Rebirth of the Last Survivor

The Surrounding Terrain

When the Hunting Team returned to Yuan Cave, the items they brought excited everyone for a long time. Several boys immediately wanted to plant the seeds, but Zhao Minghui stopped them.

“Crop planting must take into account seasons, climate, and soil conditions. We don’t know much about this new world yet. We can’t just plant blindly. Let’s observe for a few days first.” The others thought this was reasonable and put the seeds away.

While the Hunting Team had been out exploring, seven more people had joined Yuan Cave—also classmates from Lin Yue’s school. After briefly testing them and finding no issues, Lin Yue allowed them to join. He gave them some food and immediately assigned them work. Lin Yue made it clear to them that to survive here, one had to keep working.

Although Yuan Cave was relatively hidden, given the population density here, it was normal for people to keep finding it. Lin Yue estimated that after ten days or so, even more people would come. Back on Earth, less than twenty kilometers east of their school was the center of City J, less than thirty kilometers north was the center of City Z, and less than thirty kilometers southwest was the center of City N. These three cities had dense populations. After the Great Crossing, even if the people there weren’t attacked by wild beasts, they would kill each other for the scarce food. Then the crowds would disperse, and many would move toward the central area around Yuan Cave.

By that time, if Lin Yue hadn’t prepared properly, hundreds or thousands of people might flood into Yuan Cave all at once. If not well managed, riots would occur frequently. That was why Lin Yue was now working hard to establish order and stockpile food.

The Hunting Team had been out for a long time and only brought back one eagle bird besides the items. Fortunately, the Life Team had collected quite a few fruits and berries nearby. However, these fruits looked strange, so they didn’t dare try them. Zhao Minghui and his group had also collected such fruits yesterday, but they didn’t dare eat them either. If Sun Ling hadn’t told them about the wolf meat at Yuan Cave, they might have risked eating them.

In fact, some of these fruits were indeed poisonous. Lin Yue quickly identified the poisonous ones, but he couldn’t directly explain how he knew. So he said to everyone, “We can’t just tell if these fruits are poisonous yet. Let’s store them for now. When the Life Team goes collecting, watch which fruits the small animals eat. Generally, if an animal eats a fruit, it’s not poisonous.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. In fact, while collecting fruits, they had noticed many small animals nearby, but these creatures were too clever. Humans who had been living comfortably for so long couldn’t catch them. But humans became the apex predators not because of sharp teeth or claws, but because of intelligence. The Life Team was already working on traps, hoping to catch these small animals using their superior wits.

Lin Yue didn’t interfere much with the Life Team’s work. After a brief rest at Yuan Cave, he led the Hunting Team out again to explore. This time, with Yuan Cave as the center, they focused on surveying the terrain. Soon, they discovered that Yuan Cave was located on a low mountain range. The cave was at the foot of one of the peaks in the range. The Hunting Team named the mountain range the Yuan Mountain Range, and the peak where Yuan Cave was located, Little Yuan Mountain.

Heading down from Little Yuan Mountain, there was a flat area, and beyond that, a river. The stream near Yuan Cave flowed into this river. Naturally, the Hunting Team named the river the Yuan River.

Across the Yuan River was another mountain range. Between this range and the Yuan Mountain Range was a valley, where long-term river alluvial deposits had formed a flat plain.

Lin Yue’s group explored as far as the river and stopped. They encountered no large carnivores, probably because the carnivores had attacked humans in the first two days, stocked up on food, and temporarily weren’t foraging.

Of course, besides exploring, the Hunting Team didn’t forget to hunt. By the Yuan River, they encountered a group of animals with long ears, similar to sheep, drinking water. The Hunting Team naturally wouldn’t miss such a hunting opportunity. They immediately gripped their wooden spears, spread out, and formed a semi-encirclement. The wooden spears had been made earlier by the Construction Team after cutting down trees, using small knives to whittle them.

This type of long-eared sheep wasn’t very large—just a bit bigger than goats on Earth—but their legs were extremely developed, and goats on Earth would never be able to match their running speed. The long-eared sheep drinking water weren’t very afraid of these strangers. Some tilted their heads, looking at the Hunting Team with curiosity.

After approaching a certain distance, Lin Yue judged the moment right and signaled everyone to attack. A dozen wooden spears flew toward the long-eared sheep. The results weren’t ideal. Besides Lin Yue, Zhao Longtao, and another boy, the others missed. The one Zhao Longtao hit wasn’t badly injured. It ran two steps into the thicket with the spear still in its body and disappeared. Zhao Longtao chased for a distance but couldn’t catch up, so he returned empty-handed.

Catching two long-eared sheep on their first hunt was pretty good. But this would only work the first time. After this, when the long-eared sheep encountered humans, they would quickly run away, giving the Hunting Team no chance.

When the Hunting Team returned to Yuan Cave, it was nearly dark. Everyone again took out wolf meat to eat. One of the two long-eared sheep was still alive. Lin Yue decided to keep it, heal its wound, and raise it. If they caught more goats later, they could raise them together.

Over the next two days, life at Yuan Cave gradually stabilized. The Hunting Team caught some prey every day—mostly weak herbivores, while the more ferocious carnivores were usually hunted by Lin Yue himself.

During this time, more than fifty more people joined Yuan Cave, bringing the total population to over a hundred. A simple fence had also been built around Yuan Cave. Though only about a meter high, not great at blocking anything, it was still a barrier. With sharp spikes on the fence, anyone trying to climb over could easily get pierced.

The fenced area wasn’t large—only five or six hundred square meters. Building a few wooden huts made it feel cramped. The Construction Team was now focused on building wooden huts, because as the population grew, the cave was no longer enough. Also, the cave was damp and had cockroaches and other insects, so building huts was necessary.

Lin Yue didn’t interfere much with the Construction Team. He was too busy with hunting alone. By now, the Hunting Team had grown to over thirty people, split into three groups hunting separately.

Lin Yue led one group, Zhao Longtao another, and Liao Huan the third. Lin Yue wasn’t being nepotistic by making his friends group leaders. It was because these two were genuinely capable.

The Hunting Team worked very hard these two days, catching enough food to feed Yuan Cave’s hundred-plus people for more than a month. But Lin Yue knew this was far from enough. The number of people gathering here would increase, and the food would become harder to get. The more food they stored now, the better. Animals with minor injuries were kept for raising.

The Life Team also collected quite a few fruits and identified which were edible. They also observed the climate that day and decided it was suitable for planting. They had already cultivated a few plots of land near Yuan Cave, planted some seeds, and the vegetable and soybean seeds had already started sprouting.