Chapter 3: The Black Forest

As he drew closer, Zhou Xu quickly realized that these bizarrely shaped trees were quite different from what he had imagined. He had originally thought that these trees, blackened as if scorched, would all be withered and dead. But that was not the case.

The branches and bark of the trees were firm and clearly not lacking moisture. It was just unclear why they grew in such strange shapes and appeared so dark.

In such a barren environment, trees growing like this meant there must be a water source nearby.

Just as Zhou Xu pondered this, a sudden shout rose from the crowd. He turned toward the sound and saw a creature resembling a rat darting out from the black forest. One of the tribe members tried to catch it, but the rat was so swift that the man missed and fell to the ground, frustration clear on his face as his eyes scanned the surroundings, unwilling to give up.

At the same time, several other tribe members were busy catching insects from the trees.

At first, Zhou Xu was momentarily confused, not understanding what they were doing, until one of the tribe members could no longer resist and stuffed a freshly caught insect straight into his mouth.

Seeing this, Zhou Xu couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth. The scene wasn’t too unsettling for him — after all, in his original world, he had eaten fried silkworm pupae, fried cicadas, and ant-fried rice. But as a modern man, the idea of simply shoving a freshly caught insect into one’s mouth was psychologically somewhat repulsive.

Still, Zhou Xu quickly realized that applying his modern mindset to these tribe members was naive. They ate insects not because they tasted good, but because it was a matter of survival!

Looking at the harsh environment around them, he understood that to fill their bellies and stay alive, they had no other choice.

This was also a problem Zhou Xu would have to face soon. If he couldn’t find suitable food, he too would have to join the ranks of those eating insects and gnawing on bark.

With this in mind, watching the tribe members catching and eating insects, Zhou Xu hurriedly cautioned them, “Before eating those insects, make sure to pinch off their heads and remove their entrails. But it’s best not to eat them yet — wait until we can prepare them all together.”

Zhou Xu had no experience eating insects in the wild; after all, who in their right mind would go looking for bugs to eat and study how to prepare them? But having watched some survival shows in his spare time, he knew that removing the heads and guts was necessary.

He even thought it safest to cook them before eating.

However, the tribe members were not likely to comply easily. He could see how strong the lure of food was for them.

Unlike before, when he asked everyone to follow him and they obeyed without hesitation, this time many tribe members showed visible hesitation. After all, in this era, their entire existence revolved around finding food, which was necessary to survive; the two formed a terrifying cycle.

They had no extra time or energy to think about anything else. Constantly searching for food was their whole life.

Even pinching off the heads felt like a waste to them.

In this situation, Dashan stepped forward.

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