Co co co——

  A strange and eccentric cry rang out, Chu Yuan suddenly startled awake, his right hand instinctively gripping the axe, his dark-rimmed eyes narrowing as he scanned the surroundings with intense vigilance.

  His body was tensed and tightened, like a drawn bowstring that could be released at any moment.

  Thump—!

  Thump—!

  Thump—!

  In this suddenly silent atmosphere, Chu Yuan could hear his own heart beating hard, as if someone were beating a drum.

  Chu Yuan suppressed his breathing to let it out softly, fearing that his heavy breaths would disturb the owner of that bizarre cry.

  Truly, that cry was very eerie; Chu Yuan felt that this could not possibly be produced by a human, but came from an unknown species of creature or entity.

  Whoosh whoosh——

  Crackle—!

  Crackle—!

  The space now only held the sound of the freezing wind softly howling along with the tiny crackling of the fire that was burning but nearly extinguished.

  Chu Yuan tried to control his breathing and heart rate, attempting to blend into this silent space to minimize his own sense of existence.

  ... ...

  A standoff lasted for about 20 minutes until that eerie cry could no longer be sensed; only then did Chu Yuan dare to secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

  "Fck, wasn't it said that the 7-day newbie safety was guaranteed? What the hell was that eerie cry? Ghosts? Eerie things? Scaring the players?"

  Chu Yuan cursed in his heart, only daring to mutter in a low whisper.

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  It truly scared the fck out of him; it was impossible not to be afraid.

  This wasn't at home; he was currently in a forest filled with thick mist.

  Anything unusual was definitely not normal and required vigilance and cautious response.

  "Hope there isn't really any danger! A weak ordinary person like me, how could I fight back against monsters?"

  "Forget monsters, I'm not even sure if I can kill ordinary wild beasts. I fear that even if I could kill one, I probably wouldn't be in a good state myself by then!"

  Chu Yuan cursed inwardly; he was looking forward to tomorrow, wondering how his body would be after the strengthening.

  At worst, it should increase his strength by a fair bit, right? Surely it wouldn't just increase by a few percent, otherwise, this Enhancement ability would be too useless.

  He looked at the real-time displayed on the blue holographic light screen in front of him.

  11:49

  "Next is re-walling the house, or tonight the freezing wind will blow and I'll freeze to death!"

  Looking at the thatched hut supported only by four simple wooden pillars, Chu Yuan sighed and said.

  It wasn't simply about walling the house; it was also used to prevent insects and snakes from crawling in while sleeping, increasing the chances of survival.

  There were no medicines or medical facilities here; anything harmful to the body meant death was not far away.

  Chu Yuan had a plan beforehand. Early this morning, he didn't just go searching for food and water like that, but also surveyed the terrain and surrounding scenery, trying to memorize characteristics and details to serve as familiar landmarks when lost in the mist.

  Even more than that, like recording how an area was, what was there, and what could be done...

  Chu Yuan reminisced, recalling what he had heard, watched, and read regarding survival knowledge.

  He wanted to build walls that were just simple enough to block the wind; after all, it was his first time doing it, so he didn't seek quality, only stability.

  "Right, there's also determining the wind direction!"

  Suddenly, Chu Yuan remembered the knowledge of how to determine the wind direction while in the forest that he had heard somewhere, though he vaguely couldn't remember where.

  But the general gist was still known to him: look at how moss grows on the tree trunks.

  Where the moss grows thick and green is the leeward side, and conversely, the dry side of the tree trunk with less moss is usually the windward side.

  The next plan also included Chu Yuan going to find stones of appropriate size and shape to place around the fire.

  This would help so that even if the fire was about to die out, those stones would have the effect of retaining and radiating heat, making him less cold at night if he happened to fall asleep.

  Furthermore, it served as a protective layer in case strong winds caused sparks to fly into the straw or if the crackling wood popped sparks, they would be blocked, not causing the "bed" to catch fire.

  Why hadn't he done this early in the morning already?

  Partly because Chu Yuan hadn't thought that far or in such detail back then, and partly because although he was awake for a period of time, the feeling of sleepiness and grogginess kept hitting him, making his train of thought not very good.

  Now, fortunately, by thinking of the consequences that would happen, Chu Yuan could trace back to the causes and find solutions accordingly.

  Looking at the 【Records】 section filled with systematic and orderly writing, Chu Yuan nodded with satisfaction.

  Picking up the hanging pot that had cooled down, he gulped down a lot of water into his stomach despite not being thirsty; in this situation, having an excess of water in the body was still better than lacking it.

  “Hah~”

  He sighed with relief, poured a tiny bit of remaining water into the pot lid, and then went out to place it back in its old spot to continue catching water from the condensing dew drops flowing down.

  Crackle... crackle...

  Adding wood to the nearly extinguished fire, Chu Yuan tidied himself and the objects around him, then stepped out of the thatched

  hut once more, heading into the forest to search for the necessary materials to wall the house.