Starting from Robinson Crusoe

Amidst this cycle of self-denial and doubt, he finally waited for Chen Zhou to return.

...

Returning to his own territory, the place where he had lived the longest since birth and left the most memories, the most excited was undoubtedly the Three-headed Saw-toothed Tiger.

In the afternoon, Paul had just carried a bundle of firewood back to the entrance of the shelter.

He inserted a knife into the crevice of the edge inside the mess kit, expertly prying at the ice mound, preparing to perform the old routine.

Before he could pry out the ice mound, Paul heard a commotion of footsteps, and then the familiar Saw-toothed Tiger appeared at the foot of the slope.

Seeing the Saw-toothed Tiger, Paul immediately knew that Chen Zhou had successfully completed his goal and returned smoothly. Without even putting down the mess kit, he grabbed the knife in one hand and the pot in the other, and hurriedly dashed down the hill.

...

From a distance, Chen Zhou could already hear Paul’s rolling Russian tongue.

With a mischievous grin, he leisurely waited for Paul’s reaction upon catching the scent from Tiger Second.

Things progressed as he expected. The most excited Tiger Second ran ahead, and upon seeing this largest and friendliest member of the group, Tiger Second immediately leapt and plunged into Paul’s arms.

"Oh, good boy~ good boy!"

Dropping the mess kit and military saber, Paul couldn’t hide his delight, hugging this now much larger creature tightly.

He pressed his thick beard against Tiger Second’s head, rubbing it, not forgetting to lift Tiger Second up to estimate how much weight it had gained.

Soon after, Tiger First and Tiger Third were also drawn into Paul’s embrace.

Reuniting after a long separation, the two-meter-three-tall Slavic man had a childlike smile on his face.

Chen Zhou folded his arms, quietly waiting for Paul to realize something was off.

But even after Paul finished fussing over the Saw-toothed Tigers, the expected disgust or confusion didn’t occur, leaving Chen Zhou feeling like his prank had failed.

"Is it that my sense of smell is too keen, or is it that Russians are too insensitive?"

Feeling somewhat defeated, Chen Zhou greeted Paul and placed the vine basket he was carrying at the entrance of the shelter.

...

Winter had settled in for a while. Worried about the endless snow and wind preventing him from going out, Chen Zhou only planned to rest for a night before heading out again.

This time, besides taking Longbow and handing the antidote to Bi Kai, he wanted to verify one thing —

The challenge rules stated:

"You cannot choose to team up with others before your companion voluntarily gives up the challenge or fails."

This means, if he and Paul were indeed in the same group, before he gave up the challenge, he couldn’t form an alliance with Bi Kai, and neither could Paul.

If his guess was correct, and he was the 101st person and not Paul’s partner, then the real "free men" were actually Paul and Bi Kai.

He wanted to test whether he could reach a successful alliance with Bi Kai, with Paul’s consent, beforehand.

If it failed, it meant he and Paul were indeed the original partners, and he was in some ways indeed bound by the challenge rules.

If it succeeded, that would be good news but would also bring a lot of uncertainties.

In Chen Zhou’s view, the greatest advantage of being unrestricted by the challenge rules was that his voluntary departure from the challenge area wouldn’t count as a challenge failure.

For all challengers, this was akin to using a cheat.

While others suffered in the extreme cold of minus sixty-five degrees, ultimately unable to find even a single living creature, he could "leap beyond the three realms" and hunt beasts outside.

Even though it was also the Ice Age outside the challenge area, temperatures wouldn’t be so extreme.

On this point alone, he could outlast the others.

Not only that, if he could move Paul and Bi Kai to the edge of the challenge area soon, allowing them to communicate with the outside area, he could provide both with food and fuel supplies.

As long as he was willing to do a little more labor, he could completely guarantee these two become the final winners.

Of course, every gain has its cost.

What left Chen Zhou uncertain, even fearful, was —

If he didn’t have to adhere to the challenge rules, would he eventually be able to leave this world?

If Paul and Bi Kai survived to the end, would all three of them be teleported away, or would only two of them be able to leave, excluding him?

Staying in the year 10,000 BC was far more suffocating than remaining in the 17th century.

In the 17th century, at least one could glimpse the light of civilization, whereas in the Prehistoric World, all he could probably see were savagery and ignorance.

On this point, Chen Zhou couldn’t find any interpretation from the rules.

As an "outsider," he seemed bound to accept the benefits the bug brought while bearing unpredictable risks.

Ultimately, everything depended on the choice of the Space-Time Administration Bureau.

For those mysterious high-up beings, teleporting a person away was merely a lift of a finger; whether he could influence their decision depended on his performance.

...

At this thought, Chen Zhou couldn’t help but sigh.

He had always disliked uncertainty, even more so disliked his fate being controlled by others.

Yet, in front of the Space-Time Administration Bureau, he was smaller than an insect.

The only consolation was that, compared to Paul or Bi Kai, at least he had interacted with the Space-Time Administration Bureau and knew what they detested the most —

People who exploit loopholes and disrupt the challenge order.

Chen Zhou thought if he really helped Paul and Bi Kai become the final winners through something like cheating, whether those two could leave or not was uncertain, but he certainly wouldn’t be able to.

Conversely, if he pretended to be a challenger within the venue, adhering to the rules or only slightly crossing the red line, striving to survive in the extremely cold environment might win the favor of the Space-Time Administration Bureau.

...

After realizing he was not one of the challengers, Chen Zhou often pondered over this issue, mulling over the challenge rules repeatedly in his mind.

Compared to the "mysterious grand prize" mentioned in the rules, going home was a more important affair; he didn’t want to stay here forever.

...

Removing the heavy wooden door blocking the entrance of the shelter, Chen Zhou lowered his head and crawled inside.

Both he and Paul were rare tall individuals among humans, especially Paul, whose height of two meters three posed many challenges in the construction of the shelter.

To adapt to their heights, aside from the slightly smaller door, the interior ceiling of the shelter reached over 2.1m.

Therefore, after building the stone walls on both sides, Chen Zhou and Paul also dug down further, creating a sunken interior for the shelter.

...

Entering the shelter from the cold mountainside, the first thing one could feel was a wave of warmth.

After all, there was no wind blowing incessantly here, and the body surface temperature ceased to drop instantly.

After the warmth, a stench of animal hide mixed with the sour aroma of dried berries and the oily scent of pine nuts flooded Chen Zhou’s nostrils.

The interior of this makeshift shelter on the mountainside was more barren than it appeared from the outside, even less accommodating than the first ramshackle hut Chen Zhou had built on a deserted island.

Inside the shelter, there was no flooring, only exposed earth embedded with stones of varying sizes.

Long wooden sticks were stuck in the cracks between the stone blocks on both sides, serving as unique "hooks," some strings of berries and semi-finished furs hung on the sticks.

Near the entrance, there was a small fireplace built with stones and plastered with a layer of mud on the outside.

When at home, occasionally Chen Zhou would place some charcoal in the fireplace.

However, due to the chimney being too small, it often got blocked during wind and snow, making it so while warming themselves by it, they also had to endure the smoke.

Unfortunately, the fireplace was too small, located too close to the entrance and too far from the beds, so it barely managed to counteract the cold wind blowing in, rendering it almost useless, and was eventually abandoned.

Paul and Chen Zhou’s beds were at the very back of the shelter, next to the wall, situated on either side.

The beds were elevated with round logs, covered with animal hides; most of the unpleasant smell in the cabin came from these poorly tanned, slightly stiff pelts.

The majority of their possessions were hung on the walls, while a box filled with supplies was placed at the head of Chen Zhou’s bed.

Looking at the damaged longbow on the wall, just as Chen Zhou was about to open the box to take out the antidote, he felt quite sentimental. During their last parting, he hadn’t expected it would be a separation marked by the gulf between life and death.