Chapter 671 - 14: Size 45 and the Japanese
The overall flat terrain of the grassland exacerbated the difficulty of observing the conditions of the other group of challengers.
Chen Zhou and Paul could only confirm they were on the right path, heading in the correct direction, but didn’t know if that group of challengers was still at the location previously observed—
The challenges in the environment were unpredictable, and any unexpected event could happen.
A migration of mammoth herds, or hunting by cave hyena packs, or the driving away by hairy rhinoceroses could all destroy the camp built by that group of challengers, forcing them to leave.
Even without the beast factor, if they discovered any defects nearby, they might relocate the camp to avoid incurring more sunk costs.
Not being able to observe the current situation of the other group of challengers in time left Chen Zhou and Paul uncertain.
During their journey, they once stopped in a sparse woodland, where Chen Zhou climbed a relatively tall tree to look into the distance trying to see the challenger camp clearly.
However, he was too heavy and could only climb to a relatively solid position near the top of the tree, about 9m above the ground, which was insufficient to help him see very far.
Paul was also heavy and not as agile as Chen Zhou, making these two men too much weight for the tree to bear.
After descending the mountain, losing the vantage point, Chen Zhou felt he had become blind, unable to gather any useful information.
...
With the enemy now hidden, actions had to be even more cautious.
Advancing another day and catching a few fish from the river at noon, taking advantage of the inconspicuous daytime firelight, Chen Zhou and Paul deliberately gathered some sufficiently dry wood and dug a simple smokeless stove to roast the fish.
Dry wood naturally emitted little smoke, and with the added security of the smokeless stove, even if a little smoke came out, Chen Zhou dispersed it in time, making the lunch particularly covert.
Using a spear to secure a total of twelve large fish, after roasting all of them, five were consumed by the two men and the serrated tiger cub, while the remaining seven were carried on Chen Zhou’s back — for their dinner.
At their current pace, they could reach within 2 kilometers of the challenger camp by nightfall.
In the open grassland at night, such close proximity meant that fire could no longer be started.
If a fire were lit, the bright flame would alert the other group of challengers that humans were approaching, nullifying their painstaking detours and stealth.
Therefore, it was very necessary to prepare some cooked food in advance for consumption at night.
If not for Paul’s lack of night vision skills, Chen Zhou would have considered leading Paul on a night raid of the camp directly.
As long as that group of challengers did not practice watch rotation at night, being ambushed first, at least one person would be severely injured, creating a situation of two against one.
Even if the challengers occupied favorable terrain and relied on the well-built shelter for counterattack, it would be very difficult for them to handle the two men.
...
Perhaps the other group of challengers hadn’t realized that, within just a few days of the challenge starting, someone could discover their traces on such vast lands, hence they hadn’t taken any preventative measures from afar, nor had they built a lookout tower by the camp.
Chen Zhou and Paul smoothly advanced to the side of the "C"-shaped mound, as the sky grew darker.
This place was less than 2 kilometers from the challengers’ camp site, and Chen Zhou even found some human activity traces behind the mound—
Trampled wild grass, bloodstains left from killing prey, and scars left from chopping off the roots of low bushes.
From these clues, Chen Zhou got some useful information.
Firstly, this group of challengers possessed cold weapons like long sabers or axes, which increased their threat.
As for other information, it came from the shoe prints in the soft soil.
The shoe prints produced by the trampled wild grass were of two types, one of which was larger in size, a size 45.
Normally, a person’s height is about seven times the foot length, someone wearing size 45 shoes is typically between 185~190cm tall, weighing around 75~84 kilograms, and if trained, could be even heavier.
Unfortunately, the mound’s surface was covered by a layer of low fine grass, which absorbed some of the pressure from trampling, preventing Chen Zhou from estimating this challenger’s weight, and thus unable to deduce his general physical fitness from his weight.
But one thing was certain—
This group of challengers was certainly not ordinary people.
Without military training or wilderness survival training, even those with outdoor survival tools couldn’t possibly survive four days in this crisis-ridden world, seeing how they lived so well made it clear they could handle the grassland beasts.
This also aligned with Chen Zhou’s understanding of the Time Travel Administration Bureau—
The Bureau wanted an exciting show and confrontation; they wouldn’t place helpless individuals here to be torn apart by beasts. That would be too dull.
Near the size 45 shoe print, there was another very shallow shoe print.
This shoe print was very distinctive, the impression almost flat, indicating no slip-resistant patterns on the sole, much shorter than the other challenger’s shoe print, approximately a size 38, meaning this person was only about 165~168 in height, an outright short person.
This challenge was set in a prehistoric barren land, although challengers were supposed to confront each other, due to the vast challenge area, they interacted more with beasts.
Under such circumstances, a short and lightweight person was naturally at a disadvantage—
Although a petite frame reduced energy consumption, a person weighing less than 50 kilograms wouldn’t even weigh as much as a full-grown male cave hyena; even with a weapon, it would still be hard for him to handle the beasts everywhere.