After several disasters, coupled with the recent encounter with the Frost Wolf pack.
Bruce gained a deeper understanding and reflection on the plight of humanity in the Ice Abyss World and on the organizational form of camps.
Mimicking Monsters, Cold Beasts, extreme weather, and even other human camps—dangers are everywhere.
In such a Hell-level difficulty survival environment, sacrifice becomes the main theme for all camps.
Even with the system backing him, he is no exception.
Compared to Cold Beasts and Mimicking Monsters, humans are too weak!
Especially a camp like Harper at the bottom tier, it is as insignificant as ants.
A low-level Mimicking Monster, a group of low-grade Cold Beasts, are both fatal crises for Harper.
Not to mention the Axeheart Realm, even with his current Earthripper Realm strength, encountering these things is nearly a situation of nine deaths and one life;
For ordinary people, it would be certain death.
Unity is the only way out for humanity.
Without a strict top-down management system to unite and concentrate the hearts of the entire camp, even if they can survive temporarily, they likely will not escape the fate of destruction in the end.
Harper must mandate that one person calls the shots.
In other words, Bruce must establish autocracy!
The human mind is deceitful; ten thousand individuals have ten thousand thoughts.
This is true even for just one camp like Harper; now with two camps merged, minds have undoubtedly become more complicated.
Just after confronting the Frost Wolf pack, he had Jaden and the others give up rescuing ordinary people.
They hesitated for a full ten breaths before turning the arrows around.
Those ten breaths might have only resulted in a few more ordinary people dying this time, but what about next time?
At some critical moments of life and death, any moment of hesitation could potentially result in irreparable serious consequences.
Bruce is not so confident to believe that as long as he makes a decision, it is always 100 percent correct, but at certain key moments, especially when facing a desperate situation, what the camp needs is simply a decision that everyone can believe in and execute.
As for whether this decision is right or not, it really doesn't matter.
An autocracy can lead to excessive concentration of personal authority, ultimately deifying the individual, creating a god out of thin air.
This might be undesirable in a civilized society.
But in an environment like the Ice Abyss, it's the best way to gather the minds and solidify the collective.
Previously when William mentioned Lex and Mattehew's almost obsessive zeal and respect for this so-called Great Lord Robert, Bruce was only curious and frankly did not understand.
But now, he understands.
Perhaps, without such a method, Manhattan Town might never have developed to a huge scale of ten thousand people; it might have already been destroyed by various accidents.
Aside from uniting the people, Bruce's second purpose in creating an autocratic camp atmosphere is to prepare for future resource gathering.
Upgrade the wooden mannequin to Level 2; it requires 3000 wood and 6000 iron;
Upgrade the polishing stone to Level 2; it requires 5000 coal and 10000 iron;
Upgrade the Medicine Decoction Pot to Level 2; it needs 20000 wood, 20000 coal, 10000 iron, and generates ten types of formulas.
Upgrade the Level 2 Iron Refining Furnace to Level 3; it requires 2000 wood, 5000 iron.
The upgrade resources needed for the four camp buildings already opened are astronomical numbers for Bruce.
Wood is exchanged at 1000 kilograms per point; coal at 20 kilograms per point; iron at 10 kilograms per point.
Bruce calculated that even if the camp's nearly five hundred people all breakthrough to the Earthripper Realm overnight, it would take decades to gather the resources for upgrading the four buildings.
No, even decades are unlikely, as they still need consumption.
So, for resources, Bruce needs a large population.
This is also why Bruce directly invited the camps of Banana and Samsung Camp to join.
Although ordinary people are useless, without them, where would the Earthripper Realm come from?
The Axeheart Realm and Earthripper Realm for humans in the Ice Abyss World, Cold Beast Meat is the only threshold.
Bruce can foresee that in the future, for these resources, the camp will definitely need a group of people dedicated solely to Axeheart and mining activities.
But once they have strength, no one would want to do these tasks all day.
After all, even in large camps, the Axeheart Realm and Earthripper Realm are considered mid to high-tier personnel enjoying privileges.
So having absolute authority becomes extremely important.
Bruce certainly did not expect to achieve the effect of an autocracy with this single inquiry, it's just a beginning.
He can roughly guess everyone's response.
Yet he wasn't in a hurry, just waited quietly for everyone to speak.
Judging by the seriousness in Bruce's tone, the silence in the wooden house persisted for over a hundred breaths.
"If the four-tier meat distribution rule mentioned earlier, if Leader can truly implement it successfully in the camp, then my life will be handed to Leader!"
Finally, a young man from Rogel Camp spoke up.
"I agree too, if we can regularly and consistently receive Cold Beast Meat, I have no qualms about handing my life to Leader."
"I agree, as long as the Leader can achieve it, I'm willing to put my life in your hands."
---
With the first voice, comes the second, the third…
Whether ordinary people or the fifteen with cultivation, as time passed, almost everyone spoke up.
Without exception, their attitude was that as long as the distribution of Cold Beast Meat could be ensured, they would agree to Bruce's conditions.
Bruce naturally understood everyone's thoughts and didn't explain anything, only looked at everyone with a serious expression and said:
"Okay, I will ensure that I do it, and you should remember what you said today!"
Saying more is not as useful as having Cold Beast Meat in front of them.
Bruce understands this truth, so he didn't explain much.
Suddenly, Clark rushed over from outside and came to Bruce's side.
"Leader, George is outside calling you, he seems to be leaving with people."
Bruce was taken aback, nodded, and first instructed Charlie beside him to settle the people from Harper Camp in the wooden house, then went out of the wooden house alone.
As soon as he exited the passage, Bruce saw George and twelve others already set to depart outside the valley.
"Leader George, leaving in such a hurry?"
Bruce actually understood George, he had brought the people of Harper over.
If George continued to stay here, it was inappropriate and he might also fear facing the camp's hundred plus people, as abandoning them was indeed a fact.
George placed his young son on the ground, walked up to Bruce, his face full of guilt, and bowed to him:
"Brother Bruce, thank you earlier, George feels truly ashamed!"
Bruce was slightly startled, only then realizing George was referring to him speaking for him in front of those at Rogel Camp earlier.
"Leader George, where are you heading, may I know?"
Hearing this, hesitation appeared on George's face.
"Don't worry, Leader George, I won't abandon these people. Leaving Redwood Ridge is just asking in advance. If there's a chance in the future, maybe you and I can meet again."
Seeing that Bruce instantly saw through his thoughts, George gave a wry smile.
"That's George being small-minded. Leader Bruce, I won't hide from you, leaving this time, I took half of the camp's stored coal and iron. I hope you can understand a bit!"
Bruce glanced at the four bags behind George, nodded without saying much, understanding it was reasonable to bring some assets to another camp.
"Additionally, I left you two items, take a look at them!"
As George spoke, he took out two scrolls made of Cold Beast Fur from his bosom.
Bruce took the scrolls, opened the first one, and upon seeing its contents, a look of joy appeared on his face.
On the scroll, there were six lifelike Cold Beasts drawn.
The first three were just the Long-tongue Snow Mane, Bone Spur Frost Wolf, and Golden-eyed Demon Sheep that the Harper Camp had dealt with before;
The latter three, one resembled a long snake, labeled as Cloud Mist Teng Jiao; one was massive in size, labeled as Golden Armored Thunder Kui; one had snow-white fur, labeled as Blue Moon Elf.
Most importantly, beneath the labeled names, there was a detailed record of these three Cold Beasts' living habits, attack methods, and their deadly weaknesses.
"Thank you, Leader George!"
Bruce took a deep breath and bowed respectfully to George.
The value of this scroll could be said to be even more precious than the half of the coal iron that George left at the camp.
Creatures like Cold Beasts, cunning as a fox, with bizarre methods and terrifying power, are not much easier to deal with than Mimicking Monsters.
Speaking of which, earlier at Taylor Camp, so many people hunted Snow Mane, but ended up sacrificing three people, ultimately resulting in failure;
The Golden-eyed Demon Sheep that was chased to the Harper Camp by the Mimicking Monster later, although Bruce broke through during the battle, it was at the cost of Peter losing his right eye to finally solve it.
Even slightly familiar Cold Beasts are like this, not to mention the unfamiliar ones.
It can be said that in the wilderness, hunting any never-before-seen Cold Beast inevitably involves sacrifice.
What George gave was not a scroll, but the lives of future Harper Hunting Team members!
This scroll was probably something that the Rogel Camp recorded over many years, at a huge cost, and George willingly offered it to him, which indeed touched Bruce deeply.
"Don't rush to thank me, take a look at the second one!"
Bruce nodded, opened the second scroll, and upon seeing its contents, a trace of joy appeared on his face again.
This was a map, a map of the eastern side of Redwood Ridge.
The map was crude, with only some special annotations.
Clearly afraid Bruce wouldn't understand, George approached and explained, pointing at the map:
"The center of the map is the valley where the camp is located.
East of the valley, behind these two mountains, is an unknown place; we have never been up these mountains, but occasionally there is a lot of commotion during the day, there are likely very strong Cold Beasts on the mountain, and their types are unknown;
The west side is Redwood Ridge, and over the years, Rogel Camp's exploration range in Redwood Ridge has been no more than a kilometer.
The latter three Cold Beasts on the first scroll are mostly within a 500 to 1000-meter range. To the south, two kilometers past Harper Slope, there is an iced-over river.
There are no signs of Cold Beast activity around it and it should be very dangerous, so people should not go there if possible.
To the north, there is a bamboo forest, and on the west side of the bamboo forest, there is a mountain road where many Cold Beasts gather, but during the fruiting period of the Ice Tree each year, for three to five days, whether looking for food or for some other purpose, Cold Beasts will drill into the bamboo forest, allowing people to risk passing through quickly during this time.
Crossing this mountain road leads to a place called Kashi Plain, where there is a giant camp named Bharat, which is my destination this time."
At this, George finally answered the question Bruce had just asked.
Bruce stared at the map, unable to speak for a long time.
The two things George had left with him before leaving were precious beyond measure.
"Leader George, I truly don't know how to thank you!"
George waved his hand, gave a bitter smile, and a look of loneliness appeared on his face:
"In the early years when my father Steve was the leader, he had great ambitions. Besides leading hunting teams, he often took people to explore and survey surrounding areas, creating this map.
Originally, according to his plan, this map was to be continuously improved by successors until the entire area around Redwood Ridge was fully explored.
Unfortunately, after I succeeded as leader, I was limited in ability, and this map has never been updated. Now, as I'm leaving, this map is yours."