Chapter 78: Chapter 78: An Unprecedented Victory

Lin Chen didn’t rush forward to confirm, even though he was one hundred percent confident that his last arrow had pierced the Black Bear’s throat.

But this was a bear, after all—a tough animal with a thick hide. It wasn’t impossible for it to have a more tenacious life force. When hunting in the wild, one had to be exceptionally careful.

If this Black Bear was playing dead, he’d definitely fall into its trap if he approached rashly.

HUFF... HUFF...

Lin Chen’s heavy breathing was clearly audible through the camera’s microphone. He even swayed his body a few times, feigning exhaustion.

He lifted his right hand. A faint touch of crimson was seeping through his bandaged knuckles.

"Luckily, I practiced yesterday, so my efforts weren’t wasted. I hope all of you watching can learn from my experience. Hard work definitely pays off."

Only his index and middle fingers were injured. This was typical for a beginner’s draw style—an illusion he had deliberately created.

Truly skilled Hunters often use a three-finger or even a four-finger draw. They also use hunting bows with a higher draw weight, which are capable of taking down larger prey.

With the help of multiple fingers, drawing this bow didn’t actually require much strength, nor would it significantly affect the wounds protected by the bandages.

After waiting quietly for a moment and seeing no rise and fall from the Black Bear’s chest, Lin Chen finally worked up the courage to approach.

His hunting bow was slung back over his shoulder. He gripped the Engineer Shovel with both hands, inching forward one careful step at a time, his nerves stretched to their absolute limit.

With the sharp edge facing forward, he raised it high over his head and brought it down hard on the wrist of the bear’s paw.

CRUNCH

A few drops of warm liquid splattered onto his cheek. The thick paw was almost completely severed, left hanging by just a shred of skin and flesh.

Even so, the Black Bear showed no sign of movement.

HUUUH...

Finally at ease, Lin Chen began to butcher the Black Bear. He chopped off all four paws, then cut a slit at the neck. Just as he had done when skinning the sheep, he carefully peeled off the entire hide, bit by bit.

Although the bear’s rump and thighs had taken a few arrows, the integrity of the hide was unaffected.

’It’s not like I’m going to sell it, anyway. As long as it can keep me warm, it’s fine.’

"A Black Bear over a hundred kilograms... the edible portions should be at least sixty kilograms. Add the lamb back at the shelter, and that’s eighty kilograms."

"Even if I eat one kilogram of meat a day, this will be enough to last me until the competition is over!"

He placed the GoPro on the ground and, mimicking the Hunters he’d seen in videos, stood on the bear’s back. Facing its head, he flashed a peace sign at the camera.

[Hunted a Black Bear in the wilds of North America. Sense of Accomplishment +5]

’Did it only give me five points because I was absolutely certain of the outcome and was just putting on an act? This system is scarily accurate when it comes to judging my mental state.’

He had anticipated this outcome from the moment he stood up to the Black Bear’s charge without panicking.

’Redeem the Wild Animal Encyclopedia.’

At his mental command, a tide of knowledge flooded his mind.

He ignored the deluge of information he didn’t currently need. Closing his eyes, he recalled the image of tracking the injured wolf’s trail this morning, as well as the three wolves he had encountered the night before last.

’So they really are Yukon Wolves. No wonder they’d brazenly snatch my prey and even dare to follow me back to the shelter.’

When Lin Chen opened his eyes again, a look of understanding dawned in them.

However, the more pressing matter was how to get this hundred-plus-kilogram Black Bear back to his shelter.

His gaze swept back and forth over the Black Bear’s powerful frame. Gradually, a bold idea began to form.

’Instead of wasting all that effort dragging the whole thing back, I might as well butcher it on the spot. I can take the valuable parts back to the shelter to store and hide the rest with fir needles and moss.’

’I’m not short on food right now, and with my new knowledge of animals, I don’t have to worry about going hungry. No need to get hung up on strange details.’

’And if I could use the rest of the carcass as bait to attract that pack of Yukon Wolves...’

’I’m confident that if I get into an advantageous position beforehand, like up a tree, I should have no problem taking down two or three of them in the first volley.’

’If I can kill the Wolf King, things will be even easier.’

Having made up his mind, he immediately set to work skinning and butchering the bear.

He pulled all the fletched arrows from the bear’s body and put them back in his quiver. Then, with his sharp combat knife, he made a long incision up the inside of each limb, from bottom to top.

He slid the tip of the blade along the junction of hide and flesh, grabbing the fur with his left hand and pulling outward as he carefully made the cuts, little by little.

After the difficult task of finishing the limbs, the hand gripping the knife’s handle trembled slightly—a sign of overexertion.

Skinning itself wasn’t particularly difficult. The main problem was that his multi-tool combat knife was shaped differently from a standard chef’s or butcher’s knife, making such delicate work relatively awkward.

On top of that, the two injured fingers on his right hand limited the angles from which he could apply force.

After a brief rest, he cut a circle around the bloody hole in the neck, then made a vertical incision straight down its front, continuing his ’surgery’ of separating hide from flesh.

After removing the entire hide, he butchered out the shank meat from the four limbs, the belly meat, a full rack of ribs, and the entire tenderloin. These were all relatively choice cuts, especially the belly meat and ribs, which were where the bear stored large amounts of fat for the cold season.

What he needed most right now was fat. He had more lean meat than he could eat, so that had to be a lower priority for now.

The gushing bear blood stained the soil red for several meters around. The air was thick with the cloying, almost nauseating smell of blood, mixed with the hide’s own rank odor.

Today, he had brought a piece of gear he’d never carried before: the backpack that held all his survival equipment.

With winter’s arrival imminent, he couldn’t afford to worry about a little grime. He stuffed all the chunks of meat, along with the bear’s heart and kidneys, directly into the pack. The rest of the organs he left in the chest cavity.

While Da Xia People had a custom of eating animal organs, this was typically limited to poultry, common livestock like cattle, sheep, and pigs, and sometimes fish.

A rare game animal like the Black Bear had long been a protected species, with hunting strictly forbidden. As for whether its organs were edible, he really had no idea.

According to the knowledge now in his mind, polar bear liver contains toxic levels of vitamin A. Humans who eat it can be poisoned, and the people of the Arctic have long passed down warnings that eating bear liver is fatal.

Even though this was a Black Bear, it was still a bear. The situation was likely very similar.

Rather than risk eating the organs, he’d be better off using them as bait to lure those uninvited guests.

First, he went to the river to wash the blood from the arrows and the bear hide. He also soaked the chunks of meat in the water one by one to rinse away the excess blood.

The heart and kidneys in particular needed to be sliced open horizontally, allowing the clear water to thoroughly flush out the clotted blood and other impurities inside.