Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

The Kii Peninsula is a region where temperate vegetation transitions to subtropical vegetation, and with Shepherd’s purse being a representative group of the North Temperate Zone, its diversity here is also quite high.

Apart from pesticide-tasted shepherd’s purse, Bi Fang also found a hollow berry, particularly large; at first glance, it resembled a strawberry, but upon closer inspection, it looked somewhat like a plump pink mulberry.

"My favorite among all shepherd’s purse species is the hollow berry, also known as rose hips. The fruit is very large, tasty, and most importantly, it doesn’t have a pesticide taste."

Bi Fang picked it happily, as if he had come not to hunt Black Bears but to forage for wild fruits and enjoy delicacies.

"When hollow berries are ripe, some small berries detach from the receptacle, creating a hollow in the center of the aggregate fruit—that’s why it’s called hollow berry."

"Hey, here’s a shade-loving shepherd’s purse, named for its preference for growing on the shaded side; but it’s also found in abundance on sunny slopes, and in areas where broadleaf forests have been chopped down, acting as a pioneer species."

[Dang, if it tastes like pesticide, it’s called pesticide; if it likes the shady side, it’s called shade-loving; now I see why these things aren’t easy to recognize.]

[This sketch is so careless.]

[Something feels off. What was Old Fang going to do again?]

As evening approached, Bi Fang sat on a large rock without continuing to look for the Black Bear’s traces, leisurely chatting with the audience instead.

"The fruit of this species turns black when mature and has a moderate sweetness with an advantage in quantity. It’s also an important source of nectar, with numerous flowers, each capable of secreting a lot of nectars with a sugar content over 50%, which bees particularly love."

"With flowers and nectar, in theory, there should be Black Bears. Actually, we could look around here."

The show usually ends around eight o’clock every night, and it’s almost seven now.

For the next hour, Bi Fang planned to slack off and wait until the live stream ended before going to find Richard and the others.

[Master Fang’s been slacking off all day today.]

[Why does it feel like he hasn’t done anything all day, and now it’s over?]>

[Just listened to a lecture...]>

With Bi Fang’s current reserve of knowledge, spinning a few stories to keep the audience entertained wasn’t hard.

After all, it was the first day, and no one had gained much; there wouldn’t be any problem with him slacking off, right?

Right?

[Someone next door has already found bear footprints, are you still slacking off here, Old Fang?]

[Falling into decay, why do I feel like Boss Fang has gotten lazy? It must be because he’s made too much money. Just give it to me, dog’s head.]

Bi Fang was taken aback, "Ah, someone found bear footprints?"

That was fast; usually, by noon or afternoon, you’d have entered the heart of the forest and started looking for Black Bear clues, finding traces by evening was pretty quick, actually.

[Yeah, that’s right, feeling the pressure now? You better hurry up and go!]

"Who found them?"

[Jupiter’s group, they’re professional hunters from Ugly Country.]

[Little Japan isn’t doing too well either.]

[That’s not it, I heard a group of Yōki Hunters found a pile of feces, but it was two days old.]

"How’d they find it?"

[They saw a chewed-up thicket, and followed the traces from there, and that was exactly like what Old Fang taught.]

[That’s awesome.]

[It’s just that Old Fang has slightly worse luck.]

That’s true.

Hunting really depends on luck.

Just like in the Banna Rainforest, if you’re trying to catch a Wild Baizhi Ox, the issue isn’t whether you know what signs it’s left, but whether you’re lucky enough to encounter a place it’s been.

With just two hundred heads in the entire rainforest, luck is indeed pretty important.

"Actually, some animal carcasses can also offer clues; although meat only constitutes a very small part of the Black Bear’s diet, Asian Black Bears are considered to meat more meat than American Black Bears."

"Moreover, due to the significant seasonal changes in many natural foods, the main diet of the black bear often varies with the seasons."

"In spring, black bears mainly feed on fresh, juicy young grass, tree buds, and tender leaves. We can focus our search in these areas."

"In summer, they eat various fruits rich in carbohydrates, as well as berries, such as shepherd’s purse, loquat, kiwifruit, and the fruits of the laurel family, and insects like ants and bees."

"During autumn and winter, black bears turn to fat-rich nuts, such as walnut and acorns from the Fagaceae family."

"Different seasons leave behind different traces."

Bi Fang took out his water bottle for a drink, having said quite a lot.

In the live broadcast, Kogawa Kobayashi was stunned; those unaware would think Bi Fang was a commentator.

Eight o’clock in the evening, and no one had made a catch all day.

As expected.

Though the population of Japanese black bears was so high it was considered a nuisance, it wasn’t at a point where you could encounter one just by entering the forest—that would not be an overpopulation; it would be an ecological collapse.

Moreover, it couldn’t possibly be to that extent. If the numbers grew any further, food would become scarce, and the bears themselves would start to decrease due to intraspecific competition.

Or perhaps, Japan would deploy its security forces for a sweeping operation, and every black bear spirit of three thousand years would be gunned down.

"It’s eight o’clock. The program team has not specified that hunters can’t return to town to rest during the hunting trip, but I think no hunter will do so tonight and will instead camp on the spot."

Bi Fang estimated that no one would return to town within about three days.

This was quite normal; ancient hunters might spend ten to fifteen days in the mountains on a single trip.

The hunting regimen for the hunting season, if all went well, should be half a day to go deep into the forest, another half to find clues, then one day to make thorough preparations, followed by the hunt in the afternoon or on the third day.

The third and fourth days were for organizing, tallying, and returning to town to rest and count scores. @@novelbin@@

The capture cycle for a black bear was roughly four to five days, with a day of rest.

Thirty-five hunters, one hundred black bears; if there was no conspicuous slacking, it should end in around twenty days.

[Holy moly, you’ve been loafing around the whole day, the whole day!]

[Come on, Master Fang, haven’t seen you in a month, and you’ve become so slack?]

[No insider sabotage, give us something good to watch.]

"Don’t worry, finding black bears comes down to luck, and I feel that my luck is about to come. I’ll just build a temporary shelter and sleep here tonight. I think others are doing the same; they probably have tents, which are more convenient."

Bi Fang, with a smile on his face, turned off the live stream amidst the audience’s wails.

Nighttime is not the best time to hunt black bears; the night belongs to the animals, and most people choose to rest.

A group of men snoring while sleeping isn’t much to see.

But if there is a hunting plan, the live stream must be kept on to prevent cheating.

Nine ten PM.

On the quiet and peaceful small town streets, an unfamiliar young man who nobody had ever seen before appeared.

Following the scent in the air for a while, the young man picked a direction and walked into an alley, finding as he had guessed a wooden cart parked inside.

The strong aroma was wafting from the cart, which had a rain awning with a red curtain hanging from it, and on the side, there hung a red lantern with the large Chinese character "Noodles" on it.

Lifting the curtain, the young man’s eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "This smells so good! Indeed, delicious food is always hidden in alleys like this!"

Hearing the young man’s fluent Japanese, the patrons assumed he was just a tourist from out of town, though it was rare to see a tourist who looked as handsome as a celebrity. They took a few extra glances at him.

Now, with the young man’s praise heard, the regulars began to cheer loudly.

"The young man really knows his stuff. The boss’s ramen is definitely the best in town!"

"A piping hot bowl of soup every day, that’s true delight."

The boss wiped his hands and thanked them, "You’re all too kind. What would you like to order, sir?"

Bi Fang, sitting on a stool and unwrapping his chopsticks, pointed at the menu, "Then I’ll have the specialty! And add an extra serving of meat!"