Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 378 - 184: First Night in the Wilderness

With this big basket full of carbohydrates, he would have ample energy for the entire day ahead, and the most important task he had to carry out today was building a shelter.

Li Younan, holding the basket, returned to the chosen shelter location.

Even though he had already observed the spot earlier, now that he was about to start constructing the shelter, some details needed careful consideration.

However, Li Younan decided to fill his stomach first at this moment.

He planned to make a fire and cook a meal.

As it was his first meal in this place, many things were not yet prepared and hadn’t settled into a routine, so he had to make do for now.

He set up the camera at several fixed positions and said, "Today’s mission is to set up the shelter, but for today, we’ll just do a rough job. It doesn’t have to be too exquisite, just ensure a place to spend the night tonight. Before that, we need to cook."

After explaining to the camera, Li Younan picked up an axe and a saw. Of course, he didn’t forget his bow and hunting knife — after all, this was the wilderness, and Li Younan would never let them leave his side. He headed towards a nearby black pine tree.

The area was surrounded by trees, but Li Younan intended to clear the area near the shelter first.

There were more than a dozen trees here, and in fact, cutting them down would provide enough materials to build the shelter.

Working in front of the camera, Li Younan sawed down a black pine tree as thick as a dinner plate, then quickly trimmed off the branches with an axe, gathering the cut branches to start a fire. He then chopped the thinner parts of the black pine tree into several sections, each about one meter high.

With these pieces of black pine, Li Younan quickly set up a simple frame, suspended a thinner piece of wood across the middle, and was able to hang his large pot for cooking.

He gauged the setup — without a proper stove, he’d have to make do with this for now, but he was still quite satisfied. Then he took the pot to a waterfall in the small woods to get water.

The place to fetch water was located in a stream not far below the small waterfall. The water came from melting glaciers and hadn’t been polluted by industry or animals, so with minimal filtering, it was safe to drink. However, due to potential microbial risks, Li Younan certainly wouldn’t drink it without boiling it first.

As he carried the pot back, he silently estimated the round-trip time for fetching water to be about 5 minutes. Although short, it was rather inconvenient as he didn’t have any proper water storage equipment, relying solely on the pot for fetching and drinking, lacking portable bottles or cups.

But for Li Younan, this was just a temporary inconvenience for now.

Upon returning to the campsite, he sighed slightly.

All things considered, there were quite a few problems to be solved next. This journey wouldn’t be as leisurely as he initially imagined.

Nevertheless, this fueled his interest; doing everything by hand could be quite interesting.

The food collected this time was all carbohydrates.

Li Younan simply handled two pieces of wild ginger and set them aside for later use.

Sorrel, also known as wild spinach, is rich in vitamin C, so Li Younan decided to eat these along with a starchy tuber for this meal, while planning to set aside the remaining blackberries and other starchy tubers.

He specifically planned to spend some time collecting more starchy tubers once he settled down, extracting and storing the starch from them.

It was summer, and to be honest, finding carbohydrates was quite easy. This abundance would last until September, but it would become troublesome to find them once the weather turned cold.

While not worried about protein and fat sources, Li Younan had to plan for carbohydrates in advance.

Starchy tubers and berries would spoil and rot over time, so extracting and storing the starch separately was the best solution for long-term storage.

To be honest, Li Younan’s first meal tasted quite ordinary.

Yet, as he ate the wild spinach on camera, he unreservedly commented, "This tastes like a failed kimchi dish. However, this wild spinach is rich in vitamin C, and I recommend cooking it for a better taste. Due to the presence of oxalic acid, avoid excessive consumption."

He then picked out the cut tubers.

The show had provided all contestants with some essential equipment, including metal Western-style cutlery, but Li Younan used chopsticks he made himself.

He used the pot lid as a bowl, displaying the tubers he was eating to the camera: "These are rhizomes of cattail, containing carbohydrates. Many plant tubers here store carbohydrates, but I don’t recommend random consumption without knowledge, as some can be toxic."

With that said, Li Younan took a hot bite of the rhizome.

A moment later, he slightly nodded, showing a hint of satisfaction, and smiled, saying, "It’s better than I expected."

The taste is somewhat like cooked taro, with a powdery texture and a slight natural sweetness, although it was slightly earthier than domesticated crops.

Li Younan ate slowly, savoring and explaining the key points of consuming such tuber foods: "You must wash them thoroughly and peel them. If not cooked well, they can be quite coarse."

After finishing his main meal, Li Younan took a few bites of blackberries as a post-meal fruit, nodding as he ate, "The taste of blackberries is better than I expected."

Then Li Younan thoughtfully commented, "Well, because this area is a highland environment with significant temperature differences between day and night, it’s very conducive to sugar sedimentation. So the berries here, as well as the root vegetables we had before, all have a very high sugar content."

Next, Li Younan picked up a piece of root vegetable and said, "I roughly estimated that this kind of root contains at least 20% starch."

You should know that this figure isn’t much different from ordinary potatoes, no wonder some contestants could survive on just this kind of root.

However, the texture of this root is much worse than potatoes.

But Li Younan already had a solution in mind, which was to extract all the starch from these roots. The extraction method is quite simple, though there isn’t any particularly handy tool at the moment.

He sighed slightly, realizing there was still plenty to do, but it was precisely because of this that he wasn’t bored and didn’t feel the loneliness from the lack of human interaction.

After the meal, it was around 2 PM. Although he didn’t have a watch, the satellite phone they had, while it couldn’t go online, did have basic time display.

It was about the warmest time of the day, but only in the 20s Celsius, overall quite comfortable.

Li Younan planned to construct his temporary shelter before sunset and began to get busy.

His idea for the shelter was that it must be expandable, meaning it could be continuously adjusted, improved, and have its functions expanded based on the current stage.

Although it was clear sky, it was hard to predict when it might start raining. At least a third of the days by Chilco Lake in the summer have rain, and while it’s not a large proportion, getting caught in a downpour would be quite troublesome.

If you catch a cold out here in the wilderness, it could worsen if not handled properly.

The gear they were provided with included a full set of waterproof clothing, but it wasn’t comfortable to sleep in such attire because it wasn’t breathable.

As Li Younan had decided to enjoy a leisurely holiday here, he set high standards for his shelter, which meant it definitely couldn’t be completed in just one day.

Before officially setting up the shelter, Li Younan decided to first create a place to sleep.

He sawed down about seven or eight trees nearby and dragged them to the location for the shelter, quickly building a simple cabin, covering it with waterproof fabric, so at least it would not leak rain.

To prevent wild animals from attacking at night, Li Younan set up wooden spikes toward the side not facing the mountain, which took most of his time.

Even so, the cabin had nothing else, temporarily serving just for sleeping. Thankfully, it was still summer, and nighttime temperatures wouldn’t drop to freezing.

Li Younan then assembled strips of wood into a simple bed, laying it with pine needles, which counted as a temporary spot to sleep.

Next, the real shelter construction would begin.

Before that, there was a lot of groundwork to be done.

Frequent builders know that the critical first step in building a house is laying the foundation.

The terrain at this spot was already quite level, but Li Younan still wasn’t very satisfied.

Before dark, he crafted a makeshift wooden shovel using a saw and hunting knife. Although it couldn’t compare to a metal shovel, it was more than adequate for laying the foundation.

Li Younan flattened the chosen spot and then determined several spots for driving stakes, filling them with rubble to ensure the foundation wouldn’t sink.

By this time, the sun was gradually setting.

Li Younan made himself another dinner to replenish his energy.

It must be said, due to the system’s enhancement of his body, even after a busy day, he didn’t feel too tired.

After dinner, Li Younan crawled into his temporary cabin to rest. The cabin was just the size of a bathroom, and once inside, it was utterly dark.

Only then did he have some realizations; ancient people worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, and damn, what was there to do at night if you didn’t sleep?

It was at times like this that the feeling of solitude emerged, whereas during the day, with constant tasks and goals, there was no idle thinking.

Luckily, Li Younan was excellent at falling asleep. He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax and fall asleep within minutes.

And this was just the first day.