Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely-Chapter 1, The World in the Grip of Winter [Please Add to Favorites!]
Chapter 1 - 1, The World in the Grip of Winter [Please Add to Favorites!]
The cold wind raged, and snow filled the sky.
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Under the cover of night, the towering trees clad in white snow stood like white iron towers in the wind, majestic and unmoving.
To the east of Redwood Ridge, outside an unremarkable cave.
Xia Hong assumed a traditional Long Fist stance. After adjusting his breathing, his gaze suddenly turned sharp, and he swiftly threw a punch.
Standing at 190 centimeters, he wasn't exactly muscular but was tall and robust. As he went through a set of punches, snowflakes fluttered around him instantly.
Suddenly, a young boy with a youthful face walked out from the cave. Seeing Xia Hong, the boy's face was filled with obvious admiration.
"Brother, you're about to break through to the Lumberjack Level, right?"
"Almost, it should only take a month."
"Tsk, you're amazing. Father said that geniuses who break through to the Lumberjack Level before the age of eighteen have only appeared three times among the surrounding nine camps. You'll be the fourth."
Xia Hong raised his head, revealing a delicate face that didn't quite match his physique.
Looking at his younger brother Xia Chuan's admiring face, Xia Hong felt pleased but, upon calming down, still shook his head slightly.
"Breaking through to the Lumberjack Level isn't much. There's even the Excavation Level at Rogel Camp; they're the real strong ones."
Upon hearing "Excavation Level," Xia Chuan's face instantly showed longing.
"Rogel Camp has five Excavation Level strongmen. It's said they can mine thousands of pounds of coal every day for the camp. Not only do they not need to burn wood for heating, but they can also forge sharp weapons with coal, making it easy to hunt Low-level Cold Beasts."
Xia Hong nodded slightly and said, "After all, it's a medium-sized camp of over five hundred people. If they didn't have some strength, those Cold Beasts in Redwood Ridge wouldn't let them live so comfortably."
"It's a pity father is injured; otherwise, he would have been an Excavation Level strongman long ago. If our Great Xia had coal, it might have become a medium-sized camp by now."
A medium-sized camp's standards are generally recognized as having over five hundred people, possessing Excavation Level strongmen, and being able to handle Low-level Cold Beast tides.
Currently, the Great Xia Camp has only 239 people and thirteen Lumberjack Level combat forces.
With this much strength, forget about a Cold Beast tide; even a slightly stronger Intermediate Cold Beast could turn the entire camp into prey.
"Rogel Camp is too stingy. If they were willing to sell us some coal, it would be great."
"Coal not only provides warmth and refines iron but also serves as an equivalent value to exchange for advanced supplies from giant camps. Rogel Camp itself doesn't have enough and wouldn't be willing to sell it to us. Besides, our small camp doesn't have anything valuable to exchange with them."
What's more crucial is that if the other camps around Redwood Ridge also have coal, Rogel Camp's safety and weaponry advantages would cease to exist.
The safety advantage can absorb the population, and the weaponry advantage ensures a crush in force. With these two advantages, Rogel Camp is undoubtedly the king in the Redwood Ridge area. Selling coal to other camps would be equivalent to giving up their strengths.
As a time traveler, Xia Hong naturally sees farther than Xia Chuan does.
A month ago, he traveled here. From initial panic to calm acceptance, Xia Hong experienced no small amount of shock.
This world is fraught with crises.
The crisis isn't solely from the special species known as Cold Beasts.
There are also climate challenges and various unknown phenomena.
This world only has winter, with no four seasons.
Additionally, the temperatures here in winter are far more terrifying than those on Blue Star.
With Xia Hong's unprofessional estimation, night temperatures were at least seventy degrees below zero, making it impossible for normal humans to survive.
Even more absurd, day temperatures are colder than night.
Not to mention normal humans; even the ordinary people of this world would freeze to death during the day without adequate cold protection methods.
Fortunately, the day lasts only four hours, so humans almost always operate at night, which is why Xia Hong practices martial arts under the cover of night.
Additionally, because it's colder during the day, Cold Beasts are more active, more irritable, and their strength is several levels higher than at night.
Therefore, whether for hunting or resource gathering, humans generally chose to venture out at night.
Traveling to such a crisis-ridden, eternal winter world, most would have collapsed long ago.
But not only did Xia Hong quickly adapt, but he also felt a thrill inside.
Because, before crossing, he was a patient with ALS.
Born into a martial arts family, Xia Hong lost both parents at a young age. He practiced martial arts and fitness from an early age, living a much more regulated life than ordinary people.
But fate played the biggest joke on him by bestowing an incurable disease.
In his final days, Xia Hong stopped practicing martial arts. As long as he could move his hands, he immersed himself in mobile games until bedridden.
When he confirmed that he was about to become immobile, he chose a sunny day to end it all.
As it turned out, he came to this world and became the current Xia Hong.
Although this world is fraught with crises, he is after all living a second life, already immensely grateful. Moreover, fate has given him such a robust and youthful body.
Standing 191 centimeters tall and weighing over 90 kilograms, with a wasp waist and ape arms, he's just over sixteen years old.
According to internet discussions in his past life, this body was the perfect martial cultivation physique.
Newly traversed, though youthful and robust, this body could exert only about two thousand jin.
However, the legendary Blue Star boxing champion Tyson was said to have a force of only eight hundred kilograms, converting to sixteen hundred jin.
Initially, Xia Hong thought he was strong.
Until he witnessed an adult female in the camp effortlessly lift a five to six hundred kilogram tree, he realized:
This world, with its Tyson-level average human strength.
Which makes sense; humans are products of their environment.
In such extreme cold climates, if people didn't evolve, they couldn't possibly survive.
Realizing his own weakness, Xia Hong naturally dared not slack off.
His martial arts knowledge from the past life proved useful here.
For practicality, he chose a set of Grand Ancestor Long Fist. In just a month, with the aid of Cold Beast Flesh, his strength increased to four thousand jin. According to his father Xia Ding, he was about to reach the five thousand jin threshold for the Lumberjack Level.
"With Lumberjack Level strength, I can join the lumberjack team and at least see the world outside the camp."
If it were in his past life, five thousand jin of immense strength would be considered superhuman.
But in this world, it's merely fitting to go chop trees.
Exactly, Lumberjack Level, as the name implies.
At this level, one can go—chop trees!
"Brother, father has returned!"
Suddenly, Xia Chuan pointed in the direction of Redwood Ridge forest and shouted.
Xia Hong looked up to see a team of twelve swiftly emerging from deep within the woods. They were divided into six groups, each pair carrying a towering, twenty-meter tree, one in the front and one in the back.
When the six teams with their six trees fully emerged from the forest, upon seeing the burly figure at the rear, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan finally broke into smiles.
According to their father Xia Ding, every trip out is a gamble.
Being able to return safely, without losing a single person, is definitely something to celebrate.
However, as the thirteen-member lumberjack team approached, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan noticed that not only was there no joy on their faces, but they were full of seriousness and unease.
The two hurried to greet them, with Xia Hong directly asking.
"Father, what's wrong?"
"How long until daybreak?"
Even in Xia Ding's voice, he carried a noticeable facade of calmness, evidently gripped by extreme panic.
But Xia Hong quickly lifted his head, checked the position of the bright moon, and gave an answer.
"It should only be a quarter of an hour."
"Quick, get into the camp and have them put out the bonfires. No fires allowed."
Upon hearing this, Xia Hong's pupils dilated instantly, his face full of bewilderment.
"Father, putting out the bonfires during the day will freeze people in the camp."
It's colder during the day than at night. Even hiding in a cave without a bonfire would lead to certain death.
Xia Ding is the leader of the camp, understanding these things better than anyone. So why would he suddenly say such a thing?
"The Deceitful Monster in Redwood Ridge has emerged!"
