There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Why don't I buy more?

There are no refrigerators or cold storage facilities here, so planting too much at once only exacerbates the storage difficulties; any leftovers end up rotting. This is all based on Xiaofu's personal experience with corn – a precaution you absolutely must take!

If we want to expand planting, we need to find suitable trading partners and transportation channels; otherwise, it's just a waste of effort. I won't do something so foolish.

With dates and agave, I was well-supplemented in terms of food and no longer had to worry about going hungry.

But I need to eat meat!

Abstaining from meat and fish can easily lead to insufficient intake of nutrients such as protein, resulting in malnutrition. This can have a significant impact on various bodily functions, causing a range of health problems such as anemia.

...Are we supposed to just stand there and wait for a kind person to bring us meat?

Why did the image of human flesh char siu pop into my head?

Forget it, I'd rather rely on myself than others. Studying medicine won't save the Chinese people anyway, so I'll just have to find meat to eat myself.

There is a vast ocean outside. As long as I am familiar with the marine environments in which various fish live, and understand their habits, migration patterns, seasonal and climatic factors, and foraging habits, I can use effective methods to lure fish schools with bait and then attack them with a harpoon...

I'm sure I'll catch a bass!

Although I don’t know why, I’m confident that I caught a bass!

According to Zack's explanation, I roughly understand that the ocean has tides. High tide brings a large amount of organic matter and fish to the shore, which is more conducive to fishing. After the tide recedes, it is generally not suitable for fishing. The sea is relatively calm in the early morning and evening, which is the most suitable time for fishing.

It's already evening, and the temperature is still very hot, making it unsuitable for fishing. In this heat, I'm afraid I'll faint and fall into the sea to feed the fish before I even catch anything.

Chapter 273 Armory

Before I could even begin my fishing plan, darkness began to fall, ushering in my first night in this unfamiliar world.

Instead of the usual bright moon rising in the sky, a huge but dim star appeared. It must be a satellite of this planet, its surface covered with craters of all sizes, like a bright yellow pupil magnified countless times, watching over this land.

This also reminded me that the seemingly peaceful night before me was no longer the familiar Mineral Town. In this pitch-black night, countless dangers lurked, ready to strike me at any moment.

Due to limited equipment, I haven't been able to start a fire yet. Fire is both a means of protection for humans in the dark and an essential tool for daily life. If I didn't have a strong physique, I would have to use fire to maintain temperature, cook food, and drive away wild animals.

"Let's figure out how to start a fire tomorrow; we have other things to do today."

Gazing at the magnificent view where the water meets the sky, I silently made my next plan.

In this darkness, since there is no fire to illuminate the surroundings, one must have weapons to protect oneself.

The first choice is, of course, a bow and arrow.

The bow and arrow is the most cost-effective weapon provided to me by the colonist system. It combines hunting and ranged attack functions, and can be made with just crafting points. The necessary materials are also readily available.

I went back into the house, walked through the empty tavern hall, and went into the storeroom.

The storeroom now has a little stock, specifically freshly baked agave berries, dates picked from the trees, and the timber stored up today. These things only occupy a small corner of the storeroom.

Production equipment: manual processing points

Basic description: A place to craft simple items such as sticks, daggers, and short bows.

The advantage of a manual processing point is that there are no prerequisites; you can set it up as long as there is a flat area!

"Select work command: Craft a short bow."

The short bow is very simple to make. It can be made by ordinary handcraft. I took a piece of wood of suitable size, cut off the excess wood at both ends, and carved the marks for binding the bowstring. Finally, I took the stem and leaves of the agave, cut off the tough outer fibers, twisted them into a rope by hand, and tied it tightly with three loops inside and three loops outside.

As the system command sounded, the simple bow instantly transformed.

Short bow (general)

Basic description: A simple short bow, exquisitely crafted, but with very primitive technology.

Physical mass: 0.8 kg

Aesthetics: 3

Durability 100/100

Weapon accuracy (close range): 75%

Weapon accuracy (near): 65%

Weapon accuracy (medium): 45%

Weapon accuracy (long range): 25%

Remote cooldown time: 1.65 seconds

Damage: 11

Armor penetration: 16%

Melee damage: 4.5

Melee Armor Penetration: 13%

The quality is pretty good!

I made a dozen more featherless arrows and tried drawing the bow. I drew the bow fully and released an arrow, and a thunderous sound rang out in the room, the sound waves echoing continuously, sounding very powerful.

To make things easier, I also built a shelf next to the bed in the inner room to store weapons. We don't have much wood here, but these are essential items and can't be saved.

I set up the shelf next to the bed inside the room so that as soon as I hear any unusual noises outside, I can immediately grab a weapon and fight back.

Speaking of counterattacks...

"Select work command: Craft a wooden axe".

A wooden axe is not a logging axe; as the name suggests, it's an axe made of wood. I'm well aware that a wooden axe isn't very powerful and is easily damaged by hard objects. After all, wooden axes are very rudimentary in their construction—just an axe head attached to a handle, about half a meter long, suitable for one-handed operation.

At that moment, all I had was wood, and I needed an axe.

Because of the axe's wedge-shaped design, it doesn't require tremendous force to cleave through armor and flesh, which is very important to me as it effectively compensates for the lack of penetrating power of bows and arrows without iron arrowheads.

When attacking, when I have an axe in my hand, I can use the chopping motion to break through the opponent's defenses, and then create distance to kite the opponent safely and turn the enemy into a pincushion!

Every good ranged fighter has the heart of a melee fighter! Let alone ranged fighters, even mages, can they succeed if they can't fight in melee?

In one of the hundred pieces of advice the famous Archmage Gandalf left for young people, he said: "For stat allocation, focus on melee combat: one-handed swords, two-handed swords, critical strike, charge, berserk, and dual-wielding. As for spells, just put one point into Holy Light!"

Therefore, I've always suspected that there's something wrong with the design of those magic staffs. Pursuing things like ebony, rosewood, golden nanmu, and camphor wood is a heretical approach. A real magic staff should be made of the hardest metals like chromium, osmium, tungsten carbide, and carbon steel, with blood grooves, serrations, barbs, and spikes on the top, and a counterweight hammer at the bottom!

With this design, the swords are wielded with ferocity, bringing death with every strike. Even assassins who want to cut through the back row can only maintain a safe distance, throwing knives or poisons, and showing respect with their eyes.

The weapons produced by the system are not only far superior in quality, but also far ahead of their time in craftsmanship. As soon as the order was given, the colonist system controlled me to immediately get to work, skipping steps such as observing details and sketching outlines, and quickly made the shape of an axe with all kinds of tools at hand.

I had only expected to see a simple wooden axe, but after the prototype of the axe was created, the colonist system controlled my hands and did not stop, but continued to carve the details!

After all the work was completed and I examined it closely, a large, authentic wooden axe appeared before my eyes. On the axe head, a ferocious ghost face was carved, its angry eyes and bared teeth utterly terrifying. The lifelike details were astounding; even I, accustomed to the manipulation of system-generated artifacts, was immediately amazed by the craftsmanship!

Examining it closely in the dim light, the unique and dazzling patterns, interspersed with clear and vivid ghost face designs, are undeniably charming and full of ancient elegance. Touching it repeatedly, it feels as smooth and supple as a baby's skin.

"This axe is more suitable for warding off evil spirits; it's a shame to use it to chop people up..."

I muttered to myself, and casually tucked the weapon behind my back, hiding it under my outer robe.

My biggest regret is that I didn't hold the Gan Jiang and Mo Xie swords in my arms while I slept last night, which is why I couldn't bring those two weapons with me when I inexplicably traveled through time—those are real killing weapons. Without Gan Jiang and Mo Xie, how am I supposed to cosplay as an Archer?

I'm definitely not going to be a spearman! There's no point in saying anything!

Just as I was lost in thought, I seemed to hear a sound outside that was different from the wind...

Chapter 274 Wild Horse Herd

Wild grass, gravel, long winds, and open fields together create a night scene in the Gobi Desert, far removed from the smoke and fire of human habitation.

Because of the bright, pupil-like moon that was so close in the sky, the moonlit night here was even brighter than in Mineral Town, making it barely possible to see the surrounding scenery.

The nearby mountains are covered with wind-eroded ridges, a typical example of wind-eroded landforms. Due to the abrasive action of the wind, the lower part of the hills often suffers stronger erosion, gradually forming an inward-convex shape. Meanwhile, the upper rock layers of some hills are relatively loose, making them prone to collapse under gravity, forming steep walls.

Whenever the night wind passes over the edges of these caves, it lingers among the irregular mountainside. The sounds it makes are like the wails of ghosts and howls of wolves, like a haunted castle. Hearing this alone is even more eerie and terrifying, easily awakening the unease in my heart.

But the sound I heard was not the howling wind.

I gripped the bow and crouched low, approaching a distant mound.

The joints of those mountains gradually collapsed, and their original shapes became difficult to discern, degenerating into messy, piled-up mounds.

From the dark corner, several horses of different colors slowly emerged, clattering their hooves and snorting as they approached in an orderly fashion.

Judging from their messy, bushy manes, they must be a group of wild horses that had somehow scattered across the wasteland, forming small groups of three or five, following the rule of being active at night and carefully surviving on the barren land.

What caught my attention the most was the horse leading the way.

Compared to its peers, this horse was noticeably larger, though not particularly tall. Its only distinguishing feature was its excessively thick mane, which billowed high and spread loosely over its head and back. The brown mane covered its face, almost burying it completely, leaving only two bright black eyes peeking out from the mane, alertly surveying its surroundings.

Well... let's put it this way, have you ever seen a "Shamate" (a subculture characterized by flamboyant, often exaggerated, hairstyles)? It's a horse with a Shamate hairstyle and sharp eyes; in every sense, it has a very non-mainstream look.

I even suspect that this horse became the leader because of its flamboyant, aristocratic air, which made it stand out from its peers.

Five horses walked slowly, trampling and nibbling on the juicy pincushions on the ground. These short cacti resemble pincushions in shape, and they taste... prickly and bitter; their only advantage is that they are very juicy.

After finishing a small pincushion, they set their sights on the date palm tree.

I think I understand now. The hoofprints I saw this morning were left by these horses. Because they lack the ability to climb trees, wild horses can only wait for the dates on the trees to ripen and fall, and then pick up the ripe fruit from the ground to eat.

These sweet fruits must be very attractive to them, which is why they go to great lengths to travel back and forth to this place.

After we finished eating, I saw these wild horses, led by the punk-style noble horse, come to a pool of water and drink from it.

I had seen this pond in the morning. Given that the water was dark, covered with dirty aquatic plants, and had suspicious stains floating on it, I didn't dare to drink it directly. Instead, I drank the salty, clean water.

It turns out that the water was so dirty because animals frequently came here to drink, and their carelessness while walking or approaching it caused the contaminants to accumulate. The overly clean pool of water remained so because it was undrinkable.

I had just seen these wild horses, the uninvited guests, and was already thinking of going back to sleep, not wanting to waste any more time in the wilderness. But now I realize that these animals that survive in the wild are my survival guide!

"Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me." Rather than waiting for those travelers who may pass by at any time, I'd rather learn some knowledge from the local animals to help me survive here.

After eating the dates and drinking their fill of water, the horses slowly walked away and came to the edge of a rocky outcrop, where they seemed to form an orderly line.

I wondered what these animals were doing. Was that the wild horses' designated toilet area, where they took turns going after eating?

Concealing my presence, I slowly approached to a distance where I could see clearly, only to discover that the horses were gathered together, or rather, around a rock, licking it with their tongues, enjoying themselves immensely.

Starting with the lead horse, and then the horses behind it, each one licked the stone in turn.

Hmm... that rock should be rock salt.

Because they are all formed by the evaporation of brine in closed basins, they are also called halide minerals. Halite deposits are generally several meters to more than 300 meters thick, and in arid regions they appear as salt frost, near salt springs as evaporation products, and in volcanic areas as sublimations.