Rebirth of the Last Survivor

Chieftain

Also, after humans swallowed jelly bodies, they absolutely could not incorporate them for their own use. Various enzymes in the body would completely dissolve them into energy, leaving no trace behind. However, the energy obtained from dissolving one jelly body was enough to replace the energy from a full day’s food intake.

After listening to Lin Yue’s explanation about the giant wolf and the jelly bodies, Zheng Hai and the others barely understood. But Yang Qing’s brow remained furrowed. She stared at Lin Yue and said, “Lin Yue, tell us honestly, how did you know the Great Crossing was going to happen? And how did you know about the giant wolf and the jelly bodies?”

Lin Yue fell silent at her question. After a long pause, he said quietly, “What if I told you I’ve been here before? Would you believe me?”

Everyone was stunned. Before they could ask further, Lin Yue waved his hand and said, “Never mind that. Get ready. Soon, other people will arrive here. Those giant wolves are heading straight for the crowded area. Once they get there, the crowd will scatter, and people will definitely flee this way.”

With that, Lin Yue took out several small knives and distributed them to the group. “One knife each. Danger lurks everywhere in this new world. I can’t protect you all the time. These knives are for your self-defense. Now, help me cut up the wolf meat.”

After receiving the knives, the bolder ones hesitated briefly before helping Lin Yue cut the meat. The more timid ones looked at the wolf’s carcass with fear and hesitated. Lin Yue didn’t force them; he just quickly cut off chunks of meat himself.

Soon, Lin Yue’s prediction came true. People really did flee toward them—nine people in total, all from the school. Among them was a man in a police uniform, presumably a campus security guard. These people had clearly been frightened by the giant wolves and ran here in panic. When they saw Lin Yue’s group butchering a giant wolf’s body, they were startled again.

“Y-you… you killed it?” The security guard pointed at Lin Yue and the wolf carcass with a nightstick, stammering, “H-how did you manage that?”

All nine were people from Lin Yue’s school. They stood there, still shaken. One girl, pale-faced, said with a tremor, “There are giant wolves down the mountain… eating people…” Before she finished, she also saw the wolf carcass beside Lin Yue’s group. She stepped back slightly and said, her voice trembling, “You… killed it?”

Lin Yue naturally couldn’t tell them he had killed the wolf single-handedly. He made up a lie: “The wolf was already injured. Several of us boys took a risk and killed it.”

That excuse was full of holes, but by then they were too frightened and shocked to question it.

Seeing their expressions, Zheng Hai quickly invited them to sit on some rocks nearby and said a few soothing words. Zheng Hai had some vague impression of these nine people; after all, they were from the same school. After some comforting, their emotions stabilized. The question they asked most was, “What’s happening?”

Zheng Hai and the others couldn’t answer that. They simply said, “Now that we’re here, we have to live with it. The most important thing now is to survive.”

Soon, night fell. The first night in the new world began, and everyone’s stomachs were growling.

Facing nine unfamiliar people, Lin Yue naturally wouldn’t take out the food he had hidden. Although the cave was spacious and the hidden supplies were well concealed, one couldn’t be too careful. Lin Yue would rather eat roasted wolf meat than reveal the stored food.

Lin Yue and the others gathered dry branches and made a fire—not outside the cave, but inside. If they built a fire outside, the rising smoke would quickly attract wild animals. Although Lin Yue was confident he could handle them, he still had to consider everyone else’s safety.

Lin Yue understood this principle, but not everyone else did. Several kilometers away from Lin Yue’s group, another group had lit a fire. There were about thirty or forty of them. They had lit the fire simply for light and warmth. But that quickly attracted unwelcome visitors—a group of two-legged creatures about one meter tall, shaped like rodents but with bodies somewhat similar to humans.

Even more strangely, these two-legged animals held crude spears in their front claws, hiding in the grass. After a strange chirping sound, dozens of spears flew out of the grass, instantly killing more than a dozen people. Then the creatures darted out of the shadows and bit the remaining people to death on the spot. Thirty or forty people were all dead in less than five minutes.

If Lin Yue had been there, he would have recognized these two-legged animals immediately. They were called Rat-men. They usually had twenty to fifty jelly bodies inside, though their jelly bodies were relatively small. Their application of Energy Storage Acid was highly sophisticated, not limited to just speed or strength. Possessing a certain degree of intelligence, they could apply Energy Storage Acid across all aspects of their bodies.

Rat-men had considerable intelligence and agile bodies. In this new world, they were the nightmare of most animals.

Lin Yue knew nothing of the m******e several kilometers away. At that moment, he was roasting wolf meat and speaking to the dozen or so people gathered around him: “I know this is hard for everyone to accept, but you must understand, we need to pull ourselves together quickly. This giant wolf looks big, but for a dozen or so of us, it won’t last long. As time goes on, it will become harder and harder to get food. We need to find more food now.”

Although Lin Yue didn’t want to use the food in the hidden backpacks, they were emergency supplies, to be used only as a last resort.

“If all the people in the world really crossed over, getting food will be extremely difficult,” said one of Lin Yue’s other roommates, Zhao Longtao, as he ate wolf meat. “This new world doesn’t have enough grains or domesticated animals. Feeding 7 billion people would require slaughtering countless wild animals.”

The security guard who had fled over frowned slightly. “So you’re saying that even hunting will put us in competition with others?”

The guard’s name was Chu Yang. He was very young, only twenty-four, not much older than Lin Yue’s group of twenty-somethings.

“Exactly,” Lin Yue said, cutting off a piece of burnt wolf meat with his knife and taking a bite before continuing. “We have fifteen people here now. The old social systems have collapsed. We might have to fight with others, so we need to establish our own rules so we can survive better in this wild new world. Only by uniting first can we gain more strength to face the unknown dangers ahead.”

“Establish rules?” Everyone thought carefully and agreed rules were necessary. One girl suddenly said, “I think the first rule should definitely be that murder is punishable by death.”

Everyone was startled by her words, but Lin Yue agreed with her. After a moment, he remembered her name was Liu Ye.

“That’s right, murder must be punished by death,” Lin Yue continued. “Right now, food is scarce. Conflicts could easily arise among us over small amounts of food. If anyone harms any of us, they must be punished—though not necessarily by death. We’ll decide based on the severity of the situation.”

Hearing this, everyone felt it made sense and accepted the rule.

“Also, food must be distributed according to work,” Yang Qing proposed another rule. “If not, some people might get food without working, which would be very unfair to everyone.”

This rule was immediately agreed upon as well. No one wanted to work hard and receive the same as those who did nothing.

“Does distribution according to work mean we need to make material resources public? That is, pool everyone’s things together and then redistribute them?” said Zhao Longtao. “Not necessarily everything everyone owns right now. But we could temporarily make food common property and then redistribute it.”

Although some were reluctant, they mostly agreed to this rule. For now, though everyone knew food was important, their possessiveness over it hadn’t yet become intense.

“With these three rules established, don’t we need a authority to enforce them?” Zheng Hai, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. “Maybe we should choose a chieftain.”