The two days of travel did not cover much distance; the wandering man of the wilderness estimated that he had walked about forty kilometers in a straight line. His own satellite positioning system had already failed, so he could only rely on his instincts to head south. Wang Ping's reasoning was straightforward: if the civilization of this society was regressing, then the human ability to withstand cold should also be regressing. Therefore, the farther south he went, the higher the likelihood of encountering humans. Another reason was that he noticed the villagers' tracks led eastward, so to avoid those fierce-looking fellows, he chose a path different from theirs.

Over the past few days, Wang Ping gradually got used to using his current body. He could manage a light jog, and jumping and dodging posed no problems. However, whenever Wang Ping tried to exceed a jogging pace and move faster, the auxiliary computer would prompt him about insufficient power output, which frustrated the wandering man of the wilderness.

Wang Ping initially estimated that he would encounter a village or something similar within a few days, but after walking through the wilderness for two days, he saw no sign of human presence, not even a single animal.

As the sky grew darker, Wang Ping found a small hill and sat down. During the previous two nights, he had made small campfires, but over the past two days, he hadn't seen any animals that frightened him. Considering his current body, even a wolf could only bite off some camouflage paint and wouldn't harm him, so he decided not to light a fire.

When the sun's rays finally disappeared below the horizon, the sandstorm that had blown for two days finally subsided, revealing a clear autumn night sky to Wang Ping. The silence of the wilderness and the starry sky, brilliant, crystal-clear, and mysterious, defied description. Such a pristine sky should not have been visible to humans, as pollution and poor atmospheric refraction in Wang Ping's time had obscured the beautiful stars. Enraptured by the pure sky, Wang Ping momentarily forgot his past, his confusion, and his purpose, wishing to engrave this moment deeply in his memory.

Wang Ping's vision and hearing were much sharper than those of a normal person. Even with reduced functionality, the military would not have compromised these senses, which was one reason he was drawn to the stars. After an undetermined amount of time, Wang Ping was startled awake by a strange sound, faint and seemingly coming from beneath his feet.

'In this world, anything is possible, isn't it?' Wang Ping pondered, not realizing that he had started to prefer using interrogative or rhetorical tones in his speech and thoughts, perhaps because the strangeness of this world was too overwhelming?

The sound continued, seemingly harmless, but the wandering man of the wilderness did not let down his guard. Having 'died' once upon awakening, Wang Ping understood the terrifying nature of this world.

$：/Select?

/Cycle Bio-Magnetic Field Scan

$：/Cycle Bio-Magnetic Field Scan Start

/Humanoid Lifeform Search ———— Maximum Range 1000 Meters

/Value: 0

The auxiliary computer system is very convenient to use. Strictly speaking, as long as this bionic body operates for one day, the computer system runs for twenty-four hours. All Wang Ping needs to do is use specific brainwave activities to invoke its shell. While Wang Ping doesn't fully understand what "shell" means and dislikes English, he hasn't bothered to study why a Chinese system would use an English word for invocation. Whenever he thinks of this word, the prompt "$: /Select?" appears in front of him. Then, by thinking of the relevant commands, the auxiliary computer system can execute various functions.

However, the functions available are currently very limited.

/Cycle Bio-Magnetic Field Scan ——— /Lifeform Search /Range 5 Meters

$：/Cycle Bio-Magnetic Field Scan Start

/Lifeform Search ——— Maximum Range 10 Meters

/Value: 1

'Something is underfoot!' Wang Ping dared not be careless. He hurriedly walked down the slope. Since the scanning system's precision is poor, it can only distinguish between 'humanoid' and 'non-humanoid' concepts, with no additional reference data in the identification database. Despite his dissatisfaction, the wandering man of the wilderness couldn't demand more. After lying in bed for so many years, he was content just to be able to walk and jump now.

Ideas and reality often have a gap, sometimes a significant one. Wang Ping was fine standing still, but as soon as he took two steps, his feet gave way, and the entire soil layer collapsed beneath him!

Does falling into a pit hurt? Of course, it does! It was only then that Wang Ping remembered there was a setting in the auxiliary computer system to disable pain nerve transmission. He thought it unnecessary to turn it off and didn't bother with it. Now, it was too late to regret, as the electromagnetic skin precisely transmitted the signal to the computer system, which then accurately and continuously stimulated his brain with pain.

'Really unlucky! Who designed this! The pain lasts so long! Sicko!' Wang Ping's first reaction after landing at the bottom of the pit was to quickly adjust the sensitivity of the pain nerve transmission to the lowest level. He didn't dare to completely turn it off, though, in case he was attacked by something and didn't realize it, which would be even more dangerous.

Wang Ping watched the dust fly around the pit and instinctively covered his nose with his left hand, waving his right hand to disperse the dust. Then he realized that the dust filter in his nose was much more effective than his hand. He hadn't modified the intensity of odor molecule stimulation, which is why the earthy smell was so strong.

On either side of the pit, there were black holes, indistinct in the moonlight. Wang Ping was not so bored as to explore them; he believed the chances of dying inside were much higher than finding any treasure books or magical artifacts.

While Wang Ping didn't want to enter, it didn't mean that nothing wanted him to. The wandering man of the wilderness completely forgot to scan again to check if the lifeform was still there and began to think about how to climb out of the pit. He didn't notice a thin "rope" quietly wrapping around his foot several times and then tightening with a fierce pull!

Wang Ping only felt his feet being pulled by some force, and before he could even shout in surprise, he was dragged into the cave!

The ground inside the cave was uneven and coated with a slippery grease. Several times, Wang Ping tried to brace himself against the cave walls with his hands, but the grease made him slip and fail. More infuriatingly, the further he was pulled in, the more the grease accumulated, and the size of the cave prevented him from sitting up to untie the "rope." Wang Ping also attempted to spread his legs to break free, but he was again reminded of the insufficient power output.

In the end, Wang Ping had to give up and curl his body to protect himself from injury. Although he was confident in his body, he couldn't be sure that this long-unused bionic body wouldn't malfunction. The more sophisticated something is, the more vulnerable it is to impacts, and Wang Ping understood this well.

The tunnel wasn't very long. After the initial few meters of strong and rapid dragging, the speed slowed down, possibly because there was less grease at the entrance, preventing Wang Ping from breaking free of the "rope." The wandering man of the wilderness estimated that he had been dragged about ten meters. Based on the angle of the tunnel and the depth of the large pit, he was now approximately four meters underground. Then, Wang Ping stopped, seemingly arriving at a larger space.

Wang Ping tried to feel around him. His tactile sensors told him that the area was about one and a half meters wide, two meters long, and half a meter high. There was another opening under his feet, and it seemed to be covered with some kind of fungal substance.

/Detected High Concentration of Chemical Substances

$: /Activate Free Molecule Collector? Yes/No

/No

Wang Ping knew he didn't have any free molecule collector, but it was enough to detect dangerous chemicals. He was confident in the filters on his body, and since his brain was the only part that needed oxygen, according to the auxiliary computer system, even if he shut down the oxygen collection system, the internal oxygen storage would be sufficient for intense brain activity for twenty minutes.

Wang Ping clumsily turned over, intending to crawl back the way he came. However, he found the grease extremely troublesome. His current "strength" was insufficient, and his weight was heavy, so his efforts to climb out only resulted in him sliding down further. Fortunately, there were ridges on the sides of the downward slope that he could use to brace himself.

After struggling for a while, Wang Ping confirmed that climbing up was hopeless. He decided to slide down the slope instead, determined to find out what was causing the trouble!

This time, he only slid about three meters before landing in a larger space. Here, Wang Ping could stand semi-upright and move around. With no light, his visual system, which was only about twice as sensitive as a normal person's and lacking military-grade night vision equipment, was of little help. He decided to use the bio-magnetic field system to scan for life signals within ten meters. The result surprised and alarmed him.

More than thirty non-human signals and one humanoid signal! Is there a living person here?

Wang Ping remained silent, continuing to feel around. He didn't know what sounds might attract. The space was small, and around where Wang Ping had landed, there was a pile of bones. He couldn't tell if they were human or animal bones, but the wandering man of the wilderness preferred to believe they were animal bones. Continuing to feel around, Wang Ping discovered some smooth objects, roughly the size of ordinary dogs, weighing about five or six pounds each. They felt like rats, warm and wriggling in his hands but making no noise.

'It seems I was dragged into the cave by some kind of rat, and the thing that caught my foot was probably a rat's tail?' Wang Ping was puzzled. 'Can rats get this big? Doesn't matter! Anything can happen in this world! First, I need to find a way out!'

Wang Ping knew the large rats weren't in the cave, or else they would have attacked him by now since he was near their nest. He knew the entire cave was coated with the slippery grease, but he wasn't panicked. Knowing it was some kind of rat made things easier to handle. After all, if his "military-grade product" could be damaged by even extra-large rats, the designers would have committed suicide.

'If only I had a sharp object. Something like a climbing axe,' Wang Ping thought. Then he remembered the thick bones he had felt earlier. Could he knock two bones together to create sharp bone spikes?

Time was of the essence! Wang Ping reassured himself that the large rats couldn't harm him, but he couldn't determine how many there were. The small creatures gathered together, and in the darkness, it was impossible to estimate their numbers, let alone the number of large rats. What if a dozen of them tore him apart? Or if they couldn't tear him, pulling on his limbs with their tails would be equally distressing.

There were plenty of bones, and breaking them wasn't difficult, but the sound of smashing bones made Wang Ping uneasy. Just as he had fashioned a somewhat sharp bone pick, he heard an even more chilling sound.

"Help... me..."