American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 204 increases the success rate of "traps".
The last 28 days of the Labrador coastline wilderness survival for the remaining three contestants all ended with modest gains.

On the night of the twenty-eighth day, Lin Yu'an put the last piece of roasted, fragrant pine nut meat into his mouth and chewed it slowly.

The flavor, a blend of wildness and charcoal aroma, along with the warmth and fullness in his stomach, brought him a deep sense of satisfaction.

His concern for the other players was fleeting; he quickly refocused his attention on himself.

He sat in front of the fireplace, adjusted the position of the fixed camera, and began his daily routine of review, which was both a record and a form of self-examination.

"Alright, guys, let's review the past two crucial days." He spoke calmly to the camera.

"During the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth days of the survival operation, I began to address the problem of the single food source and explore new ways to obtain food."

"In the past two days, I have carried out two main tasks: Task one: fishing under the ice; Task two: hunting in the forest."

He held up his fingers to count the items one by one: "The newly harvested food includes one lake whitefish, about four pounds; one Arctic red trout, about two pounds in total; one spruce grouse, about one pound of edible portion; and a total of about seven pounds of protein. The results are remarkable."

Lin Yu'an's gaze seemed to pierce through the walls of the shelter and see the reserves in the snow well's refrigerator: "And now, with the harvest after the storm, my total core protein assets from fish are about seventeen catties."

“Shellfish, this is my core asset, the source of my confidence, the real ballast! That’s tens of kilograms, at least seventy or eighty pounds of cooked mussel meat. That’s a huge number that can make people lose their guard.”

“But…” His tone changed, becoming serious.

"The key fat reserve, all my assets, is that little bit of fish oil I make myself, about a pound. This is my only source of pure fat at present, and it is a strategic core resource."

He looked directly into the camera, his eyes sharp, and said, "Now, let's tackle the most brutal math problem."

"Let's say my daily basal energy expenditure is 4500 calories. The total calories from my 70-80 kilograms of mussels and 10 kilograms of fish is a huge number, possibly exceeding 500,000 calories. Theoretically, if I divide this number by 4500, I can live for more than 100 days."

"A number that sounds like enough to keep me lying down until the end of the game, right?"

He shook his head, a self-deprecating sneer on his face. "But this number is the biggest scam, a trap that could kill any careless person. The problem lies in the fat."

"My calorie reserves are severely deficient in fat! That pound of fish oil can only support my energy consumption for a week at most. Once it runs out, I will be at risk of 'protein poisoning'."

He explained, “This is a fatal problem that many wilderness survivors overlook. When you consume large amounts of lean protein without enough fat to help break it down, your body not only cannot efficiently obtain energy, but will also consume more energy to digest it.”

"Your kidneys will work overtime to process the excess nitrogen, eventually leading to failure. That means that even if I were to live on a mountain of flesh, I would still weaken and starve to death. It sounds absurd, but it is a cruel physiological reality."

His voice began to grow deep and powerful, “So, I’m not out of the crisis, I’ve just moved the time bomb from tomorrow to five days from now.”

"My true risk-free survival window is only 5 days. After 5 days, I will face the risk of lacking fat, even if I have dozens of kilograms of meat around me."

"What I need is not more lean meat, but fat! A huge piece of fat that I can render into several kilograms of oil! That is the core objective of everything that follows."

This fat deficit served as a wake-up call, instantly sobering him up!

Lin Yu'an walked to the entrance of the shelter. The cold night wind blew on his face, but it could not cool down the thoughts racing through his mind.

He faced the camera with an unprecedentedly serious expression: "But how can we efficiently hunt high-fat prey? Neither bears nor seals are easy to encounter."

The brain begins to work at high speed again, searching for the best solution among the available resources.

He analyzed, "Active hunting, like what I did today, consumes at least two thousand calories in exchange for a one-pound grouse. Its fat content is probably less than what I burned."

"This input-output ratio is unsustainable; it is slowly depleting my energy reserves, and it's a losing proposition."

"The trap, the wire snare I set two days ago, is still completely untouched. This shows that in the vast forest, the probability of passively waiting for prey to run into it is too low."

“This land is too big, and the animals have too many choices. I can no longer leave their fate to randomness. I have to do something to increase the odds of winning!”

"I need an amplifier, a solution that can multiply my hunting and fishing success rate many times over. I can no longer chase after my prey like an ordinary hunter; I must make the prey chase me!"

Suddenly, a glint appeared in his eyes: "A bait! Use scent to manipulate the hunger game in this water and forest."

As soon as the idea came to him, he immediately conducted a quick feasibility and cost-benefit analysis in his mind.

He faced the camera and calmly conducted an engineering assessment, saying, "What I need is not ordinary bait, but bait of a huge investment!"

“My current food acquisition model is an inefficient, random system. Whether it’s ice fishing or trapping, it depends on the prey appearing in the right place at the right time. What I want to intervene in is this probability.”

"Therefore, I must introduce a catalyst to forcibly increase the biological density and activity frequency in the target area."

His gaze hardened, and the return on this investment was clearly quantified in his mind into two highly feasible plans.

"I have always followed a basic survival rule, which is to make the most of everything." He said to the camera, his voice calm and focused.

"But my understanding of what I use is still at the most superficial level. I eat fish and liver and store fat."

“Those scraps, fish gills, fish intestines, grouse and rabbit digestive tracts... I used to just store them up and use them as bait when ice fishing, which was a huge waste.”

He held up his first finger and said, "Now, I'm going to process this biological waste into a highly effective bait. Then I'll bring the scattered fish into my net."

"That gillnet, now it's all down to luck. I'm going to use all these entrails and blood to make a slow-dissolving 'bait block.' I'll sink it near the net, and the water will carry the scent downstream, creating a long scent trail underwater."

“When the fish downstream smell the scent, they will instinctively go upstream against the current to find it, and the end of this path is my gillnet.”

He held up a second finger, "And then there's turning animals that pass by on land into prey that come knocking on your door."

"That rabbit trail is just waiting for the rabbits to make a mistake. I'll use grouse blood and rabbit entrails, which have a stronger smell, to make land-based bait and set it around the rabbit trail trap."

"This is like putting a signpost in the forest, telling all the animals that are hunting rabbits that there is food here! They will actively follow the rabbit trail to find it, and these hungry predators are my prey!"

The return on this investment was so great that he decided to put all the biological raw materials in his inventory that were considered inedible into use.

Lin Yu'an stood up and, without the slightest hesitation, immediately began to put his blueprint into practice. He first cleaned a large, flat stone slab in the shelter to use as a workbench.

Then, he methodically placed all the necessary materials on the workbench. "Alright, guys, let's get started. The first thing to do is deal with these things that are considered waste."

First, there's the waterproof storage bag containing grouse blood. "Blood is the vanguard of odor diffusion; its signal can travel the farthest."

Next, he took out from Yukii's refrigerator several pieces of frozen rabbit entrails that he had been deliberately storing, some fish gills and intestines left over from processing fish, and entrails that had just been taken out of the grouse.

He pointed the knife tip at the pile of various kinds of internal organs: "Each of these carries different biological information."

"The grouse's entrails, especially the intestinal contents, have a strong aroma of fermented plants and berries, which is a typical 'herbivore' signal that attracts a wider range of omnivorous fish."

“A rabbit’s liver and kidneys are rich in uric acid and have a unique odor, which is a signal of mammals. Fish viscera, on the other hand, emit signals of their own kind in an aquatic environment and the aroma of oil.” He found a piece of relatively sharp-edged shale outside the shelter and picked up a smooth pebble. These were his special tools for dealing with this pile of “biological waste.”

First, using that shale knife, he patiently pounded the half-thawed entrails and several hairy fish into a pool of mixed minced meat.

The process was far from elegant; the deep red liver, grayish-green intestines, and white fatty tissue were mixed together under his powerful pounding into a mottled, extremely complex meat paste.

They might even pick up a piece of grouse intestines and scrape out the semi-digested contents, which exude a strong, fermented, sour aroma of plants, using the side of a stone knife like scraping a pipe. This is the most deadly temptation for omnivorous fish.

He continued, “Plain blood and visceral scum would be quickly washed away underwater, and their effect wouldn’t last long enough. At zero degrees Celsius, the water current would carry them away very quickly. I need a kind of adhesive to make this feast last longer.”

He already had an idea. He picked up a dry, hard root and said, "Cattail root, this is pure starch. In the wild, it's the best kind of binder, making loose bait firmer and slowing down its dissolution in water."

Then he placed several dried cattail roots on another stone slab and began to vigorously grind and pound them with the round stone that served as a hammer.

The stone rubbed against the dry fibers, making a "rustling" sound. His movements were steady and powerful, and he quickly and thoroughly crushed the roots until they became a pile of fine, grayish-white powder particles.

With everything ready, he began the final mixing, this time preparing two different bait recipes.

His gaze shifted to the fireplace, where a soapstone slab always sat. This was his ideal low-heat reaction platform, constantly receiving radiant heat from the fireplace, keeping the entire slab evenly warm and dry.

Then, he used a wooden spoon to scoop most of the mixture of minced meat, especially the fish and grouse innards, onto the warm soapstone slab.

There was no loud sizzling sound, nor any burnt white smoke. The even and gentle heat of the soapstone penetrated into the minced meat, causing it to shrink slightly. He patiently used a wooden spoon to press and stir-fry it on the stone slab, ensuring that the heat was evenly distributed to every fiber of the meat.

He explained this seemingly unnecessary step to the camera: "I'm not going to cook it. High temperatures would destroy the structure of many proteins and cause the aroma to be lost. I'm just using low heat to allow the fat and tissue fluid in the internal organs to seep out slightly."

"This process breaks down cell walls, allowing odor molecules encased inside, such as amino acids and esters, to be released more easily into the water, which greatly enhances its initial diffusion ability."

Only when a strong, almost pungent, mixture of fishy and burnt odor filled the air did he pick up the waterproof storage bag containing the grouse's blood from beside the workbench. The blood inside had already congealed into an irregular, dark red lump of ice.

(P.S.: This is also my first time watching Frozen Blood.)

Instead of trying to melt it, he placed the "blood ice" on another clean stone slab and carefully and forcefully smashed it into a pile of deep red, pomegranate-seed-like ice fragments using the same round stone he had used as a hammer.

Then, he separated most of the blood fragments and, without hesitation, scattered them onto the warm soapstone slab, mixing them with the steaming mess of entrails.

The blood fragments immediately began to melt upon contact with the warm stone slab and minced meat, emitting a slight "sizzling" sound, but instead of turning back into a uniform liquid, they quickly separated.

The pale yellow serum seeped out first and was absorbed by the minced meat and starch powder, while the remaining dark red blood clots, like tiny meat particles, were physically mixed with the viscera paste.

He stirred quickly with a wooden spoon; as the cold blood melted, it took away some of the heat from the stone slab, which just prevented the minced meat from overheating.

Finally, he sprinkled most of the ground cattail root powder evenly into the semi-melted mixture in several batches, and vigorously stirred and pressed it with a wooden spoon.

A remarkable physical reaction occurred: the starch powder from the cattail root, moistened by the serum, rapidly absorbed water and swelled, undergoing a gelatinization reaction that tightly bound the fragments of blood clots and visceral erosion together.

Like countless tiny sponges, it tightly wrapped and locked in the blood and minced meat. The originally loose mixture gradually turned into a firm and elastic dark red dough-like object under its stirring.

A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Yu'an's face.

"Done!" He scraped the underwater scent bomb off the soapstone slab, placed it on a piece of birch bark, and showed his masterpiece to the camera.

It looked like a rough, dark red pastry, with blood clots and traces of internal organs visible on the surface, and emitted an extremely strong fishy smell.

Lin Yu'an poked the firm, dough-like object with the handle of a wooden spoon. "Look, the starch in the cattail root has completely gelatinized, forming a perfect slow-release matrix."

"It locks in the smell of blood clots and viscera, and it's heavy enough to sink quickly. Underwater, it's like a slowly dissolving candy, continuously releasing its scent to attract fish."

He didn't wash the still-warm soapstone slab; the remaining fish paste and serum on it made for the best base.

Then, he piled up all the remaining minced meat, mainly rabbit offal, and added all the remaining grouse blood ice chips, as well as a few smashed hairtail fish.

As he ground and mixed the mixture with the side of his stone knife, he said, “Land predators are more sensitive to the smell of mammals, but they are equally unable to resist the temptation of high fat.”

"So this recipe, while retaining the hormonal aroma from rabbit offal and the sweet and fishy taste of grouse blood, greatly enhances its energy signal with the oil from capelin."

He still added a small amount of cattail root powder, but in far less than with the underwater bait.

"The goal this time is not to turn it into a hard solid, but to use the water-absorbing properties of starch to mix serum, visceral tissue fluid and fish oil into a substance that will not easily freeze into an ice block and will still slowly release its odor at low temperatures."

Use a wooden spoon to mix all the ingredients evenly, resulting in a "temptation ointment" that is much softer, shinier, and has a more aggressive smell than the first batch of bait.

“This form is best suited for use in traps.” He scraped the ointment onto another piece of birch bark.

"It can be broken into small pieces and placed directly near the lasso's trigger mechanism, or stuffed into the gaps in the fallen logs."

"Because its scent is so powerful, and its physical presence can keep attracted animals lingering for longer, feeding and sniffing, it greatly increases the probability of them triggering the trap."

After doing all this, he looked at the two baits in front of him. One was a solid, slow-release bait, like a hard pastry, used for large-scale underwater baiting. The other was a thick, explosive bait, like an ointment, used for precise trapping.

The works, with their completely different formulas and forms, evoke a sense of peace and security, as if one has regained control of their destiny!

Instead of resting immediately, he began to plan his actions for tomorrow by the dim light of the fireplace.

"Alright, guys, the ammunition is ready. Now it's all about how to accurately deploy it on the battlefield."

He spoke casually to the camera, “Tomorrow, we’ll set off at daybreak. The plan is simple: first, we’ll go to the riverbank, where I’ll break open the ice hole near the fishing net, divide this solid ‘scent bomb’ into several pieces, and drop them about five meters upstream from the fishing net.”

"In this way, the water flow will carry the scent and continuously wash over my fishing net, turning the entire body of water into a huge olfactory trap. With more underwater visitors, the probability of catching them will naturally increase."

“Then, I will take this ‘temptation ointment’ into the forest. But I won’t just leave it in one place; I will smear a little on the trigger rod of the trap. It’s a deadly temptation.”

"At the same time, I will place a little bit of it at some key locations along that rabbit trail. What I want to do is create an irresistible 'scent highway' to lure all the predators that are active nearby into my trap."

"Both probability-increasing systems are activated simultaneously, one for water and one for land."

He added a piece of dry wood to the fireplace, and in the orange firelight, his eyes gleamed with confidence. "Now, we have everything ready, and we're just waiting for tomorrow to dawn."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

(I just finished typing at 2:01. I was thinking of posting some pictures of internal organs, but I'll pass.)

(End of this chapter)