After being ambushed by the mutated vines, Wang Tianwei became much more cautious. Several times during her trek, she almost thought she was back in the apocalypse, carrying out a mission to clear out zombies.
Many times, her teammates' names reached the tip of her tongue, only to be swallowed back down...
"This is year 300 of the Interstellar Era, the freshman training of Qilin Military Academy, not the apocalypse."
Wang Tianwei reminded herself in her heart for the seventh time. She raised her gun, aimed at a mutated crow in the tree, and hit it with a single shot.
The mutated crow was killed before it could even find a suitable moment to attack. It plummeted from the branch, its eyes wide with disbelief.
Throughout the entire process, apart from the low hum of the laser gun firing, there was no other sound.
After hitting her target, Wang Tianwei did not linger and continued her exploration forward.
Crows were scavengers to begin with, and this one was mutated, making it even more inedible.
The viewers watched as the livestream screen updated once again,
"Class S Wang Tianwei, +1 point."
"A headshot with one bullet! So cool!"
"The eldest miss has a very strong combat awareness!"
"The way she walks with her gun is so professional! Damn it! Can't these rich kids just peacefully enjoy being second-generation wealth!?"
"What do I do? I originally came to see these rich kids make fools of themselves... If they are working this hard, how can I slack off with a clear conscience!?"
"The person above came to a military academy to slack off? Why not just drop out?"
The freshmen's journey was quite boring, so the people in the livestream started bickering with each other on the public chat.
It was getting dark...
Wang Tianwei furrowed her brows, hesitating whether she should set up camp.
If she did not set up camp, she definitely wouldn't get a good rest. But if she did, she was all alone without teammates to keep watch, and she wouldn't dare sleep inside a tent...
Ultimately, Wang Tianwei decided to find a place to start a fire and get something to eat first.
She knew where the water source was. Although her route today was winding, her general direction followed the river.
At a moderate distance from the water source, there was a low slope. The front of the slope was covered in bushes, but there was a drop on the back. The height was just right to completely conceal her. This was the place.
She found a hidden spot by the river to fill two water bags, then washed the wild vegetables she had picked along the way and the bird eggs she had snatched from the trees. Finally, she washed her hands and feet.
By the time she returned to the back of the low slope, the sky had mostly turned dark.
Wang Tianwei took a water filter out of her backpack and began filtering the water she had just fetched from the river.
Next, she used gathered stones to build a small stove. The frying pan she had rented from the senior students at the market finally came in handy.
Its edges were not as shallow as a regular frying pan, measuring about ten centimeters high, making it suitable for both frying and boiling.
She poured the filtered water into the pan. While waiting for the water to boil, Wang Tianwei did not sit idle.
She took out some fishing line and tied together small wooden sticks she had picked up, making a simple fish trap.
She decided to take another trip to the river later to set the trap. Perhaps she would secure tomorrow's rations!
She first poured the boiled water into a thermos, leaving the lid off so it could cool naturally. Then, she took three thoroughly washed bird eggs from her pocket and put them in to boil.
Once they were fully cooked, Wang Tianwei fished the eggs out, snapped the washed wild vegetables into two halves, and tossed them in.
One boiled bird egg and a bowl of wild vegetable soup; this was her dinner for today.
The wild vegetables were a bit tough, but Wang Tianwei didn't mind. As long as they filled her stomach, it was fine.
She planned to save the other two bird eggs for tomorrow morning. After all, she had already drunk two tubes of nutrient solution today.
However, she would have to find a way to get more carbohydrates and protein tomorrow, otherwise she wouldn't have the strength to climb the mountain.
After dinner, Wang Tianwei boiled the remaining water and set it aside to cool. Then, relying on the small flashlight built into her watch, she went to the river to place the fish trap.
Upon returning, she thought for a long time. Finally, she hid her backpack in an extremely concealed spot, extinguished the stove, and taking advantage of the relatively bright moonlight, carried her sleeping bag up a thick, sturdy tree to securely tie her hammock.
She sprayed insect repellent twice on the tree trunk and both sides of the hammock, then reapplied some scent blocker on herself. Next, she unzipped her sleeping bag to use as a blanket, lay down in the hammock, and closed her eyes.
Sleeping on the ground without anyone to keep watch was too risky... If she fell asleep and was flanked by people or star beasts, wouldn't the loss outweigh the gain?
Although sleeping in a tree wasn't absolutely safe either, the probability of being discovered was significantly reduced...
The viewers in the livestream fell silent upon seeing this.
"If the CEO of Yida Technology saw his daughter eating wild vegetables and sleeping in a tree... Ha, haha."
"She actually brought a water filter and a hammock!? How meticulous!"
"Isn't a water filter a must-have? In my year, someone drank polluted water, ended up with diarrhea, and had to quit! Who knows what's in the water!?"
"I'm more curious about how she recognizes wild vegetables?"
"She can't even bear to finish the bird eggs! The poor child has it too hard!"
"Being cautious is a good thing. Don't forget that the mountains not only have mutated plants, animals, and star beasts, but also so many people trying to catch her!"
"Putting myself in her shoes, I'd already be crying from fear..."
"I won't call her the eldest miss anymore. I even had steak for dinner tonight... Even Young Master Huang is eating better than her."
"When it comes to good food, it has to be Young Master Jian, right? He's eating roasted star beast meat."
"Heh! Sure, Young Master Jian is eating well! The smell of the roasted meat attracted people, and now he's running for his life! I don't think he'll get any sleep tonight."
"So which is more important, eating or sleeping?"
"I think eating."
"I think it's sleeping!"
"...Stop arguing, I just finished eating and now I'm going to sleep."
"There's a practical combat class tomorrow... I can't hold on anymore, goodnight everyone!"
By midnight, only a few scattered comments remained in the livestream.
The observers and rescue teams had also rotated shifts. Chao Hao checked the livestreams of every student in Class S one by one. Seeing that everyone was relatively safe, he took the time to take a quick shower in the aircraft's shower room.
Sleep? Hmph, this was only just the beginning.
In the middle of the night, Wang Tianwei was awakened by a sudden broadcast.
"Class A's Nie Xiaoyu, Feng Qi, and Ralph are eliminated. 20 points deducted from each."
She reacted with a moment of dazed confusion.
"So there are broadcasts when people get eliminated..."
Fu Manli personally led a team to bring back the three students from her class.
"Relying on your A-grade mental power, you dared to ambush star beasts without even formulating a tactic? You didn't expect that those two were nocturnal, did you?"
The three rescued students looked thoroughly dejected.
"We're sorry, Teacher Fu. We were wrong."
Fu Manli's face was as cold as frost.
"No, you are dead."
The three students' breathing stopped for a second.
"If this were a real battlefield, I would be recovering your corpses right now.
People can certainly be reckless, provided they can bear the consequences of their recklessness."
The students didn't dare to breathe too loudly. As if imagining the scene of their own deaths in battle, their eyes turned red with fear.
Fu Manli did not comfort them further; instead, she had the safety officers escort them back to the academy.
This was the first lesson Qilin Military Academy taught its students:
On the battlefield, any action taken without careful thought can be fatal.
