As the day was coming to a close, Jack started making a campfire in order to cook the rabbit. Making the campfire itself was easy enough as it was another one of the skills that his grandpa had taught him. Once he got a fire going, he crafted a stone knife using the menu and used it to skin the rabbit.

As the knife touched the rabbit, however, he could sense the aura conducting through his knife and into the rabbit, decreasing its durability meter. It was then that he realized he could quickly harvest the rabbit's carcass similar to how he harvested other materials like wood or stone.

All it took was a couple slashes and jabs from the knife for the rabbit to be absorbed into him, with the indicator showing the total number of resources gained.

[+2 Fur Pelt]

[+3 Rabbit Meat]

[+2 Bone]

Afterwards, Jack took the rabbit meat out from his inventory and roasted it on the fire. Once the meat was cooked, he practically devoured it. To a savagely hungry man like Jack, that meat was heavenly delicious.

Once he's done eating, he used the rabbit's fur pelt to craft himself a sort of fur scarf that would at least keep him a little bit warmer during the night. Next, he crafted a makeshift tent and a bedroll to further shield himself from the elements. With all that in place, Jack was able to sleep much more soundly from that night on.

In the days afterward, Jack continued to improve and refine his survival strategy through trial and error.

He'd learned that while he had a good grasp in hunting rabbits with a sling, he wasn't able to find that many rabbits around. Also, whenever he did find a rabbit, not every hunt was successful. In order to increase his chances of catching more rabbits, he decided to craft himself some rabbit traps.

He wasn't exactly an expert in making traps, so it took a lot of attempts before he was able to get it right. Once he'd experimented with different trap designs to figure out which ones work best, he crafted a large number of them and scattered them throughout the surrounding area. Everyday, he would go check on them to see if they caught anything.

Once he'd gathered enough rabbits, he decided to use their pelts make a set of fur clothing, one that was able to keep him even warmer during the night.

Meanwhile, he would supplement his source of protein with fish that he'd caught from the river. At first, he tried using a fishing rod to catch fish, but found the process too boring and too ineffective in obtaining any sufficient amount of fish. So instead, he tried catching fish by stabbing it with a spear.

It took some getting used to as the refraction of the water made it more difficult for him to aim the spear properly. After some practice with aiming adjustments, however, he was able to catch fish easily enough.

In addition to meat, he had also familiarized himself with the local plant life to see which plants are safe to eat.

He would categorize different plants based on their physical characteristics; then he would test each of them by eating a little bit at a time and wait a couple of hours to see if he'd suffer any adverse effects. If there was, that meant that it was not safe to eat and vice versa. Using this method, he was able to discover about a dozen edible plants growing at his vicinity.

Lastly, when he was fairly sure he had enough resources to last him for a while, he decided to try his hand at building a house using nothing but wood blocks---like one would typically do in Minecraft. Because what's the point of surviving if you're not going to have any fun?

The end product was certainly a bit bizarre. Its blocky shape definitely did not blend well with the environment around it. Nevertheless, it was the first house he'd ever built and he couldn't help but be just a little bit proud of himself.

And then he Fortnite-danced on top of that house, just because!

A week had passed since he'd first arrived in this world. Jack could confidently say that he was getting the hang of surviving day to day. In fact, once he'd overcome the difficulties of surviving the first couple of days, living in the wilderness was actually quite peaceful and relaxing.

He went to check on the rabbit traps like he did every day. However, as he arrived at one of the traps, he came upon something incredibly frightening.

Gnawing at one of the rabbits in his trap were three fearsome-looking wolves.

Jack's face turned ghostly pale as he watched those three wolves devour that rabbit with ruthless efficiency, to the point where it became nothing but sinew and bones at this point. As if noticing Jack's arrival, the three wolves turned to look at him. They snarled ferociously as they bared their sharp fangs at him.

After a tense pause, as if driven by a raw impulse, Jack broke into a running sprint. The wolves immediately chased after him. He didn't dare look back; he only kept running forward as fast as humanly possible. As he ran for his goddamn life, he could hear the wolves growling and barking from behind.

Somewhere in the logical part of his brain, he knew he couldn't possibly outrun those wolves. However, his fight-or-flight response completely overtook him, forcing him to do what was instinctive, not what was optimal. Eventually, the wolves are going to catch up to him and he's going to have a bad time unless he think of something clever.

Jack ran into the woods, hoping that the dense foliage would slow the wolves more than it would slow him. As he ran, he climbed and vaulted through the fallen trees and overgrown roots, giving him just a slight speed advantage against the wolves. But then, he accidentally tripped onto a tree root and fell to the ground, allowing the wolves to catch up again.

Right as he was about to get back up, one of the wolves bit into his leg and started tugging him backwards. Jack quickly equipped himself with a spear and pierced the wolf through the skull, killing it instantly.

The other two wolves were closing in rapidly. Jack quickly pulled his spear out from the dead wolf and used it to defend himself against the remaining wolves. He thrusted at one of the incoming wolves, but the attack missed by just a centimeter, allowing the wolf to grab on the spear with its fangs in an attempt to tug it away from him.

As Jack and the second wolf were engaged in a tug-of-war with the spear, the third wolf attempted to lunge at him from the side. Jack quickly materialized a wood block between him and the lunging wolf to act as a sort of improvised shield. As a result, the third wolf ended up colliding with the wood block as it leapt towards Jack before tumbling to the side.

Still struggling to get the second wolf to let go, Jack opted to abandon the spear altogether and make a run for it, causing both wolves to resume their chase.

Jack kept running until he was almost out of breath. The more he ran, the more he considered running to be less and less of a viable option. Sooner or later, he'll get exhausted before the wolves do. Sooner or later, he's going to have to stand his ground and fight.

Taking out his sling, he loaded a stone ammo in it before hurling it at one of wolves. It landed a direct hit at its forehead, causing it to stumble to the ground. However, the other wolf quickly closed in on him and he wasn't quick enough to load another stone.

The wolf tackled him, bringing both of them to the ground. Then, it clamped its jaws firmly onto Jack's arm, causing him to scream in terrible pain. He quickly equipped himself with a stone axe in his other arm and used it repeatedly bash the wolf over its head. Both of them wrestled wildly on the ground---dispersing leaves, dirt, and blood all over.

In the end, after repeated bashings with the stone axe, the wolf was finally dead. However, Jack was heavily injured in the process. His arm in particular was bleeding profusely and he was overall frightened and exhausted.

He laid his back against a tree as he sat on the ground, clutching his still-bleeding arm. As he sat there, he took a moment to breathe slow deep breaths to try to calm his nerves. But just as he was about to relax, he heard a snarl approaching him.

"Oh, truck me..." Jack said dreadfully.

He watched as the silhouette of the last surviving wolf slowly reveals itself in the sunlight. He noticed a bleeding wound on a side of that wolf's forehead, where it had previously been hit by a stone from his sling. Turns out it hadn't been able to finish this wolf off after all.

It was at this moment that Jack had truly felt doom looming over him. He felt as though he was backed into a corner and there was no way out. He was too injured and too exhausted to flee or fight. As he continued losing blood, his mind was starting to lose focus and his vision was starting to blur.

The wolf growled and snarled as it glared at Jack with vicious eyes. Then it began to pounce on him.

However, right before it was about to approach Jack, an arrow came out of nowhere and flew into the wolf, piercing its skull and ending its life.

Jack was completely befuddled as he stared at the last wolf's lifeless body lying on the ground. Someone had rescued him in the nick of time and he wanted to know who it was. However, at the same time, his blood loss was pushing his mind further and further away from consciousness. The last thing he remembered seeing was a hooded figure with indistinct features right before passing out.