Chapter 2: Struggling with saliva, hand-washing a water purifier, and an unexpected encounter with an indigenous group...
Lin Yue felt like he was about to turn into a human-shaped piece of dried bacon.
He huddled in the cramped crevice of the rocks all night.
Outside, there were occasional screams that could terrify a person, rustling crawling sounds, and the "plop" sound of some kind of liquid dripping. Lin Yue could only pray frantically in his heart that it was just dew.
The pressure to survive was so intense that he barely had the energy left to complain.
Finally, as dawn broke, the terrifying sounds gradually subsided.
Lin Yue, sporting two enormous dark circles under his eyes, felt as if he had just finished a twelve-hour online project review meeting—he was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally, and all he wanted to do was delete his account and start over.
But the instinct for survival is still stubbornly at work, and adrenaline continues to surge.
My throat was parched and burning, and my lips were cracked in several places.
"Water...water is the source of life. If we don't drink water, we won't even see the sun tomorrow, let alone get payment from the client." Lin Yue struggled to climb out of the crevice in the rocks and staggered to the muddy stream that had deterred him yesterday.
As expected, the system interface diligently displayed the following message: [Water source test results: Still highly toxic; drinking is not recommended. Friendly reminder: Brain cell dehydration rate has reached 12%, and irreversible cognitive damage is imminent. Immediate hydration is recommended to avoid permanently lowering your IQ baseline.]
"Okay, okay, can't you wish me well for once, you sarcastic system?" Lin Yue complained listlessly. "This isn't how you rush someone to their death."
Not drinking it is not an option, but drinking it directly is tantamount to suicide. The only choice is purification.
He recalled the simple water purification device he had conceived yesterday. Sand, pebbles, torn T-shirt fabric... the most important element, charcoal, was still nowhere to be found.
“Start a fire…” Lin Yue looked at his hands, which, apart from typing and drawing, had hardly done any manual labor since he became an adult, and fell into deep thought.
Trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together? He found two relatively dry-looking sticks and rubbed them together for a long time, only to end up with his palms bleeding from the pain. Sparks? Not a chance.
"It seems that the practical skills of tech geeks only exist at the theoretical level." Lin Yue threw the wooden stick away in frustration.
Why not try striking it with a stone? It seems that striking certain stones can produce sparks, like flint.
He started searching for stones along the stream, and the system occasionally popped up notifications:
[Rock Scan: Ordinary granite. Moderate hardness, suitable for throwing attacks, provided you have enough strength. No fire-starting function.]
[Rock scan: Shale. It is relatively brittle; forceful striking is not recommended, otherwise you may end up with a pile of fragments and muddy hands.]
[Rock Scan: Quartz. Composition: Silicon dioxide. High hardness; theoretically, it could produce sparks upon impact with iron. Friendly reminder: You currently do not have any iron.]
Lin Yue: "...Thank you so much, but besides reporting bad news and making sarcastic remarks, don't you have any other functions? Would it kill you to give me a one-click fire-starting newbie perk?"
Just as he was about to give up and prepare to risk bleeding from all seven orifices by taking a couple of bites of the scarlet poison fruit to hallucinate and numb himself, his gaze happened to fall on an inconspicuous yellowish-brown stone.
[Rock Scan: Pyrite (Fool's Gold). Composition: Ferrous disulfide. Not very hard, but when rapidly impacted and rubbed against hard rocks (such as quartz), there is a low probability of producing high-temperature sparks. Note: Success rate depends on your speed and luck. Good luck!]
"Pyrite?" Lin Yue's eyes lit up. "Can't this stuff be used to start a fire?"
Although the system says the probability is low, it's better than nothing.
Pyrite in the left hand, quartz in the right, take a deep breath.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
He used all his strength to smash and scrape the quartz stone.
Mars! Faint! But real!
Lin Yue was overjoyed and quickly brought over the prepared dry grass.
A spark landed on the dry grass, sending up a wisp of smoke... and then it went out.
Again!
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Another cluster of sparks, a wisp of smoke... and then it went out.
After trying more than ten times, Lin Yue was so tired that he could barely lift his arms, and his hands were sore from being rubbed raw, but he still couldn't get the dry grass to light.
Then a blood-red notification exploded before my eyes: [Your clumsiness level has surpassed the lower limit of humanity.]
"I suspect you're kidding me, system," Lin Yue roared at the air, "What's the low probability? 0.1%?"
The system remained unresponsive, its aloofness unchanged.
Just as Lin Yue was about to collapse, a hoarse, deep voice with obvious vigilance suddenly came from behind him.
It was a language completely unfamiliar to him, with strange and rough pronunciation.
Lin Yue froze and turned around abruptly.
A figure appeared not far behind him, under a large tree.
That was... a person?
He looked like a human male, but more primitive than any Earthling Lin Yue had ever seen. He was tall and muscular, with weathered bronze skin, and wore simple clothes sewn from some kind of rough animal hide and plant fibers.
His messy hair and beard almost completely covered his face, revealing only a pair of sharp, wary, and scrutinizing eyes, like those of a hawk. He gripped a wooden spear with a sharpened tip tightly in his hand, pointing it at Lin Yue, adopting a defensive stance.
Lin Yue: "..."
Good grief, an NPC has spawned. And it's armed with weapons.
The two stared at each other, the air seemingly frozen.
The system interface then refreshed again:
[Intelligent life form detected: Unknown humanoid race (suspected subspecies of humans). Danger level: Medium (armed, attitude unclear).]
[Language system module activated... Attempting to parse the other party's language... Parsing success rate: 37% (Insufficient information).]
[Attempting to activate the basic translation function (BETA version)...]
Immediately afterward, the stranger spoke again. This time, a line of distorted translation, interspersed with gibberish and question marks, appeared simultaneously on Lin Yue's system interface:
[Other party's language (inferred meaning): You...what...thing? (threat/question)...my...territory?]
Lin Yue swallowed hard and quickly raised his hands to indicate that he had no weapons and no malicious intent.
He tried to speak, hoping to say something to ease the tension, but realized he had no idea what language to use. In desperation, he blurted out in standard Mandarin: "Um... bro, don't get agitated, we're on the same side, just passing by, nothing more!"
The system interface displays the following message: 【Your language: Unintelligible noise. Translation failed. We suggest using body language or waiting for the system to optimize the translation.】
Well, it was all for nothing.
Lin Yue had no choice but to continue in his cowardly posture with his hands raised, forcing a smile that he thought was kind but was actually uglier than crying.
The stranger tilted his head, and Lin Yue decided to call him "Gray Stone Bro" for the time being, because he looked like a weathered gray stone, as if assessing Lin Yue's threat level.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the T-shirt with the strange pattern printed on Lin Yue's body, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Perhaps it was Lin Yue's overly modern and artistic attire that contrasted sharply with his weak aura, making Gray Stone feel that he posed no threat?
Graystone's tense body relaxed slightly, but he still didn't lower the wooden spear in his hand. He made a few low gurgling sounds in his throat, as if issuing a warning.
At this tense standoff, Lin Yue accidentally brushed the pyrite he was holding, which was burning hot, against the quartz stone again, probably by chance.
A small cluster of sparks, brighter than ever before, burst forth and landed precisely on the pile of dry grass that he had been tossing around for half the day.
This time, a miracle happened.
A tiny flame flickered and ignited.
Lin Yue's eyes widened in disbelief.
The system interface randomly refreshes:
[Ding! Critical node of civilization detected: Acquire the fire seed!]
The "A Bite of Civilization" management system is now activated!
All greatness originates from the taste buds. All civilization begins with infrastructure.
[New player tutorial mode activated. Dear host, please begin by solving your first dinner, laying the first brick for civilization in this world.]
"Civilization on the tip of the tongue?" Lin Yue was taken aback by this sudden influx of information.
"...???"
Me, me, an engineer?
So is this a survival game or a cooking game?
Before I could think it through, the instinct to survive overwhelmed everything.
"It's lit! It's lit! I've finally started a fire!" He was so excited he almost jumped up. He didn't even bother to explore the new features of the system anymore and quickly and carefully added small dry twigs to the flames.
The flame gradually stabilized, growing from the size of a fingernail to the size of a fist, emitting a warm light and heat.
This small fire, in this cold and damp jungle, was nothing short of a miracle.
Graystone was also stunned by the sudden burst of flames. His eyes flashed with shock, and even a hint of barely concealed desire.
Clearly, for people living in such a primitive environment, fire was also an extremely precious and hard-to-obtain resource.
Lin Yue looked at the fire, then at Gray Stone, and suddenly had an idea.
He carefully shifted his body closer to the fire, then pointed to the fire, then to himself, then to Graystone, his face still bearing an innocent smile, trying to convey: We can share this fire.
Graystone looked at him silently, his eyes flickering uncertainly.
After a long while, he cautiously and slowly moved forward a few steps, stopping a few meters away from the fire. He did not lower his weapon, but he also made no further threatening gestures.
A subtle, temporary ceasefire agreement has emerged in the air, stemming from a shared need for the flames.
Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief. At least for now, he didn't have to worry about being treated as an intruder and skewered like a barbecue skewer by this Gray Stone guy.
With fire, making charcoal becomes much easier.
He placed some wood on the fire to burn, and after it burned into charcoal, he extinguished the fire and let it cool.
Then he found a relatively intact large leaf that had been confirmed by the system to be non-toxic, along with the T-shirt fabric he had torn off earlier, and the collected sand and gravel, and began to assemble his multi-layered water filtration device.
Throughout this process, Graystone watched silently from the sidelines. When he saw the murky stream water become much clearer after being filtered by that strange device, Graystone's eyes wavered again, filled with deep disbelief.
Lin Yue collected the filtered water in a relatively clean large seashell he found, and then tried taking a small sip.
Although it still has a slightly earthy taste, it's at least edible.
Just as he breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling that he had finally come back to life, the system coldly popped up a notification:
[Note: Water quality has been effectively improved, but some microorganisms and organic pollutants remain. Risks of direct consumption: diarrhea, parasitic infection, and possibly earning the nickname "King of Toilet Squatting."]
[Recommended procedure: Heat the water to a boil for at least three minutes before drinking.]
Lin Yue: "..."
I almost spat out my water.
"I almost drank myself to death in the newbie village just now!"
He complained as he quickly put the seashells on the fire to roast.
The flames licked the bottom of the shell, and water gradually began to bubble. White steam rose.
Once the water was boiling vigorously, Lin Yue carefully picked it up with a stick and placed it on the ground to cool down a bit before taking another sip.
This time, there was no odor, and no worries.
The first truly safe drinking water.
His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the mouthful of hot water, and he felt as if his whole being had been illuminated.
[Congratulations! The host has successfully completed the "Safe Drinking Water" milestone.]
[Civilization Advancement +1.]
Lin Yue: "..."
"So even drinking water counts as starting your infrastructure game?"
But he had to admit that a sip of hot water was more reassuring than any beverage.
He glanced at Graystone again, hesitated for a moment, and then handed the seashell containing the remaining water to him.
After all, having more friends, even temporary ones, is better than having more enemies. Especially in a godforsaken place like this.
Gray Stone stared at the water in the seashell, then looked at Lin Yue, his expression complex.
Finally, he very slowly reached out and took the seashell.
A note from the author:
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Lin Yue (holding up a seashell): Want some water, bro? Purely natural and pollution-free (yeah right)!
Gray Stone Bro (warning): ...Is this water poisoned?
Fire pit (chuckles): Can you guys add some firewood for me before you start chatting?
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