Up on the raised platform, a rather dull vote began to determine whether people supported Di Nü or Yu Yuan. A good number of players disliked this kind of drama, but just as many relished such collective activities.
Wang Meng understood the dynamics clearly. "One mountain can't hold two tigers."
Ding Shi reached for the roasted meat skewered on his branch, pinched it to check if it was done enough, and dug in. To Su Su beside him, he said, "Help me cast a vote for Yu Yuan."
Wang Meng chimed in, "Su Su, help me vote for Di Nü."
Ding Shi said, "I've changed my mind. I'm voting for Di Nü."
Wang Meng countered, "Then I'm voting for Yu Yuan."
Su Su rolled her eyes at both of them. "Are you two sick in the head?" She strode over to the voting area, picked up three leaves, and placed them before the platforms representing each candidate.
The wind suddenly picked up, blowing sparks in all directions. To avoid the embers, many players scrambled up and backed away from the campfire. Faint, unfamiliar sounds seemed to weave through the howling wind.
"What is that?" someone shouted.
Ding Shi felt the ground tremble faintly, and the tremors grew rapidly in violence. Lashing out, he grabbed the back of the collar of Su Su, who had just returned, and bolted toward the caves. Wang Meng and Ding Shi both possessed a sharp sense of self-preservation—otherwise known as running the second things felt off.
While most players were still looking around and talking among themselves, dozens of rhinoceroses burst out of the dark and charged straight for the firelight. They rampaged through the camp, scattering the campfire and sending burning logs flying everywhere. At the sight of embers, the rhinos seemed like old men catching sight of their first loves, hurtling forward in reckless stampedes. In their eyes, humans did not exist at all—there was only fire.
Agonized wails erupted across the campfire grounds as countless players were gored or trampled to death. The sudden pitch-black plunged everyone deeper into panic. People couldn't find the cave entrances, and some even bolted blindly out into the woods.
Before ducking into the cave entrance, Ding Shi glanced back at the carnage. "So the rumor about rhinos putting out fires is actually true?"
A flaming branch came spinning toward Ding Shi from twenty meters away. Su Su thrust her fowling piece forward, snapping the burning branch in two so that it clattered to the ground, scattering sparks. Four rhinos immediately went red-eyed and charged straight at the burning wood. The trio sprinted frantically deeper into the cave. In the pitch darkness, Su Su tripped and fell, but Ding Shi relied on memory to haul her up by the scruff of her neck and dash forward.
Behind them came the thudding crash of a rhino slamming into the stone wall, jolting the entire cave with two heavy tremors.
Ding Shi swung Su Su upward, tossing her onto the ledge platform, before vaulting up after her.
"So tired!" Su Su gasped.
Ding Shi grumbled, "Tired, my ass. I was the one dragging you the whole way!"
Su Su reached over and smacked Ding Shi on the head. "You practically choked me to death!"
Wang Meng's voice floated over from the platform opposite them: "Shh."
Chaos still raged outside. Dozens of rhinos barreled back and forth, entirely unopposed. Shouts and pleas for help pierced the darkness from time to time.
No one knew how much time had passed before the camp finally grew quiet. The moon rose high into the sky, casting cold light over an encampment that looked like an asura hell.
Stepping out of the cave, Ding Shi was hit by a thick stench of blood. The campsite was a ruined mess, strewn with the corpses of players, with faint groans occasionally drifting up from among them.
Now Ding Shi understood why the main quest required keeping the camp fire going for five days. With a herd of rhinos as neighbors, enduring even a single day was harrowing, let alone five.
Yu Yuan's voice carried across the ground: "Survivors, gather up! Help the wounded!"
People scattered across the area began trickling together. Ding Shi spotted Yu Yuan, who was covered in grime and looking thoroughly bedraggled, yet still in one piece. Losing a limb or organ on Nightmare difficulty meant it could never be restored, even after clearing the instance.
Surveying the thirty-some battered survivors before him, Yu Yuan said, "We need to move the wounded into the cave, then find a way to light a fire deep inside. Without a fire, we won't survive tonight." The temperature was plummeting, and they had no supplies for warmth.
Yu Yuan instructed the fire team's leader to get on making a fire, and Wang Meng produced the despised liver of Prometheus.
The three members of the scout team gathered whatever wild boar meat remained edible.
Herbalist Girl was promoted to leader of the medical team, put in charge of leading people to move the injured into Cave B for treatment. Another dozen or so people began digging pits near the edge of the camp to bury the dead.
Without a word, everyone set quietly to work, and the camp's atmosphere sank into heavy gloom.
Meanwhile, Yu Yuan took stock of their tools, weapons, and personnel.
There were 33 able-bodied players and 39 dead. Of the remaining 28, 11 were critically injured with no hope of recovery, left only to wait for death. Seven were lightly wounded, and 10 were missing. Xiao Liang of the scout team had also perished in the attack.
As they labored, the moon climbed higher, tinged with an eerie flush of red.
Ding Shi looked up toward the bright moon and froze. A hundred meters up on the crest of the cliff stood a silver wolf, motionless as though it were carved from the moonlight itself.
The silver wolf threw back its head and let out a long howl.
Ding Shi yelled at the top of his lungs, "Wolf pack!" He had known the system was cooking up some nasty surprise, but did it really have to be this relentless? Was it trying to wipe out every last one of them?
Panic seized the camp once more. Yu Yuan's shout rang out: "Everyone, gather as much firewood as you can and fall back deep into Cave B!"
At present, only the depths of Cave B had a fire burning. It had been started to care for the wounded, but now it had become everyone's lifeline.
Under the moonlight, countless dire wolves bounded out from the forest, the scent of blood on the field triggering their slaughterous instincts. This was the Primitive Era; humanity was not the master here. In the eyes of many wild beasts, humans were nothing more than prey.
Yu Yuan shouted, "Everyone in Cave A, evacuate to Cave B!" Without fire, thirty-odd survivors stood zero chance against a pack of a hundred wolves prowling the night.
Yu Yuan called toward Cave A, "Get out, everyone!"
Passing by Yu Yuan, Ding Shi warned, "Chief, save yourself. It's too late!"
The crowd sprinted toward Cave B where the fire burned. The wolf tide surged in from all directions, dragging down lagging players one after another. Just as the cave entrance came into view, the silver wolf leaped down from above, cutting off more than a dozen people. Eyes blazing with murderous intent, it pounced toward Ding Shi, who was running at the front.
"Fuck, Three Short of One!"
Spatial isolation took effect, freezing the three players nearest to Ding Shi in their tracks. A mahjong table materialized, and four players, including Ding Shi, were shoved into their seats.
The good news was that while the character tiles and honor tiles had all turned into question marks due to his Illiterate debuff, Ding Shi could still tell the bamboo tiles and dot tiles apart. Of course, even if he couldn't read them, he could always ask out loud.
Aside from Ding Shi, the other three players wore expressions of lingering terror. They were Herbalist Girl, Yu Yuan, and the logistics team leader. The logistics leader was a chemistry teacher who went by Hua Shi. He had earned the leadership role because he possessed a magical class and had obtained a crucible meant for brewing herbs during a magic instance—a crucible only he could use. Of course, that crucible had currently been degraded into a casserole pot.
Ding Shi offered no explanation. Once the three regained their composure and grasped the rules of Three Short of One, they thanked Ding Shi one after another. Ding Shi replied, "Just don't screw me over. Please go easy on me." The three were roughly on par with him in strength; even if they won a hand against Ding Shi, they could only take a few dao from him.
Ding Shi wasn't afraid of them playing against him; he was afraid of them lacking common sense. The best course of action right now was to let him keep winning hands so he could retain the dealer seat, dragging out the clock until the wolf pack moved away from the camp.
Naturally, the first dilemma arose immediately. Discarding a Two of Dots, Hua Shi asked, "Do you think the wolves will leave?" After all, there was plenty of food scattered across the camp.
No one answered.
Hua Shi asked again, "How long are we going to play?"
Still, no one answered.
Their good mood had first been trampled by rhinos and then savaged by dire wolves. Even Ding Shi, with his hardened thick skin and borderline nihilistic streak, couldn't muster any enthusiasm.
After half an hour of silent mahjong, Yu Yuan was the first to speak: "I failed to properly consider humanity's place in the Primitive Era." In this epoch, humans were far from the top of the food chain—especially when they lacked weapons and tools.
Chapter 75