Early the next day, which was the sixth day after the spaceship landed.
Chen Ming once again put on his Protective Suit and picked up his pistol.
He planned to continue the hunting job left unfinished from yesterday.
The events of yesterday and his thoughts before sleep didn't affect him much.
Because Chen Ming knew well that hunting could very well end up empty-handed.
If he hunted animals already infected, at worst, he'd just regard it as a failed hunt.
As long as there's one successful hunt, the benefits gained would surely outweigh honestly farming by the spaceship.
As for the potential virus.
Since it can't be airborne, as long as Chen Ming protects himself from injury, ensures his drinking water is boiled, and maintains sanitary and disinfection work inside and outside the spaceship daily.
He can basically treat it as non-existent; only during hunting might it suddenly make him feel a bit sick.
So ultimately, hunting is definitely better done than not.
Besides, while reinforcing the fence yesterday afternoon, he took some time to use the purple elongated leaves from chopped trees to weave a very crude camouflage suit.
Having made it with effort, he couldn't not use it.
Chen Ming put on the camouflage suit over his Protective Suit, looked at the marked map on his terminal, and headed to the river.
The river's clear water again showed no fish, but this time Chen Ming saw many shell-covered animals.
They were oddly-shaped and moved extremely fast in the sand, vanishing into the riverbed's silt in the blink of an eye, leaving Chen Ming with no desire to catch them.
Chen Ming continued along the river for a distance, glancing at the map.
He was almost at the location.
Just a short way ahead was a spot he had specifically noted on the map.
This was where, a few days ago, Chen Ming noticed being heavily populated with animal footprints when passing by the river.
Such footprints by the river likely indicated it was a watering spot for these animals.
Once at the site, Chen Ming looked for a tree nearby and climbed it.
Then, what he had to do was wait.
Wait for any potential animals to come for water, and then see what fate had in store.
After scaring off animals that left visible footprints, it was obviously harder to track the remaining ones.
Chen Ming might find himself tracking footprints, realizing too late that the prey had already noticed him, the tracker.
He wasn't a professional hunter, had no specialized hunting knowledge, and knew no hunting techniques.
Thus, this sort of ambush hunting was clearly more suited to him.
At least his task was simple: wait for the animals, then shoot when they come.
The temperature control inside the Protective Suit made waiting outdoors in the warm early autumn not difficult.
Otherwise, he would have given up halfway while moving bodies yesterday.
Now he just needed to perch on the tree, much easier than yesterday.
He even brought his terminal out, so while waiting for prey he could read those books on it, not wasting time.
Time quickly passed over two hours.
As Chen Ming was engrossed in the terminal's books.
From across the river, an animal suddenly emerged from the bushes.
It had a pair of curved horns, slender body, and purple fur mixed with light purple spots, seemingly a type of antelope.
It really came.
Inside, Chen Ming was slightly surprised, having expected needing to squat here for several more days to see animals come for water, but was fortunate.
He gently moved his arms unstirred for two hours, slowly raised the terminal, and snapped a photo of the antelope.
Checking the results.
The antelope was called a Purple Flower Antelope, a herbivorous, social creature.
With the information he sought known, Chen Ming immediately put away the terminal.
He raised his pistol, aiming at the Purple Flower Antelope, with his finger on the trigger.
Chen Ming didn't rush to shoot, keeping calm, and waited quietly.
After the first Purple Flower Antelope peeked from the bushes and confirmed no animal danger around it.
Soon, more Purple Flower Antelopes gradually emerged from the woods.
The herd quickly gathered by the riverbank, while the first antelope stood alone at a distance on alert.
The others began drinking water in groups.
In this process, none of them noticed Chen Ming in the trees on the other side.
Now was the best time.
Chen Ming aimed his gun at the largest antelope in the drinking herd.
He slowed his breathing and, as it lowered its head to drink, pulled the trigger.
The silencer produced a deep sound, and the .45 caliber bullet pierced through the Purple Flower Antelope's body, passing through its lungs.
The pain made it leap up and dash into the woods.
In those brief seconds, Chen Ming clearly saw blood foaming from its mouth and nose.
The nearby few Purple Flower Antelopes quickly followed the injured one into the woods.
But a bit farther away, their reaction wasn't so quick; as the leader didn't alarm them, they kept drinking.
This gave Chen Ming a second chance to shoot.
His second shot swiftly fired.
Once again accurately hitting an antelope's chest cavity.
This time, stimulated by pain, it dashed mindlessly into the river, struggling briefly before stilling.
Blood gradually spread in the river.
The violent splashing and spreading scent of blood frightened the Purple Flower Antelope herd completely, making them flee, kicking up dust.
Chen Ming found it hard to aim steadily then; shooting a moving target is vastly harder than a stationary one, especially with dust obscuring view,
so he could only aim roughly, pulling the trigger repeatedly, emptying the magazine.
This round of shooting made two more antelopes collapse.
Including the previous two, there were four Purple Flower Antelopes, about the size of wolves, which would suffice for Chen Ming's consumption for quite some time if they didn't spoil.
Chen Ming reloaded his pistol, nervously waded across the river.
And found the floating Purple Flower Antelope's body.
Seeing the corpse's state, Chen Ming finally showed a slight smile.
The body wasn't decayed.
He quickly dragged it to the riverbank, then continued into the woods.
Following a few obvious blood trails, about a hundred meters away he found the other three Purple Flower Antelope bodies, also unspoiled.
Suppressing his inner joy and with some tension, Chen Ming cracked open their skulls by the river.
Confirming their brains showed no decay signs.
Chen Ming finally completely relaxed.
The first hunt was a success.