Humans who wish to survive in the wilderness need a few things in addition to the most basic material conditions…

First, a healthy body.

Second, a strong psychological endurance.

Third, sufficient survival knowledge.

Only those who possess these three qualities are qualified to compete with nature in a harsh environment.

And now, the character that Feng Bujue is playing obviously doesn't meet the requirements…

The second and third points may not be much to Brother Jue; mentality and wisdom are his own things. The problem lies in the first point – a healthy body.

Feng Bujue originally thought… that the people who came to participate in this show shouldn't be addicted to the point of being hopeless, but now, after experiencing it firsthand, he understands… Drug addicts, let alone surviving in the wilderness, even if you let them stay in a relatively comfortable civilized world, they are just a pile of mud that can't do anything.

"Ha… huff… freaking…" At this moment, Feng Bujue was panting heavily, staggering through the jungle, "After walking for twenty minutes, I've only gone this little distance…" He glanced at the game menu again, "But my stamina has already dropped by a thousand points…"

Brother Jue leaned against a tree, panting, "Huff… my stamina is worse than the average person, and much worse…" He shook his head, "The worst thing is… this 'withdrawal reaction' just won't stop… ha… ah~" As he spoke, he yawned, and at the same time… tears, saliva, and mucus flowed freely.

"Ugh—spit!" Brother Jue spat out the unknown salty liquid in his mouth and wiped his face with his sleeve. "Huff… this won't do… it's getting more and more uncomfortable. Dizziness, chills, fever… I can tolerate these; but the soreness in my limbs is gradually turning into numbness, and the nausea in my stomach is developing into pain… these are not good signs; and this huge amount of sweating… will lead to excessive water loss…"

Feng Bujue understood that he had two choices at the moment: first, rest in place and use willpower to endure the peak of this withdrawal reaction; second, find something to relieve his addiction as soon as possible and alleviate the physical pain.

"Well… although I really want to choose a more proactive strategy…" Brother Jue's vision was a bit blurry at the moment, but he still tried his best to observe his surroundings, trying to find some clues, "But there doesn't seem to be any clue nearby…"

Just as he was about to sit down, suddenly…

"Neigh, neigh—" Two low animal whines came from the forest.

Feng Bujue didn't dare to be careless and immediately looked towards the source of the sound.

However, what came into his view made him wonder… if he was hallucinating due to the drug addiction.

Clop, clop… clatter, clatter…

The animal slowly moved its hooves, walking past Brother Jue. It didn't show any interest in the human not far away, nor did it show any fear.

"Are you kidding me…" Feng Bujue thought he was seeing things and quickly rubbed his eyes, but the facts proved… he was not mistaken.

The animal that strolled past him was a quagga (once distributed in South Africa, extinct in 1883. Its whole body was brownish-yellow, no different from an ordinary solid-colored horse, only its head, neck, and shoulders had zebra stripes).

"What kind of horse is this…" Brother Jue knew very little about this extinct animal and had never seen it before, so he complained in his heart, "This horse's house must be a mess…"

As he thought, he had already picked up his military shovel, quietly circled to the side and rear of the horse, and slowly approached.

"Brother Horse, don't blame me…" Feng Bujue whispered to himself, "After I take you down, my three-day supply of rations will be in hand. Solving the food problem at the beginning of the competition will undoubtedly give me a great advantage. And the extra food can also be used as a bargaining chip for trading with others…"

As he spoke, he had approached within two meters of his prey.

Just as Brother Jue was about to strike, but hadn't yet… suddenly, the quagga seemed to sense something. The next second, it raised its head and neighed, and ran away.

The 350-kilogram guy shot out with lightning speed, turned and sprinted, and disappeared into the forest… In the blink of an eye, it was gone, and only a few faint hoofbeats remained in his ears.

At this moment, Feng Bujue suddenly realized… that his actions just now were extremely dangerous. In case his first strike failed (which was very likely given the physical condition of a drug addict), and instead injured and angered this beast that weighed more than four times a human, then he would be in big trouble… Being knocked over or bitten would be considered light, if the horse turned around and kicked him, he would probably die on the spot…

"This is bad…" Brother Jue covered his forehead with one hand, trying to adjust his breathing, "It seems that the 'withdrawal reaction' has already affected my thinking…"

At this point, Feng Bujue realized the true horror of the [Withdrawal Reaction] – its symptoms not only brought about superficial discomfort, but even affected the nervous system.

For example, in those three minutes just now, Feng Bujue's "memory and behavior" were interfered with… his brain's memory, attention, calculation, and judgment all experienced a temporary decline. His thinking became sluggish and dull, accompanied by phenomena of memory confusion.

This led to… during that time, he subconsciously believed that he still possessed unrestricted combat abilities. That's why he unthinkingly picked up the military shovel and wanted to kill a horse…

Of course, the thought interference effect of the [Withdrawal Reaction] would not disappear either…

This deBuff is actually very interesting – it has randomness, stages, and uncertainty. Although it includes all the reactions of drug addiction, these effects will not all occur at once.

Anyway… every few minutes to a dozen minutes, its effect will change, as to how it changes… only heaven knows. The next time it changes, maybe it will only have "loss of appetite," a harmless effect; but it is also possible… that seven or eight effects will occur at the same time, just like the state that Brother Jue is currently experiencing.

"Well… in that case, I can't stop to rest even more…" Feng Bujue thought for about a minute, and then decided to continue moving forward, "I must find a marijuana stash as soon as possible… otherwise I'll become an idiot…" He didn't know that this deBuff had a changing effect, and only thought that the situation would continue to worsen…

So, Brother Jue cheered up again, concentrating as much as possible, and staggered into the depths of the forest.

After walking for another five minutes or so, his stamina had dropped to 17344600; and the effect of the "withdrawal reaction" was refreshed at this moment.

"What's going on… after walking for a while, I feel a little better." Feng Bujue, who was freed from thought interference, quickly realized this, "Could it be… that the effect of this deBuff will… damn it!"

At this moment, he didn't suddenly understand, but was interrupted by a sudden stench.

"A corpse…" Feng Bujue's first reaction was this.

His reaction also represents the reaction that the vast majority of players would have… Any player who has been in Thriller Paradise for a period of time basically has the ability to instantly identify the smell of corpses and blood (whether in the game or in reality), in a sense, it can be regarded as mastering a skill…

"Heh… that's great…" Brother Jue wasn't surprised but delighted when he smelled the stench. He immediately quickened his pace and ran towards the source of the smell.

Unsurprisingly, he found a corpse next to a large tree a few dozen meters away.

It was a male corpse, wearing only a pair of shorts and handcuffs on his wrist. At this moment, the corpse was already quite rotten, and there were traces of animal bites on the flesh of the body.

"Death by suffocation… decomposition green patches… abdominal distension… no human footprints nearby…" When Feng Bujue examined the corpse, a lot of information flashed through his mind and was instinctively transformed by him into clues like jigsaw puzzle pieces, "Two kinds of bite marks, one after the other… hyena… unknown creature… scavenger?"

In just a few dozen seconds, Brother Jue had initially completed the survey of the scene, and he spat unhappily, "Tch… it's too hot, and the corpse has been destroyed by wild animals… now it's hard to judge the time and cause of death…" At this time, he couldn't help but say, "Alas… if Xiao Tan was here, after all, he's a professional…"

"Wait…" Two seconds later, Feng Bujue was slightly startled, "Humph… why am I analyzing those things… this is a TV show." Thinking of this, he suddenly understood, "The entire island is under the surveillance of the production team, and everything on the island… is naturally arranged by the production team."

After figuring this out, Brother Jue re-examined the corpse in front of him, and sure enough, he found something, "Heh… so that's it. No wonder there are only the footprints of wild animals nearby, but not his own…" His expression changed slightly, "This corpse was moved here by someone… and those movers cleaned up their footprints before leaving."

"Then… what is the production team's intention in putting a male corpse here… what information do they want to convey to the contestants…" Feng Bujue lightly stroked his forehead and bridge of his nose with his fingers, thinking, "Well… the posture of the corpse is obviously meaningless, they should have known that he would most likely be moved by wild animals when they left the corpse here." He paused, and then said, "According to this idea… methods of providing clues such as tattoos, blood writing, and carving words into the flesh are undoubtedly unreliable, after all, no one can predict where the wild animals will bite."

In the end, Feng Bujue's sight locked onto two things – the shorts, and the handcuffs.