Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 366: Chapter 232: If I Can’t Catch You, You Can’t Eat Either

’Is it really this good?’

He scrambled onto the bamboo raft and secured the bamboo basket to the pole. Then, he slowly angled his head, bringing the beam of light closer and closer to the raft.

As he worked, he muttered to himself, feigning a lack of understanding.

"It seems Flying Fish are attracted to light. I’ll see if I can draw them in."

His persona was that of a chef, not some wilderness survival guru. It would be too strange if he knew the characteristics of every single species on land and in the sea like the back of his hand.

Sometimes, he had to play dumb to seem like a normal person.

The night sea breeze gently brushed against his skin, and a slight chill seeped through his soaked clothes.

Under his patient luring, the school of Flying Fish approached the raft at an incredible speed. In the end, he even took off his Hat Lamp and hung it on the pole, letting the light shine directly onto the raft’s surface.

"SWOOSH—"

A Flying Fish leaped high out of the water, charging straight for the raft from over ten meters away.

SLAP!

A few drops of water splashed onto his face. With lightning-fast reflexes, Lin Chen pinned the little guy down, grabbed it by the tail, lifted it high, slammed it down hard, and then tossed it directly into the bamboo basket.

After the first Flying Fish landed on the raft, more and more of them swarmed over, vying to be the first to crash onto it.

He barely had to do anything. Some Flying Fish dove headfirst right into the bamboo basket and never came back out.

"Hahahahaha!"

"I’ve hit the jackpot! Hit the jackpot! It’s raining fish!!"

Lin Chen laughed heartily as he grabbed the endlessly flopping Flying Fish on the raft and tossed them into the basket. In just a few short minutes, it was already more than half full.

Although Flying Fish continued to leap onto the raft, he didn’t need to collect any more.

Given the jumping power of their tails, they could leap right back out if he filled the basket any further. They couldn’t jump as high without the push from the water, but the basket’s sides were low enough for them to escape.

"This is just too good. If I take this whole basket back and dry them, it’ll last me a long time. I can even fillet the meat to make some different dishes, and I won’t have to worry too much about waste."

Flying Fish were quite famous in the world of sea fish. He had only ever seen them in videos; this was his first time seeing one alive, so he wasn’t sure about the quality of the meat.

"Many animals are attracted to light. If just turning on a lamp is enough to make them fly up here..."

As he said this aloud, he was already browsing through detailed information about the characteristics of Flying Fish in his mind.

It had all happened so suddenly that he hadn’t looked closely before, only noticing the part about their attraction to light.

Now, after reading a little further, he realized things weren’t as simple as he had imagined.

’Flying Fish usually live near the surface of the sea, travel in schools, and don’t normally leap out of the water?’

’They are only forced to fly out of the water to escape when they encounter danger. They can leap to a height of over ten meters, stay in the air for more than forty seconds, and cover a maximum distance of over four hundred meters...’

’Holy cow, that’s insane. No wonder they’re called Flying Fish.’

He swallowed hard and casually picked up a Flying Fish flopping at his feet.

This small fish, only about the length of two cell phones, appeared dark blue all over in the light. Its transparent fins were as clear and translucent as a cicada’s wings, faintly shimmering with an iridescent sheen.

’Flying Fish have many natural predators: large octopuses, large squids, dolphins, swordfish, marlins, and so on. But their main threat comes from tuna.’

’Wait, tuna?’

Reading this, he froze for a moment. As if realizing something, he whipped his head around to look at the inky black surface of the sea.

He took the Hat Lamp from the pole and put it back on his head, using the pole to help himself stand up.

The school of Flying Fish surrounded the raft in a radius of about ten meters. Though there were some farther out, their numbers were clearly much smaller, and they too were constantly flying toward the light source.

He stopped paying attention to the Flying Fish in the air and instead focused his gaze beneath the surface of the sea.

As his eyes fixed on the sea, the beam of light followed, piercing into the water.

Densely packed schools of dark shadows were swimming just below the surface. Every so often, one would leap out of the water and glide through the air.

The important thing wasn’t the school of fish, but the direction in which they were swimming.

"Let’s see just what kind of creature is hunting these Flying Fish. I can’t wait..."

Whatever it was, it was definitely much larger than the fish in the coral reef area.

The larger the fish, the higher his chances of hitting it with his spear.

He waited quietly for a while, recovering his strength while constantly observing the sea in the distance.

The beam of light remained focused near the raft, acting as a lure to keep the Flying Fish lingering there for a long time.

About seven or eight minutes passed.

Just as another Flying Fish broke the surface, its slender tail frantically beating against the waves as it was about to take flight—

Suddenly.

—a dark shadow shot out from the water behind it at incredible speed. A black fin sliced through the oncoming waves, and in the blink of an eye, it slammed directly into the Flying Fish.

"SPLASH"

The huge, dark shadow revealed half its body above the surface, the not-yet-airborne Flying Fish clamped in its jaws. Then, it abruptly sank back into the sea and vanished.

"Blackfin Tuna!!!"

Lin Chen, who had been intently watching every movement on the sea’s surface, took in the entire scene and shouted in excitement.

Blackfin Tuna were not very famous; in fact, few people had even heard of them. The most well-known were generally Bluefin and Yellowfin, followed by Bigeye Tuna.

Among them, Bluefin Tuna was in a league of its own, followed by Yellowfin and Bigeye.

The tuna family consisted of far more than just these few types. It was just that these three had relatively higher commercial value and, after assessing various factors, better met market demands.

And the Blackfin Tuna was one of the most regionally restricted among them, living only in the western Atlantic Ocean—that is, the Caribbean Sea region.

Their bodies usually didn’t exceed one meter in length, making them small even within the tuna family. However, their meat was exceptionally delicious, on par with the quality of conventional tuna, and was very popular with diners in Central America.

’If I could just catch one...’

"How is that even possible? Trying to catch a tuna with a spear? What the hell, did I get kicked in the head by a donkey?"

Tuna are one of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean. Depending on the species, their average speed is 60-80 kilometers per hour. Their burst speed can even exceed 100 kilometers per hour, making them comparable to a supercar.

They maintain their top speed while hunting because the average swimming speed of a Flying Fish is around 60 kilometers per hour. They have to be faster to get a meal.

After that one Blackfin Tuna appeared, more and more dark shadows streaked beneath the water’s surface, swimming straight toward him.

In the space of just a few breaths, he discovered that his bamboo raft was completely surrounded by the school of tuna.

They darted around the raft relentlessly at near-explosive speeds, snatching a Flying Fish every time they appeared.

He hurriedly looked up information about Blackfin Tuna in his mind.

Aside from their size and body color, they weren’t much different from other tuna. They were all fish that could never stop swimming rapidly for their entire lives.

Unlike other fish, tuna don’t obtain oxygen by breathing. Instead, they get it by swimming rapidly, which forces large volumes of seawater through their gills.

This mechanism forces them to constantly maintain high speeds. If they slow down, they will die from lack of oxygen.

This is also why tuna die so quickly after being caught on a line.

Unwilling to give up, he tried to thrust his spear as the tuna shot past the raft. But often, by the time he had just extended the spear, the target was already gone in a flash, like lightning.

"I’m done! The hell with this!"

He angrily threw the spear down on the raft and turned off the Hat Lamp.

Without the light source, the entire sea was plunged into darkness in an instant.

He stayed put for a good five or six minutes before his surroundings slowly began to brighten as his eyes adjusted.

Chased by the school of Blackfin Tuna, the Flying Fish scattered and fled. Without the light to attract them, they seemed to regain their senses, carving diagonal lines through the air as they flew toward the distant sea.

"If you won’t let me spear you, then you can forget about your free all-you-can-eat buffet!"

He ground his molars in frustration, vowing to himself that he would definitely find the time to acquire the Basic Fishing Mastery skill after he got back.