Chapter Summaries

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.

Su Wei checked on the construction of his exhibition hall and planned how to turn its empty frame into a high-end wilderness club. Matt estimated the building would be enclosed and connected to utilities in five days, and Su Wei decided he did not need a traditional designer.

• Su Wei ate a bowl of plain noodles, dressed for the cold, and went to the construction site.
• Matt told Su Wei that the foundation was setting, the main beams would go up that day, and the hall would have redundant power lines and R60 insulation.
• Matt estimated that the structure would be enclosed and connected to water and electricity in five days, with solar panels to be installed after completion.
• Matt warned Su Wei that the unfinished shell still needed carefully chosen finishes, furnishings, lighting, and displays to suit wealthy club members.
• Su Wei envisioned themed exhibition spaces centered on Kodiak wildlife, including a mounted Kodiak brown bear and a fireplace incorporating Roosevelt elk antlers.
• Su Wei told Matt he did not need a traditional designer, leaving Matt astonished.

Su Wei planned a wilderness-inspired exhibition hall for wealthy members and decided to create its ecological displays and furnishings himself. As construction began, he prepared to use his system-enhanced crafting skills to make the hall feel authentic before the specimens arrived.

• Su Wei told Matt he wanted a two-story hall featuring Kodiak Island ecosystems, a towering fireplace, and a mounted Kodiak bear at its center.
• Matt agreed to build the framework and install its structural systems in five days, while Su Wei said he would handle the ecological displays himself.
• Su Wei returned to his cabin, greeted Cotton Candy, and began planning the hall’s interior before the finishing crew and Old Hope’s specimens arrived.
• Su Wei rejected mass-produced furnishings and fake landscape props, deciding to gather real materials and craft the displays and furniture by hand.
• Su Wei studied his system skills and reasoned that handmade crafts might receive special blessings, as his cooking had produced powerful effects.

Su Wei decided to make the exhibition hall’s core furniture himself to exploit the hidden attributes of system-crafted items. He found a naturally dried birch log in his woodland and began cutting it into workable sections.

• Su Wei resolved to personally craft the exhibition hall’s main display stands and scenery to improve his Basic Woodworking and produce furniture with system attributes.
• Su Wei equipped himself with woodworking tools and went into the snowy forest, while Cotton Candy retreated into the warm cabin.
• Su Wei used Gathering Module LV2 to scan the woods and found a three-year air-dried birch log suitable for high-end woodworking.
• Su Wei swung his felling axe repeatedly and severed the heavy birch log about a third of the way along its length.

Su Wei brought birch wood to the cabin and used his woodworking knowledge to carve a traditional wooden cup. He finished shaping and hollowing it, added a deerskin carrying cord, and reached the final step.

• Su Wei hauled a thick birch log back to the cabin on his snowmobile and dropped it beside the porch.
• Matt saw Su Wei working wood in the snow and ordered the workers to return to their tasks.
• Su Wei chose a small carving knife and a U-shaped hook knife to make a wooden cup from a birch branch.
• Su Wei shaped the branch into a cylinder, hollowed out its center, and carefully thinned the cup’s walls.
• Su Wei refined the cup’s shape and threaded a brown deerskin cord through a hole in its back.

Su Wei practiced woodworking to improve his skill and make items that might impress Charles, carving a cup, a fox, and other utensils. After two hours, his Basic Woodworking was nearly at level 2, and he watched Matt’s crew build the first-floor framework in the snow.

• Su Wei sanded a birchwood cup and found that it was only good quality, with no special system effect.
• Su Wei carved a small fox modeled on Cotton Candy and recovered his aching wrist through Homestead Shelter’s passive effect.
• Su Wei made a shallow wooden plate and continued crafting cups, spoons, plates, and animal carvings to gain woodworking experience.
• Su Wei reached Basic Woodworking LV1 (96/100), drank warm water from his first cup, and watched Matt’s machinery work on the cedar-log framework.

Su Wei researched miniature ecosystem construction to prepare the exhibition hall’s five ecological zones and reasoned that hands-on study could unlock a suitable system skill. He began studying substrate science and calculating how to build a stable woodland environment.

• Su Wei realized that his woodworking skills and Matt’s construction crew could not create the exhibition hall’s realistic miniature landscapes, and that he needed knowledge of ecological landscaping.
• Su Wei recalled how studying Old Hope’s notes and practicing taxidermy had unlocked system skills, and concluded that specialized study followed by practical work might unlock a landscaping skill.
• Su Wei searched online for academic resources on miniature ecosystems, soil engineering, and cold-region moss cultivation, then saved three specialized texts.
• Su Wei studied substrate layering, took notes on drainage materials, and considered the quantities needed for the woodland zone.
• Su Wei read that peat soil and dried sphagnum moss mixed at a seven-to-three ratio could provide suitable moisture retention and aeration for moss.

Su Wei’s study of ecological landscaping triggered a response from the Crafting Module, but Black called to tell him that Bella had given birth. Su Wei set out for Black’s place in the dangerous winter weather, armed and prepared for the trip.

• Su Wei studied ecological landscaping and saw the Crafting Module begin progressing toward a new skill.
• Black called Su Wei and told him that Bella had given birth, then abruptly ended the call.
• Su Wei saved his notes, put on his winter gear, and retrieved a Browning rifle and survival knife before leaving his cabin.
• Su Wei crossed the snowy yard to his Ford F-150 Raptor, cleared ice from the door, and placed the rifle on the passenger seat.

Su Wei drove through a blizzard to Black’s cabin and arrived just after Bella gave birth to five puppies. Black told him there was no rush when Su Wei asked to choose one.

• Su Wei started his Raptor, engaged four-wheel drive, and drove through the snow to Black’s cabin.
• Su Wei entered the cabin and found Black tending to Bella and her newborn puppies beside the fireplace.
• Black finished cleaning the fifth puppy and said there were three males and two females.
• Su Wei asked if he could choose a puppy, and Black replied that there was no rush.

Su Wei used the Beast Taming Module to assess Bella’s five newborn puppies and chose the unusually composed black male as the strongest hunting prospect. After Su Wei gained Bella’s trust, the puppy crawled toward his hand.

• Black warned Su Wei that choosing a hound without composure and obedience could get a hunter killed in the wilderness.
• Su Wei activated the Beast Taming Module and examined the five puppies’ physical traits and temperaments.
• Su Wei ruled out the forceful gray-brown male, the cunning yellow-and-white female, and the two ordinary yellow puppies.
• Su Wei recognized the calm black male’s exceptional restraint and steady nervous responses as signs of a top hunter.
• Su Wei used Animal Affinity to calm Bella, who accepted his scent and licked his hand.
• The black puppy left its corner and slowly crawled toward Su Wei’s hand.

Su Wei chose the composed black male puppy and the crafty yellow-and-white female as hunting dogs, then decided to leave them with Black until they were weaned rather than risk raising newborns while overburdened. Black approved his restraint and began cutting up Su Wei’s shirt, leaving its purpose unexplained.

• Su Wei selected the pure black male and the yellow-and-white female as his future hunting dogs.
• Black said Su Wei could take the puppies immediately if he hand-fed them every three hours, or leave them with him for forty days.
• Su Wei weighed the puppies’ needs against his demanding work and the dangers of Kodiak Island’s winter, then chose to wait until his busy stretch was over.
• Black praised Su Wei’s decision and asked him to remove the clothes worn against his skin.
• Su Wei took off his T-shirt, and Black began cutting it with scissors.