Besides the internal staff of the production team, the viewers in the livestream chat were also passionately debating whether or not he should confront the wolf pack.
Some were sharing facts about the track records of Yukon Wolves and Tundra Wolves. Others were constantly fanning the flames, while a neutral faction just wanted to watch the show. In short, every opinion was represented.
Lin Chen shot his last arrow, shook his slightly sore fingers, and walked over to clean the hedgehog-like straw target. He then inspected each arrowhead one by one, only letting out a quiet sigh of relief after confirming there was no significant wear.
After an hour of practice, he could now achieve a ninety percent accuracy rate from a distance of about fifteen meters.
The remaining ten percent was mainly affected by wind speed and direction. He couldn't figure out any patterns with that yet, so he had to set it aside for now.
This was a riverbank, after all. The terrain was relatively open, so it was normal for it to be windy.
When he was actually hunting, it would mostly be in the forest. Under the cover of the dense trees, strong winds would have a hard time blowing through, so he didn't need to be too concerned.
To ensure his accuracy, he had even deliberately practiced aiming from many different positions.
He wasn't sure if it was natural talent or a troubleshooting instinct honed from years as a chef, but either way, he felt he was progressing quite quickly.
'I should probably head back and check. It's been a while. If the wolf pack is still there, it's something I'll have to face.'
He looked up at the sun's position. It was gradually sinking toward the horizon. The return trip would take half an hour, and lingering by the river any longer was just too dangerous.
It was strange. He had been in the forest for nearly ten days, yet he still hadn't had a direct sighting of any creature other than salmon.
Even around the Yukon River, which was teeming with salmon, he hadn't seen any sign of bears.
When he reached the vicinity of his shelter, an arrow was already nocked on his bowstring. His nerves were stretched taut, and his vigilant gaze swept back and forth across any nearby patches of grass and bushes that could possibly conceal danger.
He approached the shelter slowly, moving from tree to tree, but the danger never materialized.
'Could it be that the wolf pack was just in the same general direction, but not actually near my camp?'
While he breathed a sigh of relief, the urgency to build a fence instantly became his top priority.
"Sorry, everyone. I'm afraid I won't be able to cook tonight. I have to ensure the absolute safety of the camp first."
He slung the hunting bow back onto his back, drew the Engineer Shovel from his waist, and crouched as he slowly approached the shelter.
He confirmed there were no creatures in the tent. Seeing that even the placement of all his items, the stored berries, and the smoked salmon were untouched, his heart finally settled back into his chest.
He set the food he'd been inspecting back down, turned around, and left the tent again to start chopping down trees nearby.
He only picked small trees about as thick as a thigh. They weren't too difficult to chop down and were easy to carry.
He then cut these felled trees to a height of about two meters and placed them evenly around his camp.
"The reason I'm keeping them this tall is that I can't be sure how high a wolf can jump. But in any case, two meters should be an insurmountable wall."
He drove the posts into the ground one by one. Then, he piled dirt at the base of each, which helped maintain their height and made the stakes even more stable.
Before he knew it, night had quietly fallen.
Lin Chen looked at the fence, which was already starting to take shape. He gulped down a few mouthfuls of tart fruit tea and dragged his exhausted body to its feet again.
Due to the limited time, he didn't enclose a very large area. He only expanded outward about three meters from the shelter, creating a semicircle with a radius of about five meters.
For the ten-meter span, he had erected fifteen posts, chopped down eight trees, and used the leftover wood, thick branches he had cleared away, and tough vines to build up the fencing between the posts.
The gaps in the fence were very narrow, only large enough for small creatures like rabbits to pass through.
After finishing all this and repeatedly checking the sturdiness of the fence, he dragged his exhausted body into the tent and was out like a light.
When Lin Chen opened his eyes the next day, he was surprised to find the sun was already directly overhead.
Waves of soreness from every part of his body made him suck in a few sharp breaths. He had only experienced this feeling of complete physical and strength-based exhaustion once before, back when he first started taking private training sessions.
"I worked for too long yesterday. My mouth and tongue are so dry they feel like they're about to crack. I have to get to the river and bring back a pot of water as soon as possible."
He put the camera on his chest, finished getting dressed, and had just lifted the waterproof tarp to step outside.
Suddenly, he sensed danger out of the blue and instinctively ducked down.
THUD—
The sound of something heavy falling came from not far away.
He turned his head and peered through the gaps in the fence. He could faintly make out a furry lump lying motionless on the ground.
He looked up at the cliff above, and an idea flashed in his mind.
'Could it be?!'
He rushed over to look, and sure enough, it was a freshly killed rabbit!
He grabbed it by its long, wide ears and lifted the whole thing up. The faint stench of game and blood drifted to his nose.
The rabbit's two hind legs were clearly misshapen, and blood was steadily seeping from its facial orifices.
The warmth in his palm and the occasional twitch reminded him that this rabbit wasn't completely dead yet.
With a backhand motion, he drew his short knife and plunged it into the rabbit's neck, feeling a living creature's life slowly fade away in his hands.
There wasn't a ripple of emotion in Lin Chen's eyes. He murmured to himself, "I'm just helping you along, so you don't have to endure the pain."
He didn't touch the knife again. Instead, he carried the rabbit into the forest, taking a roundabout path before turning toward the Yukon River.
"The smell of blood will attract predators. The moment I pull the knife out, a lot of blood will spill, and that's a situation I want to avoid."
At the riverbank, he dressed the rabbit and gave the pelt a quick cleaning as well.
"With the protection of the fence, I can relax a little today. My main tasks are to replenish my nutrients, recover my strength, and further fortify the fence."
The hastily built fence wasn't sturdy enough yet. Forget a pack of wolves capable of hunting one-ton Musk Oxen—even he himself could probably kick it down if he really tried.
"This rabbit has a net weight of over three pounds, which means it probably weighed around nine pounds when it was alive. It's definitely an adult, which means there's at least one warren of wild rabbits living on top of the cliff."
"Rabbits like these can easily overpopulate in the absence of natural predators. But I haven't seen a large number of rabbit tracks nearby, which means their enemies must also live around here. Could be weasels, could be martens. I haven't seen any hawks or eagles yet, though."
"Alright, folks, let's head home and begin today's culinary journey!"