Culinary God in Wilderness

"What is...?"

Lin Chen had never encountered a situation like this before. He furrowed his brow in confusion. Andre, on the other hand, seemed to have thought of something and shot his head up.

"Lin, quick, look at the sky!"

"The sky?"

Lin Chen looked up, confused, his pupils reflecting a swath of green light. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The pitch-black night sky twinkled with stars, and a bright, pale-yellow moon hung high above.

Between the dense sea of stars, several ribbons of green light stretched across the sky from the horizon, like the sashes of a fairy from legend.

The green lights constantly shifted their shape in the air, creating the illusion of being on the set of a science fiction movie.

"The aurora?"

A rather obscure term quietly surfaced in his mind.

The aurora can only be seen in polar regions. Its appearance depends on the time, season, and even the weather. If you’re unlucky, you won’t see it at all.

Alaska, however, was an exception. Most of the region lies within the Arctic Circle, and the aurora is visible for several months out of the year.

"You’ve never seen it?"

Andre didn’t seem surprised, casually continuing with his work as if it were a common sight.

"Every winter when it snows, the aurora appears inside the Arctic Circle. You can see it from anywhere close by. It started appearing a few days ago."

"I’m not in the habit of being active at night."

Lin Chen took a few more glances at the emerald-green aurora before pulling his gaze away, refocusing on processing the pelts and innards of their quarry.

’To put it bluntly, it’s just a physical phenomenon. I’ll have plenty of time to watch it from the shelter later.’

By the time the two of them returned to the warehouse with their third fully-loaded haul, the sky had already brightened considerably.

"We’re done for," Lin Chen said, opening the warehouse door only to silently close it again. "It’s full to bursting. There’s no more room."

When he’d built the warehouse, he had only planned on storing some King Salmon and the like, never thinking he’d hoard so much. So, he hadn’t made it very big.

As a result, after piling in over seven hundred kilograms of Musk Ox meat from the two carcasses, it was completely stuffed. There was no room for the remaining six Yukon Wolves, so they’d have to be transported back to the shelter.

But getting to the shelter from here required climbing a small hill, and for the two men who had worked through the night, they had no energy left to haul these things back.

"Let’s just wait here." Andre plopped down onto the snow, not caring about the cold, and gasped for breath. He felt like he was soaked to the bone; even his underwear felt cold and damp.

"We’ll have Robert and the others take it away directly when they get here. It’ll save us the trouble. I can’t move another inch."

"Good idea. Let’s rest."

Lin Chen also dropped his composure and sprawled out on the snow, quietly enjoying the faint warmth of the gentle morning sun on his body.

Seeing how comfortable he looked, Andre followed suit, lying down with a contented groan.

Not long after they lay down, their breathing steadied, and just like that, they fell asleep.

「...」

SLAP SLAP SLAP.

A stinging pain flared across his cheek, as if he was being slapped by something.

Lin Chen groggily waved his hand, tilted his head, and was about to go back to sleep.

The next second, a ball of intensely cold snow was stuffed inside his shirt, shocking him so much he shot up from the ground.

"Holy crap!!!"

Hurriedly shaking the snow out of his clothes, he finally noticed that Robert and the others had arrived at some point. Ariana, a snowball still clutched in her gloved hand, was staring at him coldly.

Seeing he was awake, Ariana turned, lifted the hem of Andre’s shirt, tossed the snowball in, and then gave it a hard smack.

SMACK!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the clouds, startling flocks of birds from the nearby branches.

Lin Chen’s mouth twitched, and he forcibly suppressed the urge to argue with her.

’If reasoning with a woman ever worked, you must be dreaming.’

"Pulling an all-nighter, intense physical labor, no water, no food, sleeping in the snow while soaked in sweat, no insulation, and near a river where danger could appear at any moment..."

Ariana ticked off the points on her fingers with a cold smile, her gaze shifting back and forth between the two men like a parent scolding her children.

"One of you is an old Hunter with thirty years of wilderness survival experience, and the other is the most impressive newcomer king. And you’re here joking with your lives?"

"If we hadn’t noticed your situation and had arrived two or three hours later, you’d have been frozen solid like popsicles, you know that?"

"At best, you’d have permanent injuries! At worst, you’d need an amputation or die on the spot!"

Her tone was incredibly icy, but to their ears, it was filled with a strange warmth.

Lin Chen and Andre secretly glanced at each other and made goofy faces.

"I’m sure Ariana wouldn’t just leave us here, right?"

Lin Chen said with a cheeky grin, "Besides, look, the wolf carcasses are right here. The smell of wolves is a natural protective barrier. No animal would dare come close and get itself killed."

"He’s not wrong about that," Daniel interjected.

"Shut up!"

Ariana shot him a fierce glare, pointed her slender, pale finger at the two men, then pulled a stethoscope from her collar and packed it with a handful of snow from the ground.

"?"

"?"

The smiles on Lin Chen’s and Andre’s faces froze simultaneously.

"Uh, well, we have an old saying in Great Xia: ’those who come from afar are guests, so guests first.’"

He silently took half a step back and made a gesture for Andre to go ahead.

"Besides, he’s not even afraid of the cold when he goes for his winter swims. His body is incredibly strong. What’s a little stethoscope, right?"

Andre looked at him, on the verge of tears, then at the snow-packed stethoscope. He had no choice but to brace himself, step forward, and pull at his collar.

"I... I’ll go first."

As expected of someone who could winter-swim without batting an eye. The moment the ice-cold stethoscope was placed against his skin, aside from a sharp shudder, the old-timer didn’t make a single sound.

"No major issues, just a bit malnourished and vitamin deficient."

As soon as Ariana pulled the stethoscope back, Lin Chen strode right up to her and pulled open his collar. "Let’s do it!"

"Not so fast."

The woman smiled faintly, bent down, grabbed a fresh handful of snow to rub on the stethoscope, then pulled an alcohol wipe from the first-aid kit and wiped it down again.

"?"

Lin Chen never expected she had another trick up her sleeve. Staring at the gleaming, chillingly cold metal disc in her hand, he closed his eyes in despair, looking like a martyr bravely facing his execution.

Andre straightened his collar, waiting off to the side with a grin, ready to enjoy the show.

It was true he was more resistant to the cold, but the perceived temperature of that stethoscope was much lower than ice water.

River water that wasn’t frozen was around 4-5 degrees Celsius. The deeper you go, the warmer it gets, so it wasn’t as cold as one might imagine.

But the temperature of snow is below zero.

Plus, metal is a good conductor of heat. A few moments of exposure to air that was more than ten degrees below zero would be enough for it to acclimate.

Under his eager gaze, Ariana slowly moved the stethoscope toward Lin Chen’s collar.

Just as she was about to press it against him, she paused, silently drew it back, and warmed it in her glove for a moment before placing it inside Lin Chen’s collar.

"?"

"?"

"?"

"?"

Instead of the anticipated bone-chilling cold, there was actually a bit of warmth. Lin Chen opened his eyes in confusion, only to see Andre staring at Ariana in disbelief, as if he’d seen a ghost.

Nearby, Robert, Daniel, and Hei, who were weighing the wolf carcasses, also turned to look, shocked.

’What’s going on?’

Stared at by several people, a rare blush appeared on Ariana’s pale face as she explained.

"Everyone’s constitution is different. I was just joking to scare him. Andre is used to winter swimming, and his body is much stronger. He’s long since adapted to the stimulus of low temperatures."

"Lin is different. He’s thinner by comparison and doesn’t have the habit of winter swimming. He can’t handle that kind of shock; it could easily trigger sudden medical problems like cardiac spasms."

"Ooooh~~"

Robert said "oh" as if in sudden understanding, but his tone was strange, and a peculiar smile hung on his face.

Fortunately, he was restrained enough not to stir up any trouble. After all, it wasn’t his place to create gossip. It was much better to let the audience start "shipping" them on their own.

If the audience didn’t want to ship them, well, he hadn’t done anything, so he couldn’t be wrong. Whatever the outcome, it had nothing to do with him.

"Lin, which meat do you want to exchange?"

Hei opened the warehouse door and took a look, completely stunned by the mountain of meat piled inside. It was so full you could barely walk in; there was only enough room for one person to stand.

"One of the carcasses belongs to Andre; he’ll haul it back himself later. As for these wolves..."

"The wolves are all yours. It has nothing to do with me. I didn’t lay a hand on them."

Andre perceptively waved his hands dismissively.

This stuff didn’t taste very good anyway, and he didn’t know how to cook it. Taking it back would be a waste. It was better to leave it for Lin to exchange for some seasonings.

"In that case, take all six. Do you want the pelts? If the exchange price is right, I don’t have much use for them."

He already had one bearskin, one sheepskin, and four wolf pelts in his cabin. It was already a surplus. He had no use for more, and it would just create more work for him.

"Such complete wolf pelts should fetch a good price. The audience is watching, you know. I suggest you think carefully before you quote a price."

"...How about this. Take a look at the list first."

Robert glanced at the camera on his chest, tactfully shut his mouth, and handed over the list. At the same time, he turned to Daniel, asking for his opinion with a look.

"I need oyster sauce, soybean paste, dried Sichuan peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorn powder, fresh green Sichuan peppercorns, dried chili peppers, aged black vinegar, salt, sugar, flour..."

Lin Chen quickly scanned the list, checking off the items that were on it and writing down the ones that weren’t on the side.

"Lin, didn’t I tell you last time that we were going to have another meeting to discuss things when we got back?"

After taking the list and seeing what Lin Chen wanted to exchange, Robert didn’t agree right away. Instead, he changed the subject.

Seeing his attitude, Lin Chen’s heart dropped. ’This isn’t good.’

"What tricks are you trying to pull this time?"

"No, no, no major adjustments. We just tweaked the requirements for exchanging different types of items."

"Because up to this point, we’ve observed that it’s far too easy for you two to acquire protein when you cooperate. Other contestants are in a similar situation."

"In the wild during winter, it’s nearly impossible to find vegetables or berries, and carbohydrates are almost unobtainable. This can easily lead to a nutritional imbalance."

"As the only professional contestant who can exchange for flour, it seems too easy for you to trade protein for carbohydrates, so we’ve made an adjustment specifically for that."

"If you want to exchange for things like flour or starch, you can trade potatoes at a 20-to-1 ratio by weight. For example, 10 kilograms of potatoes will get you a 500-gram bag of flour or starch. Even if you were to process it yourself, it would come out to about the same. The extra is a processing fee."

"If you want to use protein for the exchange, that ratio increases to 50-to-1. That means 50 kilograms of meat for one 500-gram bag of flour or starch."

"Additionally, given that your successful hunt has caused... inflation, the standard exchange price for items will be uniformly raised to 10 kilograms of meat. Some more expensive materials will rise to 15-20 kilograms."

"..."

He had expected the guy to raise prices, but he never thought it would be this ruthless.

’What’s the difference between this and daylight robbery?’