Chapter 30: A Glimmer of Hope

Bi Fang raised his sore left arm and leaned on his backpack. With his right hand, he swam across the river, reaching the opposite bank quickly. As soon as he made it to the shore, an electronic notification sounded.

Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the task, receiving one skill upgrade coupon [1]

The system prompted the host that if the novice task was completed, he would receive an opportunity to upgrade the reward level. Would the host like to claim the side quest reward now?

Task complete? Reward upgrade?

Seeing the two prompts, Bi Fang was stunned for a moment. He understood that he had successfully completed the task by crossing the river and masking his scent, temporarily escaping the black bear’s pursuit, thus successfully snatching food from the bear’s mouth. But, what was with the reward upgrade?

The system replied that the reward upgrade was a unique beginner’s task reward. After uniformly promoted, it would make the original reward better.

For a moment, Bi Fang hesitated. If he claimed it now, he could undoubtedly upgrade his blue wilderness survival skill to purple, making his following adventure much easier. However, doing so would result in losing some potential benefits.

A cold wind blew by, causing him to shiver, ultimately deciding not to claim the reward. Challenges were challenges, after all. He had come this far and didn’t care much about this anymore. It would be better to keep it for a more significant reward.

Regaining his senses, Bi Fang immediately started working his body. He lay on the ground and did push-ups, raising his body temperature.

“The water in this stream is freezing. I estimate its temperature is around seven or eight degrees. It has caused my body to become stiff, so I need to move quickly to avoid catching a cold.”

“You must know that losing body heat in the wild is hazardous. The famous Devil’s Three Rules clearly state – death from lack of oxygen in three minutes, death from lack of heat in three hours, death from dehydration in three days, and death from starvation in three weeks.”

“These are more than enough to show how important it is to maintain body heat!”

Damp body benefit!

Old Fang looks so handsome, no matter what he does!

Brother Ling! Look at Old Fang! Then, look at yourself! Your belly is showing!

Ling Xuefeng was suddenly mentioned and felt wronged. How could it be blamed on him?

Bi Fang took a few deep breaths, feeling his body sufficiently active and starting to sweat. Then, he took out the clothes from his backpack and put them on.

The backpack was waterproof, so his clothes were naturally dry. System products are trustworthy!

After getting dressed, Bi Fang continued along the riverbank.

Following a small stream to find an exit was not enough, but Bi Fang wanted to try to find a lake or a large river by following the stream, where people would gather.

Ling Xuefeng watched Bi Fang on this journey for a while, and then went back to his own room. After all, he was doing a room inspection, not watching the live broadcast.

However, even so, the remaining thousands of fans were still not willing to leave, staying in Bi Fang’s live stream to watch.

This newcomer is incredibly fierce!

Seeing the dwindling audience, Ling Xuefeng had to admit that this broadcaster was indeed skillful; even he was drawn in. Unfortunately, he hadn’t completed his monthly streaming task yet, and he had signed a contract. Grinding his teeth, he eventually decided he could continue watching in the early morning.

Sighing, it wasn’t easy being a game broadcaster.

Now it was the third day, and Bi Fang felt a bit impatient with four days left to complete the system’s seven-day task. He was curious to know what would happen if he left Qinling early, and if there would be extra rewards? It wasn’t unusual for him to think about this – after all, he had the system and had traversed across dimensions, so why not receive some extra rewards? Was it that strange?

Soon, the sun gradually rose overhead, and the continuous journey, coupled with the sunlight, made Bi Fang feel a bit stuffy. So, he went to the creek to wash his face once again.

Instantly, he felt refreshed.

He hadn’t had a proper rest since early morning, and advancing through the morning had consumed a significant amount of energy. Therefore, Bi Fang took off his backpack, withdrew the smoked rabbit meat, unwrapped the reed leaves, and started eating.

After all, this was the food he had snatched back from the black bear!

All the trials and tribulations have led to this.

Indeed, it was food wrested from a bear’s mouth!

However, it could be argued that Old Fang was the one who caught it…

Amid the numerous comments, Bi Fang quickly finished eating half of the rabbit. He then packaged it again, stuffed it back into his backpack, and decided to conserve his resources.

Like this, Bi Fang continued forward for several more hours. Finally, in the evening, he heard the sound of an even larger rushing stream!

“Hey! Did you all hear that? It looks like I was right, this small creek does lead to a main river!”

Bi Fang was incredibly thrilled, and his pace quickened. After walking a few hundred meters more, he found a cliff in front of him. The cliff wasn’t tall, only about six to seven meters, and right below it was a surging river.

The setting sun, like an ocean tide, flooded into his vision. The colossal sun had already touched the ground, and the wind blew across tens of thousands of hectares of forest. Seen from afar, the evening forest appeared like an ocean—a vast, reddish ocean—where countless treetops swayed in the wind, forming layers of waves.

Beside him, the flowing creek had turned into a small waterfall, which fell into the river below, creating white foam on the surface and generating a continuous thunderous sound.

How beautiful! Was this a true primeval forest?

It’s so beautiful! Even if the broadcaster only filmed these, wouldn’t many people still watch?

I want to go too…

Who else wants to go? +1

Can Fang Shen bring people next time? I can pay!

Bring people? Considering what Fang Shen’s doing, even if it’s possible, could you endure the hardship?

“Did you all see? This forest is beautiful, dense, yet without any dramatic elevation changes. It shows that we’re out of the mountain range! This area might be a nature reserve, and since it’s a nature reserve, there must be human activity! We have a great chance of being rescued!”

Bi Fang was full of energy and excitement, as he never thought he would find a way out in just three days!

For a moment, the live broadcast room was filled with a barrage of gifts, countless fish fins, airplanes, and fish balls were thrown over to celebrate Bi Fang’s finding of the hope for survival.

Bi Fang approached the edge of the cliff and looked down at the river surface: “The water in the river is turbulent, and it is very dangerous to jump down rashly. We should look for another route.”

Next, Bi Fang searched for suitable routes along the edge of the cliff, and before long, he found a broken wall covered with protruding rocks.

It wasn’t accurate to call it a broken wall, as it looked more like a steep rocky slope, which could easily be descended with just a little care.

Without much effort, Bi Fang successfully reached the bank of the river.

He dusted himself off and looked at the sky, noticed that it was getting late, so he once again began searching for materials to build a temporary shelter, planning to rest for the night and find a way out tomorrow.

Starting a fire, Bi Fang heated the smoked rabbit to take care of dinner, and took out the two rabbit skins to prepare them for tanning.

“Brain tissue can prevent fibers from recombining to form rawhide, so we can just apply it directly. However, to ensure the rawhide absorbs it fully, we can mix it with water and heat it up.”

Bi Fang removed the reeds that had originally wrapped the rabbit meat, skillfully wrapped the reed leaves into a funnel shape, poured a little water in, and it didn’t leak a drop!