Culinary God in Wilderness

When he arrived at the riverbank, he immediately saw the wooden door discarded not far from the warehouse entrance. There were still numerous drag marks left on the ice and in the snow.

?

A bold thought surfaced. He swallowed hard, walked over, and yanked open the warehouse door.

Food was piled high like a small mountain, without even leaving a walkway. It was impossible to even get inside.

He closed the warehouse door with a wry smile, his expression complex as he stared at the lone wooden door lying in the snow.

’Oh, right. Our cooperation agreement is still active today. To cut off all other possibilities, that guy really went all out, even tearing down his own shelter. Looks like there’s no need for me to waste any more time.’

Andre had stuffed at least 400 kilograms of food inside, including venison, Musk Ox meat, grouse, and King Salmon. As for other things like potatoes, who knew which corner they were piled in, but they were definitely there somewhere.

Lin Chen looked toward the spot where the helicopter had disappeared and muttered to himself.

"Now I’m in your debt..."

Honestly, if he hadn’t been lucky enough to build his shelter near Andre’s, the outcome would have likely been entirely different.

While the other contestants had extensive wilderness survival experience to some degree, they were no match for Andre—a ’wild man’ who had grown up in the wilderness since he was a child.

’If it weren’t for my cheat, Andre would have been the champion this season, one hundred percent.’

Once the thought surfaced, his heart grew heavy with an indescribable discomfort.

After returning to the shelter, he was unusually quiet. He heated up the bed-platform and then collapsed into sleep.

「Early the next morning.」

The production crew, who wasn’t scheduled to arrive until the day after tomorrow, had to conduct the routine medical check-ups two days early to announce Andre’s withdrawal.

After all, transporting supplies was a real money-drain, so it was best to save a little fuel where they could.

"What?!"

"Andre, the guy in second place, quit??"

"Was that him last night?"

"How is that possible? Oh my god, why would he suddenly quit? Did he get hurt?"

The six remaining contestants all wore expressions of disbelief upon hearing that Andre had quit, clearly unable to fathom the reason why.

Robert had no interest in explaining it to them. He just silently passed the message along to the next contestant.

Although Lin Chen didn’t need to be notified, they still made the trip over for his medical check-up.

「Meanwhile.」

Having just seen off the production crew, Connor collapsed limply onto his deerskin mattress, his eyes vacant as he stared at the ceiling.

’Andre was in second place, and like Lin, he hunted a Musk Ox. It was most likely the result of them working together.’

’Their shelters are the closest, so Lin has probably looted all of his remaining supplies by now.’

’A stockpile of two whole Musk Oxen, plus countless King Salmon... his food reserves must be at least a ton.’

’And with that perfect shelter of his... all he needs to do is gather firewood to maintain his fire, and he’ll be set until the competition is over. Heck, he could probably stay there until this time next year with no problem.’

’How am I supposed to beat a monster like that? His luck is just too good. Forget it, forget it. Settling for third place isn’t so bad. At least it’ll bring some publicity to my farm.’

He shot up from the bed, tore off the door to his storeroom, and walked outside, letting out a whistle.

The Coyote emerged from somewhere, trotting over to him. Its amber eyes watched him silently.

"Hey, pal. Want to come with me?"

"It’s okay if you don’t. All this food is yours. It’s enough to get you through the winter."

The Coyote tilted its head in confusion, clearly not understanding what he was saying.

"Come on," Connor said, squatting down and beckoning to it. "We’ve known each other for a while now. Letting me pet you once isn’t too much to ask, right?"

When the Coyote showed no sign of approaching, Connor rolled his eyes. He had no choice but to grab a piece of meat from inside and hold it out. Only then did he get his wish, stroking the creature’s furry, somewhat coarse head. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I’m quitting!"

Robert had just arrived at Lin Chen’s location and was stepping out of his vehicle when a message came through his walkie-talkie from the staff stationed at the main cabin.

"Damn it! Why the hell is that guy Connor quitting now, too??"

"Oh?"

Lin Chen raised an eyebrow, though he wasn’t particularly surprised.

It was only then that Daniel slowly began to understand.

"I get it now. Andre’s withdrawal dealt a devastating blow to the remaining contestants. It made them feel that if even the second-place contestant chose to give up, there was no way they could possibly catch up."

"Plus, everyone must have known that Andre had a fixed partnership with Lin Chen. That just proves their shelters were close, and Lin would definitely be the first one to scavenge his supplies."

"They already couldn’t catch up. Now, with one person controlling the combined reserves of two, they have absolutely no chance of winning. So why continue to suffer out here?"

Things unfolded exactly as he had analyzed. Within just half a day, every contestant except for Lin Chen had, without exception, chosen to withdraw.

It was only day sixty-four, with a full thirty-six days remaining in the hundred-day survival challenge.

All the contestants had quit, and the one who remained faced no survival pressure at all. What was left to film?

The hundred-day survival challenge originally stipulated that a contestant had to survive the full one hundred days to win. However, after collecting audience feedback, the producers realized this system was too rigid and inflexible.