Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 391: Chapter 245: Seafood Hot Pot

That night.

The bright moon hung high in the sky.

Faint gray clouds occasionally drifted by.

Lin Chen sat on his bamboo raft, his body rocking back and forth in a steady rhythm. Paddling with both oars simultaneously, he propelled the raft at a stable speed toward the vast, open sea.

He was once again heading to the vicinity of the shipwreck. The complex reef terrain here was a suitable habitat for most marine life, and he also wanted to check again for any new discoveries.

He dropped the heavy anchor to the seafloor to secure the raft, then tossed in the fish trap, which was weighted with rocks.

He took off his shirt and pants, put on his wetsuit, donned his diving mask and snorkel mouthpiece, and, gripping his fishing spear in his right hand, leaped from the edge of the raft into the sea.

It was his first time using a mouthpiece like this. It felt strange and uncomfortable in his mouth, even a little nauseating. He floated on the surface for a while before gradually getting used to it.

He had to admit, swimming felt inexplicably smoother after putting on the wetsuit. He wasn’t sure if it was just a psychological illusion or a tangible effect of the material.

Most importantly, with the diving mask, he no longer had to worry about waking up the next day with dry, stinging, bloodshot eyes—a miserable experience after a dive.

After confirming the shipwreck’s exact position from the surface, he engaged his core and executed a powerful dive, plunging toward the seabed.

Last time, he had found a complete set of spare swimming gear, but it was missing the most crucial part.

Flippers.

They were too bulky to fit in the locker, which made sense. They were likely swept away by the powerful currents when the boat sank, carried off to who knows where.

When he reached the speedboat again, his first order of business was to slip into the cabin and check for any useful items he might have missed.

Last time, he had pried off more than a dozen rubber seals from the windows, the cabin, and the water intakes. This time, his search focused on those same areas.

After searching for a long time with no new finds, he turned his attention to the deck.

This was a medium-sized speedboat. Judging by its size, there had to be more to it than just the cabin.

He had also been inside the large hole in the hull, and based on the ceiling height he’d seen, there should have been another level below the deck.

With a deliberate search, he soon discovered a hatch under a pile of debris and barrel fragments on the aft deck.

He didn’t rush down. First, he pushed the rotten wood aside, then surfaced for air before returning to the edge of the deck.

Having been submerged for so long, the handle on the sliding hatch was clearly a bit rusty.

Gripping the handle with both hands, he planted his feet on the deck and pulled with all his might.

BANG—

With a muffled thud, sand and silt spewed from the cracks around the hatch. The cabin, sealed for months, was finally open.

His Hat Lamp shone straight in, revealing only inky blackness. Not even the shadow of a fish could be seen. A bone-chilling cold rushed out to meet him.

In that instant, an image flashed through his mind.

’He enters the cabin, his light piercing the darkness, only to be greeted by several gleaming white skeletons.’

He shook his head, banishing the strange thought from his mind.

Kicking his legs, he steadied himself against the wall and slipped into the cabin with the agility of a fish.

The stairs, once used for walking, were now horizontal due to the boat’s tilt. Compounded by being underwater, where his body constantly tended to float upward, he had no choice but to swim his way in.

The cabin wasn’t large. It appeared to be a lounge, with a separate partitioned bathroom.

A sofa, lockers, a table, and chairs were scattered haphazardly on one side. Fortunately, two of the lockers were facing upright, their drawers and doors shut tight.

Another locker wasn’t so lucky; even its drawers were strewn about.

After quickly taking stock of the areas he needed to inspect inside, he backtracked and surfaced to catch his breath.

The only downside to free-diving was the time limit. The duration of a single dive depended entirely on how long he could hold his breath.

Furthermore, entering the cabin made movement more difficult, so the moment he felt his breath running out, he had to surface immediately, leaving a buffer of about ten seconds.

Fortunately, he possessed Basic Diving Mastery, which gave him a certain degree of enhanced experience in breath control.

For someone who had never dived before, and couldn’t even swim, after acquiring the ability, he could now reach depths of 20-30 meters on a single dive and hold his breath for about two minutes.

These stats were basically in line with the average requirements for a basic-level certification from major international diving organizations.

He quickly slipped back into the cabin, reached out with both hands, and rapidly pulled open the locker doors and drawers.

A flurry of waterlogged paper floated out. The drawers contained almost nothing useful.

Inside one of the lockers, however, lay a first-aid kit.

’A first-aid kit?’

’This thing seems... useless, doesn’t it?’

’First-aid kits usually just contain things like gauze, bandages, adhesive strips, and alcohol, plus some painkillers or allergy medicine for dealing with the most common Westerner emergencies.’

With practically no new discoveries to show for his efforts, a disappointed Lin Chen carried the first-aid kit back to the surface. After tossing it onto the bamboo raft, he began the night’s official hunt.

During his recent dives, he had seen plenty of fish swimming nearby. As long as a fish was edible, large enough, and had few bones, he absolutely would not let it get away!

The moment he descended to the seafloor, he saw a shimmering silver fish swim past.

Under the beam of his Hat Lamp, its upper body was distinctly bright, while its belly showed a faint, iridescent sheen. It had a spindle-shaped body, but other than that, there was nothing particularly special about it.