That night.
When Yun Ruoxi caught a glimpse of the starry sky above Lin Zhen’s head on the screen, the positions of those stars looked oddly familiar.
She instinctively paused the video and looked up.
Through the gaps in the treetops, the river of stars was almost identical to the constellation layout on the screen.
Her breath faltered for a moment, then a smile curled unconsciously at the corners of her lips.
Finally found you!
Yun Ruoxi enlarged the frame, comparing inch by inch, and roughly confirmed that Lin Zhen was at her eleven o’clock.
She couldn’t gauge the exact distance, but it couldn’t be too far—if she just headed in that direction, she was sure to run into him.
The uncertainty of the first stage of the test was just too great, so she hadn’t actually made any detailed plans.
All she’d thought was to get as much screen time as possible to gain popularity.
As for what to do once she found Lin Zhen, she’d simply play it by ear.
***
The next morning.
Yun Ruoxi woke up early, packed her gear, and got ready to set out.
Over the past ten days, she had found four more weapon supply crates and collected four different broken weapons.
But only two of them could actually be repaired.
One was a single-handed straight sword that could extend and retract quickly, and the other was a fingerless glove that could discharge high-voltage electricity.
The extendable sword could reach up to two meters at its longest.
At its shortest, it was just fifteen centimeters—about the size of a regular dagger.
Since it lacked a crossguard, it was easy to injure her fingers in a clash, so Yun Ruoxi generally used it as a dagger.
The electric glove was powerful, but it consumed a lot of energy.
Since Yun Ruoxi had found only one high-energy battery, the glove was more like a consumable item.
At most, it could unleash ten electric shocks.
Just last night, when she was surrounded by wild beasts, she’d had no choice but to use it six times in a row before she managed to escape.
The electric glove was now her last-resort lifesaver.
So unless she found a new battery, she wouldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary.
The other two unrepaired weapons were a Ball Drone the size of a baseball and a Gravity Generator the size of a coin.
The former was too intricate, with too many missing parts—it was unrealistic to think she could repair it just by scavenging from weapon supplies, so she’d probably have to collect sinners’ ears and exchange them for parts.
The latter simply wasn’t complete in itself.
She’d need to find at least six more Gravity Generators to piece together a two-square-meter Gravity Trap Zone.
Although both weapons were pretty much useless for now, they were small enough that she thought maybe she could trade them with someone later.
So in the end, Yun Ruoxi still brought them along.
She nimbly climbed down the trunk.
Making subtle adjustments to her route, she shifted course slightly every few hundred meters, gradually homing in on Lin Zhen’s location.
“It’s already the thirteenth day and I still haven’t found a single sinner… The longer this goes on, the closer I get to the Rhombus Base, and the fewer sinners there’ll be. After all, who’d be stupid enough to gather near such an obvious place?”
Lin Zhen let out a sigh.
He couldn’t keep waiting passively like this.
After walking barefoot for so many days, blisters had long since formed on his soles, and now every step was an ache and a pain.
He simply wove a pair of crude grass sandals from leaves and vines, and whittled a branch into a walking stick, which made things a bit more bearable.
Now, looking from a distance—
Walking through the forest, apart from the academy uniform and his still-fair face, he was practically indistinguishable from a wild man.
Gurgle gurgle…
As he walked, his stomach protested with a loud rumble.
Compared to Yun Ruoxi, Lin Zhen was both lucky and unlucky.
Lucky, because he’d found plenty of useful weapons and equipment—but unlucky, because he kept missing the food airdrops.
He just had to grit his teeth and push through the hunger.
Still, the audience found it hilarious—after all, the show knew what it was doing: instead of playing up the misery, it paired these scenes with cheerful BGM, editing them into comedy.
“LOL, it’s Prisoner Lin’s wilderness survival, all right.”
“This whole ‘no hunting, only eating that awful raw meat every day’ thing is ridiculous.”
“Starving three out of every four meals—Bear Grylls’s last survival trip in China was the same, they gave him nothing, he just had to tough it out. Prisoner Lin’s got the real experience!”
“My guess is the raw meat is sketchy.”
“So hungry!”
Lin Zhen rubbed his belly, utterly despondent.
He figured the airdrops came every three days, but they didn’t cover the entire Misty Forest.
So sometimes, if you were unlucky and missed it or got there too late, you just had to starve.
By his count, it had been two days since he’d last eaten.
He pressed on until night fell, still without finding any food airdrops, and had to camp on the spot, falling asleep hungry.
***
The next morning.
Lin Zhen was awakened by a rustling noise.
Rubbing his bleary eyes, he crawled forward along the tree trunk, parted the foliage below, and looked down at the ground.
Not far off, beneath a large tree and amidst scattered leaves, a woman’s head suddenly popped out.
To be precise, an entire adult woman emerged from a hole in the ground, like a marmot.
Lin Zhen squinted and spotted the burrow beside her.
Scanning a bit further, he saw a cover woven from vines and branches that had been thrown aside.
“No wonder I couldn’t find these sinners—they’d dug burrows long ago and were hiding underground.”
A chill ran down Lin Zhen’s spine.
He had no idea how many sinners’ “doorsteps” he’d passed, or how many pairs of eyes had watched him from the shadows.
It was a miracle nothing had happened so far.
He carefully unhooked his gear from the tree, putting each piece on as quietly as possible.
By now, the woman had completely climbed out.
She seemed to be a scout.
She glanced around, making sure it was safe, then turned back and muttered something down the hole.
Soon after, seven more heads popped out of the entrance in succession.
There were men and women, each with a vicious look in their eyes.
Their clothes were ragged, but a few of them were actually holding high-quality weapons.
“Did they get those from the weapon supply crates?”
Lin Zhen’s jaw dropped in shock.
But then he thought about it—it made sense; no one said sinners couldn’t open weapon supplies, and the war camp hadn’t put any ID locks on the crates.
They could easily search for weapon supplies, or even chase after the tri-daily food airdrops.
“Wait, is that…?” Lin Zhen’s breath caught.
That group of sinners suddenly dragged a bloody figure out of the burrow.
That person’s limbs were tightly bound, face covered in blood, but from the blood-stained uniform, he could just barely tell it was an academy student.
“They actually captured an academy student?”
Regardless of the person’s serial number, this proved that this gang of sinners was not to be trifled with!
Lin Zhen’s expression turned grave.
He crept closer, getting within earshot, pressing a hand to his ear and craning his neck to listen intently.
Fragments of voices drifted into his ears: …where… really… that’s great… lead the way…