Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 365: Chapter 232: If You Won’t Let Me Catch You, You Don’t Get to Eat Either

"Hm?"

He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. After all, he was at the bottom of the sea where the currents were constantly shifting, and the water flowing over his eyes could easily refract light and create optical illusions.

He stared at the spiky coral cluster again for a while but saw no signs of movement.

’Am I really seeing things?’

Being cautious, he extended the spear in his hand and gave it a hard poke.

The very instant he poked the thing, a section near its base suddenly shot forward, revealing a long, large pincer that clamped down hard on the spear’s bamboo shaft.

"Holy shit?!"

His eyes bulged, his face a mask of pure shock.

’This freaking coral is actually a crab?’

Kicking his legs and keeping the spear pressed against the carapace to hold it still, he maneuvered behind the crab, grabbed the back of its shell, and forcefully pulled it off the coral.

Only when the bizarre-looking crab was fully exposed before his eyes did he realize that not only was its carapace covered in fine, sharp spikes, but its shell was also shaped differently from a normal crab’s.

Its carapace wasn’t the typical palm-sized oval; a somewhat triangular, irregular, spiky section of shell protruded near its mouthparts.

Furthermore, its legs were unusually long, looking out of place and disproportionate to its body.

Many famous sea crabs have long legs, like king crabs and snow crabs, both of which are typical long-legged crabs.

But even on them, the proportion of their legs to their bodies isn’t so strange that it would make you frown.

Though it was a crab, its proportions reminded him more of a spider.

’Could this be the fabled spider crab?’

But from what he recalled watching on nature documentaries, spider crabs didn’t look like this, nor did they have so many spikes.

Since he didn’t recognize it anyway, he couldn’t be bothered to overthink it. He pulled a bamboo strip from his woven basket, securely bound the crab’s two pincers to its body, and tossed it inside.

"It’s probably some species from the spider crab family. Who cares? As long as it’s edible!"

Having caught two large creatures in a row, he was quite satisfied. He stopped peering into the rock crevices and turned his attention to the schools of fish among the coral above.

’Anyway, now that I have a bamboo raft, I can go out to sea whenever I want. Seafood is always freshest when caught and eaten right away. A few more fish should be enough for now.’

He tried several times and discovered that while his bamboo spear could be used underwater, its strong buoyancy caused it to float up after being thrust. This greatly reduced the force of the attack, giving the fish time to react.

’Looks like this isn’t going to work. I’ll have to switch to a wooden spear when I get back. To eliminate the bamboo’s buoyancy, I’d have to soak it for a long time until every single fiber is waterlogged. That’s too time-consuming.’

Most importantly, a spear used underwater lacks power. A simple hand-thrown spear can’t travel far and has limited force.

Unless he could attach something like an elastic rope to it, the speargun-like scene he imagined—a flying spear impaling a fish—would remain a fantasy.

A simple spear was only good for spearing fish by the shore or poking around in reefs and coral. It was pretty useless at other times.

"PSHAAA—!"

He broke the surface of the sea, taking deep gulps of fresh air.

The early morning moon was exceptionally bright, illuminating the entire night sky.

Cool moonlight scattered across the sea, its silvery-white light glinting off the surface of countless waves.

Looking out, he could occasionally see the silhouettes of a few fish leaping high out of the water, tracing graceful arcs through the air. He could even faintly make out the fluttering of wings.

"Flying Fish?"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting to see such a sight on the open sea in the middle of the night.

The bamboo raft had already drifted dozens of meters away on the current, but that was hardly a problem for him.

He flipped onto his back, floating comfortably on the surface of the sea. He paddled leisurely with his arms and legs, slowly making his way toward the raft.

The backstroke is one of the most energy-efficient swimming styles. Especially out at sea, it’s a position that can buy you time to recover your strength when you’re exhausted.

Of course, it had its downsides. You couldn’t see your direction, so it was easy to swim off course. You had to reorient yourself and confirm your target’s position every so often to ensure you weren’t veering off track.

He clutched the woven basket to his chest and stared at the two large creatures inside, the corners of his mouth twitching into an irrepressible grin.

’My God, look at the size of this spider crab and this spotted Lobster. I probably couldn’t finish it all in one meal even if I ate till I burst, could I?’

’If I add some other ingredients and prepare the crab a few different ways, it’ll be enough food for two days.’

The mere thought of it made his stomach let out an embarrassing growl.

He hadn’t turned off his headlamp, wanting to maintain his field of vision.

After a leisurely ten-minute swim back to the raft, he grabbed onto a bamboo pole to rest. In the direction his light beam was pointing, a school of Flying Fish was gliding toward him, their wing-like fins spread wide.

"Huh? What’s going on?"

He froze for a moment, then instinctively turned his head, shifting the beam of light to one side.

The school of Flying Fish immediately changed direction, converging on the spot where the light beam now shone.

’So it’s true!’

He quickly racked his brain for information about Flying Fish and, sure enough, recalled their phototaxis—their attraction to light.

It is precisely because of this trait that when fishermen go out at night, they will stop near a school of Flying Fish, hang a lamp on their boat, and then simply wait for the fish to fly aboard on their own.