Hunting Wilderness: Starting with the Butcher

Chapter 60 The Blizzard Is Coming, Ocarina!

With the second routine check completed, the remaining eight participants in the "Wilderness Solitary Living" challenge all clearly felt the jungle temperature begin to drop sharply. Especially at night, the mountain winds were bitingly cold.

Even contestants like Yuan Linghan, who had built sturdy shelters and stockpiled a large amount of winter supplies in advance, were still seizing the last opportunity to diligently collect storable and edible resources in the jungle in preparation for winter.

Conversely, those contestants who still struggle to make ends meet are also desperately stockpiling supplies. Everyone knows that once the heavy snow falls, gathering supplies will become extremely difficult.

Putting everything else aside, Yuan Linghan, who goes fishing by the lake every two to three days, has drastically different harvests despite using the same bait and fishing methods. Looking at the few fish in the sandpit, he knows it's going to snow soon.

While inspecting the catch, Yuan Linghan said to the camera lens he was carrying, "Compared to humans, animals are often more sensitive to temperature and environment. It's not that there are no fish in the lake, nor that my skills are lacking, but rather that the weather here is about to change."

For fish that inhabit the bay, when they sense the water temperature starting to drop, they will swim to deeper waters. Although the fishing area that Yuan Linghan chose was five or six meters deep, it was still not the deepest point.

After handling the six fish he had caught by the creek, he returned to the shelter. In fact, not only has the catch decreased, but the daily routine check of the snare traps has also yielded significantly less than before.

The berry groves, once the most active areas for hares, are becoming increasingly scarce as the berries ripen, are picked, or fall to the ground. In this situation, hares naturally need to choose new foraging grounds.

Even when heavy snow comes, they stay in their nests and don't come out. Faced with this situation, Yuan Linghan can only frequently change the location of the traps to ensure that he collects enough food each day so that he doesn't have to eat any extra stored food.

On the twenty-fifth day, the usual hunting expedition yielded little, but they still managed to carry back a few dead trees. These dead trees were carried back to the camp, chopped into firewood, and then piled up in the woodshed.

With the firewood Yuan Linghan currently has, if he burns it sparingly, it should last for two months. The problem is, he'll be staying here for another two months, so he needs to stock up on even more firewood.

Once the mountains are snowbound and temperatures plummet below zero, even staying in a shelter will require a large amount of firewood for warmth. With only the sleeping bags and clothing provided by the production team, and without a fire to provide warmth, it would be difficult to withstand the extreme cold in the shelter!

Although he consumed a considerable amount of firewood every day, Yuan Linghan replenished it every few days. Over time, the firewood shed he had built earlier was now piled high with firewood. Compared to the other contestants, he undoubtedly had a greater advantage.

To the surprise of all the participants, a light drizzle began to fall that afternoon. By evening, distinct snow pellets started to fall. The density of the snow pellets could be felt even from the front of the shelter.

Knowing that hail-like snowflakes usually fall before a snowfall, Yuan Linghan, standing at the door drinking berry tea, said calmly, "It seems this area will see its first snow tonight. I just wonder how long this snow will last."

The arrival of the snow season presents the greatest survival challenge for the remaining contestants. Those with insufficient supplies will face a food crisis alone, forcing them to withdraw from the challenge unless they can hunt prey after the snowfall.

But in Yuan Linghan's view, once the camp was covered by heavy snow, he wouldn't have to worry about his hunted prey rotting. Because after the snowfall, the temperature here would likely remain below zero even during the day, enough to ensure the fresh meat would be frozen.

Even in front of the shelter, Yuan Linghan had built a natural refrigerator in advance, intending to store the fresh meat he hunted later. Viewers who didn't understand why he built this "well"-shaped structure at first will later find out its purpose.

The production team was also constantly monitoring the situation at the eight contestants' camp using pre-installed cameras. Only a few people expressed slight concern, saying, "According to the latest weather report, Black Bear Bay will experience a three-day blizzard."

"Will it last for three days? This means that the remaining eight contestants will have to stay in the shelter for these three days. The rescue team is on standby at all times, and must rush to the rescue immediately if any contestant chooses to withdraw."

"Roger that, Boss!"

Just as the production team had feared, on the third day of the continuous blizzard, another contestant who hadn't stored up much food had no choice but to press the rescue button. He had eaten all the food he had saved up.

But the outside was still ravaged by cold winds and snow, and he dared not go outside except to stay in the shelter. Although he didn't know how long the heavy snow would last, the athlete knew very well that his body could no longer allow him to continue.

"Sigh, I regret wasting so much time building the shelter. If I had stocked up on more food beforehand, maybe I would have had a chance to hold out until the end when the snow season arrived!"

Although unwilling, the contestant ultimately had no choice but to give up in order to avoid any unexpected incidents!

In contrast, Yuan Linghan, who had been holed up in the shelter for the past three days, maintained a normal routine. What even left later viewers speechless was that, perhaps out of sheer boredom, he insisted on exercising every day while staying in the shelter.

Other participants, in order to conserve energy and food, mostly spent their time lying in their sleeping bags. Those like Yuan Linghan, who trained daily in the shelter, seemed completely unconcerned about burning calories.

Besides that, Yuan Linghan also used the ocarina he had previously made to pass the time, playing it every day while sitting in the shelter. At first, it was all messy and disorganized, but gradually he was able to play some tunes.

After the video aired, many foreign viewers exclaimed in surprise, "Oh shit, what kind of instrument is that? An instrument made of fired clay?"

"This Xia countryman is too relaxed. Does he consider participating in wilderness relocation as an outdoor vacation?"

"No wonder it's a mysterious ancient country of the East; they can even make musical instruments from clay. These instruments sound amazing!"

Compared to international audiences, only a small number of people in China know that this is an ocarina, an ancient musical instrument that few people are proficient in. However, when these video clips were broadcast on Chinese social media, many Chinese people learned for the first time that the ocarina has a history of thousands of years.

It is said that music knows no borders. Although Yuan Linghan's playing looked a bit messy, all the audience members could clearly perceive that Yuan Linghan's level of playing this instrument was improving rapidly.

Some teachers in China who are good at playing this instrument suddenly found that many people wanted to buy it. However, Yuan Linghan believes that he learned to make ocarinas from another "him" after awakening the mystery in his womb.

Secondly, Yuan Linghan felt that music could cultivate his character, help him soothe his emotions and cleanse his soul while he was in the wilderness, achieving a state of spiritual joy. Most importantly, once he unlocked this skill, he could level it up by consuming popularity points later on.

In fact, having absorbed the memories of another "him," several classic ocarina pieces that appeared in that person's memories did not exist in this timeline. If he could "create" them, it would fulfill "his" dream.

Furthermore, having found a rising starlet in the film and television industry as his girlfriend, Yuan Linghan doesn't want the public's perception of him to be limited to just his physical prowess. If he can achieve some success with the ocarina, at least people will know that he's not only strong but also talented!