34: Chapter 34 Figure Skating Players

At night.

Inside the wooden cabin, the girls were excitedly counting the ten food care packages.

Instant noodles, ham sausages, canned goods, biscuits, chocolate.

These foods, which were commonplace in modern society, were more precious than gold on this resource-scarce island.

"Braised beef flavor! My favorite!"

Lin Le hugged a bucket of instant noodles, her eyes shining like stars.

"Canned luncheon meat... I haven't eaten this in so long."

Shu Qianxue touched the cold metal can and swallowed her saliva.

They now had the tenfold replication basin, so the problem of food was basically solved; every time they replicated, they could get nearly 20 days of rations.

There was no need to worry about food issues at all, plus they had the happy water tank.

The basic elements of survival had been resolved.

Qi Yun walked to the fireplace and opened the island chat channel.

More than half a day had passed since the end of the second zombie horde, and the channel was even livelier than before, but also more desperate.

【Tribe 07: Damn it, Bunny, there's only me left in our Tribe.】

【Tribe 12: We need a doctor profession, can anyone save us? We will trade food for it!】

【Tribe 19: Tribe 03, we are willing to form an alliance, please send us the coordinates.】

【Tribe 23: Tribe 03, we are willing to merge into other Tribes!】

【Tribe 03: I will privately send you the coordinates.】

Browsing quickly, Qi Yun's heart sank.

Overnight, two Tribes had completely disappeared, and some Tribes had suffered heavy casualties.

The channel was flooded with messages of help and alliance requests.

He switched to the points leaderboard.

【Current surviving Tribes: 97 / 100】

【Real-time points leaderboard:】

【01 Tribe (Qi Yun): 600 points】

【Tribe 03: 320 points】

【Tribe 29: 280 points】

【Tribe 18: 275 points】

...

His Tribe was still at the top of the list, with points nearly double that of the second place.

"Qi Yun, look at this," Ke Yun said softly, pointing her finger at the corner of the screen.

It was the private message interface, currently showing 99+ unread messages.

Qi Yun opened it.

【Tribe 11 Leader: Brother, you are first in points! How did you do it? Want to form an alliance? Our Tribe has twelve people who can fight!】

【Tribe 29: Big boss of Tribe 03, please take us in! We are willing to become vassals, just give us a way to live!】

【Tribe 47 (Female): Little brother~ Your Tribe is so amazing, do you want to come visit us? Our Tribe is all girls, we are very good at taking care of people~ (Photo attached)】

【Tribe 52: We have building blueprints! Stone wall blueprints! As long as you protect us, the blueprints will be shared!】

【Tribe 63 (Female): Leader Qi Yun, I am a flight attendant, 24 years old this year, and I have a great figure. As long as you are willing to accept me, I can do anything...】

The content of the private messages was a mixed bag; some were sincere requests for help, some were attempts at trading, and there were many female avatars with obvious hints and ambiguous words.

Qi Yun looked through them expressionlessly.

Ke Yun stood beside him and also saw the content. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she didn't say anything.

Shu Qianxue leaned over to take a look and immediately exploded:

"Are these people shameless! Flight attendant? Model? And attached photos? Is this asking for help or a blind date!"

"Under the apocalypse, women are indeed a vulnerable group. Using their bodies to trade for survival, although pitiful, is understandable," Xia Jin said calmly while eating roasted mushrooms.

"Understandable, what do you mean understandable!" Chen Xiaolin also leaned over and said angrily.

"Qi Bao wouldn't be tempted by this kind of tactic! Right, Qi Bao?"

Qi Yun didn't answer, just continued to scroll through the private messages.

Suddenly, a message caught his attention.

【09 Tribe Leader: Qi Yun, I am a veteran, our Tribe has eight brothers, all of them are good hands. We don't need charity, we only ask for an equal alliance. If you are interested, we can meet and talk.】

A veteran, eight good hands.

But now, Qi Yun's strength didn't need to form an alliance with anyone.

Moreover, in this world, humans were far more terrifying than zombies.

【All survivors, attention!】

The familiar red Bunny avatar popped up.

【Bunny: Good evening, everyone~ Did you have fun with the first mini-game? ✿ ✿ ヽ(°▽°)ノ ✿】

【Bunny: Telling you one piece of good news and one piece of bad news~】

【Bunny: The good news is, Bunny will reward the Tribes that survived with an extra 50 points! The bad news is... the second wave of zombies will begin in 18 hours! This time it will be even more exciting~】

【Bunny: By the way, there is one more special notification!】

【Bunny: After statistics, there is one island that only has three Tribes left after the first game~ So lonely! So Bunny decided to transfer those three Tribes to your island!】

【Bunny: New friends will arrive soon, everyone should get along well~】

【Bunny: Finally, a reminder to everyone: Points can be exchanged for many things, but some things... cannot be bought with points~ Hehe, good luck!】

The Bunny avatar disappeared.

The wooden cabin fell into dead silence.

"18 hours, at least the next time will be during the day, the visibility conditions will be much better," Xia Jin gripped the hilt of her knife.

"New Tribes are going to be transferred here? I wonder what kind of Tribes they are," Bai Yu said thoughtfully.

"Three Tribes, if they are all complete Tribes, that's at least thirty people. If they are all remnants, there might be a dozen people."

Qi Yun pondered.

In any case, the population on the island will increase, which will attract a portion of the zombies.

And for the second zombie horde, there were only 18 hours left to prepare.

The pressure suddenly increased.

Just then, Chen Xiaolin suddenly went "Huh."

She was looking at private messages on her system panel; as a Tribe member, she also had the authority to receive private messages, just not being bombarded like Qi Yun.

"What's wrong?" Shu Qianxue asked.

Chen Xiaolin's expression turned from confusion to surprise, and then to disbelief.

She looked up at Qi Yun, her voice even trembling: "Someone... messaged me. It's, it's someone I know."

"Someone you know?" Qi Yun raised an eyebrow.

Chen Xiaolin was not a core member of the Tribe, who would specifically message her? And someone she knew?

"She said she is a figure skating athlete from Russia, named Ivanova."

Chen Xiaolin took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"I met her when I was training at Moscow State University. We stayed at the same hotel and chatted a few times. She is very smart and can speak Chinese..."

"Russian figure skater? Is it that 'Ice Queen' with silver hair and ice-blue eyes? I've seen her on sports news."

Shu Qianxue's eyes lit up.

"Yes, that's her, but she seems to be asking for help," Chen Xiaolin nodded, but her brows furrowed.

She read out the content of the private message:

【Lin, I am Sophia. Seeing your name on the points leaderboard, I can't believe it. I need your help.】

【Something happened on our side. There are twenty-eight people left in the sports academy, but now it's divided into two factions, and the conflict has become public.】

Chen Xiaolin paused and continued to read:

【The original captain died in the first zombie horde, and now the deputy captain Andrei is in power. He is a... jerk. food and water were already insufficient, and he prioritizes distribution to the men who follow him.】

【We girls can only get half a biscuit and a little water every day.】

【That's not the worst part. Yesterday, he hinted that... girls should contribute to the Tribe in 'other ways'. I understand what he means.】

【Anna secretly told me that Andrei is already in contact with several nearby Tribes, wanting to use the girls who don't look good to trade for supplies first.】

Reading to this point, Chen Xiaolin's voice trembled a little:

【Lin, I'm scared. I can feel that at most, we can hold on for two more days, and the fate of the girls here will be terrible.】

【I want to take two people with me, Anna and Katya. They are from the gymnastics team and are also my most trusted friends. But we don't know where to go or who to trust.】

【Please tell me, how is your Tribe? What kind of person is the leader? If I go... are you willing to accept us?】

【We don't need special treatment, as long as we can survive and not be treated as cargo... we are willing to do anything.】

The wooden cabin was terrifyingly quiet.

All the girls' faces turned very ugly.

They could imagine the scene: more than twenty athletes, with girls making up nearly half, in a situation of food and water shortage, being used as bargaining chips by the men in power.

"Beasts," Xia Jin squeezed out two words through her teeth.

Ke Yun pursed her lips tightly, anger flashing in her eyes.

Chen Xiaolin looked at Qi Yun with pleading eyes: "Qi Yun, we must help them..."

"Don't rush," Qi Yun raised his hand to stop her.

"Reply to her and ask for a video call. I want to see her situation with my own eyes and hear her explanation with my own ears."

"But what if someone is monitoring her side..." Chen Xiaolin worried.

"Then tell her to find a safe place. If she can't even do that, then she has no value," Qi Yun said.

Chen Xiaolin nodded, her fingers trembling slightly as she operated the panel.

She followed Qi Yun's instructions and sent a short message:

"Sophia, let's talk via video. Find a safe place."

A few seconds later, a video request was sent over.

Chen Xiaolin connected it.

A translucent light screen appeared in the center of the wooden cabin.

The screen was dark, seemingly in a small space with dim light.

Sophia appeared on the screen, her long silver-white hair disheveled, a few strands stuck to her cheeks by sweat.

Her ice-blue eyes were full of vigilance and exhaustion, with heavy shadows under them.

Her face had stains, her lips were chapped and peeling, clearly having not drunk enough water for a long time.

From the background, the environment was quite simple, with hay spread on the floor and a few empty cans piled in the corner.

"Lin, can you see me?"

Sophia spoke, her voice hoarse, with a distinct Russian accent, but her Chinese was fluent.

"I can see you. Where are you? Are you safe?" Chen Xiaolin also lowered her voice.

"Temporarily safe," Sophia smiled bitterly, "In an abandoned storage tent, I made an excuse to find something and slipped in. But there is not much time, Andrei's men patrol every half hour."

Her speaking speed was fast, her eyes glancing outside the screen from time to time, clearly wary of something.

"What you just said..." Chen Xiaolin probed.

A flash of anger crossed Sophia's eyes, but it was quickly suppressed:

"Our original captain Igor was a good person, he distributed food very fairly, and the girls could also be full."

"But three days ago, when he led the team to find food, he encountered a mutant and didn't come back."

She paused, her voice lower: "After Andrei took over, everything changed. He first cut the girls' food quota, saying we were 'weak in combat and a waste to eat more'."

"Yesterday was even worse—he only gave the girls half a biscuit, while the boys could get a whole one. Water was the same, the girls could only drink two mouthfuls a day."

"Did anyone protest?" Qi Yun suddenly spoke.

Sophia was clearly stunned, obviously not expecting a man's voice. She looked at the camera vigilantly: "Who are you..."

"Qi Yun, the leader of this Tribe, answer my question," Qi Yun said calmly.

Sophia pursed her chapped lips: "Yes. Anna from the gymnastics team protested, and then she was slapped by Andrei and locked up for half a day. Since then, no one dared to say anything else."

"How many girls do you have? How many people are on your side?" Qi Yun continued to ask.

"Twenty-eight people, ten girls. But..."

"Not everyone wants to resist. Some girls think that as long as they can survive, anything is fine. Some even actively please Andrei, hoping to get more food."

Sophia smiled bitterly.

"So you can only take two people away?"

"Anna and Katya. They are like me, they would rather die than be treated as cargo. I can't persuade the others," Sophia nodded.

Qi Yun was silent for a few seconds.

"I can accept you, but there are a few conditions," he said.

Sophia's eyes lit up: "You say!"

"First, you must prove your value. I am not a philanthropist and will not raise idlers. You are athletes, your physical fitness should be good. But what exactly you can do needs to be proven."

Qi Yun's voice was very cold.

"Second, you must prove that you are safe," he continued, "How do I know this is not a trap? How do I know you are not spies sent by Andrei? How do I know you won't betray us at a critical moment?"

Sophia's face turned pale, but she didn't back down: "How do you want us to prove it?"

"Steal your Tribe's food and bring it out."

"But there are only three of us, and the food is guarded..."

Sophia murmured.

"That is your business. If you can't even do this, then you are not worth me saving,"

Qi Yun interrupted her.

Sophia bit her lip, struggle flashing in her ice-blue eyes, but it quickly became firm: "Okay. We will do it."

"Third," Qi Yun said, "After reaching the meeting point, you must take off all your clothes and accept an inspection. If any suspicious items are found, or if you have trackers or something on you..."

He didn't finish, but the meaning was clear.

"I understand, we will cooperate," Sophia nodded.

"Finally, if you successfully join, you must follow the rules here. In my Tribe, there is no distinction between men and women, only warriors and non-warriors."

Qi Yun looked into her eyes.

"Everyone must fight, everyone must contribute. But similarly, everyone will receive fair treatment, sufficient food, and a safe shelter."

In Sophia's eyes, the light of real hope ignited for the first time.

"I swear, as long as I can leave that hell, as long as I am not treated as cargo... I am willing to fight, willing to contribute, willing to do anything."

She said word by word.

"Remember your words. I will have Lin send you a coordinate, and in 3 hours, our people will be waiting for you there."