"Mwahahaha! Not bad, not bad—this really is a great spot!"
On a smooth stone slab, chunks of wolf meat sizzled and popped, dripping fat like a teppanyaki grill. It wasn’t that Jill Young or Max Easton had the leisure to invent primitive teppanyaki—this place came with its own natural Lava Grill!
Now, when I say Lava Grill, I don’t mean they’re actually tossing meat straight into magma—Jill Young isn’t that hardcore. Here’s how it works:
Even though this space looks like it has wind, clouds, and sunlight in the "sky," it’s really buried deep underground, with scorching lava flows running all around. Because the metal content in the rocks varies, some spots conduct heat especially well—just like a furnace.
Since the woods here are too damp to start a fire, Max Easton spent his early days gnawing on raw meat like a caveman. It wasn’t until he stumbled on this natural stone slab grill that he finally got to enjoy cooked food again.
Max Easton, desperately trying to escape his fate as the southeast branch’s hanger-on, confessed everything he could, offering up anything useful—heck, he even threw his knees in for good measure. Jill Young responded by declaring that, from now on, everything here belonged to her.
As a reward for Max’s good attitude, Jill Young decided to "give you a shot—stick with me from now on," officially recruiting him as her loyal sidekick. Right now, Max was hard at work hacking up the black wolf, carefully grilling each chunk on the stone slab.
The first piece to hit the grill was black wolf breast—about the size of a palm, freshly sliced by Jill herself. It hadn’t been cooking long before an incredible aroma filled the air. "I’ve grilled plenty of meat, but why does this piece smell so amazing?" Max wondered, still respectfully presenting the finished meat to Jill Young: "Your Majesty, it’s ready—please enjoy!"
Jill Young just grunted noncommittally, took the meat, and popped it in her mouth. With a gulp, the chunk slid straight down into her belly.
Max watched Jill’s dazed expression, feeling seriously nervous. After a long pause, Jill finally broke into a smile, clapped Max on the shoulder, and said, "Tastes great—really, it’s fantastic!"
Max Easton grinned awkwardly. "Your Majesty, let me get you a piece of loin. The loin is always the tastiest part of a beast."
"No need, I'm already full from this piece. The rest is yours, eat as much as you want, and take any leftovers with you."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Max snapped to attention, then dove onto the stone grill, devouring and gulping down food. But after a couple bites, he wondered—why did this meat taste so bland and empty? It was all wolf, but the piece Jill Young had eaten smelled way better.
And how did this woman get full from just a tiny piece? Heard those Easterners are crazy about dieting—looks like it's true. Just wait till she faints from hunger and can't move her arms and legs... hehehe...
But enough about Max's little schemes—Jill Young felt absolutely energized. After some experimenting, she realized her idea worked: using the Dragon Elephant Method to concentrate the essence of flesh and blood into one chunk. She could eat it or soak in it, whatever she wanted. Best of all, she discovered the side profile in her right palm actually boosted the absorption speed!
Normally, Jill's method of gathering all the essence into a palm-sized piece took ages and a ton of effort. In the end, it wasn't much faster than making soup or taking a meat bath. But when the side profile kicked in, the speed shot up—she finished a whole wolf in ten minutes! Jill was thrilled.
After absorbing the essence, Jill felt like her Dragon Elephant Method was running on jet fuel—way faster than when she was Jack Young.
"Wild beasts really are the best. Back on Earth, hunting one would probably be illegal, but here? I can hunt as many as I want! I'm starting to like this place—Max!"
"Here!" Max instantly dropped his wolf leg and stood at attention.
"Two tasks for you. First, take me hunting for wild beasts."
"Uh, Your Majesty, some of the beasts here are seriously fierce. I might not be able to handle them..."
"Whether you can handle them or not is my problem. Just follow orders."
"Yes!"
"Second, I feel like always throwing rocks at you isn't ideal..."
"Long live Her Majesty!" Max was overjoyed—was she finally developing some humanity?
"...It's just hard to find rocks. There's dirt everywhere, but not many stones. So to make things easier, I want you to start teaching me English. Remember, start simple, stuff I can actually understand." Jill shoved a Chinese dictionary into Max's arms. "If you say stuff I can't follow, I'll still beat you up."
"Yes, ma'am..." Max thought, This woman is a total demon—best not to mess with her.
That day, Jill decided to build her own treehouse higher up on the same tree as Max's. Of course, the tree was naturally full of holes, but finishing it would still take some time. So, to speed things up, Jill announced two policies: First, Max would do the building. Second, until it was finished, Jill would live in Max's treehouse, and Max would have to figure something out for himself.
"If I catch you sneaking in while I'm sleeping..." Jill's face darkened, her eyes gleaming red like a predator.
"I swear I wouldn't dare!" Max broke into a sweat and dropped to his knees in worship.
And so, Jill settled down for now in this ancient underground space.
Max had been surviving here for ages, scrambling for his life every day, and had built up a pretty strong body. All that running from predators and chasing prey had toughened him up—he’d be a force to reckon with in any city. Too bad strength is relative; here, he’s just Jill’s errand boy.
"Listen up! Our goal is to hunt wild beasts—the wilder the better. No weaklings, got it?"
This chapter isn’t over yet ^.^, click next page to keep reading!
"Got it, Your Majesty!" Max grabbed a vine shield in his left hand and a wooden spear in his right, looking just like a warrior from the Stone Age. Jill finally got some decent clothes—loose, sporty gear and sturdy hiking boots. She swung her machete. "Let’s go!"
In this wild space, Jill figured the best way to find beasts was to head for water. Max, the local expert, thought the same, so he led Jill through dense woods to a pond. One side of the pond was a roaring waterfall, crashing down from a high cliff into the water below.
"This waterfall is the biggest water source here. Inside the cave behind it is an underground river, and the river’s source is an even bigger waterfall. I fell into this underground world from that giant waterfall," Max said, looking at the falls with a face full of traumatic memories.
"You mean—you fell?" Jack squinted at Max. "You tumbled all the way from the surface, two thousand kilometers, and survived?"
"Yeah, I free-fell down a volcano shaft for a long time."
"Two thousand kilometers of acceleration and you didn’t die? Even hitting the water should’ve turned you into mush!"
"Once you hit near the speed of sound, air resistance gets crazy, so you stop accelerating. Plus, the lower part of the volcano shaft has condensation, kind of like—well, like lube, so I slid down nice and smooth."
"Could you maybe pick less creepy metaphors?"
"Since the water flowed slower than I did, it slowed me down, and I hit the pond at the same speed as the waterfall. I got lucky I didn’t smash into any rocks on the way down. That ride was wild—way longer than any skydive or bungee jump. I wanna do it again sometime, hahaha!"
"Yeah, in every sense, you’re pretty hardcore." Jill patted Max on the shoulder. "If freaks don’t die, they’ve got a future. By the way, your brain didn’t get scrambled, did it?"
"Of course my brain’s fine! Speaking of which, how did you end up here?" Max finally worked up the nerve to ask. "How’d you show up in my trap?"
"Me? Ahem, well, since you asked, I'll be merciful and tell you." Jill put on her most serious face. "I'm a warrior from the future. In the future, robots rebel and humans barely survive under their slaughter and enslavement. Our leader, John Connor, sent me back in time to stop it all. A flash of light, and here I am. Got it?"
"Uh..." Max blinked for a long time. "Oh... got it..."
"Thoughts?"
"I'm thinking about how to get this intel out to warn the authorities about computers." Max stroked his chin, deep in thought. "But getting them to believe us will be tough. We’ll need a foolproof plan."
"Actually, I was totally making that up—which means your brain really did get scrambled."
Smack! Max slapped his own forehead, his face covered in cartoonish black lines.
"How I got here isn’t your business. Honestly, I don’t even know myself—one blink and I was in your trap." Jill looked around. The quiet woods didn’t look like there were any big beasts around. "So, are there really wild beasts nearby?"
"Not around here. There aren’t many herbivores in the woods, so this area’s pretty safe—a good spot for a bath." Max pointed downstream. "Follow the river and you’ll reach the grasslands. That’s where the black devils run wild."
(It’s May Day, everyone’s on vacation, so why am I stuck in this backwater…)