Ding Shi leaned back against the stone wall, chewing on bitter, foul-smelling herbs before spitting them out to the side.
Herbalist Girl said, "Too coarse. Grind it again."
Ding Shi glanced at the wad of herbs coated in his own saliva and didn't move.
Herbalist Girl added, "Herbs are scarce."
Ding Shi snatched up the lump of herbs and chewed it again, turning Herbalist Girl's stomach.
After he thoroughly chewed ten mouthfuls of herbs, Herbalist Girl used a small wooden slab to scoop up the mash and press it into Ding Shi's wound, then bound it with treated tiger hide. To let the wound breathe, the hide had been cut into a mesh. Moreover, she had scraped away every scrap of flesh from the pelt—clearly having put a great deal of thought and effort into it.
Ding Shi thanked her: "Thank you."
Herbalist Girl nodded, picked up her rattan basket, and moved to leave; she wanted to take advantage of the last fifteen minutes to search for herbs along the forest edge. But Yu Yuan stopped her: "Don't go out again. Xiao Long, Xiao Feng, barricade the entrance."
Wood crackled in the stone fire pit. A sizable stack of combustible wood lay nearby, with many damp logs set near the flames to dry. Smoke from the fire rose and drifted out through the vents at the top of the cave.
Several pits in the cave were filled with water, and rattan baskets heaped with waxberries and persimmons were neatly stacked to one side.
All camp members had retreated inside. Slicing meat, boiling broth, and roasting cuts—the saber-toothed tiger had brought the camp not just food, but morale.
Xiao Long and Xiao Feng wedged more than a dozen branches across the cave mouth, then returned to sit by the stone fire pit.
Seeing everyone gathered, Yu Yuan said, "Since we have time, let's give our camp a name."
Wang Meng, thinking who knew what, was the first to speak up: "Nameless Camp."
A silence fell over the group. Xiao Long raised a hand. "Chaowei Camp."
Perplexed looks went around. Yu Yuan asked, "Who's Chaowei?"
Xiao Long replied, "Tony Leung Chiu-wai—isn't he the legendary actor?"
Their fists itched to hit him.
Su Su chimed in, "Survivor Camp, Primeval Camp, Warrior Camp, Unity Camp..." She rattled off over a dozen names in a single breath without repeating herself.
Herbalist Girl, usually quiet, spoke up: "Fire Seed."
Everyone turned the name over in their minds. Yu Yuan nodded. "Fire Seed. The last ten primeval humans—the fire seed of humanity."
Ding Shi said, "Ten people? After a few generations, won't everyone end up inbreeding?"
Su Su replied, "In primitive societies, that's very common. Take Zeus and his pantheon from our Little Pro quest, for example—to ensure the purity of their bloodline..."
Yu Yuan was at a loss for words. *Is reproduction really something you guys need to be worrying about right now?*
Still, once Su Su broke the ice, everyone chatted away while tending to the food. Only Yu Yuan silently tallied their supplies in his head. The tools required for the main task weren't an issue anymore; they had the materials and could craft them within a day or two. The real headache was fuel. Temperatures plunged at night, so they couldn't skimp on firewood; by a rough estimate, their fuel would last only until tomorrow night.
For now, he could only pray Ding Shi's jinx of a mouth wouldn't prove prophetic. If they could work outside tomorrow, they could seal the cave entrance tomorrow afternoon, and the group could hunker down inside for five days.
Amid the feasting and banter, Su Su was the first to notice. "It's leaking."
They all looked up. Near their spot, water was steadily trickling down from four vents. A crack of thunder exploded right above the cave roof, followed by rumbling claps.
Yu Yuan picked up a burning log, walked over to the entrance, poked the brand through a gap between the branches, and pulled it back. The rain had extinguished every last ember on the tip. Another thunderclap detonated, and Yu Yuan thought he heard the crash of a colossal tree toppling over.
Yu Yuan returned and explained the situation. Even if it rained tomorrow, they would have to head out to gather fuel, and everyone understood the stakes. Tasks were quickly assigned: Ding Shi, being injured, would tend the fire; Herbalist Girl would forage for herbs; and everyone else would search for fuel.
As Yu Yuan instructed, the team assisted Hua Shi in lighting a fire by the entrance, covering it with soggy branches to smoke the remaining tiger meat placed on top.
Having eaten and drunk their fill, they lit a second fire pit. Except for those on night watch, the rest huddled around the flames to rest. Even so, the fire did little to dispel the chill radiating from the stone floor. Never mind sleeping—sitting too long left their backsides frozen numb.
As the night wore on and the temperature plunged further, everyone slept fitfully, and some even began to babble deliriously.
Herbalist Girl, who was on watch, felt the forehead of the delirious Aunt Zhang and found her burning up. She woke Hua Shi, who brought out his casserole to brew a pot of tiger-meat herbal broth. Half-asleep, the others caught the aroma and sat up. After a few sips of the herbal broth, warmth spread back into their bodies.
Yet Aunt Zhang's condition only deteriorated. Herbalist Girl whispered to Yu Yuan, "Nearly forty degrees. It's not just a simple cold."
Yu Yuan asked, "What else could it be?"
Herbalist Girl replied, "Food poisoning, an allergic reaction, various bacterial infections—any of them are possible."
Yu Yuan asked, "Can you treat it?"
Herbalist Girl said, "No. She needs antibiotics."
Yu Yuan asked, "Will she die?"
Herbalist Girl said, "I don't know." As a skilled medical professional, she felt completely powerless before Aunt Zhang's plight.
With that in mind, Herbalist Girl felt Ding Shi's forehead; no fever. Theoretically, Ding Shi was the one at high risk—god only knew what bacteria lurked on tiger claws. Even if the claws had been clean, the wound could easily become inflamed and fester.
Yu Yuan said something that sent Herbalist Girl's heart into her throat: "This is only the second night."
Ding Shi sat up, glanced left and right, nodded, and ambled over to a small side recess to relieve himself.
Seeing Ding Shi return and prepare to lie back down, Yu Yuan whispered, "Ding Shi, you called the storm right. Knowing the system as you do, what's its next move?"
Ding Shi pondered groggily for a moment before answering, "After the storm, it'll probably be landslides."
Yu Yuan's face shifted dramatically. "It wants to destroy our shelter?"
Ding Shi said, "Originally, I thought the storm was meant to drastically ramp up our difficulty of survival. But from the looks of it now, that isn't the case: the water isn't flooding into the cave, wild beasts retreat to their dens, and we can still work in the rain during the day. Since the storm itself isn't the goal, it can only be a means to an end. And the worst calamity a torrential downpour can cause is a landslide. If that still doesn't finish us off next, an earthquake might start. Even if the system called down a meteor shower, I wouldn't be surprised."
Ding Shi continued, "If there's a landslide, the place to bear the brunt of it would be that new campsite we originally had our eyes on." At this point, a lingering dread gripped Ding Shi's heart. If they had actually relocated to the new campsite today, the violent deluge would almost certainly have buried it under collapsing rock and mud.
Ding Shi smacked the stone floor in outrage: "Fuck, that damned system—one trap nested in another!"
The west was the only downhill direction. If players wanted to migrate, they would definitely move toward lower elevations. And there they would discover a prime campsite—with water, fish, forest, and no wild predators—where surviving five days would be all too easy.
And right then, the system would drop a landslide on them.
Think back to the first day: starting a fire had been tough, so the system issued the Little Pro quest—even if you didn't want fire, it would shove fire down your throat. Thinking about it now, even if the Little Pro quest had failed, the system would've struck lightning to ignite a flame anyway, bound and determined to get a blaze going in their camp. After all, without a roaring fire, how could it justify sending in the rhinos to trample everything?
Without the rhinos trampling through, a hundred nightmare-difficulty players facing off against a few hundred wolves might have been at a disadvantage, but they would've had a fighting chance.
Who would have thought? Who would have guessed that this little bitch of a system could be so viciously sinister?
Chapter 80