Chapter 180: The Perilous Second Night

"Some of you might be wondering why I just stabbed through this wolf's eye socket."

Qin Yun gripped the wolf king by the scruff of its neck and dragged it up onto the earthen slope.

Looking at the six arctic wolf corpses on the ground, he smiled and said: "Because I felt this arctic wolf was big enough, and its coat and fur were both excellent. I plan to skin it, process it a bit, and keep it as a memento."

Actually, his real idea had been to make this arctic wolf king into a taxidermy specimen, but there were no conditions for that here, so he could only give up helplessly.

"Tsk tsk, honestly speaking, I'm jealous. I want one too."

"I remember when Qin-ye was in Qaidam he gave fans wolf pelts — how about Qin-ye gives us these wolf pelts too?"

"Hehe, I'm one of those lucky ones. That wolf pelt was made into a coat by me, very warm."

"You bastard, the name fits you perfectly."

"You guys are saying all this, but Qin-ye can't see it. Don't even think about it this time."

On Douyin everyone was one of their own. Many, even if they hadn't seen Qin Yun, knew that among all those wilderness survival livestream rooms there were only two Chinese people, so instinctively and naturally they treated him as one of their own.

But abroad, although after Qin Yun fought the wolves and slew those six wolves with the force of a thunderbolt, gaining a huge batch of fans, one ill-fitting group had popped up.

PETA, an organization called "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals."

This organization had made countless absurd statements, for example:

Demanding that ice cream brands replace cow's milk with human breast milk, arguing that using breast milk instead of cow's milk was the most humane thing for dairy cows; prohibiting men who eat meat from having sex and from reproducing; claiming that the Poké Balls in Pokémon were tools of imprisonment, that catching little creatures was animal abuse and restricted their freedom; claiming that monkeys held the copyright to photographs, that the profits should belong to the monkeys, and even filing lawsuits over it.

Calling themselves animal protectors, yet annually euthanizing nearly 2,000 cats and dogs, on the grounds that there was nowhere to keep them and no one to adopt them, and that a long pain was worse than a short one.

Now seeing Qin Yun on the show, brazenly slaughtering six arctic wolves in front of countless people, these people immediately popped up.

Cursing madly in the comment section:

"A demon, more vicious than man-eating beasts."

"You have no heart, no soul, you deserve to go to hell!"

"Strongly urge the show's crew to immediately eliminate this Chinaman, blacklist and boycott him."

"Wolves eating you is their instinct, it's the law of nature, but what you're doing is slaughter."

"A pervert who takes pleasure in killing."

"This kind of person should be arrested and jailed."

Foreign netizens had long been used to this group's antics and were practically immune to such comments. But some people in China were also on TikTok, and upon seeing these comments, immediately forwarded them back to China.

And then China was shocked.

Damn, so it turns out crazy people aren't only in China — when foreign countries go crazy, the degree of absurdity is simply an eye-opener.

I know you guys have a lot of genders, but how come you also have so many brain-dead people.

Of course, Qin Yun had no idea about these positive or negative comments, and didn't care either.

Slaughtering the six arctic wolves had taken only a few minutes in total, but skinning, extracting the teeth, cutting off the claws, and gathering the fur had cost him a full two hours.

Facing the camera, Qin Yun patted his backpack and smiled: "When the show ends, if these tusks and claws are still around, I'll have the show's crew pick some lucky fans and give them to them."

After saying that, he looked into the distance. By now the sky had already grown somewhat dim.

"I need to find a place to build a shelter as soon as possible, otherwise once it gets dark things will get tricky."

After saying that, he quickened his pace.

After walking for roughly half an hour, Qin Yun found a large, slightly leaning tree in Lin Zi. This big tree was as thick as three people linking arms around it. On the leaning side, there happened to be an open natural space. Because the vegetation here was dense, there wasn't much accumulated snow on the ground.

He aimed the drone camera at it and said with a grin: "Look at this, this natural space — with a bit of simple work, it becomes a pretty decent shelter, and at night it can give me a warm sleeping environment."

After saying that, he set up the camera angle and began working.

After confirming it was safe, he used his dagger to clear away the weeds, stones, and rotting leaves beneath the tree's root system, and quickly dug out a flat space. Actually it wasn't really digging, just purely clearing out the debris — the ground was already flat enough.

After clearing the base, he began building the entrance. With his strength, in just a moment a sturdy space relying on the tree's natural root system was constructed.

By now the sky had basically gone completely dark. He found some dry branches nearby and immediately piled up a campfire. Once the flames lit up the surroundings, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tonight I won't bother making any soups or stews. I'll just have some smoked grouse and raw fish slices, and paired with cloudberries I think that'll be plenty."

If the other contestants heard Qin Yun's words, they'd probably all want to beat him to death.

So many people hadn't even managed to get a single bite to eat, yet he was already starting to make choices — simply hateful.

In the forest at night, from time to time came bursts of cries, sounding downright creepy.

"Damn, this late at night, being alone in a godforsaken place like this — just thinking about it is thrilling."

"Heh, if it were me I'd piss myself in fear."

"For Qin-ye, it's probably no different from being at home. I see a lot of people are still gnawing on leaves, while Qin-ye is already eating a nutritionally rich meal."

"Other people are surviving, Qin-ye is here on vacation."

"Coo-coo — whoosh—"

Qin Yun tore off a piece of the now-softened grouse meat, stuffed it into his mouth, and said: "Listen, that's the sound of a snowy owl."

The moment he finished speaking, another sound rang out.

"Caw — caw —"

Qin Yun sprinkled a little salt frost onto the grouse meat again.

"That's the sound of a raven. It sounds like metal scraping, or like a creepy laugh — you guys should hear it often in horror movies."

Sounds kept ringing out from time to time in the forest, and Qin Yun kept providing commentary, as if there wasn't a single creature he didn't know.

After eating and drinking his fill, he lay around in the shelter for a bit, then crawled back out.

"In northern China there's a kind of bed called a heated kang. Even though the ground here is frozen solid, I don't need anything big — I just need to dig out a trench, then channel the heat over from the campfire side, and that simple heated kang is done. This way when I sleep at night I won't have to worry about getting cold."

After saying that, he got to work.

He first dug out a trench the length of one person inside the shelter, then dug five branching trenches out from one side, which finally converged outside the shelter, and then led outward along this trench for a stretch.

At the endpoint he dug a slightly deeper pit to hold the fire source later.

After finishing all this, he ran into Lin Zi to look for suitable, thick-centered wood to use as pipes for laying down.

When he finished laying the pipes and built a fire at the endpoint, he began covering the trench with moss to level it out.

After lying inside for a short while, he laughed heartily: "The temperature's starting to rise—I figure as long as I keep the fire going, it'll soon climb to around ten degrees."

Hearing this, netizens on TikTok were stunned.

Fuck, everyone else is shivering, and you've got a heated bed?

"Haha, Brother Qin has fully unleashed Chinese wisdom—thirty degrees below zero outside, yet the shelter's at over ten degrees. If it were me, I wouldn't even bother going anywhere else."

"This wilderness survival show is bullshit because of this: a seven-day cycle, and you must reach a check-in point to activate the next week, forcing everyone to rush there as fast as possible."

"Yeah, in the past, Brother Qin could've just picked any spot and probably ended up like he was on vacation."

Qin Yun spread wolf hides on the ground, with a fire outside and a heated bed inside; the shelter's frame on both sides was tightly sealed, blocking wind and rain, giving him a strong sense of security.

Around eight p. m., Qin Yun ended his stream.

At this moment, among the program's forty-eight official live streams, only a handful remained active, so traffic naturally flooded into these streamers' channels.

One of them was Tom, whom Daniel favored.

Tom himself was a retired Navy SEAL with extensive wilderness experience; after leaving the starting point, though he encountered many setbacks along the way, overall he progressed smoothly. He also knew this stream was a competition among fifty channels for all the viewers' attention, so he extended his daily streaming time as much as possible.

At present, his popularity ranked second only to Qin Yun's.

Had Qin Yun not killed six wolves today, Tom's popularity would have been a cliff-top first.

The official live stream would continue until the show ended—even if all other streams shut down to sleep, the central control stream would never go offline, so contestants could start streaming anytime, anywhere.

Deep into the night, two a. m.

At this moment, all sub-streams in the central live stream were offline. So far, only Hanson from Britain and Park Buceng from Korea had been eliminated; the rest remained in stable vital condition—even Ailin had revived and narrowly escaped death.

In the camp, except for the on-duty staff dozing off, everything had fallen utterly silent.

But just then, live stream #32 on the big screen suddenly came back online.

Qin Yun wasn't awakened by the cold—he was awakened by an odd sensation.

When he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything in the darkness, only a faint fishy odor clinging to his nostrils. Outside, a dense, unceasing rustling filled the air.

His scalp instantly prickled!

His palm suddenly felt something sticky—this was what dread felt like.

In this damned place, he couldn't tell what it was.

He sprang up instantly, ignoring whether his shelter had been invaded, and shoved open the flimsy wooden door. The fire outside still burned; under the flickering flames, he finally saw what the dense mass surrounding him truly was.

"Fuck!"

He cursed aloud, but felt slightly relieved.

He thought for a moment, installed the battery, turned on the drone, waited for the satellite signal to connect, then pointed the camera at the ground.

It was nighttime abroad, but in China it was high noon—many people had been watching the stream continuously, and the moment Qin Yun came back online, they noticed immediately.

News spread rapidly; within moments, hundreds of thousands flooded into TikTok's official central stream.

"Brother Qin's back online—there must be something happening, haha."

"Fuck, what is this? So disgusting?"

"Damn it, I was eating, and Brother Qin just shows me something this revolting."

"Asshole."

Qin Yun's voice echoed through the stream: "See? I almost got buried by these things—luckily they didn't bite me, or I'd be done for."

As the camera panned, every crevice in tree roots, every crack in tree trunks—everywhere the firelight reached—was packed with dense, wriggling black dots.

Layer upon layer, like a tide, nearly engulfing his entire shelter.

He looked up toward the distance and felt a chilling dread.

"Shit, what the hell is this? Like a horror movie."

"Did Brother Qin raid someone's nest? Jesus, I'm getting severe trypophobia."

"Don't even say it—I've already thrown up once."

At the program's camp, the on-duty staff were jolted awake by the sound from the big screen; though faint, Qin Yun's voice stood out clearly against the night's only hum of machinery.

When several staff members saw Qin Yun's situation, their scalps prickled too.

"OMG, what is this?"

"Quick, call the director!"

Soon after, Daniel and the program's senior team arrived.

"I won't be sleeping tonight—I have to leave."

On the big screen, Qin Yun's expression was weary.

"These are snow fleas—also called springtails. They're not lethal, don't bite, and aren't real fleas. In this weather, they live deep in the soil, where the temperature is ideal. But I built a heated bed and dug trenches—maybe the warmth drew them here."

Qin Yun shook his body, and a large swarm of snow fleas fell off: "Of course, this is definitely their habitat, so I, as an outsider, had bad luck disturbing them. With them here, I must leave—even though they won't harm me, just seeing them is unbearable, let alone sleeping with them on me."

Saying this, he quickly packed his gear, tied together a torch, and departed.

Far from the shelter, the snow fleas rapidly fell from his body and scattered away.

At this moment, only he remained online in the stream, and many night-owls abroad had also noticed this scene.

"I have a torch, but I can't travel—there's snow, tangled tree roots, and deep trenches everywhere, making accidents highly likely, and the temperature is probably already down to minus forty degrees. My torch won't last long—I must find a suitable spot nearby as soon as possible."