat breeding room, so he stacks the coal bricks neatly in that dark room.
Actually, now the test rats have lost most of their utility, typically producing only a few unlucky test subjects every one or two weeks, most of the mice living a leisurely life of eating and sleeping, growing increasingly fat.
Seeing them breed more and more, Chen Zhou already has thoughts of slaughtering a batch.
After all, keeping nearly fifty mice next to his bedroom feels unsettling even if unseen.
Using the excuse of storing coal bricks, he plans to build a separate mouse breeding house outdoors, freeing up the interior of the cave dwelling, and dismantling the mouse pen and mouse apartment.
However, it’s still the rainy season; building a wooden house is not much affected, but using white mud to build walls will be washed away by rain, affecting solidity.
Moreover, with the natives about to land, after some consideration, he decides to distinguish the priority, first ensuring the rescue and taming of the indigenous people to avoid regrettable mistakes.
...
During the rainy season, going out is inconvenient. After being drenched, the mountain becomes slippery, making running and climbing too hazardous.
But the rescue of the natives is of life and death importance and cannot be neglected, so Chen Zhou shifts the venue for physical and weapon training into the cave dwelling.
His daily training plan includes push-ups, pull-ups, skipping rope, squats, horse stance, and other activities to train strength and endurance.
Also, there’s cold weapons training—training with long guns and practice stabbing.
Whenever the rain lessens, he must seize time to practice bow and arrow in the courtyard.
Besides direct shooting, he mostly practices lobbing—standing on the wall, facing a distant "scarecrow" at the field’s edge, shooting from high to low.
He thinks when the natives land in the future, during his attack, he is likely to occupy a high point, then use firearms for an initial round of killing and deterrence, followed by bow and arrow lobbing.
If the natives charge close, leaving no opportunity for direct shooting, he must grab melee weapons or revolvers to face the enemy, hence improving shooting accuracy is necessary.
However, bow and arrow indeed is a sport with a high threshold.
Facing a target ten meters away, after practice, Chen Zhou can basically hit the bullseye every time, but lobbing is too affected by rain and wind, hitting even one out of ten shots is considered lucky.
No wonder in the movie "Hero," the Qin Army must form a dense arrow array for shooting against Handan City—if lobbing attacks are not saturated, hitting people is impossible unless everyone is a sharpshooter like Lu Bu or Huang Zhong, otherwise, the hit rate will be miserably low.
Despite the unsatisfactory results of lobbing practice, with no noticeable progress, Chen Zhou still hasn’t halted bow and arrow practice.
Even if accuracy doesn’t improve, increasing proficiency in archery is beneficial; in actual combat, being able to shoot one more arrow might just eliminate one more native.
...
More than two years of physical labor has hardened Chen Zhou’s physique far beyond before.
Now, ordinary physical work is nothing to him at all.
Initially when he started challenging himself, he sawed a mast, just a few minutes would leave him sweating, gasping heavily.
Now, not only can he saw a dried mast, even a living tree with a half-meter diameter he can cut through within an hour.
But even with such enhanced physique, the tightly packed daily training schedule still leaves Chen Zhou feeling exceedingly fatigued.
His muscle volume shows noticeable increase, his already broad shoulders and back growing even thicker, even his seldom enlarging biceps show signs of further expansion.