King of the Wilderness

Lin Yu’an was crafting while explaining his upcoming plan to the camera, ”Although I can now engage in stable ice fishing, the efficiency is still not up to my expectations.”

”If I could have a 24-hour automatic fishing device, my chances of obtaining food sources would greatly increase.”

”So I plan to make an underwater stinging net, referring to the traditional method of laying nets under the ice, which is entirely feasible given my current conditions.”

He immediately set to work on his plan.

He did not choose randomly but walked through the forest for nearly ten minutes, scrutinizing each candidate tree with a critical eye, and finally felled six approximately three-meter-long, wrist-thick straight spruce tree poles.

After selecting them, he used a handsaw to process the six poles, then dragged each piece of timber to an open snowy area in front of the ice to begin fine processing.

Then, using the back of an axe as a hammer, he swiftly knocked off all the remaining stubs of thick branches. This process was not only for smoothness but also to minimize the poles’ fluid resistance during underwater movement to the greatest extent.

The focus of the processing was on both ends. He used the tip of a knife to mark five centimeters from each end of the pole as a center, and using a small, measured piece of rope as a radius, drew a perfect circle.

Then, along this circle, he carefully carved an inward groove one centimeter wide and half a centimeter deep.

This groove is the core of the entire connecting structure, providing an absolutely stable, non-slipping physical catch point for subsequent binding.

Then, he returned to the ice, picked up the heavy Ice Drill, and first drilled a hole in the ice near the riverbank at his feet.

He stood up, roughly estimated the distance across the river, and walked about fourteen meters. To ensure the two openings aligned precisely, he used the most primitive yet reliable measurement method.

He dismantled that roll of nylon rope he had, angled the ax blade into the ice at the first hole with all his strength, and firmly set the ax handle upright on the ice, forming an excellent temporary anchor point.

Then, he tied one end of the nylon rope with a solid slipknot at the base of the ax handle.

Holding the entire roll of rope, he started walking toward the opposite bank, with the nylon rope unwinding continually with his movement.

After walking about fourteen meters, he stopped, turned around, and began to pull the rope backward with force.

The slack rope instantly tightened, forming a straight blue line on the ice, almost without any curve.

But he did not start drilling immediately; instead, he maintained the tautness of the rope, moved a few small steps to the left or right like the axis of a pendulum.

As he moved, he looked back, scrutinizing the angle between this blue line and the riverbank until it presented a perfect ninety-degree perpendicular with the water flow—and he found the most ideal, efficient interception position.

After confirming it was correct, he lifted the Ice Drill to the final position he had selected, aimed the drill tip’s guide point at the ice beneath his feet, and pressed his body weight onto it.

The guide point immediately ”bit” into the solid ice, firmly securing the drill without any possibility of slipping.

Then he began to apply force, turning the crank to drill the second ice hole.

The blue nylon rope lay quietly between the two openings, silently proving his precise work.

The most challenging part began.

On the ice, he laid out the six processed spruce tree poles one by one, end to end, and used the previous professional cross-binding method to securely connect each pole’s end with the next pole’s front.

After nearly half an hour of meticulous work, he created an astonishing tool! A long stick composed of six wooden poles, with a total length approaching eighteen meters.

The sole mission of this long stick was to send that crucial nylon guide rope to the ice hole on the opposite bank; he securely tied the end of the guide rope to the pointed front end of the long stick.

Sending this giant ”wooden spear” into the small ice hole was a cumbersome and arduous task.

He first inserted the front end of the long stick into the water, then had to lift the entire back end of the long stick, tilting it, gradually inserting it into the ice hole bit by bit.

Then, gripping the end of the long stick tightly, he began to push forward with all his might.

The eighteen-meter-long wooden stick generated enormous resistance and inertia underwater. He had to exert great effort to advance each centimeter while constantly fighting the water current, correcting the direction.

Lin Yu’an focused completely as he pushed, and when he felt only the last small section of the long stick remained in his hands, he knew the front end of the stick had reached beneath the ice hole on the opposite bank.

He took out a pre-prepared piece of spruce tree trunk from his backpack, weighing at least twenty kilograms.

He carefully placed this trunk on the last small exposed segment of the long stick outside the ice hole.

The lever principle instantly took effect!

As the end was heavily pressed down, a tremendous force was transmitted through the eighteen-meter-long pole, and underwater, several meters away, the front end of the long stick received a huge upward force, starting to lift sharply!

”Thud!” A dull crashing sound came from the opposite bank, the sound of the front end of the long stick slamming hard against the underside of the ice layer!