American Landowners: Starting with Hunting in Alaska

Under the dim light of the storage room, the air was filled with the smell of old engine oil and musty dust.

Su Wei knelt on the cold cement floor.

In front of me was a metal toolbox, quite old, with most of the red paint peeled off, revealing the rust underneath.

The latch is rusted shut.

Su Wei did not use brute force to smash it.

He picked up a half-empty bottle of WD-40 rust remover and sprayed it into the gaps of the lock.

laugh--

The pungent chemical smell spread immediately.

The liquid seeped in through the cracks, bringing out murky, rusty water.

Su Wei waited for two minutes, silently counting to one hundred and twenty in his mind.

Then he picked up a flathead screwdriver, wedged it into the gap, and pried it open with his wrist.

Click.

With a crisp click, the rusted latch popped open.

Su Wei felt a sudden surge of relief.

The lid of the box was opened.

Inside, there were a dozen or so wrenches of different sizes, two pipe wrenches, and several screwdrivers whose original color was no longer discernible.

They were all covered with a thick layer of oxide, looking as if they had just been dug out of the ground.

In the past, Su Wei would most likely have just thrown this box of junk away.

But now, these aren't scrap metal; they're experience points.

Suwei found a piece of coarse cloth, poured kerosene on it, and picked up the largest adjustable wrench to start wiping.

The rough rust made my palms feel sticky.

He wasn't in a hurry; he carefully removed the rust spots little by little, following the grain of the metal with his fingers.

This feeling is very similar to when he was whittling wood before.

Wood has a grain, so it's easier to shave along it.

Even though metal is an inanimate object, there are patterns to how and where rust grows.

He patiently polished it, using a steel wool pad to scrub away the dirt in the hard-to-reach corners, and then repeatedly wiping it with a cloth soaked in machine oil until the metal surface regained a bit of silver-gray luster.

A handful.

Two.

When the third screwdriver was cleaned and the jammed shaft spun smoothly again, Su Wei stopped what he was doing.

Sure enough, the voice rang out.

[Completed a basic tool maintenance.]

[Life Module Experience +15]

Su Wei threw down the black rag and let out a long sigh.

Your guess was right.

Repairing, maintaining, or even just cleaning—as long as you put in the effort and make things better, the system will recognize it as a life skill practice.

This gives you far more experience than doing mundane chores.

And no skill books are required.

So-called skills are nothing more than muscle memory formed by repetitive labor; the system simply digitizes this process.

Su Wei stood up and stretched his aching knees.

The experience provided by the light-wiping tool is still too limited.

Cleaning out a box of tools will only earn you a few dozen experience points at most, far from unlocking [Mechanical Repair].

We need to find something more complex.

We need to disassemble things.

Su Wei's gaze swept around the storage room.

Soon, he spotted a hand-cranked water pump in the corner.

That was used for pumping water before. Later, when electric pumps came out, this thing was taken down and left to gather dust.

The cast iron pump body was bulky and rough, and the rocker arm could no longer be pressed down.

Suwei moved it to the open space next to him.

This is not as simple as just rubbing off rust.

He needs to figure out why it won't shake.

Su Wei picked up the pipe wrench he had just prepared and used it to clamp the connection port under the pump body.

Hard.

Not moving.

The rust sealed the threads shut.

If you're a carpenter, you can cut off a dead knot or carve it into another shape.

But machines won't work.

Machinery requires perfect fit; even missing a single screw renders it useless.

Su Wei calmed himself down.

He found a hammer, but instead of smashing the nut directly, he gently tapped around the iron pipe at the joint.

Vibration can loosen rust.

Ding, ding, ding.

A dull knocking sound echoed in the storage room.

Cotton Candy sneaked in at some point, curiously lying on the doormat, tilting her head to watch her owner busy with a lump of iron.

I knocked for five minutes.

Su Wei clamped the pipe wrench again, took a deep breath, and used the strength in his waist.

crunch--

A metallic scraping sound rang out from the teeth.

The nut turned half a turn.

Once things are moving, things will be easier.

Su Wei seized the opportunity and dismantled the pump body into pieces.

The internal structure is not complicated.

A piston, a connecting rod, and a one-way valve.

The problem lies with the piston cup.

The leather pad that should have been soft and sealed is now as hard as a rock, stuck tightly in the tank, filled with mud, sand, and rust.

Su Wei carefully used a knife to pick out the leather bowl.

It still works.

He threw the leather bowl into the engine oil to soak it, letting the oil soften the leather.

While it was soaking, he cleaned the rust out of the tank and applied a thick layer of lubricating oil to the connecting rod pin.

Half an hour later.

The softened leather bowl was put back in its place.

Suwei assembled all the parts in order.

Finally, tighten the top cover screws.

He gripped the rocker arm and tried pressing it down.

Hu Chi.

The sound of air being compressed was very clear.

Lift it up, then press it down.

It doesn't feel stuck at all; the smooth mechanical engagement feels like it travels from your palm all over your body.

The damaged hand-cranked water pump has been successfully repaired.

[Life Module Experience +50]

Your understanding of mechanical structures has deepened.

Su Wei looked at the pipe wrench covered in oil in his hand and felt incredibly satisfied, even more so than catching a big fish.

Fifty points of experience.

This is just a simple water pump that has been repaired.

What if it could repair more complex things?

Generator? Gearbox?

Even if you can't fix it, just disassembling and studying it should be enough to improve your skills.

With enough effort, you'll eventually unlock the [Mechanical Repair] skill.

In his eyes, the snowmobile will be nothing more than a pile of parts waiting for him to assemble.

Su Wei glanced at his watch; it was already 2 PM.

But he wasn't hungry at all; on the contrary, he became more and more energetic as he worked.

This is just a small-scale skirmish.

The storage room contained very few items; most of them were simple farm tools with little technical sophistication.

The real treasure trove is not here.

Su Wei turned around, picked up the winter coat hanging on the wall, put it on, and pushed open the thick wooden door leading to the garage.

A chilling blast of air swept over us.

There is no heating here.

The garage was large but empty.

Only the broken-down snowmobile sat alone in the corner.

But that wasn't Soviet's goal.

He recalled the past.

This wooden house, including this garage, was built by Su Wei's father himself before his death.

He's a very capable man; he knows a little bit about everything and loves to do everything himself.

This garage is more than just a place to park.

It also serves as a workshop and repair room.

However, there is a small compartment behind the parking lot.

Suwei turned on the garage light.

The lights illuminated everything.

Su Wei walked into the cubicle, the studio that originally belonged exclusively to that man.

Now, it can be said to belong to him.

The walls were covered with all sorts of tools.

Some of them even Su Wei couldn't name.

Next to the workbench, a dark blue tarpaulin covered in dust was placed on the cement floor.

A large outline bulged out from under the tarpaulin.

Su Wei walked over.

His footsteps startled Cotton Candy, who had followed him. The little guy huddled under the hem of his coat, watching the unknown monster warily.

Su Wei squatted down, grabbed a corner of the oilcloth, and suddenly ripped it open.

The dust made him cough twice.

Suwei waved away the dust, and soft light shone on the pile of metal.

An engine.

An old-fashioned inline four-cylinder car engine.

Although it was covered in sludge and dust, you could still tell that it used to be a big thing.

Suwei's fingers traced the cold lid of the jar.

He suddenly remembered.

That was three years ago.

To make it easier to go to town, Suwei's mother bought a used Ford sedan to practice driving.

As a result, on a snowy day, the car went out of control and crashed into a large tree on the side of the road.

No one was hurt, but the front of the car was wrecked.

The car was completely totaled; the chassis beams were all bent.

But his father took the engine back.

"This is the heart, Suvi. As long as the heart is still here, I can find it a new body."

That's what his dad said at the time.

Unfortunately, the heart never got a new body before his father passed away.

It has been lying here ever since, slowly growing cold and being forgotten.

Suwei looked at the engine.

The pipes on top are densely packed, the intake manifold is also very complicated, and the interfaces are covered in sludge.

This thing is more than a hundred times more complex than that hand-cranked water pump.

The Soviet Union is now beyond repair, let alone able to get it running again.

But that's exactly what he wanted.

A top-quality teaching material that is scrapped, has a complex structure, and you don't have to worry about damaging it during repairs.