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4 - Tent

There is a good reason that the filming crew chose the land besides his grandfather’s house to build their tents. The next plot was a fallen house, full of debris. After arranging rain catchers, Eric returned home, changed his clothes. 

When he came out, the filming crew could see his preparation. 

“ Grandson ! Are you going to an apocalyptic shoot out ? “ they asked humorously. 

“ It could very well be an apocalyptic shoot out. “ Eric answered, his voice muffled through the mask. 

He wore sturdy ranger boots, with leather overalls on a turtleneck. His nose is covered with a mask, his eyes are covered with sunglasses, his head is covered with a wide brim hat. 

The filming crew followed him. 

Eric first cut a giant fire break through the overgrown grass beside the fallen house. Just in time when he finished that, he retrieved water from the catchers. He poured it on the outer grass, leaving the inside dry. Then, he lit the inside on fire, stood at the entrance with the shovel and crowbar in hand. 

The moment a rabbit jumped out of the fire, he hammered the rabbit at lightning speed. Same thing happened to the snakes that jumped on him. In the end, he was able to harvest two rabbits and three snakes. 

He sent them straight to his mother for processing. Growing up on the island, his mother is more than familiar with dressing and cooking game animals on the island. 

When he started lifting the rocks into the wheelbarrow, to throw them away, the film crew left him and went to his mother, to film her dealing with the rabbit. 

While their concentration is on the other side, Eric cleaned up the entire place by storing the stones in his item box, and kicking down any unburnt poles. The house is built on rammed earth. There were not many critters on the land, not even termites. 

Even so, he turned up the land of the entire plot, then burned it once more making sure there are no unwanted visitors on this land. By this time, the film crew returned. They caught the tail end of his work by turning up the piece of land. Looking at his progress, the film crew dropped their jaws once more. 

This time around, a cameraman stuck to him like glue. Eric just lifted up the gigantic flat roller, set it on the ground. 

“ Can it be lifted ? “ The cameraman asked with surprise. 

One of the directors came and tried to move the roller. It does not move. 

Eric just put a leather cord on the ends of the roller, and started dragging it on the ground after flattening it with a rake. Wherever the roller passed by, only perfectly level land remained. 

“ Dear viewers ! Don’t look at it and think this is possible for each and every one of you. This guy has either practiced, or he is a hidden expert. There are no two ways about it. ! “ the director reassured viewers, zooming in on the leveled land, and where it meets the newly leveled land in a perfect straight line, leaving no gaps. He even prepared a place with slanted leveling to be used as the shower area. 

“ Grand son ! Are you immortal ?  “ The director asked after getting almost hypnotized by the perfect lines of roller leveling. 

“ I am just a high school student, and the very filial grandson of my grandfather. “ Eric answered with a dramatic flair. 

He very much regretted not coming back with his mother last time around. It is only after seeing the shabby shack did he understand the difficulties of his mother, and grandparents. His paternal grandmother had always looked down on his mom. Fortunately, his father was not blind, so she lived an okay life. However, looking at his grandfather, Eric understood how progressive and loving his grandfather was for his mother to be what she is right now. 

No wonder she was depressed when she heard grandmother was injured. In these boonies, where there is no communication, no boat, how much his grandmother would have suffered with an injury ? How lonely his grandfather must have been after his grandma left ? It is a suffering he would not wish on his worst enemy. 

This time around, they will not have such a day. Eric vowed to himself. 

Soon, the camping ground will be ready. Eric pitched the gigantic family tent by himself. 

By this time, his mother called. 

“ Eric, come have dinner. “ his mother called him. 

There’s potato rabbit stew, meat buns and shredded potatoes. Eric happily ate two bowls of rice. They cleaned off the entire meat stew between them. 

His grandparents have never smiled so happily. 

“ Our little Eric is grown up. He can even catch rabbits now ! “ his grandfather gave him a rare compliment. 

“ Grandpa ! This is nothing. Give me time, I will even catch a wild boar for you. “ Eric boasted. 

His grandfather could only smile at him with all of his teeth. 

The documentary team set up a camera and left. They are not here for a positive story after all. 

His grandmother wanted them to sleep in the house, but Eric refused. 

“ Grand ma, I specially bought a clear roofed tent so we can see the stars. “ 

“ This entire island is yours. What does it matter where we sleep ? Oh ! Wait ! In fact, why don’t grandma and grandpa sleep with us in the tent ? “ Eric asked. 

Finally, his grandma agreed to sleep with his mother, while his grandpa slept in the house. 

Eric carried over the water in the buckets at the rain catcher to the shower room. His mother and sister had a nice shower, followed by his grandmother and him. While his mother and sister were bathing, Eric was spreading lawn grass seeds in the open area of the plot. He set up a synthetic grass mat in front of the tent, so that they could wipe their feet before coming in. They comfortably washed up and went into the tent to rest. 

His grandmother was shocked to see the set up inside. 

There was a nice foam bed, in the middle room, there’s even Mimi’s cradle bed along with her blanket and favorite toy. His mother would question him how all this furniture arrived here. However, as long as she did not explicitly force an explanation, Eric would pretend nothing happened. 

They slept comfortably that night, despite the roaring of the sea. 

His grandfather woke at dawn as usual, walking over to the tent. He looked surprised at the grass buds all over the place around the tent, as well as how big the tent was. Just as he was thinking to call out loud, the grandma came out from inside the tent. 

“ Don’t wake them. They are quite tired. Especially our grandson. “ she chastised her husband. Then, she took the lamp, walked over to the house to start cooking. 

They both walked to their house, started on breakfast. 

Eric & co woke up quite late. Eric has already used his digitizing skill on the island. However, he had no idea the size of his grandfather’s jurisdiction. The progress is still ongoing. Right now, he could only see it covered the entire tidal flat area and more. A sea area about hundred square kilometers popped up on his map, with every last animal from an earthworm to great white shark in the deep bay marked in yellow to red. 

With his killing of rabbits, his experience increased. 

He is now level two. As such, the map allowed him to mark anything from wild boars to swallow nests separately. In the night, it rained on the island as expected. The buckets he put under rain catchers are all filled with water. He stored the water in his item box. Thankfully, this water did not mix with the sea water he stored earlier. 

First, he filled the water tank in his grandfather’s home, then he filled the shower room’s tank. 

He took a refreshing shower with heated water, basted his body with the triple combination of moisturizer, insect repellent and sunscreen, then started exploring the island. Today's task is to find a place for his grandfather to build a new home. 

He did not expect his grandfather to move to the city to live at this age. As such, his only choice is to make this island home as comfortable as possible, so they can enjoy the mountains and seas. 

The island is in the shape of an oval. Initially, Eric thought the end of this village was where the tidal flats end. However, he realized this is not the case as he looked at the map. The entire oval is an atoll. When seen from above, the island is like an anime eye looking up. The outermost oval is formed by atolls and micro mud volcanoes in the sea. The mudflats make the black pupil. The volcano formed the center of the pupil to the left, indicated by the dragon maw mountain. 

The sea between mudflats and atoll is deeper than the sea outside. The mudflats are relatively flat, creating a lagoon area. The land from the mudflats is made of this fertile soil from the mud volcanoes, this is something Eric did not expect. As such, this part of the sea is teeming with life. No wonder the little forest on the island could support a wild boar family. 

The atoll on the outside curved like a dragon tail. The dragon head looking up is the volcano, then the dragon tail supporting under the it’s chin is the ridge that separates the inhabited area from the wild forest. He walked up this ridge, searching for an area that’s suitable for construction of the new house.