Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 400: Chapter 249: Joking with Life (Part 2)

"Hey! You—"

"GLUG GLUG GLUG..."

"Let—!"

"...GLUG GLUG GLUG..."

After a few times, he learned his lesson. He clamped his mouth shut, doing his best to stay afloat on the surface and snatching quick breaths whenever he got the chance.

Just then, Erica’s arms suddenly tightened, hugging his head in a death grip.

"?!"

Thinking he was about to be shoved underwater again, Lin Chen instinctively took a deep breath to hold it. The next moment, his vision went dark, and his cheek pressed against something incredibly soft.

Before he could even react, the pressure on his head lightened. His Hat Lamp had been knocked off by the struggling Erica.

’What in the world is going on?’

Sensing something was off, Lin Chen slowly calmed down, but he could feel that the arms holding his head had no intention of letting go. They were still pressing his head forward.

’Holy shit?’

’Wait, this girl’s collar zipper...?’

...

Back on the bamboo raft, Lin Chen and Erica sat facing each other.

Erica stuck out the tip of her tongue, a little embarrassed. She cheekily scooted closer and took his arm.

"Oh, come on, don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joked about something like that, but who told you to provoke me by calling me flat-chested... You know how it is, a woman’s appearance is a sensitive topic."

"I admit I was in the wrong," Lin Chen said with a stern face, offering a sincere apology. "I didn’t consider the cultural differences between the East and West, nor how sensitive you are about the topic of figure. I also didn’t expect you to figure out what that term meant."

"But no matter how angry you were, you can’t joke about drowning, can you?"

"I’m sorry!"

She clasped her hands together and raised them over her head, her attitude earnest and her eyes full of sincerity.

"Name your terms. How do you want me to apologize?"

"That’s not for me to decide. You think of something. It depends on how sorry you really are."

"You’re right."

Erica pinched her chin and nodded in agreement. Her brows furrowed as she pondered for a long moment, then her eyes fell on his outer clothes, which were casually piled on the raft, and the camera clipped to them, pointing out at the sea.

Her own camera had fallen off when she was pretending to drown. She had picked it up later and tossed it onto Lin Chen’s jacket as well, not having had a chance to put it back on yet.

It was the middle of the night, so they figured not many viewers were online. Neither was in a hurry to put them back on.

After making sure the camera couldn’t see them, her eyes darted around mischievously.

"I’ve got it!"

Lin Chen’s brow furrowed. He had a feeling from her sneaky look that this girl wasn’t up to any good.

Erica raised a hand to cover her mouth, motioning for him to lean in so she could whisper in his ear.

Seeing that she seemed to just want to tell him a secret, Lin Chen relaxed a bit and tilted his head slightly.

In that instant, a dozen possibilities popped into his head.

For instance, she might offer to let him have a look, a feel, or compensate him with money after they got back—all her usual tricks.

He had even already planned out how he was going to give her a stern lecture.

Erica leaned close to his ear, her cherry lips parting slightly as she whispered in an extremely soft voice.

"It’s a secret!"

"?"

Lin Chen rolled his eyes, speechless.

’Are you kidding me? You checked the camera and acted all sneaky, and this is all you came up with?’

"I’ll tell you after the competition is over. For now, it’s a secret to give you something to look forward to. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied!"

She glanced at her watch. "It’s the early morning of Day 29. Not counting today, there are still 16 days left in the competition. That’s only two weeks. It’ll be over soon."

Since she put it that way, there wasn’t much Lin Chen could do. However, judging by the fact that she wasn’t causing trouble, it was probably a normal idea.

Her attitude was what mattered. By the time she revealed it, his anger would have probably long since faded.

He was the type of person who didn’t really have a temper. He rarely got angry, and when he did, he let it out on the spot. After a good night’s sleep, all was right with the world again.

...

For three days after they returned, the two didn’t see each other.

Lin Chen wouldn’t seek her out unless he needed something, and Erica wouldn’t show up unless she had a craving for food. Plus, after what had happened, she was probably too thin-skinned to come freeload a meal, so they simply maintained the status quo.

Lin Chen was happy to have the peace and quiet. He spent his days either cutting bamboo or weaving furniture. In three days, he managed to craft a dining table, a bedside table, two stools, and a lounge chair, earning a total of 5 Happiness Points.

His accumulated Happiness Points had reached 17. He could exchange them, but he hadn’t decided what to get.

「On the evening of Day 32.」

With nothing else to do, Lin Chen couldn’t sit still and went back to the Mangrove Forest to observe the activity of the wild American Crocodiles.

This time he didn’t run into Andre, but he did come across Erica, who was digging for oysters near the shore.

"Good evening~"

Erica greeted him with a cheerful wave, back to her old self.

"Are you here to observe the American Crocodiles? Andre was just here. He left for the forest only a few minutes ago."

"He’s been coming here pretty often these last few days, hasn’t he?"

"Yeah, I see him lingering here for three or four hours every night. I have no idea what he’s looking at. He always comes and goes empty-handed. It’s so strange."

"He’s scouting for the best place to make his move and observing the habits of this crocodile pack."

Lin Chen didn’t even have to think to guess the meaning behind Andre’s actions.

"He’s an old Hunter with thirty years of adventuring experience. For the sake of his wife and daughter, he definitely won’t take any unnecessary risks. That means he has to ensure his success rate is as close to one hundred percent as possible, which requires extensive prior observation to gather intelligence."

"In other words, after observing them continuously for more than ten days, he’ll have a complete grasp of this pack’s every move. The day he decides to act, he’ll most likely be successful."

"That sounds impressive. What about you? Are you confident?"

"Of course," Lin Chen nodded confidently. "Did I build all those tools for nothing?"

"That’s true." Recalling the pile of modern materials in his hut, Erica nodded in realization. "Whether it’s making weapons or building traps, your chances of success are much higher than his. I’m really looking forward to you winning the championship again."

"It’s hard to say."

Lin Chen pointed towards the dark mountain forest in the distance. "The competition has been going for 32 days, and there are still eight contestants holding on."

"Besides the three of us, there are still five other people eyeing the champion’s throne."

"I’d guess that anyone who has lasted this long has probably already reached the coast. It’s possible one of them has found modern junk just like I did and has already built some incredible tools or weapons."

"I feel like it would be hard for anyone to surpass your achievements, though, right?"

Erica ticked off points on her fingers, unconvinced. "A two-story shelter, all that furniture, a water channel, a bathtub, the bamboo raft, a fish spear, a diving suit... not to mention seven or eight Lobsters, a black-tailed deer, a coconut crab, a ray, and a lot of other things I don’t even know about."

"Oh, right, you also made your own oyster sauce! How can the other contestants even compare?"

"They just don’t know the full extent of what you’ve done. If they did, they probably would have given up long ago, right?"

"That’s also hard to say. After all, the top five in this competition all get prize money. No one knows what place they’ll get until they stick it out to the very end."

Lin Chen wasn’t as optimistic as her. He felt that if a monster like Andre could exist, there could just as easily be other monsters he didn’t know about.

Going all out was the only way to do right by himself and the audience that supported him.

"Well, I’m definitely going to be eighth place. I’m purely here as a spectator."

Erica shrugged nonchalantly, bending over to pry a large oyster loose and toss it into the bamboo basket on her back.

"You probably get points for all the seafood you gather every day. What if someone still hasn’t made it to the coast? It would be normal for their score to be lower than yours. The top five get prize money. If you just try a little harder, wouldn’t it be nice to have some more spending money?"

"Even if it’s just to prove something to your parents, having a rank is better than not having one, right? Or think of it this way: when you’re working in the future, having a ranking like this to your name will make clients trust you more. More people will definitely choose you, and you’ll earn more."