Chapter 1 Crossing

The sky brightened once again.

Thin mist shrouded the vast plains and forests, adding a gauzy veil to everything.

Soft, bright orange morning sunlight slid down from the treetops, collecting on the fields and illuminating the thin mist and the low bushes at the base of the trees.

It was a chilly morning.

Todd huddled in a cramped mountain cave, covered in fallen leaves.

After opening his eyes, he brushed off the leaves from his body, moved the stone blocking the entrance, and sat in the cave, once again gazing at this unfamiliar land.

A primitive, desolate, green land.

This was no longer Earth.

Todd sighed silently and crawled out of the cave.

Turning to look at his furry, heavy, fiery red long-tailed body, Todd hesitantly twitched the tip of his tail, still not quite used to the fact that he now had ears on top of his head and a long tail.

He sighed again, reaching up to lightly touch the furry ears on his head. Suddenly, a shiver ran up his spine, a tingling sensation from his tailbone.

He lunged forward, dropping to one knee, and dug his fingers into the grass on the ground.

"Way too sensitive," Todd muttered under his breath.

He had spent the night sleeping on a bed of fallen leaves, leaving red imprints on his cheeks, and his shoulders, lower back, legs, and even his tail were sore and numb.

But this was already an improvement.

At least it was much more comfortable than the night before when he had slept on a tree trunk, using dried vines to strap himself in.

And before that, when he had been sleeping in his warm little bed at home, covered in a soft, sun-scented fluffy fleece pajama.

But then, in the middle of the night, due to a mistake by the Space-Time Management Bureau, he had been caught in a time warp and his body had been torn apart, leaving only his soul.

It was incredibly unfair.

And there was nowhere to complain.

The people from the Space-Time Management Bureau had searched for a long time and said that he could no longer return to his original interface and would be rejected by the spacetime, and this beastman world was the only place he could survive.

So, based on his soul strength, the Space-Time Management Bureau had helped him rebuild his body and thrown him here.

Todd had been here for two days and two nights, and so far, he had achieved two things. First, he had successfully made fire using a wooden drill and obtained fire. The other was finding a place to stay.

Although this cave was still not very safe, at least he could lie down, take shelter from the wind and rain, and use a large stone to block the entrance to keep out snakes and insects.

Stretching beside the fire, Todd adjusted the animal-skin skirt on his body, rubbed his hands and feet, sniffed and walked to the completely extinguished fire pit, and cleared away the ashes. Using the fire embers he had preserved from yesterday and the collected leaves, he slowly kindled a fire.

The flames licked the dry twigs, crackling and burning, slowly spreading warmth in the morning breeze.

Sitting closer, Todd slowly roasted himself by the fire.

Yesterday, he had caught a large rabbit-like creature, and now he had half of it left. He had divided it into three parcels, wrapped them in leaves and then covered them with mud, and now, after digging them out, they were still warm.

Todd washed his hands by the stream and then came back to sniff the meat. After breaking open the shell of leaves, he began to eat the meat.

The meat was a bit gamey and tough, but Todd was very hungry and didn't find it too bad. In a few bites, he ate almost half a kilogram and then let out a satisfied burp, leaning back with his eyes closed, continuing to bask in the fire.

It was still early and he wasn't in a hurry to hunt. With the chilly weather and morning dew still in the woods, he risked getting soaked and falling ill.

He took out the animal skin he had pressed under a large stone by the stream. This was the skin of a wild creature similar to a large rabbit, which he had caught yesterday. He needed to process this piece of animal skin, which was about 1.2 meters long and 60 centimeters wide, for use in making an animal skin skirt or sewing together several pieces of animal skins to make a blanket.

Todd took out the animal skin and with a gentle squeeze, ten sharp claws sprouted from his fingertips. Unconsciously, he twitched the pointed ears that had grown on his head, and flicked his tail. He was no longer purely human.

Todd had discovered the day before that he could run extremely fast now, and had good endurance. He had chased a large rabbit for over an hour, and had managed to catch it when it was worn out. He had then used his razor-sharp claws to bleed and skin the rabbit.

In his current state of food scarcity, drinking the rabbit's blood would have been the best choice, but he feared parasites and didn't have the means to cook the blood, so he had to reluctantly give it up.

He scraped the gray skin off the gray rabbit skin with his claws, trying to remove any loose flesh and connective tissue. He dug a pit by the stream and put the rabbit skin in it, covering it with the ash he had collected the day before and rubbing it repeatedly. He was incredibly strong now and could easily move over two hundred pounds, so tanning the animal skin was no problem.

Normally, tanning requires the use of alkali and alum, but he didn't have the means now and had to make do with grass and wood ash.

After rubbing the skin three times, Todd opened it up and found that it was clean and had no blood or flesh on it, and it no longer had a gamey smell. He cleaned the skin and then covered it with fresh wood ash, placing it in a muddy hole and weighing it down with a large stone.

He washed his hands and feet again, wrapped his feet in the animal skin, and put on a simple pair of animal skin shoes. The shoes only had a sole made of woven tendrils, with a large piece of animal skin tied on top, and were then firmly secured to his soles with more tendrils.

The two pieces of animal skin were those he had removed from the large rabbit the day before. The damn Space-Time Management Bureau had only given him an animal skin skirt to cover himself and nothing else, not even underwear.

As he had been chasing the rabbit the day before, he had only worn a simple pair of thatch shoes, woven from tendrils to form the sole, and then tied ungracefully onto his feet to prevent puncture wounds. But in the lack of medicine and medical care, an infection would quickly cost him his hard-won life.

Regardless, his feet still had some blisters which hurt when he put weight on them.

Todd extinguished the fire, covered it with ash and carefully tucked it away. He arranged a few piles of ash to ensure that nothing was left, as starting a fire from scratch would be too difficult. He had spent most of the morning the day before making fire with his hands blistering.

After that, he carefully filled the wooden tube he had dug out the day before with ash and charcoal, tightly sealed it with a wooden wedge and some grass, just in case something unexpected happened, such as being chased by a wild animal and getting lost. With this preparation, he could still survive in a new place.

Looking into the distance, he had walked westward the day before with the sun in the sky, moved northwards yesterday, and planned to head east today. His temporary camp was to the south, backed by a mountain. As mountain paths were difficult to traverse, Todd decided to leave the exploration of this area for later.

With no specific direction in mind, Todd strolled along, observing the vegetation. There was a variety of plants here, none of which he recognized. Todd's camp was in a valley, surrounded by mountains, with a large flat area in front. He had seen wild creatures similar to rabbits and musk deer, and even cows, but he couldn't catch the musk deer and didn't dare provoke the cows. With his strength of 200 pounds, a hit from a cow would not be a fun experience.

His goal was still the large rabbit, and perhaps some birds. He hoped he could come across some birds like bamboo partridges that could not fly far, or maybe find some bird eggs.

However, he only gave himself the morning to hunt, as he planned to head back when the sun started to decline.

There were fish in the creek, but they weren't very large, the largest being about ten centimeters long and as wide as four fingers when held together.

If he didn't catch any game in the morning, he could fish in the afternoon, and then make a basket or net to hold them. The valley had not been developed, and everywhere there were trees, with shrubs and bushes below them. Todd walked carefully, checking everything as he went.

It was already autumn, and there were very few egg-laying birds. After walking for over an hour, Todd had managed to collect two nests of bird eggs, a total of twelve: seven similar to quail eggs in size, and five slightly smaller than chicken eggs.

Bird eggs were difficult to carry and would hinder his movements, so Todd had no choice but to leave the eggs behind. He sparked a fire slowly using dry twigs, and started cooking the eggs.

Bird eggs cooked quickly, and within no time, fine cracks appeared on the eggs, revealing the bright orange yolk and the white egg white.

Todd quickly pulled them out, cooling them in his hands and eating all of them with relish, then hanging the larger eggs in a net bag, carefully tying them to his waist with a dried vine. The eggs were ready and even if they broke, it wouldn't matter as long as they did not fall.

He took another look at the sky, and seeing the sun was close to the zenith, he put away the eggs and re-stored the charcoal fire, extinguishing the flames and adding a splash of urine to ensure the sparks were all extinguished.

With the autumn vegetation, a fire could quickly spread and he would have a hard time escaping.

With everything done, Todd felt quite pleased. He had completed the morning's hunt and still had two portions of rabbit meat in his camp, which could be eaten that night and the following morning.

It was time to head back. However, halfway to his camp, Todd heard human voices. They were not very distinct, but they were definitely human voices, and he became instantly alert.