Mercenary's War

After entering the dry season, it hadn't rained for a long time, and most of the numerous swamps on the savanna had dried up, while the grass that could grow up to waist-high during the rainy season had now become short and yellowed.

Under the scorching sun overhead, Gao Yang was painstakingly tracking a large antelope by following its hoof prints.

Indeed, Gao Yang had not died. He was extraordinarily lucky; as a city dweller, he had survived for three years in an unnamed area of grassland and tropical rainforest somewhere in Africa, far removed from modern civilization—not everyone could be so fortunate.

This was Gao Yang's third dry season in Africa, which is to say, he had been stranded in Africa for three years now.

Here, whether one could survive had nothing to do with one's skills or the items at hand; it was purely a matter of luck, or perhaps one's fate being tough enough—at least that was the case for Gao Yang.

Gao Yang's life was indeed very tough. After being bitten by a poisonous snake and despite having tried every possible remedy, he would have been a goner without assistance. Amazingly, he was fortunate to encounter a primitive tribe on the move, and that was how he lived on.

Only later did Gao Yang learn that the tribe had traditional methods to treat snake bites, and, luckily, they had managed to heal him, leaving a large scar on the palm of his left hand.

What could the methods of a primitive tribe entail? Apart from using some unknown herbs, they relied on the blessing of their gods. It was said that, under the protection of these gods, the snake venom posed no threat to Gao Yang. Ironically, the large cuts he had inflicted on himself in desperation to drain the poison nearly cost him his life.

There was no helping it; at the time, Gao Yang only feared that the poisoned blood would not expel quickly enough. Overwhelmed, he had been too harsh with his knife. To have survived under those circumstances, he felt incredibly lucky because, as he later found out, the tribal method of saving people only had a one in ten success rate.

However, the most dangerous moment for Gao Yang wasn't when he was bitten by the snake, but rather when, about a month after being rescued and just as he was able to start moving around again, he fell ill with malaria. He took all the anti-malaria medication he had with him to no effect and suffered from severe bouts of chills and fever for more than ten days, losing a considerable amount of weight, yet miraculously did not die.

In three years, Gao Yang had contracted malaria four times, seemingly experiencing every possible strain of the disease, but he always pulled through. It's uncertain whether one develops antibodies after overcame malaria or not, but this year Gao Yang had not had an attack yet, and it seemed he had escaped the nightmare of malaria.

Of course, the main reason Gao Yang had survived was the primitive tribe that saved him. Without the help of those kind people, he would have been long dead, many times over.

The tribe that saved Gao Yang was small and very primitive, comprising only seventeen people. They were essentially one large family, living a nomadic life of foraging and hunting for survival.

Gao Yang didn't know to which ethnic group the tribe belonged; he only knew the tribe's name was Akuri. He had asked the eldest person in the tribe, the Chieftain, but even he did not know which people they descended from.

Akuri tribe didn't even have the concept of ethnicity, and they had the chance to intermarry only when they encountered other tribes like themselves.

Given their extremely primitive living conditions, one could imagine the high mortality rate of the Akuri tribe. During Gao Yang's three years with them, four children were born, but three people died—the eldest being around five or six years old and the youngest having lived only two days. The oldest person in the tribe, the Chieftain, seemed to be only in his forties.

It was not that Gao Yang hadn't asked about the Chieftain's age; it was that the Chieftain himself didn't know how old he was, recalling only that he had lived through over forty rainy seasons.

Gao Yang was quite adept at learning languages, and the language of the Akuri tribe was rather simple and had a very limited vocabulary. Within three to four months, Gao Yang was able to communicate without any problems; however, the amount of information he could obtain from these primitive people was very scant.

To this day, Gao Yang didn't know in which country or specific location he was. He knew only that he was at the intersection of a tropical savanna and a tropical rainforest. Traveling north for two or three days would take him to the Sparse Tree Savanna, and heading south for the same duration would lead to the tropical rainforest. As Gao Yang was not familiar with African geography, he was completely unable to deduce his location based on the terrain.

For three years, Gao Yang thought incessantly about home, yet in all this time, he had not once encountered a trace of civilization.

The reason for his isolation from the modern world was that the Akuri tribe had relocated to avoid warfare, moving away from civilization.

The Akuri tribe had indeed been visited by people from the modern world who had brought some contemporary items as gifts, but then the war started. The armed men would kill anyone they saw, sometimes even for sport. After three hunters from the Akuri tribe were killed during an outing, the tribe began its continuous migration.

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Over the past few years, the Akuri tribe and Gao Yang had not encountered any other people, and as a result, Gao Yang had also severed all contact with the outside world. He had explored in all four directions, traveling up to seven or eight days at his farthest, but ultimately found nothing. Now, it was impossible for Gao Yang to find that river from his journey here.

During his three years with the Akuri tribe, Gao Yang went hunting daily with the tribe's people. Including Gao Yang, there were only five hunters in the entire tribe; the rest of the women and children would gather any edible plants and insects they could find. If they did not find anything, the entire tribe would have to go hungry.

Thanks to the trade with the civilized world many years ago, the Akuri tribe had metal tools. To this day, the Akuri possessed six short knives and four spears, although crudely made, they were very effective. According to the Chieftain, these were gifts from some very pale-skinned strange people.

However, when the Akuri went hunting, they primarily used bows and arrows, while knives and spears were only for dealing the final blow, and even that opportunity was rare, because most of the time the prey was already dead before needing the spears.

Now, Gao Yang and the other four hunters from the tribe were tracking an antelope that had been hit by a poison arrow.

After entering the dry season, most of the swamps that were scattered across the savanna had dried up, leaving only a few large swamps with water. These large swamps became the water source for all nearby animals, making hunting much simpler than in the rainy season. As long as one faced the threat of ferocious beasts lurking around, it was fairly easy to hit prey with a poison arrow while waiting by the swamp.

The large antelope that Gao Yang and his group were chasing had been shot near one of such swamps.

The damage caused by the bows and arrows themselves was negligible; their primary function was to serve as a vehicle for the poison applied to the arrowheads.

The poison was extracted from the larvae of a certain beetle. While lethal, the poison took some time to take effect. For slightly larger prey, it would take at least two or three hours for the poison to be fatal. The antelope they had hit this time was quite large, weighing perhaps around two hundred pounds. Despite two poisoned arrows piercing its body, it would likely take four or five hours for the poison to kill the antelope.

After being struck, the antelope would flee desperately, and it was impossible for humans to keep up with its speed, and the poison could not kill the antelope in a short time. Therefore, the hunting method of the Akuri tribe was to follow the trail of the wounded prey until it fell.

The distance of tracking could be long or short, with chasing for several tens of kilometers being quite common. In any case, they had to continue the pursuit until they found the fallen prey. Thus, while the Akuri tribe's hunting skills were not very sophisticated, their ability to track and run long distances was exceptional.

The people of the Akuri tribe could distinguish their prey's tracks from a mess of footprints and could accurately identify the direction of the fleeing prey from a few broken blades of grass. They could even estimate how much longer the prey would last based on the information revealed by the prints or other signs.

Having been with them for nearly three years, Gao Yang had also mastered the art of tracking. However, when he went hunting with the Chieftain, he rarely had the chance to showcase his skills.

They had been chasing the antelope since the early morning, and by noon, Gao Yang and the other four had been jogging in pursuit of the prey. Although they weren't moving fast, Gao Yang estimated they had covered at least thirty to forty kilometers. He was nearly at his limit, but the four men from the Akuri tribe seemed unfazed.

In the past, Gao would have been overwhelmed by the mere idea of jogging for thirty to forty kilometers, let alone walking three. However, the astonishing potential that humans can unleash under the pressure of survival was evident. At least now, Gao could run thirty to forty kilometers in one go without any problem.

Finally, the Chieftain, who was leading the way, stopped and examined the ground for a few moments before pointing in a direction.

"It's not going to last much longer, it's right over there. Let's go find it," the Chieftain said.

Relieved by the Chieftain's words, Gao Yang was quite pleased. The chase for the antelope had taken much shorter than he had anticipated, and it was always good to finish early, considering the same long distance back with the meat on their backs awaited them.

Gao Yang gasped for air, following the Chieftain and headed forward. After a kilometer or two, they found their target.

About two to three hundred meters ahead, a large antelope stood in place, staggering intermittently. Although it had not yet fallen, it was only a matter of time.

Gao Yang followed the Chieftain, leading the charge enthusiastically, waving the hunting knife in his hand and rushing toward the nearly downed large antelope. They had to hurry to avoid the antelope being snatched away by lions or leopards.

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