King of the Wilderness

Chapter 469: Chapter 264: Brutal Wildness Training

”We will completely sever all positive connections it has with humans. No more hand feeding, no more soothing interactions, not even any regular sounds.”

”Food will start with high-fat fish and seal meat, delivered through computer-controlled chutes that cover the entire venue, at algorithmically generated random times and locations, to force it to learn to use its sense of smell to search instead of waiting to be given.”

”More importantly, negative reinforcement.” She paused, staring directly into Lin Yu’an’s eyes.

”We will introduce clothes carrying your scent, alongside high-frequency sound waves and strong pulse flashes into the venue. We want to monitor its cortisol levels and forcefully establish a new link in its subconscious through constant repetition: your most trusted scent equals danger, equals pain and discomfort.”

”Wait.” Lin Yu’an suddenly interrupted her, ”Why use my clothes? What’s the purpose of this?”

Max quietly looked at him, her gaze unwavering, instead carrying a hint of anticipated sorrow.

”I know this sounds cruel, Lin.” She began to speak slowly, her voice small but each word weighty, ”But in animal behavior science, December’s emotion towards you is called imprinting behavior.”

”It met you at its most blank-minded and fragile state of life, so your scent in its world does not equate to humans but equals mother, safety, and food.”

”And this imprint, for a predator returning to the wild, is a hundred percent death sentence.”

”A polar bear with fondness for human scent will actively approach human settlements, research stations, even hunters’ camps. At that point, its end can only be one - legally shot as a threatening problem bear.”

”Its trust in you will directly kill it.”

Max’s gaze became incredibly sharp, piercing Lin Yu’an’s heart.

”Your emotional link with her is the strongest, is her trust’s root. To cultivate a healthy fear towards humans in her, we must start from the individual she trusts and depends on the most!”

”By destroying the most solid point of trust, let this fear spread to all humans.”

”Our goal is to use the principles of classical conditioning to forcibly establish a new reflex chain in her mind that can save her life: Lin Yu’an’s scent = danger, all similar scents = deadly threat, must flee immediately.”

She paused for a moment and spoke the most brutal conclusion: ”Lin, you must understand. Wild rehabilitation’s task is to personally turn her love for you into fear of you.”

The office fell into dead silence, Lin Yu’an opened his mouth, but couldn’t say a word.

Max gave him a few seconds to digest before proceeding with a cold explanation.

”When its weight and strength reach the standard, around eight months old, it will undergo the Second Stage training, awakening hunting skills and constructing survival sequences. This will be conducted in a five-hectare semi-wild enclosure we’ve demarcated.”

”That enclosure will have a deep water pool filled with seawater, equipped with an underwater ice-making system to simulate different thicknesses of Arctic sea ice.”

”We will start by introducing dead seals, teaching it how to tear open the tough skin, find and prioritize feeding on the fat layer. This is the most basic caloric intake course.”

”Then.” Max’s gaze became sharper, ”We will introduce live prey, starting with large Arctic salmon, followed by young seals we have legally captured.”

”We will precisely control food delivery, keeping it in a constant state of critical hunger. A predator that is full has no desire to slaughter. We must use hunger to forcefully awaken the most primitive killing instinct engraved in its genes.”

”It must learn how to ambush for long periods by artificial breathing holes, must learn how to utilize its weight to crush thin ice. Must learn the most efficient way to bite and crush a seal’s skull in one blow, not tear playfully.”

”This process will be very bloody and very long, failure and injury are normal.”

”If it can successfully pass this stage, around one and a half years old, when its body is nearing adulthood, it will enter the Third Stage, soft release in an isolation zone.”

”We will anesthetize it and transport it by aircraft to an uninhabited area in the Arctic Circle, located in the Svalbard Islands. In a temporary enclosure covering tens of square kilometers, let it live independently for at least six months, surviving a complete winter.”

”Completely detached from our supply, facing the polar nights, blizzards, and real prey alone.”

”Only when the satellite collar it wears transmits data showing its activity range, caloric consumption, and hunting frequency all meet standards, and after independently hunting for weeks and successfully overwintering, can we enter the final stage - hard release.”

”We will anesthetize it one last time to conduct a comprehensive physical check, then take it by helicopter to a piece of floating sea ice, removing that collar.”

”From then on, its life and death belong only to itself and that white wilderness.”

Max turned off the computer, and the office fell into death-like silence.

The complex flowchart was still on the screen, each word like a heavy lead block, pressing on Lin Yu’an’s heart.

She turned her chair, facing Lin Yu’an who had turned somewhat pale, her tone no longer icy as before but now carrying a touch of fatigue and solemnity.

”Lin, the reason I am telling you all of this today is because December’s future is now at a crossroads. And the choice of which path to take is in your hands.”

Lin Yu’an raised his head, looking somewhat puzzled at her.

Max slowly said: ”Originally, according to the center’s standard procedure, an orphan like December, who formed deep emotional bonds with humans too early, its final destination would be the world’s best zoo, which has top Arctic ecological halls.”

”There, it would receive the best care, live a lifetime without worry for food and clothing, secure, healthy, even potentially longer than its counterparts in the wild.”

”It would become a star, loved by countless people, but it would forever lose its freedom, forever live in a meticulously crafted giant glass box.”

She paused for a moment, giving Lin Yu’an time to digest the possibility.

”And the other path,” she pointed to the cruel flowchart on the screen, ”is the path we’ve just discussed, full of uncertainty, full of pain.”

”It even carries the risk of death! In training, it might get injured. In the wild, it might starve to death from a failed hunt, or be killed in a fight.”

”It will return to the wilderness, but the price is, it must endure all the harshness of the wild.”

Max stood up, walked to the window, and looked at December, still anxiously searching for Lin Yu’an’s figure in the glass observation room, and said softly:

”As a scientist, I should logically choose the first path without hesitation, which is the one with the lowest risk and highest success rate.”

”But, Lin, it was you who saved it. It was you who gave it its first warm meal when it was at its most vulnerable, and you who gave it the name December.”

”It was also you who left the first, perhaps only, imprint of trust in its heart.”

She turned around and looked at Lin Yu’an, whose eyes, always filled with banter and energy, were now filled with the deepest respect for life.

”So, I want to give this choice to you.”

”Do you want it to live a life without worries in the human world?”

”Or let it return to the place that belongs to it, the wilderness, which is free but filled with danger?”

”Lin, it is up to you to decide December’s fate.”

”No matter what your choice is, I will do my best to help you fulfill it.”

These words were like an invisible mountain, pressing heavily on Lin Yu’an’s shoulders.

He looked at the glass observation room, where the white figure was still anxiously tapping the glass, calling out to him.

He remembered its eyes in the sanctuary, filled with fear and longing. He remembered the joy when it clumsily played with the red rubber ball for the first time. He remembered the warm and heavy weight of it in his arms.

He knew he already had the answer.

He spoke slowly, yet with unwavering determination: ”Freedom, even if only for a day, is far more precious than a lifetime of safety in captivity.”

Upon hearing this answer, a relieved smile finally appeared on Max’s face, as if this was the answer she had been waiting for all along.

”Alright.” She sat back down in her chair, her expression once again becoming serious.

”Then, since you have made your choice, you must accept all the costs that come with it.”

She looked at the somber-faced Lin Yu’an and spoke the harshest conclusion.

”So, Lin, can I answer your most pressing question now, how many more times can you see it in the future?”

”Before the first phase starts, before it is five months old, you have at most one more opportunity to visit.”

”That will be your last chance to hold it like today.”

”And once the first phase starts, until the day it is officially released into the wild,” Max’s tone devoid of any emotion, ”you can no longer appear in its perception range in any form.”

”Any appearance by you, any exposure to your scent, any transmission of your voice could ruin all our previous efforts!”

”Its trust in and dependence on you is the biggest and most dangerous enemy in our rewilding training.”

She looked at Lin Yu’an and said word by word, ”Lin, do you understand? To fulfill your great promise of bringing it home. You must first completely and cleanly disappear from its world.”

Lin Yu’an looked at the white figure in the glass observation room, his eyes filled with unwavering determination, yet immense sorrow.

He understood that this was the most cruel yet necessary long farewell to ultimately reunite.

”I understand.” He turned to Max and said, ”I’ll follow all your arrangements.”

His voice was calm, but Max could easily capture the immense pain suppressed beneath that calmness.

She looked at this man, who had just been commanding the room in front of the media, now showing such a heavy expression.

The atmosphere in the office was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

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(No hurries, no cuts, no abuse, keep reading.)