Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Chapter 178 Treasure Hunter

Chapter 179 Treasure Hunter

Seeing everyone looking at him strangely, Zhou Xin quickly changed the subject: "Mr. Bell, let's continue."

"Suppressing his shock, Bell began throwing bottles again."

This time, he increased the difficulty, throwing two bottles at once with both hands.

Boom!

Two gunshots rang out in quick succession, with less than a second between them.

The two bottles flew in two different directions, but both landed on the ground with a thud.

Anyone could see that Bell had increased the difficulty level, but the bottles were still hit completely.

At this point, everyone knew perfectly well that the outcome was already decided.

Even Wyatt himself knew very well that what Zhou Xin was doing was something he simply could not do.

But if he were to admit defeat like this, his pride as the strongest hunter in the area would be completely destroyed.

The shooting continued, but Wyatt and his two companions were no longer able to utter a single word.

Bell increased his throwing speed, continuously tossing the remaining six bottles.

Gunshots rang out in quick succession, and shards of glass rained down.

All ten bottles were smashed.

"Yay, we won! Mr. Zhou won!" Sophia giggled with joy.

Zhou Xin put away his pistol and smiled, "Looks like I'm in pretty good luck today. Normally, I definitely wouldn't be able to hit all my targets."

He was modest to avoid embarrassing Wyatt too much.

Wyatt didn't say anything, but he looked very embarrassed.

Zhou Xin didn't want to embarrass him, but Sophia clearly had no such intention.

She had been holding back her anger after being lectured and mocked by Wyatt, and now that Zhou Xin had defeated him, she felt incredibly relieved.

"So, Uncle Wyatt, didn't you say I was exaggerating? Now you believe I'm telling the truth, right?"

Her smug expression only made Wyatt more embarrassed.

"Alright, Sophia, stop being so rude!" Bell scolded.

Sophia made a face, then ran to Zhou Xin with a beaming smile, her eyes full of admiration: "Mr. Zhou, I knew it! You must be an amazing sharpshooter!"

"Everyone here is a sharpshooter. Maybe I just got lucky today," Zhou Xin said, clapping his hands to ease Wyatt's embarrassment, worried that Sophia might overreact. "Alright, the performance's over. Let's go back inside. I haven't finished my coffee yet!"

Bell quickly added, "That's right, we can't let the guests stand outside forever."

Wyatt looked at Zhou Xin, his mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything.

After chatting for a while back inside, Zhou Xin was thinking about how to shift the topic to the rented land when Bell suddenly brought up something that surprised him.

"Mr. Zhou, your marksmanship is impressive. Are you really not planning to get a hunting license?"

Zhou Xin didn't deny it: "If I have time in the future, I might consider it. I'd really like to go hunting in the Yukon."

"That's fantastic!" Bell clapped his hands, paused, and then said, "If it's alright, I'd like to invite you to join me on an adventure."

"Adventure?" Zhou Xin asked, looking puzzled.

Sophia chimed in, "Mr. Zhou, in your impression, what do we hunters do?"

Zhou Xin asked in surprise, "Isn't it for hunting animals?"

Sofia smiled knowingly: "Hunting animals is certainly our basic job, but think about it, how could we support ourselves if we only relied on hunting?"

“That’s right, even if you hunt a lot of prey, you won’t make much money,” Bell continued. “We are just ordinary American citizens who need to pay all kinds of taxes and bills. If we relied solely on hunting animals, we would probably be homeless on the streets of Anchorage.”

Wyatt seemed to have recovered from his earlier defeat and joined the conversation: "As long as you live in America, you have to endure the exploitation of this society at all times. If you don't have a reliable source of income, believe me, even if you were a high-level white-collar worker with an annual salary of hundreds of thousands, you will soon be driven to homelessness by them."

Windsor chimed in, "That's right. Those heartless capitalists and politicians don't treat ordinary citizens like human beings at all. If you can't create value for them, you're not even worth as much as a dog."

Several hunters seemed to harbor resentment towards society, and for a moment they began to vent their dissatisfaction.

Seeing the conversation veer off course, Zhou Xin quickly steered it back on track: "So, hunting animals is just a side job for you? Then how do you earn your basic income?"

Bell gave a mysterious smile: "You might not believe it, but our main job is treasure hunting."

"Treasure hunting?" Hearing this phrase, which carries a somewhat legendary connotation, I was momentarily taken aback.

“Yes, Mr. Zhou,” Sophia said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “We make money by searching for hidden treasures in this world.”

Zhou Xin looked even more bewildered, as if listening to a story. He joked, "So, you're actually a group of treasure hunters?"

"Haha, you really are wise," Bell snapped his fingers. "We do usually consider ourselves treasure hunters."

Seeing that Zhou Xin still looked puzzled, Sophia continued to explain: "We will collect all kinds of legendary treasures or clues about treasures recorded in history books, and then go to find them."

This may seem like a fantasy, but there really are many unknown treasures in this world. Although finding them is extremely difficult, just finding one could potentially provide for us for many years, or even a lifetime without worrying about food and drink.

"The money I used to buy this land came from a treasure left behind by the indigenous people," Bell confirmed with a smile.

"But," Zhou Xin still seemed puzzled, "this doesn't seem like a stable source of income at all."

While this sounds great, lost treasures are obviously not so easy to find. Maybe you can make a living from it for ten years, but more often than not, you won't make a single sale for ten years.

"That's true, and that's why many hunters can't keep going. They either compromise and find a stable job, or they die in poverty on their treasure hunt."

In other words, they were a group of naive idealists, or a group of persistent adventurers.

Zhou Xin didn't have any particular thoughts about this uncertain situation, since he could now make money through the more stable gold mining business.

However, as a man, the idea of ​​lost treasure is naturally attractive to him.

He then asked, "Do you have any clues or specific information about the treasure?"

Seeing his interest, Sophia became very enthusiastic: "There are many, but many only have partial clues, such as the Ice Sea King's Amber Wine Cellar, the Emerald Cross Mine, Rudolf II's Mechanical Safe, the Salt Road Bandit Cave Vault, Captain Quinn's Golden Anchor, etc. These are all recorded in many places, but the clues are incomplete and require further exploration."

Bell nodded: "However, we also have places that we have enough information to explore, just waiting for the right opportunity."

"So this is the adventure you were talking about that you wanted me to join?" Zhou Xin immediately grasped Bell's intention.