WS - Chapter 82
Chapter 82
The equipment needed for the zipline was not complicated: just a helmet, an X-shaped harness, and a hand brake. Apart from these essentials, each person only had a small waist pouch, originally intended for a water bottle and the Portable Toilet Kit.
Of course, saying "originally" means that things have now changed.
How did things come to this?
Yu Nianbing looked around. Zhuang Jiachuan and the others were strenuously trying to stuff small packets of jerky they had taken apart into the gaps of their waist pouches.
It had to be said that along the way, Captain Yang might still serve the function of guiding the way and informing everyone of the Production Team's next arrangements. But when it came to the team's center of cohesion and the person everyone trusted most, Song Shiyue was undeniably the top choice.
So it was predictable that when others saw Song Shiyue stuffing food into her waist pouch, after coming over to ask a couple of questions, they would unhesitatingly choose to imitate her.
What did Song Shiyue say at the time...
"If we can't finish the fifty platforms before the sun sets, we'll have to travel on the ground. Bring some food. If it gets late and we get hungry, we can cook something to eat and not have to hurry on an empty stomach."
With those words, the others immediately believed it and all began taking apart the jerky in their packs to stuff it into their waist pouches.
But was it really just such a simple reason?
Yu Nianbing, who had accepted the small packet of jerky from Song Shiyue and had also watched with her own eyes as Song Shiyue stuffed the well-wrapped box of beef tallow into her waist pouch, found it hard to believe.
Would a few bites of food to tide one over on the road require an entire box of beef tallow?
Yu Nianbing was very suspicious. When she indicated that she could also bring a little, Song Shiyue decisively gave up the jerky and instead took that box of beef tallow. Was she trying to carry more... energy?
But no matter how you calculated it, they would only need to leave their backpacks with the Production Team for a few hours.
Song Shiyue was just...
Yu Nianbing didn't say much, but at this moment she could roughly guess that Song Shiyue might be worried the Production Team would use this opportunity to weaken their food reserves in order to create more conflict-filled program effects.
This was something that even Yu Nianbing, who had been constantly observing and attending to the Production Team's next moves and arrangements, had not thought of before seeing Song Shiyue insist on stuffing food into her waist pouch.
Director Zhang's side... indeed didn't seem too reliable.
But to say that the Production Team would deliberately lose the guests' food — Yu Nianbing felt that it wouldn't go that far...
Even if they had made most of that previous cow into jerky and now had emergency food that could be stored long-term, which might affect some of the Production Team's arrangements, if the Production Team wanted to make things harsh for the guests and create a more difficult survival environment, they surely had more covert methods of behind-the-scenes manipulation.
In other words, the simplest way: as long as the Production Team deliberately had Captain Yang bypass a few resource points while leading the way, the surplus jerky would quickly be evened out. Why would the Production Team need to brazenly engineer some accident of losing food and let the entire StarNet audience watch and curse them?
If Song Shiyue truly suspected that the Production Team couldn't properly safeguard their food, she was really overthinking.
Yu Nianbing thought clearly about this, but she didn't say anything more. Not only that, she also took the initiative to stuff the packet of jerky Song Shiyue handed over into her own pouch. And when the others began to imitate, she felt even more at ease.
This was for the best. With everyone bringing jerky, Song Shiyue's behavior would not stand out so much.
At least, this way it would seem more like what Song Shiyue said — to prevent not being able to finish the platforms in time, getting delayed too late, and getting hungry — rather than, as Yu Nianbing thought, a guard against the Production Team.
Yu Nianbing sincerely hoped that, regardless of whether her guess was right or wrong, she was the only one who had thought this way. That was enough.
In fact, from the StarNet danmaku, it did seem that for the moment no one had thought as deeply as Yu Nianbing.
No matter how clear the onlooker's perspective, after all, there is still a small gap compared to personal experience. In the viewers' eyes, from Song Shiyue starting to pack food to everyone beginning to pack food, it was a matter of just over a minute. Together with Song Shiyue's explanation,
most viewers simply felt that the guests were truly both pitiful and funny, looking thoroughly like people who had been scared hungry, evoking both sympathy and helpless amusement.
Perhaps, Zhuang Jiachuan and the others, who were strenuously stuffing jerky into their waist pouches, were thinking exactly this.
Only Yu Nianbing, who had long ago analyzed the Production Team back and forth in her mind and consciously placed herself opposite Captain Yang and the Production Team, would be so quick to suspect Song Shiyue's real thoughts.
And Song Shiyue, who had finally managed to push the stainless-steel lunchbox containing beef tallow into her waist pouch and zip it up, had a face full of delight, completely unaware that her little scheme had already been seen through.
The actions of a few people stuffing food into their waist pouches hadn't been hidden from others. Captain Yang, standing so close, naturally saw it all. And Captain Yang had also heard what Song Shiyue said in answer to the others.
So, when Yu Nianbing finished tidying her waist pouch and walked over to pick up the sets of equipment that had been dug out beside the underground chest, she saw Captain Yang standing in a corner by the pavilion, half-turned away from them, stuffing something wrapped in leaves into his waist pouch.
Even through the leaves, Yu Nianbing couldn't make out what was wrapped inside.
But for some reason... she kept thinking of the frog Captain Yang had roasted over and over until it was dry and slightly charred, the one Song Shiyue had mentioned earlier...
As the guests finished arranging their waist pouches and started putting on the equipment, the Production Team behind them also moved a bit closer from where they had been parked.
Zhao Da even came up to the pavilion, pulled out a set of equipment from the gear, and began putting it on himself.
"For the zipline just now, I'll take the lead, Zhao Da will be the tail." Seeing that the guests were all looking at Zhao Da and their movements of putting on equipment had slowed, Captain Yang frowned and reminded them, "Move faster. Once you've put your gear on, we still need to check it before we can start. Don't waste time."
Captain Yang's tone still wasn't very polite. But perhaps because what he said was finally more normal, the urging didn't sound unpleasant, and instead he seemed a bit like a normal team leader.
Zhuang Jiachuan glanced at Captain Yang and sped up his actions with the equipment.
If Captain Yang had been like this from yesterday onward — just a bit fiercer and more impatient — he wouldn't have been rejected so much by everyone. Regrettably, yesterday's incidents were too deeply etched in people's minds, and it was probably too late for Captain Yang to act normal now.
At least, Zhuang Jiachuan himself had already begun to want to forget about agreeing to cooperate more with the Production Team and Captain Yang.
Captain Yang taking the lead and Zhao Da the tail meant that on the Production Team's side, Zhao Er would likely be responsible for safety.
This arrangement from the Production Team was understandable.
With someone scouting ahead on the zipline and someone watching from behind, it would be a bit safer.
Of course, this kind of safety was within a certain range... for Song Shiyue.
Once inside the pavilion, one could basically see the zipline situation. Although the end that entered the forest was not extremely clear, according to Ning Chuyang's description, this zipline was set up using an elevation difference to slide along an iron cable between buildings or trees.
Song Shiyue had never played with this before, but during the apocalypse, she had done similar things.
Whether it was maneuvering among skyscrapers in an abandoned city against zombies, or hunting mutated plants and animals in the mutated wilderness outside the city, the reasonable use of terrain could provide more paths to survival and even set more traps.
And using the height difference between two ends to slide or swing like a pendulum to accelerate from one end to the other — Song Shiyue had done this many times.
Sometimes, she would lure a group of zombies in a certain area into a tall building, then slide along a steel wire already set up on the rooftop to the top of another building. Other times, she would lure an enraged herd of mutated beasts into the attack range of ability users, then quickly climb a tree and use the vines grown by wood-type ability users to swing away repeatedly like on a swing to escape.
This was the daily life of a Strength-Type Ability User in the later stages of the apocalypse.
After all, after losing the early advantage over other ability users, in the later period ability users whose physical qualities had only been improved in certain aspects, aside from fighting alone, their role in the team most of the time had shifted closer to that of bait and logistics.
The larger the team, the more thoroughly they exploited those who weren't core ability users.
Even someone like Song Shiyue, who had not formally joined a large team and mostly drifted among small teams, only occasionally joining base missions, had served as bait many times, nearly becoming cannon fodder by accident, let alone those permanently in large teams who went on missions every day.
While Song Shiyue was staring at the iron cable and thinking about the past, Captain Yang opened another compartment in the floor.
"Whoa..." Ning Chuyang, who was closest to Captain Yang, was so frightened by the thing in the newly opened chest that she retreated several steps in a row.
It was Mu Xingzhou who quickly caught her and prevented her from retreating all the way.
After all, behind them was the edge of the pavilion; a few more steps and she would have rolled down.
"This is just a human-shaped sandbag. Although Director Zhang already flew a camera over to check, these ziplines seem fine."
"But to be safe, we'll still send it down first." Zhao Da explained while helping Captain Yang lift it out of the chest, giving Ning Chuyang a friendly glance.
As he spoke, the two of them carried the whole sandbag out.
It had arms and legs, but it didn't quite look human, and it even had a cartoon face.
"That scared you? You're way too timid." Mu Xingzhou laughed teasingly, though the hand supporting Ning Chuyang had yet to let go.
Ning Chuyang glared at Mu Xingzhou defiantly: "Of course it's not scary now that it's out. Earlier, when it was curled up inside, it looked just like a person stuffed in there. You were lucky you didn't see it!"
While the two of them were bickering, Zhao Da and Captain Yang had already strapped the human-shaped sandbag into the gear, hooked it onto the zipline, and sent it down.
In the blink of an eye, it vanished into the forest below, and soon a not-too-loud "thud" came up from beneath them.
"Alright, this line is fine." Zhao Da raised his hand to pull on the iron cable again to confirm.
"Come on, you decide your order, or what?" Captain Yang stood in front of the zipline and said, then pointed at Zhao Da, "Once you line up, have Zhao Da check your equipment. Then follow one by one. Be careful not to make strange movements, don't roll, and only use the hand brake when you're almost there, otherwise stopping midway wastes a lot of time. I'll give a demonstration; watch."
Having said that, Captain Yang hooked himself onto the zipline and slid down.
He just... left?
The few of them looked at each other, then turned their gazes toward Zhao Da.
"It's fine, there's still time. Do you want to discuss who goes first? In any case, I'll be at the end and will watch over you." Zhao Da's attitude was considerably more amiable than Captain Yang's.
Perhaps, in this peaceful world, for this amusement called the zipline, who went first or last didn't matter much.
But for Song Shiyue, it was somewhat different.
In the apocalypse, the person who crossed first might, out of fear of being caught up by the zombies or mutated animals behind, turn back and cut the rope, using the lives of the teammates behind to buy themselves time to survive.
Likewise, there were also those at the back who, taking advantage of that moment when someone was helpless in midair, would cut the rope to settle a personal grudge, delivering a sudden end to the person suspended in midair.
Some of these were things Song Shiyue had heard about during the apocalypse, and some she had witnessed with her own eyes.
Whether a momentary whim or a long-planned scheme, these lengths of cable were indeed sturdy, yet also truly easy to break...
This was a peaceful world.
This was merely a livestream program.
Song Shiyue lowered her eyes slightly and looked at the iron cable not far away, telling herself this.
Yet, she was still mistrustful.
The habitual mistrust, the habitual step back — these years of accumulated habit and unease could not be smoothed over or erased by less than a month of life in this peaceful yet unfamiliar world.
Song Shiyue knew this very well, but she couldn't show it too much.
After all, in other people's eyes, this was just a livestream program, and one that had already worked hard to ensure the guests' safety at that...
"I'll go first." Song Shiyue slowly exhaled and raised her head to say.
Zhuang Jiachuan moved his mouth but made no sound. He had originally thought that the most experienced Ning Chuyang or Mu Xingzhou, who seemed very interested in the zipline, would want to go first; he hadn't expected it to be Song Shiyue.
Still... it was quite reasonable. This young woman was indeed formidable in every respect.
"Then I'll be second." Yu Nianbing very naturally took a step toward Song Shiyue.
"I'll be third." Ning Chuyang, who had been a step slower than Yu Nianbing, raised her hand and then smiled at the two who had spoken first. "The thought of facing Captain Yang alone makes me chicken out."
Since the front was arranged this way, Mu Xingzhou followed behind Ning Chuyang, and Zhuang Jiachuan simply became the tail among the guests.
Seeing that they had lined up so quickly, Zhao Da naturally stepped in front of Song Shiyue, ready to give her equipment a final check.
"Wait a moment." Song Shiyue, however, stepped back.
Zhao Da's hand paused in midair, then he smiled and pulled it back, asking, "What's wrong? If you're scared to go first, you can swap positions with someone else on the team."
Hearing this, Yu Nianbing nearly blurted out "Then I'll go first." But upon clearly seeing that Song Shiyue's face showed no fear and instead seemed to be in thought, Yu Nianbing swallowed those words back down.
"One minute." Saying this, Song Shiyue turned and ran back to where their backpacks were piled and pulled out her own pack.
Ever since entering "The Wilderness Journey," from smashing a snake's seven-inch mark with a stone, to pulling out a stone knife, stone pot, and stone slab from the water, from starting a fire with a wood drill in one minute, to hitting frogs with a stone and butchering a cow and whittling wood... Song Shiyue had already done many strange things.
But the thing she was doing now was truly somewhat baffling.
The viewers on StarNet quickly switched from heart-guessing experts to Sherlock Holmes, yet still left behind strings of confusion.
"Isn't that the cowhide from yesterday? The stuff Song Shiyue said she wanted to make something with but didn't have time because it got late and she just put away?"
"Yeah, it's cowhide, and what she took out after is beef sinew."
"So is she going to make a bow and arrow on the spot?"
"Hahaha, shoot arrows while ziplining? This isn't martial arts special effects!"
"No bow and arrows... it's a cowhide glove? Hahaha, I'm dying!"
"Hahaha, is Sister Song switching from a badass streamer to a comic one?"
Those who found it funny naturally weren't just the viewers.
In just a few dozen seconds, Song Shiyue's left hand had been wrapped in several thick layers of cowhide, tied tightly with beef sinew wound around a few times — it could well be described as a crude cowhide glove.
"Teacher Song, that... Actually, during the sliding process, as long as you're careful not to touch the iron cable up above with your hand, you won't get cut at other times..." Zhao Da watched Song Shiyue walk back, and as a professional guide, he found it both laughable and awkward, practically unable to maintain a normal smile on his face.
"I know, but this doesn't get in the way anyway." Song Shiyue didn't explain; instead she clenched her left hand to show it was still nimble, then walked up to Zhao Da and said, "Come, check the equipment."
Fine... what else could be said? She herself didn't find it stuffy, and the materials were her own, so there wasn't much to criticize.
Zhao Da didn't seem as fussy as Captain Yang, and since Song Shiyue said so, he paid no more attention to her left hand and began checking the equipment.
Soon, Song Shiyue hooked herself onto the zipline with a solemn expression.
Seeing Song Shiyue like this, Ning Chuyang, who was originally placed a bit further back, couldn't help leaning forward and offering some reassurance: "Don't be nervous; on the first try, just don't move around randomly. You'll get used to it, and soon you'll find it fun."
Song Shiyue turned her head to glance at Ning Chuyang and nodded, but her expression didn't relax in the slightest.
Yu Nianbing nearly opened her mouth several times, but ultimately swallowed her words. Song Shiyue looked... not like she was merely nervous...
Yet Yu Nianbing truly couldn't figure it out. Song Shiyue didn't seem like the type to be afraid of this zipline, and even if she were, why would she want to go first? There were too many things she couldn't understand, so Yu Nianbing simply couldn't casually offer reassuring words like Ning Chuyang did.
Yu Nianbing felt that those words seemed unlikely to be of use to Song Shiyue.
Song Shiyue, who was adjusting to the cowhide wrapped around her left hand, had absolutely no idea that there was someone who, without knowing her past, could already understand her so well.
"Ready? Ready to go?" Zhao Da stood to Song Shiyue's right and behind and spoke.
Song Shiyue clenched her left hand one last time, nodded, took a deep breath, and slid out.
Behind her were the cheers of the others.
Song Shiyue wasn't afraid of heights, of gliding, or of the branches just inches away in the forest. The only thing she feared was... the stability of this iron cable.
But now, she was no longer afraid.
Song Shiyue was confident that if either end broke, she could grab this iron cable, and then grab more things nearby that she could hold onto.
Danger might not be present at every moment.
But once it appeared, the chance of survival would only be left for the prepared.
Song Shiyue's face was solemn, and not far ahead, a platform built atop a large tree was already faintly visible, and at the same time, Captain Yang's figure came into view.
Captain Yang...
To Song Shiyue, the Production Team was of course not trustworthy. Never mind the extent of contact; just looking at how well they had cooperated with Captain Yang the day before, even if they had extended goodwill today, it was still hard to engender more trust.
And although Song Shiyue was willing to help the others in the team, even distributing most of the food she had earned herself, aside from Yu Nianbing, the others had not earned her true trust. Now, with no danger and no reason for conflict, everyone could naturally advance together hand in hand. But what if danger or conflict arose? Would these people remain as friendly as always? Song Shiyue didn't know.
Of course, if she were to rank the people currently on Wilderness Planet, Captain Yang was unquestionably the least trustworthy.
This was also why Song Shiyue chose to go first on the zipline.
To what extent could a person be bad?
Would they risk their reputation to gamble on revenge out of spite?
Having heard and seen too much, Song Shiyue couldn't say anything with certainty.
Of course, if Yu Nianbing hadn't been in the team, perhaps she wouldn't mind letting someone else go ahead and try.
But...
Song Shiyue believed that both she and Yu Nianbing were on Captain Yang's list of most disliked people.
Naturally, she couldn't let Yu Nianbing face Captain Yang first.
As long as she herself got to Captain Yang's side first, then at least this end of the iron cable would be secure.
The others, for the time being, had no grudges or reasons for antagonism, so the other end should also be safe.
The one taking the risk was only Song Shiyue herself.
This stretch, which to others might seem like merely an imaginary and somewhat absurd risk, was to Song Shiyue something real and ongoing.
In just the blink of an eye, Song Shiyue was already standing on the first platform.
She was safe, and the cowhide on her left hand was also completely intact.
Song Shiyue removed the carabiner hanging from the iron cable, stood aside, and did not, because of this safe passage, let go of the cowhide on her left hand.
Nor did anyone know that, in Song Shiyue's view, she was truly already repaying a debt at the risk of her life.
The next one was Yu Nianbing.
Song Shiyue stared intently at Captain Yang and the end of the zipline fixed to the platform on this side, her tension far greater than when she had been on the zipline herself.
Yu Nianbing, naturally, also came over smoothly.
Although her posture was stiff and proper, her face so tense that there wasn't a trace of a smile, she indeed arrived in front of Song Shiyue completely intact, without a single scratch.
When Song Shiyue had come over, she had used the hand brake well and hadn't needed Captain Yang to reach out a hand at all, stepping onto the platform by herself.
Yu Nianbing, on the other hand, couldn't manage it, looking as if she was about to lunge forward a bit more.
Captain Yang stretched out his hand straight, with a rare amiable smile on his face.
And then, just like that, he was pushed aside.
"Okay, you're fine now." Song Shiyue went along with Yu Nianbing's momentum, pulling her back a step to stand steady, a smile of relief on her face undisguised.
Yu Nianbing stepped onto the platform, her heart still racing from being in midair, and upon seeing Song Shiyue's expression as if she had survived a life-and-death parting, she couldn't help but be a bit bewildered.
Coming over one after the other... it had only been a minute or so...
How could it be like this...
If Song Shiyue's expression could be attributed to Yu Nianbing's inaccurate observation or misinterpretation, then these hands that held her firmly and still hadn't let go...
Yu Nianbing felt her heart beating even faster than when she had been up in the air.
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