Chapter Summaries

Su Wei entered the mountains with Cotton Candy after the blizzard, hoping to find valuable plants and earn money. He gathered wild rose hips along an abandoned logging trail, then continued cautiously with a round chambered in his Browning rifle.

• Su Wei’s cooking achievements upgraded his Life Module to level 2 and unlocked a chance for his homemade food to grant weak temporary buffs.
• After the blizzard cleared, Su Wei packed his gear and rifle, and he and Cotton Candy set out for the mountains.
• Su Wei took an abandoned logging trail while Cotton Candy scouted ahead through the snow.
• Cotton Candy found wild rose hips, and Su Wei gathered them for a small amount of Gathering Module experience.
• Su Wei continued through the quiet forest, alert for Kodiak brown bears and carrying a chambered hunting round.

After Cotton Candy chased a snowshoe hare into unfamiliar woods, Su Wei discovered a valuable Devil's Claw plant and began checking the area for danger before harvesting it.

• Cotton Candy startled a snowshoe hare and chased it through the woods despite Su Wei's calls.
• Su Wei followed Cotton Candy until the hare escaped into a rocky crevice.
• Cotton Candy sniffed at a thorn-covered plant, and Su Wei recognized it as valuable Devil's Claw.
• Su Wei put on cut-resistant gloves, took out his entrenching shovel, and carefully surveyed the rocky slope for predators before starting work.

Su Wei discovered a cache of devil's claw and leveled up his Gathering Module, earning enough from the harvest to ease his debt worries. As night approached, he and Cotton Candy found a sheltered campsite, and Su Wei began setting up his tent.

• Su Wei carefully dug up a devil's claw root and gained 23 Gathering Module experience.
• He found and harvested a second, higher-quality root, raising the Gathering Module to LV2 and unlocking a thirty-meter scanning range and Herbal Identification.
• Using the upgraded module, Su Wei located and dug up more than a dozen devil's claw roots, worth an estimated $8,000 or more after drying.
• Su Wei secured the roots to his pack and followed Cotton Candy to a sheltered, elevated campsite away from water and dangerous slopes.
• Su Wei chose the rocky nook for the night and began pitching his orange four-season tent.

Su Wei set up camp, reprimanded Cotton Candy for chasing a rabbit, and prepared a hot meal while tending his harvest and checking his rifle. His meal triggered a temporary stamina recovery buff, and he began teaching Cotton Candy to wait for permission before eating.

• Su Wei finished pitching his tent and moved the devil's claw roots to a sheltered spot by a rock.
• Su Wei held Cotton Candy by the scruff and warned him that chasing prey without listening could endanger them both.
• Su Wei cooked high-calorie meat mush, cleaned and secured the devil's claw roots, and checked his Browning rifle.
• Su Wei's meal triggered a slight Stamina Recovery buff and added experience to his Life Module.
• Su Wei set aside a small portion for Cotton Candy and told him not to take food without permission.

Su Wei prepared to unlock the hunting module by setting out into the snowy forest with Cotton Candy and his Browning rifle. He followed the gathering module’s signals, but the chapter ended after he found and ate bearberries, before locating a hunting target.

• Su Wei woke in the cold tent, checked the weather, and prepared food and ammunition for his hunt.
• Su Wei fed Cotton Candy, packed a lightweight assault pack, and left the tent as his temporary base.
• Su Wei and Cotton Candy entered the snowy forest, with Su Wei following the gathering module’s points of light.
• Su Wei found bearberries beneath a snow-covered bush, ate some, and gained one gathering experience point.

Su Wei stalked a black-tailed deer, hoping to unlock the Hunting Module, but his shot wounded it and it escaped into the woods. He was left furious at his mistake.

• Cotton Candy detected a black-tailed deer, and Su Wei prepared to hunt it.
• Su Wei crept closer, steadied his rifle against a spruce tree, and aimed behind the deer's shoulder.
• Su Wei fired, but the deer staggered up and fled deeper into the woods with a wounded hind leg.
• Su Wei realized his shot had gone wide, cursed, and slammed his fist into the tree.

Su Wei wounded a black-tailed deer with a poorly aimed shot and followed its trail through the snowy woods to end its suffering. With Cotton Candy helping him find faint tracks, he continued the hunt as the blood trail dwindled.

• Su Wei realized his shot had hit the deer's abdomen, then checked the blood and tracks and concluded that its heavy .30-06 round had badly wounded it.
• Su Wei decided to track the deer and end its suffering, and Cotton Candy stayed alert and accompanied him.
• Su Wei followed the bloodstains and irregular tracks deeper into the woods, keeping his rifle ready in case the wounded animal attacked.
• After the blood trail grew sparse, Su Wei activated the Gathering Module's LV2 scanning ability and searched more carefully.
• Cotton Candy found hoofprints, drag marks, and a faint spot of blood beneath a fir tree, helping Su Wei resume the tracking.

Su Wei tracked the wounded black-tailed deer to a rocky hollow and ended its suffering, completing his first independent kill and activating the Hunting Module. He assessed the deer’s value and began processing it before predators could arrive.

• Su Wei rested briefly, then followed the deer’s increasingly deep and erratic tracks as Cotton Candy helped locate it.
• Su Wei found the exhausted, badly wounded black-tailed deer sheltered beneath a rock and killed it with his hunting knife.
• The Hunting Module activated, granting Su Wei Tracking Assistance and Ballistic Trajectory.
• Su Wei estimated the deer’s meat and hide were worth over a thousand dollars and decided to process it in the hollow.
• Su Wei began bleeding the deer by positioning it on a slope and making an incision behind its breastbone.

Su Wei butchered a black-tailed deer and carried as much venison as he could back to camp before dark. After securing the meat from predators, he salted the deer hide, leaving the remaining spoils for a return trip.

• Su Wei drained the deer’s blood, removed its organs, and butchered the carcass into cuts of venison.
• Su Wei packed the heart, liver, tenderloins, hindquarter meat, and hide, then buried the meat he could not carry.
• Su Wei carried the spoils through the snowy woods to camp with Cotton Candy following him.
• Su Wei checked the camp for danger and hoisted the meat high into a spruce tree in a bear bag.
• Su Wei scraped the deer hide and covered its flesh side with coarse salt to preserve it.

Su Wei cooked and ate a celebratory meal of black-tailed deer liver, tenderloin, and heart, earning a temporary recovery buff. He fed Cotton Candy pieces of raw tenderloin while training her to obey commands, increasing his Beast Taming experience.

• Su Wei fried deer liver with onions, seared tenderloin steaks, and cooked slices of deer heart over his camp stove.
• Su Wei ate the meal and gained Life Module experience and a faint Qi and Blood Recovery buff that lasted three hours.
• Su Wei gave Cotton Candy pieces of raw tenderloin after she obeyed his command to sit.
• Su Wei turned feeding Cotton Candy into an obedience lesson and gained Beast Taming experience.

Su Wei decided to leave the mountains early rather than risk losing his valuable haul, but the weight of his supplies made a one-trip return impossible without help. He planned to build a primitive travois sled from nearby wood.

• Su Wei calculated that his devil's claw and deer were worth nearly ten thousand dollars and decided to head home the next morning.
• Su Wei planned a route down the mountain and realized retrieving the buried meat and carrying everything back would keep him traveling after dark.
• Su Wei rejected retrieving the meat in a separate trip because it would expose him and his unattended camp to danger.
• Su Wei decided he needed a vehicle to carry everything in one trip and settled on building a travois sled.
• Su Wei searched his equipment for tools to make the sled from the plentiful wood around camp.

Su Wei built a sturdy cargo sled from birch poles and unlocked the Basic Woodworking skill, then loaded it with his supplies and harvested food. He left the sled at camp and set out with Cotton Candy to retrieve the rest of his belongings.

• Su Wei cut birch poles and fashioned them into a two-meter-long sled using notches and rope lashings.
• The Life Module rewarded Su Wei with experience and unlocked Basic Woodworking after he completed the sled.
• Su Wei tested the sled, then loaded it with a deerskin, his pack, Devil's Claw, and venison.
• Su Wei checked the sinking sun, left the sled at camp, and called Cotton Candy to accompany him on foot to retrieve the rest of his things.

Su Wei recovered the venison he had buried and hauled it back to camp, where he realized the heavy load made it impossible to descend the mountain safely before dark. He decided to stay at camp for another night.

• Su Wei and Cotton Candy returned to the burial site through deep snow, following Cotton Candy’s scenting and Su Wei’s sense of direction.
• Su Wei dug through the frozen ground and found the venison intact beneath the birch bark.
• Su Wei wrapped the meat in a tarp, tied it with rope, and struggled back to camp under its weight.
• Su Wei secured the venison to the sled and checked his phone, discovering it was already 1:03 p.m.
• Su Wei judged that the loaded sled would take too long to haul down the mountain and decided not to leave before dark.

After seeing a distress flare in the Alaskan wilderness, Su Wei decided to investigate while preparing carefully to avoid risking his own life. He set out with Cotton Candy, leaving his supplies hidden behind.

• Su Wei spotted a red distress flare bursting over the distant forest and realized someone needed help.
• Su Wei weighed the danger of intervening against his memories of being helpless in the wilderness.
• Su Wei decided to scout the flare’s location and turn back if the trouble was beyond his abilities.
• Su Wei hid his supplies, packed hot water, spare clothes, food, medical supplies, ammunition, and rope, then called Cotton Candy to join him.

Su Wei followed a flare through the forest and found Emily trapped in a deep pit beside a wrecked snowmobile. He recognized his childhood friend and began pulling her to safety.

• Su Wei left his camp and searched the forest with Cotton Candy for whoever had fired the flare.
• Su Wei spotted a wrecked snowmobile, scattered equipment, and a motionless figure inside a deep pit.
• Su Wei called down and discovered that the trapped woman was Emily, his childhood friend, who had sprained her left leg.
• Su Wei secured a rope around a boulder and lowered it to Emily, who grabbed hold.

Su Wei rescued Emily from a pit and treated her sprained ankle. As night fell, he explained his parents’ disappearance and his debt, then searched for a way to get Emily to his camp.

• Su Wei pulled Emily out of the pit while Cotton Candy stayed nearby.
• Su Wei examined Emily’s swollen ankle, sprayed it, and wrapped it with a bandage.
• Emily explained that she had been conducting thesis fieldwork when her snowmobile got caught and she fell into the pit.
• Su Wei told Emily that his parents had gone out to sea and never returned, leaving him a $160,000 loan to repay within a month.
• Emily was unable to walk, so Su Wei settled her beneath a sheltered rock and told Cotton Candy to watch her while he considered the snowmobile.

Su Wei freed Emily’s damaged snowmobile and got its engine running so he could take her back to camp despite her injured ankle. He recovered her observation journal, gave her Cotton Candy to hold, and drove off with her toward camp.

• Su Wei pried the snowmobile’s trapped track loose and bent its handlebars back into a steerable position.
• Su Wei reconnected loose wires and restarted the snowmobile’s engine.
• Su Wei helped Emily onto the snowmobile and found her backpack, though her DSLR camera was smashed.
• Su Wei gave Emily her undamaged observation journal and placed Cotton Candy in her arms for warmth.
• Su Wei drove the snowmobile toward camp with Emily and Cotton Candy aboard.

Su Wei brought the injured Emily back to his wilderness camp and hurried her into dry clothes to prevent hypothermia. Emily changed inside his tent while Su Wei prepared to make a fire outside.

• Su Wei told Emily that Cotton Candy was a wild fox that had come to his camp on her own.
• Su Wei and Emily reached his camp, where Emily saw his tent, firewood, sled, and a covered load of game.
• Su Wei carried Emily from the snowmobile to the tent and gave her dry thermal clothes and fleece pants.
• Su Wei warned Emily that her wet clothes could lead to fatal hypothermia and told her to change while he built a fire.
• Emily entered the tent, removed her wet clothes, and quickly changed into Su Wei's spare clothes.

Su Wei rescued Emily from a freezing night in the wilderness, dried her clothes, and fed her venison. After Emily warmed up and grew sleepy, Su Wei told her he had only one tent, leaving them to decide how to spend the night.

• Su Wei built a fire and dried Emily’s wet clothes without looking into the tent.
• Emily came out wearing Su Wei’s clothes and sat by the fire with Cotton Candy.
• Su Wei cooked black-tailed deer tenderloin, and Emily eagerly ate the meal.
• The system gave Su Wei temporary stamina-recovery and cold-resistance buffs for cooking the venison.
• Emily asked whether Su Wei had trained as a cook, and he said he had learned from playing games.
• As Emily grew sleepy and looked at the tent, Su Wei said he only had one tent.

Su Wei cared for Emily at their snowy camp and prepared to share his cramped tent with her for the night. As they planned the journey to his cabin, they spoke about Emily’s damaged research equipment, Su Wei’s debt, and memories from childhood.

• Su Wei gave Emily a warm blanket and cooked her a hot soup from wild berries.
• Su Wei and Emily settled into the only tent, where he reassured her that he would not do anything to her.
• Su Wei planned to take Emily to his cabin for first aid, then bring her to a clinic in town by snowmobile.
• Emily explained that her snowmobile accident had destroyed her camera and much of her equipment, forcing her research project to pause.
• Emily and Su Wei discussed his debt and reminisced about their childhood before he told her to sleep.