From Robinson Crusoe

In this unique challenge, everyone has their own understanding of how to win.

Unlike Chen Zhou, who values ​​teamwork and hopes his partners can handle mundane tasks, the man in black robes has clearly taken a different path.

To this end, he did not hesitate to kill his partner, take away his companion's survival tools, discard his heavy burdens, and pursue the ultimate in personal mobility and combat power.

Of course, there are many reasons that could have prompted him to make this decision.

If the difference in combat power between him and his partner hadn't been so great, if the survival tools he received hadn't been so powerful, if he hadn't participated in the "trial" for the second time and still had the precious regeneration capsules, perhaps he would have shown leniency and taken his companion, who was considered a burden, a little further and allowed them to survive a little longer.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

……

After Paul stripped the black-robed man of his equipment, among all the supplies he found, the most valuable were undoubtedly the black-robed man's light armor and long sword.

The light armor only covers the upper body, with a particular focus on protecting the chest, back, and waist.

Inside those raised rhomboid blocks was a special stab-resistant material, so much so that even the spear Chen Zhou threw could only pierce through it a little bit, demonstrating its formidable defensive capabilities.

Although the back of the light armor was damaged due to the bait set up by the black-robed man, more than 80% of its area was still intact.

Compared to simple leather armor sewn from animal hides, this modern light armor can undoubtedly be called a "miracle weapon".

Especially when worn by Chen Zhou, it can make up for his lack of defensive capabilities, raising his combat power to another level, making him even more formidable.

If light armor compensated for the lack of defense, then the longsword greatly increased Chen Zhou's ability to inflict damage.

Perhaps to accommodate the tall stature of the man in black robes, the entire knife is 120cm long, about 20cm longer than a normal knife.

The blade is heavy, forged from high-quality steel, hard yet flexible, and can bend within a limited range. A brass handguard is installed on the hilt. For Chen Zhou, this knife is still not heavy enough, but it is much more useful than a short military knife or a crudely made spear.

If the two had switched weapons when they first met, and he had used the knife, he probably would have beheaded the man in black within three minutes, thus avoiding all the trouble that followed.

In addition to the long sword, the scabbard also uses a lot of metal, so it can also be used as a weapon in an emergency.

……

Before cooking the camel meat, Chen Zhou took the light armor and longsword with him and washed them at a water source.

The knife was relatively easy to clean, since it was made of metal and the bloodstains could be easily washed off. However, it was much harder to remove the strong smell of blood from the light armor.

Therefore, Chen Zhou could only pull up some shrubs and weeds with a pungent smell and use them like steel wool to scrub the blood-stained areas on his nails. Although this could not completely eliminate the smell of blood, it could at least cover it up with a stronger pungent smell.

As for the lingering fishy smell, only time can dispel it.

After cleaning up, back at the encampment, Chen Zhou even tried to sew up the damaged light armor.

However, the needles and thread they had were clearly unsuitable for clothing made of this special material. Although they managed to sew it up with difficulty, it looked awkward and was far from the original appearance of the light armor when it was intact.

However, patching up the gap in his back would at least provide some defense, and since it was all free, he was content with that.

……

Light armor and long swords are the main sources of the black-robed man's combat power.

Aside from those two items, the black-robed man's clothing was of good quality, especially his long boots, which were thick and sturdy, and there might even be metal plates embedded in the rubber soles.

After receiving it, Chen Zhou immediately changed out of his own shoes and put on the black-robed man's long boots.

If he hadn't had other things to do during the day, he probably would have changed the black-robed man's pants as well.

In the inner pocket of the black-robed man's light armor, Paul found fire-starting tools, a small dagger, a bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine, a bottle of water purification tablets, a bag of salt, and a rubber insulated water storage bag.

In addition, the man in the black robe also had a small smoke bomb and a semi-transparent blue empty bottle clipped to his belt.

Chen Zhou had witnessed the power of smoke grenades.

But this thing is pretty useless to him. If there are enemies he can't handle, it doesn't make much difference whether he throws the smoke grenade or not.

If he could handle the enemy, the smoke grenade wouldn't be of much use, so he simply threw the smoke grenade to Paul.

In Paul's hands, smoke grenades could at least buy time and confuse the enemy, and might even save his life in a critical moment.

He was particularly interested in the semi-transparent blue empty bottle.

There was no other reason than that the blue of the empty bottle was exactly the same as the blue favored by the Time and Space Administration, and the fact that the man in black robes seemed to have participated in a challenge gave Chen Zhou reason to believe that the bottle had some connection with the Time and Space Administration.

……

The broth in the cooking pot was cooking. Since most of the two men and three tigers present were sick, Chen Zhou lavishly added some salt to the pot to make the food taste stronger and to replenish their salt intake.

The firewood was burning fiercely, and Paul was using the hammerhead of his axe to strike the coal on the ground, throwing the coal-like stones into the fire to see if they could be used as fuel.

Chen Zhou moved Tiger Three to his side.

The good news is that Tiger Three's condition has not worsened so far, and he has maintained breathing and a stable heartbeat.

The bad news is that it neither worsened nor improved; it remained immobile and listless. It was too weak to even bite into meat offered to its mouth and had to be torn into small pieces by a person before it could swallow.

The splints made of wooden planks were already in place, and Paul's legs were the first to be secured, followed by Hu Sanwa's spine, which was then carefully secured as well.

The little guy was lying inside the black robe, his eyes slightly open, looking at the sky and at the "tribal leader" beside him, his eyes filled with both pain and a desire to live.

……

While waiting for the broth to cook, Chen Zhou kept an eye on Hu Sanwa's condition while playing with the blue bottle.

Just now, he discovered that when the blue bottle was rotated to a certain angle in the light, a line of intricate and ever-changing patterns appeared on the inside of the bottle. However, due to the unstable light in the Black Forest, the patterns disappeared before he could see what they looked like.

Holding the small blue bottle, Chen Zhou repeatedly rotated it above his head, and soon the phenomenon was reproduced.

The patterns resembled countless intertwined rays of light, flowing rapidly. As the light continued to pass through the bottle wall, the patterns gradually simplified, soon revealing a form familiar to Chen Zhou—

Chinese character.

The words "Weak-Effect Regenerating Capsules" are written in standard boldface. If you look further, the pattern will form text similar to an explanation, clarifying the main effects and side effects of this bottle of capsules.

Only then did Chen Zhou realize the truth.

No wonder the man in black robes managed to escape wounded after taking a bullet from him; it was all thanks to this capsule. Guessing that the little blue bottle, like his blue cube, was a storage tool with a "secret mechanism," Chen Zhou unscrewed the cap and tried to pour out items, or fill the bottle with water, and even attempted to "communicate" with the bottle using his mind to make it spit out what was inside.

But the result was disappointing. No matter what tricks he used, the little blue bottle seemed to perform no differently than an ordinary glass bottle.

Aside from being able to display different language descriptions depending on the observer when light is transmitted through it, it can't even hold a few grams of water.

"That's true. If there were a few capsules left, he wouldn't have left them for me; he probably would have eaten them himself..."

Despite this thought, Chen Zhou still couldn't give up and carefully searched the black robe, the light armor, the scabbard, the boots, the pants, and even the black-robed man's socks and underwear, hoping that he would hide the life-saving capsule there.

The result was still fruitless, and Chen Zhou's newly raised hopes were shattered.

……

Although they didn't find the medicine to cure Paul and Tiger Three on the man in black, Chen Zhou saw the most promising path in it—

Airdrop supplies.

Along with the increased difficulty of the challenge, the preciousness of supplies will inevitably increase.

Chen Zhou was certain that the supplies in the prehistoric world were definitely not the small-scale operations of the isolated island blind boxes.

The challengers vying for supplies have just begun to arrive, and he has already witnessed two deaths and one injury.

As other challengers arrive, the battle for supplies will intensify, and it is highly likely that several, or even a dozen, people will die because of supplies.

With so many lives lost and so many highly qualified challengers, their deaths must have resulted in items of equal value.

Chen Zhou guessed that the regeneration capsule possessed by the man in black robes was very likely to appear during the resupply.

Before even reaching the Black Forest, he was already possessive of the supplies.

Now that Paul and Tiger Three are injured, Chen Zhou's desire to seize supplies has not diminished but has become even stronger.

Moreover, it might not be a bad thing that Paul cannot participate in the battle. Compared with the other challengers, Paul's combat ability is obviously inferior. Letting Paul take care of the three-headed saw-toothed tiger and acting alone might allow him to perform better.

Moreover, after killing the man in black robes, he seized the man's light armor and long sword, further enhancing his combat capabilities.

Unfortunately, the longbow was barely used after he got it before the black-robed man destroyed it.

Chen Zhou secretly pondered that if he encountered the pair of wandering knights again and they had already tamed their mounts, he might as well return the longbow.

Perhaps the brown-armored man has a way to repair the longbow, and maybe he can "borrow" the repaired longbow when the opportunity arises in the future.

Since they're bows and arrows, it doesn't matter who has them.

……

Darkness falls exceptionally quickly in the Black Forest.

Before sunset, Chen Zhou and Paul finished their stewed camel meat and then poured the salty broth into their water pouches to drink later that evening.

To confuse other challengers entering the Black Forest, Chen Zhou used his longsword to dissect the camel's corpse again and deliberately left the black-robed man's footprints in the same spot, erasing any trace of the fierce battle that had taken place there.

After creating the illusion that the man in black robes had stayed here, killed a camel, had a barbecue alone, and then left, Chen Zhou went to great lengths to come to the outside of the Black Forest, dug a pit, and buried the man in black robes' body in the ground.

In this way, those who come later will assume that only the man in black robes was the first to enter the Black Forest, thus overlooking his and Paul's existence. This can be considered a way of not letting Paul's painstaking efforts go to waste.

During the meal, Chen Zhou asked Paul why he didn't shout loudly.

In fact, he had already tracked the man in black to a location not far away. If Paul had spoken up sooner, he could have arrived faster, and perhaps Paul would not have been injured, and Tiger Three wouldn't have ended up paralyzed from the waist down.

Paul only said that he didn't think that much at the time, and he didn't even think that he could survive. He only hoped that the advantage they had created together would not disappear because of him, otherwise he would feel guilty.

As for the third tiger cub, or rather the three-headed sawtooth tiger cub, stepping forward, it was also beyond Paul's expectations.

Adult predators do indeed help their pack members defend against enemies, but the three-headed sawtooth tiger cubs are still young, and at this stage they are relatively timid. Let alone humans who look different from them, they might not even come to help if their own mother is attacked.

Looking back now, Paul might have died if it weren't for the three-headed saw-toothed tiger.

Of course, the best outcome among many possibilities might be that Tiger Three is seriously injured and Paul is only slightly injured.

Given the black-robed man's character, if he had killed Paul first, even the three-headed saw-toothed tiger might not have survived; the scene would have been littered with corpses.

This is a consensus between Chen Zhou and Paul.

……

After disguising the scene, Chen Zhou and Paul led the three saw-toothed tigers to the depths of the forest.

They were lucky enough to find a small, L-shaped depression. The entire shallow pit was slightly inward-facing and made entirely of semi-jade-like stone. It blocked the wind and shaded the light, preventing others from discovering the campfire's glow.

After placing Paul and the three-headed sawtooth tiger in the pit and lighting a campfire, Chen Zhou left with a long sword and two kunai.

Today's battle has wasted a lot of time, and he now knows nothing about the movements of the other challengers. He must quickly find out if any new challengers have arrived or if anyone has entered the Black Forest.

Most importantly, he had overlooked something in the forest—

Longbow and quiver.

Once these two items are discovered, his and Paul's existence will be exposed.

Now that it was dark, visibility in the Black Forest was even more limited. Except for those with night vision, ordinary challengers could hardly move an inch without lighting a torch.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he needed to quickly retrieve his longbow quiver and, incidentally, scout out the whereabouts of the other three challengers at the edge of the woods.

As things have progressed, he can no longer allow too many people into the Black Forest.

Paul was in the forest, and if he were discovered, he would hardly survive due to his limited mobility.

Chen Zhou planned to force back, severely injure, or kill all those who entered the outer perimeter of the Black Forest, while simultaneously transferring Paul from the other side of the Black Forest to provide backup outside.

It was extremely far from the beacon, and other challengers would never deliberately take a long detour to enter the Black Forest from the furthest point, where Paul was safest.

After transferring Paul, he was to rush to the area directly below where the supplies had landed, try to get the supplies as soon as possible, and then leave the area as quickly as possible, taking Paul with him and making a quick getaway.

If he's fast enough and prevents other challengers from getting close before the supplies fully land, he can definitely achieve his plan using their accumulated first-mover advantage. (End of Chapter)