The Hurdle That Must Be Crossed

At this moment, Zhou Xu felt incredibly excited himself.

After all, he hadn't done this since he grew up.

Holding down the basket, he could feel the rat thrashing around inside. After a brief moment of excitement, realizing what was about to happen, Zhou Xu's body tensed noticeably.

Exhaling a long breath, Zhou Xu opened the basket a tiny crack.

The rat, noticing the opening, immediately scurried towards it and was grabbed by him!

During this process, he skillfully used his thumb and index finger to grip the rat's head.

"See, you grab it like this, so the rat doesn't bite when it's cornered. Next, we..."

Zhou Xu's voice trailed off here.

They couldn't keep live rats around. The best method was to kill it immediately after catching it.

Under this premise, he certainly wouldn't feel pity for a rat. But as a city dweller who had never killed anything besides cockroaches and insects, having a live creature in his hands now, he really needed to prepare himself mentally to kill it.

In fact, he had other options.

That was to hand the rat over to Fei Que, who was beside him, or any other tribe member to handle.

He was sure they would do it swiftly.

But Zhou Xu knew in his heart that doing so would, frankly, be avoidance.

Now, living in this primitive world, if he wanted to survive, he had to overcome this hurdle!

[Don't hesitate, just snap its neck. It'll only take a second.]

With this thought, Zhou Xu's other hand grabbed the rat's head and made a twisting motion.

During this, the rat, as if sensing what was about to happen, began to struggle violently and emitted continuous squeaking sounds.

The rat's violent struggles made Zhou Xu involuntarily nervous, and he realized he couldn't hesitate any longer.

Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself and exerted force with both hands!

In that instant, he clearly heard the sound of the rat's neck snapping, and the rat's body spasms and twitches were transmitted through his hands.

In his past life, as a perfectly normal law-abiding citizen, he had never snapped the neck of a living creature with his own hands.

The sensation made his scalp tingle, and his stomach churned with nausea.

But he quickly suppressed the feeling.

Because he knew he was now the chief of the Salt Lake Tribe, and his subordinates were all watching him.

He, as their chief, had to maintain sufficient dignity.

"Alright, just snap its neck like this."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu, having secretly composed himself, calmly opened his palms, presenting the lifeless rat to the assembled tribe members.

"This is simple. It requires patience and good timing. You all should have understood, right?"

In response to his question, the tribe members nodded one after another.

"We have eight traps now. If we concentrate them all in one place, the efficiency will be too low. So, around this area, everyone needs to spread out."

As Zhou Xu spoke, he handed the dead rat in his hand to Fei Que.

"Today, I will confirm the locations for setting up the traps for everyone. After that, every day..."

Zhou Xu's voice paused here, and his gaze fell on Fei Que.

"Fei Que, after you distribute water to everyone in the morning, you can directly bring the hunting party here to set up traps and hunt. You don't need to wait for me to arrange each one individually. I'll inform you of any other arrangements later."

"Yes!"

After assigning the eight traps to their respective locations, Zhou Xu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as though he had accomplished something significant.

He looked up at the sky. By this time, it was completely light.

Today wasn't as gloomy as yesterday. Through the clouds, he could faintly see the sun hiding behind them.

Calculating the time, it was probably around nine or ten in the morning.

After all, they had woken up early today, and the day had just begun.

However, Zhou Xu had no intention of staying in the Black Forest any longer. According to his plan, he still had many things to do.

For now, he had to rush back to the tribe.

It wasn't far from the tribe. After walking for a while, he soon saw the outline of the tribe.

The tribe members he had assigned to patrol and guard around the tribe saw him and quickly came forward to salute.

"You're just in time. Another squad will continue patrolling, but you three come with me to help."

"Yes!"

With a single response, Zhou Xu led them directly to the side of the saltwater lake.

[If there are fish in this lake, at least half of our food problem will be solved.]

Looking at the lake surface before him, Zhou Xu thought to himself.

He currently has two guesses about this saltwater lake.

The first guess is that the saltwater lake is connected to the sea and was formed by seawater flowing in.

If that were the case, fish from the sea would definitely swim in, and they would be able to easily add to their food supply.

As for the second guess...

It's that this saltwater lake was formed by underground water surging up.

The reason the lake water is salty is because there are salt mines underground.

For Zhou Xu at this moment, he naturally hoped for the former.

"Have you ever caught fish?"

Faced with the question, the three tribe members who followed him all looked at each other, bewildered.

Clearly, they didn't know what he was talking about.

"The things that swim in this water."

Zhou Xu said as he gestured, trying to make them understand his meaning.

However, the three of them still shook their heads, which basically confirmed to Zhou Xu that they had no concept of fishing.

[Looks like I'll have to do it myself.]

With that thought, Zhou Xu walked to a spot where the lake water reached his calves and scooped up a handful of mud.

The mushy yet slightly sticky texture was basically as he expected.

"You three, dig up some of this mud. I'm going to check out this lake and will be back up shortly."

When he was young, he often swam in the village pond or river during the summer. Now, diving into this lake, he wasn't afraid at all, which left the three tribe members standing by completely stunned.

But Zhou Xu didn't have time to pay attention to them. Holding his breath, he dived for a short while before surfacing about ten meters from the lake's surface.

"Hoo--"

Wiping the lake water from his face, he quickly took a breath of fresh air, then dived back down.

After diving twice in a row, Zhou Xu slowly swam back to the shore. He then collapsed onto the bank as if all his strength had left him, panting heavily.

[Sigh, it must be groundwater.]