I am a local in North America

Chapter 4 Gold Mine White-spotted Pike
Two months ago, when Su Jerry first came to participate in the show "Living Alone in the Wilderness," he enjoyed the tranquility and sense of freedom of the vast sky and sea and returning to simplicity.

However, he spent 80 days in this godforsaken place, and didn't know how much longer he would have to endure it, which kept him on the verge of exploding.

The feeling was probably like being exiled alone to a deserted island, or being imprisoned and locked in solitary confinement.

Thinking about it this way, you'll realize that the protagonist of "Robinson Crusoe" is practically the pinnacle of wilderness survival, able to live on a deserted island for 28 years.

Participating in the show involves a prize of a full million dollars, which always makes people anxious and uncertain. On many quiet nights, he had already planned countless times how to use the money.

Fortunately, Su Jierui is unaware yet that there is a remarkable person named Roland on this episode.

With the experience gained from working as a hunter guide and incredible luck, the other party captured a 350-kilogram musk ox using only a bow and arrow and a knife, and also successfully hunted a black bear, using its skin to make gloves.

Needless to say, black bears firmly occupy the top of the terrestrial food chain.

The adult musk ox, which is nearly 2 meters long, nearly 1.3 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighs up to 350 kilograms, is also very aggressive and deadly. With its sharp horns, most people would only be able to run for their lives if they encountered it.

The show "Solo in the Wild" has been filmed for six seasons, but very few contestants have actually succeeded in hunting large prey.

A little over a month ago, Su Jerry successfully shot a male caribou weighing about 90 kilograms, and thought that Lady Luck had smiled upon him and that he had already secured the championship trophy.

A reindeer weighing around 90 kilograms only yields about half the meat. The remaining 45 kilograms of meat and offal are smoked and dried over two days, reducing the weight of the dried meat to just over 20 kilograms.

Living within the Arctic Circle, even sitting still consumes a lot of calories every day, so this amount of meat is not enough to eat.

They also need fresh fish to provide other nutrients in order to prevent certain diseases from occurring because they cannot pick berries or mushrooms.

He found it hard to imagine that while other contestants were still going hungry, Roland was eating meat every day until he felt like throwing up.

They even have extra calories to exercise, use dried tree bark as tobacco, smoke a few puffs when they have nothing to do, and are so extravagant as to use bear oil as a skin care product to prevent frostbite.

Otherwise, Su Jierui's will to persevere would probably crumble instantly.

Fortunately, there was one reason he absolutely had to win the $100 million prize money, which kept telling him that he had to persevere and seize this opportunity to change his fate.

Unlike other contestants who talked about raising children or realizing their life dreams, she did not.

Su Jierui doesn't have a girlfriend yet. He had two girlfriends in college, but they broke up long ago due to long-distance relationships, not to mention having children.

There's no need to worry about work either. The family already had two trawlers that also served as fishing boats. They usually fished using methods such as purse seines, trawls, and longline fishing. As king crabs became popular in Asia and demand surged, the family followed suit last year and added an "Alaskan crab fishing boat." At worst, they could go home to help out. Life was always quite enjoyable.

Jerry Su has a very concrete and clear goal, and has already planned how to use the $100 million prize money.

He needs this large sum of money to buy a 1200-acre seaside ranch in the southern part of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, which is priced at $400 million.

Washington State is located in the northwestern corner of the contiguous United States. Its largest city is Seattle. It is adjacent to Vancouver, Canada, and has no connection with Washington, D.C., the center of power in the United States. Washington, D.C. is located on the East Coast, 4400 kilometers away from Washington, D.C.

In theory, if he chooses to take out a bank loan with a 20% down payment, and as long as he perseveres and gets the $100 million, Su Jerry will have the opportunity to buy the seaside ranch with the buried gold mine.

Yes.

Gold mine!!!

The thought of the gold mine buried underground was like a fire, instantly dispelling the chill of Great Slave Lake and abruptly pulling his thoughts back to last winter.

At that time, he and his companions were hiking at Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park.

During a casual rest stop along the way, while his companions complained about how terrible the burgers at the fast food restaurant were, Su Jerry's gaze inadvertently swept over a large meadow by the roadside called "Beaver Ranch".

In that instant, the world he saw changed.

As we all know, the human eye cannot see through the soil. If gold mines were so easy to find, the soil in the beaver ranch would have been sifted through long ago. How could he have the chance to try to find a hidden gem?

But Su Jierui is different.

He was different from others from a young age and gradually became aware of his differences from others.

What others see as an ordinary world, he sees as something akin to a game screen.

The first time I arrived near that beaver ranch, I saw that eye-catching sign: "[Rich in shallow placer gold deposits]!"
At that time, in that strange vision that had accompanied him throughout his childhood, a faint halo, perceptible only to him, appeared over the vast land, along with a line of simple yet deeply moving words—

[Environmental Scan Report: A relatively rich ancient riverbed with high gold reserves is buried between 4 and 7 meters underground, containing a high-density placer gold vein, with estimated reserves of 2.2 tons.]

He almost suffocated when he discovered the "wild gold mine" last year.

This is a life-changing discovery!

Later research revealed that the placer gold deposits in the area were likely formed by the weathering and erosion of primary gold veins over hundreds of millions of years, followed by river scouring and deposition.

Historically, in the rich sections of the river, several to tens of ounces of gold could be produced per cubic meter of sand. In some recorded high-grade mines, a single shovelful could reveal glittering gold flakes.

While other challengers are fighting for a mere $100 million, Su Jerry is battling for a gold mine worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Driven by this enormous potential profit, no thought of giving up could truly sway him. All he could think about was achieving complete financial freedom and truly enjoying his own life, instead of working like a slave for others and wasting his precious life on meaningless things.

Sitting on the raft, he spotted the black bear that had returned to the lake. A thought struck Su Jierui, and several lines of invisible text appeared before his eyes, reading—

Name: American Black Bear (Female)

[Age: 4 years old]

[Health Status: Excellent]

[Affinity: Hostile]

[Expected lifespan: 25 years]

【Habits: American black bears are widely distributed in coniferous forests, deciduous broad-leaved forests and shrublands in southern and eastern Canada.

They are strong, adept at attacking with their teeth and claws, and possess intelligence equivalent to a 3- to 7-year-old human.

Below the text visible only to Su Jierui, there were several lines of functional information that read—

【1. Environmental Scan】

2. Health Scan

3. Species Scan Atlas (Contribution 13%)

This is a very large female American black bear, much larger than others of its kind, about the size of some human basketball players. It needs to burn more calories, which is probably why it wakes up hungry in winter and frequently comes out to forage for food.

An ordinary person might be overjoyed or terrified in this situation, but Su Jierui is already used to it.

From the time he could remember, he could see these messages, and even in his early childhood when he couldn't read, his brain still allowed him to understand their meaning.

Because he received far more information than the average person, Su Jierui was not very bright when he was young. It wasn't until he was six or seven years old that he realized he was different from others and consciously hid this strange information. Only then did the world in his eyes become normal.

When he was a child, he tried to talk to his parents, who thought there was something wrong with his head. They even took him to the hospital for examinations and had him see a psychologist several times.

Unsurprisingly, the psychologist also felt that Su Jierui had some issues and suggested that he play fewer computer games.

Often looked at with complicated expressions by his parents, whose faces clearly said "I'm sick," Su Jierui quickly learned to keep quiet about the matter after seeing a psychologist a few times and discovering that he could hide those extra details.

Since discovering that I am different from others, I am bound to be curious.

When he was in his teens, he finally realized that there was nothing wrong with his mind. Su Jierui began to suspect that he was similar to Superman, and might be an adopted alien. He subtly asked his parents several times about his background, such as how he was born and whether there was any possibility of him being adopted.

This made his parents nervous, thinking that he was entering puberty and becoming interested in babies and sex.

Chinese families aren't good at discussing these things, but to prevent any accidental "death," Su Jierui's dad reluctantly pulled himself together and talked to him about biology for an hour or two, not forgetting to add at the end, "If you dare to do anything out of line, I'll beat you to death!"

After much thought, since human technology cannot achieve these things, if we set aside certain mystical elements, it seems that the only answer lies in the boundless starry sky.

Faced with his own unsolved mysteries, worrying unnecessarily is not in Su Jierui's nature, and he is too lazy to delve into the details.

At this moment, sitting on the Trisolaran raft, with the cold wind blowing, my nose is running.

He continued to focus his attention on the water, where the surface of the lake appeared calm, but the scene beneath was quite different—

Name: Yellow Perch (Male)

[Age: 3 years old]

[Health Status: Good]

【Name: Female Pike】

[Age: 5 years old]

[Health Status: Excellent]

The lake, which was originally so tranquil it was almost frightening, suddenly became vibrant, like a plaza in an online game, densely displaying information about various fish, shrimp, and plants.

He had previously drilled the ice hole to check the gillnets just to put on a show for the action camera. In reality, he hadn't even taken the gillnets out yet when he already realized that no fish had taken the bait that day. The same was true when he checked the traps.

His countless experiences accumulated since childhood have made him very adept at pretending to be a normal person in the outside world.

Rowing the raft near the relatively rare pike, Su Jerry skillfully cast his line, rhythmically flicking his wrist to mimic the swimming motion of a small fish, attempting to attract this adult giant.
　As for update times, during the new book period, there will be one chapter at noon and one chapter at 8 pm. I'm worried about writing off-topic, so I haven't saved any drafts yet. Please take the time to read it if you have time.

　　Previously, established authors received some recommendation benefits, but now it's all fair competition. If you don't read enough, you won't get good recommendations. My writing style has always been slow-burning, and I don't like to create plot holes, so I suffer from this.

　　I noticed some longtime readers have come looking for me; thank you!!!

(End of this chapter)