From Robinson Crusoe

The rain from last night began to evaporate under the rising sun, and a light white mist filled the grassland, greatly reducing visibility.

Chen Zhou and Paul's clothes were still wet, and the three tiger cubs were also quite cold after surviving the night.

Seeing that they couldn't do anything for the time being, and with Paul sneezing repeatedly and looking listless, Chen Zhou had no choice but to lead him away from the hill and deeper into the woods. They found a low-lying spot to try and start a campfire, dry their clothes, and have a hot breakfast.

……

The forest was muddy, and the early birds, having forgotten the terror of last night's thunder and lightning, began to chirp and sing.

Many insects also began to move, along with the awakening mammals, making the whole forest appear even more vibrant.

After the heavy rain, finding dry branches was not an easy task. After walking for about two kilometers, Chen Zhou finally failed to find any dry branches and could only make a fire starter by friction, hoping to brute force a little flame.

Although Paul had a fire starter, in such an excessively humid environment, using the fire starter to light a fire would undoubtedly cause great damage to the fire starter, and Chen Zhou believed it was unnecessary.

On his way to find suitable wood to make a fire bow, Chen Zhou discovered a cave with an opening about 1.2 meters in diameter.

The wild grass around the cave had been completely eaten up by the roots. Although it looked a bit messy now because of the water accumulation, especially at the entrance of the cave, where many clods of soil were scattered, Chen Zhou, who was quite knowledgeable about nature, could imagine how bright and clean this place must have been on a daily basis.

Suspecting that burrowing animals were nesting there, he had found a source of dry fuel.

Many burrowing animals have the habit of carrying twigs, dry grass, or shed bird feathers back to their nests. Some small burrowing animals also use their burrows as food storage stations, hoarding large quantities of oily fruits in their burrows.

Dry grass, broken branches, or fruit shells are all good materials for starting a fire.

In addition, to prevent their burrows from being flooded, burrowing animals often build a mound of earth around the outside of the burrow entrance to prevent rainwater from flowing back in.

Some medium to large burrowing animals can even design their burrows in a sophisticated way, using the difference in elevation to create a pressure difference inside the burrow. This allows for better air circulation and indirectly keeps the burrow dry.

Although last night's rain was heavy, it came too suddenly and didn't last long enough. It looked impressive, but the total rainfall was unlikely to flood the nests of some small burrowing animals, let alone the ancestral homes of medium to large burrowing animals.

I peered into the cave from the entrance and sniffed the air. There was no fishy stench of carnivores, nor any traces of snakes crawling around. There were some marks on the top of the cave wall from the friction of bone plates, and the left and right sides were grooves scratched by claws.

Chen Zhou guessed that a kind of cave-dwelling herbivore should live inside, so he mustered up his courage and tried to crawl into the hole.

Although skill breeds daring, and he was confident that his physical abilities would prevent him from getting injured when facing a medium-sized herbivore, Chen Zhou still took Paul's knife just to be on the safe side.

If the cave owner isn't in the cave, he'll take some dry branches or mature plant seeds to start a fire. If, unfortunately, the "homeowner" is sleeping in and hasn't come out yet, he'll have to turn the theft into a burglary.

You see, neither he nor Paul had eaten since they got up this morning. Both of them had big appetites, and last night they had only managed to eat a few boiled grilled fish. They were starving and wanted to get something to eat. If he really ran into the cave-dwelling animal, then it was just bad luck.

……

Although the 1.2m diameter opening was not large enough for Chen Zhou to bend over and walk, it was still relatively spacious for him to crawl through.

Moreover, this cave is not a structure with a wide entrance and a narrow interior; the diameter hardly changes as you climb from the outside in, so it has no impact on Chen Zhou's speed.

At the same time, this consistent width can also give people a sense of security, at least when retreating outwards, you won't suddenly get stuck, and you can retreat smoothly all the way to the outside of the cave.

Clutching his military knife, he crawled forward through the mud, advancing for about three or four meters without encountering any forks in the road, nor finding any dry branches or plant fruits. The only thing he noticed was the increasingly strong scent of herbivores.

Chen Zhou had a vague feeling that the animal digging the burrow had not left its nest when he was suddenly confronted by a tail as thick as a small hammer.

The tail was covered in carapace, with an outer layer of armor-like bony sheath. The end was like a meteor hammer, bigger than a basketball. Before Chen Zhou even got close, the tail swung left and right, swinging towards him.

"Grass!"

Seeing the deep pits left by its tail striking the cave walls, Chen Zhou dared not confront it head-on in such a narrow place and had no choice but to retreat from the cave.

The animal that had shown its tail was not going to let him off easily. Seeing him retreat, it immediately followed and chased after him out of the cave.

Chen Zhou fled in a panic, getting his head and face covered in mud. Before long, he crawled out of the cave upside down.

Paul, who was twisting straw rope to make a fire bow, saw Chen Zhou come out so quickly and thought he had found firewood. He was about to go over excitedly when Chen Zhou pushed him away.

There's a big guy in the cave!

Before Chen Zhou could finish speaking, the animal's tail emerged.

Then, its hindquarters came into view—

This is a creature that looks very similar to an ankylosaurus, but it is much smaller. It is about 1.1m tall and about 2.8m long including the tail. Its body is covered with large, round bony plates, giving it an arched shape. Its front shoulders are high and its back is low. Its legs are short and hidden under the protection of the plates.

Although it looked clumsy, this creature was much faster than Chen Zhou had imagined. After rushing out of the cave, it immediately changed direction and charged towards Chen Zhou while making threatening grunts like a pig.

"Oh shit!"

Even clay figures have temper.

Seeing this guy still so arrogant after leaving the cave, Chen Zhou was so angry he laughed.

Retreating into the cave is not an easy way to dodge attacks. Any intelligent creature would choose to temporarily avoid a direct confrontation by using its own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths.

Now that it's out of the cave and the surrounding terrain is open, it's still relentlessly pursuing us. It probably doesn't know what a terrifying upright ape is.

Chen Zhou wanted to stab the guy to death, but seeing that it was charging fast and he didn't have a decent weapon, he could only dodge again.

After leaving the cave and seeing the whole picture, he also learned the man's name—

This is a type of glyptodont, related to the giant armadillo that still exists on Earth. Of course, in terms of size, the giant armadillo, which weighs only 30 kilograms, is far less impressive than its ancestors.

The largest type of glyptodont is called the Star-tailed Beast, and Chen Zhou had seen Star-tailed Beast fossils in a museum.

Although the glyptodon in front of it was already a behemoth, it still paled in comparison to the Startail Beast, which was 1.5 meters tall, over 3.6 meters long, and weighed 1.5 tons.

Nevertheless, judging from its round and plump appearance, it probably weighs at least 400 kilograms. When it charges, it looks like a small car, and it still has quite a presence.

But no matter how imposing it was, it was far less agile than Chen Zhou. A single sharp turn by Chen Zhou required considerable effort for it to turn around.

The thick, bony shell greatly enhances its defensive capabilities, but it also creates many blind spots. It cannot see what's behind it and can only attack by waving its tail based on its sense of touch.

Just as it was venting its anger at being broken into, and turning to confront Chen Zhou, the glyptodon suddenly felt a weight on its side, as if it had been struck by the tail of another of its kind during a mate-fighting contest—

Chen Zhou picked up the wooden spear, went around to its side, and kicked its shell.

The mud on the soles of his shoes made Chen Zhou slip a bit, and he also underestimated the weight of the glyptodon. He originally wanted to kick it over, but he failed.

When his first attack failed, Chen Zhou jumped back to avoid the glyptodont's tail, but did not attempt to pierce the glyptodont's bone armor with his wooden spear.

His wooden spear wasn't made of any hard wood to begin with. He had hurriedly found a place to take shelter from the rain last night and simply left it under a tree. After being soaked in water all night, the spearhead had become soft. It would be difficult to deal with ordinary wild beasts, so even with his amazing strength, it would be impossible for him to break through the glyptodon's defenses, which had evolved over millions of years, with this wooden spear.

……

The glyptodon's shell is made up of thousands of small, regularly shaped bone plates that are tightly joined together. It is quite hard, and when it lies down, the shell can protect its body and most of its limbs.

Although its head cannot retract into its shell like a tortoise, it is reinforced and has a very thick skull. Combined with its huge body and considerable attack power, almost no wild beasts dare to provoke them after they become adults.

Of course, while a thicker skull enhances defense, it also reduces the space available for the brain.

The glyptodon's brain was not much bigger than a nut, and it had no idea how powerful the kick to its side had been, nor did it know what kind of threat this leaping creature posed to it.

Without its nemesis, the giant ground sloth, in this woodland, other animals simply cannot break through its defenses. It has long since developed a self-willed personality, never needing to consider the consequences or worry about the physical exertion when dealing with other animals.

Anyway, when it gets tired, it just lies down and lets them bite it however they want. Once it's rested enough and regained its strength, it can stand up and go wherever it wants. Who can stop it?

With this fearless spirit, the glyptodon stared at its small, sunken eyes, eagerly searching for Chen Zhou's location, attempting to continue its pursuit.

However, this time, Chen Zhou's all-out kick was too much for it to handle.

……

Its round body rolled to the side, and the glyptodon, losing its balance, exposed its four thick legs of different lengths, while its vulnerable belly, heavily protected, faced the sky.

吘~
Even with a small brain, a glyptodon would instinctively sense something was wrong in this situation.

It cried out in alarm, kicking its relatively short forelegs and longer, thicker hind legs, trying to flip itself over.

However, the body structure evolved from glyptodonts destined them to be animals that were extremely difficult to turn over.

After flipping over, it can neither stretch out its long neck like a tortoise and use its head to brace itself against the ground to flip over, nor can its short, thick limbs touch the ground on either side. It can only shake its body vigorously, like a roly-poly toy, constantly increasing its potential energy to one side and slowly accumulating inertia before it can land on all fours again.

Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and giant ground sloths, strong enough to flip over glyptodonts, do not live in this woodland, and giant predators such as short-faced bears have no interest in this rock-hard ball.

This was the first time the glyptodon had been overturned since it came of age, and it had absolutely no experience dealing with such a situation.

Hoping to straighten up by shaking the body?

If there were no other animals around, there might still be some hope.

But right now, there are two hungry guys with their eyes gleaming right next to us!
……

Without giving the glyptodon much time to react, Chen Zhou kicked it over with all his might and then gripped the spear tightly, plunging it into the glyptodon's soft lower abdomen.

The tip of the wooden spear was already quite blunt, and even though the glyptodon's belly was not protected by bone armor, the process of stabbing it was still very difficult.

If Chen Zhou hadn't possessed extraordinary strength, he probably wouldn't have been able to harm the glyptodon with that wooden spear at all.

Its abdominal defenses are weak relative to its body; it has plenty of thick fat and tough skin. An ordinary person would have to use some force to stab it with a knife, let alone a blunt wooden spear.

In ancient times, executioners would use blunt knives to kill people for money. This kind of beheading was a great torture for prisoners, who often had to endure several times the pain of others.

The same applies to the blunt spear piercing; the glyptodon can even feel the wooden spear slowly penetrating its body, causing its four legs to kick and spring even more powerfully.

Its cries grew increasingly shrill, and it mustered all its strength to fall to its side, attempting to stand up directly.

But Chen Zhou held on tightly to the wooden spear, his arm muscles bulging as he braced himself against the ground, managing to suppress it firmly in the struggle.

On the other side, Paul finally found the stone hammer that Chen Zhou had dropped on the ground before he went into the hole, and walked to the head of the carpenter's beast with the hammer in his hand.

The glyptodon stared wide-eyed at the human approaching, its desperate cries fading into silence in its extreme terror.

Paul gripped the hammer handle with both hands, glanced at Chen Zhou, and seeing Chen Zhou nod, he immediately swung the hammer in a wide arc and smashed it into the jaw of the glyptodont.

He had barely played any positive role on the way to the Challenger Camp, and he was extremely frustrated. He finally got a chance to show his skills, and even though he was feeling unwell, he did his best.

With a crisp "bang," Paul swung the hammer without holding back, but unfortunately, the stone hammer made by Chen Zhou was not sturdy enough. When the hammer hit, the stone block tied to the top was knocked away.

However, the glyptodont took the hit squarely, its neck arching noticeably upwards, and blood slowly trickling from its mouth.

It hummed softly, driven by its will to survive, and still did not give up hope. It shook its head, which was beginning to shake from the blow, and tried to get up again.

But this time, before Chen Zhou could make a move, Paul ended its life.

A sharp folding saber slid diagonally into the skin of the glyptodont along the gap in the neck armor, cutting out a semicircle.

The artery was slashed, and blood gushed out uncontrollably, staining the mud red.

As the glyptodon's life slipped away, Chen Zhou gradually relaxed the wooden spear he was holding against its body. Looking at the tightly fitted bone armor on this enormous creature, his face was filled with barely suppressed joy—

Now they have the meat, Paul's armor, and maybe even some kindling. (End of Chapter)