Feng Mountain, grinning, held up another spiced-up barbecue skewer and looked at Erica. "Want to try another? I’ll give you 100 US Dollars for one skewer."

Erica frantically waved her hands in horror, never wanting to go through that near-death experience again.

She wouldn’t eat it even for money.

HA!

Only then did Feng Mountain laugh out loud, raising a skewer and slowly popping it into his mouth.

He cracked open a can of ice-cold beer and took a large, satisfying gulp.

"Brother Feng, if I eat it, will you pay me?" Su Ziweng asked, sidling up shamelessly.

"Like hell I will." Feng Mountain shot him a look and tossed him a can of beer. Su Ziweng caught it and snickered.

Jenny watched for a while until she got the hang of grilling the skewers, then took over the task from Feng Mountain.

In front of the log cabin.

The men sat by the fire, under a sky of auroras and on a carpet of moss, drinking beer and eating grilled skewers.

They ate and drank, laughing and chatting cheerfully as they shared stories and experiences from their lives.

Hearty laughter echoed through the air, mingling with the crackling of the firewood. They cast aside the worries and pressures of life, indulging in the gifts of nature and the warmth of friendship.

...

「The next morning.」

Before dawn, the group was already up. After eating breakfast, they prepared to set out.

Today, they were going to Kevik Camp.

Feng Mountain had promised Aunt Susan he would take care of the brown bear that attacked her. Since he had tourists here for a hunt, it was the perfect opportunity to deal with it.

The group was too large to fit in the Carnation, so they had to take the P750 instead.

Once everyone was gathered, they even brought Prince and Princess along.

Although divination could also locate the brown bear, knowing the outcome in advance would take all the meaning out of the hunt.

The group rode snowmobiles to the airstrip.

Yves had already completed the P750’s pre-flight safety check and installed skis on the landing gear.

Once on the plane, Feng Mountain looked at everyone in the cabin with a serious expression. "Let me make this clear. On this hunt, you must follow instructions. A brown bear isn’t a Snow Rabbit. If you don’t kill it with one shot, a wounded brown bear will go berserk, and that can be fatal."

Everyone stopped joking around and quickly agreed to follow his commands.

Seeing that he had given all the necessary warnings, Feng Mountain turned and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat, put on his headset, and signaled to Yves that they could take off.

The P750 slowly started up, accelerated down the runway, and soared into the sky.

Kevik Camp was only 20 kilometers from the Arctic Ocean. As the last supply point on the Tundra, it served as a stop for Wilderness Hunters and passing aircraft.

Since Aunt Susan was attacked by the brown bear, far fewer planes had been flying over the Tundra.

After flying over the vast, white tundra for an hour, the plane appeared above Kevik Camp.

Feng Mountain looked down through the window, his brow furrowing.

The entire Kevik Camp was half-buried in snow. The container houses on the outskirts were completely submerged, and as for the runway, its location was impossible to make out.

"Find some level ground to land," Feng Mountain directed over the headset.

Yves nodded and circled the P750 over Kevik Camp, searching for a suitable landing spot.

The ground was covered in snow, and there was no telling if a seemingly flat area was hiding an unfrozen pond underneath. With the plane’s heavy load, if the ice broke the moment they touched down, they would all be toast.

After circling several times, Yves still wasn’t confident enough to land.

Feng Mountain picked up the radio and broadcast on the open channel, asking nearby towns and communities if anyone knew the coordinates for the Kevik Camp airstrip.

Soon, Noikos Village received the transmission and sent back the coordinates for the Kevik Camp runway.

With the coordinates, things were much easier.

He entered the coordinates into the navigation system, and the plane continuously corrected its course until it was over a vast expanse of white snow.

With that assurance, Yves pushed the control stick forward. The P750 began to descend, heading for the snowy ground.

As the fuselage made contact with the ground, the skis carried the plane forward in a long slide.

It slid for over a hundred meters before finally coming to a stop.

Except for Feng Mountain, it was everyone else’s first time experiencing a snow landing. The intense feeling of losing control left them stunned with fear, clutching the armrests tightly. Especially during the slide, it felt like their minds went completely blank.

"Everyone, we’ve landed safely!" Feng Mountain took off his headset and turned with a chuckle to look at the pale-faced passengers.

"Damn, I really thought I was going to die!" Su Ziweng let out a huge sigh of relief, even unbuttoning his coat collar to breathe more easily.

The others all nodded in agreement.

"That’s nothing. When you’re flying in the Far North Tundra, this is standard procedure." Feng Mountain returned to the main cabin and opened the door. A bone-chilling gust of wind, carrying flecks of snow, rushed inside.

Su Ziweng, who had just unbuttoned his collar, got a mouthful of the frigid air. His throat felt like it was about to freeze over, and he hastily buttoned his coat back up.

"It’s 25 degrees below zero out there. Pull your collars up to cover your faces and put on your sunglasses. The snow glare can damage your eyes. Get your guns slung."

Feng Mountain glanced at the cabin thermometer and demonstrated for the others, pulling on a balaclava and sunglasses, then raising the collar of his fur coat.

He was the first one out of the cabin. The moment his feet touched the ground, he sank up to his thighs in snow.

’It’s such a pain when no one clears the snow.’

He turned his head back toward the cabin and called out a reminder.

"Be careful coming out, the snow is deep."

"Roger that!" As Su Ziweng said this, he had already stepped out of the cabin. The next moment, he fell WHUMP into the snow and disappeared from sight.

"I told you to be careful." Feng Mountain shook his head helplessly, waded through the snow, and pulled him out.

PTUI! PTUI!

Su Ziweng spat out the snow in his mouth, then crouched down to pick up the gun he’d dropped, slinging it over his back again as he stared at the vast white surroundings.

"This snow is so deep!"

Having learned from Su Ziweng’s example, the others all disembarked from the plane cautiously.

The -25 degree temperature truly made them feel the cold of the Arctic Circle. Luckily, they had all changed into fur coats. If they were still wearing the winter gear they brought from home, they would have probably frozen into popsicles the moment they stepped off the plane.

Prince and Princess, however, loved this environment and were bounding around happily in the snow.

Feng Mountain reached out and picked up the two little ones. "I’ll break trail in the front, Yves in the middle, and Nash at the rear. Everyone else, stay close."

With that, he began wading through the snow toward Kevik Camp.

With Feng Mountain breaking trail at the front, it was much easier for those behind him to walk.

The runway was about 500 meters from the camp. After pushing through the snow and passing the outer buildings, they found the snow in the central area was relatively shallower.

Feng Mountain put down Prince and Princess. "Go find where that brown bear is hiding."

The dog and the wolf bolted off playfully, running to a converted container house where they began to whimper continuously.

Feng Mountain quickly raised a hand, signaling everyone to be cautious. He grabbed his Type 56 carbine and crept toward the house, his finger on the trigger, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

Just then, Prince zipped into the building and ran back out, whining softly twice to signal that it was safe inside.

Only then did Feng Mountain relax. He strode to the front of the house and saw that the door had been forcibly torn off. The metal door panel lying on the ground was covered in claw marks, each as long as a finger.

’This bear is huge!’

When he had visited Susan in Fairbanks, he’d heard her talk about this bear.

It had actually appeared near Kevik Camp a few days prior, but at the time, it was some distance away. Susan hadn’t thought it would pose a threat to the camp’s safety, so she paid it no mind.

Who would have thought the brown bear would actually enter the camp and ambush her?

Judging from the paw prints in the snow, this brown bear probably weighed over 600 pounds.

No wonder it could rip off a container door.

Tracing the claw marks on the door panel with his index finger, Feng Mountain waved the others over.

"Brother Feng, is the bear here?" Zhang Kai asked. He and his three companions were exceptionally excited.

Feng Mountain shook his head. "Hard to say. Look at these claw marks. It’s at least 500 kilograms. We can’t be sure if it has left the camp yet."

"Five hundred kilograms... that’s over a thousand pounds! Jeez, a bear that big," Su Ziweng’s mouth twitched.

"We should still be careful. The terrain here is difficult. If that bear suddenly charges, we’ll be in big trouble!"

As a middle-aged man, Feng Yang had his own concerns. It would be great to hunt the brown bear, of course, but if it was too dangerous, the best option would be to leave the camp.

Too many novice hunters lost their lives needlessly because of greed.

Sun Jia, on the other hand, looked thrilled.

"Let’s go inside and see what the bear did!"

Feng Mountain entered the room with his rifle raised. Inside, besides the snow that had blown in, there were several chest freezers. Their lids had been forcibly pried off. Judging from what was left inside, they must have been used to store meat.

"That bear is pretty smart, knowing there was food in the freezers!" Hu Zi bent down and picked up half a bag of bread, frozen into a solid lump. He looked at the bite marks on the plastic bag; you could easily fit a thumb through them.

"Let’s go. Maybe it left after finishing the food," Feng Mountain said, turning to leave the room.

Prince and Princess continued to roam the camp, searching for a scent.

After all, Kevik Camp was close to the Arctic Ocean. It was either windy or snowy every day, so even if the brown bear had left a scent, it would have been blown away by the wind and snow.

WHINE! WHINE! WHINE!!

This time, Princess had found something. She was in a patch of snow, frantically digging with her paws.

’What is it?’

Feng Mountain walked over curiously. He slung the Type 56 carbine over his back, took out a small shovel, and started digging. Yves and Nash joined in.

A short while later, they cleared away the snow to reveal brownish-black fur.

Seeing the fur, Feng Mountain realized the situation was serious. He grabbed his shovel and kept digging until the owner of the fur was completely unearthed. He then used the shovel to cut into the hide.

After observing it for a moment, he immediately grabbed his rifle and scanned his surroundings warily. Nash and Yves did the same.

"Brother Feng, what is it?" Zhang Kai’s group, along with Hu Zi and Black Hide, noticed something was wrong with Feng Mountain and quickly asked what was going on.

While still scanning the area, Feng Mountain said in a low voice, "It’s a musk ox."

’A musk ox?’

’What’s wrong with a musk ox?’

Zhang Kai, Hu Zi, and the others didn’t understand. They had eaten plenty of musk ox meat over the past few days, and it tasted pretty good.

"Musk oxen usually only live in the Inland Region of the Tundra. They rarely come near the coast."

Feng Mountain slowly backed away, his eyes fixed on the unexplored parts of the camp. "Judging by how it’s frozen, this musk ox hasn’t been dead for more than a week. Now, take a guess who dragged it from the Inland Region of the Tundra all the way to the coast."

"Everyone, take the safeties off your rifles. Face outward and slowly back out of the camp."

Hearing this, you’d have to be an idiot not to understand.

’The one who dragged the musk ox here had to be the brown bear.’

’And since the musk ox has been dead for less than a week, that means the brown bear is still in the camp.’

A chill instantly ran down the spines of Zhang Kai, Hu Zi, and the others, and they broke out in a cold sweat.

Just then, Prince and Princess let out anxious whimpers, as if warning Feng Mountain of approaching danger.

The sounds had barely faded when, in the gap between two container houses they had just passed, the deep snow suddenly exploded outward.

ROOOOAR!!!

An enormous brown bear, roaring furiously, charged toward them out of the spraying snow.

...