Chapter 636: Midnight Visitor
Under the starry sky, the snowfield was not dim and lightless.
Snowflakes are crystal structures, and the snow on the ground is like a layer of mirrors, capable of reflecting all the surrounding light.
In the starlight, every rising snow mountain glowed with a faint dark light, and occasionally a huge figure could be seen running on it—that was a polar bear out hunting at night.
Entering autumn in October, polar bears needed to forage extensively in order to survive the entire winter, which was also their most active time.
The Doomsday Seed Vault emitted a faint green glow in the darkness,
The engine rumbled deeply, and the heat from burning fuel rapidly spread throughout the off-road vehicle's body, slowly melting the prisms on the exhaust pipe, as clear droplets of water fell and froze again upon hitting the ground.
Seemingly hearing the roar of the car, the polar bear that had been running across the snowfield suddenly stopped and turned its head toward Bi Fang.
Bi Fang, upon seeing this, subconsciously reached for the hunting knife on his thigh.
Having killed too many bears, the sight of them approaching triggered an instinctive urge to draw the knife.
"NO, NO, NO!" Barrett quickly explained.
"Don't be nervous, it's a normal reaction."
Bi Fang was stunned, "Normal reaction?"
How was this any kind of normal?
Bi Fang had witnessed polar bears changing from a trot to a sprint, their fur flying, obviously showing signs of extreme excitement.
This was normal?
Up to this point, the most ferocious animals Bi Fang had dealt with were bears. Although he had never directly confronted a polar bear, as members of the same subfamily, they weren't much different, especially the brown bear and the polar bear, which had diverged not more than six hundred thousand years after their geographical isolation, without reproductive isolation.
They both had exceptionally developed shoulder humps, a structural feature formed by the attachment of shoulder muscles, giving them powerful forelimb swings.
The claws of a polar bear were more than 5 centimeters long, shorter than those of a brown bear but slightly longer than those of a black bear, and sharper.
The claws of brown and black bears were quite blunt, while those of polar bears were extremely sharp, an evolutionary adaptation for walking through snow and ice.
Strong and sharp, polar bears could easily tear through armor plates over 5mm thick, which meant that the two people in the off-road vehicle were not safe at the moment, in fact, they were in great danger!
Bi Fang could tell that Barrett, too, was very nervous, his little finger trembling slightly as he gripped the steering wheel.
But since Barrett had said so, Bi Fang didn't take any further action.
Compared to himself, a visitor, Barrett must be more familiar with the local area.
Barrett took several deep breaths, lowered his seat back, climbed into the back of the car, pressed the shoulder switch, pulled back the seat, and dragged out an object wrapped in greaseproof paper that was quite large.
Barrett slowly unwrapped the greaseproof paper.
A strong scent of grease wafted out.
This was...
The greaseproof paper was wrapped so tightly that Bi Fang hadn't smelled anything unusual after getting into the car.
Barrett used a knife to cut it open, and only then did everyone see that it was actually meat! Experience more tales on My Virtual Library Empire
It was pork belly.
Bi Fang had deduced the type of meat based on the smell.
This bag was not lacking in quantity, there must be the amount of several pigs inside, all selected from the fattest parts of pork belly, usually the trimmings that no one ate. At first glance, there wasn't even any red lean meat visible, just pure fat.
Although not many people eat it, for polar bears, there is nothing better than fatty oils, which are the only thing that can make them comfortably get through the entire polar night.
Carrying the heavy butter bag, Barrett quickly opened the car door, lifted his legs, and took the fats out from the seat, then picked up the yellow paper, swiftly shut the car door, returned to his position and with one press of the gas pedal, sped away.
The whole process was very quick, it looked as if he had done it more than once.
"Phew, every time I do this kind of thing, I get particularly nervous. This is the fourth time, and my palms still sweat," Barrett let out a long breath as if completing a difficult task,
Well, feeding polar bears in the wild is indeed a challenging task.
After all, no one can guarantee that the last thing the polar bear will eat is not a sheep.
"Every time we come here, we feed the polar bears some food so that we can coexist peacefully," Barrett explained as he drove.
It was a combination of sternness and clemency, holding a rifle for authority, and periodic feeding as kindness.
With the melting ice caps, polar bears that can catch seals are becoming increasingly rare, and each year a significant number of polar bears do not survive.
According to ecological data projections, perhaps by 2100, polar bears might go extinct.
"We don't overfeed on each visit; we feed them just once to make sure they don't attack us due to extreme hunger."
The law that has always existed in nature is survival of the fittest, and most polar bears are able to catch enough food to get them through their difficulties.
Only a small portion of weaker polar bears struggle to survive due to environmental changes. If humans continuously provide them with food, they would lose their hunting instincts.
Therefore, Barrett and others have always maintained a rather fragile balance with the polar bears.
Overall, this journey was an eye-opener for the viewers.
It was like experiencing magical future technology in the real world, and also the first time they realized that humans are truly making practical plans for the future.
Many people couldn't help but remember the words Bi Fang spoke long ago.
The history of life is a story of massive selection, followed by the speciation of a few survivors.
Earth has witnessed 5 major extinction events, with each event leading to the extinction of 70%-85% of species. During the Permian, more than 95% of animals disappeared from the stage and never returned.
Humans have survived time and time again over nearly three and a half billion years.
So what about the hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years into the future? Will we be voyaging through the stars, or become part of some fossil?
Having traveled back to the city, Bi Fang bid farewell to Barrett, ended the livestream, and walked alone through the streets of the city.
It was quite desolate...
After all, it was a place where polar bears outnumbered people.
There were no street vendors, no stalls, only orange-yellow street lamps, and the occasional passing car.
Warning signs painted in black with a white polar bear and a red outline also informed passersby of the potential dangers outside.
The majority of polar bear attacks on humans occur at night.
In fact, it was just a regular six o'clock in the afternoon, which in any other low-latitude city would still be dusk, but here, it was as deep into the night as midnight.
Back at his lodging, Bi Fang had nothing to do and was about to pull out his phone to play some games before sleeping when suddenly the phone rang; the hotel's front desk informed him someone was looking for him downstairs.
Someone looking for me?
Bi Fang was startled. He had many friends, but surely none that extended to the most remote city in the world?
Carrying a sense of curiosity, Bi Fang went downstairs, only to find a completely unknown stranger, a man he had never met before.