Recaps

After publishing his Kodiak brown bear hunting documentary, Su Wei cooked bear meat with ginger and chilies, successfully masking its gamey flavor. He ate dinner while Cotton Candy ate raw beef, and the video’s reception remained unchecked.

• Su Wei noticed the YouTube notification confirming his documentary had been published, but left the dashboard unopened.
• Su Wei sliced the brown bear meat and stir-fried it with ginger, dried chilies, soy sauce, salt, and sugar.
• Su Wei gave Cotton Candy diced raw beef tenderloin.
• Su Wei ate the bear meat with two bowls of rice, triggering a system notice that his cold resistance would increase slightly for two hours.

Su Wei planned an elaborate bear banquet to impress Seattle’s wealthy socialites while his hunting video initially drew limited views. As he slept, the video gained a major boost from the Extreme Outdoors Channel and a verified creator, surpassing 10,000 likes.

• Su Wei checked his video’s slow-growing views and read mixed comments, including praise for the long-range shot and skepticism about its authenticity.
• Su Wei planned an all-bear banquet with an appetizer, clear game consommé, braised bear paw, and charcoal-grilled ribs.
• Su Wei cuddled Cotton Candy, then showered and went to bed exhausted.
• While Su Wei slept, TikTok recommended his video to the Extreme Outdoors Channel, Texas Gun King shared it, and its new likes surpassed 10,000.

Su Wei woke to find his bear-hunt documentary had gone viral, earning millions of views, praise from firearms enthusiasts, and $3,200. Laurent Laroche then called to warn that Charles had arrived early and wanted a meal that captured Alaska, leaving Su Wei facing an urgent request.

• Su Wei discovered his video had reached 1,285,400 views, with viewers praising his hunting skills and donating $500.
• Su Wei traced part of the video’s traffic to the Northwest Gun Enthusiasts Club, where members debated his marksmanship and background.
• Su Wei saw his earnings reach $3,200 and promised Cotton Candy an extra treat.
• Laurent Laroche called Su Wei and said Charles’s private jet had landed ahead of schedule.
• Laurent told Su Wei that Charles wanted to eat something that would let him feel Alaska’s pulse that day.

With Charles arriving early, Su Wei scrapped the slow-braised bear paw and devised a faster menu for the all-bear feast. He told Laurent to replace it with high-pressure bear-bone broth and open-flame charcoal-grilled bear ribs, leaving the rest of the dinner preparations unsettled.

• Su Wei prepared venison for Cotton Candy and collected wild chaga, Sitka spruce needles, and dried arctic blackberries from storage.
• Su Wei realized Charles’s early arrival left too little time to slow-braise the bear paw, so he planned to make broth in a pressure cooker and flash-roast the bear ribs.
• Su Wei arrived at the Chart Room restaurant, where Laurent and Pierre were struggling to prepare for Charles’s dinner.
• Su Wei told Laurent to drop the red-wine-braised bear paw, serve high-pressure bear-bone broth with charcoal-grilled bear ribs, and keep the Song of Ice and Fire appetizer.

Su Wei took control of the kitchen and began preparing bear meat for Charles with an unconventional charcoal-grilled menu and a stock made from Alaskan ingredients. Laurent ordered backup dishes prepared as a precaution while Su Wei explained the flavors he intended to bring to the soup.

• Su Wei expertly broke down a fifty-jin slab of bear meat, impressing Pierre, the apprentices, and Laurent.
• Laurent put the kitchen under Su Wei's direction, and Su Wei assigned Pierre and the apprentices their first tasks.
• Laurent prepared backup dishes with wagyu and lobster and insisted that the bear paw also be braised in red wine as another option.
• Su Wei cracked the bear bones, blanched them, and replaced the water before adding chaga, spruce needles, and Arctic blackberries in a seasoning bag.
• Su Wei explained to Laurent how the Alaskan ingredients would give the soup a woody base and the chill of the ice fields.

Su Wei and Laurent raced to prepare a whole-bear feast after Mr. Charles’s butler demanded that the Kodiak bear’s hunter tell the story at four o’clock. Su Wei began grilling a bear steak and finished pressure-cooking the bones, while the kitchen staff hurried to prepare the rest of the meal.

• Mr. Charles’s butler called Laurent and demanded the meal and a firsthand account of the hunt from the person who fired the shot by four o’clock.
• Laurent panicked over the shortened preparation time, but Su Wei said they had enough time and urged him to get the kitchen moving.
• Su Wei trimmed and seasoned a bear steak, then seared it over intense charcoal heat and moved it to the grill’s cooler zone to finish cooking.
• The pressure cooker’s forty-minute countdown ended, and Su Wei turned off the burner.

Su Wei served his Wilderness Consommé alongside Laurent’s all-bear banquet dishes, and Laurent discovered that the broth was remarkably flavorful and invigorating. The chapter ended with Pierre tasting it and freezing in disbelief.

• Laurent and Pierre finished preparing the all-bear banquet’s eight dishes before banker Charles arrived.
• Su Wei opened the pressure cooker and served his clear golden Wilderness Consommé, then mixed a cocktail he called Crimson Storm.
• Laurent tasted his bear liver confit and approved of its preparation.
• Laurent tasted Su Wei’s consommé and experienced its intense flavor and the Woodland Echo effect.
• Laurent drank a full bowl of the broth, rebuked Pierre, and challenged him to taste it.
• Pierre sampled the consommé and froze in disbelief at its taste.

Laurent and Pierre tasted Su Wei’s bear steak and were overwhelmed by its flavor, while the kitchen learned that Charles had arrived. Laurent brought Su Wei to meet Charles and introduced him as the hunter who supplied the ingredients and the co-chef behind the dinner’s preparations.

• Laurent cut into the bear steak and found its exterior crisp and its center perfectly pink and juicy.
• Laurent tasted the steak and praised Su Wei’s primal approach to cooking the giant beast.
• Pierre secretly tasted the steak and found himself unable to criticize it or feel interested in his prized wagyu.
• The front-of-house manager announced that Charles had arrived and was heading to the private room.
• Laurent and Su Wei entered the private room, where Laurent introduced Su Wei to Charles as the hunter and co-chef responsible for the meal.

Su Wei served Charles a whole-bear feast, beginning with thin slices of bear tenderloin flash-seared on hot volcanic rock. As Charles ate, he asked Su Wei to recount the hunt, and Su Wei began describing how he tracked and shot the bear called Missing Ear.

• Su Wei introduced himself to Charles and presented the bear feast as a taste of Alaska’s wildness.
• Laurent unveiled the first dish: thinly sliced bear tenderloin seared on a volcanic rock slab and seasoned with spruce needles and wild blueberries.
• Charles tasted the meat and asked Su Wei to describe the hunt in a bloody, truthful account while he ate.
• Laurent played a cello recording that evoked a blizzard, and Su Wei described Missing Ear and the hunt on Pillar Mountain.
• Su Wei recounted tracking the bear through deep snow and shooting it through the chest with a .300 Winchester Magnum, while Charles reacted strongly to the story and food.

Charles experienced a dramatic surge of youthful vigor after eating Su Wei’s bear meat and demanded the rest of the meal. As Laurent prepared to open the pressure cooker, he stepped in to interrupt Charles’s intense focus.

• Charles sprang up after eating the bear meat, and his bodyguard reached for his gun before Charles ordered him to stand down.
• Charles praised Su Wei’s cooking and described the meat as fighting back with the strength and will of the bear.
• Charles demanded the main course and ordered Su Wei to tell him how the bear had been hunted and butchered.
• Su Wei rose as Laurent approached the pressure cooker of Wilderness Consommé.
• Laurent stepped forward to interrupt Charles’s fixation on the pressure cooker.

Laurent served Charles a carefully prepared bear liver confit, but Charles found it too mild after tasting the bear’s resistance and wildness. Laurent ordered Pierre to serve the third dish immediately, yielding the table to Su Wei.

• Laurent presented North Slope bear liver confit with Kodiak glacier water chestnuts and explained how he had prepared it.
• Charles tasted the bear liver but felt no heat, excitement, or urge to hunt, and called the dish too weak.
• Charles said the dish had cooled the excitement he had felt and tossed his napkin onto the table.
• Laurent ordered Pierre to serve the third dish and stepped aside, handing the lead to Su Wei.

Su Wei served Charles Wilderness Consommé, whose restorative Woodland Echo effect revived him and cleared his mind. Energized, Charles demanded that the giant beast be brought out, and Laurent unveiled a charcoal-grilled bear steak as the main course.

• Su Wei explained how he had used an Alaska Harpoon Survival Knife and pressure cooking to prepare the bear-bone consommé.
• Charles drank the soup and experienced Woodland Echo, which eased his aches and fatigue and brought him a vivid vision of Kodiak Island’s wilderness.
• Charles praised the soup as the wind of Alaska and demanded that the giant beast be brought out without further pauses.
• Laurent pushed out a serving cart and revealed a five-pound charcoal-grilled tomahawk bear steak.

Su Wei served Charles chargrilled bear steak, and its Life Module effect filled the aging financier with a surge of strength and savagery. Charles tore into the meat and drove his bodyguards back, while Su Wei watched him experience renewed vitality.

• Su Wei explained that he had seasoned the bear’s back muscles only with sea salt and black pepper and chargrilled them over applewood.
• Charles grabbed the steak with his hands and ate a chunk, triggering the Life Module’s Breath of Berserk effect.
• Charles felt his strength and senses surge as he tore off his tie and napkin and pounded the table.
• The bald bodyguard approached with his Glock, but Charles ordered him to back away and threatened anyone who came closer.
• Charles devoured the tomahawk steak with his hands while Su Wei watched him embrace the wildness and vitality the meat had awakened.

Charles offered Su Wei an open-ended sum to leave Kodiak and cook for him in Seattle, but Su Wei weighed the wealth against losing the freedom and wild privileges of his current life. The chapter left Su Wei considering whether to accept Charles's offer.

• After the meal, Charles praised it as the most brutal and satisfying meal of his life.
• Charles placed a checkbook on the table and offered Su Wei any price to quit his work in Kodiak and return to Seattle with him.
• Charles promised Su Wei access to his estate's top kitchen and the ingredients needed to recreate the meal whenever he wished.
• Laurent stayed silent as Charles's bodyguards watched Su Wei for a reaction.
• Su Wei considered the money and comfort Charles offered, but recognized that accepting would mean giving up his life as a hunter.

Su Wei declined Charles’s offer to become his personal cook, explaining that the wilderness was essential to the bear meat’s appeal. He then proposed that Charles instead bring his future meals—and himself—to a high-end wilderness club on Su Wei’s private land.

• Su Wei rejected Charles’s invitation, shocking Laurent and putting Charles’s bodyguard on alert.
• Su Wei explained that Alaska’s cold and storm made the bear meat appealing, and that shipping it to Charles’s comfortable estate would strip away its wildness.
• Charles reconsidered Su Wei’s explanation and gradually relaxed his grip on his pen.
• Su Wei offered to host Charles at a wilderness club he was preparing to open on his private land, where guests would experience a primal struggle for survival.
• Laurent realized Su Wei was presenting Charles with an ambitious business proposal, and Charles leaned back to consider it.

Su Wei persuaded Charles to invest in his high-end wilderness club by promising exclusive, authentic hunting and fishing experiences in Alaska’s wild. Charles accepted the pitch and slid Su Wei a signed check, leaving the club’s deal secured.

• Su Wei described his hundred-acre property, the surrounding forest, Pilan Creek, and Emerald Lake as the setting for a wilderness club.
• Su Wei promised Charles a guided hunt through a blizzard, including tracking and killing a boar and cooking it over a campfire.
• Su Wei described ice fishing and eating freshly caught king salmon with wild blackberry jam.
• Charles laughed, praised Su Wei’s understanding of wealthy clients, and said Su Wei had convinced him.
• Charles wrote and signed a check, then slid it across the table to Su Wei.

Su Wei received a $300,000 offer from Charles for permanent first-member privileges in his wilderness club, along with an open-ended promise of future investment in exchange for equity. Charles left after laying out the terms, leaving Su Wei with the checks and a path to expand the business.

• Charles gave Su Wei a $50,000 tip for the meal, then wrote him a second check for $300,000 as the club’s basic membership fee.
• Charles demanded permanent status as the club’s number one member, first refusal on game Su Wei hunted, priority in hunts, and the right to recommend others.
• Su Wei accepted the checks and said the investment would go further in Alaska than on Wall Street.
• Charles left a signed blank check and his private number, offering future funding for expansion in exchange for a core equity stake and the largest share of profits.
• Charles turned toward the door with his bodyguards, then stopped before leaving.

Su Wei accepted Charles’s blank check and business card after turning the tycoon’s offer into the Wilderness Club’s first $300,000 membership. Laurent recognized Su Wei’s skill at bargaining and hunting, leaving the club with its first paying customer and a possible new ally.

• Charles promised to invest in Laurent’s Chart Room restaurant and left a blank check and his business card before departing.
• Su Wei folded the check and put it in his suit pocket, keeping the new investment opportunity close without immediately using it.
• Laurent recovered from the encounter and realized Su Wei had rejected an easy private-chef job and made Charles the Wilderness Club’s first paying member.
• Laurent told Su Wei that he had hunted Charles as well as the 450-kilogram monster.

Su Wei collected his fee and secured Laurent’s promise to buy his future game at premium prices. Laurent then asked to join Su Wei’s wilderness club project, leaving Su Wei to hear his proposal.

• Laurent paid Su Wei the agreed $20,000 appearance fee and reaffirmed his commitment to buy rare ingredients from him at high prices.
• Su Wei accepted Laurent’s offer as a way to sell directly to the Chart Room and increase his earnings.
• Su Wei prepared to return to his territory, where Cotton Candy and the cabin’s firewood awaited him.
• Laurent stopped Su Wei and asked whether the upscale wilderness club was a real project rather than a bargaining chip.
• Su Wei confirmed that construction had begun, with the road and foundation completed and $500,000 transferred to the contractor.
• Laurent declared that he wanted to join the project.

Su Wei accepted Laurent into the Wilderness Club as an ordinary member and set his fee at $200,000. Laurent paid, leaving the club with another high-profile member beneath Charles’s privileged rank.

• Su Wei warned Laurent about the club’s harsh wilderness conditions, but Laurent insisted he wanted to experience the cold and danger firsthand.
• Su Wei agreed to accept Laurent but explained that Charles held the highest numbered rank, while Laurent would join as an ordinary member with fewer privileges.
• Laurent accepted the rules and asked how much ordinary membership cost.
• Su Wei set the fee at $200,000, and Laurent wrote and handed him a Citibank check for the amount.

Su Wei collected $570,000 in club membership checks, but realized depositing them without a legal business would trigger an IRS investigation. He searched for urgent company-registration help and called Polaris Corporate Services to arrange an expedited contract.

• Su Wei accepted Laurent’s membership payment and told him to notify him when the first phase of construction was complete.
• Su Wei totaled Charles’s and Laurent’s checks at $570,000 and considered how the funds could finance the Polar Territory.
• Su Wei realized depositing the checks into his personal account could prompt the IRS to freeze his assets because the Wilderness Club did not legally exist.
• Su Wei searched for expedited company-registration and tax services in Alaska and found Polaris Corporate Services in Anchorage.
• Su Wei called Polaris and told Harris to prepare its highest-priority expedited contract.

Su Wei weighed the cost of fast-tracking the documents for his club and corporate bank account, then chose the cheaper standard expedited process. He returned to the Polar Territory before dawn, reunited with Cotton Candy, and began lighting the fireplace.

• Su Wei realized that getting the legal documents within forty-eight hours was not urgent and chose Harris's five-thousand-dollar option instead of the fifty-thousand-dollar emergency service.
• Su Wei drove his Raptor back to the Polar Territory and saw the exhibition hall's cedar frame standing in the snow.
• Su Wei entered the cold cabin, where Cotton Candy woke and greeted him with a plaintive cry.
• Su Wei comforted Cotton Candy, stacked birch wood in the fireplace, and struck a match.

After warming up with a spicy bear-meat meal, Su Wei began formalizing the Northern Throne Club, whose prestige had risen after Charles and Laurent joined. He planned to cap membership at 100, with only 12 numbered seats for elite members, and ended by reconsidering the fees he had charged Laurent and Charles.

• Su Wei cooked and ate stir-fried bear meat with rice while Cotton Candy watched from beside the table.
• After finishing his meal, Su Wei opened his strategic planning notebook and drafted the Northern Throne Club plan.
• Su Wei decided the club needed a strict entry threshold and wrote that it would have 12 numbered members, beginning with Charles as member 001.
• Su Wei set a limit of 88 regular members, capping total membership at 100.
• Su Wei looked at his plan and reflected that he had charged Laurent two hundred thousand and Charles three hundred thousand.

Su Wei reviewed the explosive growth of his hunting videos and the income they were generating. As he considered his new financial position, he received a sponsorship offer from an energy drink company.

• Su Wei opened his TikTok dashboard and saw that his hunting video had reached 5,670,000 views and 892,000 likes.
• Su Wei checked his earnings and found that TikTok and YouTube had generated more than $30,000 in estimated income that day.
• Su Wei pressed the pocket holding the $570,000 in checks signed by Charles and Laurent.
• Su Wei opened a message from Raging Bull, which offered him $1,500 to include a five-second endorsement in his next video.

Su Wei ignored low-paying advertising offers and noticed that Chinese viewers were sharing his Alaska videos. After resting beside Cotton Candy, he woke to construction at his property and made himself a bowl of scallion-oil noodles.

• Su Wei deleted low-paying promotional offers and decided to protect the value of his account.
• Su Wei found Chinese comments about his videos and welcomed a reuploader who was spreading them on Bilibili.
• Su Wei fell asleep on the sofa beside Cotton Candy as the Homestead Shelter effect eased his fatigue.
• Su Wei woke to Matt Hammond's crew excavating the frozen lot outside his home.
• Su Wei fed Cotton Candy raw venison and prepared scallion-oil noodles for breakfast.