Livestreaming the Hunt - Chapter 36
Chapter 36: The Extremely Expensive Saker Falcon
[Hunting quest: The Peak of Snowy Raptors]
[Hunting type: Classic hunt]
[Hunt objective: Adult Saker Falcon under the control of an illegal hunter (0/2)]
[Hunting grounds: Yunnan Province, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Deqin County, third peak of the Prince Snow Mountains]
[Hunt difficulty: Two stars]
[Real requests: Both adult Saker Falcons must be captured alive]
[Real rewards: 20,000-dollar bounty, jointly offered by the China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Yunnan Animal Rescue Center]
[System request: Set up a livestream of the hunt and achieve a popularity of 3,000+ concurrent viewers]
[Completion rewards: Unknown]
[System request 2: A five-day limit will be imposed for a successful hunt after entry into the hunting grounds (Note: Hunt completion rate affects final scoring)]
[Completion rewards: Unknown]
[System request: In classic hunt mode, you may bring along any number of hunting companions, but no food, modern vehicles, or hot weapons are allowed into the hunting grounds]
Even if the System Quests showed that his target was the Saker Falcons, what he really had to hunt were humans!
Wang Kui promptly turned on his computer to browse through any related data.
“On the 14th of July of the year 2022, the incident of illegal hunting of falcons in Yunnan that stunned the nation was solved. A student from Spring City University in Yunnan has been arrested for acting as a broker for illegal hunting, selling several young crested falcons and earning over 8,000 dollars. While he has been sentenced to three years of jail, the mastermind, Lao Jiu, is still at large!”
“It has been understood that Lao Jiu is the head of illegal trading of Saker Falcons in Yunnan. Poachers would sell their quarries at a wholesale price, while he would, in turn, sell the birds to falconers and other hobbyists via Tieba, QQ groups, and other channels at inflated prices, gaining massive capital that has amounted to millions!”
“At the moment, his syndicate has been taken down, and his lackeys have revealed that they have recently struck a major deal. Two northern poachers had poached Saker Falcons on the Third Peak of the Prince Snow Mountains, located at the Deqin County, with a middleman having headed up the mountains to seal the deal.”
“The local police had ventured up the snow mountains immediately to make arrests upon gaining that information. However, the Prince Snow Mountains are high above sea level, its range vast, and its forest dense. The volatile weather and the numerous wild animals also hampered their efforts, while the poachers themselves wielded compound bows, custom hunting rifles, as well as other illegal weaponry. Some officers were injured in their efforts while the poachers and their contact are still on the run, making their arrest exceedingly difficult…”
The university student had been sentenced over ten days ago, while the news of the attempted arrests was from two days before.
Wang Kui read the information until the very end, noting that the Deqin County had posted a fifty-grand bounty on the poachers, with experienced hunters with gun permits prioritized.
“They’ve really got guts, attacking police…”
He could not calm down for a long time after he was done reading.
Still, it made sense after he thought about it. Saker Falcons were extremely rare and had become very popular over recent years, both domestically and internationally. After the movie ‘No Man’s Land’ had hit theaters back then and many people had since gained awareness, preservation of the birds of prey had become stricter, and Mongol had banned the exportation of Saker Falcons since 2012. Moreover, these creatures lived in areas of high sea levels, making the survival rate for their young as well as their fertility rates very low.
He had even heard that a perfect Saker Falcon could sell for the astronomical price of a hundred thousand US dollars in the middle-east!
With so much money on the line and the Saker Falcon being a tier-two nationally protected species, arrest meant at least ten years of jail—there was little wonder as to why those men would go that far.
Be that as it may, the two-star difficulty meant that he would not be up against the poachers themselves, but the blackhearted middleman instead.
Still, the dangers were still there.
As the news had stated, the snow mountains were located very high above sea level. Therefore, high altitude sickness would be his first issue.
Moreover, the Prince Snow Mountains were a famous mountain range and a true no man’s land. It was a far cry from Mount Sigou, where there were at least some people living below, and there were at worst boars or wolves, with no animals that actually posed a lethal threat!
On the other hand, everything from snow wolves, dholes, wandering Tibetan Mastiffs, and even snow leopards prowled the Prince Snow Mountains. Actual apex predators lived there!
Last but not least…
What if he ran into the poachers who were armed with guns?!
Wang Kui stared at the ‘classic hunting mode’ stated in the System and pondered for a long while.
No, I need to bring a hunting bow in order to survive this trip!
Although his two class cards allowed him to master various domestically produced guns, he sadly had no gun permit, though he might gain a new authority once he reached level three.
Being a Lv2 hunter right now, he was already legally registered to carry and manage cold weapons!
Moreover, the classic hunt mode prohibited hot weapons, therefore, a bow was the only choice.
Why not a heavy crossbow?
Wang Kui chuckled.
Though crossbows were devastating and the usage was simple, it was too heavy and took too long to reload, even if it did not require expertise or operability.
In short, it was easy to use, but its function was limited, which made it a better fit for amateurs.
As such, hunting bows were a better fit for veteran specialist hunters like him!
“No modern vehicles allowed… in other words, I can use traditional vehicles such as a dog-sled, riding a horse, or other animals?”
Wang Kui did not find the last rule all that useful.
Unless he could ride a bear or some giant deer, any other mount was not an advantage in the mountains.
Riding a horse up a snow mountain? Are you kidding?
After reading through the quest and everything else, Wang Kui headed to the library to make further inquiries regarding the landscape, weather, and wildlife at the Prince Snow Mountains. He also contacted Zhao Zhongheng via WeChat, telling him to prepare for the next outdoor livestream and book a ticket.
Soon, Zhao Zhongheng had him post some clips on the various media platforms such as the Fish-Bar of Tigerfish, his fans circle, TikTok, and Weibo to gather hype.
Still, one must say that the topic of ‘Fighting Poachers and Hunting Top-class Saker Falcons’ would draw much attention despite being somewhat of a clickbait.
With real news backing his story like the man-eating wolfdog, it did indeed garner much real-world excitement.
“Old Kui, it would be best if we could get a 360-angle camera. Your action cam may be super-wide-angle, but the lens is limited in what it can capture. On the other hand, a 360-angle camera can capture your whole body and can basically be used to provide a third-person perspective.”
Zhao Zhongheng suggested at the shop for outdoor equipment.
“We could even get a camera trolly when we hit it rich as well as a professional 8-rotor drone for a bird’s eye view. You will be unmatched as you switch between different perspectives, and it would be comparable to a documentary!”
The 360-degree camera could certainly capture every angle, but it required someone to man it, which was why it would take a lot of effort to use when you were alone, and that was why Wang Kui had not bought it before.
With Zhao Zhongheng with him, however, he could directly control everything about the livestream with his backstage director skills.
“That is why I need my contract fee as soon as possible…”
Wang Kui could not help exclaiming—outdoor stuff truly was expensive.
In the brief instant that they had gone into the shop, he had spent over twenty thousand bucks on a pair of specialist snow boots, a heavy jacket, a carbon fiber recurve bow, thirty pure-carbon arrows, a pair of specialist binoculars, and more 550 Paracords.
There was no helping it.
The light jacket he had gotten from his System Gift Pack would not withstand the weather of a snow mountain.
Come to think of it, the System Lottery was actually quite thrifty!
After making the payment, the two men headed to an electronics store in the shopping center to buy a 360-degree camera that cost a further six thousand bucks!
The forty thousand or so dollars Wang Kui had received from gifts was virtually used up in an instant.
***
The next day.
With every piece of equipment prepared, Wang Kui and Big Butt arrived at Taoxian Airport.
They were ready to hunt atop a snowy mountain!
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