"Don’t worry, we will definitely abide by your rules."

Adam smiled, breaking the somewhat tense atmosphere.

He looked at Hua Yun and said, "Both of you are old friends of mine, I wouldn’t do anything that you only see in movies."

Fred followed up, "Chen Wen, you’re amazing, I’ll listen to you."

Even though the words were few, Fred’s meaning was clear.

As long as the team belonged to Chen Wen, he would listen to Chen Wen.

The others could cooperate, but following them wouldn’t be practical.

Dennis nodded, feeling that Chen Wen targeted him somewhat more.

After all, Fred and Adam were already familiar with Chen Wen, only he was relatively unfamiliar.

He smiled and said, "Don’t worry, I will also follow your rules."

Hua Yun didn’t speak; after all, she had a very close relationship with Chen Wen.

The two were rivals and also friends. Hua Yun was the guide for Chen Wen joining the association, and Chen Wen helped Hua Yun obtain the vice-president qualification.

With their relationship, trust was naturally beyond question.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Chen Wen then restrained his momentum and said amiably, "With everyone saying this, I’m relieved, of course, joining my team means following rules, but there’re also advantages compared to other teams."

"For one thing, my crested hawk can help us find prey and even warn us in advance. Later, I’ll teach everyone some gestures and whistles that the hawk can understand. You can also use the hawk’s flying ability to aid survival."

"Also, as long as we can work together in the upcoming survival, I think with our combined strength, passing the Desert Extreme Challenge is not too difficult."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded.

Especially Dennis, who had heard about Chen Wen’s impressive taming skills early on.

When he heard that Chen Wen could teach them to master the hawk, he immediately perked up.

...

Next was building the shelter.

Everyone’s ability to build the shelter was about the same, especially for this kind of short-term shelter with not much space to showcase.

Hua Yun and Chen Wen built their usual A-frame shelter.

Previously in Yukon, they liked this simple but wind and rainproof shelter.

Dennis and Adam built a triangular shelter.

As for the robust Fred, he knocked down a thick log and made a rectangular box shelter that you could only crawl into.

Once the shelters were set up.

Chen Wen started organizing dinner.

This time, among them, Dennis spent one of his tool slots to bring a block of salt.

Chen Wen knocked some salt off the block, dissolved it into brine, and brushed it onto the grilled camel meat, giving it a salty flavor.

Enhancing taste while prolonging the preservation time once it was dried.

As the fragrant camel meat was grilled.

Chen Wen distributed the camel meat to everyone. Sitting around the campfire at sunset, they ate and discussed the actions ahead.

"Starting tomorrow, we’ll temporarily stay here for survival. Fred, every morning, take the water bottle and fetch water from the well at the starting point, and be careful."

Chen Wen assigned tasks, and everyone pondered the reasonableness of the tasks while giving their opinions.

Fred readily accepted this arrangement.

He was a bit of a nobody, without many friends but also without many enemies.

Plus, with his robust stature and being Chen Wen’s teammate, generally, no one would want to mess with him.

"Adam, you might want to make some bird-catching traps?"

Chen Wen asked Adam’s opinion: "This evening, I noticed there was a group of birds circling in the northeast. There might be open water there. If possible, could you catch a few?"

Adam nodded: "I noticed too. Even if you hadn’t mentioned it, I planned to set traps and check it out."

Moving to Dennis.

He volunteered, "I can handle the camel butchering; I’m pretty skilled with animals. Also, maintaining the camp can be my responsibility."

Chen Wen nodded in agreement with Dennis’s request.

Then he looked at Hua Yun: "You can go hunting; I’ll lend you the crested hawk."

Hua Yun glanced at the crested hawk happily chewing on a piece of camel meat and said, "What about you?"

"I plan to find some... unusual food nearby."

Chen Wen suggested cautiously: "Before coming, I heard Australia has a lot of insects, so I thought I’d collect some to eat."

Insects!

Hua Yun stifled her discomfort: "Alright then, hope everything goes well for you."

Chen Wen nodded.

Insects, in previous survival scenarios, Chen Wen often overlooked insects due to ample food availability.

Until the last survival.

Chen Wen suddenly realized that the traits of insects were even more potent than those of some mammals.

For example, the "Giant Strength" of black ants was hugely beneficial for Chen Wen.

It has become an indispensable trait for his future survival.

So this time, Chen Wen specifically researched several videos on Australian insects.

Especially about the insects possibly existing in the Great Sand Desert, and whether they were edible.

He read through the information in detail.

This time, Chen Wen planned not to miss out on Australia’s powerful insects.

After discussing the tasks for tomorrow.

Chen Wen finished his camel meat.

He welcomed his first survival trait of this expedition.

[Targeting Natural Creatures - Dromedary Camel, Plundering!]

[Plundering... Plundering complete!]

[Choose one of the following three traits]

[Male Aversion (Purple): When surviving with male members, you’ll be more irritable, leading to more conflicts and fights]

[Note: Males, leave! Females, come!——Dromedary Camel]

[Heating Up (Purple): During the day, your body temperature will rise close to 41 degrees, and your body will adapt to this temperature. You will feel hot only when the temperature exceeds 41 degrees]

[Note: If you want to sweat less, heat up!——Dromedary Camel]

[Binge Drinking (Gold): You can drink a massive amount of freshwater in one go, your body can store water, but it will appear bloated]

[Note: Drink!——Dromedary Camel]

[Make your choice within a minute or forfeit! If overdue, the first trait will be selected automatically!]

The dromedary camel’s traits.

They weren’t as stunning or powerful as Chen Wen imagined, but they were quite average, aligned with Chen Wen’s understanding of dromedary camels.

The negatives need no further mention.

The positive "Heating Up" is quite good, increasing body temperature to reduce sweating, also mitigating body water loss from another angle.

Moreover, higher body temperature makes bacterial and viral infections less likely, benefiting health.

But this trait is purple, and Chen Wen already has traits to reduce water loss.

Currently, this trait has limited application for Chen Wen.

Thus, the golden "Binge Drinking" became Chen Wen’s choice.

This trait is excellent!

Wherever freshwater is scarce, this trait is extremely useful!

By consuming a large amount of freshwater at once and storing it, one can use it in times of scarcity.

Though it has side effects.

But the bloating in front of "Disguise" doesn’t matter much.

The system feature "Disguise" can even cover up transformation trait changes.

Concealing a small body bloating is no big deal.

So Chen Wen chose "Binge Drinking."