From Robinson Crusoe

The intense pain can instantly sweep away all drowsiness.

Ambaydar's dream was shattered by a whip. Before he could even see his attacker, he instinctively drew the scimitar from his waist.

Pandit became even more enraged when he saw that he was willing to resist. The second lash he drew was even more ferocious, the tip of the whip striking Ambedar's wrist so hard that he could not hold the knife at all.

The adrenaline rush made Anbaydar temporarily ignore the pain. He didn't know why he had revealed his intentions, but he knew that if he didn't fight to the death, he would never survive.

In a life-or-death situation, cooperation and supplies must be thrown to the back of one's mind.

With a roar, he withstood the attack of the long whip and pounced like a Bengal tiger.

……

The dying campfire was whipped, sparking a few embers, and the air was filled with the smell of ashes from the dying embers.

With the second stone tightly clenched in his palm, Chen Zhou, hiding in the tree, was dumbfounded.

He had considered that the challenger wouldn't fall for it, that the challenger would discover his location immediately, but he hadn't considered this possibility—

I haven't even laid a hand on you, so why are you all fighting amongst yourselves?
Does this stone of mine have some special power to influence people's minds?

He had just been worried that exposing too much of his body would increase the chances of being discovered, but seeing that the two Indians didn't seem to be acting and were really going all out with each attack, Chen Zhou boldly sat sideways on the tree trunk and watched the commotion from afar.

The Indian who struck first used a long whip, while the Indian who was attacked used a curved knife, but it was knocked away by the Indian who struck first long ago.

The Indians, unarmed and vulnerable, were already at a disadvantage, and even if they fought with all their might, they were no match for the one who struck first.

The evenly matched situation, achieved through sheer force of their combined efforts, lasted only a moment before the Indian man was enveloped in the shadows of the whip. His clothes were quickly torn to shreds, and the bloody welts left him powerless to fight back. He could only kneel on the ground, covering his head with his hands to protect his vitals.

As the whip-wielding Indian attacked, he muttered and cursed loudly, enjoying the right of a high-caste person to punish a low-caste person, just as a priest in the Mughal Empire was supposed to do.

The crack of the whip mingled with Anbedar's screams; the destruction of his dark brown skin did not evoke pity in him, but rather a strange sense of pleasure—

Pandit never felt that Ambedar was worthy of being his partner, and he even considered it an insult to his noble status to regard him as a slave.

An innate sense of superiority took hold of his mind. He swung his long whip fiercely, not even noticing the sound of someone jumping down from a tree behind him and landing on the ground.

……

The kunai twirled in Chen Zhou's palm. Standing quietly about three meters behind the Indian man, watching this volatile, "slave-owner-like" fellow punish his companion, Chen Zhou found it all rather amusing.

Even the natives on a deserted island know to treat their companions well, while showing their brutality to the enemy.

This guy, dressed in a flashy, respectable manner, is acting like he wants to kill his partner. Does he think he can complete the challenge alone?

Comparing the Indian man and the man in black in his mind, Chen Zhou felt that the man did not possess such abilities.

Now that things have developed to this point, the plan to lure them away and muddy the waters is definitely doomed to fail.

Chen Zhou originally planned to look for opportunities before and after receiving the airdrop supplies to see if he could take out other challengers and obtain more survival tools.

Unexpectedly, the opportunity didn't need to be sought out; it simply came to us on its own.

Since the group of challengers has already fallen into such a state, saving him most of the effort, he can't be too polite. It would be a good thing to accept this "gift".

……

When Pandit finished venting his anger, the cuts on his face had stopped bleeding.

The lowly commoner lay on the ground, his clothes torn to shreds, his entire body stained with blood. He seemed to still be breathing, but hadn't moved for a long time.

Putting away the whip, Pandit couldn't help but regret hitting so hard—

His only slave was left half-dead, and from then on, the dirty and hard work that the lower classes had to do fell to him.

In the Mughal Empire, within the pyramid structure of the traditional caste system, those at the top never needed to do these things. Sometimes, high-caste individuals were even expelled from the high-caste class for doing "lowly" work.

Now, the only thing that can give Pandit a sense of relief is that there are no other priests watching. When he returns to the Empire, he will still be the same high and mighty person, and may even gain a higher status because of his contact with "God".

"Pooh!"

Pandit spat on the ground, intending to add some firewood to the campfire before it completely died down, and then find some water to wash his long whip—

It was stained with too much of Dalit's blood, which made him uncomfortable.

Turning around, he saw a tall, muscular man with a masked face standing behind him like a ghost.

As one of the first challengers to descend the cliff, Pandit recognized the man instantly—

The man in black robes!
Without time to ponder why the black-robed man's robe was missing, and in his haste, he also failed to notice that this person was shorter than the black-robed man. Suddenly struck by a thought, Pandit hurriedly lashed out with his long whip, attempting to strike first.

But by then it was too late to take action.

The kunai flew out of Chen Zhou's hand, accurately piercing Pandit's chest, and then crashed into the tree trunk with a crisp sound like metal colliding with stone.

The arm that had just unleashed the whip fell limply to its side. The panic in Pandit's eyes had not yet faded when he lost his spirit and fell backward to the ground.

……

At dawn, the Black Forest came alive again, something it hadn't done in a long time.

Under the faint light of dawn, the three groups of challengers were attacked by rocks one after another and led to the same spot by Chen Zhou.

To lull them into a false sense of security, Chen Zhou chose a rendezvous point less than a kilometer from the airdrop landing point. This ambiguous distance could give each group of challengers the illusion that they were in control of the situation.

But in reality, once they all arrive at the same location, Chen Zhou will set off and wait directly below the landing point.

Once the supplies are delivered, Chen Zhou will definitely be the first person to access them.

Even if it's a kilometer, it would take several minutes to walk there. For someone like Chen Zhou, let alone several minutes, even a dozen seconds would be enough for him to run hundreds of meters.

……

The same type of stones, almost identical attack methods, and similar luring techniques—

These things are easy to exploit, making it clear that a "third party" is instigating conflict among other challengers and then profiting from it.

However, the three groups of challengers who were led to the designated location did not trust each other. At this point, the atmosphere in the central area of ​​the Black Forest was already very tense. It was already quite rational of them to remain restrained and not fight. Expecting them to share information was simply a pipe dream.

Moreover, there is the language barrier that hinders their communication.

Meanwhile, the "disappeared" challenger group and the new faces also influenced everyone's judgment. Since they hadn't seen the two Indians for a long time, the two challenger groups who remembered the Indians instinctively thought that the Indians were the ones causing trouble.

Being wary of the Indians lurking in the shadows, they are even less likely to provoke conflict.

As for information about the men in black robes, these people knew nothing about it because they arrived too late. In their minds, these were the only people who should have entered the Black Forest.

Not everyone can survey the core area of ​​the inner ring for a whole week in a single day, nor does everyone possess Chen Zhou's abundant energy and keen perception.

...Hanging the package containing Indian survival tools on the tree, Chen Zhou looked down and observed the three groups of challengers gathered in the same location, waiting for the airdropped supplies to land completely.

Ideally, the three groups of challengers would remain in a standoff until supplies land.

However, the likelihood of this happening is extremely low.

Since the Indians were killed, they will assume that the Indians are heading to the core area if they do not see them, and may even blame the stone-throwing attack on the Indians.

The effect of the disappearing "third party" is completely different from that of everyone gathering together.

It now appears that the standoff can only last until supplies are about to arrive, at which point they would rather travel side by side than continue this stalemate.

Unless something unexpected happens during the waiting period, causing the three groups of challengers to want to determine the final winner ahead of time, the situation is not actually friendly to Chen Zhou.

……

By noon, three bonfires had been lit outside the core area, indicating that the challengers had brought plenty of food.

Once they enter the final battle, they can no longer leave the Black Forest to hunt prey in the meadows, so preparing food for the next few days is something every challenger will do.

Only a minority of challengers own cooking utensils; most challengers use fire to cook food.

As the meat was cooked, the three groups of rivals made the same decision—

One challenger eats while the other keeps watch. Once one finishes eating, the other takes over.

They must ensure that they can observe their opponent's every move at all times, which gives them a sense of security.

……

Unlike the challengers who ate cooked food, Chen Zhou could only sit on a tree branch, smelling the aroma of cooked food, and silently shoveling the cooled meat soup into his mouth.

Because it had been sitting for too long, the fat in the broth had solidified, and when you drank it, it tasted sometimes sour water and sometimes small pieces of broken fat.

The food was certainly not delicious, but what tormented Chen Zhou the most was his mental exhaustion.

He hadn't slept for over 36 hours.

In a normal person, this would cause a rise in blood pressure, increased burden on the heart, sluggish brain response, and frequent "microsleep" phenomena, which are involuntary sleep lasting more than 30 seconds. During this time, the brain would temporarily shut down and stop maintaining the scheduling of various parts of the body.

Thanks to his strong physique, these abnormalities have not yet appeared in Chen Zhou, but the fatigue from lack of sleep is unavoidable.

Looking once more at the three groups of challengers, Chen Zhou inevitably looked up at the beacon still hanging in the sky.

"When are you finally going to fall?"

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly narrowed his eyes—

A small black dot appeared amidst the beacon's brilliant light.

The black dot descends in sync with the beacon, but upon closer inspection, it can be seen that it is at least 30 to 500 meters away from the glowing beacon.

In other words, if this black dot is a supply point, it will land at least fifteen minutes earlier than people realize.

Rubbing his eyes, Chen Zhou initially thought he was seeing things because he hadn't slept for too long, but after checking again, he found that he wasn't hallucinating; there was indeed a square object hanging directly below the beacon.

Calculating the time based on the beacon's current descent speed, Chen Zhou was shocked to discover that when the glowing beacon was only 500 meters from the ground, it would be nighttime.

Nearly a month ago, when the beacon was first observed, it shone brightly, and its light could be seen from thousands of kilometers away.

By the time you reach the edge of the tundra, it has become several times dimmer, and can only be seen by those who are close to the tundra.

Today, the beacon's light has become even dimmer, and it can no longer even illuminate the Black Forest.

To date, the beacon can barely provide any light to the woodland in the core area, and its brightness continues to decline.

Chen Zhou estimated that by tonight, the beacon would no longer be able to illuminate the forest, and the night sky and the coal-like trees would form an enormous visual trap, making it difficult for the challengers to spot the black dot below the beacon.

In other words, everyone else who didn't notice the black spot would have the same illusion—

The supplies will take a while to land; they still have time.

Thinking of this, Chen Zhou quickly peeked out and looked at the three groups of challengers, fearing that they might look up at the beacon.

While not everyone possesses his keen eye, the challengers are no ordinary individuals, and they might just spot the flaws.

The sight of six figures by the campfire brought him a sense of relief.

Food, rivals, the oppressive Black Forest, and the Indians whose whereabouts were unknown—these things consumed too much of their energy.

There are still at least a dozen hours left before the beacon reaches the canopy, so they will focus their attention on the other two groups of challengers, not on the beacon that no one can touch.

……

Feeling temporarily relieved, Chen Zhou abandoned the idea of ​​searching around the core area again.

Before sunset, he had to stay here to monitor the three groups of challengers until the star curtain enveloped the black dot, leaving only the beacon to fall.

……

Time ticked by, and the challengers showed no desire to communicate. While the atmosphere wasn't exactly tense, it maintained a pre-battle tension.

Just as Chen Zhou had predicted, the closer the beacon got to the Black Forest, the dimmer its light became.

It used to be like the sun, but now it's just like the morning star. If it weren't for the night, you might not even notice its existence at noon.

After the sun had completely set, only three campfires remained as light sources in the forest.

Two groups of challengers, aware of the existence of Indians, are eager to make their move.

Having had their competitors gone for so long, they were still unsure of what to do. If it weren't for the presence of another group of strangers, and the uncertainty of whether their departure would trigger unpredictable chain reactions, they would have already left their temporary encampment and begun a massive search for the Indians.

Now, with only six or seven hours left before the supplies land, they simply cannot remain calm and continue waiting.

With the need arising, communication naturally followed. Two groups of challengers, not far apart, each sent a representative to try to exchange information, which aroused the vigilance of the other group of challengers.

The negotiation fell apart as soon as the challengers revealed their weapons.

The situation has once again reached a stalemate.

High in the trees where no one could see him, Chen Zhou had already quietly set off.

He cautiously walked along the spiral route, circling the core area and setting up different activity trails to deceive other challengers, while also checking if anyone else had entered below the landing point.

This method of movement will continue until he reaches directly below the landing point, and until he finds the best position to contest and secure the "small black dot". (End of Chapter)