Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 407: Chapter 253: A Ready-Made Superweapon

"I don’t know."

Erica shook her head decisively.

"But if even you can’t figure it out, then the other contestants definitely can’t. You’re the one with a saw, after all."

"That’s true, but besides the two of us and Andre, there are still five other people. No one can guarantee that one of them hasn’t found metal scrap like I did. Assuming the worst-case scenario, I’d rather act as if every single one of them has met the condition."

"Under these circumstances, I have to maximize my chances of successfully hunting an American Crocodile. After all, a beast that size isn’t something you can just capture casually."

"Well, I can only wish you good luck then. I’m just a forest guide; hunting isn’t my strong suit. If I had a gun, I could give you a hand."

"You know how to shoot?" Lin Chen glanced at her in surprise. Then he remembered that firearms were legal where she was from. Since she spent all year wandering the wilds, it made sense she would carry a hunting rifle.

"Of course I do. I can use most of the common ones—hunting rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, AKs, air guns, shotguns. I can’t say my accuracy is amazing, but I can usually hit a stationary target, provided it’s not too far away."

’You call sniper rifles and AKs common?’

The corner of Lin Chen’s mouth twitched, and he quietly took half a step back.

"If you want to learn, I can teach you when we get out of here. You’ll definitely need a gun license for wilderness hunting anyway, especially if you want to hunt big game. You can’t do it without a gun."

"Let’s talk about it after we get out."

For the average person from Great Xia, a gun was something they would likely never even touch in their entire lifetime, unless they went to a shooting range experience.

Other than that, the only other chance would be to go abroad.

He’d never really thought about handling a gun before, but now that Erica had mentioned it, an eager impulse was stirring within him that he just couldn’t suppress.

She was right. Against behemoths the size of a moose, a brown bear, or an American Crocodile, there really wasn’t much you could do to even challenge them without a gun.

"So, are you going fishing tonight? I kind of want to go for a dive. Life on shore is too boring."

"Didn’t you just take a bath? You’re going in the sea again?"

"Oh, come on! Your bathtub is usually empty anyway, so what’s the big deal if I borrow it? I’ll go pick the soapnuts myself, and I know how to heat the water and fill it up now. I promise I won’t get in your way!"

"It’s settled then! See you at midnight!"

Without giving Lin Chen a chance to respond, she scurried off and vanished into the forest.

Judging by her direction, she was probably going to pick soapnuts.

’Women really can’t resist a hot bath,’ he thought. ’She didn’t even mention wanting to eat something good tonight.’

But even if she hadn’t brought it up, he was already planning to go out to sea a few more times in the coming days. Every fish he could catch was another point, and those points were everything.

If nothing else, when it came to fishing at sea, he had yet to see a single other contestant out on the water, unless they were so far away that not even his light could reach them.

The sea was pitch-black at night, so even the faintest glimmer of light would be incredibly conspicuous.

As long as no one else could go out to sea, he would hold an absolute monopoly on seafood.

「At midnight.」

The two of them met on time at the rocky shore.

As Lin Chen untied the bamboo raft, Erica nimbly vaulted onto it.

Before she could even steady herself, a wave struck, and the raft immediately bobbed up and down.

"Ouch... my butt!"

Erica had landed hard on the raft. She shot up as if electrocuted, clutching her backside and yelping, "What was so hard? That thing is killing me!"

She looked down and saw it was the anchor used to secure the raft.

She instinctively picked it up by the chain, gave it a swing, and then suddenly turned to look at him.

"Earlier today, weren’t you asking about a suitable long-range weapon? Isn’t this one ready-made?"

"Huh?"

Lin Chen paused, his gaze falling upon the anchor.

’Use this thing as a weapon?’

’You know, it might actually work!’

Including the chain, the anchor was just over ten meters long. It was solid, and its weight wasn’t too outrageous—it felt like about ten kilograms.

Swinging this thing around, it could probably rival a meteor hammer.

Even if it couldn’t cause any piercing or cutting wounds, its weight alone could be used to heavily injure an American Crocodile.

"You’re a genius!"

He took the anchor from Erica and tried swinging it. It was a little difficult at first, but once he got the momentum going, it took barely any effort. The only hard part was figuring out how to aim.

There was no time to practice; not many days were left in the competition.

He immediately spent 15 points in the store to redeem Basic Throwing Mastery.

In an instant, a tide of knowledge flooded his mind. Two seconds later, everything returned to normal.

The throwing-related skills were far more comprehensive than he had imagined.

It wasn’t just about basic stone-throwing; it encompassed all weapons and items thrown by hand.

Darts, pebbles, stone shards, playing cards, hand axes, knives, daggers, kunai...

He fought back the urge to test it out on the spot and gently set the anchor down.

If he revealed in front of her that he could suddenly aim and hit targets with perfect precision, it would be a little too over-the-top.

A person’s energy and focus are finite. If he displayed too many extraordinary specialized skills, he would sooner or later arouse suspicion.

Unless he had a background like Andre, with thirty years of wilderness survival experience. In that case, no matter what skills he used, the audience wouldn’t be surprised.

He was, after all, just a young chef. For skills he shouldn’t know, he had to appear to be learning them slowly from scratch.

Perhaps because he had unlocked Basic Throwing Mastery, he found that using the Ejected Harpoon now felt exceptionally natural and easy.