"Um?"
Zhuang Rui suddenly noticed a lot of seashells on the beach, and many crabs crawling among the rocks around him. His eyes lit up, and his stomach, which had only been half full, started growling again.
Since there's food available at the beach, there's no need to rush to the island. Compared to the mysterious island, the beach seems safer, although sleeping at night might be a bit of a hassle.
However, the sun was shining brightly and it was still early before nightfall. Zhuang Rui enthusiastically took off his tattered clothes, tied up the two cuffs, and used them as pockets.
The island's climate was very pleasant. Even though he was only wearing ripped jeans, Zhuang Rui didn't feel cold at all. The sea breeze felt very comfortable on his body.
More than half an hour later, Zhuang Rui found two oysters in his sleeves, and there were also seven or eight sea urchins. Zhuang Rui had eaten these before, and the sea urchin roe was especially delicious. Looking at these spiky things, Zhuang Rui almost drooled.
"Damn it, am I really going to become a savage?"
Back by the reef, Zhuang Rui emptied the sea urchins and oysters from his clothes and was suddenly dumbfounded, realizing that he had nothing to start a fire.
"Fine, let's just treat it as seafood." Looking at the oysters and sea urchins on the ground, Zhuang Rui couldn't resist any longer. He took out Peng Fei's knife and pried open the oysters one by one. Every time he pried one open, he stuffed the oyster meat directly into his mouth.
Although it had a slightly bitter taste from the sea, it was still within Zhuang Rui's tolerance range. After eating more than a dozen, Zhuang Rui got used to the taste and ate with great relish.
However, sea urchins were a bit more troublesome, as they were covered in bristles and very difficult to deal with. In the end, Zhuang Rui found a rock and smashed the sea urchin open on the reef.
"Damn, it's so bitter? How come the food is different from what I ate before?"
Zhuang Rui put what he thought was sea urchin roe into his mouth, but couldn't help spit it out. This thing was even more bitter than bitter melon. Zhuang Rui had to drink several mouthfuls of water to rinse his mouth, and then he threw the sea urchin he was holding wrapped in his clothes far away.
Zhuang Rui had no idea that although sea urchins are delicious, they are very troublesome to process. Only a very skilled chef can separate the sea urchin roe from the viscera. The way Zhuang Rui ate it just now meant that he ate both the viscera and the roe, no wonder it tasted bitter.
Having learned his lesson, Zhuang Rui didn't touch the remaining sea urchins again. After finishing the oysters, he patted his belly comfortably and lay sprawled on the beach.
"Damn, it's so hot!"
Although he was lying in the middle of a reef, the midday sun still made Zhuang Rui feel hot all over, and his skin turned red. Helpless, Zhuang Rui could only stand up and walk towards the coconut grove not far from the beach.
This grove not only has coconut trees, but also many large trees with lush foliage and barbed branches. However, there are not many fallen leaves on the ground, only some dead branches. Presumably, the leaves have been blown away by the storm at sea.
Although the forest is dense with foliage, almost all the trees are over ten meters tall. The trees are quite sparse, and the spacing between them is completely different from that in the primeval forests of places like the Savage Mountain. Even in the forest, the view is very open.
As soon as Zhuang Rui entered the woods, the blazing sun overhead was blocked by the leaves, and he immediately felt a refreshing coolness. If he weren't worried that his hoarse voice might attract some wild beasts, Zhuang Rui would have almost howled with pleasure.
"What a fucking idiot, why didn't he come sooner..."
After entering the woods, Zhuang Rui discovered that there were many coconuts of various sizes on the ground, which must have been blown down by the strong wind. Although Zhuang Rui did not usually like to drink coconut juice, he now felt an urge to cry.
Coconut juice can be drunk directly, and coconut meat can be eaten as a meal; both are very nutritious. As long as the safety issue can be resolved, Zhuang Rui has enough patience to wait for the rescue team to arrive.
"Dude, I'm really turning into a wild man now..."
After picking up a suitable-sized rock from the reef area, cracking open two coconuts and drinking the coconut juice, Zhuang Rui thought to himself with a touch of self-deprecation.
In the history of human civilization, the biggest difference and evolution between apes and humans is that humans mastered and learned to use fire. However, Zhuang Rui took two broken stones and banged them for a long time, but not a single spark came out.
This result left Zhuang Rui feeling very frustrated. It turned out that he was not even as good as those ancestors who only knew how to use stone tools.
"Damn it, when Robinson Crusoe was down on his luck, he had a wrecked ship and some grain and liquor. How come I only have a small knife?"
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhuang Rui lay under the shade of a tree and began to daydream. The images of Ouyang Wan, Qin Xuanbing, Liu Chuan, and others kept changing in Zhuang Rui's mind.
"People must save themselves, I must survive!" Zhuang Rui suddenly jumped up, picked up a branch about the thickness of a gun barrel from the ground, and rushed towards the beach.
Chapter 827 Survival on a Deserted Island (2)
Humans in the 21st century may have similar survival experiences to those of people in the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, but in terms of knowledge and experience, people in the 21st century cannot compare to modern people.
Putting aside other things, countless adventure movies have taught Zhuang Rui many survival skills, such as burning dry branches to produce thick smoke. Of course, Zhuang Rui can't do this right now because he can't start a fire at all.
However, there is another way. Zhuang Rui is currently busy drawing a large SOS international distress sign on the open beach with tree branches.
"No, this thing is too thin..."
After drawing with a twig for a while, Zhuang Rui looked at the thin lines and shook his head. Let alone airplanes in the sky, even if they were far away, he couldn't recognize what they were.
He casually tossed aside the branch and started drawing on the sand with the soles of his feet.
The scorching sand, baked by the sun, pricked Zhuang Rui's feet like needles, causing him to grimace in pain. Although he could heal himself with spiritual energy at any time, the pain was very real.
What Zhuang Rui longed for most at that moment was the pair of sneakers he had thrown away while swimming in the sea because they were in the way. Apart from untying the shoelaces and keeping them, the shoes had sunk to the depths of the Indian Ocean.
It took Zhuang Rui more than two hours to draw three SOS letters, each 30 meters long and more than 60 meters wide, on a beach far from the sea.
After finishing the drawing, Zhuang Rui collected some dead leaves and stones from the woods and arranged them in the shape of letters. This way, even if sand were buried on top, the letters would still bulge upwards.
After all that was done, the sun slowly began to set in the west, and the sky gradually darkened. The entire island was incredibly quiet, with only the sound of waves crashing on the beach.
If it weren't for the seabirds returning from foraging on the horizon, Zhuang Rui would have thought it was a dead island.
Watching the birds fly into the island, Zhuang Rui felt a pang of envy. If he had wings, he could fly away right now, and he would be willing to be called a birdman.
Just as the sun was about to set below the horizon, the entire world suddenly turned red—a red sky, a red ocean, red islands, and red beaches.
"How beautiful!" This was Zhuang Rui's first time seeing a sunset over the sea, and he couldn't help but feel refreshed. Such a beautiful scene could probably only be seen in the deep ocean, far from the coastline.
"Oh no, I haven't prepared dinner yet..."
Zhuang Rui suddenly jumped up. If there was another storm at sea today, and it was pitch black again like yesterday, he would go hungry for a whole day. While the sun was still shining, Zhuang Rui prepared to prepare dinner.
He ran quickly back to the woods, picked up two fist-sized coconuts from the ground, and then rushed back to the beach, collecting about three or four pounds of oysters before finally returning to the rocky area near the sea, completely satisfied.
Although the woods could provide shelter from the wind and rain, Zhuang Rui was worried about wild animals coming at night, since many wild animals hunt at night.
Relatively speaking, it's safer to stay in the rocky area. After all, it's a volcanic island in the tropics, so there's no fear of getting cold at night.
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. This time, Zhuang Rui was much more skilled at prying open oyster shells. He took Peng Fei's knife, inserted it into the oyster, and with a slight twist of his wrist, the entire oyster opened.
Zhuang Rui casually rinsed the sand out of the oyster in a puddle of seawater and then popped it into his mouth. He had already drunk seawater yesterday, so he didn't care about a little bit more.
More than half an hour later, Zhuang Rui was surrounded by oyster shells and coconuts that had been smashed open with stones. Not only had Zhuang Rui drunk the coconut juice, but he had also eaten all the coconut meat. However, the taste was... really not good.
When can I go home?
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhuang Rui strolled slowly on the beach. The starlit sea was unusually calm, and apart from the rustling of the sea breeze through the distant trees, the whole world was utterly silent, which made Zhuang Rui feel a sense of loneliness.
"Robinson Crusoe had a little dog by his side back then, and later he had Friday. How come I'm so unlucky to be stranded alone on a desert island?"
Zhuang Rui kicked the beach hard, kicking up a cloud of sand that covered his face.
Zhuang Rui didn't care about his image anymore. In this godforsaken place, he was just showing off to the birds. He wandered aimlessly on the beach for three or four hours before dragging his heavy steps back to the rocky area. He found a spot that was more than a meter inward with rocks on both sides and lay down.
Looking at the starry sky above, Zhuang Rui slowly drifted off to sleep.
"Aww...woo..."
In the middle of the night, several roars of wild beasts came from the direction of the island, waking Zhuang Rui from his sleep. He took his knife and pointed it at the dark forest that looked like the gaping maw of a monster.
"Damn it, what kind of wild beast is that...?"
The sound was unlike anything Zhuang Rui had ever heard before. The more unknown something was, the more frightening it became. Could it be that there really were prehistoric animals here?
With a few more roars following, Zhuang Rui's heart gradually calmed down. The beast's cries were deep in the island, and he was on the edge of the sea, so he should be safe.
However, Zhuang Rui didn't dare to sleep that night. He waited anxiously until it was bright daylight before he finally drifted off to sleep. He was woken up by the scorching sun at noon.
"No, if this continues, I won't be able to hold on until the rescue team finds me..."
Zhuang Rui looked at his forearms, which were peeling from sunburn, and his whole body was bright red. He quickly used his spiritual energy to cleanse them, and the alarming red color slowly faded away.
After taking care of his body, Zhuang Rui immediately climbed to the highest reef and looked out to sea, but he could see nothing but the waves. When he looked back at the beach, the three huge letters SOS were still there.
After standing there blankly for a while, Zhuang Rui walked back to the beach with a disappointed look on his face and began to prepare today's food, but the unease in his heart grew stronger.
Zhuang Rui couldn't understand why, even after two days and more than 30 hours, the rescue team still hadn't found him.
Zhuang Rui was unaware that after being blown onto the sea by the storm, he was swept hundreds of kilometers by the waves, and the area he now found himself in was one of the most dangerous, mysterious, and peculiar places in the entire Indian Ocean.
This sea area is located west of the Lesser Antilles in the western Indian Ocean. Many people may not know this name, but it has another very famous name: the Caribbean Islands. Even those who have not seen the movie will be familiar with this name. Caribbean pirates roamed the seas for centuries, and their stronghold was in the Lesser Antilles.
However, the island and sea area where Zhuang Rui is located are still hundreds of nautical miles away from the Caribbean islands, and this sea area has a more famous name compared to the Caribbean islands. Of course, only people living in the Indian Ocean know this name.
This sea area has a mysterious magnetic field that blocks all communication signals, and plane crashes and shipwrecks frequently occur there. It seems to have a mysterious connection with the Bermuda Triangle.
A bizarre incident once occurred in Bermuda: a Soviet submarine was sailing underwater in the Bermuda Triangle one minute ago, but when it surfaced a minute later, it was in the Indian Ocean.
During the voyage that spanned almost half the globe, all ninety-three crew members on the submarine aged five to twenty years in an instant.
Following this incident, the Soviet military and scientific community immediately began investigating the submarine and all personnel involved. The final conclusion was that there is a high probability that a time tunnel with a faster timeline than Earth exists on Earth.
The submarine appeared in this area, which added to its mystique and made it a place of great taboo for the people living on the nearby islands.
Moreover, within a radius of over a hundred nautical miles around the area, there are numerous reefs, making it unsuitable for ship navigation. Not to mention larger ships, even small sailboats would hit the underwater reefs if they entered the area in slightly deeper water.
Throughout history, countless ships have run aground and sunk here after mistakenly entering this area.
Over time, this sea area, covering nearly 100 square kilometers, has been called the Sea of Death by the people living in the Indian Ocean. The isolated island where Zhuang Rui is now has a terrifying name: Devil's Island. It is nearly a thousand nautical miles away from the location where Zhuang Rui's plane crashed. No one knows how Zhuang Rui got here, almost spanning the eastern and western Indian Oceans. So even though the maritime rescue fleet has repeatedly expanded the search area, it still cannot find this place. Of course, the unfortunate Zhuang Rui is unaware of all this. He still greets the sunrise and bids farewell to the sunset on the beach, waiting for the arrival of the rescue team. However, every day he is met with disappointment.
Soon, the third day passed. The island remained the same, and the waves continued to lap at the beach. The planes and ships that Zhuang Rui had been hoping for never appeared.
Four days have passed, and the oysters Zhuang Rui is eating have become tasteless. However, he has mastered the skill of separating sea urchins, adding another dish to his repertoire.
Five days have passed, and even with the nourishment of spiritual energy, Zhuang Rui is still tanned like an Indian Ocean native, his entire body a deep black.
By the sixth day, Zhuang Rui had walked around the island. According to his estimate, the island's area was at least several tens of square kilometers.
Chapter 828 Survival on a Deserted Island (3)
A week passed quickly. For the first few days, Zhuang Rui would stand on the reef and look around, waiting for the rescue team to arrive. However, every day he was met with endless disappointment.
Moreover, life by the sea has become increasingly difficult, because every few days there will be a severe storm.
The night before last, the sea level suddenly rose, and Zhuang Rui, who was nestled among the rocks, was awakened by the icy seawater. If Zhuang Rui hadn't reacted quickly and clung tightly to the rocks, he would probably have already been swallowed up by the deep Atlantic Ocean and become shark food.
In Zhuang Rui's eyes, the raging and unrestrained sea was like a monster that might swallow him whole at any moment. His fear of the ocean now surpassed that of the mysterious island.
Another reason was the food. Although he ate fresh oysters and drank pure natural coconut juice every day, which is a lifestyle that modern people pursue, Zhuang Rui's stomach finally started to rebel after three days of eating like that. He had diarrhea so badly that he was in ecstasy but couldn't stop.
For the next few days, Zhuang Rui didn't dare to eat seafood anymore and could only fill his stomach with coconut juice and coconut meat. His mouth was so bland that he almost ate bird's nest. Looking at the seabirds that flew over the beach every day, Zhuang Rui wished he could grow wings and catch them one by one to roast and eat.
After spending a week at the beach without encountering a rescue team, and knowing that staying on the beach wasn't a solution, Zhuang Rui made up his mind to explore the isolated island.
Based on what Zhuang Rui knew from movies, there are generally no large predators on isolated islands in the sea. Perhaps he misheard the night before.
However, Zhuang Rui still had a lot of preparations to make before entering the island. The first was naturally weapons. Without something to defend himself, Zhuang Rui dared not venture deep into the island.