Chapter 812 - 20: Mammoth Corpse

Chapter 812: Chapter 20: Mammoth Corpse

Realizing the intensity of the challenge, Chen Zhou dared not take any rest.

After dealing with the bodies of the two Neanderthals, he returned to the very center of the supply drop zone.

Even though the daytime temperatures rose slightly, it was still cold at night. Looking around, there was no sign of firelight from the direction those two challengers had come from, nor from any other directions.

The ignited campfire had long been extinguished, and the snowy ground was once again engulfed in a red hue.

Having seen the spiked trap work effectively with his own eyes, and taking advantage of no new challengers arriving, Chen Zhou immediately lit a torch and began gathering materials to lay traps in expanding circles from the center.

With his exceptional memory, he could clearly remember each spike he had buried in the snow, allowing him to dodge them skillfully.

But unsuspecting challengers wouldn’t be so fortunate.

These numerous traps, even if they couldn’t directly cause injury, would slow their advance.

Once engaged in a fight with the enemy, these traps would serve as a constraint. It could be said that as long as the battlefield was here, Chen Zhou had the advantage.

These sharp wooden spikes buried in the snow, though immobile, were far more effective than ordinary traps.

...

The torch flickered in and out; the night passed in the blink of an eye.

As dawn broke, Chen Zhou finally set down the Military Saber he had used to carve wooden sticks, planted the torch in the snow, and stretched.

He hadn’t dared rest for even a moment, working tirelessly until now.

Now, with the supply drop zone as the center, a radius of 30 meters was filled with spikes beneath the snow.

Those seemingly unremarkable bulges in the snow concealed deadly threats within.

Even some of the depressions in the ground were traps Chen Zhou created by filling in the natural hollows.

The wooden spike traps required no rare materials, were quick to make, adequately lethal, and could significantly hinder enemy movements.

After setting all these traps, Chen Zhou finally felt a sense of relief.

Unless other challengers flew in, any attempt to seize the supplies would end poorly for them.

...

Worried about standing out in the daylight, Chen Zhou cut two pieces of Mammoth meat and dragged the cart away from the center of the flat terrain.

He lit a fire to roast the meat and waited silently for the arrival of the next batch of challengers.

The sun rose and set, and the beacon’s light gradually dimmed.

By nightfall, Chen Zhou still hadn’t encountered any competitors, as though only this pair of Neanderthals participated in the second supply raid.

Counting the days, nearly three days and nights had passed since the beacon appeared.

Eighty kilometers in fair weather should have allowed even the slowest of challengers to reach here in over three days, so where were they?

Staring at the blood-red beacon in the sky, Chen Zhou was perplexed.

"Could it be there are truly no opponents left?"

Chen Zhou pondered.

But he quickly reminded himself not to cling to wishful thinking, to always be ready for battle.

In this tense and grueling wait, Chen Zhou spent the third night alone on the wasteland, and the beacon began its slow descent by dawn of the fourth day.

...

As the morning sun rose, the vast wasteland offered little light.

Overcast clouds gathered, the fierce wind brought snowflakes from afar, and the stable temperature began to plummet rapidly.

Wrapped in animal skins, watching the campfire quickly extinguished by the wind and snow, Chen Zhou faced a tough decision—

Whether to leave to evade the storm or risk freezing to death to be the first to reach the supply.

He didn’t know if there were other challengers lurking near the beacon, nor if anyone would arrive before him.

Having endured a sudden blizzard before, Chen Zhou knew well the risks of stubbornly withstanding such a storm in this geography.

Even with the gene modification serum, he couldn’t survive through an entire blizzard.

After all, this storm wasn’t a sudden onset; it had been brewing for some time. Once it started, it wouldn’t stop in one or two hours, and could likely last for ten-plus hours or even a whole day, long enough to be fatal.

To go or to stay?

Standing up and looking at the snow-swept prairie, Chen Zhou felt a bit lost.

He was very familiar with the terrain here, and if he set out now, he might find a shelter before the storm descended.

If he left a bit later and was careful with directions, he might manage to find refuge in a forest or cave.

But leaving too late would surely mean facing the storm head-on, making survival uncertain.

With a glance at the descending red glow amidst the hazy white, Chen Zhou was filled with reluctance.

He grabbed the cart, just about to turn and leave, when a bold idea flashed in his mind—

Perhaps the prairie wasn’t without shelter.

Or rather, there had been none before, but now there was.

Those two Mammoths!

If he could hollow out a Mammoth’s body, using its bones and hide as a tent, and reinforce it, he could last through the blizzard for a while.

Moreover, those Neanderthals brought a lot of coal, so as long as he managed ventilation, he could light a fire inside the Mammoth to keep warm.

The Mammoth’s excavated innards could also serve as food, and unless the blizzard turned unmanageable, he could survive for at least ten days.

Considering the beacon’s descent speed, it would take at most a day and night to land.

As long as he could grab the supplies first, escaping wouldn’t be an issue.

But one concern—

The speed at which the blizzard forms was unpredictable, taking over an hour if slow, or just ten minutes if fast.