Chapter A.1 – Brave fight with a magical wolf
“Black ‘color’ of the night gave black ‘color’ to my eyes, but I use the nose to seek the light.” – Said Liu Shock.
Liu Shock felt as if his nose was broken.
He opened his eyes slightly but immediately hurried to close them. He felt a stinging feeling in his sore nose that stirred up the nerves of the entire ocular region. There wasn’t a single part of his body that wasn’t in pain. After gaining consciousness and ability to think properly, he felt that his body had slowly begun to regain its strength. It was like feeling one’s own strength escape from the body, which finally left.
While enduring the systemic tearing pain in his whole body, Liu Shock rolled over and his aching body was seared by the burning hot sand. Yes, he was lying on the sand. He felt the distinguished feeling of touching hot sand transmitting from his fingers.
As the strength was slowly acc.u.mulating in his body, he again opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a brown colored big-clawed crab. It was right in front of his face, its small eyeb.a.l.l.s rolled once and glanced at Liu Shock and the look in its eyes seemed full of disdain. Mumbling a white bubble in its mouth, it drew a faint trace in the sand and sneaked into the sand.
Liu Shock got angry.
He thought that this crab was looking at his head as if looking at a fallen coconut. He had been thoroughly stirred up by this and his heart was full of rage. He put out his hand and uncovered the little crab from the sand pile then tore it apart with his both hands, put into his mouth and began to chew crazily.
The flavor of this crab was good, with a little touch of salt taste. While chewing its pincers, he struggled to stand up and saw himself surrounded by a strange golden-yellow beach, the vast sea, and the occasional receding tides were gently slapping his ankles. As far as the sight could go, the peripheral area near the beach was covered with tall coconut trees. The gentle wind, like a gentle lover, was affectionately kissing his face from time to time, mixed with bursts of smell of the sea.
The crab pincers silently slipped from his mouth as his mouth opened wide, resembling a hippopotamus, and a shocked expression slowly appeared on his face.
Where is this? I’m not on the southern border battlefield of China? Bullets, right, gunshot, wasn’t I shot?
Liu Shock’s mind was immediately attacked by a montage of memories.
He lowered his head to look at his body and could not find even a piece of cloth except a set of gray polyester socks, though their color had become somewhat strange after being soaked in seawater. His skin had also turned a little pale by seemingly long immersion in seawater.
Liu Shock’s sanity immediately slipped in a baffled state, but fortunately, his body was still intact and there were no major injuries. He severely pulled out a strand of chest hair and the stabbing pain told him that this was no dream.
Where am I? Liu Shock was puzzled to no extent and couldn’t understand anything.
The stinging nose pain pulled him back to reality, although his recent actions couldn’t be called laborious, but his nose still began to bleed. He felt some kind of fluid flowing on his lips, spreading a familiar yet unfamiliar salty flavor of blood in his mouth.
Liu Shock felt as if his nose had turned into an unstoppable faucet.
He couldn’t stand the dirty fluid and quickly took out the sock from his foot and used it to tightly cover his nose. It certainly could not go on like this, so he turned around, staggered a little and began to observe this place.
This place seemed like a small island and looked very bleak, even the wind had a somewhat raw feel a.s.sociated with it. He was standing on the beach which was the island’s downhill portion. A giant fish skeleton was also lying not far from the beach and looked like a whale’s skeleton. The exposure had paled its skin color and half portion of the skeleton was immersed in the water, which was home to a colony of green algae.
Liu Shock saw many colorful clams on the beach immersed in beautiful blue seawater. His belly made a disappointingly loud noise, just now he absent-mindedly discarded the crab, but his unique sense of a soldier was telling him that if he ate too many of these clams, or crabs, then it would certainly cause diarrhea. In this desolate and bleak island without any supplies or relief support, any disease could be fatal threat.
But he was really starving and must prepare himself for the sensible and realistic battle ahead, so he chose the reality without hesitation.
These colorful clams were really very tasty, although he was eating them raw but that did not affect the kind of natural lubrication and refreshing taste inherent in them, and with a touch of salty taste, it was palatable. Liu Shock ate a dozen of clams and it added a lot of strength to his body out of thin air.
Scout-specific inhibition manifested at a critical moment. Even though he was starving but did not eat to his fill, but decreased the intensity with which he continued to eat food. However, he didn’t have the courage to look at these clams again because he was afraid he would not be able to restrain his hunger.
In any case, surviving on this island was the most important task at the moment. With that determination, Liu Shock staggered all the way to the whale’s skeleton. This skeleton was still very complete, very large, he suddenly realized his own tiny existence while standing in front of it.
It was exuding a rock shiny gloss and Liu Shock saw a row of ribs on the skeleton. One of the ribs was broken, the fracture was very incisive and it was about five meters in length. There was another broken rib which was about two meters in length. He chose the small one because he was very weak right now and G.o.d knows what kind of wild animals were lurking on this desolate island. This rib could be used as a natural spear, should be good for self-defense.
Although he was well-known for his strength and smartness on the battlefield, but now he was just like a weak newborn baby, picking where to go and what to take according to the present strength.
There were a lot of stones on the beach, but unfortunately, Liu Shock basically didn’t have enough strength to lift them. After searching for a long time, he finally found a fist-sized stone. He tried to lift it, and though a bit reluctantly but he still managed to lift it up.
He began pounding the stone on the rib’s base and did not know how many times he did it. He was too tired to count and finally managed to separate that spear-like rib from the rib structure, but since he used too much force, his whole body as if flew into the skeleton structure and his naked belly was slightly pierced by a sharp protruding bone, opening a small hole in his belly. Liu Shock was taken aback and did not know where that sudden burst of physical strength came from.
Liu Shock fell down on the sand face down and remained lying down on his stomach for a long time as if secretly cursing his fate then stood up in a tottering manner. He looked under the navel and saw a small slit wound. He sighed with relief and sat down on the sand and carefully inspected. Fortunately, it did not stab his main point and even the bleeding was not significant.
He looked towards the skeleton and noticed faint traces of black hairs on its skin. He patted his chest once as if giving respect to this mighty creature. He also couldn’t help but think that he had ended up in a forbidden land and must praise the G.o.ds and Buddhas.
He was actually still in a very bad condition. The wound on his nose was hurting a lot and making him dizzy, comparatively speaking, wound on the belly was really insignificant. Liu Shock felt his lips drying and licked them few times, not to mention he was very thirsty and his throat was literally belching smoke.
He picked up the bone spear and simply discarded the thought of sharpening its edge with a stone. Although the rib’s curvature made it look very much like a j.a.panese blade but Liu Shock knew that he didn’t have the strength to give it a final shape, at least not now. Using the spear as a walking stick, he slowly walked up the steep slope. Before long, the tide began to rise on the beach and reached all the way up to the knee level. Liu Shock considered himself as lucky that he woke up before the arrival of high tide. No matter what, he did not want to drown to death in a d.a.m.ned place like this.
There was a disorderly junction of th.o.r.n.y bushes and tamarisk, st.i.tched together on the hillside. Surprisingly, the island was quite large with a stretch of several hillocks. There stood many tall coconut trees mixed with tamarisk trees, arranged haphazardly. He took a broad view ahead and still saw indescribably desolate scenery. Liu Shock was whistling as he staggered up to the nearest coconut tree. He found some smooth pebbles under the tree and began to throw them one after another, aiming for the coconuts. He continued to do so for a long time but was unable to knock even a single coconut. In fact, several stones fell towards his head and he almost dodged some of them, with some falling on his head and shoulders.
“f.u.c.k! Am I really the so-called great officer Liu who is well-known as the ‘human meat grenade launcher’ on the battlefield?” Liu Shock grimaced in pain and rubbed his shoulders and head. He looked up towards the sky and felt as if the coconut tree was mocking him, whereas the burning fire of thirst burnt even heavily in his mouth.
Don’t tell me that a dignified man like me will have to helplessly look at this coconut tree? This is just like how it was prohibited to make a move on the female soldiers from same battalion, but doesn’t that make them mere ornaments for decoration? Liu Shock was angry at this situation and his brain was searching for the evil tricks to tackle it.
His eyeb.a.l.l.s rolled once and an idea popped up in his mind.
He found a thick vine in the bushes then cautiously removed the blood soaked sock from his nose. A rare gentle expression appeared on his face at this moment. He looked just like a newly-wed groom ‘officer’ removing the clothes of his bride.
The sock was thoroughly soaked with his blood and was firmly stuck to his nose. He literally had to rip it off his nose making him grimace in pain.
Fortunately, his nose was no longer bleeding, but when he lightly touched it, he felt that his nostrils had expanded almost ten times.
“Mom, my face disfigured.” Liu Shock almost did not cry out, but his heart was instantly occupied with self-pity. But his hands didn’t stop and he tied up that blood-stained sock on the vines in a tight knot. Then, he picked up a satisfactorily heavy stone and put it inside the sock. Once the preparations were complete, he held one end of the vine in one hand and used the other hand to throw the sock end of the vine towards the bunch of coconuts which produced a “hum” sound. It felt a bit strenuous for the first time, but after two or three times, he got used to it and was also waving the vine faster than before.
“Ha ~~” Liu Shock shouted and shot the stone towards the bunch of coconuts. Two coconuts were knocked off and fell to the ground, producing ‘thud’ sounds one after the other, then bounced once and finally came to a static stage.
“Thank G.o.d!” Liu Shock choked with emotion. Elder Geng’s strict training turned out to be really useful. Without his strict teachings for a year, how could he possibly have managed to use a throw rope method so accurately and that too in such a weakened state?
The flavor of coconut was very good. Although he lost a lot of energy during the stone throwing session, but thanks to that, obtaining coconuts became even more rewarding.
Sometimes people are very difficult to satisfy, but sometimes they were especially easy to satisfy. Liu Shock thought if he was a girl trapped in this type of situation and someone was to offer him a coconut, then he wouldn’t mind offering his body in return.
The taste of coconut was very sweet and pleasantly satisfying. Liu Shock could not help but envied those with buck teeth after all if he also had large buck teeth then he could eat the most out of these coconuts, without wasting anything.
When only a thin pellicle remained in the two coconuts, he felt a surge of strength in his whole body. He picked up the throw rope and shot down the reaming coconuts, then wrapped them with interwoven vines, forming a bunch. He used a wooden stick to carry the coconut bunch on his shoulder.
“From now on, I will sleep with coconuts and won’t let go, no matter what.” Liu Shock vowed.
Although he ate only a few scoops of coconut but didn’t waste anything, not even the wooden sh.e.l.ls. He used the vines to put together simple-looking underwear. Even though it didn’t seem like someone lived on this island, but he was still not used to roaming about naked. He at least wanted to cover his main point so he used a coconut sh.e.l.l to cover it and felt somewhat comfortable.
He subconsciously tried to grab his crotch but instead grabbed the coconut sh.e.l.l. Liu Shock chuckled foolishly and felt that he must get rid of this habit.
He wore an unnecessary coconut sh.e.l.l on his head, like a helmet.
“I am d.a.m.n sure that right now I look like those silly Guizi devils.” Liu Shock chuckled again.
(Note: Guizi is a wartime term of insult for j.a.panese)
He pushed through the bushes and his goal was a nearby hillock. He was temporarily using the bone spear like a mountain knife to clear the way. The bright afterglow of evening sunlight had begun to emerge in the clouds and he felt the need to find a place to settle. He must hurry because it was hard to predict what kind of ferocious animals might appear in the night.
After pa.s.sing through the bushes, he entered the woods of red willows. He was startled by the sudden emergence of a flock of seabirds, and it seemed like these seabirds were nervous to see this uninvited guest and immediately flew into the sky. Liu Shock also had a scare by this magnificent picture and he almost dropped the coconut bunch, which was hanging from the wooden stick on his back.
There was a thick layer of guano and feathers under the red dwarf willow trees and Liu Shock decided not to step into that. He was considering taking a detour and turned back, but suddenly a small squirrel-like little animal fell on his shoulder.
It had a pair of long ears and a chubby face. Its whole body was covered in golden yellow fur and a pair of big round eyes was looking cutely at him. Liu Shock was surprised to see that it was holding a wild fruit in its front paws and had put in front of Liu Shock, as if offering the fruit to him.
Liu Shock saw several tooth bites on the fruit and shook his head to refuse its good intention.
Liu Shock sized up this little thing. It was not shy or afraid of a human which really amused him. It was also chubby and looked quite tasty, though Liu Shock didn’t want to pursue such evil thoughts about this cute little creature. He gently held its thick and long furry tail, carried it off the shoulder and put it on the ground.
“You can go, little guy!” Liu Shock stuck his tongue out and stroked its tiny head while making a funny face toward it.
“Guo Guo ~~” It released a comfortable groan and cried out strangely while simultaneously sticking out its pink tongue and making the exact same funny face as Liu Shock.
(Note: Guo means fruit.)
“You are such a cute little guy.” Liu Shock squeezed its cute little face and felt a tingling pleasant sensation in his palm.
Liu Shock, after caressing it for a long time, finally felt kind of useless in his heart. For a moment, he had forgotten the kind of tough situation he was in at present, but he finally switched back to reality.
“Go home, go!” Liu Shock flicked its head gently then stood up and walked toward the dwarf red willows. He could see a lot of nests on the trees and considering the low height of a willow tree, he could attempt to steal some eggs. He made up his mind and stepped into the dirty guano!
Anyway, I’m not some beauty queen who cannot afford to get dirty. These nests should have many eggs and they can become my food supply for several days.
He climbed up a tree and found many eggs in the nest, along with many newly hatched chicks. Liu Shock picked several eggs and carefully put them in his helmet but he didn’t touch the chicks. Seabirds were circling in the sky and screaming, however, it was hard to guess whether they were cursing Liu Shock for stealing their eggs or praising him for having the conscience of not harming the chicks.
Liu Shock turned around and was surprised to see that the little squirrel was actually holding a thin wooden stick in his paw and was wearing a hollowed wild fruit on its head. It was looking straight at Liu Shock with an adorable look in its glittering eyes and walking towards him.
Liu Shock foolishly watched it for quite a while in a dumbfounded manner, as the wooden stick on his shoulders, which he was using to carry the coconut bunch, suddenly fell to the ground and splashed filthy guano in all directions.
“It is actually copying me?” Liu Shock felt his head explode with bafflement.