From Robinson Crusoe

Keep going forward along the tundra.

As the moss scattered on the ground gradually thins out and the rocks gradually increase, the tundra stretching to its end abruptly stops, as if cut by a knife, turning into a jagged cliff.

The three-headed sawtooth tiger followed Chen Zhou, stopping at the edge of the cliff, gazing at the distant black forest.

As darkness fell, a fierce wind swept past the precipice, occasionally whipping up pebbles that plummeted to the bottom. This silent fall instilled a sense of dread in everyone.

……

How do we get down?

Paul asked, peering over the other side of the cliff, hoping to find a less steep cliff face.

"Stop looking. There are no gentle slopes within a dozen kilometers. If we want to be safe, we have to take a long detour. We have to go down from here."

As he spoke, Chen Zhou threw the deer hide he had peeled off on the ground and pulled out a knife.

He cut the still-hardened deerskin into even, wide strips, braided them into a single, rope-like leather belt, tied a knot, and connected it to the next belt.

Seeing this, Paul understood what Chen Zhou meant and squatted down beside him to braid a leather belt with Chen Zhou.

"Later, we'll find a sturdy rock at the top of the cliff, secure the belt to it, and then I'll go down first. After you leave the belt behind, you hold onto it and follow me down."

As he spoke, Chen Zhou glanced at the deerskin, estimating how long of rope it could make, and shook his head.

“This piece of hide isn’t enough. Go cut some of our deerskin blankets. You’ll need at least 120 meters of leather straps, otherwise you won’t be able to get down.”

"Even with a deerskin blanket, it might not be enough."

Paul gave a negative answer, and then added.

“I have experience in rock climbing and I’m not afraid of heights. It doesn’t matter if the rope isn’t long enough. As long as you can point out a safe way down the mountain and mark solid, stable rocks, I can go down with you.”

Are you sure this will work?
Falling from the very bottom of the cliff can kill you; it's all rocks below.

"no problem!"

Paul nodded confidently, then pointed to the three saw-toothed tigers beside him.

What will happen to them?

"I'll take him away."

Chen Zhou's brief words carried a heavy responsibility. After saying this, he fell silent and began to carefully braid the belt.

……

The days are getting shorter.

As the beacon gradually fell, the light that had illuminated all directions seemed to dim as well, leaving only a sun that was no longer blazing in the sky.

The remaining deerskin grew smaller and smaller, and the earth grew increasingly dark.

The sunlight transformed from a pale white to a brilliant gold.

After tying the last knot, Chen Zhou secured the entire woven rope to a protruding rock. Once it was in place, he tied Hu Da Wa to his back and then began climbing down, carrying a wooden stick and some moss for marking.

……

When your feet are on the ground, you only hear the howling of the wind; only when you are truly downward and suspended in mid-air can you feel how strong the wind is.

Tiger Boy was firmly strapped to Chen Zhou's back.

The wind ruffled its fur, and it stared wide-eyed, nervously looking around. Its thick tiger claws had even torn Chen Zhou's clothes, as if it were afraid of falling.

Woo~woo~
It kept growling in its throat, raised its head and looked at the cliff face, wishing it could break free of the ropes binding it and climb up as soon as it was in a good position.

"be honest!"

Chen Zhou warned Hu Dawa—

His fingers gripped the protruding rock beside him tightly, his eyes scanning the surroundings, searching for the next rock that looked stable enough.

Free solo climbing requires not only exceptional physical strength and mental fortitude, but also a high level of proficiency and mental agility.

Any accident can happen during rock climbing, such as strong winds, loose rocks, slipping, falling, or even interference from birds.

Climbers not only need to control their own bodies, but also need to plan a safe and energy-saving route, especially on steep cliffs with huge drops.

On cliffs that are over 900 meters or even 1,000 meters high, there are few places to rest, and even resting itself is a drain on physical strength.

Rock climbers cannot hang in mid-air, and it is difficult for them to give up and start descending halfway up the mountain. They can only continue upwards until they reach the summit, or fall off the cliff and die from exhaustion.

Therefore, before climbing, free solo climbers often need to undergo months or even years of protective training until they know the entire cliff face inside and out, memorize the route and stable points, and adjust their physical and mental state before they can begin climbing.

For Chen Zhou, the difficulty in descending the cliff was not the steepness of the cliff face or its height, but the unfamiliarity of the terrain.

Everything here was new to him. He didn't know where the rubble area was, where the loose rocks were, where there were cracks, where the support was not stable enough, or where there were falling rocks.

Therefore, he had to be extremely careful with every step he took, since he wasn't the only one going down the mountain.

After he brought the three saw-toothed tigers down, Paul still had to climb down the safe path he had cleared. If the path was not simple or safe enough, it could cost Paul his life.

……

As an extreme sports enthusiast, Chen Zhou's climbing skills are naturally impeccable.

He had to maintain three footholds for every step he took, either with his hands and one foot, or with his feet and one hand, to stabilize his center of gravity. When changing positions, he always switched points one by one, and he carefully checked each new foothold he chose, for fear that the rocks might loosen.

Fortunately, although the cliff face is steep, the drop is not too great.

A distance of over 100 meters, which can be covered in just over ten seconds on flat ground, is transformed into more than a hundred turning points on the cliff face.

It took Chen Zhou a lot of time to trace the route and find a stable starting point. When everything was finished, he had unknowingly arrived at the bottom of the cliff.

He put Tiger Boy down and began to examine the entire cliff face from bottom to top again.

Seen sideways as a peak on the side of the ridge, the height varies from far to far.

Having been on the cliff, I am now standing on the ground, so I can naturally obtain more information and grasp more details.

……

After completing his observation and memorizing the main structures of the cliff face, Chen Zhou confidently began his ascent.

Each of the three descents down the cliff was faster than the last. As the little saw-toothed tigers reunited, Paul also embarked on his own "journey down the mountain" with Chen Zhou.

This time, Chen Zhou carried all the supplies and led the way under Paul's command.

He inserted the moss-covered twigs into the crevices of the rock face, using their striking green color to mark a stable foothold for Paul.

The sun had almost completely sunk behind the distant mountains, and the cliff face should have been plunged into darkness, but the beacon atop the Black Forest in the distance provided illumination, slightly reducing the difficulty for Paul to descend the mountain. In addition, with Chen Zhou acting as a "living map of climbing," the journey was relatively uneventful, and he landed safely.

……

“People who are too far away now should no longer be able to see the beacon.” Looking at the beacon that was still descending, and comparing it to the height of the cliff, Chen Zhou guessed.

These ten-odd days seem to be a fixed deadline given to all challengers by the Time and Space Administration. Anyone who cannot reach the tundra within the time limit will lose guidance, which is equivalent to being eliminated in disguise.

Based on Chen Zhou's intuition, he believed that after the beacon completely crashed, the possibility of determining its exact location based on the starry sky and continuing forward was simply nonexistent.

The presence of the beacon clearly employs some technique that affects vision; before reaching the cliff, the beacon's position observed by everyone deviates significantly from its actual location.

Before reaching the edge of the tundra, Chen Zhou thought he was still at least tens of kilometers away from the airdrop. It wasn't until he descended the mountain that he realized the location of the beacon he was seeing now was quite different from the location of the beacon he had seen before.

This small deviation, when amplified by distance, can result in an error of tens or even hundreds of kilometers. If the challengers do not set off immediately and catch this "last train," they may miss out on the airdropped supplies.

However, for those who have no intention of competing for airdrops, whether there is any deviation is irrelevant.

Only those who hesitated, neither being among the first to set off nor resolutely staying to build their own shelters, will be affected.

……

"Let's go, let's go to the edge of that forest to find out what's going on, and also check if anyone is behind us."

Chen Zhou bent down and patted the head of Tiger Three, who had come close to him, then looked up at the top of the cliff and said.

"Aren't we going to light a fire tonight?"

"Yes, we shouldn't light a fire, because if we do, they'll see it."

"Let them light the fire, and then we'll see them."

Chen Zhou pointed to the empty cliff top and took the lead in walking towards the Black Forest.

……

If the tundra on the cliff is a desert for life, then this area below the cliff, which appears to have been created by the Time and Space Administration, is an oasis in that desert.

The temperature here is seven or eight degrees higher than in the tundra, so many cold-sensitive plants have survived and are growing tenaciously here.

In addition, many animals brought here by the Time and Space Administration have also been fortunate enough to find a place to live.

After walking a few steps, Chen Zhou saw a herd of medium-sized deer and a herd of larger camels. They seemed unaware that it was already late autumn on the tundra and were still peacefully grazing on wild grass.

Upon seeing these animals, Chen Zhou couldn't help but feel their pitiful state—

Although it's not particularly cold here now, as time goes on, the area below the cliff will surely be dominated by extreme cold and become a snow country.

Animals from other regions can migrate south when temperatures drop, but these animals may be swallowed up by blizzards and freeze to death in this land.

The temporary peace is just an illusion given to them by the Time and Space Administration; before long, eternal death will come.

At first, when he thought of this, Chen Zhou still felt a little pride, the pride that belonged to the "most intelligent of all things".

Then he thought to himself, wasn't he also a "toy" manipulated and fooled by the Time and Space Administration? He couldn't help but laugh at himself.

……

It was completely dark, and the trail left by the falling beacon shimmered in the night sky, but it could no longer obscure the light of the stars.

The area near the Black Forest appeared even darker.

There was no burnt smell from the fire, and few signs of animal activity were visible. Only some tenacious plants stubbornly showed their greenness, taking root in the cracks of the earth.

The wind howled mournfully as it swept through the edge of the forest.

The three-headed little saw-toothed tiger was tearing at the deer's leg, while Chen Zhou and Paul stood aside, gazing at the distant cliff, waiting for the other challengers to appear.

……

Fearing that faster challengers might have set up an ambush, Chen Zhou carefully examined the traces along the way before heading to the Black Forest.

The ground here is firm, making it difficult to leave footprints, but humans walking through the bushes, hunting, or sweating will leave all sorts of traces. With his powerful sense of smell, he can detect clues that ordinary people cannot, thus judging whether someone has arrived before them.

Until he reached the edge of the Black Forest, Chen Zhou found no trace of humans.

This may indicate that they were the first group of challengers to arrive here, but it cannot rule out the possibility that other challengers descended the cliff from a greater distance to enter the Black Forest.

The challengers who have recently arrived in the Black Forest are no ordinary people. They must have superb physical fitness, rich experience in wilderness survival, great perseverance, and a strong desire to possess the airdropped supplies.

Chen Zhou had already agreed with Paul that if they encountered anyone in the Black Forest, they would show no mercy and must eliminate them in the shortest possible time using the most ruthless methods.

Those who make this choice are now irreconcilable enemies; there is no room for reconciliation between the two sides, and any encounter will be a fight to the death.

……

Without lighting a campfire, Chen Zhou and Paul simply waited quietly at the edge of the forest.

As the bright moon hung in the sky and the wind gradually weakened, two points of light suddenly appeared on the distant cliff top.

The light flickered and moved along the cliff face; even from a distance, one could guess their thoughts—

Clearly, they were both shocked by the eeriness of the Black Forest and eager to obtain supplies. Hesitant and anxious, they wanted to quickly climb down the cliff to reach the forest.

……

The firelight shifted for a moment, and the challengers on the cliff made a decision: they lit a campfire at the edge of the cliff, seemingly intending to rest there for the night and descend the cliff when visibility was clearer at dawn.

Silently noting down the group's exact location and predicting their likely next route, Chen Zhou and his companion continued to wait.

About an hour later, a second fire lit up the cliff top, a kilometer away from the campfire.

The tundra ended almost flat, and a kilometer wasn't far. The two groups of challengers who had lit campfires could clearly see each other, but they didn't clash. They both seemed wary of the other group, or worried about others arriving later.

If they fight, others may easily take advantage of them.

……

By this time, Paul was already quite tired, so Chen Zhou told him to go and rest, and that he would keep watch for the first half of the night.

The deerskin blanket was cut into ropes; tonight, there will be no blanket to rest on, nor a warm campfire.

Fortunately, the temperature rose slightly after he descended the cliff, and surrounded by three well-fed saw-toothed tigers, Paul quickly fell into a deep sleep due to drowsiness.

Chen Zhou patiently waited until late at night, and seeing that there were still only two campfires on the cliff, he guessed that only these two teams would arrive that night, so he woke up Paul and asked him to take over.

After sleeping soundly for half the night, just as dawn was breaking, Paul suddenly woke Chen Zhou and told him there was an emergency—

When Chen Zhou looked up at the top of the cliff, he discovered that the two groups of people who had camped on the edge of the tundra the night before were actually moving towards the middle.

What attracted them was not another challenger they had spent the night with, but a "lone wolf".

The lone traveler was leading a camel, his entire body shrouded in a long, black robe. From a distance, all that could be seen was his tall stature; the camel looked rather small next to him, probably even taller than Paul. Apart from that, no other information could be gleaned.

The two challenger teams clearly felt that the lone traveler was outnumbered and outgunned, which is why they harbored malicious intentions—to kill him, seize his survival supplies and the camel, and incidentally eliminate a competitor ahead of time. (End of Chapter)