He crouched down, picked up a clump of snow from the blurry indentation, let it melt in his palm, brought it to his nose and smelled it, his brows furrowing.
Su Wei stood at the very back.
He didn't rush to squat down, but instead adjusted his breathing, and white mist sprayed out from his mouth and nose, instantly dispersed by the wind.
A slight thought.
The Hunting Module is activated again.
The world in my field of vision changed instantly.
On the originally monotonous and glaring white background, a string of intermittent pale gold cursors appeared.
Those marks, covered by fresh snow and barely visible to the naked eye, became incredibly clear under the system's highlighting.
The cursor meandered along the edge of the woodland, paused beside a thicket of bushes, and then turned into a deep valley.
A semi-transparent text box appeared before Su Wei's eyes.
[Target: Female, adult black-tailed deer]
[Status: Minor injury (left forelimb), hunger, fatigue.]
[Time elapsed: Approximately 3 hours and 17 minutes ago.]
[The tracking path is highlighted; effective range: three meters.]
Su Wei stepped forward without making a sound.
He mimicked Dennis's actions, pretending to examine the indentation that the system had marked as a footprint.
In fact, he didn't even need to look at that blurry patch of snow; the answer was already written before his eyes.
Time's up.
Black coldly interrupted everyone's actions.
He stood with his arms crossed, bracing himself against the wind and snow.
" Eric, you go first."
Eric straightened up somewhat flusteredly and patted the snow off his knees.
He didn't actually see anything, but that didn't stop him from making things up.
"Uh... it was a male deer. It weighed about two hundred pounds. And after some time... maybe an hour ago?"
Black remained expressionless, too lazy to comment.
He turned to look at Aruk.
"Black-tailed deer, female."
Aruk rubbed his frostbitten nose, his tone becoming much more confident.
"I found a grayish-brown hair on the bark of a nearby tree. And its strides weren't large, so it probably wasn't carrying any cubs. The time... about three or four hours ago, the snow was quite thick."
Black nodded slightly; the answer was acceptable.
" Dennis."
The old hunter stood up and shook the snow off his hands.
He regained his confidence in this area, and stood up straight.
"It's definitely a black-tailed deer, a female. It stopped in that thicket ahead and nibbled on the bark. Judging from the depth of its hoofprints, it walked very quickly, as if it was startled by something. It's been about three hours."
A hint of satisfaction appeared on Black's face.
Although Dennis was a terrible shot, he was certainly experienced in tracking.
" Su Wei."
Black read out Su Wei's name last.
All eyes immediately turned to them.
Eric was insanely jealous of Eric's godlike marksmanship just now, and he was waiting to see this sharpshooter make a fool of himself.
Shooting and tracking are two different things; one is a matter of physical ability, and the other is a matter of experience.
Moreover, Su Wei was about the same age as him.
Finding tracks is an operation that requires a lot of experience.
This is generally a specialty of experienced hunters.
Just like Dennis.
Therefore, Eric was very curious and harbored malicious suspicions.
I'm afraid this Su Wei is not much different from him at most.
Su Wei gently patted the ice crystals off his gloves.
"Black-tailed deer, adult female."
He began to speak, his pace steady, as if he were reading a report.
"It passed through here about 3 hours ago? No, I estimate it was 3 hours and 20 minutes ago."
Aruk was stunned.
20 minutes?
Isn't this level of accuracy ridiculously high?
Su Wei ignored the reactions of those around him and pointed to a small piece of crystal at the edge of the indentation.
"In addition, its left foreleg is injured. The injury is not serious, but it affects its ability to exert force. It is very hungry and in a state of exhaustion. Its previous nibbling behavior was not because it was leisurely, but because it urgently needed to replenish its energy."
Eric couldn't help but chuckle.
"Come on! You can see its injured left leg through half a foot of snow? Add to that hunger and exhaustion? Who do you think you are?"
Even Dennis frowned.
He noticed the prey was moving hastily, but was it injured?
He didn't notice at all.
Black didn't say anything.
He stared intently at Su Wei, and the muscles on his usually hard face seemed to twitch slightly.
The expression wasn't one of anger, but rather one of utter astonishment, as if they'd seen a ghost.
Because Su Wei's judgment was entirely correct.
Aside from some more detailed judgments, the general direction is almost entirely correct.
This is almost a perfect answer.
But you should know, he's a level seven professional hunter.
And Su Wei?
An amateur hunter undergoing professional assessment!
"Reason."
Black regained his composure, but looked at Su Wei with expectation in his eyes.
Su Wei had already prepared his explanation.
He walked to the path indicated by the golden cursor, brushed away a layer of snow with his gloved hand, and pointed to the indentations underneath.
"Gait."
This cheat-like reverse reasoning made him sound very professional.
"A normal black-tailed deer has a balanced center of gravity when it lands. But in this series of footprints, the imprint on the left side is noticeably a third of an inch shallower than the one on the right. It was subconsciously protecting its left forelimb, shifting its weight to the right side."
He then pointed to the bushes nearby.
"As for hunger... the bark it gnawed on was very low. Adult deer usually choose tender branches at eye level; only when they are extremely hungry and exhausted will they recklessly gnaw on older bark."
Su Wei stood up and looked directly at Black.
"As for the 3 hours and 20 minutes, that was calculated based on the snow thickness and snowfall. Given the wind speed just now, it would have taken exactly that long to bury such deep hoofprints."
Only the sound of the wind remained at the scene.
Aruk stared at the snow on the ground, then at Su Wei, as if he were meeting him for the first time.
Could it be that this guy hasn't been loafing around at home all these years, but instead has been researching hunting techniques?
Dennis's face turned a deep purplish-red.
He completely overlooked the shift in the center of gravity.
Eric completely fell silent.
He wanted to refute, but every word Su Wei said was logically sound, leaving him no room for argument.
"95 points."
Black gave the score, then turned around and quickly wrote it down in his notebook; the sound of the pen slicing across the paper was particularly jarring in the silence.