Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 420: Chapter 259: The Hunt Begins

But that’s not necessary now. A simple lure should do the trick.

’The next issue is the trap. Given the crocodile’s size, just digging a pit would take too much time. An offensive trap might not even pierce its tough hide. The best method would be a trigger trap—one that hoists it up completely.’

’If it can’t get any leverage, it’ll have a hard time struggling. The only problem is what materials to use, or rather, how to set it up to withstand a weight of a few hundred kilograms?’

He soon thought of a fishing rod.

A fishing rod is so slender, yet it can withstand the struggles of a fish weighing hundreds of kilograms without breaking.

Although that was mostly thanks to the strength of modern materials, the principle was something he could borrow.

Bamboo was naturally slender at the top and thick at the bottom, a perfect match for a fishing rod’s design.

While he didn’t know how to fish, he had seen many videos from travel bloggers and knew that you couldn’t hold a fishing rod vertically. That was the easiest angle for a rod to snap.

All anglers kept their rods pointed forward, moving them according to the direction the fish was trying to escape. This minimized the force applied to the rod.

The key problem was that he was setting a trap. He couldn’t just stand there and wait, could he?

To secure it, he would definitely have to plant the bamboo in the ground.

Was there any way to secure the bamboo at an angle?

Basic Trap Mastery didn’t cover such a difficult trap, which meant he had to rely on himself to come up with a solution.

Securing a tilted bamboo pole, making it withstand several hundred kilograms of force without breaking, and having no modern materials to work with... it sounded like a fantasy.

After thinking for a long time without a good solution, he simply laid out all the unused materials he had on the ground.

’Wine bottles, a maintenance toolbox, a cutlery set...’

A cutlery set?

’If I sharpened them, couldn’t they serve as weapons?’

’And the wine bottles—aren’t they natural weapons once smashed?’

He had salvaged a total of three bottles of red wine and three empty bottles from the sunken speedboat. He hadn’t touched the red wine yet. The empty bottles had been boiled and sterilized to store coconut water. The leftover coconut shells had been used for cooking fuel, and the meat had been pressed into coconut oil.

Now, with the competition nearing its end, there was no need to save them.

If they could help him successfully capture the American Crocodile, then this "trash" would be worth its weight in gold!

He thought for a long while but still couldn’t come up with a good plan.

He had to abandon this idea and start thinking about other strategies.

’Since I can’t hoist the American Crocodile up with just a bamboo pole, I’ll use a combination trap!’

’With the force from a long, taut bamboo pole, I might not be able to lift the American Crocodile completely, but I can definitely raise it a certain distance off the ground.’

’What if I add a large Beast Trap underneath? It would trigger at the same time as the snare trap. One to control its mouth and one for its torso—wouldn’t that further restrict its movement?’

A crocodile’s most dangerous feature is its sharp teeth. As long as he could muzzle it, it would lose most of its threat.

He stared at the neatly arranged empty wine bottles and cutlery set on the ground as a bold idea slowly formed in his mind.

’That’s right! If I can’t restrain it with traps alone, I’ll just lie in ambush nearby. The moment it takes the bait, I’ll shoot it with an arrow. A triple-layered plan should be enough, right?’

’Oh, wait, I also have the anchor. That makes it a quadruple-layered plan. I refuse to believe I can’t catch one crocodile!’

Once he settled on the plan, he immediately began sharpening the knives and forks, honing their tips to be as sharp as possible.

The original forks could already serve as weapons with enough force. After being sharpened and mounted on the large Beast Trap, they could directly attack the crocodile’s soft underbelly.

For a full day and night, he spent most of his time sharpening the cutlery and glass shards, then mounted them all over the surface of the bamboo tubes.

After assembling it, he even tested its sensitivity in the clearing in front of his hut. Only after ensuring it had a hair-trigger did he confidently dismantle it all.

There were five sets of cutlery and countless glass shards, but not many were of a suitable size. He barely had enough to cover the surface of the bamboo tubes.

The three most lethal pieces were the ones still attached to the bottlenecks. Their broken edges were incredibly sharp and formed a pointed, inverted triangular shape.

He even tested it on an iguana’s head. Dropped straight from above, it pierced clean through. The sight made the hair on his neck stand up, and he handled the pieces with extreme care afterward.

If he accidentally cut himself, there would be a risk of infection.

Although he knew how to make a natural bandage, getting injured would inevitably affect the hunt. It was better to be careful.

Before the sun set, he made two trips to transport all the necessary equipment for the trap to the place where he had experimented last time.

While passing through the area Andre frequented, he saw a device in a clearing that was clearly a trap.

’What’s this?’

He stopped to observe it out of curiosity, but because the ground was covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves, he couldn’t make out any details.

However, he was certain it was likely a pitfall trap; otherwise, there would be no reason to cover the ground with so many leaves for camouflage.

’Trying to catch an American Crocodile with just a pitfall trap? I feel like it’s not that simple.’

He couldn’t get too close. He’d just have to wait until the trap was sprung to see, or watch the clips online later.

He went straight to the familiar spot and began assembling the scattered bamboo tubes one by one.

A traditional Beast Trap is a semicircular clamp with "teeth." When open, it lies flat on the ground with a small platform in the middle for bait, which rests on top of the trigger mechanism.

The moment the bait is moved even slightly, the device triggers, and the sharp teeth on both sides snap shut, clamping down hard on the prey.

The one he was making was a scaled-up version. It was like two sections of a bamboo ladder placed side by side, with three bamboo tubes arranged horizontally and vertically. The upward-facing surfaces were covered in a dense network of slits.

These slits were where he would insert the weapons—the sharpened knives, forks, and glass shards.

After setting up the Beast Trap, he walked a short distance away and dug a pit about a meter deep. He planted an eight-meter-tall bamboo pole in it, buried it, and then specifically tied several more bamboo tubes around it for support to prevent it from being ripped out of the ground by the immense force.

A finger-thick bamboo-fiber rope was tied to the top of the pole. As he pulled on it with all his might, the pole bent bit by bit until it formed the perfect arc of a fishing rod under tension.

The other end of the bamboo rope was already tied into a slipknot noose. Using the mortise and tenon principle with bamboo tubes, he crafted a simple trigger mechanism and placed the noose directly in front of the Beast Trap’s bait.

The rest was simple. He just had to place bait at intervals on the ground and wait for some unlucky fool to come knocking.

SPLASH.

A large handful of Green Iguana skeletons hit the water’s surface. The huge commotion instantly alerted the American Crocodiles hiding nearby.

He had only seen two at first, but after the splash, a total of four crocodiles converged on the area from all directions.

Two of them, clearly smaller, didn’t even have a chance to compete. After just a few glances from the periphery, a larger one passing by gave them a vicious snarl, and they stayed put, not daring to move.

"Whoa, he’s already started! Good thing I was paying attention!"

As he was staring intently at the water, a beam of light shone from the distance.

Erica approached cautiously, making no further sound, afraid of disturbing his hunt and causing all his efforts to be in vain.

To be honest, while it wasn’t her first time watching a hunt, this was the first time in her life she’d seen someone craft something so complex entirely by hand.

Especially since it was Lin Chen, for whom she had developed a good impression, she felt increasingly nervous for him.

"It’s fine, you can talk."

Lin Chen glanced at her and pressed on her shoulder, guiding her to slowly crouch down with him. "Don’t you know a lot about American Crocodiles? What, you didn’t know they’re drawn to any disturbance?"