HLM -Chapter 1171 We Are the Lead Dogs

So even though chaos had erupted at the scene, their side remained rock-steady. Wang Bo’s dog team and sled stood there like a pillar in the middle of a raging river, stabilizing the surrounding, panicked dog packs.

“What’s going on? What happened?” people kept asking.

Members of the event staff drove out to intercept the running dogs, waving their arms frantically. “The race hasn’t started yet! There’s been a problem—everyone move back!”

Wang Bo asked, “What exactly happened?”

Tony went to check and came back, saying, “A phone suddenly exploded—or maybe it spontaneously combusted. Either way, something went wrong with it. It scared the dogs, and they started running.”

Wang Bo laughed. “That wasn’t a Samsung phone, was it?”

Tony held back a grin. “You guessed it. It really was a Samsung.”

On his screen, the livestream chat was flooding with messages about Samsung. A lot of people were following Wang Bo—according to the livestream counter, there were already over two thousand viewers.

“Samsung phones are amazing—exploding in icy wilderness!”

“Who’s that badass bringing a microwave to the Iditarod?”

“What meme is this? Microwave?”

“In China there were Samsung phone explosions, and Koreans said people heated them in microwaves—LOL, so stupid. You guys don’t know?”

“Who cares about Koreans? We are the world’s core—Great America!”

“Stop arguing, damn it—Samsung exploded! Samsung exploded in Alaska!”

“Good explosion—blast into the temperate zone, blast toward the frigid zone!”

Wang Bo couldn’t see the later comments. The bearded inspector who had checked him earlier ran over and said, “Swap out the phone. Replace it immediately.”

Wang Bo said, “At least you reacted fast. Damn it, I don’t want to entrust my life to Samsung.”

The bearded man laughed awkwardly. “It might not be Samsung’s fault. In temperatures like this, batteries are prone to short-circuiting. That guy was also charging his phone just now.”

Wang Bo took the phone off and handed it to him. The bearded man waved his hand. “You can keep it. You might run into Alaskan brown bears or wolf packs on the way. This thing could work as a bomb—might even save your life.”

The livestream had to continue. They temporarily switched phones—this time to an iPhone.

Wang Bo thought they’d switch to Huawei; he’d heard Huawei had a big market share in the U.S.

The new phone powered on, the livestream reopened. Wang Bo waved and greeted the viewers—then jumped in fright as a flood of lipstick marks appeared on the screen.

“So many girls?” Wang Bo was pleasantly surprised.

Someone replied in the comments: Mayor, those are gifts. There aren’t actually girls kissing you. Wake up—stop dreaming. There aren’t that many girls watching livestreams!

Wang Bo quickly pulled a straight face and turned the camera toward the dog team ahead. True experts are hidden among the masses—someone had guessed his thoughts just by watching his expression.

Because of the Samsung explosion incident, the race was delayed.

Half an hour later, at 9:30 a.m., the race finally began.

With a loud gunshot, the dogs that had been crouching instantly sprang up. Owners shouted commands, some blew whistles, and the dogs pulled the sleds forward at full speed.

Wang Bo decided to do something flashy. He was here to create buzz and attention. He pulled out a small speaker and launched into a group singalong of “Defend the Yellow River.”

Amid the rousing chorus of “Defend the Yellow River, defend North China, defend all of China,” Zhuang Ding and Queen charged at the front, leading the team in a wild sprint!

Everyone around them was dumbfounded. Tony, who was about to get into the support vehicle, nearly missed a step. “Shit—what the hell is Wang doing?!”

Dale giggled. “That’s a very famous song from his hometown. It’s meant to inspire people. The dogs are obviously inspired too.”

The coaching teams were allowed to follow in cars, but they had to keep at least a one-kilometer distance. No dogs were allowed in the vehicles; they were purely support cars, supplying food and hot water.

After all, this was a race—not a suicide mission.

Zhuang Ding and Queen roared along with the music. Their powerful limbs pounded the icy road, and with a whoosh, the sled shot forward.

The other dogs followed with all their strength. With Zhuang Ding and Queen’s boundless power, pulling the sled became much easier, leaving them extra energy to bark a few times.

And so, waves of barking rang out. Led by Zhuang Ding, the sled rapidly caught up from the middle of the pack and surged to the front.

Then came another burst of acceleration—they overtook the leading team and became the frontrunners.

Many residents were watching from the roadside. Seeing this, people shouted, “Hey, buddy! Don’t go so fast! No need to sprint—maximize the dogs’ stamina so they can go farther!”

Before the sentence was finished, the sled was already gone. All that remained was a cloud of shattered snow drifting in the air, like dust kicked up by a speeding car…

As the race began, more and more viewers tuned in—especially to Wang Bo’s stream. Oakley had come online and was following Wang Bo’s race.

Oakley also entered the livestream. The two could interact directly, and the moment the boxing champion appeared, over five thousand people flooded into Wang Bo’s stream—proof of Oakley’s sheer pulling power.

Wang Bo didn’t have time to chat with him. At the start of the race, he needed to focus on controlling the sled—because in this regard, he was terrible.

Oakley had told him in advance that he’d watch the race on livestream. Coincidentally, the livestream platform had invited Oakley to participate. Other people spent money on livestreams; he made money from them.

Just chatting with boxing fans on stream earned him five million dollars from the platform alone!

When viewers saw Wang Bo charge into first place, the comments exploded even more. Wang Bo glanced at them—only to see a dense wall of letters. He couldn’t even make out what they said.

The race started from the outskirts of the city. Very soon, there were no buildings in sight—only vast, desolate wilderness.

In this season, in this weather, everything was silent. Snow fell without a sound. The earth was covered in endless white, and a sense of vast desolation unconsciously welled up in Wang Bo’s heart.

When the starting whistle sounded, it meant that Wang Bo and his dogs would be together for several days straight, staying out in the frozen wilderness.

Their upcoming journey would span nearly 2,000 kilometers. The weather was unknown. The road conditions were unknown. Disasters were unknown. Wild beasts were unknown.

Amid all these uncertainties, they would cross Alaska—racing from Anchorage in the south to Nome on the western coast of the Bering Sea.

This was not a simple race.

It was a struggle between humans and dogs, working in perfect harmony, battling the frozen forces of nature in temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.

And that was precisely why this race commanded such attention in Alaska and across the entire United States.

It was a magnificent competition—one whose entire course embodied the beauty of life itself.