Chapter 192: The Treasure Chest

At the production team's camp, most staff members did not know the treasure chest's location.

George looked at Daniel and smiled faintly, unaware that Daniel's expression was oddly strained.

When the treasure chest's location was finalized, feasibility was naturally considered. This ice mountain over a thousand meters high could not be climbed without proper equipment—the summit option was eliminated immediately.

But if placed within the mountain, the treasure hunt would lose all competitive edge.

So, they ultimately chose an extreme solution—placing the treasure chest five meters beneath the ice layer.

For the contestants, they must first determine whether the chest is above or below; if they guess wrong, they lose everything. If they guess right, how to retrieve it becomes another problem.

At the lake's center, the ice thickness reaches over a meter—breaking through it is pure fantasy.

The only option is to find nearby thin ice zones, and selecting the right zone is critical: the distance cannot be too far, or oxygen will run out; even if they find the chest, if they can't survive to emerge, it's all pointless.

The two-million-dollar prize is not easy to claim.

The production team even prepared for the possibility that they couldn't pay out the money, because completing the final stage was far too difficult.

"Notify the tech team: once Qin and Emily, Justin enter Atlin Lake, switch all livestreams to unified feed for centralized coordination."

"Understood."

At this moment, the four outside the mountain were locked in heated argument.

Gerald and Jack, who disliked each other, believed the chest was definitely inside the mountain; while Xiao En and Tang Mu thought it was very likely at the lake bottom.

Jack sneered: "Tang Mu, the chance it's at the lake bottom is even lower. Do you know how deep this lake is? The deepest point is over two hundred meters, average depth fifty meters. Even if I assume the bottom is shallower—say thirty meters—how do you dive without professional gear? And though the water temperature is much higher than outside, it's still around zero degrees. If the chest were at the bottom, the production team never intended to give us the prize."

Tang Mu shook his head: "You have a point, but look at this mountain—how do you climb it? The entire slope is covered in ice and snow; without the most professional equipment, you can't even begin."

"Still more plausible than the lake bottom."

"But…"

They argued endlessly, neither able to convince the other.

Finally, Tang Mu coldly said: "Enough. If you think it's on the mountain, you and Gerald go climb it. I'll go with Xiao En to try diving."

In just a moment, the four split into two camps.

But Xiao En's words immediately turned everyone's hostility toward him.

"Um… don't we have drones? Why not first climb and search the mountain—if we find nothing, then come back and dive?"

Jack spat: "The location is already clear—either the summit or the lake bottom. There's no other possibility."

Tang Mu also said: "Right. This locator's precision is high—error under five meters."

Jack looked up at the towering summit, then at the ice layer as thick as a wall—he felt whichever location it was, it was a disaster.

Yet despite the arguing, it was extremely hard for them to make a firm decision.

Because their energy was limited; once they chose, they couldn't turn back. If they lost, they'd have no strength left to pursue a second option.

"Let's cooperate," Tang Mu took a deep breath. "The locator will auto-shut off in less than half an hour. Since its precision is accurate enough, let's use it to eliminate one option—arguing here does nothing."

Everyone naturally agreed—the most crucial thing now was knowing where the treasure chest was.

Immediately, the four began using their locator positions to determine the exact location.

After each person's position was confirmed, they found all positions differed: some required ascending further into the mountain, others were lower. This was due to precision error—on the mountain, a horizontal difference of four or five meters could mean a vertical difference of dozens of meters.

Then the four quickly drew diagrams on the ice, using the sun to locate the summit, walked to fixed points on the ice, and constructed right triangles based on each locator's position.

Finally, they stared in stunned silence—the treasure chest's location precisely landed at the summit.

They were speechless, mouths full of complaints they couldn't voice.

Logically, the chance of the chest being inside the mountain was low—it was either at the summit or the lake bottom.

If the locator reading wasn't at the summit, the chest was very likely at the lake bottom.

But now, the readings from all four locators clearly pointed to the summit—meaning the chest was very likely at the summit.

"Damn, it shut off."

Jack's locator suddenly went black; furious, he smashed it onto the ground.

The others looked at their locators and found all had shut down.

But the locators were already useless anyway; they didn't care.

Gerald glanced at the sky and sighed: "Find a place to spend the night. Nightfall is only a few hours away—we won't make it today."

Jack turned to him, smirking: "Gerald, where are your friends? I remember Emily, Michael, and a Chinese guy—why haven't they shown up yet?"

Gerald's face darkened, glaring at him: "None of your damn business."

"Hah! Now that the locators auto-shut off, looks like they got eliminated."

Gerald turned and walked away, refusing to engage with the bastard.

"Enough," Tang Mu said. "Rest tonight. Build a shelter in the forest. We'll figure it out tomorrow." He followed Gerald.

Xiao En immediately followed.

Jack shrugged, muttering: "Heh, I knew the Chinese guy couldn't handle wilderness survival—maybe he got eliminated in the first stage."

Some livestream viewers, Jack's fans, found this scene painfully awkward.

Dammit, shut up, Jack. Can you even compare yourself to Qin?

Even though the champion hasn't been decided yet, in everyone's mind, Qin Yun's strength far surpassed everyone else's—no comparison at all. Even Tang Mu couldn't match him.

As time passed, Emily and Justin appeared on the lake surface, arriving before the lake mountain. They exchanged no words, merely glanced at the ground tracks and knew others had arrived ahead.

But night was falling; after a brief observation, they quickly left, deciding to wait until tomorrow.

As darkness fell and the sun set, stars emerged one by one.

Around ten p. m., a figure appeared silently before the lake mountain.

Who else but Qin Yun.

"Heh, didn't expect the locator to point to a lake mountain," Qin Yun smiled at the mountain before him. "But the chest is very unlikely to be inside the mountain."

The livestream viewers were curious about his judgment.

Qin Yun walked a circle, under the starlight, seeing many traces on the ground, largely confirming the last location of the locator, but he couldn't pinpoint it precisely, so he could only make a rough judgment; combining these people's traces, he circled a radius of fifty meters.

"I don't know if others have climbing experience, but I do," Qin Yun stated his judgment. "Because in China, I once summited Yaomei Peak in Sichuan under extreme weather—it's the highest difficulty grade mountain in the world. Climbing ice-locked mountains is terrifyingly difficult; without professional tools and gear, it's out of the question."

"If the production team placed the treasure chest on the summit, given our lack of equipment, it would clearly be mocking us—pure harassment—so the summit possibility can almost certainly be ruled out."

"That leaves only the mountainside and the lake bottom." He stomped on the thick ice, reached out and touched it. "So I only need to judge whether the lake bottom is likely."

Saying this, he walked toward the shore.

"The water temperature beneath this frozen lake is currently around zero degrees. Though much higher than the outside air, it's still an extreme low temperature. Under these conditions, the production team must consider the feasibility of placing the chest at the lake bottom."

"First, the lake bottom can't be too deep. The world record is about fifty meters—we can tighten that limit, setting thirty meters as the maximum. That means thirty meters is a possible extreme depth."

"Once it exceeds this depth, the chance of the chest being at the lake bottom drops nearly to zero. But if the depth is under thirty meters, the probability rises to ninety percent. The mountainside has low probability because this is a wilderness survival show—risking death is standard procedure."

Qin Yun rambled on for a while, reached the shore, and began searching for suitable thin branches to weave.

After searching, he found a large patch of Arctic willow—a drought-resistant shrub. Now in winter, its leaves had long fallen, leaving only reddish-brown, supple thin branches growing low and creeping along the ground.

They ranged from dozens of centimeters to one or two meters long.

Though frozen hard, they weren't brittle, making them suitable for braiding rope.

Soon, he wove a rope over thirty meters long. He tied a stone to one end, then found a sharper rock, and carried these items toward the lake surface.

"Haha, everyone else is already asleep, but only Brother Qin is still live-streaming."

"Qin, what a hardworking man."

"Go on, Brother Qin."

"With Brother Qin here, the others have no chance. No matter where the treasure chest is, they've got no shot."

At this moment, after Qin Yun stepped into Atlin Lake, the live stream had quietly been adjusted—only one external stream remained, all scheduling now centrally managed by the production team.

He found a thin ice zone, about thirty centimeters thick, and began smashing it. He smashed for two full hours.

When he finally broke through, it was past twelve.

Qin Yun took a breath—this nonstop effort was exhausting. He pointed toward the mountain's position on the lake. "From here to there, the depth won't vary much—no more than one meter."

Saying this, he kicked the end of the Arctic willow rope, tied to the stone, into the ice hole.

"Gullop!" The stone hit the water and sank rapidly; the rope slowly pulled downward—ten meters… twenty meters… soon surpassing twenty-five meters.

But just as the rope neared its limit, it suddenly stopped descending—the stone had reached bottom.

Qin Yun quickly pulled the stone up and precisely measured the length.

"Twenty-seven meters. This lake bottom is only twenty-seven meters deep." Qin Yun shook his head helplessly. "Compared to diving, I'd rather climb. But it's probably right—the production team almost certainly placed the treasure chest at the lake bottom."

After speaking, he sighed, his mood seeming heavy.

"The production team really doesn't treat us as human beings. This could easily cost lives."

He picked up the rope, returned to shore, built a simple shelter, and started a fire to spend the night.

…

The night passed without incident. At dawn, seven figures emerged one after another from the forest.

When Tang Mu and the others saw Qin Yun, they were startled.

Emily and Gerald immediately walked over, embraced, and exchanged brief greetings.

Gerald laughed heartily: "Qin, I knew you could do it."

Qin Yun punched him lightly on the chest. "Lucky break. Looks like you got here early yesterday."

Emily said: "The traces outside the mountain must be theirs."

"Yeah," Gerald nodded. "I arrived around noon yesterday, but couldn't determine the locator's position, so I decided to wait until today."

The three chatted briefly, then walked together to the edge of the lake and mountain.

Tang Mu pointed to the locator's final confirmed location. "Yesterday we did a preliminary survey. The locator's position, unsurprisingly, lies directly perpendicular to the summit—so we can't tell if it's on the summit, the mountainside, or the lake bottom. Do you have any ideas?"

His words were clearly addressed to Qin Yun, Emily, and Justin.

Emily and Justin shook their heads, indicating they had no solution.

Qin Yun glanced at them, then didn't hide it: "I tested last night. The depth here to the lake bottom is within thirty meters. So compared to the mountain, I believe the chest is at the lake bottom."

"You tested? How?"

Jack frowned, skeptical.

Qin Yun shrugged. "Believe it or not."

Jack's face darkened; he finally sneered. "I still trust my own judgment—the chest is definitely on the mountain. We just need to follow the vertical line upward from the summit—we'll find it."

"Emily, what do you think?" Gerald clearly still sided with Jack, despite their rivalry.

Emily didn't hesitate—she stepped beside Qin Yun. "I trust Qin's judgment."

Gerald turned to the other man. "Justin, what's your take?"

Justin looked around, helplessly said: "No matter where it is, I've got no chance. I won't participate—I'll just be a spectator."

His decision shocked everyone, but upon reflection, it wasn't surprising.

Whether the chest was anywhere, retrieving it meant risking death. Giving up wasn't a bad choice.