SWNOVELXO Chapter 641 Occupy a Pit
Familiar territory claiming segment.
Will be done revising before 1am.
Under the starry sky, the snowfield was far from dim and lightless.
Snowflakes are crystalline structures, and the snow on the ground acts like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding light.
In the starlight, each rising snow mound glistened with a faint dark glow, and occasionally, one could spot a huge figure running on top—it was the polar bear out hunting at night.
October marks the beginning of autumn, and polar bears needed to feed extensively to survive the entire winter; this was also their most active period.
The faint emerald glow from the Doomsday Seed Vault diffused into the night.
The engine rumbled deeply, and heat from the burning fuel quickly spread throughout the off-road vehicle's body. The icicles on the exhaust pipe slowly melted, and clear droplets fell, freezing again upon touching the ground.
The polar bear, which had been running across the snowfield, suddenly stopped at the sound of the vehicle's rumble and turned to approach Bi Fang.
Bi Fang, upon seeing this, instinctively reached for the hunting knife on his thigh.
Having killed too many bears, the sight of them approaching triggered an instinctual urge to draw the knife.
"NONONO!" Barrett quickly explained.
"Don't be nervous, this is a normal reaction."
Bi Fang was taken aback, "Normal reaction?"
What kind of normal was this?
Bi Fang witnessed the polar bear accelerate from a trot to a sprint, its fur bristling in what was clearly an extremely excited state.
This was considered normal?
So far, the most dangerous beasts Bi Fang had dealt with were bears. Although he had never faced off against a polar bear head-on, they belonged to the same subfamily, so they were not very different. In particular, the brown bear and the polar bear had diverged less than 600,000 years ago after being geographically separated, with no reproductive isolation between them.
Both had abnormally developed shoulder humps, a structural feature formed by the attachment of shoulder muscles, which when developed, could powerfully drive their forelimbs in a swing.
The claws of a polar bear were over 5 centimeters long, shorter than those of a brown bear, but slightly longer than those of a black bear, and their advantage lay in their sharpness.
The claws of the brown bear and the black bear were quite blunt, whereas the polar bear's claws were extremely sharp, an adaptive evolution for walking in ice and snow.
Strong and sharp, polar bears could easily tear through armor plates over 5mm thick. This meant that the two people inside the off-road vehicle were far from safe and, in fact, were in great danger!
Bi Fang could tell that Barrett was also quite tense, his little finger clutching the steering wheel trembling slightly.
But since Barrett had said so, Bi Fang refrained from taking any further action.
Compared to himself, a visitor, Barrett likely had a deeper familiarity with the local area.
Barrett took several deep breaths, laid back his seat, climbed into the back, and pressed a button on the shoulder, pulling down the seatback to drag out a fairly large object wrapped in greaseproof paper.
Barrett slowly unwrapped the paper.
A rich smell of fat wafted out.
What was this...
The greaseproof paper had been wrapped so tightly that Bi Fang hadn't smelled anything unusual after getting in the car.
Barrett cut it open with a knife, and everyone could finally see—it was meat!
Pork belly.
Based on the smell, Bi Fang had identified the type of meat.
There's still quite a bit in this bag, enough for several pigs at least, all selected from the fattiest parts of pork belly—those edge pieces no one typically eats. At first glance, one might not even see any red lean meat, just pure fat.
Though not many people eat this, for polar bears, there is no better food than pure fat. It's only fat that can allow them to comfortably get through the entire polar night.
Holding the heavy bag of lard, Barrett quickly opened the car door, lifted his legs, and pulled the fat out from the seat. He then picked up the yellow paper, swiftly closed the car door, and returned to his spot, slamming on the accelerator to speed away.
The entire process was done very quickly, suggesting it wasn't his first time doing this.
"Phew, every time I do this kind of thing I get particularly nervous. This is the fourth time, but my palms still sweat," Barrett sighed with relief, as if he had completed some arduous task.
Indeed, feeding polar bears in the wild is a formidable task.
After all, no one can guarantee that the polar bears will end up feasting on sheep.
"Each time we come, we feed the polar bears a bit of food, so that we can coexist peacefully," Barrett explained, driving the car.
It was a mix of both carrot and stick—the rifle served as the stick, and the regular feeding was the carrot.
As the glaciers melt, polar bears that can catch seals become fewer each year, and many don't survive.
According to ecological data projections, perhaps by 2100, polar bears will be extinct.
"We don't overfeed them during our visits; we just feed them enough to ensure they aren't so hungry they might attack us."
The rule that always existed in nature, survival of the fittest, meant most polar bears could still catch enough food to get through their hardships.
Only a small portion of weaker bears struggle to survive due to environmental changes. If humans continuously provide them with food, they could lose their hunting instincts.
Therefore, Barrett and others have always maintained a rather fragile balance with the polar bears.
Overall, this trip opened the eyes of the audience.
It was like witnessing future technology in the real world and realizing for the first time that humans have indeed made practical plans for the future.
Many were reminded of the words Bi Fang said a long time ago.
Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire
The history of life is a story of mass extinction, followed by the diversification of the few survivors.
Earth has witnessed five major extinction events, with 70%-85% of species dying out each time. During the Permian period, more than 95% of animals were wiped out, never to return.
Humans have survived over and over again throughout nearly three and a half billion years.
Would we be swimming in the cosmic ocean hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years from now, or become part of a fossil?
After making his way back to the city, Bi Fang bid farewell to Barrett, ended the live broadcast, and walked alone slowly through the city streets.
Quite desolate...
After all, this was a place where polar bears outnumbered people.
There were no street vendors or stalls, only orange streetlights and the occasional passing vehicle.
Warning signs, black with images of white polar bears and red outlines, also informed pedestrians of the potential dangers outside.
Most polar bear attacks on humans occur at night.
In fact, it was only six in the evening now, which would have been merely dusk in any low-latitude city, but here the night seemed as deep as midnight.
Returning to his lodgings, with nothing better to do, Bi Fang was about to pull out his phone to play a few games before sleeping when suddenly the phone rang. The hotel's front desk notified him that someone was looking for him downstairs.
Someone looking for me?
Bi Fang was surprised; he had many friends, but none that he knew of in the world's most remote cities.
With curiosity, Bi Fang went downstairs, only to find a completely unfamiliar man waiting for him.