Ita Era

Chapter 74 The Primitive Era (9)

The herbalist nodded casually and said, "Ding Shi (7-9 AM)."

As Ding Shi stepped off the platform, the herbalist poked his shoulder wound with her finger, and Ding Shi let out a groan. It didn't hurt unless touched, but it hurt as soon as it was touched.

"Bear with it." The herbalist girl stretched out her hands, felt several bones, and nodded: "It's nothing."

Ding Shi thanked them, and then shouts came from outside the camp: "We'll have food tonight!"

"Wild boar, it's a wild boar."

Ding Shi and Wang Meng walked out of the cave and saw four men carrying a wild boar weighing more than 200 kilograms into the camp with wooden sticks. People nearby came forward to clap and celebrate.

A tall, strong woman stood on a rock and shouted, "Meat is served tonight, all you can eat!"

"Good." The crowd applauded.

The girl called out, "Send a few more people from the logistics team to help with the cooking."

Ding Shi asked the herbalist, "Who is she?"

The herbalist didn't answer and left without a word.

Su Su, who had somehow gotten close to them, answered the question for the herbalist girl: "Her name is the Empress."

"Emperor?" Ding Shi asked, "Is that a surname?"

“Yes, she’s ranked 1596, which is extremely rare,” Su Su said. “You’ll understand when I tell you about her other identity: she’s the only daughter of the female head of a leading company.”

When Su Su mentioned it, Ding Shi had a vague recollection of it.

This woman's original name was Di (帝), which already revealed her mother's domineering nature. Due to the uncommon characters in her name, she changed it to Di Nu (帝女) for the convenience of her studies and business. It is said that Di Nu attended a military academy, served in the military for six years, and returned to her mother's side last year after her discharge, where she began to get involved in business.

Su Su said, "The Empress was originally the leader of the gathering team. She was dissatisfied with Chief Yu Yuan's order to gather within 200 meters and suggested the possibility of digging traps to hunt. Chief Yu Yuan conceded and only allowed the capture of small animals, but they ended up catching such a big one."

Yu Yuan's order was to collect within a 200-meter radius of the camp. The Empress, however, led a group to dig large traps. Digging these large traps without suitable tools resulted in a shortage of manpower for the gathering team. Yu Yuan was very dissatisfied with the harvest. But the capture of the giant wild boar was a real slap in the face for Yu Yuan.

Everyone put down what they were doing and went to watch the pig being slaughtered. Watching the spectacle, Wang Meng asked, "What do you think?"

Ding Shi replied, "There will be something interesting to watch tonight."

Wang Meng: "Who do you think is suitable?"

Ding Shi replied, "Yu Yuan, through his continuous adjustments to personnel and work arrangements, ensured that the hundred-strong camp was operating smoothly and efficiently within eight hours. His ability to make so many people understand their tasks and to allocate manpower effectively, especially in a situation where everyone was unfamiliar with each other, is commendable. At least he didn't make any mistakes."

Wang Meng: "Where is the princess?"

Ding Shi: "Adventurous merchants, high risk, high reward. If she doesn't catch the wild boar, everyone will go hungry tonight and won't have the strength to work tomorrow."

Wang Meng: "But she caught her."

Ding Shi said, "That's the trouble. If she didn't catch the wild boar, she's all alone. If she did catch the wild boar, she'd have a whole group of people. I'm going to sleep; I don't want to fall asleep in this kind of environment at night."

A stone knife was used to cut the carotid artery of the stunned wild boar, and blood flowed out. Someone used a concave stone to collect the blood. The wild boar awoke, letting out a shrill squeal and kicking its hooves wildly.

The sounds of pigs squealing and the stench of blood carried on the mountain breeze beyond the campsite. A silver dire wolf emerged from the dense bushes. Dire wolves: prehistoric carnivores of North America, known for their large heads, powerful bites, and pack hunting.

The dire wolf, smelling the blood in the air, looked towards the camp. ...

As night fell, three campfires were lit in the camp, filling the air with the aroma of meat. People lined up to take wild boar meat wrapped in large leaves from the stone platform. Each piece of wild boar meat weighed half a pound, was wrapped in leaves, buried in a shallow layer of soil, and then cooked over a fire.

Each member receives two pieces of wild boar meat, while the remaining wild boar meat and offal become the main attraction of the bonfire party. Everyone uses a branch to hold a piece of meat, sticks the branch near the bonfire, and lets the heat of the bonfire slowly roast the pork.

Everyone sat around the campfire in the pre-arranged order.

As everyone was eating pork, the Empress stepped onto the stone platform and said in a loud voice, "Brothers and sisters, good evening. My name is Empress, and I am the captain of the gathering team. I am very happy to be matched with you all in the same instance."

Many people familiar with the princess applauded, and others also applauded politely.

The Empress first showered Yu Yuan with compliments: "First, we must thank the chieftain for uniting the 100 disorganized people into a cohesive force, allowing everyone to fulfill their roles. Second, we must thank all the tribe members for their contributions, which have brought us our current peace."

Everyone applauded and cheered.

After waiting, the Empress continued, "The biggest challenge of the main quest right now is maintaining the fire for five days. Today, the logistics team collected all the dead branches and wood within a 200-meter radius, and we need a lot of wood. We need it for cooking and for heating, especially heating. The temperature is expected to reach around 5 degrees Celsius tonight, which will be a big challenge for us. But don't worry, everyone, we have enough firewood for today."

The princess said, "But tomorrow will be a challenge for us. The stone axes we use are very inefficient and have a high breakage rate. We need manpower to make and repair stone axes, manpower to collect resources, manpower to transport supplies, and manpower to cut down trees. Now, please let the chief speak and explain the specific work arrangements for tomorrow."

With a gentle smile, Yu Yuan got straight to the point: "I have some disagreements with Team Leader Di regarding the planning, and I would like to hear everyone's opinions."

Yu Yuan planned to proceed as scheduled tomorrow, with the reconnaissance team penetrating 500 meters into the area. The day after tomorrow morning, they would break camp and move to a new location. The reason given was that the amount of easily obtainable fruit and scavengable wood in the area was limited, necessitating a migration to ensure the tribe's food and wood needs were met.

Disagreement 1: Yu Yuan does not support logging, because logging means a large number of tools are needed, and a lot of manpower is needed to be responsible for the manufacture and maintenance of tools.

Second point of contention: Yu Yuan supports continuing gathering rather than hunting.

Given the two disagreements mentioned above, Yu Yuan's plan was to set up camp every two days and keep moving westward until the mission was completed.

The princess believed that the resources around the camp were abundant enough for everyone's survival, so she decided to leave her plans at the camp.

The advantage of the Empress is that players can live in caves and withstand harsh weather such as rain.

Yu Yuan's advantage lies in saving time and effort; he only picks the shortest bayberries and only selects trees without felling them. He believes that there are many towering trees in the forest, which can provide shelter from the wind and rain even when it rains.

Wang Meng asked in a low voice, "If it rains all day, wouldn't the people who went with Yu Yuan have to spend the whole day in the rain and cold?" Big trees can shelter from heavy rain, but they can't shelter from light rain, and a lot of water will accumulate on the ground.

Ding Shi replied, "If it rains all day, the people on the Empress's side will have to stay huddled in their caves and won't be able to work for a day. The key isn't the rain; once it rains, it's a stalemate, and neither side can laugh at the other. Both of their plans have merit, but the Empress's plan involves more risk because it requires tools. Yu Yuan's plan doesn't use tools, so they won't need to spend too much time making them."

Wang Meng: "Where is the gambling element?"

Ding Shi said, "If we're betting on the hunt, and the Empress can provide a wild boar like this every two days, her living conditions will be better than those in Yu Yuan. The Empress mainly focuses her manpower on logging and tools. Yu Yuan mainly focuses its manpower on gathering and collecting wood."

Wang Meng: "Whom do you support?" It's not that Wang Meng lacks his own opinion, but rather that they had already established this working relationship.

Ding Shi: "Both of their plans are good, but meaningless. Putting aside the Xiao Pu instance, what is the challenge today? Rather than calling it a nightmare instance, it's more like an outing instance. Young men and women, gathering fruit, having a campfire barbecue, romance, and looking forward to the future."

Wang Meng: "Perhaps it's that simple?"

Ding Shi: "Based on my understanding of the system's nature, the calmer things seem, the more likely it is that it's holding back a fart."

(End of this chapter)