Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 367: Chapter 233: You Caught Their Whole Family?

According to the information in his mind, besides casting nets, the only way to catch tuna with a small fishing boat was by angling.

For example, using a Flying Fish as bait and twitching it rapidly beneath the surface to mimic its swimming movements would trick a tuna into thinking it was prey and biting down.

The thought made his eyes light up, but they quickly dimmed again.

’That won’t work either. Even if I get the Basic Fishing Mastery skill, it’s useless without a fishhook.’

A fishing rod was the easy part; bamboo was a natural material for it.

But the hook and line were the most critical components.

Without a long enough line, you couldn’t use a long line to catch a big fish.

And without a fishhook, catching anything was impossible.

’What good is just a rod?’

A fishhook needed to be barbed and sharp enough. It had to be thin but also made of a hard material. Otherwise, even if he successfully hooked a tuna, what would he do if it made a sudden dash, deforming the hook and getting away?

After wracking his brain, he couldn’t come up with a good solution and could only put the idea aside for now.

’If all else fails, I’ll just have to wait until the competition is over and go sea fishing with a full set of gear.’

After reaching the shore, he tied the bamboo raft in a crevice between some rocks, then waded to land with the heavy bamboo basket on his back.

About half of the Flying Fish were left in the basket. The mouths of the dozen or so on top were still opening and closing, but they had lost their initial energy, likely from being out of the water for too long.

’Right, where’s Bartel? I don’t see him around. Did he go back to sleep?’

His gaze swept across the sea, but aside from the overlapping waves, he saw no sign of life.

’That makes sense. It’s two in the morning. I’m probably the only night owl still awake, and I’m returning with a great haul.’

’Let’s see who dares say I got skunked now. Ha, ridiculous!’

He put his hands on his hips, glanced at the catch in his basket again, and walked contentedly toward his shelter.

...

He slept straight until noon the next day.

"Haaah..."

Letting out a huge yawn, he dragged his weary body up from the bamboo bed.

As his gaze swept over, he saw a bamboo stalk propped up at the entrance. A Lobster, slightly larger than the first one he had caught, was tied to it with tree bark.

Clearly, this Lobster was not part of his spoils from last night.

"Bartel?"

Almost instantly, the name floated through his mind.

Without a doubt, the guy had sent it.

’But... why is there only one?’

He walked over and grabbed it, pulling the bamboo stalk from the ground. Then he saw a line of crookedly written English on the ground, full of abbreviations.

He frowned and stared at it for a long time but couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

’Seriously? Come on, man, I’m the foreigner here. What’s with all the abbreviations? Who are you looking down on? Bullying me ’cause I don’t have any local friends?’

「Forty minutes later.」

A completely bewildered Erica was dragged to the entrance by him.

"Here, this. Help me translate it. I don’t really use abbreviations when I chat with people online, so I can’t read it."

"You’re saying Bartel left this?"

Erica nodded, circled halfway around the writing on the ground, and finally found the correct orientation to read it.

"This one’s an abbreviation for ’sorry’... You know what, I’ll just read it to you, then you’ll understand."

"Sorry, Lin. The Lobsters are harder to find than I thought. I was going to spend a few more hours looking for them all night by the sea, but I accidentally slipped on some moss on the reefs and fell. I scraped up my arms and knees, and the pain is unbearable."

"For safety’s sake, and since I couldn’t fulfill our bet, I’ve decided to withdraw from the competition to treat my injuries. Please enjoy this Lobster. Good luck, Bartel."

"Huh???"

Lin Chen’s mouth fell open. "He really quit?"

"Looks like it." A flash of surprise also crossed Erica’s eyes as she raised her wrist.

"See? The audience is also saying that Bartel did blow the whistle to quit in the middle of the night. It seems his fall was pretty serious. He even took a production crew car to deliver the Lobster to you."

The sudden development caught him completely off guard. While he felt sorry for Bartel, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Bartel was a famous old Hunter, after all. Even if he wasn’t an expert in this kind of survival, getting by shouldn’t have been too difficult for him.

The fact that he was forced to quit just because of a fall was proof that his injuries were serious enough not to be taken lightly.

The reefs by the sea had been weathered by wind and rain for countless years and were covered in moss. God only knew how much bacteria had made a home there.

If he didn’t get timely medical treatment, given the weak constitution of people from North America, it wouldn’t be surprising if something worse happened.

Bartel’s withdrawal served as a wake-up call for both of them. They silently resolved to be more cautious and try to avoid wandering around the reef-strewn shore in the future.

And if they absolutely had to go, they would need to be extra careful when moving around.

"Are you going to make something delicious for lunch today?"

Operating on a "since I’m already here" basis, she giggled and began to wander familiarly around the shelter, wanting to see if Lin Chen had caught anything at the sea yesterday.

The memory of him coming back empty-handed last time was still fresh in her mind, and Erica had even mentally prepared herself not to find any seafood.

But before she had taken more than a few steps, she saw them. Piled not far from the bamboo bed, spread out on a banana leaf, was a dense layer of Flying Fish, a large Lobster the length of her forearm, and a monstrous, long-legged crab covered in sharp spines.

Her eyes bulged, and the smile on her face froze.

"Th-that many fish?"