Chapter 57: The Blind Bear

"Dad, I have to go get my gear back. I won't let that bastard Sun Daqiang take advantage of me."
"If the trap's caught a nice piece of game, our family won't have to worry about lacking meat to eat while we stay cooped up for the winter!"
"As for safety, you can put your mind completely at ease! Your son here is sharp as a tack; I'm not going to take any reckless risks."
As Lin Yang spoke, he turned on his heel and bolted outside.
He had never feared anything in his life except his mother.
Taking advantage of the fact that his mother hadn't returned from her outing yet, he had to make a run for it.
Otherwise, once she got back, he probably wouldn't even be able to step out the front door.
The feather duster in his mother's hand showed absolutely no mercy, and her signature method of disciplining him with bamboo shoots and pork was becoming increasingly proficient.
Right about now, the household feather dusters were practically turning into single-use items.
Take the pheasant he had managed to bag a couple of days ago, for instance—the feathers had been made into a duster, only for his mother to use it to beat the living daylights out of him yesterday.
Feathers had gone flying everywhere, most of them ending up stuck to him.
Lin Yang secretly vowed that the next time he bagged a pheasant, the very first thing he would do was pluck every single feather out, just to keep his mother from using them as a weapon again.
"You little rascal, you better watch your step up on that mountain!"
He hadn't even run a few yards when his father's anxious shout echoed from behind.
Turning his head to see his father hobbling out in pursuit, Lin Yang hurriedly yelled back a response before vanishing like a gust of wind.
The materials he had carefully selected and bought from the supply and marketing cooperative earlier had indeed all been used to set hunting traps.
He had already successfully taken down a lynx with them, leaving behind only a few wire snares scattered across the mountain.
The spots where he laid those traps were so deeply concealed that even if Sun Daqiang led a whole mob of people wandering around the mountain like headless flies, they wouldn't necessarily find them.
Yet two full days had passed, and those snares hadn't even caught a shadow of any game.
One of the snares had even been smashed apart by something.
Last night's heavy snow had covered the surrounding tracks like a thick quilt, making it impossible to tell what kind of creature had kicked the trap to pieces.
Still, Lin Yang figured in his heart that a wild boar was the most likely culprit.
He hadn't forgotten that back when he was hunting the lynx, he had already spotted a massive wild boar.
That was likely a whole sounder of wild boars.
Because if it were just a solitary boar separated from the herd, given a boar's fiery, firecracker-like temper—especially after leaving its group—it wouldn't have stood on ceremony with him at all and would have charged straight at him in a furious rage.
And what terrified people the most was the king of the wild boars in this mountain forest, which could weigh anywhere from five to six hundred catties.
If those sharp tusks rammed into a person, it would leave two bloody holes in an instant; who could possibly withstand that kind of impact?
Seeing that his traps had yielded nothing, Lin Yang simply activated the system's game-locking feature.
As he walked along, he spotted plenty of tracks left by various animals, but right now he neither had the time to stake out rabbit holes nor the inclination to chase after pheasants.
His mind was entirely focused on tracking the footprints left by Sun Daqiang and his dozen-plus companions, and he strode resolutely toward the deep mountains.
When he reached a fork in the trail, Lin Yang came to a halt, his brows knitting tightly together into a deep frown as doubt crept into his mind.
Should he go straight after Sun Daqiang's crowd, or should he track down that old bear?
The bear might not necessarily be anywhere else, but those dozen-odd people were bound to cross paths with the forestry bureau team.
He remembered from his past life that it took the forestry bureau team three or four days to finally locate that bear.
Back then, it took over twenty men armed with Type 81 and Semi-automatic 56 rifles, and even resulted in one serious injury among them, before they finally managed to turn that bear into a living sieve.
After pondering for a while, Lin Yang finally made up his mind.
Even if he caught up with the forestry bureau team right now, why on earth would they believe him?
However, if he could track down that bear and take it out with a single shot, the gunshot would definitely draw the forestry bureau team over.
And if he could kill the bear with one shot, he wouldn't need to waste his breath explaining anything else.
Once his mind was made up, he didn't look back as he headed in the direction of Wild Boar Ridge.
In this world of ice and snow, Lin Yang trudged alone through the mountain forest.
With every step he took, his boots crunched against the snow, sounding particularly abrupt in the silent woods.
He kept the system's scanning function active at all times, his nerves strung tight like a bow, terrified of being targeted by some massive predator.
After all, he had already penetrated deep into the mountains, and once he crested the next ridge, he would reach the mountain hollow where the bear was hiding.
As soon as he entered the hollow, Lin Yang's sharp gaze locked onto a set of bear tracks.
The footprints hadn't yet been covered by the falling snow; they were clearly fresh prints left just a short while ago.
A surge of quiet excitement rose in his chest, and he immediately followed the trail.
Yet he hadn't tracked it far before his heart leapt straight into his throat.
The system scan remained completely dead, failing to give any warning at all.
Feeling a sense of foreboding, Lin Yang hurried back to the spot where he had last seen the tracks.
Taking a few deep breaths, he forced his racing heart to steady and muttered to himself,
"I never thought this old bear would be so devilishly crafty, actually treating me as the prey and intentionally leading me into a trap..."
"Circling around like that, it's very likely it has already snuck up behind me. But it definitely isn't within fifty meters, otherwise the system would have given a warning."
Lin Yang narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning his surroundings like a vigilant leopard for any sign of movement.
The bear's cunning meant he couldn't afford to be careless for even a second.
At the same time, a piece of folklore passed down from generation to generation among hunters rang out in his mind:
*When a bear circles round, your fate is up in the air!*
Without a moment's hesitation, Lin Yang resolutely strode into the mountain hollow.
Ignoring the bear's tracks entirely, he carefully unslung the Mosin-Nagant rifle from his back and expertly chambered a round.
Now, his pace slowed to a crawl; every step felt like a cautious probe, his concentration heightened to the utmost, as if the surrounding air had frozen solid.
He knew that when a bear circled, it rarely made a second loop, meaning the beast couldn't possibly be too far away from him.
Moreover, since he had altered his route and stopped following the tracks, no matter how smart the bear was, it was ultimately just a beast and lacked the patience to keep playing games with him forever.
Just as he expected, right on cue.
Just as he was about to step into a clearing within the hollow, the system alert chimed abruptly in his mind:
[Prey detected—Asian Black Bear. Would you like to use the intermediate prey-locking skill?]