As before, Sento took off his emergency snowshoes, the two shared an oatmeal bar, each drank a can of soda, and found a spot to relieve themselves.
Having finished his business, Sento stood by the railcar with his arms crossed, gazing out at the icy landscape.
As the sound of rushing water echoed around him, a small piece of trivia crossed his mind.
Those who often survive in the wild, especially in freezing environments, should know that holding in urine consumes a significant amount of heat and lowers body temperature.
Therefore, when moving through such an icy environment, one must relieve themselves regularly; even if you don’t feel the urge, you must go.
Rustle…
Faint footsteps sounded from behind Sento.
He turned his head to see Ai clutching the hem of her cloak, her face redder than a tomato.
She bit her lower lip and stared at Sento for a few seconds before asking, “Sento-kun, did you hear anything just now?”
Sento blinked with a look of utter confusion.
“What sound?
I have no idea.”
His acting was so convincing that even Ai couldn’t tell if he was lying.
She could only stare at him for a few moments before turning away and whispering, “It’s good if you didn’t hear it.
Let’s keep moving.”
Seeing that Ai didn’t seem to mind much anymore, Sento breathed a small sigh of relief.
He was the one who suggested relieving themselves; after all, they had drunk a lot of water this morning and some soda while climbing the slope.
If they didn’t do it beforehand, they would definitely feel the cold later.
However, Sento hadn’t considered one thing: this place was so quiet and open that the sound of water was actually quite loud.
Walking ahead, the blush on Ai’s face wouldn’t fade for a while.
This time it wasn’t a disguise; she was truly so embarrassed she nearly fainted.
After all, she was a young girl in her prime; how could she be completely indifferent to someone hearing that kind of sound?
Fortunately, another matter soon distracted her: their subsequent travel speed saw a massive increase.
Whether walking beside the tracks or on top of them, the pace was much faster than trudging through snow in emergency snowshoes.
More importantly, it was much less exhausting.
While they weren’t exactly flying, their speed had improved from a difficult struggle to a normal walking pace.
“Not bad, this is much faster than I imagined.
If we keep this up, we might reach the Camp Office even earlier.” A smile touched Sento’s face.
Time passed minute by minute.
The sky was gradually covered by grayish-white clouds, and the light began to dim.
Although nightfall was still a long way off, the temperature dropped significantly once the sunlight weakened.
Both of them, especially Sento, could already feel a biting chill.
The two of them, who had occasionally chatted, were now silent, burying their heads and focusing solely on the journey.
Looking up again, Sento suddenly noticed that the view ahead had opened up considerably.
The sparse woods on either side had disappeared, and the occasional small hills had turned into downward-sloping basins.
Sento’s eyes lit up.
Yes, this was the familiar terrain.
When approaching the Camp Office, the area around the tracks would become flat and free of obstacles.
Just as he was about to tell Ai the good news, a shrill wolf howl suddenly rang out.
“Awoooo—”
Sento felt a chill down his spine as he saw three shadows suddenly scramble up from the slope on the left.
They were three wolves.
The leader was very sturdy, and the other two were only slightly smaller.
Judging by their size alone, Sento even wondered if they were the same species as those two scrawny wolves from before.
‘Oh no!’ Sento’s expression changed.
He had forgotten something.
In the game, animals’ perception was indeed quite poor; as long as there was a certain distance, even if a person could see them, they wouldn’t notice the person—just like those two wolves earlier.
But there were exceptions: once the distance closed to a certain point, the enemy could smell or hear you.
Even if they couldn’t see you, they could still detect the presence of other creatures.
That was the current situation.
They were walking on the tracks and couldn’t see the situation below the slopes on either side clearly.
These wolves must have been very close to the tracks, allowing them to catch the scent and charge immediately.
To reduce their load, they had long since discarded the two long wooden sticks they had picked up earlier.
Without a weapon in hand, Sento didn’t hesitate.
He pulled out a whistle and blew it hard.
When the whistle blew, it wasn’t a sharp, piercing sound, but rather a long, drawn-out howl.
Two sturdy figures leapt out of thin air like phantoms, solidifying as they hit the ground.
They were two tall Alaskan Malamutes.
One had gray and white fur, while the other was primarily black.
They were both full of spirit, their eyes bright.
Upon landing, they showed no confusion or panic.
Instead, they immediately moved in front of Ai and Sento, shielding them while baring their teeth and growling at the three charging wolves in a display of intimidation.
Based on the knowledge Sento had gathered from survival shows, two sturdy sled dogs plus two tall-looking humans should be enough to match the numbers and scare off the three wolves, or at least make them hesitate.
But the problem was that since the wolves of this world inherited the senses from the game, they were similar to the game in other aspects as well.
They were extremely aggressive and would charge to attack once they saw a target.
If they were further away, one could use gunshots or throw torches to create loud noises and bright light to drive them off.
But at close range, sometimes these methods didn’t work at all.
The same was true for these three wolves.
The sudden appearance of the two sled dogs only made them pause for a split second before all three lunged forward simultaneously.
The two sled dogs did not hesitate and lunged forward as well.
However, as they charged, Sento and Ai realized that the sled dogs were significantly smaller than the three wolves.
Furthermore, the primary abilities of sled dogs were guarding and hauling; they weren’t particularly skilled in combat.
Sento immediately made a judgment: if he let these two dogs fight the three wolves alone, they probably wouldn’t last long.
If these two dogs died, the two of them would be in serious trouble, so he had to help quickly.
But someone was even faster than Sento.
Behind him, Ai bent down and scooped up two stones about half the size of a fist.
She swung her arm with force, and the stones flew out with a whistling wind.
One stone grazed the lower back of a gray wolf, while the other accurately struck another gray wolf right on the nose!