"It's still a kilometer to the parking spot. The snow depth is 30 centimeters. You have 40 minutes."
Su Wei looked at the pile of heavy sandbags.
Having just finished a five-mile trail run, I now have to drag a 400-pound load through the snow.
"What, you want to give up?"
Black lit a cigarette, the flame flickering on his rough face.
"You can leave now. Go back and tell that France you can't make that money. Or buy a plane ticket and go back to your big city to be a white-collar worker."
Su Wei remained silent.
He bent down and picked up the leash from the ground.
The rough hemp rope left a white mark on my palm.
He put the rope around his shoulder, adjusted its position, and avoided the bruises left from hitting the tree earlier.
Turn around, with your back to the sandbag.
Lean forward and lower your center of gravity.
He pushed off with both legs.
"Drink!"
A low growl escaped his throat.
The thigh muscles tensed instantly.
The sandbags behind me moved.
It wasn't gliding on the snow; it was bulldozing.
The immense weight compacted the snow, and each drag required overcoming tremendous friction.
Take a step, start moving.
Every step felt incredibly heavy.
That force gripped his shoulders tightly, trying to drag him down and press him into the snow.
Su Wei's breathing instantly became heavy, and white mist billowed out, obscuring his vision.
Black followed beside him, holding the still-smoldering cigarette, like a foreman.
"Too slow. At this speed, the smell of blood would have dissipated long ago. The wolves could catch you in ten minutes."
Su Wei gritted his teeth, having no energy left to refute.
Sweat trickled down my spine, only to be quickly chilled by the cold wind.
After dragging the leg for 300 meters, lactic acid started to build up in my thighs, making each lift of my leg feel incredibly heavy.
Five hundred meters later, my lungs started to sting, and every breath I took had a metallic, sweet taste.
I used to be able to rest for three minutes after completing a set when lifting heavy weights at the Fitness.
Here, stopping means failure.
"Lift your leg. Don't drag your foot. Are you trying to trip yourself to death?"
Black's shouts, mixed with the wind and snow, filled my ears.
Su Wei mechanically repeated the same actions.
He now realized that the system panel was more like an admission ticket.
The module didn't turn him into a superhero; it just allowed him to acquire various skills more quickly, thus providing him with assistance.
At 800 meters, Su Wei began to see double.
The skin on my shoulder seemed to be chafed raw, and it burned with pain.
"Two hundred meters to go. There's an uphill section ahead."
Black's voice remained indifferent, even tinged with a hint of mockery.
That small slope of only fifteen degrees seemed like a sheer cliff to Su Wei at that moment.
Su Wei paused for a second, then took a deep breath, forcing the cold air into his lungs.
We can't stop.
Once you stop, you lose your breath.
He lowered his center of gravity even further, almost climbing up using both his hands and feet.
At this moment, only one thought remained.
Drag this damn thing up there.
Thump.
With the final step, he crossed the top of the slope, and the sandbags behind him slammed heavily onto the flat ground.
Su Wei's knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the snow, gasping for breath, his chest heaving violently.
"Stand up."
Black didn't even let him catch his breath.
A black marker was thrown at me.
"This is not the end. Now, deal with it."
Black pointed to the pile of sandbags.
"Let's say this is a freshly shot bear. You have twenty minutes. Simulate skinning, gutting, separating the bear's paws, and removing the skull."
"Draw the cutting line on the canvas with a pen. One wrong cut, or you go over time, and you're fired."
Su Wei braced himself against the ground and stood up unsteadily.
My fingers cramped from excessive force, and I could barely hold the pen.
Su Wei drew his hunting knife from his waist, but without unsheathing it, he used the back of the blade in conjunction with a marker.
He steadied his breathing and adjusted his grip on the knife.
The first incision is a circumferential cut around the neck.
The carotid artery must be avoided to prevent blood from contaminating the fur, and the neck muscles must be severed at the same time.
The marker stroked smoothly and fluidly across the canvas, without the slightest tremor.
Black raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
The second incision was made along the midline of the abdomen.
It extends downwards from the manubrium of the sternum to the groin, avoiding the gallbladder and bladder.
Su Wei's hand was very steady.
His muscles were trembling, but his wrists were locked.
"Bear paw."
Black suddenly spoke.
Su Wei immediately changed positions and moved to the four corners of the sandbag.
The wrist joint is circumferentially cut, the tendons are severed, and then rotated.
Four circles appeared on the tarpaulin, precisely positioned in the joint gaps.
"Skull."
Su Wei circled back to the top of the hill.
This is the most difficult part.
The skin and flesh must be completely removed without damaging the integrity of the skull.
He crouched down and carefully outlined the eye sockets and bridge of his nose with the tip of his pen.
The wind and snow were getting heavier, and my fingers were so frozen that I had lost all feeling in them. I had to rely on my eyes to locate the pen tip.
Time's up.
Black pressed the stopwatch.
Su Wei's pen stopped at the last stroke.
He could no longer hold on and plopped down on the snow, lying on his back with the snowflakes falling on his burning face.
I don't even want to move a finger.
It was extremely quiet around us.
The only sound was the whistling of the wind through the trees.
Black, holding a flashlight, bent down to examine the lines on the tarpaulin.
The beam of light moved with the old hunter's steps.
One minute.