Perhaps this is the only stroke of luck amidst my misfortune in coming to this godforsaken place.

If I had come to a desert instead of a jungle, I probably would be dead by now.

In the scorching desert, water and food are scarce, and even eating insects won't help. Without a suitable water source, even the most powerful person would be helpless. As for those staged movies and TV shows, just watch them and don't take them seriously.

How do those hikers who go missing in Hoh Xil die every year? They die because of their own arrogance, thinking they can conquer the Gobi Desert with just a little knowledge. Even the indigenous people of the Australian desert still hold the desert in awe.

I continued walking, and after crossing a hill, a scene that made my heart skip a beat appeared before my eyes.

It was a huge lake, I can't really say how big it was. Anyway, it was a lake that stretched as far as the eye could see, and there were several small rivers like the ones I had seen before.

The source of those rivers was actually flowing out from this huge freshwater lake. This lake was like a giant basin filled with water, and the small rivers were just insignificant trickles.

The lake water is a clean, jade-green color, and there are many tall poplars, fir trees, and some large pine trees growing along the shore.

I couldn't name some of the pine trees, but judging from their huge pine cones, they were probably the kind of pine nuts that grows in the north.

This discovery made me very happy. Pine nuts are a great food, both in terms of taste and nutrition. They used to be so expensive in the city that I could never afford to buy them.

However, these pine nuts are probably not fully grown yet. It will likely take some time for them to fully mature before they are ready to be harvested.

I'm probably still a few hundred meters from the lake, but I'm sure the shore is teeming with all sorts of waterbirds, because I see a lot of willows growing nearby, and the occasional waterbirds flying overhead confirm my suspicion.

That's not all. A high mountain appears some distance east along the lakeshore. The lakeshore I'm standing on now is already quite high. If I could climb that mountain, I think nothing would be able to block my view.

Thinking of this, all the fatigue and resentment of the past few days vanished, leaving me as beautiful and moving as the lake under the clear blue sky.

It all felt like fate was playing a cruel joke on me. Just when I felt things weren't going well and I started to feel resentful, fate seemed determined to send all sorts of difficulties to torment me.

Once I understand myself and relax, nature will once again reveal its most beautiful side to me.

At that moment, it seemed to transform from a shrew chasing me down the street with a stick into a gentle and loving mother. She smiled at me and kissed my forehead.

At this moment, I had an indescribable feeling. It was like being moved, but also seemed to be mixed with a trace of confusion.

I was moved that all my hard work along the way hadn't been in vain. I had found a high mountain that offered a panoramic view of the entire landscape. That was the hope in my heart; maybe I would see a road or a village in the next second.

But it is both a source of hope and a place with a magical, frightening allure. I'm not afraid of any ferocious beasts or poisonous insects on top, but rather that my last hope will be shattered once I reach the summit.

Sometimes what people fear most is not death itself, but seeing a glimmer of hope only to face despair again. Psychological death is more painful than physical death.

Since I'm already here, I might as well make the best of it. I see this land as a beacon of hope, and I think it's worth fighting for.

However, I won't be fooled by the beautiful scenery before me; the resources here are far superior to those of the places I've been before. The richer the resources, the more likely it is to attract other predators to settle here.

On my way here, I found at least five or six different kinds of droppings, each with hair, in the nearby grass. The smaller droppings were about the same size as the droppings of my cat, while the larger ones were comparable to the droppings of wild boars weighing hundreds of kilograms.

The hard, dry droppings are clearly the remains of a carnivore. And I'm almost certain that tigers are present here.

Although I have never seen what tiger droppings look like, I could clearly see the long, stiff bristles of a wild boar in the largest droppings. Considering that there aren't many wild animals that can hunt wild boars, the Siberian tiger should be one of them.

Judging from the size of the droppings, this is a sub-adult Siberian tiger. It weighs at least 300 pounds, similar in size to the female wild boar I encountered before.

The threat posed by a feline weighing over 300 pounds is no less than that of the female wild boar. Their canines, measuring 12 to 15 centimeters, are even more terrifying than those of a lion. An adult tiger's bite force reaches an astonishing half-ton, easily capable of biting through even a wild boar's hide.

Especially their powerful forelimbs; in their hands, I was no different from a mouse. One slap could send my head flying.

After all, claws are far more lethal weapons than their canines. A full-force strike from the claws of a wild adult Siberian tiger can reach a terrifying force of around one ton; it's no exaggeration to say that it could easily shatter tempered glass with a single blow.

Most wild boars of similar size are killed by tigers when they are ambushed and killed by a tiger's slap. The tiger's slap causes them to temporarily shut down, and by the time they realize what's happening, they have already been killed by being strangled.

Thinking about this sent chills down my spine. Dealing with that leopard was already a struggle, and now an even stronger Siberian tiger has appeared. Even if it's just a sub-adult, it's not something I can easily mess with.

I've temporarily abandoned my plan to find a cave to live in. Like I said, unless the cave is on a sheer cliff, no four-legged wild animal could possibly climb it.

Otherwise, the cave would still have a low margin for error. No one can guarantee that there won't be any carelessness. A heavy rain or some other accident might put out the fire.

Without the protection of a fire, even if I made a door out of those branches to block the entrance, it would be nothing more than scrap metal in the eyes of an adult Siberian tiger. One swipe of its paw would knock down any door.

The thought of carrying so much wild boar meat and wandering around near a place frequented by big cats filled me with dread, and cold sweat poured down my forehead.

You know, felines have a very sensitive sense of smell. Maybe right now a big cat has already smelled the wild boar meat on me and is following the scent toward me.