Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 2 Finding Another Place

The camp wasn't large. Besides two wooden huts for the soldiers, laborers like Zhou Ye had to squeeze into a thatched hut. The hut was quite rudimentary, barely able to withstand heavy rain and strong winds. There were a few tents nearby, filled with supplies.

Without a doubt, the poor are worthless, not even as valuable as those supplies.

In addition, there was a small vegetable garden cultivated next to the camp, which could supplement the diet. A hundred paces away was a charcoal kiln, which was where charcoal was burned.

Interestingly, the camp's fence remained relatively sturdy despite the wild boars' charge. However, being out in the field at the time, they were caught off guard and the entire group was wiped out.

Never mind all that for now. After adding the oil, I felt waves of heat washing over my entire body, and my muscles and bones crackled and popped. My stomach rumbled loudly, and I felt that unbearable hunger.

It's not just about the extra points; the main reason is probably the chronic hunger. Whatever, let's just focus on getting enough to eat first.

In the original owner's memories, this camp was built in just half a day after entering the mountains. Even if someone was lucky enough to escape, it would take them another day to seek help. So there was still plenty of time.

But more likely, no one will come to rescue us at all. A whole day has passed; the opportunity is almost gone.

Besides, people here are as cheap as grass. There are plenty of miserable people serving corvée labor. It's just a matter of secretly selecting a few more people, isn't it?

Especially since it's surrounded by mountains and forests. Even if we abandon this campsite, we can still gather firewood and make charcoal elsewhere. Besides, there are wild boar herds here. In such a dangerous place, who would be crazy enough to risk their life against those wild boars?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ye stood up from the ground. However, before he could stand up properly, he felt a wave of dizziness and fell to the ground again with a "thud".

I sat quietly on the ground, finally waiting for the dizziness to subside. I stood up again, intending to move my arms and legs, but unexpectedly, my limbs went out of control again, and I fell straight to the ground.

After a few wry laughs, Zhou Ye finally realized that he had increased his agility too much at once, and his body couldn't adapt yet. In other words, his mind was on it, but his limbs weren't, resulting in extreme incoordination.

This taught me a lesson: in the future, I need to add points little by little, and after adding points, I need some time to adjust...

And so, Zhou Ye began to familiarize himself with his "high agility." From taking slow, leisurely steps to walking cautiously, he gradually slowed down after half an hour, finding that walking was no longer a problem, and thus made his way to the cooking area in the camp.

After searching, I found that the meal had been prepared beforehand. There were white flour pancakes for 5 or 6 soldiers and more than 20 black flour pancakes. Although the portions were about the same, each pancake weighed nearly half a pound. However, the black flour pancakes contained a lot of mixed beans, so they were actually mixed bean pancakes.

To tell you a joke, although Zhou Ye and his fellow laborers ate poorly, they were still guaranteed a pancake at every meal, more than they used to eat when they were farming. Because they needed to work hard, they weren't shortchanged in this respect.

But now I'd definitely choose white bread. I noticed two pieces of salted meat hanging in the corner, one weighing six or seven pounds and the other weighing over ten pounds.

Zhou Ye couldn't help but drool. He almost cried tears of joy. Good heavens! How long had it been since this body had tasted meat?

Seeing that the fire in the stove had not gone out, Zhou Ye set up the iron pot and cut two pieces from the small piece of salted meat, each piece weighing about two or three ounces.

Place the salted meat chunks into the heated iron pot, and soon you'll hear a sizzling sound, almost like heavenly music, as the salted meat releases specks of oil.

Finally, the salted pork was cooked, and Zhou Ye didn't want to waste even a drop of oil at the bottom of the pan. He put two white flour pancakes back into the pan to heat them up, making sure to soak up all the oil...

Zhou Ye wrapped a piece of salted meat in a white pancake and took a big, fierce bite. He felt his mouth was full of oil, and he was so happy that he almost trembled.

After wolfing down his first bite and gulping down several mouthfuls of water, Zhou Ye felt as if he had finally come back to life.

By the time he started eating his second meal, Zhou Ye had returned to his normal pace, and he finally began to consider his future plans.

Going back is out of the question; only someone with a brain full of water would continue to perform corvée labor.

Chopping firewood and making charcoal is indeed dangerous, but is digging river channels safe? The government doesn't treat ordinary people like human beings at all. I've heard that they exploit laborers in every way, and that more than 20% of them die or are injured.

Going home was out of the question. That would be considered desertion, and he would be arrested and imprisoned by the authorities. It would be another near-death experience.

Anyway, the river dredging project will be finished after winter. Even if I run home then, there's no danger of being arrested by the authorities.

Moreover, there are no good days at home. Are we going to suffer the same hunger and cold as before?

It would be better to move to another place and simply live in these mountains. After all, the outer edges of this mountainous area aren't that dangerous; it would take more than ten days to walk into the deeper mountains. As long as I'm careful, it can't be worse than serving corvée labor or going back to farm.

Once you reach a high level in basic combat, you'll at least have some self-defense capabilities. Then you can broaden your horizons.

You must know, the outside world is far more dangerous. In the original owner's memories, when he first started his corvée labor, he witnessed an officer single-handedly right an overturned cart. That cart was loaded with goods, probably weighing several hundred pounds.

If I'm not mistaken, that officer must be Master Wu. His power is simply monstrous. Offending Master Wu would be incredibly unsafe.

Of course, staying at this campsite was absolutely out of the question.

What if, by some unlikely chance, someone actually comes to take a look? Would I just obediently go back with them?

Having made his decision, Zhou Ye no longer hesitated. After finishing the second meat pie, he got to work…

Thanks to my past life's hiking experience. In addition, Zhou Ye was an outdoor enthusiast at the time, having not only watched Bear Grylls and Ed Stafford's wilderness survival shows, but also watched a large number of wilderness survival videos.

That's why, when Zhou Ye first transmigrated, he cleaned up all the corpses scattered around him and then threw them far away into the depths of the forest. This was to prevent the smell of blood from attracting other carnivorous beasts.

As for those clothes, shoes, and so on, it's always good to keep them, whether they're useful or not. You won't encounter anyone else in the mountains. And if you need them later, you won't be able to find anywhere to buy them.

Of course, what you bring the first time is especially important. You can't bring too much, as finding a place to set up a new campsite might require a long walk. If you carry too much weight, your physical strength simply won't be able to keep up.

But there's also the possibility that you might never be able to come back, so you must take what you should take with you.

With that in mind, Zhou Ye immediately got to work...