Chapter 459: The Night's Trial
As time passed, the massive procession of candidates gradually began to stretch and scatter.
Gaps in physical stamina, choices of direction, and disparities in environmental adaptation capabilities swiftly divided the crowd into different groups.
At the very front was the leading echelon, composed of those with the strongest physiques, the most resolute willpower, or the greatest familiarity with such environments. They maintained a vigilant distance from one another, keeping their heads down and pushing forward.
In the middle was the largest group. They struggled forward amidst exhaustion, thirst, and directional confusion. Some began attempting to form temporary small factions, sharing limited resources and information to increase their chances of survival.
Falling at the rear were those whose physical strength had failed, the injured, or the completely lost; their prospects were the bleakest.
Alvaro was fortunate enough to encounter two other young men, also hailing from the upper hive, shortly after setting out.
The three journeyed together. Relying on the basic geographical and logical deduction skills afforded by their relatively superior education, they attempted to map out an optimal route.
However, lacking practical wilderness experience, they veered off course during a sandstorm, wasting several hours before managing to recalibrate their path.
Kax traveled alone from start to finish.
He weaved through the shadows of the wasteland like a ghost, occasionally ambushing isolated candidates, using intimidation rather than lethal force to seize whatever meager water or food they had managed to save.
His movements were swift and highly efficient. He avoided unnecessary entanglements as much as possible, prioritizing the conservation of his stamina and rapid advancement above all else.
Grumm, on the other hand, displayed astonishing resilience.
He knew nothing of complex survival skills; he merely employed the clumsiest yet most effective method: continuously moving forward.
When others slowed their pace due to exhaustion, he still maintained his steady stride.
When others suffered from parched mouths and dry throats, he endured.
His sheer physical strength and endurance, originating from his life as a mid-hive worker, allowed him to incredibly sustain his position at the tail end of the leading echelon.
The daytime temperatures were staggeringly high; the exposed rock surfaces were hot enough to scald skin.
With no shelter to be found, the only option was to endure it through sheer grit.
Water became the most precious commodity.
The meager rations of drinking water issued by the camp were quickly depleted, and locating water sources became the key to survival.
A few keen candidates began to pay attention to the depressions in dried riverbeds, or attempted to dig, searching for potentially existent groundwater carrying a heavy taint of radiation.
Every successful discovery was accompanied by cautious consumption and stockpiling, while those who failed could only continue to struggle amidst growing weakness.
When the light of the star was finally swallowed by the murky horizon, it was as if the wasteland instantly switched modes.
The suffocating, searing heat of the day rapidly dissipated, replaced by bone-piercing, bitter cold.
The temperature drop was extreme. Chilling winds howled from all directions, easily piercing through the thin cloth robes, stripping away the last remaining heat on the surface of the skin like countless freezing needles plunging into the marrow.
Light almost completely vanished. Only the faint glow cast by fractured nebulas in the firmament above, along with the unextinguishable, polluted halo of the distant hive city, outlined the twisted, ferocious silhouette of the wasteland.
The darkness was not silent. The sound of the wind was an eternal background noise, interspersed with even more ominous sounds—the drawn-out howls of unknown mutated creatures echoing from afar. The sounds were mournful and shrill, reverberating across the empty wilderness, reminding everyone that they were not alone on this land.
Occasionally, the sound of tumbling gravel or the rustling of something crawling rapidly across the sand would ring out nearby, triggering a bout of nervous scanning and the sound of daggers being gripped tight.
The slight sense of security brought by the daylight vanished into thin air.
Lighting a campfire was a foolish act; it was tantamount to erecting a conspicuous target in the dark for predators or malicious peers.
The vast majority of candidates could only search for places as sheltered from the wind as possible—the leeward side of a massive boulder, the bottom of a dried ravine, or curled up inside the corroded wreckage of metallic pipes.
They wrapped their coarse robes tightly around themselves, their bodies shivering involuntarily from the cold. The chattering of teeth was clearly audible in the silent corners.
Alvaro and his two companions huddled together in a shallow pit, their backs pressed against the freezing earthen wall.
The cold eradicated any trace of his aristocratic reserve. He hugged his arms tightly, curling his body into a ball, feeling the icy chill of the ground continuously seeping upward.
In the darkness, he could almost hear the violent beating of his own heart. Every strange noise from afar made his muscles tense up.
He began to truly understand the weight of the word "trial." This was not merely physical exertion, but a brutal torture of willpower and nerves.
Kax had chosen a rock crevice with a relatively broad field of vision.
Unlike the others, he did not shiver violently from the cold. Instead, he maintained his core body temperature by controlling his breathing and employing micro-muscle movements.
His eyes habitually narrowed to a slight slit in the dark, adapting to the faint light like a nocturnal animal, vigilantly scanning any shadows that might move around him.
To him, the danger of the night came not only from the environment but, more pressingly, from the "peers" potentially lurking in the darkness.
He kept his dagger continuously gripped in his hand, maintaining a semi-conscious state of light slumber.
Grumm sat leaning against a metal plate, fending off the strongest gusts of the chilling wind.
He was not dominated by fear like the others; long periods of hard labor had taught him how to conserve stamina in harsh environments.
He closed his eyes, attempting to ignore the cold and the faint, distant howling, focusing his attention on recovering his energy.
His breathing was heavy and steady, as if treating this nocturnal rest as just another break between shifts, only in a far more extreme environment.
In the darkness, there was not only endurance.
Sporadic and brief conflicts were still breaking out.
A short, sharp cry of alarm, followed by the dull thuds of striking and grappling, occasionally accompanied by the muffled sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and agonized moans. Then, everything would swiftly return to the sound of the wind and whimpering.
Most of these conflicts stemmed from disputes over better shelters, or panic-induced attacks triggered by misjudgments in the dark.
No one knew exactly what was happening, and no one dared to rashly intervene in the dark. They could only huddle in their corners with heightened vigilance, praying for dawn to arrive as soon as possible.
This night was exceptionally long.
Cold, fear, unknown threats, and the mutual suspicion among peers acted like an invisible, crushing weight, testing the mental limits of every candidate.
Some of the weaker-willed even let out stifled sobs in the darkness, though these were quickly drowned out by the howling wind.
All that remained to support them through this endlessly long, freezing night was the slim hope of reaching the destination, and the survival instinct deeply rooted in their marrow.
When the first ray of pale, grey light—so faint it was almost imperceptible—appeared on the horizon, many nearly wept tears of joy.
However, as the light intensified, what was revealed before them once again was that boundless, death-filled irradiated wasteland. And their journey was still far from over.
(End of Chapter)