It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

The soldier who had been hit covered his face and began to sob, as despair began to spread.

Hawkeye forced himself to calm down.

Then I dug out all the bits and pieces of knowledge about wilderness survival that I had seen on the forum.

Dry firewood... not available.

Bark... not found.

What else is there?

His gaze was fixed intently on the ground beneath his feet.

It was mixed with a large amount of black, peat-like stuff containing rotten plant roots and stems.

"Grassroots mud..." Hawkeye muttered to himself.

In some extremely humid environments, underground plant roots and decaying matter can form peat layers.

This stuff, once dried, makes excellent fuel.

The problem is, they're wetter than a wet towel now!

How to dry it?

What should we use to dry it?

The line was deathly silent.

Everyone was like a prisoner sentenced to death, waiting for the executioner, "hyperthermia," to arrive.

Kuang Ge looked at Ruan Ruan, who was starting to lose her mind again, and then at the silent, iron-willed old squad leader in the distance.

A surge of anger suddenly rose from the depths of his heart.

He recalled the video from the Zhuque Military Region.

I remembered that pervert named "Zhu Yi" and the image of him protecting the iron pot with his body.

Since there's nothing to dry them...

that……

Kuang Ge's gaze fell on his still dripping cotton coat.

He suddenly stood up, walked to Hawkeye's side, and with his frozen hands, dug up a large clump of dark grass and mud from the ground.

"Hawkeye, Softie!"

Kuang Ge's voice was hoarse, yet it carried a fierce edge.

"Do you want to live?"

Hawkeye and Softie looked up at him, puzzled.

Kuang Ge immediately unbuttoned his tattered cotton-padded jacket.

Then he pressed that clump of grass and mud firmly against his bare chest!

"hiss--!"

In that instant, Kuang Ge gasped, the deadly chill causing him to arch his back.

[WARNING: Core body temperature is dropping rapidly! Current body temperature: 35.1 degrees Celsius!]

[Warning: You are suffering from severe pain due to "dampness and cold invading the body"!]

"Crazy Bro! Are you crazy?!" Ruan Ruan screamed.

Hawkeye stared at Madman in shock, momentarily speechless.

"Crazy?" Madman gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. "I'm perfectly sober!"

He raised his bloodshot eyes and stared intently at Eagle Eye and Softie.

"Those freaks in the Suzaku Military Region are so horrible, they could even protect a pot with their bodies!"

"Can't we even exchange a single fire for this?!"

"This thing is wet, that's for sure!"

"But our bodies are warm!"

"Use our body heat to...dry it up little by little!"

"I refuse to believe that we can't even exchange our lives for a pile of fire!"

The live stream audience was absolutely blown away.

"He's insane! Brother Kuang has really gone mad! Using his body heat to dry wet mud? What's the difference between that and sleeping with a block of ice?!"

"Zhu Yi and the others took turns taking off their clothes to keep warm! Kuang Ge is doing the opposite, using his own heat to exchange for the spark! This... this is even more ruthless!"

Hawkeye looked at Crazy Brother's body, which was trembling violently from the pain, and then at Ruan Ruan, who was about to collapse next to him.

He remained silent for a moment, then his eyes turned fierce.

"I see."

Hawkeye didn't say another word.

He silently bent down and dug up a clump of grass roots and mud.

Then, imitating Kuang Ge, he unbuttoned his clothes and stuck the cold "Grim Reaper" to his lower abdomen.

The intense chill made all the muscles in his body tense up instantly.

But he only let out a muffled groan and stubbornly held on.

The game's intense pain made Hawkeye suspect that their pain shielding wasn't fully effective.

So all that was left was Ruan Ruan, staring blankly at the two men.

She still couldn't resist reaching out her trembling hand, digging up a small piece of grass root and mud, closing her eyes, and forcibly stuffing it into her bosom, covering it tightly.

But it didn't last long before her soft lips turned bluish-purple, and a thin layer of white frost formed on her eyelashes.

She felt her eyelids were very heavy.

That terrible drowsiness surged up in waves like a tide.

Just close your eyes, and you can return to the warm reality.

There is air conditioning, soft beds, and hot milk there.

All you have to do is give up.

"Don't...don't sleep..." Crazy Brother reminded him with difficulty.

Then he reached out a hand and pinched his thigh hard to stay awake.

"Girl...think about it...think about the look in the old sergeant's eyes..."

Kuang Ge's voice was intermittent.

"We...can't...actually treat him like...an NPC whose story we can only watch once..."

Ruan Ruan's whole body trembled.

I remembered the old squad leader from earlier, his eyes looking like he'd seen countless comrades fall by the roadside.

"I...I'm not sleepy..."

Ruan Ruan shook her head vigorously, holding back the tears that were about to spill out.

Tears, if they fall, will freeze and take away heat.

They didn't know how long they held on, but gradually the three of them felt that the grass roots and mud in their arms were no longer cold.

The old squad leader came over at some point.

He silently watched the three recruits who had followed him all the way from the snow-capped mountains, and who were becoming more and more like soldiers, a very deep light flashing in his eyes.

That was the color of the embers after the fire had died down, which had been blown red again.

That's enough.

The old squad leader squatted down, his voice a little strained.

"Take it out."

Kuang Ge shakily unbuttoned his clothes.

The originally dark, moist, and sticky grass root mud has now turned into a grayish, dry, hard lump.

Although it still had a fishy smell, the deadly layer of moisture on the surface had completely disappeared.

It was dried using body heat.

It was earned with one's life.

Hawkeye and Softie also trembled as they took out the pieces from their pockets.

The three pieces of dry clay were put together.

The old squad leader carefully gathered them together with his one arm and used his body to block the wind.

He took out a match from the oil paper package he kept close to his body.

This was the last dry match on his body.

Normally, this would just be an ordinary wooden stick.

But at this moment, in the eyes of Kuang Ge and his friends, this is a divine artifact, the top-tier mythical equipment in the entire server.

"hiss--"

The old squad leader struck a match.

A tiny, orange flame flickered and trembled in the wind.

Crazy Brother instinctively reached out, trying to protect it.

But he found that his hands were so stiff that he couldn't lift them at all.

The old squad leader moved extremely fast; it was the hand speed honed through countless trials by a veteran.

The flames licked at the dry grass roots and mud, and smoke rose.

A few seconds later.

A ray of red light stubbornly bloomed in this boundless, dark swamp.

Fire, it's on fire.

"Phew... I'm finally alive..."

Kuang Ge opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of white air.

That usually arrogant and domineering face now wore an almost pious, silly grin.

"Don't just focus on warming yourself by the fire."

The old squad leader's voice broke the brief moment of rapture.

He used the probing stick to stir the grass and mud under the fire, making the fire burn more steadily.

"If you have no food in your stomach, you can't retain heat even if you're hot."

The old squad leader pointed to the dark, grimy cooking pot next to him.

After the hailstorm, the pot was filled with half a pot of still chilly rainwater.

"cook."

The old squad leader pulled a wet cloth bag from his pocket. Inside were wild vegetables that Eagle Eye and his men had gathered like treasure hunters, learning from their mistakes and under his guidance.

There weren't many items: a few bunches of wild onions, a handful of bitter greens, and a few plant tubers that I had just dug up from the edge of the mud pit.

There is no oil.

There is no salt.

There was no meat at all.

Even that half of the belt was almost eaten in the previous snow mountain episode, and the rest was to be saved for survival.

"Gulp."

Watching the lush green grass leaves being thrown into the pot, the soft belly let out an extremely loud protest.

In reality, this kind of thing would be considered too shabby even to feed rabbits.

But at this moment, in the eyes of the three, this pot of gradually boiling green water was a nectar that even a Michelin three-star restaurant couldn't buy.

A few minutes later, the water boiled.

Wild vegetables tumbled in boiling water, emitting a strange aroma that was a mixture of earthy smell and fresh plant fragrance.

The old squad leader didn't have a bowl.

His only enamel mug had been pierced by shrapnel when he crossed the blockade line.

So this pot is both a pot and a bowl.

"The girl drinks first."

The old squad leader made two pairs of chopsticks out of tree branches, picked up a large clump of wild vegetables, blew on them to keep them warm, and handed them to Ruan Ruan.

Ruan Ruan did not refuse.

On this grassland, being pretentious will get you killed.

She trembled as she reached out her red and swollen hand, took the branch, and, ignoring the heat, stuffed the dark green vegetable ball into her mouth.

The unseasoned bitterness explodes in your mouth instantly.

The astringent sensation from the oxalic acid made my soft brows furrow instantly, and I instinctively wanted to vomit.

"Swallow it!"

Kuang Ge let out a low growl from the side, his eyes fixed on the soft, puffed-out cheeks, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

Ruanruan's eyes reddened, but she forced her neck back and swallowed the scalding hot, bitter wild vegetables, which were even mixed with mud and sand, whole.

A surge of heat rushed down my esophagus into my already spasming stomach.

The extremely hungry red light that had been flashing on the system panel finally slowed down a bit.

"Is it good?"

Hawkeye asked a pointless question; his gaze was fixed on the pot.

Ruan Ruan wiped the green juice from the corner of her mouth, exhaled a breath of hot air, and nodded without hesitation.

"Sweet."

"It really is sweet."