On Chen Mo's spear was impaled an enormous fish nearly a meter long.
It had been completely hidden behind Chen Mo's tall body earlier, and only when he set it down in front of him did everyone see it.
Since he no longer planned to continue hiding, Chen Mo had no need to be secretive anymore. The "airdrops" could be officially ended. Considering that everyone hadn't had a proper full meal in a long time, Chen Mo simply dove into the sea and caught a large fish to improve their diet—it would serve as a meeting gift.
With his physical abilities, holding his breath underwater for over ten minutes was no problem at all, and his swimming speed in the ocean wasn't much slower than an ordinary fish.
While Chen Mo wandered the seabed admiring the underwater scenery, he searched for prey large enough. Most of his time was actually spent leisurely exploring.
This fish was over a meter long and weighed more than twenty kilograms—enough for everyone to have a filling meal.
Half an hour later, the fish meat was cut into chunks, skewered on wooden sticks, and set up over the fire.
Under the flames' roasting, the fish meat's surface occasionally let out soft crackling sounds. With constant turning, it gradually became golden and appetizing. Hot steam continuously hissed from between the meat's gaps, and a rich aroma wafted out.
The two young girls squatted by the fire, eyes fixed unblinkingly on the fish meat above the flames. Smelling the drifting aroma, they swallowed from time to time.
That noon, the survivors who hadn't had a full meal since the plane crash finally experienced once again the long-missed feeling of fullness, along with the deep happiness and satisfaction that came with it.
In this difficult environment, being able to eat a full meal truly made people feel very happy. Their gratitude toward Chen Mo, who had brought them all this, went without saying.
However, Chen Mo didn't eat with them. Although his alloy armor combat suit was ingeniously designed and comfortable to wear, he couldn't eat while wearing it directly. And he couldn't show his face in front of everyone, so he could only wait until he returned to his own camp to eat.
But while everyone was busy grilling fish and eating, he wasn't idle either. After tossing them the fish, Chen Mo went into the forest alone.
Leaving everyone's line of sight and arriving before some dense trees, Chen Mo retrieved the Sword of Kings from his spatial storage, preparing to start logging mode.
But just after taking out the sword and holding it in his hand, Chen Mo paused, then put the sword back. The Sword of Kings could cut through iron like mud and made chopping trees incredibly easy. However, Chen Mo didn't think using it to cut trees was a waste—rather, it was out of caution.
After all, not knowing if rescue would come, it was best to leave as few suspicious traces as possible on this island. The cuts made by the Sword of Kings were incredibly smooth, distinctly different from ordinary swords and knives, and could easily arouse suspicion and create unnecessary trouble.
Besides, even without the Sword of Kings, breaking these small trees was effortless for Chen Mo.
Putting away the Sword of Kings, Chen Mo selected a tree with an arm's thickness and straight trunk. Walking up to it, he extended his left hand forward to grasp the trunk, formed his right hand into a blade shape, and directly chopped at the lower part of the trunk.
Without even exerting much strength, the trunk was easily severed by his armor-covered right hand. Then Chen Mo laid the tree down and directly snapped off the excess branches, leaving only a straight trunk.
What might take others considerable effort was casual and easy for Chen Mo. Tree after tree was felled by Chen Mo with a single palm strike. Then working with both hands left and right, he quickly stripped away all the branches. By the time Chen Mo felt it was enough and stopped, a pile of long, straight trunks had accumulated beside him.
After finishing the lumber, Chen Mo didn't rush back to the survivors' camp but first returned to his own tent.
Taking out roasted meat and fruit from the Underworld world from his spatial storage, after leisurely enjoying a sumptuous lunch, Chen Mo lay on the large comfortable air mattress to rest briefly before getting up and returning to the survivors' camp.
The survivors had just finished their fish feast and were now standing or sitting around the fire, faces full of satisfaction.
Seeing Chen Mo return, everyone quickly stood up, gazing at him with warm eyes.
Seeing that everyone had eaten their fill, Chen Mo nodded slightly without wasting words.
"Follow me."
Taking everyone except the old man with him, Chen Mo returned once more to where he had "cut" the trees earlier.
Looking at the large pile of arm-thick, straight and slender trunks neatly arranged before them, everyone exchanged glances, not knowing what Chen Mo meant.
"Carry all these trunks back to camp."
Under everyone's puzzled gazes, Chen Mo slowly said.
"This afternoon, we're building a house."
...
Full of curiosity and anticipation, everyone began the work of transporting lumber.
Three to four meters long and arm-thick, the trunks weren't actually that heavy. Even the two young girls Zhang Xin and Xu Qing could carry two at once with some effort, and Captain Zhao Jianmin, who had mostly recovered, could even shoulder two or three by himself.
Nobody slacked off. They made trip after trip carrying loads back and forth—quite a scene of bustling activity.
The two young girls were eager to finally be helpful and worked very hard. They didn't want to be parasites. The older sisters and uncle were complete strangers to them, yet had helped them so much. They too had to help out as much as possible.
So although by the end they were tired and could barely carry anymore, they still gritted their teeth and laboriously carried two trunks toward camp, unwilling to put one down to make it easier.
The others were also exhausted by the end, but not one person complained or slacked off, not even when outside his line of sight.
Since being stranded on the island, Chen Mo had "seen" everyone's behavior. He knew he hadn't helped the wrong people and was glad he hadn't stood by due to excessive concerns.
At least they were all people worth helping. Even if their abilities were limited, each person would do what they could to help others, sharing their already meager food with those who needed it more, while also working hard to do their assigned tasks as well as possible.
This was only possible under Chen Mo's interference, with his rules "screening" and "eliminating." Only then could they survive safely to the end. Without him, these "honest people" would definitely not fare well—to be precise, things would be very bad for them.
Through this, Chen Mo deeply felt that justice needed people to uphold it.
Left to nature's survival of the fittest, how many good people met unfortunate ends, how many evil people wreaked havoc in their domains.
He wanted to see more people like them live on safely, hoped all evildoers would receive their due punishment.
Justice needed people to uphold it, evil needed people to punish it. And Chen Mo believed he could do far more than this. Everything would start from this island!
Time passed bit by bit. With everyone's cooperation, dozens upon hundreds of trunks were finally all carried back to camp after more than ten round trips.
Chen Mo, who had returned ahead of them, had already selected a location and marked it out. Although they called it building a house, conditions were limited after all—it was really just constructing a shelter that could block wind and rain. However, compared to their original crude shelter that couldn't even be called a shack, what Chen Mo planned to build could be called a mansion.
Chen Mo had chosen a slightly elevated clearing on the east side of camp. The ground there was flat and dry, requiring little additional preparation.
After selecting the location, Chen Mo didn't immediately start work but took advantage of when no one was paying attention to retrieve an Adamantium throwing knife from his spatial storage. The knife, 25 centimeters long, 3 centimeters wide, and 5 millimeters thick, was very handy to grip and use as a dagger.
Taking over a trunk, Chen Mo used the throwing knife to sharpen one end, then placed it over the fire to char it black, doing simple carbonization treatment.
By the time the two young girls returned sweating profusely carrying the last two trunks, Chen Mo had already processed a sufficient number of trunks and officially began construction of the shelter.
Standing at the previously marked position, Chen Mo gripped a sharpened trunk with both hands, raised it high, then drove it forcefully toward the ground.
"Tssss!"
Under Chen Mo's tremendous strength, the trunk plunged deep into the ground—nearly half a meter down.
This scene left everyone beside him somewhat dumbstruck. How much strength did that take? Although the ground wasn't very hard, driving it nearly half a meter in one go was already terrifying.
Actually this was Chen Mo holding back. After all, it wouldn't do to be too shocking. His current performance was just at the level of a top strongman. Although everyone was surprised, they could still accept it and didn't think Chen Mo was non-human.
Next, Chen Mo became like a human pile driver, driving trunk after sharpened trunk deep into the soil.
Soon, the shelter's main support pillars were erected.
Then Chen Mo directed the returning group to work together, using vines to bind the other trunks at appropriate positions, connecting and securing them.
Under Chen Mo's guidance, everyone worked together. With their joint cooperation, it didn't take too long to build out the shelter's framework.
Chen Mo hadn't chosen to build a small, simple triangular or conical shelter—the internal space would be far too cramped. Since it wasn't troublesome for Chen Mo anyway, and they didn't know how long they'd be on this island, he simply built a larger one.
From the completed framework, one could see this was a large wooden house five meters by five meters, with a ridge height of 2.5 meters in the middle and 1.8 meters on the low sides—large enough to accommodate ten people resting without being too crowded.
After the framework was built, the house was already very sturdy, but it was still open to the wind on all sides. However, the major construction was complete; what remained was much simpler.
Under Chen Mo's direction, everyone gathered large quantities of leafy branches and neatly covered the framework with them, binding them securely, trying to block every gap. Especially on the roof, they covered it with a thick layer of branches and leaves.
Seven people spent the entire afternoon finally completing the shelter's construction before the sun went down.
Looking at this green, simple wooden house, everyone was extremely happy. The two young girls were so delighted they clapped their hands—finally they wouldn't have to squeeze into that cramped, drafty crude tent.
Although the wooden house was somewhat simple, it was very spacious. The thick leaves completely blocked the wind from outside, and they no longer had to worry about freezing at night.
Standing before the beautiful, spacious wooden house, no one could tell they were stranded on a deserted island. Instead, it seemed more like they were camping.
On the first day of Chen Mo officially joining them, their standard of living had a tremendous improvement.
The following days made them feel like they were in a dream.
Every day there was sufficient food, and no one ever went hungry again.
The newly built wooden house was warm at night. Each person had a simple bed, and finally they could sleep well at night.
Their food wasn't all provided by Chen Mo—he couldn't possibly go diving for fish for them every day. Fortunately, he had prepared early.
When he appeared before everyone with several fishing rods, everyone's expressions looked like they'd seen a ghost.
Hadn't they crashed? Wasn't all the wreckage burned up? How could there be fishing rods, and several of them at that!
And the dagger Chen Mo had used before couldn't possibly have been brought on the plane either. Where had it come from?
Fortunately Su Wan hadn't told them about Chen Mo's spacious military tent, comfortable air mattress, and the various fruits casually placed about. Otherwise they didn't know how shocked they'd be. Su Wan herself couldn't figure it out but didn't feel right asking Chen Mo directly, and had been quite conflicted about it.
In the end, one sentence from Chen Mo dispelled all their doubts.
"My boat sank nearby."
Chen Mo didn't explain further, but everyone filled in the blanks for him.
He was a powerful assassin who, after completing a mission and wanting to relax, had gone on a yacht vacation. The boat was equipped with complete wilderness survival supplies and various foods.
The compressed biscuits, canned food, tent, dagger, and various fruits he'd used to help them earlier were all explained.
After the boat accidentally sank nearby, he had brought some supplies and ended up on this island, just happening to encounter them after their plane crash.
As for such a coincidental probability—for people who had survived a plane crash, nothing was impossible.
With the fishing rods Chen Mo provided, the survivors could finally obtain sufficient food. And later, as everyone's fishing skills improved, they didn't even need everyone to go out. Sending out just half the people each day could basically guarantee adequate food acquisition.
No one thought there was anything wrong with Chen Mo being able to easily catch large fish while making them work hard fishing under the sun every day.
Having experienced previous hardships, they better understood how precious others' help was. No one felt everything was taken for granted or owed to them. They only had deep gratitude for Chen Mo's help.
Life now was infinitely better compared to before—something they hadn't dared even imagine before. Just being able to survive was already not easy.
However, one unfortunate thing still happened, though everyone had anticipated it.
The old man's heart disease was serious and required daily medication to maintain. Fortunately Su Wan had carried some on her person, but even rationing it carefully, it was all gone in less than a month. After that, he could only tough it out.
Even being extremely careful, attacks still occurred from time to time, his heart in excruciating pain. Ultimately he couldn't hold on to the end.
With less than a week remaining before the one-month mark when Chen Mo could traverse to the next world, the old man quietly passed away in his sleep.