Culinary God in Wilderness

"Lin, have you decided what you want to exchange for?"

Robert walked at the head of the group, shouting to him from a good distance away. He was waving a white piece of paper back and forth in his hand; it was most likely the list of materials.

Lin Chen stood behind the fence, the upper half of his body visible over the top. He glared at him without saying a word.

?

Daniel, who had sharper eyes, patted Robert on the shoulder. "What’s wrong? He doesn’t look very happy."

"Huh? Not happy?"

Robert froze, blinking in confusion.

"Why isn’t he happy?"

"How should I know?"

"We’re here to bring him ingredients. He should be happy he gets to eat a delicious meal, right?"

"Don’t look at me, I already told you I don’t know!"

Only Ariana seemed to sense something was wrong. She glanced up at the helicopter parked on the clifftop, then at the patch of ground below where the snow had been completely blown away, exposing the bare rock.

But she had no intention of pointing it out. Walking at the rear with her first-aid kit, she shifted her gaze to Lin Chen’s face and began observing his complexion.

In her professional experience, a sudden snowfall like the one last night wouldn’t cause a drastic drop in temperature. However, going from a warm interior into the snow to be active could easily lead to a cold, frostbite, or similar ailments due to the extreme temperature difference.

It was just like the change of seasons, a peak time for sudden illnesses.

The three of them squeezed through a gap in the rock wall and into the shelter’s courtyard. Their attention was immediately captured by the parachute, which was piled high with snow.

On top of the pristine white mound lay a thin layer of yellow dirt and scattered bits of gravel.

Seeing that they had noticed, Lin Chen dropped the act.

"Robert, you’ve contaminated my water catchment. Not only has this created a ton of extra work for me, but it’s also reduced my water reserves. I have reason to believe you all think I’m having it too easy and decided to artificially increase the difficulty to balance things out with the other contestants..."

"Impossible!"

Before he could finish, Robert quickly waved his hands dismissively.

"You’re overthinking it, Lin. Our show is fair and impartial; we’d never interfere with a contestant’s survival. Besides, didn’t we land on the clifftop the last time we came?"

"Because before, this was water. Now, it’s snow."

Lin Chen replied expressionlessly, "The first two times you came, you pretty much cleared out all the loose dirt near the landing zone. So subsequent visits didn’t blow much filth down."

"Even if some dirt did get in, it would quickly sink to the bottom of the water, so the impact was minimal. I only realized it a couple of days ago when I finished the water and found a lot of sand and gravel sediment at the bottom of my catchment."

"I was sound asleep last night, so I have no idea if there was a strong wind, but looking at the result, this is clearly your handiwork."

Faced with the irrefutable truth, Daniel and Robert exchanged a look. Daniel sighed in resignation.

"Lin, could I trouble you to borrow your Engineer Shovel? I’ll help you clean this up."

Lin Chen hadn’t really intended to make a big deal out of it. He just wanted to complain and warn them to be more careful next time. But since Daniel himself had offered to help clean up, that was even better.

There was snow everywhere, so he wasn’t worried about his water supply. He just had to shovel off the top layer of dirt. There was no need to add more snow, since it would all overflow eventually anyway.

Ariana had no desire to get involved in the men’s affairs. She walked over to Lin Chen and began her routine check-up.

Lin Chen was already used to the routine. His attention was focused on the list of materials Robert had handed him, and he absentmindedly complied with the doctor’s examination.

"This list looks pretty official, but the actual items won’t be completely different from what I’m expecting, right?"

"Of course not!"

Robert puffed out his chest confidently. "We sent someone specifically to T&T Supermarket to do the shopping. We even spoke with the store manager and showed them clips of you in action."

"Is that so? That’s a relief," Lin Chen nodded. "However, even among us Da Xia People, perceptions can vary wildly depending on where you’re from. People from the south, east, north, west, and central regions can have completely different ideas about the very same thing."

"Then there’s your profession. There’s a huge gap in understanding between a chef and a layperson. But since I’m out here trying to survive in the wild, I can’t be too demanding. As long as the ingredients themselves are correct, a competent chef can always find a way to salvage things."

As he spoke, he mentally reviewed the inventory in his stash.

’I’ll keep the bear paws and exchange the rest of the bear meat. I’ll keep five kilograms of the mutton; I can always hunt more when that runs out. For the wolf meat, I’ll keep one leg and the tenderloin and trade the other three and a half carcasses. As for Andre’s sheep... eh, forget it. I’ll play it safe and only count ten kilograms. It wouldn’t look good to fleece someone for their kill in front of our foreign friends.’

’So, all told, that’s... over ninety kilograms of wolf meat, over thirty kilograms of bear meat, and a little over ten kilograms of mutton. Combining the extra bits from the first two to round things out shouldn’t be a problem.’

’And with my professional perk, the total number of items I can exchange should be fifteen!’

Even though they were mentally prepared for it, Robert and Daniel couldn’t help but roll their eyes dramatically upon hearing that the guy possessed such a massive stockpile of meat.

According to their own private tallies, even the farmer—the most well-stocked of the other nine contestants—had only managed to procure a single young adult female red deer. It weighed a little over a hundred kilograms, which would yield about fifty to sixty kilograms of meat.

Add in some small game like grouse, and the total still wouldn’t exceed seventy kilograms.

The other contestants had even less. The unluckiest poor soul had to hunt almost every day just to eat and had practically no reserves at all.

This kid, however, had staged a stunning comeback, going from an overlooked contestant to a food tycoon sitting on a hundred and forty kilograms of protein, forty kilograms of potatoes, and a heap of wild mushrooms!

What with the wolves and the bear, anyone who didn’t know better would assume he was a seasoned veteran hunter.

Only the regular viewers who had been following the show from the beginning knew that while Lin Chen’s luck was pretty good, his *bad* luck seemed to be even more potent.

Whether it was the Black Bear or the Yukon Wolves, he had never actively sought them out. He only fought back because he’d run into them and had been left with no other choice.

Of course, only Lin Chen himself knew the real story.

"As we agreed, I need a three-piece cookware set and one Great Xia-style wok. That’s forty-five kilograms of meat, right?"

"That’s right," Robert said, ticking it off on his fingers. "And don’t forget the discount. Since we’re hoping you’ll cook us lunch, we can knock five kilograms off the price. So let’s just call it an even forty kilograms."

"No, no, no, I think you’ve misunderstood something, Mr. Robert."

Lin Chen held up a finger, wagging it back and forth as he explained with great solemnity, "There are three of you, yet you only want to pay for a single meal? When you go to a restaurant and pay for one combo meal, do they bring three to your table?"