From Robinson Crusoe

The tundra is even colder than the grassland, and the further you go, the more pronounced the chill from the permafrost becomes.

After walking through the dried-up swamp, Chen Zhou suddenly saw a fox-like animal, the first medium-sized animal he had seen in nearly an hour of walking.

The relentless wind interfered with his sense of smell, making it almost impossible for him to detect any animal scents, which is why he was so excited to see the animal.

Even if the animal cannot provide enough meat for two people and three tigers to eat their fill, it can at least provide a pelt, which can be made into a scarf or hat to keep warm and protect against the wind, which is quite beneficial.

"Sanwa, after them!"

With that, Chen Zhou took a step and ran across the solid ground covered in moss.

……

The sun and beacon hung high in the sky, casting a faded light on the tundra rooftop in late autumn.

The vast sky was cloudless and not azure, but rather a hazy gray, as if covered with a layer of dust.

The howling of the wind grew louder and louder.

A man and a tiger gallop across the deep blue rocks.

Tiger Three was not agile enough. While chasing Chen Zhou, he kept slipping and falling over the edge of the oval stone.

It was already a little tired, but it wasn't angry after being thrown down. It rolled over, stood up, and continued running.

Its grayish-brown fur rippled in the wind like ocean waves, its ears were pressed against its head, and its tightly closed mouth revealed two sharp, white canine teeth.

Tiger Cub rarely makes a sound; it's been like that since it was a cub—always silent, but not timid.

Today, its size has grown considerably, and it can now be considered a novice hunter.

……

The fox-like beast, with its reddish-brown fur, sensed an animal chasing it and sprinted forward with all its might.

Its striking fur fluttered in the wind, like a flag guiding Chen Zhou's direction.

The uneven rocks couldn't stop Chen Zhou's pace; he was running so fast that even the distant scenery became somewhat blurry.

He had already grasped the kunai in his hand, waiting only to get close enough to hunt down this alert beast.

The rocks and soil beneath his feet continued to stretch into the distance, and the sound of the wind reaching Chen Zhou's ears grew louder and louder.

The wild beasts running ahead suddenly stopped, and a huge drop appeared on the seemingly endless tundra in the distance.

From there, the terrain dips downwards at an almost right angle for more than 100 meters, forming a terrifying cliff.

A howling wind swept past the cliff.

The beast stopped desperately at the edge of the cliff, leaping left and right—

On one side is a young sawtooth tiger, and on the other side is a tall human.

With its mouth open, revealing sharp teeth in a show of defiance, the beast suddenly charged at Chen Zhou, then made a nimble turn midway and ran towards Tiger Three, seemingly trying to take advantage of the young, weak tiger cub and escape from there.

However, even a tiger with its fangs fully grown is not something a fox can provoke.

Tiger Cub was quick and agile. As soon as the beast leaped past it, it stretched out its claws and, with a single grab, its sharp claws dug deep into the fox's fur.

The fox charged forward quickly and fiercely, causing Tiger Three to stumble forward, but this brief advantage was only fleeting.

As Tiger Cub lunged forward, propelled by the force of the fox's drag, the distance between the two wild beasts quickly shrank to zero.

Woohoo!
The scent of the beast irritated the fox, causing its fur to stand on end and its eyes to blaze with ferocity. It struggled desperately to break free from the tiger's grasp, while simultaneously turning its head to bite at Tiger Cub, baring its sharp teeth.

Roar!
Tiger Cub's thick forearm muscles bulged, and with a push from his hind legs, he concentrated his body's power in his front shoulder, pressing the fox firmly to the ground with the force of Mount Tai.

It opened its wide eyes, opened its mouth to reveal its pair of curved, dagger-like canines, and looked down at the fox with a hoarse roar.

Although the tiger's roar was still somewhat immature, it was nonetheless the cry of a top predator that roamed the grasslands. At such close range, a single roar was enough to make the fox tremble with fear.

It instinctively shut its mouth, pressed its ears tightly against its head out of fear, tucked its tail between its legs, and even let out a few drops of extremely foul-smelling urine.

Before the fox could react, Tiger Cub, with its mouth wide open, lowered its head and tore open the artery in its neck with its canine teeth.

Blood gushed out like a fountain. The fox kicked its legs, making a final struggle, but it was all in vain. Before long, it turned into a corpse.

……

Having killed its prey and unable to suppress its craving for food, Tiger Cub tasted a few mouthfuls of hot blood before finally raising its head to look at Chen Zhou—

The prey should be distributed by the leader; this is a principle for the survival and reproduction of social animals.

Chen Zhou was clearly the undisputed king of their small group. Tiger Three dared to drink more blood cautiously, but it would never dare to let him eat on his own.

But at this moment, Chen Zhou's gaze wasn't even on Hu Sanwa; he was intently staring at the distant beacon that he both loved and hated—

Only now did he truly see where the beacon was hanging above him.

It was a strange, black forest.

Perhaps tens or even hundreds of millions of years ago, this forest was once thriving, providing a fertile ground for countless lives to reproduce.

But now, this forest has been completely burned to ashes by some terrible force.

The ancient trees stand tall, arranged in the same orderly fashion as when they were alive, but their surfaces are all jet black.

They were not only burned into charcoal, but also evolved into petrified wood and low-quality coal.

As we all know, coal is a product of sea-level drop and crustal uplift, but this strange forest turned into this without sufficient pressure on the surface.

Clearly, this is another move by the Time and Space Administration; they seem to want to select the owner of the supplies in this dark and oppressive "arena."

These beings, suspended high above the river of time, mostly appear cold-blooded and have a penchant for unusual pleasures; only on rare occasions do they reveal a sliver of warmth.

For example, the heavy snow on the isolated island.

Perhaps the Time and Space Administration also has people they respect, but only the winners can earn their respect.

Chen Zhou pursed his lips—

"Last time, I proved with a long period of time, wisdom, action, and unwavering will that I deserve this respect."

I wonder how many thorns await me on the road ahead this time, and how many dangers lurk in the shadows…

……

Just as his thoughts shifted from the dark forest to how to lead Paul and the three-headed saw-toothed tiger down the cliff, seize the supplies, and then climb back up, Chen Zhou's pupils suddenly dilated.

He saw the beacon high in the sky begin to fall at ten or even dozens of times the speed it used to. Because of the speed of the fall, a beam of light, like a hanging tassel, even appeared in the sky, swaying and shimmering with iridescent rainbow light, and fell straight into the center of the forest.

"At the current rate, the beacon will probably disappear from the sky and fall completely into the Black Forest in another two or three days."

I don't know how many people have come here.

Among those heading towards the beacon, were there any from further north...?

Silently calculating the distance traveled, Chen Zhou estimated that there was a high probability that there would be no challengers north of the Black Forest.

If the entire challenge area is a rectangle, then the east-west distance is very likely to be greater than the north-south distance.

He has traveled at least 500 kilometers from the shelter to here. If there is another 200 kilometers to the south of the shelter to reach the border, plus the distance from the cliff to the end of the Black Forest, the north-south length reaches about 750 kilometers.

This is probably the limit of the north-south length of the entire challenge area, and it is impossible for any challenger to land directly at the northernmost point.

If a challenger lands at the northernmost point, then the drop location would be extremely unfair to the other challengers.

In this regard, Chen Zhou still believes that the Time and Space Administration can make a relatively correct decision.

Of course, he wouldn't completely entrust his and Paul's safety to the Time and Space Administration. After going down the cliff, he still needed to conduct reconnaissance and exercise caution.

If there really is a chosen one whose spawn point is below the airdrop, and he recklessly rushes in, he won't have enough lives to spare.

It's been almost 20 days since the beacon appeared. If there were people under the beacon, the Black Forest would probably have been filled with traps and turned into a net.

Even if he has a strong physique, if he falls into a vicious trap, he will be badly injured even if he doesn't die. It is still necessary to be cautious.

"Paul must have seen the beacon land, I need to hurry back and tell him the news."

If there's really no food today, I'll catch a few rats for a meal, and then figure out how to find something to eat after I get down the cliff.

Turning around, bending down to pat Tiger Three's head, picking up the dead fox, Chen Zhou left the cliff.

……

When Chen Zhou returned to the temporary encampment, he was surprised to find Paul waiting for him by the lit campfire.

Beside the campfire lay a deer carcass, estimated to weigh over 150 pounds. It had already been skinned and gutted. Paul was currently adding fuel to the fire, waiting for the water to boil so he could put the fresh deer heart and liver into the cooking pot.

Paul was quite surprised that Chen Zhou had returned so early. He looked at the fox in Chen Zhou's hand and immediately realized that Chen Zhou must have encountered something more important than finding food.

Is it about the beacon?

Paul pointed to the brilliant beams of light in the sky—

Looking up now, with the sun as the coordinate, you can clearly see the beacon descending, and the starting point of the colorful beam of light has dissipated, leaving only the straight beam of light that keeps forming and disappearing behind it.

"Yes, I saw the exact location where the airdropped supplies landed."

"It is a black forest, a forest made entirely of petrified wood and incompletely formed coal, at the foot of a cliff at the edge of the tundra."

As he spoke, Chen Zhou threw the fox carcass on the ground, took out a knife, and began cutting flesh from the dead deer.

He had prepared for the worst, hoping to rely on the abundant rodents that were widely distributed on the tundra to fill his stomach. But today, Paul performed so well that he managed to catch a juvenile elk, which meant they could fill their stomachs before continuing their journey.

While cutting the meat, Chen Zhou added details about the location of the airdropped supplies.

"The angle between the cliff and the ground is about 90 degrees. There are many protruding rocks on the cliff face, but I can't be sure if those rocks are solid and can support our weight."

Chen Zhou felt a little guilty as he said this.

He never told Paul his exact weight. Paul still thought he was only slightly heavier than the average person and never imagined that someone his height and weight could reach more than 300 pounds.

The phrase "you and me" is not accurate; a more precise term would be "whether those stones can support my weight."

"And we also need to take those three with us. Now that they've grown up, they should be able to help out."

If we leave them up there, we'll not only lose three helpers, but their hunting skills aren't yet fully developed. Left on the tundra, they'll only be able to catch mice, and they might starve to death by the time we return.

"it is good."

Paul nodded, glanced at Tiger Cub 1 and Tiger Cub 2 lying beside the deer carcass waiting to eat, and a hint of pride appeared in his eyes.

"I was able to catch this deer today thanks to these two."

"Finding the deer herd, chasing the deer, and helping me corner the lone deer—it was all thanks to those two. Otherwise, how would I have been able to catch this guy?"

Paul smiled as he spoke, then stood up and patted Tiger Two's bottom.

Woo~
Tiger Two looked extremely tired and was resting on the ground when he was suddenly disturbed. He let out an impatient growl, rolled over, and moved his bottom to the side, as if afraid that someone would pat him again.

oooo~
Although Tiger Boy was also exhausted, seeing that Chen Zhou had already cut off several pieces of meat, he mustered his strength and stood up, letting out a low, cow-like growl. He stretched out his big head and pitifully tried to get closer to Chen Zhou, his meaning quite clear—

We need to eat meat.

With a helpless smile, Chen Zhou took out his hand axe, chopped off the deer's spine, and threw several pieces of the spine with meat on them to the three-headed sawtooth tiger. Then, he took the meat he had cut and walked to the campfire, picked out a thick and long enough branch from the firewood, skewered the meat pieces, and put them on the fire to roast.

……

After finishing their meal as quickly as possible, Chen Zhou and Paul cleaned up the campfire, packed their bags, and cut off four deer legs, tying them together with deer hides to keep as food for the next few days before setting off for the cliff.

"I wonder where those two ancient martial artists went, and how well my taming of my mount went..."

As he moved forward, Chen Zhou would occasionally look back at what was behind him.

As the saying goes, "no fight, no friendship." After the battle with the mammoth, he took the man's longbow and arrows and even assigned him the task of taming his mount. Although they couldn't be called friends, they did develop some kind of acquaintance.

Once he became familiar with the other person, he found himself in a difficult position if they also wanted to grab the airdrop.

To kill or not to kill, that is the question.

"If they were truly chivalrous and loyal people of the martial arts world, they probably wouldn't compete with me for it, even if they didn't help me, out of consideration for saving my life..."

After much deliberation, Chen Zhou could only place his hopes on the other person's character.

Because in this brutal challenge, he cannot be overly lenient.

Once the other party shows a willingness to fight to the death for supplies, he will definitely kill without hesitation.

This is a sign of respect for competitors, respect for oneself, and responsibility to one's partner.

As for the challengers on the mountain who have yet to show up, and other challengers who may come from all directions in search of the beacon, he didn't have many hesitations.

Anyone who covets supplies or harbors hostility towards him is an enemy.

Pity, however, does not belong to the enemy. (End of Chapter)