Starting from Robinson Crusoe

Seeing that Paul seemed to recognize the owner of this hat, Chen Zhou also felt quite puzzled—

Judging from all the challengers seen so far, although most of these people come from different worlds, even different eras, they share one common point: both sides can communicate normally.

Whether it was the American GI and the Japanese Ninja who got killed, or the two Rangers from ancient times, or that group of Indians, they all had the ability to communicate.

After all, since it’s a cooperative challenge, communication is obviously top priority.

Otherwise, the two of them would need at least three to five months just to learn each other’s language, and by the time they could understand each other, it’d all be far too late.

From what he’d observed, some of them even came from the same world and the same era; maybe they’d known each other before joining the challenge, or worked in the same organization.

Logically speaking, the odds of Paul running into someone he knew should be almost zero.

Otherwise, given the Space-Time Administration Bureau’s style of doing things, Paul would’ve been assigned to his acquaintance, not to Chen Zhou.

Faintly sensing that the situation was quite different from what he’d imagined, Chen Zhou probed Paul with a question.

"This person... you know him?"

"Yes!"

Paul nodded heavily, turned the hat over so the red five-pointed star sewn on it faced him, examined it carefully for a moment, then explained to Chen Zhou who the hat’s owner was—

In the Soviet Republic where Paul lived, the challenges of the Space-Time Administration Bureau—or rather, the large-scale reality show—were given the codename "Corrosion."

After discovering its secrets at the end of the 20th century, the Soviet Union began continuously organizing soldiers to take part in the "Corrosion" trials.

At first the exploration teams were small in scale, and they always ended in total annihilation. Only after paying the price of hundreds of pioneers did the first person to successfully complete a challenge appear.

His name was Vadopiyannov. His heroic actions and the major contribution brought by the "successful trial" earned him the title Hero of the Soviet Union, along with the Gold Star medal.

With the experience from this first success, later, under Vadopiyannov’s leadership, participants began targeted specialized training and knowledge supplementation. Eventually, five years later, they reached their goal and produced a second batch—the largest batch of successful challengers up to the time Paul entered the "Corrosion" project, a full eight people.

And Gromov was one of them.

Every warrior who completed a challenge was extraordinarily precious; the trials had already proven their character and loyalty.

Therefore, as long as they completed a challenge and their mental state remained intact, their rank and position would soar all the way up.

By the time Paul took part in this "Corrosion" project, Gromov had already been promoted to lieutenant general.

Of course, that wasn’t the most crucial point. As the most influential and highest-level experimental institution in the entire Soviet Union, "Corrosion" didn’t just have one lieutenant general; there were more than five full generals with real power.

What truly left a deep impression on Paul was that in this trial, the nearly sixty-year-old General Gromov would personally take part, exerting his remaining strength to make one last contribution to the Republic.

Paul had always thought that this respectable general had already headed off to other worlds to begin his own unique personal challenge, and hadn’t imagined he would actually see the general’s hat here—

Among all those participating in this "Corrosion" trial, only Gromov still wore this kind of retro Budyonny hat. It was the Soviet Union’s first military cap, and also the cap worn by the protagonist Paul Korchagin in the film How the Steel Was Tempered.

As a devoted fan who shared the same full name as Paul Korchagin, Paul was sure he might mistake other things, but never this hat.

...

"This has to be General Gromov, Chen Zhou, I swear it’s him!"

Clutching the hat tightly, staring at the ruined marks on it and the specks of bloodstains, Paul couldn’t help growing agitated.

He could feel that this venerable old general’s condition was probably not optimistic.

"Can we go look for him?

I think... he seems to need some help."

Paul’s tone was almost pleading.

Under the brutal rules of the challenge, helping other challengers was obviously extremely irrational behavior.

Everyone was a competitor; doing this was tantamount to aiding the enemy. And Gromov only had some connection with Paul—he was a complete stranger to Chen Zhou. From any angle, this request was somewhat unreasonable, even unfair.

...

Paul had already braced himself for rejection, but unexpectedly, Chen Zhou agreed to his request.

Selecting trees suitable for making gun barrels didn’t conflict with searching for the owner of the hat, and besides they had Tiger Third, this "witness tiger." The two of them led the Three-headed Saw-toothed Tiger into the forest.

It wasn’t long before they found tattered clothing and a human corpse torn apart by beasts under a tree.

Judging from the scene, the deceased had seemingly engaged in a fierce fight with the beasts before his death, but that wasn’t the true cause of his demise—

Not far from the tree, the two of them saw a tree house with its framework fully completed. The grass beneath the tree house had been thoroughly cleared; there, one could find a Fire Bow for friction fire-starting and a semi-permanent stove built from Stone.

However, all signs indicated that only Gromov had lived here—he had no companions.

Based on the degree of decomposition of the remains, he had been dead for at least a month. The fundamental cause of his death was likely hunger or parasitic infection, disease; the beast attack was just the last straw that broke the camel’s back.