Chapter 813 - 20: Mammoth Corpse (2)

Chapter 813: Chapter 20: Mammoth Corpse (2)

In this brief preparation period, whether he could hollow out the frozen mammoth carcass as planned remained uncertain.

Obviously, choosing to stay at the supply drop site was dangerous.

Chen Zhou never liked being decided by probability, but he had no choice.

Supplies were of the utmost importance.

After obtaining the first supply drop, he realized this deeply.

With the materials from the first supply, he and Paul gained the capital to resist the severe cold.

Similarly, because of the first supply, Tiger Third and Bi Kai did not perish, which gave them two powerful allies. In a conflict, an additional person and a tiger could secure victory.

The exquisite black box put distance between them and the other challengers, greatly increasing their probability of becoming the ultimate victors.

Now the second "bicycle in a marathon" appeared. To prevent others from surpassing them, Chen Zhou could only take risks.

Even if he couldn’t get it, he couldn’t let others get it.

Even if no one obtained the supply drop, maintaining the status quo was a huge boon for him, Paul, and Bi Kai.

...

The wind grew stronger.

Although the snow hadn’t started yet, the sky was becoming increasingly gloomy. Anyone could feel that a fierce blizzard was imminent.

Having made his decision, Chen Zhou dared not delay for a moment and raced across the snow, dragging a sled.

At this moment, the deep winter prairie was filled everywhere with sand-like snowflakes being blown by the wind. In several miles’ radius, apart from Chen Zhou, there was no trace of any living creature.

Burrowing animals had long retreated to the depths of their dens, and even the birds remaining in the Northern Territory hid in their large, complex nests, waiting for the storm to pass.

Arriving at the mammoth carcass at top speed, Chen Zhou drew his long saber and used it as an axe, striking heavily at the mammoth’s lower abdomen.

Only frozen for a day and a night, the mammoth’s body seemed to have turned into a solid block of ice, especially the fur-clad parts, which were not only hard but also incredibly tough.

Chopping at such material was damaging to the blade’s edge, but Chen Zhou couldn’t worry about that. He had to make a shelter before the blizzard hit. His survival depended on it.

Leaning on strength and endurance far superior to an ordinary person, he quickly hollowed out an "entrance" large enough for one person to crawl into underneath the mammoth.

He then dug out the mammoth’s organs as quickly as possible.

If the mammoth had just died, cutting open its feces-filled intestines would have been unbearably stinky.

But now, the intestines were frozen into chunks of ice, and cutting them emitted no smell, easing Chen Zhou’s hardship slightly.

Of course, such work resembled a butcher’s task and was certainly not neat. In his rush, Chen Zhou didn’t mind cleanliness and hygiene, and as he emptied the mammoth’s lower abdomen, his fur coat was stained with frozen blood, flesh scraps, and feces.

This mammoth wasn’t yet mature, but its size was large enough; even though Chen Zhou was tall, its belly could still easily accommodate one person, though standing fully upright was impossible inside.

After digging out a space sufficient for a fire and himself, Chen Zhou intended to continue expanding this unique "shelter." However, with the increasing wind indicating limited time, he had to change plans temporarily.

Unable to do otherwise, Chen Zhou could only alter his plan, first transporting coal and fire-starting firewood into the elephant’s belly, then digging a fire pit.

Fearing that lighting a fire might melt the mammoth’s frozen muscles and hide, leading to shelter collapse, he split the sled into long wooden strips and inserted them inside the belly, supporting this makeshift shelter.

Having completed these tasks, he climbed out of the elephant’s belly to find the outside world completely transformed into a white scene, with snow and ice swirling everywhere, even obscuring the seemingly eternal light of the beacon.

"Damn it, if the Space-Time Administration Bureau is controlling the weather now, they’re doing it on purpose..."

Cursing internally, Chen Zhou threw the excavated soil outside and lit a campfire.

Fearing that too much smoke from a vigorous fire would make staying inside the belly impossible, he carefully added only a little firewood to the campfire.

At the campfire’s base lay a layer of fine twigs, leading up to some thicker sticks encasing coals brought by the Neanderthal.

Chen Zhou had inspected the Neanderthal’s coals and found them of decent quality and very dry.

Currently, the campfire still emanated some smoke, but once the sticks ignited the coal, relying solely on the coal’s heat would produce almost no smoke.

Moreover, the warmth inside the elephant’s belly exceeded his expectations; with just this small campfire, the internal temperature rose noticeably, boosting Chen Zhou’s confidence in weathering this storm.

However, as the temperature inside the belly rose, it was quite likely that the frozen flesh might soften and thawed blood might start to drip.

The mammoth’s lower abdomen had no rib support, so despite the wooden supports, a collapse remained possible.

To prevent a collapse and to expand the space inside the belly, even while hiding in the elephant’s belly, Chen Zhou remained busy, steadily cutting away the entrails with his long saber and sending them outside.

Due to the protection of the thick ribs, the space in the front chest was more cramped than the lower abdomen, but the rib-supported chest was obviously firmer, making it Chen Zhou’s ideal resting place.

He was prepared to endure, intending to stay inside the "Mammoth Shelter" as long as the blizzard continued.

...

The sound of the wind and snow gradually drowned out everything.

The hole at the rear abdomen of the mammoth continuously "spit" out chunks of meat, including the enormous lungs and heart of the mammoth.

Snow piled layer by layer on the ground, gradually rising and soon completely blocking the entrance.

In the dim black land, no hint of light could be seen, only flying snow and howling wind.

The snow fell continuously for an entire day.

When the wind waned, and the clouds thinned a bit, allowing a glimpse of the sky and some starlight, the blood-red beacon reappeared in the sky.

The rear abdomen of the mammoth’s carcass showed signs of collapse, with several protrusions visible on the hide, marks of the wood strips supporting the flesh.

Chen Zhou sat in the rib-supported front chest of the mammoth, leaning against the ribs, gripping the long saber tightly, waiting for the moment the storm ended.

The corpse, baked by the fire, was filled with the stench of blood and a strange greasy organ smell, making him nauseous.

However, despite the smell, the interior was indeed warm.

Having injected himself with the cold-resistant gene modification syrup and being wrapped in several layers of clothing, Chen Zhou found the warm, enclosed shelter making him drowsy.

At other times, Chen Zhou would never have felt so sleepy, but now, deprived of rest for such a long period, his spirit was already exhausted.

Having endured so long, he dared not fall asleep at the critical moment. Hearing the diminished wind outside, Chen Zhou promptly grabbed his long saber, crouched from the front chest to the rear abdomen, and dug through the accumulated snow blocking the "doorway" to climb out.

The freshly fallen snow was quite soft, and with his body heat yet to dissipate, as soon as he left the belly, snowflakes adhered to him, turning him entirely white.

"Sure enough, it’s not snowing anymore!"

Glancing at the prairie, where no footprints nor signs of human passage could be seen, Chen Zhou turned his gaze directly to the beacon that occupied his thoughts.

Only now did he realize that, at some point, the beacon had descended to a height of just over forty meters from the ground.

At this moment, besides the glowing red crescent, even the objects beneath were clearly visible to him—

A small square box, roughly the size of a palm, shared the same color as the beacon, and its surface retained a crystal-like sheen.

"The second supply drop is about to arrive."

Watching the small box from afar, guessing its size, Chen Zhou estimated that it could hold only about three or four syringes, causing him to beam with joy—

Though the second supply drop was closer, the environment and timing made obtaining it far more difficult than the first.

Especially this blizzard; without the mammoth carcass, no matter how strong he was, he would not dare to challenge the harsh forces of nature directly.

Given this level of difficulty, yet the supply was so small, did this not indicate the materials inside were exceptionally valuable, possibly even four potent regeneration syringes?