Chapter 161 Arctic Fox (I)
On the brightest day of spring in the Himalayas, Yu Yiyun lay on the warm hillside, falling into a long and deep sleep, her consciousness slowly withdrawing from her body.
I opened my eyes and found myself in the vast white space again.
Yu Yiyun, who had experienced seven battles, believed that:
Oh, I am so strong now!
Nothing shocks me anymore!
Until the Voice of the World finished speaking the fixed lines and began to announce the mission:
[The last ordinary task...]
"Huh? Wait!"
Yu Yiyun's eyes widened, not even bothering to finish listening to the words, and hurriedly interrupted the voice of the world.
"The last one?! Do you mean, after completing this task, I can leave this system?"
The Voice of the World solemnly declared from a mechanical voice without any fluctuations:
[Again, I am not the system.]
Yu Yiyun was too lazy to worry about these details, his brain was spinning rapidly.
He almost forgot that he was weak due to working continuously without sleep, and he was emotionally agitated because of Kang Kang's injury, so he came here with a dark vision.
If you complete the mission and leave this world,
"Will I die?"
Yu Yiyun's tone was extremely calm, as if "death" was an insignificant matter.
Climbing high mountains and diving into the ocean, Yu Yiyun had brushed shoulders with death countless times.
The so-called death does not mean a complete end, but rather a return of life to nature in another form, nurturing the land that gave birth to it.
Yu Yiyun was just a little curious.
"Will I greet death as an animal or as a human?"
[I cannot answer these two questions for now.]
"......Tsk." Yu Yiyun clicked his lips, as if dissing the Voice of the World, "You are a system, how come you don't know anything?"
The Voice of the World was insulted and remained silent for a moment, then decided to reveal some paid content to him.
[If your task completion is high enough, there is a chance to trigger a hidden task.]
"???"
Yu Yiyun pondered it carefully.
Although I don't know what the 'hidden mission' is, it sounds interesting.
Since I have to do a hidden mission, I don’t think I will die for a while.
You can't go to the underworld to do missions, right?
The Voice of the World restored the dignity of 0.1% and continued to announce:
[The next mission's benefits have been prepared for you in advance, congratulations.]
"Huh?"
Yu Yiyun's face was full of confusion.
This was not the first time that I had received preferential treatment, but this was the first time that World Voice congratulated itself for announcing preferential treatment.
Could it be that the cheat code for the next mission is super powerful, the kind that gives you a dragon-slaying sword right at the start?
[The last normal task: spend two complete nights.]
Yu Yiyun heard the mission clearly, and before regaining consciousness, she secretly complained in her heart, "How difficult is it to get through two complete nights? Unless I am a mayfly, born in the morning and dead in the evening."
The moment he opened his eyes, Yu Yiyun was once again speechless at his own naivety.
—Wait, no one told me that one night here is six months!
Looking around, there were white glaciers all around, making Yu Yijun almost think that she was still on the top of the Himalayas.
The environment here is even worse than on top of the Himalayas.
The speed of the rushing wind can reach 320 kilometers per hour.
The lowest temperature of the year is even below -70℃.
Only the most tenacious life can survive here.
The Arctic is home to the world's largest land predator - the polar bear.
The polar bear is 1.6 meters tall at the shoulder and about 2.5 meters long, and its bite force is 1.5 times that of a tiger.
Healthy males can weigh more than 1,000 kilograms and are the most ferocious top hunters in the entire Arctic.
I have experience in being a bear.
Yu Yiyun lowered her head confidently, looked at her five-toed paws, the soft white fur on her belly, and touched her small round ears.
The strongest hunter in the polar glacier...Oh, it turns out that it’s not me.
Yu Yiyun could even vaguely guess which species she belonged to by looking at her own overly miniature paws and the brown-black fur covering her forelimbs.
The Arctic fox is the best adapted small mammal to cold environments and the only canid that can shed its fur seasonally.
People's impression of the Arctic fox is that it is dressed in fairy-like white clothes, elegant and beautiful.
In ancient legends, Daji is often portrayed as an Arctic fox with eight tails.
The extremely beautiful white fur once brought disaster to the Arctic fox.
In 20th century Europe, an Arctic fox skin was worth an ordinary worker's annual salary, which led people to hunt Arctic foxes on a large scale.
When hunting was at its most rampant, there were only 50 Arctic foxes in Norway, an important habitat for the Arctic fox, and they were at risk of local extinction at any time.
In recent years, with the promulgation of relevant laws, Arctic foxes are no longer in danger of being killed because of their gorgeous fur.
In fact, the Arctic fox's current appearance is purely to adapt to the extreme environment of the polar regions.
The small round ears are not easily frostbitten, the short and thick limbs are conducive to heat concentration, and the thick white fur covering the paw pads can help the Arctic fox stay warm in extreme weather.
According to scientists' research results, it is generally believed that the Arctic fox originated from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
During the Ice Age, cold-adapted foxes first arrived in places like Iceland. As the environment and climate changed, they slowly evolved into the current population.
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau?
It turns out that Fox and Leopard were fellow villagers millions of years ago~!
It is now the tail end of the polar day, and the sun, which is about to go to the South Pole to stand guard, is still shining brightly on the earth.
The Arctic glaciers are the real empire on which the sun never sets.
The Arctic fox family, which lives in the circum-Arctic region, has not yet taken off its summer clothes.
Unlike the glutinous rice balls that people imagine, during the polar day, the Arctic fox's fur is brown, almost the same as the exposed rocks on the seaside cliffs.
The tan fur can better absorb heat from the sun and provide camouflage, allowing Arctic foxes to climb mountains and rob bird nests without being discovered.
But...
Yu Yijun tilted the dog's head up and silently looked at the same kind passing by in the distance.
The seasons are about to change, and some foxes' winter fur has not yet completely shed, while some foxes' winter fur is about to grow out.
Looking around, every fox was in an awkward period, with black and white patches on their bodies, looking like they had some skin disease.
Before winter comes, foxes can only remain ugly.
Yu Yiyun sighed slowly.
Now is not the time to worry about appearance, there are more pressing issues that must be addressed.
It is already September. On September 22, the autumnal equinox, the entire Arctic will turn from polar day to polar night, ushering in a long winter.
The polar winter is a metaphor for the coldness of all the winters Yiyun has experienced before.
Polar animals cannot replenish enough calories and will definitely freeze into ice sculptures in the ice and snow.
Yu Yiyun estimated that she was no more than four or five months old and was a newborn Arctic fox cub this year.
The probability of a newborn Arctic fox surviving until next spring is only about 7%.
If the hungry and skinny little fox wants to be among the 7% that survive, it must eat a lot before the polar day arrives.
According to Yu Yiyun's survival experience, cats are used to living alone, while dogs tend to live in groups.
But the Arctic fox population is an exception.
If there are a large amount of food resources in the territory, it is possible that Arctic foxes will be attracted to live collectively and gather into relatively large groups.
Yu Yiyun lives too close to the central polar region. When winter comes, glaciers will connect the surrounding islands into one.
Once the nearby seabirds fly away and there is not enough food for them to share, it will be difficult for the Arctic foxes to survive together.
At that time, not only the newborn Arctic fox cubs had to leave their parents, but even the Arctic fox couples had to separate and wait to reunite next spring.
The little fox knew that he could not rely on his own kind and had to hunt on his own.
But he was now tired and hungry, and extremely weak. He didn't even have the strength to walk, let alone hunt.
The poor little fox was dying of hunger. He mustered up his last bit of strength and climbed onto a large piece of ice that had floated from nowhere.
It's almost polar night, and the surface of the Arctic Ocean has frozen again, large enough for the little fox to use as a playground.
Yu Yiyun's stomach was rumbling and he had no mood to play.
Just as he was wondering if he would starve to death and then drift to the center of the pole on the ice floe.
Suddenly, the surrounding sea water fluctuated violently, causing the ice floes to rise and fall.
The little fox lying on the edge of the ice floe was afraid that it would be swept into the sea by the big waves. It wanted to move to another place, but its limbs had no strength.
Help, help!
Fox complained madly in his heart: What a crappy system, at least leave me some energy to find food!
Starving to death at the start, Yu Yiyun couldn’t even see the shadow of the night, let alone survive two complete nights?
Just as the little fox was full of complaints, thinking that after starving to death, he would definitely seek revenge on the rubbish system that firmly stated "I am not the system".
Ahead, small fountains suddenly gushed out from the surging sea.
Yu Yiyun's eyes widened, her heart pounding wildly.
Having traveled all over the five oceans, Yu Yiyun has seen many large fish and has developed the ability to identify animals by their blowhole fountains.
The ones with taller blowhole fountains are whales, while the ones with shorter ones are dolphins.
Because whales breathe more steadily and concentratedly, the water columns they spray out are basically vertical and are accompanied by a low sound.
Combining the height, shape, and sound of the water column, Yu Yiyun has almost confirmed:
"Hmm?" Fat Tiger, is that you?
The killer whale, who thought the water above the Arctic was too cold and was unwilling to freeze an ice shell hat on himself, leaving only his blowhole exposed for breathing, was startled by hearing a strange tone of voice speaking a language he could understand, and raised his big eggplant-like head from the bottom of the water.
"Squeak?" Who are you? Why are you imitating me?
"Chirp!" My name is not Fat Tiger, my name is Killer Whale!
“Bing bing!” Fat Tiger!!!
Seeing a new whale friend, Yu Yiyun's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Chirp!" Stupid dog, everyone says my name is killer whale!
"Squeak~" We floated out, let's play that game!
"Chiu~" Okay, okay~
The two killer whales reached some kind of consensus and dived back to the bottom of the sea. They picked out the tusked narwhal, which had only eaten 40% of the fish and was a picky eater who didn't like the rest, threw it high out of the water, and then used their big tails to fan it onto the ice floe.
"Chirp!" I took the picture so far away!
"Squeak!" I must have taken the photo from far away!
The second killer whale dived into the sea, picked up the Greenland shark, which had also only eaten the liver, and threw it high into the air.
The Greenland shark is the largest fish in the polar region, with a maximum length of 4 meters and a weight of over 2,000 kilograms.
The shark caught by the killer whale was not big, but it only ate the liver and tongue, and the "leftovers" weighed several hundred kilograms.
Killer Whale No. 2 slapped the shark with all his strength, but could only barely slap the shark next to the little fox.
Fortunately, Yu Yiyun used all his strength and rolled several times, so he was not crushed to death by the gift from nature.
Judging from the killer whales' conversation, 'patting food ashore' is their favorite game, and all killer whales that come to the Arctic do this.
In the vastness, Yu Yiyun remembered what the Voice of the World said, "The preferential treatment for the next task has been prepared for you in advance."
Yu Yiyun originally thought that the "preferential treatment" should be like in the previous worlds, allowing her to master skills for no reason or enjoy preferential treatment in terms of time.
However, World Voices specifically emphasizes 'in advance'.
In a trance, Yu Yiyun thought of a certain summer, when he was still a killer whale, and he and his friends threw the uneaten food onto the shore.
There is a popular saying in the human world: A bullet fired many years later will hit you right between the eyebrows.
To make an analogy, Yu Yiyun took a picture of the food on the shore, and successfully saved his dog’s life many years later!
"Yingying!" Fat Tiger, thank you!
"Squeak!" I'm not Fat Tiger!
"Chirp!" I'm going to ignore you, you rude dog.
"Squeak?" Why can I understand what he said? Are we the same kind as dogs?
"Chirp!" Impossible, he can't swim!
"Squeak~" Grandma said, our grandmother's grandmother's grandmother...our grandmother also couldn't swim.
"Chirp?" So if I climbed ashore, would I look like a fool?
The two killer whales were chatting, and because their heads were frozen by the ice shell hats on their heads, they slowly sank into the water.
Little Fox: ...
You two are swearing so filthy.
Besides, you killer whales belong to the order "Cetacea Artiodactyla", and even-toed ungulate animals living on the surface are all prey!
Yu Yiyun only dared to think about it in his heart and did not dare to say anything.
You know, once you are in the sea, not to mention fur seals, even sea lions and seals are prey to even-toed ungulates.
Nature is so amazing that even the food chain can be reversed.
Yu Yiyun propped himself up and did not run towards the shark that was closer to him. Instead, he rolled and crawled towards the narwhal.
It's not that he is picky, but he is using his last bit of energy to seek something far away instead of something near.
During the years he was a killer whale, he experienced how unpalatable shark meat was.
In addition to being unpalatable, Arctic sharks also have high concentrations of trimethylamine oxide in their bodies due to their long-term activity in polar regions. These substances will decompose into toxic substances after consumption, causing small people to experience nausea, diarrhea, and dizziness after eating them.
As we all know, it is irresponsible to talk about toxicity without considering the dosage.
Yu Yiyun, a little cat weighing only 50 grams when born, and currently weighing less than 7 kilograms including skin and fur, weighs only one twentieth of that of an adult male.
He doesn't even need to eat it, he will be poisoned immediately after just two licks.
Dog’s life matters!
Even though the little fox was 0.1 seconds away from starving to death, it still struggled with all its might and finally crawled to the side of the narwhal's wreckage.
The polar day has not yet ended, but the Arctic is already very cold.
The narwhal was out of the water for three minutes and the surface had frozen into ice.
Fortunately, in order to adapt to the environment, Arctic foxes develop very quickly. They start trying solid food at 2 or 3 months old, and practice hunting and eating independently at around half a year old.
Arctic foxes that have the conditions will live in family nests until they become independent at around 1 year old.
Foxes like Yu Yiyun, who have limited living resources, must support themselves as soon as possible and help their parents raise their younger siblings in the coming year.
Yu Yiyun, who had already adapted to solid food, lay beside the remains of a narwhal that were many times larger than herself, gnawing on them obsessively, wishing she could put all the meat into her body that weighed less than 15 pounds.
As he was chewing, the ice surface suddenly tilted sharply.
The little fox used its claws and feet to hold on to the whale that was frozen to the ice, preventing it from sliding off the sloping ice surface.
The irregular ice surface tilted twice in succession. Yu Yiyun turned around and found a polar bear coming ashore from the place where he had just landed.
Arctic foxes mainly live in the circum-Arctic region, and their activity range overlaps with that of polar bears who live in polar glacier areas, but not much.
In recent years, due to the large-scale melting of glaciers, many polar bears have been forced to expand their foraging range and even come to the coast to catch seabirds.
Their huge bodies are not designed to catch seabirds, and they often go to great lengths to catch nothing.
Animals will slowly evolve adaptively according to the environment.
Due to the frequent impact of humans on the climate, the environment in the Arctic region has changed drastically, and organisms may face extinction before they have time to evolve.
Yu Yiyun saw the polar bear climbing up the ice floe, with a hill-like peak on its back and deep depressions on both sides of its abdomen. He guessed that it must have come to the island because it could not find food in its territory, so it endured hunger.
The fox retreated in fear, fearing that the bear would slap him to death in order to steal his food.
The polar bear just glanced at the little fox, then rushed towards the nearest Greenland shark without looking back and started to devour it.
Shark bites are somewhat toxic, but polar bears are so large that a tiny amount of toxin is not enough to kill them.
Because the activity ranges of polar bears and Greenland sharks do not overlap much, and polar bears cannot swim fast in the water, they are simply unable to catch sharks.
So far, there has been no record of polar bears being poisoned by eating sleeper sharks.
Seeing that it was absorbed in eating the sleeping shark and had no intention of snatching her food for the time being, Yu Yiyun lowered her head and swallowed it down like a swan first, hoping to fill herself to death.
The frozen fish meat was too hard, and Yu Yiyun chewed it hard.
Looking back, I saw the polar bear changed from standing to squatting, swallowing the shark meat in big mouthfuls.
It was not until it squatted down that Yu Yiyun discovered that there was a barely noticeable bulge on its skinny belly.
It turned out to be a mother bear with cubs.
In order to store enough fat to give birth to cubs before winter, mother bears don't even bother to choose their food.
It might not be a big deal for an ordinary polar bear to eat a meal of sleeping shark meat.
Living in the Arctic, who doesn’t have some toxins and heavy metals in their body?
But a mother bear with cubs eats so much poisonous meat that if she becomes unwell, both mother and her cubs will not be able to survive the winter.
"Hiss!" Bear!
Yu Yiyun made a sharp fox sound to attract the polar bear's attention.
The polar bear looked over. It had already noticed the little fox and the food beside him.
The bear, which was huge, had terrifying fighting power and could kill several foxes with one claw, did not go over to fight for it.
In the past few years, when polar bears could still catch seals, they also encountered Arctic foxes, squatting in the distance, eagerly waiting to pick up garbage.
They have small appetites, and the seal carcasses left by the bears can feed several little foxes. They clean up the broken bones and meat very carefully to avoid the risk of being discovered by their own kind or alarming the prey.
In such an environment, no one can find food. Even if the Arctic fox is full, the bear will only eat one less bite.
Besides, there is a prey that he has never seen before.
Polar bears are very receptive to prey, even carrion. Although sharks are unpalatable, they will eat anything for the sake of their babies.
“Hiss!”
Yu Yiyun continued to issue warnings at a high frequency, bravely ran over and pretended to take a few bites of shark meat.
Then he let out a cry of pain, kicked his legs and fell down pretending to be dead.
There is a widely circulated misunderstanding in the human world: if you see a bear, you can escape as long as you pretend to be dead.
In fact, bears have very sharp senses and can tell whether something is dead or not.
As the top hunters in the polar regions, polar bears have a certain level of intelligence and know how to use tools, imitate, and socialize.
Seeing the little fox lying there pretending to be dead, the bear used his mouth to nudge the little fox over and helped it turn over.
Yu Yiyun got up, and fearing that the polar bear didn't understand, she demonstrated the process of 'eating meat will lead to death' again.
The polar bear seemed to understand, and looked at the remaining shark meat with obvious hesitation.
Yu Yijun had just eaten a lot and recovered his strength. He ran to the narwhal and loudly invited the polar bear to share food with him.
If polar bears want to accumulate enough fat to survive the winter, they must catch at least 60 seals.
A seal weighs 100-200 kilograms, and the narwhal thrown ashore by the killer whale weighs at least 1,000 kilograms, which is equivalent to it catching ten seals.
For a mother bear with cubs, this food is far from enough.
But with this meal, the mother bear regains her strength and has a greater chance of finding prey.
The mother bear obeyed the call of the little fox and came to the Arctic fox, and was briefly confused.
In the past, she would eat the seals and leave the remains for the drooling Arctic foxes.
Now, this Arctic fox, which is less than half a year old, actually took the initiative to share food with him.
“Ouch.”
The polar bear let out two low cries, lowered its head, and tore into the food in big mouthfuls.
Upon seeing this, Yu Yiyun approached the narwhal wreckage and took a tentative bite, but was not attacked.
Perhaps in the eyes of a female polar bear, an Arctic fox with round ears that are not even as big as her own paws is similar to a newborn cub.
The little fox forced himself to ignore the fact that he was now covered in black and white patches and his appearance had plummeted to the bottom. He filled his stomach happily and greedily packed a large piece of meat right under the nose of the polar bear.
He circled around, jumped off the glacier to the point closest to the island, walked back to the shore in water that covered his legs, and began to search for his relatives by following the scent.
The little fox is not yet old enough to be independent, but it is starving to death. It must be because its parent animal met with an accident... uh.
Yu Yiyun followed the scent to the foot of the sunny hillside and found his own hidden and tangled nest.
The dens of Arctic foxes are like underground mazes, often with several entrances. Some dens have been used for hundreds of years and have served the Arctic fox family from generation to generation.
The little fox wandered around, found the entrance to his den, and blew the whistle that the fox family used for communication.
After just 30 seconds, a gray head popped up.
Yu Yiyun sniffed the scent and determined that he should be his younger brother, and was about to go over to him.
"Wow!"
Another furry head popped out soon after.
Then came the third, fourth, fifth...and the ninth.
When the fifth fox head appeared, Yu Yijun was already confused.
As a result, after the ninth little fox appeared cutely, another one ran back howling.
Yu Yiyun turned around mechanically and saw a thin, weathered adult fox with a smell of class, holding a lemming in its mouth and staggering towards the nest.
Before the big fox approached the den, several little foxes gathered around it, chirping and asking their father to feed them first.
Yu Yiyun: …
I finally understood why I couldn't eat enough.
Is this the price of having more children than allowed?
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