HUN Chapter 87: Hunter's Certificate Exam

After confirming the follow-up plans, in the following days, Lin Yu'an began preparing for their future new life as a prospective "Alaska resident."

To live legally and safely on Alaska's vast and wild land and engage in hunting activities, wilderness survival skills alone were far from enough.

He first had to become a "qualified" participant, abiding by all local laws and regulations.

The first step in all of this was to obtain Alaska's Hunter Safety Education Certificate.

"Hello, Bilibili friends, today we're starting a new series—Hunter's License Exam!"

In a new video released on his Bilibili account, Lin Yu'an sat at his desk facing the camera and said seriously.

This video documented his real process of preparing for the Alaska hunter's license exam.

"In North America, hunting is an activity subject to extremely strict legal regulation."

"According to Alaska state regulations, any hunter born after January 1, 1987, must mandatorily complete and pass the official Hunter Safety Education course to purchase hunting licenses."

"This is not just a certificate, but the necessary path to learning how to hunt safely, legally, and ethically."

Lin Yu'an chose the more flexible online course plus offline field assessment approach.

After paying the $28.95 course fee, he dove headfirst into online learning.

The course content was more systematic than he had imagined, from firearm safety to animal tracking, even detailed instructional videos on how to process game organs.

First was the core of cores—firearm and archery safety.

"The first chapter of the course repeatedly emphasizes the 'Ten Commandments of Firearm Safety,'" Lin Yu'an explained to viewers while browsing the courseware.

"For example, always point the muzzle in a safe direction; never touch the trigger until you're ready to shoot; always assume every gun is loaded."

"These may sound like old clichés, but they are iron rules forged by countless bloody lessons that must be ingrained in your bones."

Then came hunting laws and ethics.

"This part is very important, as it determines whether you're a legal hunter or an illegal poacher."

"For instance, the course explains in detail how to identify types of hunting licenses, divisions of different hunting areas, and hunting seasons, methods, and restrictions for various species in different regions."

"There's also hunting ethics, such as the 'fair chase' principle, meaning you cannot use modern transportation like aircraft or cars to pursue or locate game."

"Also, you must make every effort to retrieve wounded game, and how to humanely process game, making full use of everything and respecting life."

The course provided numerous high-resolution images and videos to teach students how to accurately identify common wildlife in Alaska.

Lin Yu'an enlarged a comparison chart.

"This shows the difference between grizzly bears and black bears. Grizzly bears have obvious muscle humps on their shoulders, and their facial profile is more 'dish-shaped.'"

"Black bears don't have obvious shoulder humps, and their facial profile is straighter."

"In the wild, accurately identifying them directly relates to your response strategy and life safety."

The final section covered practical wilderness survival and first aid skills.

This section was most familiar to Lin Yu'an, but the systematic knowledge provided by the course still gave him some gains.

"Although I've mastered most of these skills through practice, the systematic knowledge provided by the course still helps me fill gaps."

After completing all online learning modules, Lin Yu'an took the final exam on the website.

Eighty multiple choice and true/false questions, which he easily passed with nearly perfect scores thanks to his enhanced memory and deep understanding of the knowledge.

He printed out the completion certificate and registered in Austin, Texas for a field course plus assessment class that could be mutually recognized with Alaska's hunter education certificate qualification.

Saturday morning, Lin Yu'an kissed Aliya goodbye and arrived half an hour early at a vast outdoor activity center in the northern suburbs of Austin.

This was the venue for the Hunter Safety Education intensive course certified by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) that he had registered for.

The activity center was tree-lined with complete facilities, not only spacious indoor classrooms but also standardized shooting ranges and a practice area simulating various outdoor environments.

The air carried a faint scent of burnt gunpowder.

He entered the designated teaching building and found his seat in a tiered classroom.

The classroom already had a dozen or so students scattered about, of various ages and backgrounds.

Several white youths who appeared to be his age were huddled together excitedly discussing some latest hunting rifle model.

There were also several middle-aged fathers who had brought their children, obviously wanting to cultivate the next generation's hunting interests.

A young Chinese international student face like Lin Yu'an's indeed seemed somewhat special among them.

At exactly 9 AM, a tall, burly older man wearing TPWD khaki uniform strode onto the platform.

This was the main instructor for the course, reportedly a legendary former Texas Ranger who had devoted himself to hunter safety education after retirement—Hank Miller.

"Good morning, future hunters!" Instructor Hank's voice was loud and penetrating, his sharp gaze sweeping over every student present.

"Welcome to the Hunter Safety Education course. Over the next day, you'll learn the knowledge and skills that every qualified hunter must possess!"

"Remember! Hunting is not just a sport or hobby, but a responsibility! Responsibility to life, nature, and the law!"

Instructor Hank's opening was concise and powerful, immediately making the classroom atmosphere more serious.

After obtaining the instructor's permission, Lin Yu'an began filming the video.

The morning was theory classes, which might seem boring to many, but Lin Yu'an listened with exceptional focus.

Instructor Hank, drawing on his decades of law enforcement and hunting experience, made those dry theories vivid and interesting by combining them with his practical experience.

The morning classes taught Lin Yu'an quite a bit, making him more confident about the afternoon practical assessment.

The afternoon was practical assessment. Lin Yu'an stood alongside a group of local teenagers and hunting novices on the shooting range and simulated woodland.

The examiner was an experienced, stern old hunter who assessed each student with extremely strict standards.

The assessment content was entirely practical.

In the firearm safety carrying section, students needed to simulate carrying an unloaded rifle while traversing obstacles like fences and ditches.

The instructor closely observed whether students kept the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times.

In the simulated shooting area, students had to demonstrate correct shooting posture and complete a series of safety operations under the instructor's commands: loading, aiming, dry firing, unloading, and checking the chamber.

Most challenging was the "shoot/don't shoot" scenario judgment.

The instructor used various animal targets and background boards to set up rapidly changing hunting scenarios.

For example, a deer target would suddenly emerge from behind a tree, but closely followed by a human-shaped target marked "hiker."

Students had to make judgments in extremely short time and loudly shout "Shoot!" or "Don't shoot!"

Throughout the field assessment, Lin Yu'an performed calmly and steadily.

Every movement was extremely standard, every judgment decisive and correct.

His genuine reverence for weapons and adherence to safety rules from the heart made even the strict instructor nod approvingly.

Finally, when all assessment items were completed, Lin Yu'an received the hard card and patch for his "Hunter Safety Education Course Completion Certificate."

This certificate allowed him to apply for regular resident hunting licenses in multiple states, the first step toward legal hunting on America's vast lands.

He prioritized applying for lifetime hunter cards in Texas and Alaska.

The day after successfully obtaining his hunter safety education certificate, he sent all the footage recorded during this period to the Bilibili operations team in China via encrypted cloud links.

At the Bilibili partner operations company in Shanghai, Old Cat and his three-person team treated this material like treasure when they received it.

"Look! Brother An sent new material!" Li Ang, the editor, shouted excitedly.

They immediately gathered together to review this raw footage lasting several hours.

When they saw Lin Yu'an studying online courses seriously like attending class and explaining each knowledge point in detail, they knew this video's "educational" attribute was maxed out.

When they saw Lin Yu'an's calm, professional, and impeccable performance in the offline field assessment, their admiration for this "boss" deepened further.

"Too amazing... Brother An doesn't look like he's taking an exam at all, but rather demonstrating for the instructor!" exclaimed Xiao Ya, the community operations girl.

"This video's positioning is very clear."

"It's not pure curiosity-seeking, but hardcore popular science. What we need to do is present this complex, real process to the audience."

"Li Ang, the editing pace should be fast, information density high. Use special effect subtitles to highlight key points of those regulations and techniques, making it enjoyable and understandable for viewers!"

After two days of intensive post-production, a fifteen-minute video titled "Want to Hunt Legally in Alaska? Step One: Get Your Hunter's License!" was officially released on Lin Yu'an's Bilibili account.

As soon as the video was released, Bilibili officially launched S+ level traffic support.

Homepage recommendations, knowledge section top placement, trending lists... almost simultaneously, all users interested in outdoors, survival, and educational content saw this video pushed to them.

The video's view count broke through millions again in just one hour!

The bullet comments and comment section completely became a "large-scale popular science discussion site" about North American hunting culture and regulations.

Countless netizens who previously only understood hunting through movies and games saw for the first time so intuitively and in such detail what rigorous and complex processes one must go through to become a legal hunter in America.

Old Cat looked at the continuously soaring view counts, likes, and positive discussions in the background and smiled with satisfaction.

Lin Yu'an's path as a content creator was already steadily on the right track!

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