King of the Wilderness

He first headed in the direction of the coastline.

The former beach had long since disappeared, replaced by an ”Ice Pressure Ridge” extending along the original coastline.

This was the massive energy of the storm surge, repeatedly ramming and stacking all the floating ice and broken ice in the bay onto the shore like a battering ram, forming a natural ice wall.

”This is our treasure trove for today.”

He carefully walked at the foot of the ice wall, speaking to the camera, his voice slightly elevated with excitement.

Just then, a low, groaning sound, like a giant beast turning in its sleep, ”creak—creak—” came from the depths of the ice layer beneath his feet.

He stopped immediately and listened closely.

He pointed at the ground beneath him: ”Listen to that sound! Although the sea surface is frozen, the tidal power hasn’t vanished; the seawater beneath the ice is still rising and falling rhythmically.

”It’s low tide now, and the massive ice cover is slowly sinking. The pressure and friction with the frozen parts along the shore create this sound.”

”This is both a signal of danger and a sign of opportunity.”

”At low tide, as the ice layer sinks, temporary cracks and passages will form between the ice walls, allowing me to access places that were previously unreachable.”

”But we must remain vigilant at all times; when the tide rises, these cracks will close with enough force to crush everything.”

Soon, he made his first discovery. Inside a massive iceberg, he saw something familiar—cable!

He stepped forward, first kicking away the surface snow with his boots, then using the thick back of his axe instead of the sharp blade to strike the ice hard.

”Bang!”

A dull thud echoed, ice chips flying, yet only a web-like crack appeared on the hard ice surface.

He didn’t pause, continuing to strike at the same spot relentlessly, and after a few minutes, he finally broke a gap into the iceberg.

He tossed aside the axe, grabbed one end of the cable with both hands, and pulled it out forcefully.

The rope was frozen solid, requiring all his strength to ”tear” it out from a pile of frozen seaweed.

It was a piece of nylon cable longer than any he had found before, at least five meters by visual estimate.

”Fantastic! A new rope; now my rope reserves have become quite abundant.”

Satisfied, he tied this extremely valuable material securely and left it on a conspicuous rock for later retrieval on his way back.

Immediately afterward, in the corner formed by two massive ice floes, an orange manmade object half-buried in the snow caught his attention.

He walked over and brushed away the snow with his hands, revealing a damaged, thick-walled plastic fishery floating box.

One corner had cracked, the obvious reason for its discard, yet most of the box was still intact.

He tapped the box wall, producing a dull, solid sound: ”Though it’s broken and no longer useful for sealed storage, it’s perfect snow sled material.”

”By cutting it apart, I can obtain a few large, smooth plastic sheets to make a transport sled, which will be far more efficient than dragging by hand.”

Continuing along the ice wall, he surveyed every corner of this chaotic zone with hawk-like intensity.

Enormous ice blocks and bare driftwood created an apocalyptic scene, but it was precisely in such chaos that one could most easily find treasures discarded by the sea.

After walking over a hundred meters, he spotted a large, dark green, web-like object entangled with seaweed and debris amid floating ice.

He approached immediately, using the back of his axe to break the frozen crust on the surface of the fishing net, then grabbed the thick main rope along the net’s edge, pulling it out segment by segment from the frozen seaweed.

It was a giant fragment of a commercial trawling net, thoroughly torn by the storm, with main ropes thicker than his thumb.

The net itself was woven from exceptionally durable multi-strand nylon cords, crumpled with seaweed and shell fragments hanging from it.

Yet the material, reflecting a glossy dark green in the sunlight, was almost undamaged.

”A damaged trawling net... It’s practically a treasure trove of materials!”

Caressing the coarse yet incredibly tough nylon rope, he spoke to the camera, ”The value of this thing is immeasurable! Firstly, each of these main ropes is a top-grade load-bearing rope.”

”Secondly, I can unravel these net cords to obtain thousands of meters of fine rope for making traps, tying tools, constructing—I will have more than enough rope.”

He pointed to a row of lead-gray metal blocks hanging from the lower edge of the net and some hard plastic balls tied to the upper edge.

”Most importantly, these sinkers and floats. The sinkers are ready-made lead blocks, which I can melt and reshape into ice fishing sinkers to make my bait sink faster.”

”And these floats, I can repurpose as fishing bobbers or to mark the location of my ice holes.”

As he spoke, he spread out the net fully, assessing its potential.

Suddenly, his gaze fixed on the central area of the net, where the mesh size was noticeably smaller and denser than the edges.

To the camera, his voice turned even more excited: ”This should be the core ’Net Bag’ part of the trawl, the section for ultimately gathering the catch, hence the finest mesh.”