American Landowners: Starting with Hunting in Alaska

"Marshmallow, let's go!"

Suwei called out softly to the cotton candy.

The little guy immediately wagged its fluffy tail and followed along.

The sled he made by hand was left at the camp for the time being.

He did not intend to take a sled to retrieve the venison, as there were not many places along the route suitable for a sled to travel.

Walking is still faster, it's just a bit more tiring.

But Suwei was not afraid of hard work; he was only worried about not reaping any rewards.

Su Wei only carried an assault pack containing water, spare ammunition, a waterproof tarpaulin, and a small roll of nylon rope.

His Browning rifle was slung across his chest, his right hand resting loosely on the grip, his knuckles slightly white from the cold.

"Set off."

He whispered something, then, with the cotton candy in his hand, stepped back into the spruce forest.

The path wasn't unfamiliar; it was the same road as yesterday.

After a night of wind and snow, the traces of last night have been covered by the new snow.

Suwei did not activate the tracking assistance of the hunting module, which can only track the tracks of a single prey.

Furthermore, he needs to manually bind it.

It is during the journey, not during the hunting process.

It didn't actually help much.

At this moment, he relied on the tracking skills from the original owner's memories and his excellent sense of direction.

Marshmallow is clearly more professional than him.

The little guy's nose was almost touching the snow, twitching rapidly as he carefully discerned the scents.

It would stop every now and then to determine the direction of the scent, then decisively dart a few steps forward and turn back to look at Suwei with its icy blue eyes.

The snow on the mountain road is very deep, and you never know whether the next step you take will be on solid ground, slippery rocks, or a snow-covered pit.

Su Wei lowered his center of gravity, using his entrenching tool as a crutch, and kept probing the road ahead.

My physical strength was depleted much faster than I expected.

The fatigue recovery bonus from the life module was very effective during rest, and it was a great help during this wilderness exploration.

However, it becomes completely useless during such high-intensity marches.

After all, it's just a logistics module.

Hot sweat seeped from his forehead, trickled down his temples, and was instantly chilled to the bone by the cold wind.

Su Wei would occasionally wipe the sweat from his forehead, exhale a puff of white mist, and check if the route was correct.

More than forty minutes later, Suwei finally returned to the gentle slope where he had buried the venison the day before.

The surroundings were completely silent, with only the whistling of the wind through the treetops.

There was not a trace of blood in the air.

The low temperature of at least minus 20 degrees Celsius not only prevents the venison from spoiling but also masks the bloody smell.

Su Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

The absence of a bloody smell means that the likelihood of attracting large predators is very small.

He strode over to the stones that had been marked, picked up his entrenching tool, and began digging.

The surface layer of snow melts at the slightest touch.

But the snow layer below, mixed with mud, had long since frozen into solid ice.

The metal blade of the entrenching tool struck the frozen ground with a muffled thud, leaving a shallow white mark on the ground.

Soviet Union had anticipated this.

He calmed himself down, adjusted his breathing, and put all his weight on his arms.

Then, aim the shovel tip at the same point and chisel it down hard, again and again.

He began to mechanically repeat this tedious action.

Marshmallow seemed unable to understand why he was making trouble for this frozen land, and paced anxiously to the side.

Su Wei ignored it and just kept using the tip of his shovel to chisel at the same spot again and again.

Finally, after a series of heavy blows, he pried up a large chunk of frozen soil.

Beneath the frozen ground, several pieces of birch bark he had used to wrap himself yesterday were exposed.

Su Wei's heart suddenly raced. He threw down his entrenching tool and began to dig through the surrounding dirt and ice with his bare hands.

The birch bark was completely peeled off.

The neatly arranged chunks of venison were now visible underneath.

The meat was covered with a layer of white frost and frozen solid, but its deep red color remained, showing no signs of being turned over or bitten.

"call……"

A breath of scorching white air was exhaled from Suwei's mouth, condensing into a cloud of white mist in the air.

He finally felt relieved.

The meat is safe.

Su Wei immediately took out a waterproof cloth from his assault pack, spread it out, and carried pieces of frozen venison onto it.

The hind leg meat, ribs, shoulder meat... a rough estimate puts it at least thirty or forty pounds.

He carefully wrapped all the pieces of meat in a waterproof cloth, then tied them into a meat bag with nylon rope, slung it on his back, and secured it with a long rope slung diagonally across his body.

The immense weight made him slump, almost causing him to kneel down.

"Let's go home."

He spoke to the marshmallow, his voice hoarse from exhaustion.

The journey back was ten times more difficult than the journey there.

Carrying this heavy, irregularly shaped lump of flesh weighing several tens of pounds on his back completely disrupted his sense of balance.

He was almost hunched over, sliding and slipping as he moved toward the camp.

Several times I slipped and fell, only managing to stay upright by wedging my entrenching tool firmly into the snow.

The marshmallow could see his struggle, so it stopped running around energetically and quietly followed at his feet, never falling behind.

When the bright orange tent of the camp finally reappeared in sight, Suwei felt that his legs were numb and had lost all feeling.

He unloaded the heavy bag of meat from his back onto the sled, leaned against the pile of goods, and gasped for breath.

It took him five minutes to recover.

This experience made him even more certain.

Next time I go up the mountain, I must be fully prepared!

Actually, he was quite well prepared this time.

They not only carried plenty of waterproof cloth and nylon rope, but also seven or eight waterproof bags for dividing the prey's flesh and blood.

Unfortunately, plans can't keep up with changes.

No one expected that Su Wei would kill a deer.

He immediately stuffed the newly retrieved meat buns into the gaps in the sled and used more rope to tie all the cargo tightly.

Looking at the sled loaded with goods, he felt a profound sense of satisfaction.

All the findings have been compiled!

With no worries about the future, it's time to consider going down the mountain.

Su Wei pulled out his old cell phone.

The screen lights up, displaying the time.

1:03 PM.

Upon seeing the time, Su Wei's heart skipped a beat, and the satisfaction he had just felt vanished instantly.

too late.

It takes four hours to descend the mountain from here empty-handed.

Pulling this sled weighing over 200 pounds on the difficult mountain road, the time taken would be doubled, even if it were an optimistic estimate.

Eight hours? Ten hours?

We definitely won't get there before dark.

Dragging so much fresh meat through the forest after dark?

Images flashed through his mind of being surrounded by the eerie green eyes of a pack of wolves, or of a head-on encounter with a Kodiak brown bear drawn by its scent.

That was suicide.

"I can't leave today."

He made a decision while talking to himself.

The first rule of wilderness survival is to prioritize survival above all else.

Greed is the original sin that wastes life.

He must cherish his life.

After all, this wasn't the first time he had died.

Heaven will surely not grant him a second chance!

It's incredibly foolish to risk your life just to get home a few hours earlier.

We must spend another night here.

We'll set off as soon as it's light tomorrow.

After making the decision, Su Wei calmed down.

He stretched his aching shoulders and was preparing to start a fire to cook a meal to reward himself and the cotton candy next to him, who was already drooling with envy.

Just then.

A blinding red light tore through the distant horizon without warning.

The light shot upwards, drawing a brief arc in the gray-white sky.

Then, a muffled "thump" was heard.

A cloud of red smoke exploded at the highest point.

Distress flare.

All of Su Wei's movements froze instantly.

He stood frozen in place, still clutching the piece of deer tenderloin he was about to cook, his mind completely blank.

The red smoke quickly dissipated in the cold wind, but that red hue remained imprinted in his mind.

In the depths of this wilderness, which he thought was only inhabited by wild beasts and himself.

Surprisingly, there were other people involved.

Moreover, the other party has encountered a potentially fatal problem.