Chapter 4 : The Strength of Beasts
Chapter 4: The Strength of Beasts
A few minutes later, three Simple Stone Axes had all been crafted.
Everyone picked up their respective equipment and prepared to head out.
“Barlow, you lead the way. Clear out the bushes and vines along the path as well,” Su Wen instructed.
“Yes, my lord.” The subordinate responded and immediately walked to the front.
The surrounding area was relatively safe. Aside from the foul-smelling corpse from earlier, no dangerous things had been spotted for the time being.
Thinking about that disgusting corpse made Su Wen feel a strong wave of discomfort.
“I need to find a place to wash my hands, then get that corpse dealt with.”
Although the building was over a hundred meters away from the corpse, he still felt uneasy.
Many plagues in ancient times were caused by corpses. What he had just done could even be considered high-risk contact.
“Let’s move first.”
Under Barlow’s lead, Su Wen and his clone followed cautiously, observing their surroundings as they advanced.
As they moved forward, the vegetation along the way became slightly sparser, but overall it was still forest.
Before long, a stream appeared before their eyes.
“Great, it’s running water.”
The sensation on his hands had already disgusted him to the point of nearly vomiting. Su Wen immediately rushed forward and placed his hands into the water to wash them.
After rinsing for a full minute, he pulled his hands out.
“Still a bit disgusting.”
Shaking off the water, Su Wen sighed, then raised his Watch and attempted to scan the water.
【Scan complete.】
【Target: Flowing stream water (trace microorganisms exceeding standard)】
【Evaluation: Recommended to boil before drinking.】
“Not bad, the water source problem is solved.”
From the scan results, at least the water was drinkable.
He noticed the upper-left corner of the screen.
There was a trading section inside, which seemed to allow transactions.
Someone was already selling water there.
After seeing the price, Su Wen raised an eyebrow. “That expensive?”
Each liter could be sold for 1 silver.
Silver was the Empire’s currency. Related to it were gold coins and copper coins.
1 gold equaled 10 silver, 1 silver equaled 100 copper, and each silver coin was also equivalent to 1 unit of Energy.
This meant that a mere liter of water actually required consuming a full unit of Energy.
“I see, it’s because there’s no container.”
At the start, people had nothing. Even making a small wooden bowl was a luxury.
Without something to hold water, it couldn’t be listed in the trading section.
Crafting such tools took time.
Meanwhile, those who spawned in water-scarce areas had an urgent need for water. As a result, there were currently many people desperately begging for water. For example, someone in the desert was crying for help, saying they were about to die of thirst. This directly caused that even at relatively high prices, items were instantly sold out the moment they were listed. More people simply couldn’t afford them due to insufficient funds.
“Heh, feels like there’s no need for me to specifically make this.”
Unless there was a Blueprint, deliberately making such items would be a waste of time.
Because the efficiency of gaining Energy by killing creatures was clearly higher… that was what the Watch indicated.
“Barlow, go check the surroundings again.”
They were already more than 200 meters away from the spawn point.
After moving forward for some distance, Barlow suddenly detected a faint disturbance.
“Be careful.”
He raised his hand.
Sure enough, in the next moment, a gray… wolf appeared ahead.
It also noticed the humans at the same time. Immediately, it bared its teeth and lowered its body, adopting a defensive stance.
“Take it down.”
“No problem.”
Receiving the order, Barlow raised the Simple Stone Axe in his hand and charged forward with a quick step.
Seeing the human rushing toward it, the gray wolf did not retreat. Instead, it suddenly lunged forward, charging at them.
“So fast!”
The sudden burst of speed made Barlow cry out.
This creature’s speed was strangely fast, almost as if it had activated a skill, forcing Barlow to swing his axe ahead of time.
Whoosh—
The axe came down, striking the wolf’s back with a smack.
Almost simultaneously, its blood-filled maw clamped down onto Barlow’s thigh.
“Damn it.”
The blade hadn’t even cut in.
Rip—
In the next instant, the wolf violently shook its head, tearing off a whole chunk of flesh.
Barlow mustered all his strength and swung again.
Puchi—
This time, it struck the neck.
“Awoo—”
The gray wolf let out a miserable howl and collapsed onto the ground.
It tried to get back up, but Barlow struck again, hitting the wound on its neck.
After landing the blow, he continued swinging several more times. Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, and the wolf was unable to rise again.
Barlow panted heavily.
“What an outrageous wolf.”
Its skin was tougher than cowhide. He had never seen such a powerful wolf in his life.
Looking down, he saw that nearly half the flesh on his thigh had been torn away.
The intense pain caused cold sweat to pour down his body.
Fortunately, it hadn’t bitten a vital spot.
【Killed Hardened Gray Wolf】
【Obtained: Energy ×6, Hardened Wolf Corpse ×1】
A flash of light flickered on the Watch, and a portion of Energy was absorbed into it.
“6 Energy? Just one Basic Recruitment Protocol requires 20 Energy to exchange. That means I need to kill 4 of these?”
Wasn’t that far too difficult?
He seriously doubted whether Barlow could hold on.
The only fortunate thing was that there was still some Energy in reserve. Combined with the 6 points just gained, it was enough to perform another recruitment.
Suppressing his thoughts, Su Wen walked over. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Barlow leaned against a nearby tree and sat down.
Su Wen pondered for a few seconds and opened the trading section.
He could find some herbs, but they didn’t seem useful.
Even if there were effective healing items, most people probably wouldn’t put them up for sale.
And even if they did, he likely couldn’t afford them.
While searching, Su Wen noticed the chat group again:
［Infinite Monkey］: “Guys, is it normal for subordinates’ Loyalty to drop like crazy? Mine dropped 12 points in a few hours, now it’s only 18 left.”
［Anonymous27］: “Damn, same here. I summoned an orc civilian, and I just casually said in front of him that I like eating beef. His Loyalty instantly dropped to 8, and he angrily questioned me: ‘You like eating beef?’ Scared the hell out of me.”
［Anonymous28］: @Anonymous27, did you summon a minotaur?
［Only I Can Survive］: “This is reality, not a game. If you treat them as game data, you’ll suffer big losses.”
［Hedgehog］: “Speechless. At least your people are still alive. My spawn point is in a cave. As soon as I sent my subordinate out, it got instantly killed by an eagle.”
［Anonymous29］: “+1, it’s absolutely hopeless. I wanted to take it hunting, but it couldn’t even win a one-on-one fight.”
［It’s Over］: “This world is way too dangerous. How are we supposed to play this?”
［Anonymous30］: “Quick question, what happens if Loyalty drops to zero? I didn’t even do anything. Are we all using Weak Contracts?”
［Anonymous31］: @Anonymous30, what the hell, how did yours drop to 0? First time I’ve seen that low.”
［Anonymous30］: “Not ‘bro’, ‘sis’. I just thought he was handsome, so I wanted to… ahem. Who knew he’d resist.”
［Anonymous31］: “Huh? 666!”
……
“Is it this difficult for everyone?”
As more and more people joined the chat, Su Wen gradually learned more information.
It was widely acknowledged that the monsters in the wild were very powerful.
At the beginning, everyone summoned civilian units, not professional soldiers. Some didn’t even have weapons or equipment. Stepping outside could mean instant death.
Thus, for most people, the current issue wasn’t development—it was survival.
The difficulty of breaking through the situation was extremely high.
However, it didn’t rule out that some people were developing well and quietly amassing wealth.
After all, everyone would eventually meet in reality. Would conflicts arise? Would exposing too much information reveal weaknesses? None of this was certain.
For safety, many people had no choice but to act low-key.