With no other choice, Brian Carter stopped trying to swim to the shore and decided to float on the surface for a while to rest. Only at this moment did Brian Carter realize he was being carried by a swift current.

The water was flowing, which meant he was in a river, not a lake. This made Brian Carter feel much more at ease. He thought that as long as he rested a bit, then drifted downstream with the current while swimming diagonally toward the shore, he should be able to get out with just a bit of effort.

This new discovery allowed Brian Carter to breathe a slight sigh of relief. Then he noticed that he was still tightly gripping a knife in his hand. Brian Carter knew very well how important a knife was in the wild, so he was naturally unwilling to let it go. However, holding the knife in one hand made it harder for him to swim to shore. After hesitating for a moment, Brian Carter risked cutting himself on the sharp blade and tucked the knife into his belt, then tightened the belt as much as he could.

Next, all Brian Carter could do was rest for a bit and then try to get to shore. But he hadn’t rested long before he heard a foreboding rumbling sound.

Brian Carter stretched his neck to look, and to his horror, he saw a large mist of water not far ahead.

Where there’s mist, it means there’s either a waterfall or dangerous rapids ahead—both of which could be fatal for Brian Carter in his current state.

Cursing bitterly, Brian Carter paddled with all his might, trying to reach the shore before the danger arrived. But with his current strength, he simply couldn’t fight against the increasingly turbulent river.

Finally, Brian Carter was swept under a waterfall. Fortunately, the waterfall wasn’t very high; Brian Carter just got dunked and swallowed a few mouthfuls of water. But when Brian Carter, dazed and dizzy, surfaced again, he found that he could see both banks of the river.

Unfortunately, being able to see the riverbanks now wasn’t good news for Brian Carter, because it meant the river had suddenly narrowed, making the current even swifter. The narrowed channel was full of rocks, and the rushing water crashing against them filled the river with deadly obstacles.

At this point, Brian Carter completely ignored the pain in his right knee. He used both his hands and feet, summoning all his strength to fight the current and desperately trying to avoid the rocks. But after narrowly dodging a few times, his luck finally ran out. Brian Carter slammed hard into a large boulder, his vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.

He didn’t know how long he was out. When he finally opened his eyes, the intense pain all over his body and the overwhelming weakness made Brian Carter feel worse than death.

When Brian Carter regained a bit of clarity, he realized he was less than four or five meters from the riverbank, and the shore was gentle and easy to climb. Most importantly, Brian Carter could feel the soft mud of the riverbed beneath his feet.

Driven by the will to survive, Brian Carter somehow found the strength to crawl to the shore using both hands and feet. Once his upper body was sprawled on the bank, he rested for at least half an hour before finally making it completely out of the water.

After Brian Carter finally got ashore, he was as exhausted as a pile of mush. The key thing was, he wasn’t just tired—he was also very, very hungry.

Brian Carter knew that although he had miraculously survived the plane crash, the danger was far from over. This was Africa, and if you got eaten by a wild animal in the African wilderness, it would never make the news—because it happened all the time.

Brian Carter looked around and found himself in a typical savanna, with endless grasslands dotted with tall trees. The sun was already close to the horizon, but Brian Carter couldn’t tell which direction he was facing, so he couldn’t determine whether it was morning or afternoon by the sun’s position.

After a quick look around, Brian Carter tried moving his body and found that his condition wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. His right knee still hurt, but the bone was fine—it was probably just a bruise. Other than that, although he ached all over, there were no serious injuries.

As long as he wasn’t seriously hurt, things would be much easier. Brian Carter let out a long sigh of relief and began checking his belongings. As a military enthusiast and an experienced backpacker, he always kept his PSK with him, and this habit had just saved his life.

PSK stands for personal survival kit. As a military buff and a devoted fan of Bear Grylls’ survival shows, Brian Carter wore his PSK pouch on his belt year-round. Although people often laughed at him for being crazy, at this moment, his persistence had paid off.

Brian Carter’s only regret was that, for portability, his PSK pouch was a bit too small. But before coming to Africa, Brian Carter had carefully selected only the most essential items, so everything in the pouch was exactly what he needed most right now.

Two large bars of chocolate, a fire starter, a compass, a magnifying glass, ten meters of paracord, five fishhooks and ten meters of fishing line, a survival whistle, four condoms, and a medical kit—this was everything in Brian Carter’s PSK.

Originally, Brian Carter’s PSK had even more items, but because he had to fly on a commercial airliner, Brian Carter had to remove things like his knife and lighter that weren’t allowed on the plane. Luckily, Brian Carter had gotten a knife from the tour guide, securing the most important tool for outdoor survival.