Chapter 174: Building the First Shelter (Third Update)

This season's wilderness survival is different from the previous ones.

If you go look at the earlier seasons, the shelters the contestants built kept getting better and richer as the show went on; some even managed to put together a full wooden cabin and lived quite comfortably.

But this season clearly can't do that, because it's live-streamed, and in the first round every week counts as an elimination cycle. Picking up new maps at the medical checkpoint became the whip driving the contestants to keep moving forward. So building a shelter became a temporary matter.

Qin Yun had rich experience piloting drones, and with his photography skills on top of that, every shot he filmed had a strong sense of beauty.

Even though the drone now has AI control, his eye for the camera and his habit of steering it to catch scenic shots were one of a kind.

"You've all seen the map just now. The medical checkpoint is located by the lake, so the best approach is to first walk out of the forest, find the lake, and then follow the shoreline."

As he spoke, Qin Yun kept observing, searching for any food that might be around.

Suddenly his eyes lit up. He brought the camera up to the side of a rock, where a layer of grey-green stuff clung tightly to the stone.

"Look what I found. This is reindeer lichen — reindeer love it, and people can eat it too. Until I find something more suitable, I'll hold on to this lichen and see if I can turn it into my rations by tonight."

Chinese netizens saw this scene and started roasting again.

"Qin Ye really isn't picky at all."

"That looks totally disgusting and he can still stomach it."

"It's so unsanitary, how can you eat that?"

"Qin Yun, who's the other person representing China? I heard it's a woman, let me go check."

This livestream wasn't on a personal account but the official one, and since viewers could actively switch between contestants' feeds on screen, the viewership was enormous.

The moment it went live, China's official Douyin livestream room broke ten million viewers and was rapidly climbing toward twenty million.

Qin Yun took out his dagger and began gently scraping along the rock. In a short while, a sheet of grey-green lichen was peeled off.

Looking at the lichen in his hand, Qin Yun suddenly realized he didn't seem to have any gear to carry things in. On his body, besides clothes, there were only tools — the earlier battery and map were still stuffed in his pocket.

After thinking it over, he put the lichen back on the rock face and smiled at the camera: "It's not easy to carry things in my hands. I think I'll make a backpack first — that way my hands will be free too."

As he spoke, the drone spun around once, and his voice rang out at the same time: "Look at the environment here — spruce, pine, birch, and moss everywhere. I can grab a few things and put together a simple backpack."

After wandering around for a bit without finding any beast hide or similar material, Qin Yun finally had to wrap things in birch bark, use spruce branches as a frame, line the bottom with moss and pine needles, then take two vines as cords, tying the upper ends to the top of the frame and the lower ends to the two sides of the bottom to form shoulder straps.

He held up the finished product in front of the camera and grinned: "How about it? This way, even if I move a bit roughly, it won't fall apart easily, and it can hold quite a bit. I can stash any wild berries I pick along the way inside."

"6666, Qin Ye is as 6 as ever."

"This streamer has real hands-on skills. How come I've never seen him before?"

"Damn, upstairs, you don't even know Qin Ye?"

"Is it that strange not to know him? He's not a celebrity."

Qin Yun put the lichen inside, then continued forward.

"Atlin Lake is in western BC, Canada, at 59.3 degrees north latitude, so daylight here is very short — roughly just over six hours. I was dropped at the spawn point by helicopter at 11 a. m., and it's probably about 11:30 now. If my estimate is right, sunset should be around 16:30. So I have to finish building tonight's shelter before that."

After walking through the forest for roughly thirty minutes, Qin Yun's steps suddenly paused and his voice involuntarily dropped.

"See the tracks up ahead? If I'm not mistaken, these were left by a grouse passing through."

As he spoke, he gripped his bow in his hand, a flash of excitement crossing his face.

"Maybe I'll have a hearty dinner tonight."

Not just him — the viewers in the livestream were excited too. Back in China, basically every animal you saw was a protected species, so Qin Yun couldn't touch them. But things were different now — this was Canada, and each of them had registered for a license, so they could hunt freely without worrying about the law.

"Qin Ye is about to go on a killing spree."

"Hahaha, Qin Ye looks a bit excited."

Following the grouse tracks, Qin Yun moved forward two or three hundred meters, then suddenly stopped. He quickly concealed himself, shrinking his whole body behind a tree. Then the action camera slowly poked out, and in the frame there appeared a bird with mottled, leopard-print-like plumage.

It just had very short wings, a slender neck, and a ring of red around its eye socket.

"Grouse can fly, and they fly pretty hard — their short-distance burst is extremely strong. If I make the slightest move, I might startle it, so I have to hit it in one shot, otherwise it'll definitely fly away from me."

Qin Yun spoke very softly. He pulled back the action camera, then turned the drone around so its lens rested behind him, locking onto the grouse's position along the line of his bow.

This way, the frame included both him and the grouse.

He slowly drew the bow, aiming at the grouse some twenty meters away, his gaze cold.

Once he had a solid lock, he released his right hand without the slightest hesitation. The arrow vanished from his hand in an instant, and the next second a shrill scream rang out and cut off abruptly.

"Gah—!"

Qin Yun grabbed the drone and immediately ran over. In the camera, the grouse had gone completely still, a green arrow piercing straight through the area below its neck, drops of fresh blood falling to the ground.

He picked up the grouse, weighed it in his hand, and smiled.

"It's nice and fat — I'm in luck."

Netizens saw this scene and liked it one after another.

Quite a few foreign viewers who had casually clicked in were also impressed by what they saw.

They all left comments in the comment section.

It's just that the domestic platform is Douyin and the foreign one is TikTok — the two don't connect.

He took the lichen out of the backpack, put the grouse in, then laid the lichen on top.

"Reindeer lichen is acidic, and its smell can mask the grouse's blood, so don't worry about it attracting carnivores." Qin Yun explained briefly, recalibrated the drone, and continued forward.

"So far, I've walked less than two kilometers, and I'm guessing the lake is still quite a distance away. I can't be sure I'll make it to the lake today. But whether it's the lichen or the grouse, processing them needs plenty of water. It's not that there's no water in the forest — it's just definitely not as convenient as by the lake."

"Of course, if I really can't make it in time, I won't force it."

After all this time live-streaming, Qin Yun's feel for the camera had long been perfected — making sure every shot on screen was worth it at every moment had become his habit.

After walking another half hour or so, Qin Yun rubbed his stomach and said to the camera: "I'm getting hungry, I need to find something to fill my stomach. In the wilderness, if you can't hunt animals, there are actually plenty of edible plants in the forest."

"Like this!"

Qin Yun aimed the camera at a clump of shrubs on the ground, which were covered in dense clusters of yellow berries.

"These are cloudberries. See, they're already frozen. Let me try one first."

He plucked one and popped it into his mouth, and an icy, cool sweetness instantly bloomed across his palate.

He smiled and said: "Obviously, the cloudberries here have long been ripe, and this frozen texture actually has its own unique flavor. Very sweet, not sour or astringent at all. I need to gather some — if I get the chance to process my grouse tonight, adding these will make the meat even more delicious."

Qin Yun spread a full layer over his backpack, only stopping when he couldn't fit any more.

And with that, another two hours passed. The dimness in the forest grew even thicker, and sunset was clearly not far off.

He sighed: "Looks like the plan to reach the lake today is dead. I have to find a suitable spot in the forest to set up a shelter as soon as possible, otherwise once it gets dark, I won't be able to see a thing."

At his current legendary level, finding a place to set up a shelter was far too easy, but his luck was poor — walking until now, he still hadn't found a water source, and could only rely on cloudberries to top up his water a little.

In that case, there's even less need to mention processing the reindeer lichen and grouse.

"Look over there — that cluster of rocks is perfect for me to rest tonight. With their varying heights, I only need to do a little work and I'll have a decent resting spot."

Qin Yun looked at the several huge rocks ahead, each of different sizes, but with an adult-sized space left in the middle. As long as he filled the gaps and covered the top, the night should be no problem.

However, just at this moment…

His ears twitched, and a flash of pleasant surprise crossed his face.

"Listen… what's that sound?"

Qin Yun quickened his pace, directly crossing over the rock pile and jogging ahead.

Seeing Qin Yun's movement, the domestic netizens also grew curious.

"What did Qin-ye hear?"

"Probably water or something — wasn't Qin-ye just talking about that?"

"Maybe some animal."

A few minutes later, Qin Yun looked at a stream flowing across ahead of him and laughed.

"Looks like my luck isn't bad — there's actually a live stream of water here. What a pleasant surprise."

He confirmed there was no danger by the stream, then immediately walked down to it.

"The current temperature is roughly around minus fifteen degrees, and the flow speed of the water isn't that fast either, but this stream still hasn't frozen. There's probably only one reason — the source of this stream is springing up from underground, and groundwater stays above zero year-round. That's why, even though the temperature is extremely low, it still hasn't frozen."

"For me, this is nothing but good news."

After speaking, his smile faded. He pointed at a trail of footprints on the ground: "But at the same time, I also have to be more careful, because wherever there's a water source, wild animals are bound to appear. Look at these footprints — this is a coyote's, and next to it there are some from herbivores too. For example, this one is a moose's, this one is a beaver's, this one is a red fox's."

Every footprint Qin Yun saw, he could accurately call out the animal's name, demonstrating his extremely rich knowledge of zoology.

This kind of off-the-cuff, deeply knowledgeable ability left a strong impression on many people who didn't know Qin Yun.

However…

"Damn, if it weren't for the auto-translation, how would I ever understand bird language."

"Chinese people speaking English — trash streamer, might as well just watch the foreign ones."

"Get lost, idiot."

He didn't drink directly. At a water source used by so many animals, the bacterial environment here was bound to be rich. If he got diarrhea here, the best option would be to hit the rescue button right away.

Afterwards, Qin Yun returned to the rock pile and began preparing to make fire.

"Given the geography here, plus the current weather, it's easy for me to find all kinds of tinder materials. I just observed and found there's plenty of pine branches and pine fatwood — these catch fire with a single touch and are excellent tinder. There's also birch bark and dry wood pulp, all very suitable. There's really too much."

"Although I have a bow and arrow and could use the bow-drill method to make fire, today I'll demonstrate the process of pure hand-drill fire-making for everyone. At the same time, I'll make a fire starter commonly seen in ancient China — once made, it can smolder for a long time. You stuff it into a tube or a birch-bark cylinder, cover it so it doesn't go out, and when you pull off the cap and blow, it flares into flame."

Qin Yun decided on the spur of the moment to make a fire starter — this way, starting fires would be much more convenient in the future.

While gathering materials, he explained: "Hand-drill fire-making is nothing more than first finding tinder — the dry pine resin, pine fatwood, or birch bark I mentioned earlier — then finding some dry fuel, like fine pine needles, thin twigs, and for larger pieces, some dead branches about the thickness of an arm."

"Once you have the materials, you can build a fire structure. This structure needs a drill shaft and a fire board. The drill shaft should be straight and hard — birch is recommended. The fire board should be softer, so it's easier to produce sparks — I suggest using spruce."

Qin Yun spoke as he worked, his movements extremely deft: "Now we carve a notch on the fire board — a stone or a knife will do — then cut a small opening next to the notch. This way, the sparks will fall down from here. Place the tinder below this opening — pile birch bark pulp and pine resin shavings into a small pointed heap — then you can grip the drill shaft with both hands and rub it back and forth."

"If you're just trying it out, remember to wear gloves, otherwise the rapid rubbing will hurt your hands. But I'm thick-skinned and used to it — don't worry about me getting hurt."

Qin Yun began to speed up his back-and-forth motion, while slowly pressing down with force.

"Damn, Qin-ye's hand speed — someone sure is dying of happiness."

"Hehe, what are you talking about? Why can't I understand?"

Seeing these comments, Su Huan, who had been watching the livestream, blushed for no reason, then went "Pfft… pfft" twice.

Pure hand-drilling sometimes depends on luck too, but with such good tinder conditions, Qin Yun soon saw white smoke rising from the bottom of the drill shaft — this meant the wood was heating up. He didn't stop; in fact, his speed increased.

Rubbing as he spoke: "Hehe, almost there. Once black charcoal dust appears below, then turns red, the fire tinder is successfully made."

Soon, the results he described appeared one by one on camera. Qin Yun gently blew on the tinder, and sparks leapt up, a flame appeared — this attempt at pure hand-drill fire-making succeeded in one go.

Just a few minutes later, a fire pile appeared in front of the rocks, a wave of warmth slowly spreading outward, making one feel at ease.

"Next is building the shelter. While it's still light, I need to gather some moss, lichen, and various bark and branches. Once the shelter is built, I can process my grouse and reindeer lichen."