What a Hell of a Starting Situation!

Almost as soon as this thought flashed through Zhou Xu's mind, a passage resembling background lore surfaced in his head.

Their tribe had been attacked by another tribe a week ago. After a brief clash, they had been defeated and forced to retreat, eventually fleeing here.

However, their previous tribal chief had also perished in that attack. After the surviving tribesmen escaped here and happened to discover an ancient altar passed down through the ages, they had used it to perform a summoning ritual, calling him—the Chosen One—to become their new chief and lead them onward.

The existence of the system made things feel somewhat unreal to him, and that unreal feeling had unconsciously eased Zhou Xu's state of mind considerably.

As a modern university student who had just graduated, Zhou Xu had played more than his share of games and read more than his share of novels.

He was genuinely no stranger to things like transmigration and systems.

At first, his mind had been too chaotic. Now that he had calmed down, he had managed to sort everything out.

He just never expected that something like this would actually come crashing down on his head.

Although he had already died in that other world, being alive after transmigrating here could be considered a good thing. But now that he was facing a completely unfamiliar world, he could not help feeling somewhat lost.

After taking a deep breath and accepting reality, Zhou Xu understood that he had to pull himself together as soon as possible.

In any case, my first task right now should be to find a suitable place to make camp and settle down.

As Zhou Xu thought this, he swept his gaze over the primitives kneeling below. At a rough estimate, there seemed to be twenty or thirty of them.

Back when he had played games in his dormitory, his favorite genres had been war strategy and development and management games. He had basically played every one available on the market.

The situation before him really did resemble those games in certain ways.

As a modern university student who had just graduated, he could not possibly have any survival experience in a primitive world. But by appropriately thinking of it like a game, he could more or less grasp a few ideas about what to do.

If this were a game, the first thing to ensure at the start would be the most basic survival resources nearby—fresh water and food. With those as a foundation, having wood and stone would make later construction easier...

Yet he had already noticed earlier that this entire area was barren wasteland!

Is this really telling me to chew on dirt?

Zhou Xu clearly needed more information, so his gaze fell on the man in front of him.

"Do you have a name? What are you called?"

At this, the terrified-looking man hurriedly answered...

"Dashan. Chief, you can call me Dashan."

Judging by the way he speaks, he's not quite like the primitive people I imagined. But then again, this world doesn't seem like an ordinary primitive world.

"Dashan, did you just get here? Have you looked around the nearby area?"

What he had thought would not be a difficult task had now become far more stressful because the surrounding environment was simply too terrible.

Faced with the question, Dashan shook his head at once.

"Not yet. We were attacked by another tribe. By the time we fled here and discovered this altar, everyone was already too exhausted to run any farther."

By the time Dashan reached this point, Zhou Xu could already guess the rest.

At the same time, Dashan's words reminded him that there was still the hostile tribe that had attacked them.

If the people from that hostile tribe were still pursuing them, would they ever have a moment's peace from now on?

What a hell of a starting situation!

Unable to stop himself from complaining inwardly, Zhou Xu quickly asked the question he cared about most.

"Are the people from that tribe still pursuing you?"

Dashan shook his head again.

"They probably aren't. We've already fled quite a long distance. Pursuing us any farther would be very risky for them, and they wouldn't have enough food either."

"Which direction did you come from?"

"This way."

After briefly orienting himself, Dashan pointed in a direction.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure!"

"Good. Bring everyone with you. We're leaving."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu directly led the tribe members under his command in the opposite direction.

Everywhere he looked in this area was barren wasteland. No matter how he saw it, it was not a good place to make camp.

Since they had to move anyway, why not put even more distance between themselves and the hostile tribe?

Zhou Xu could see how exhausted the tribe members below were, but after receiving the order, they still gritted their teeth and got to their feet, following him onward without showing much dissatisfaction or complaint.

This put Zhou Xu somewhat more at ease.

Although these people had previously honored him as their chief, kneeling and bowing to him with utmost respect, whether he could actually command them was another matter entirely.

Especially when they had clearly become so exhausted that they did not want to walk any farther.

Zhou Xu was undoubtedly satisfied with the result before him.

"I need a few people to scout ahead. Who still has the strength?"

At this question, the tribe members exchanged glances.

It was not that they did not want to go. They were already exhausted just keeping up with the group. Where would they find the strength to run all the way to the front and scout?

Seeing this, Dashan immediately stepped forward with a suggestion.

"Chief, how about I go?"

Just as Dashan said this, a hand rose from within the crowd.

"I'll scout ahead."

As he spoke, a lean, dusty-faced man stepped out from among the crowd.

"I still have the strength. I'll scout ahead."

"What's your name?"

"Fei Que."

During this exchange, Zhou Xu swept his gaze over the tribe members again. Only after seeing that no one else stepped forward did he turn his eyes to Fei Que.

"Good. Fei Que, I'll leave this to you. Don't go too far, and prioritize your own safety. If you discover anything, come back and report to me immediately."

"Yes!"

With that answer, Fei Que did not dawdle. He soon broke away from the main group at a jog and headed forward to scout the way.

Dashan had originally wanted to follow, but Zhou Xu called him back.

"Dashan, stay here. I still have some things to ask you."

"Yes."

After simply sending one person ahead to scout, the main group began moving again.

Zhou Xu also made full use of the time spent traveling, asking Dashan questions as they walked.

"Is there any food left in the tribe?"

"Everyone should still have a little on them, but not much."

Facing Zhou Xu, the Chosen One, Dashan showed no intention of hiding anything. He directly pulled several filthy objects from his clothing.

Zhou Xu glanced at them. He could roughly tell that they were things resembling plant roots and stems, with what looked like several pieces of tree bark mixed in.

No wonder every one of them is starving until they look skin and bones. The food shortage is worse than I expected. Though that probably has something to do with the terrible surroundings too.

Just as Zhou Xu was thinking this, Fei Que, who had been sent ahead to scout, came jogging back.

"A forest! There's a forest ahead!"

"Lead the way!"

Hearing this, Zhou Xu quickly perked up and hurriedly had Fei Que lead them onward.

It was not very far away. After another ten minutes or so of walking, a stretch of forest in the distance entered Zhou Xu's view.

Finding a forest should have been a good thing, but when Zhou Xu looked at it, he immediately frowned.

The "forest" in the distance was completely different from the woodlands in his memory. The trees stood bare, with hardly a leaf to be seen.

At the same time, the trunks of those trees were all a withered black. They also looked twisted and bizarre. The entire stretch of forest was permeated by an eerie atmosphere.

Under normal circumstances, Zhou Xu would never have wanted to approach such a forest. But after looking around at the barren wasteland, it seemed that his current predicament left him with no choice...

Forget it. We'll go over and take a look first.

"Everyone, stay alert and be careful."

With that in mind, after warning everyone to take care, the group moved fairly quickly to the outskirts of the eerie forest.

New book uploaded—please add it to your collection and vote!