Chapter 654 - 5: Southbound (2)
The vast grasslands stretch endlessly!
The heroes gallop across the plains, oh hey, the heroic Red Army soldiers surge forward.
The girl is crying, oh, she’s very sad today, watching the young soldiers bid a tearful farewell..."
The song’s rhythm is strong and powerful, surging with waves of excitement as it rises and falls, just like the cavalry in the lyrics, full of heroic momentum.
Chen Zhou had already removed the massive head of the Cave Hyena from the corpse.
Perhaps mixed with the effects of alcohol, Paul’s voice sounded particularly deep and resonant, enhancing the song "Cavalry of the Grasslands" with a more heroic spirit.
As he cut open the Cave Hyena’s chest, Chen Zhou hummed softly in response to Paul, who hailed from the Red Era.
But in Chen Zhou’s time, the red giant had long disintegrated, and the heroes who once swore to defend the red flag and let it fly over the Moscow Red Square were gradually forgotten.
Chen Zhou’s humming lacked the grandeur of a military song, instead carrying a sense of nostalgia and melancholy.
Paul could feel Chen Zhou’s emotions through his singing and, recalling that Chen Zhou came from another world, couldn’t help but ask.
"In your place, did the Soviet Union win the Cold War and defeat the evil American imperialism?"
Severing the tendons in the Cave Hyena’s foreleg, Chen Zhou answered as he pulled it aside.
"No, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the United States became the world’s sole superpower.
But don’t worry, another giant has already risen in the East, and someday she will complete what the Soviet Union left unfinished."
"Oh..."
As if he had long anticipated such an event, Paul responded and looked thoughtfully at Chen Zhou’s yellow skin.
...
The Cave Hyena attack had driven away any drowsiness the two felt.
Although Paul’s wound was simply treated, reducing most of the infection risk, his clothes had been torn open by the Cave Hyena, leaving the injured area exposed, which increased the likelihood of getting sick.
Because of this, Chen Zhou tore off a sleeve from his protective suit and used needle and thread to patch up Paul’s outer clothing as a temporary measure.
Worried that the scent of blood from dismembering the Cave Hyena’s body would attract other predators, Chen Zhou purposely moved with Paul to a different location, from the edge to the center of the woods.
Before leaving, they roasted one of the Cave Hyena’s legs, cutting the meat bit by bit with a knife and forced to chew and swallow it to fill their stomachs.
The state of the group of Cave Hyenas was clearly dire; Chen Zhou found little fat on the female Cave Hyena.
Without the smoothness of grease, the hyena meat was dry and tough, not properly bled, and he was so worried about parasitic worms that he overcooked it. The meat’s taste and texture were terrible.
Even Paul, who was accustomed to the hard big leb, frowned, using his hatred of the Cave Hyenas to fuel his appetite and barely accepting the food.
During the process, Chen Zhou’s terrifying biting and swallowing ability once again astonished Paul—
He could actually bite through the Cave Hyena’s leg bone and break the hard bone, swallowing the marrow and bone fragments together.
Coupled with Chen Zhou’s previous feat of unharmed dispatching four Cave Hyenas, Paul thought that, compared to the Hyenas, Chen Zhou seemed more like a beast.
...
Staying awake all night left Paul unusually exhausted, and although his wound on his waist had quickly scabbed over, it still throbbed with pain.
As the first light of dawn appeared, Paul treated his wound again, then, on Chen Zhou’s suggestion, leaned against a tree and fell asleep.
Watching over the newly-lit campfire, Chen Zhou didn’t feel tired—
His energy levels were several times that of an average person; the fight with the Cave Hyenas, though exciting, wasn’t enough to deplete his stamina or make him feel exhausted. Besides, he had slept for a few hours the previous night, and he felt energetic as the sun rose.
Paul needed rest to recover his strength due to his injury.
While he slept, Chen Zhou selected five long and sturdy branches, peeled their bark, and made five new long spears.
The spears he crafted this time had sharp tips on both ends, so one end could be used for attacking even if the other got dulled or broken.
After being cut and shaped, the branch’s center of gravity was more centered, increasing the spear’s stability when thrown, which made it perform better in hunting.
Chen Zhou initially intended to use sharp stones to craft the spear tips, ideally obsidian, but couldn’t find suitable stones near the woods. With Paul asleep, he couldn’t leave him to explore alone, so he had to make do with wood.
Besides spears—useful for both long and short-range—Chen Zhou also planned to make a bow using the Cave Hyena’s tendons.
However, making the bow using tendons involved a complex process. Since he hadn’t properly cleaned off the remaining flesh when stripping the tendons, and the weather on the plains was somewhat chilly, drying them took even longer.
Subsequent steps called for soaking and beating the dried tendons to soften them, then shredding them into fibers and gluing them to the back of the bow, a time-consuming endeavor.
Moreover, after crafting the bow, he’d still have to make a bowstring and arrows. Weighing the pros and cons, Chen Zhou abandoned this plan—
Given his strength and accuracy, he could perfectly well use the spear as a large siege crossbow arrow. Relying on a regular bow would limit his combat capabilities, while heavy weapons like a stone hammer or wolf-toothed club were more suitable for him.
If he’d had a sufficiently sturdy heavy hammer or the sharp ax issued during the initial challenge while facing those Cave Hyenas last night, taking on three more simultaneously wouldn’t have been an issue.
One blow could shatter the skulls, waking the Cave Hyenas from their beastly dreams.
...
After arranging the five wooden spears beside the tree trunk, Chen Zhou didn’t know whether to marvel at Paul’s relaxed nature or be grateful for his trust as he looked at the soundly sleeping Paul on the ground.
The sun was slowly rising in the east, with clusters of clouds still dotting the pale blue sky.
Sunlight spilled through gaps between clouds, bringing warmth to the earth.
Having filled their stomachs, the nocturnal animals had already found warm, sheltered places to rest and replenish their energy. Famished beasts, naturally, couldn’t sleep, glaring hungrily with green eyes and preparing to work overtime.
Chen Zhou’s keen hearing had already picked up the faint sounds of animal activity in the canopy and underground.
Whether they were birds, squirrels, or rodents, they all stored food for the winter.
Regarding the more distant areas, at the outskirts of the woodland, the Cave Hyena carcass they had dismembered last night had attracted scavenging birds. As the temperature gradually rose, the stench of the carcass drifted farther, drawing in larger beasts.
Thinking of fierce creatures like the Cave Bear, Cave Lion, and Blade-toothed Tiger, Chen Zhou felt that this was no place to linger.
Estimating the time and feeling that Paul had slept for about four hours, Chen Zhou eventually woke him up.
...
Trained in military exercises, Paul quickly regained his senses after being awakened, showing no signs of the usual disorientation people have when disturbed from deep sleep.
He swiftly gathered up the combat uniform he had laid on the ground as a bedding, then picked up two wooden spears and followed behind Chen Zhou, who carried three spears, walking south—
This direction wasn’t randomly chosen by Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou believed that although the challenging field was vast, different directions offered varying advantages and disadvantages. Overall, edging closer to the southern regions provided a more hospitable environment.
Because the higher the latitude, the colder the climate.
The Space-Time Administration Bureau’s challenge already contained elements of nurturing selection, and the rules had hinted at an imminent drop in temperature.
The grasslands now seemed to be in late summer or early autumn, and before long, the first winter would arrive.
For the challengers, this winter would be the hardest to endure because they had no time to store a lot of food and fuel, nor could they build windproof, cold-resistant shelters.
Under such conditions, challengers near the southern areas had geographical advantages, consuming less energy, thus gaining an edge.
Moreover, winter’s wind and snow would cause vast die-offs of northern vegetation, leading herbivores and less cold-tolerant animals to migrate southwards en masse, bringing ample food to southern challengers during their migration.
Due to these factors, any intelligent challenger would likely head south.
By proceeding to the south first, there was a high probability of encountering other challengers, thereby obtaining information about competitors in advance, or even directly neutralizing them.