Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 352: Chapter 225: Migration Frenzy (Part 2)

"Damn it, this is not good news at all."

"Huh?"

Lin Chen was a bit baffled. He looked at him in confusion. "You can’t eat spicy food? Just take out the seeds. You should be able to handle jalapeños, right?"

Bartel shrugged, a look of utter despair on his face. "Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. I actually like spicy food, but I’m allergic to chili peppers."

"..."

"Of course, the reaction isn’t as bad as you might think. I’d normally carry my allergy meds, so I could indulge my cravings. But I don’t have any medicine now."

Lin Chen nodded sympathetically. "I know that feeling. Just hang in there for now. You can have a proper feast after the competition is over."

As a huge foodie, no one understood the agony of seeing but not being able to eat better than him. It was pure, hellish torture—a constant battle against his inner demons.

But honestly, the stage Bartel was currently at wasn’t even the hard part. It was just knowing chili peppers existed and that he couldn’t have them.

If a steaming, spicy dish—perfectly aromatic and visually appetizing—were placed in front of him, and then a few people were set up to gorge themselves, forcing him to watch as that delicious meal vanished before his very eyes...

Now *that* would be real torture!

He didn’t linger. After a bit of idle chat for a break, he set off again.

As for the two remaining Lobsters, Bartel didn’t bring them up, so he didn’t ask.

There weren’t many days left anyway. With so many eyes on them, he wasn’t worried about the guy trying to back out of their deal.

The fact that he still had the energy to work on his shelter suggested he was plenty confident.

Back at his shelter, he decided to change his plan.

He had originally planned to make two or three trips to the bamboo grove in one go, but the first trip alone had been exhausting. There was no need to torture himself.

Besides, a bamboo raft wasn’t something you could build in a day or two. He figured it’d be better to make one trip to the bamboo grove each morning, gathering food along the way, and spend the rest of the day working on the materials.

That way, he wouldn’t use up too much stamina, and it wouldn’t slow down his progress.

He whipped up a simple meal to fill his stomach. Seeing the sun high overhead, he hurried to lay out all the chili peppers he’d picked to dry, and took the opportunity to wash his shirt, pants, and shoes and hang them up as well.

’Oh, right. I still haven’t tried the sea cucumber I dried. Every time I think about it, I never get around to cooking it. Since I’m making mashed potato porridge for dinner, maybe I should finally try one?’

The memory of the seafood and mashed potato porridge Erica had made was still fresh in his mind. As a chef himself, he couldn’t just let her show him up.

’I’ll get some work done this afternoon. When the tide goes out, I’ll head to the beach for some fresh ingredients and tell that girl to come over for dinner.’

He hated owing people. Erica had said the meal was to repay him for the cave, but honestly, even if she’d never shown up, the cave would have just been empty after he moved out. Anyone could have claimed it.

He’d feel guilty if he didn’t return the favor with a meal of his own.

...

"A dozen of them left? Ha. A bunch of morons."

In the damp forest, a stocky, bearded man stared at the ruins of a collapsed shelter, his face etched with contempt.

On his watch screen, a live chat stream scrolled by.

"The second they hear bamboo can be made into rope, they abandon their shelters without a second thought. What is that if not the act of a fool?"

The man planted a foot on the ruins, sneering as he talked to himself.

"It’s at least a one-day trek to the Dalian Mountain Range from here, two if you’re slow. That means this bunch has to figure out how to sleep and eat out in the open tonight."

"A fire? A fire isn’t essential. As long as you have fruit and seafood from the coast, you can last over half a month without one."

"But that’s the ideal scenario. With this god-awful weather, it pours rain every other day. You can’t last more than a few days without a shelter. Didn’t even that so-called cleverest of the Da Xia People get caught in the rain, come down with a high fever, and nearly get eliminated just a few days ago?"

"So why didn’t I go?"

"Come on, use your heads. That thing on your shoulders isn’t just for decoration, is it?"

"We were all settled around this lake. Now that a dozen people are suddenly migrating to the Dalian Mountain Range, they’re all going to take the shortest route, right?"

"And that shortest route is pretty much a straight shot. That means before, everyone might have had two or three competitors near their shelter. After the move, they’ll have seven, eight, maybe even a dozen."

"Even assuming the weather holds up, the first thing they’ll do when they reach the mountains is look for bamboo. Bamboo groves are extremely obvious, so everyone’s going to converge on them."

"There’s a finite amount of bamboo. The first ones there and the ones who can chop the fastest get to build their shelters first. Everyone else will be forced to search for another grove."

"Just think about it. How much time and energy does that whole process take? How much risk do you have to take?"

"Not to mention, more people makes it harder to find food. In my book, anyone who took off the second they heard the news is a complete fool."

After his self-righteous lecture, he finally started gathering the wood on the ground, planning to haul it back for firewood.

Since he didn’t have any rope, he couldn’t expand his shelter anyway. He could only reinforce it. The rest of this wood was just extra firewood.

There weren’t many people like him—you could count them on one hand. They were banking on scavenging the wreckage of the shelters others had abandoned.

Felling trees without proper tools is incredibly difficult. When there’s ready-made timber lying around, no one is stupid enough to go chop down their own.

As the main contingent of contestants began their migration, the production team grew restless.

"Boss, there are only a few contestants left in this area. Should we start moving?"

"No rush. Let’s wait for the contestants to settle on their new spots before we make a move. When they do, send a team to the base of the mountain to scout the terrain. See if there’s a good place to set up a cabin. We’ll need to leave a few people here to guard the base camp too."

This location is right by the highway, which is convenient. Once we’re deep in the forest, we’ll have to rely on off-road vehicles, and getting up the mountain will require helicopters. It’s a logistical nightmare.

"Get ready," Daniel said, quietly watching the dozen or so figures moving through the forest on the monitors.

"We’re about to see some dropouts from this group. I expect we’ll lose more than five within three days, and over half will be eliminated within a week. We need to pinpoint their locations ahead of time so we’re ready for rescue ops."

No sooner had he spoken than a contestant on one of the screens cried out in panic, collapsing onto the ground and frantically rolling up his pant leg.

"Oh no, it’s a venomous snake!"

Seeing the two distinct puncture wounds on his calf, Ariana shot up from her chair.

In an instant, Hei was out the door. Daniel quickly pinpointed the contestant’s location while Ariana grabbed a first-aid kit. The three of them jumped into an off-road vehicle and vanished into the forest in the blink of an eye.

Robert glanced in the direction they had gone before his eyes shifted back to the monitor. The man was frantically holding his camera, shouting for help.

’Now *this* is more like it. Things are finally getting interesting. How is it a good show if everyone just plays it safe?’

"Boss," one of the staff members monitoring the screens said with a sly grin, "should we leak the news about the chili pepper field?"

"Forget it. There’s no need. Our goal was just to shake things up. You think I want to manage a competition with this many people? I’m tired of it even if you’re not."

"Oh, I see. You’re the boss for a reason! I can’t believe you thought of spreading that rumor about the bamboo rope. Why can’t I ever think of stuff like that?"

"Nonsense. You think I’ve been producing shows all these years for nothing?"

Robert picked up a folder from the desk, flipped it open to the roster, found the contestant’s name, and struck it from the list.

"Right. Are there any of those grouse we released left?"

"About twenty or so. They’re hiding pretty well. A lot of the time they’re right under the contestants’ noses and don’t get spotted."

"Send a team to clear them out before sunrise tomorrow. It’s time to up the difficulty."