Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

On the deck, a group of people stood, each one of them wrapped up in thick coats, bundled up like penguins.

On a normal day, it still wouldn't be light out and everyone would be sleeping, but now quite a few people had actually shown up.

Obviously, everyone had woken up early to see the aurora.

The huge cruise ship slid through the sea filled with floating ice, shattering pieces of thin ice and leaving behind a clear trail of water.

The Arctic Ocean is a sea covered in sea ice, with about two-thirds of its surface area made up of perennially frozen seawater; the remaining surface is also thick with floating ice and icebergs.

About half of this water remains frozen year-round, the rest melts in spring and refreezes in winter.

The ice in the central area has even been there for 3 million years, belonging to the category of permanent sea ice.

As for the climate, it can be summed up in one word: cold.

"Whew, it's so cold."

"Too cold, what's the temperature now?"

"Negative thirty."

"Only thirty? Why do I feel it's colder than yesterday?"

The person asking about the temperature was puzzled because it had been thirty for the past few days. Today felt colder; why was it still thirty?

"That guy is from Ugly Country; he's talking in Fahrenheit. The temperature in Celsius is almost negative thirty-five degrees. Damn it, my nose is about to freeze off. When I get back, Stephen is definitely going to mock me."

"Damn, my thermometer isn't moving!"

"Huh?"

On the deck, a man tapped his thermometer against the railing, producing a metallic clinking sound.

The temperature on the thermometer didn't budge, which was making the man quite frustrated.

"Kerosene's freezing point is negative thirty degrees Celsius. If it's frozen solid, of course, it won't move."

The voice came from the direction of the cabin. Everyone looked up and saw Bi Fang closing the door and walking out onto the deck.

"Oh, it's Mr. Bi."

"Mr. Bi, are you up to watch the aurora too?"

"Do you have any stories for us today?"

"I caught up with the videos last night, absolutely amazing. I regret not getting to know you earlier."

Everyone greeted him one after another; less than a week aboard, and everyone, from the captain to the chef to the tourists, knew this young man.

Bi Fang nodded with a smile and approached the man who was complaining about his broken thermometer, leaning against the railing: "Thermometers are typically made from three substances, kerosene, mercury, and alcohol."

"Kerosene has a freezing point of just negative thirty degrees, below which it solidifies and naturally won't move. Or more precisely, the thermal contraction is so slight, it's almost imperceptible to the naked eye. Mercury has a freezing point of negative 38.87 degrees Celsius, so it's not an option either."

"In the Arctic, you can only bring alcohol thermometers because only they have a freezing point of negative 117 degrees Celsius, suitable for all the low-temperature natural environments on Earth. Fortunately, you're not using mercury because if it explodes, it's very dangerous. However, it's rare for thermometers to use mercury anyway."

There are many types of thermometers, with clinical thermometers and atmospheric thermometers being the most common.

Clinical thermometers are usually mercury, while atmospheric thermometers are kerosene or alcohol, and from their names alone, it's clear what they measure.

"Why is that?"

Someone called out from behind.

Bi Fang looked up: "Because mercury expands slowly when heated and doesn't cool down quickly when taken out of the body. It needs to be shaken down to return to zero. Using it to measure temperature is simple and direct, and it also avoids errors caused by external temperature transfer."

"Kerosene and alcohol thermometers expand quite noticeably with heat, changing very rapidly, heating and cooling will make them rise and fall quickly, so they're generally not used to measure body temperature, they're made red and hung indoors, to roughly monitor the weather temperature."

Everyone had a sudden realization.

"Everyone's up so early today?" Bi Fang glanced at the time; it wasn't even time for breakfast yet.

Even though the real polar night had not yet arrived, the abnormally short day still reminded people to be mindful of the time.

Most people probably don't have the experience of surviving through polar nights, but it's imaginable that it's not easy, with many issues, such as a disruption to humans' biological clocks.

A large part of the human biological clock relies on natural light.

So an important way to adjust their rhythm is to eat meals, and the meal times on the cruise ship are fixed, with only three meals free of charge.

If you want an extra meal, sorry, you have to pay extra.

"We're all here to see the Northern Lights."

"It's so beautiful."

"Yeah, it's almost dawn, can we still see them?"

"We can see them during the daytime here, of course we can."

"Mr. Bi, you're up early too."

"Mmm." Bi Fang nodded, pointing towards the ice floes not far away, "As soon as it gets light, I'll be getting off the ship to find a good spot."

He was getting off the ship!

People were somewhat surprised but not too shocked; everyone knew that Bi Fang's purpose for joining this trip was to reach the northernmost point of Greenland.

They just didn't expect it to come so soon.

Half an hour later, the green bands in the sky persisted, the second hint of natural light slowly appeared on the horizon, lifting the deep black curtain a notch, with the pallor of dawn spreading.

A century ago, on the other end of the Earth, on the Antarctic Continent, the bravest of people embarked on an uncertain voyage of exploration and adventure.

On the left was flame, on the right was seawater, and ahead was the dream and glory they desperately sought in their hearts.

A century later, a young man arrived at another node on Earth, carrying no supplies, ready to challenge himself to survive a hundred days here.

The cold wind howled.

The colossal cruise ship, over seventy meters long, once again shattered a piece of ice floe, with the sun dangling obliquely at the position of the ship's figurehead.

The figurehead scattered the most glaring of the giant sun's rays, leaving splayed white light, spreading in all directions.

The shivering tourists squinted and looked up, and before them lay a vast expanse of white void—not just blocks of white ice floes but a continent, an immense and unbroken pure white continent.

There were no trees, no grass, no life.

Just an endless cold wind, like blades of steel slashing across faces without any bloodshed, as all the blood froze into crimson icicles the instant it was about to spatter.
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Many spectators couldn't help but touch their own faces, their facial skin almost frozen numb until the warmth of their fingers touched what seemed to be icy cold skin did they realize, their faces had not been cut by the icy blade; it was all just an illusion.

A familiar voice, mixing with the wind, reached their ears, and as people looked towards the sound, they noticed that the seemingly indestructible drone had already taken its position overhead.

"Looking back on the course of human evolution and change, if our ancestors hadn't taken risks and imagined, hadn't dared to innovate and have the courage to sacrifice with their broad and grand spirit, humans would not have used canoes to surf the oceans and explore the endless mysteries beyond the opposite shore."

"Humans are curious, yielding the impulse for adventure; humans take risks, igniting the torch of civilization."

"Adventure is not only about nature's oceans and mountains, deserts and swamps, but also lies within densely populated cities."

"I am Bi Fang, a professional outdoor explorer, and this time, we've come to the Arctic."