Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

"We need to hurry, we still have to catch a cruise ship in-between, and I hope we can make it before it gets dark."

Bi Fang stuffed the documents and magnetic card back into his inner pocket, zipped it up, and started jogging toward the direction of the seed vault.

[Before it gets dark? Is it far away?]

[We just got off the plane and it was just getting light, right? Is Old Fang planning to run the whole day?]

[Master Fang: I can keep going for a whole day]

[Really? I don't believe it, let's see (lifting the skirt)]

[Are you guys stupid? This is the Arctic, there are polar days and nights, and it's October now, we're about to enter the polar night, the daytime is very short! I estimate only a few hours!]

"That's right," Bi Fang said with a smile, "From November to February every year, within the Arctic Circle, we enter the polar night, there's no daytime, and this is also the most difficult part of my survival challenge two days from now."

Bi Fang planned to start his live-streamed survival on October 15th.

According to the meteorological bureau, this year's polar night would begin on November 2nd.

That meant Bi Fang had less than eighteen days to establish a safe house that could sustain life, after which he would welcome eternal night.

Until February 13th, there would not be a single ray of sunlight within the entire Arctic Circle.

Humans are diurnal animals.

Without the sun, the difficulty of finding resources in the darkness is imaginable!

Moreover, due to the absence of the largest source of thermal radiation, the overall temperature of the Arctic would continue to decrease.

Shh!

The audience gasped at the chilling reality, is it really that terrifying?

[I always thought that polar night was 24 hours of total darkness, and that the sun appears for a few hours...]

[Eternal night sounds like the end of the world from a novel.]

[So scary, months of darkness? Can people really survive a hundred days in such an environment? Even the Inuit can't manage that, right?]

The audience found it difficult to imagine how to endure a hundred days of darkness.

The path became more and more remote, and less than half an hour into the walk, there was no one in sight.

Leaving the human city, the temperature kept dropping. After getting off the cruise ship, Bi Fang had to put on a hat to resist the wind and snow to advance, each step leaving deep footprints.

All around was a pure white snowfield, and if it weren't for the footprints left along the way, some viewers might even doubt whether Bi Fang had gotten lost.

Only when the sun was about to set, a rectangular concrete wedge appeared at the end of the snowfield, in stark contrast to the snow-covered scenery, its shadow casting long on the white snow, resembling a huge battleship with only its mast above the surface.

Bi Fang took off his hat, rubbed his hands together, and pulled out the thermometer.

Negative sixteen degrees.

All around was desolate, with a piercing cold wind.

"Not too bad, it's not particularly cold, I've managed to catch up before sunset," Bi Fang breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, it had only been five hours since departure.

In early October, the daylight hours had become very brief.

"Let's go, we should hurry over."

Bi Fang pulled his feet out of the snow and ran towards the seed vault.

Only on approach did the audience realise the futuristic feel of this fortress, the square and straight wedge-shaped exterior that looked like an alien spaceship buried under a snowy mountain.

At the very front, a layer covered with irregular reflective panes, resembling glass, reflected a faint blue light.

On the snowy mountain slopes behind, several polar bears wandered, looking down from above at Bi Fang, the outsider, like guardians protecting the seed vault.

If it weren't for a distance of more than three hundred meters between them, Bi Fang would definitely run away in respect.

Bi Fang stepped onto a short bridge made of wire mesh, arriving at the door of the Doomsday Seed Vault. Before he could swipe the card, he heard the sound of mechanisms moving.

The door opened automatically, and a curly-haired man with glasses walked out, saw Bi Fang, and shook his cellphone with a beaming smile, taking off his gloves, "Welcome, I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Hello." Bi Fang's eyes were sharp, and he noticed that his own live feed was playing on the man's phone, showing that the man was indeed waiting for him.

The man stepped aside, making room for one person to pass.

Bi Fang entered, curiously looking around. It was also his first time seeing the inside of the seed vault. What came into view was a small room resembling a tunnel, filled with the sounds of electrical and cooling equipment running, and at the very end was another door with a passcode lock on it.

The man led Bi Fang to the door, introducing himself along the way with familiar ease.

Cooper Barritt, a scholarly-looking man with black-rimmed glasses, which gave him an air of erudition.

"So you're the guardian of this place?"

"Guardian? Oh, no." Barrett shook his head, "The Seed Vault doesn't need a guardian. I'm just doing the 'tour guide' job. To tell you the truth, I only arrived here one day before you."

Bi Fang was astonished.

Barrett said, "Since its completion, only a few hundred people have been here, as there's no one on duty. Everything operates automatically. In fact, if it truly needed someone to guard it to ensure stable function, then we'd have to doubt whether it could really operate automatically in a doomsday crisis."

[Wow, that sounds so cool]

[Truly awesome]

[That's the spirit.]

The two quickly arrived in front of the door, and as Barrett was about to enter the passcode, Bi Fang quickly covered the drone's camera.

Barrett smiled, "Actually, it doesn't matter if you see it. We change the password periodically."

[Exactly, can't we have a little more trust between people?]

[Damn it, Old Fang, you don't trust us!]

Bi Fang helplessly shrugged and dropped his right hand that was covering the camera.

Accompanied by the sound of air valves releasing, the door slowly opened.

Strip lights slowly lit up, and the viewers couldn't wait to see inside—there was a long concrete tunnel.

Barrett led the way, "When it was built, the workers carved out a 120-meter long tunnel into the permafrost layer inside the mountain, which is the one we are walking through now."

The sound of Barrett's voice echoed down the long tunnel, empty and distant.

The two of them walked side by side, the drone following behind, capturing everything, providing the audience with a feast for their eyes.

This kind of futuristic technological scene, they had only seen in movies, never expecting it to be real.

"This Seed Vault is indeed a frequent guest in movies; it even made an appearance in 'The Wandering Earth,'" Barrett replied jokingly to the comments he saw on the live feed.

[Damn, no wonder it looked so familiar, it's actually real!]

[Truly awesome]

[Not talking anymore, I've started building a bunker in the yard to prepare for doomsday]

[You have a yard? Show-off dog, drop dead!]

"Mr. Fang is actually the first visitor of the Seed Vault this year," Barrett walked with Bi Fang down the long tunnel, revealing a surprise to everyone.

"The first one?"

"The sample vault isn't manned; it only opens 2-3 times a year for sample deposits and to allow important guests to visit. So far, only a few hundred have visited."

"Crown Prince Magnus of Norway visited the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. During his visit, he requested to see the 'core area'—the storage room—and was denied entry."

"Former President Carter of Ugly Country came here with the Save the World Foundation's staff, and they too weren't granted entry to the 'heart' of the Seed Vault."

The audience was stunned.

Old Fang just brought them in like this?

[What do you mean by important guests (tactical leaning back)?!]

After passing through the 100+ meter-long cylindrical passageway, they finally reached a slightly more spacious room. In front of them was a huge iron door covered in ice, and behind that door was the seed storage warehouse.

As the door opened with a thunderous roar, Barrett's voice became solemn.

"Welcome to 'Noah's Ark,' Mr. Fang."