Culinary God in Wilderness

"I’m sure you’ve pretty much guessed it by now. That’s right, the next season will be held in Panama, on the southern border of North America!"

’Panama?’

Almost instantly, the words "Panama Canal" floated into his mind.

He must have learned about the canal in school as a kid. He couldn’t remember the details, but he still remembered the name.

"After a week of discussion, collecting feedback and votes from netizens and viewers, we’ve drafted the preliminary format for this challenge."

"This season’s theme is the Hardcore Wilderness God Challenge. Just like you mentioned when we last spoke—start with a knife, and everything else is up to you."

"What?????"

Lin Chen was a bit dumbfounded.

As a viewer, he loved watching this kind of hardcore wilderness survival, that was true. But when it was his own damn neck on the line, it wasn’t fun at all.

The thought of having to twist rope from bark and weeds, craft a logging axe and hunting weapons, and even build a water filter... not to mention that starting a fire would be a huge problem.

Just the thought of it all was so much trouble it made his head spin.

’If it gets to be too much, I’ll just take it easy. There’s no need to torture myself, even if it means I’ll be slower.’

"Don’t be so quick to refuse. Why don’t you hear the prize money amount before you decide?"

Robert, clearly hearing the hesitation in his voice, hurriedly added.

"Because of the extreme difficulty, we will only be selecting contestants with superb wilderness survival experience and skills. As an extra incentive, the prize pool has also been upgraded like never before."

"It’s no longer a winner-take-all format. Instead, the top five finishers will all receive a corresponding cash prize."

"Let’s just get to the champion’s prize: a full three million! The runner-up gets one million, third place gets five hundred thousand, and then two hundred thousand and one hundred thousand."

"That much?"

The champion’s prize had tripled, which he hadn’t expected. Plus, even the runner-up would get a million. In that case, he wouldn’t feel so much pressure; aiming for second place would be fine too.

"I have something I want to ask you about... it’s regarding a visa and a green card..."

"Simple!"

After hearing his concerns, Robert’s eyes lit up, and his voice grew excited.

"As long as you participate in the next season and place in the top three, we can sponsor you and extend your work visa through an employer recommendation. But applying for a green card is more complicated. The fastest and most convenient ways are through marriage, investment, or as a skilled worker."

"For the investment route, you’d need to spend a million US Dollars to create a business in an area with high unemployment, generate at least ten full-time jobs for a minimum of two years, and the business must have potential for sustained growth."

"For the skilled worker route, an employer needs to prove that no domestic worker can fill your position. You don’t have to worry about that part; with the skill and popularity you’ve shown, you’re pretty much qualified. The problem is you don’t have an employer."

"As for marriage..."

"Let’s forget about marriage," Lin Chen interrupted directly. "So you’re saying that if I want to get an American green card, participating in the next season and winning prize money is the fastest and most convenient way, right?"

"Yes. Is there any faster way to get money than winning the prize? If you continue to compete, not only will you carry over your previous popularity, but you might even become more famous. Then you can take your prize money, open a restaurant over here or something, and creating ten jobs would be a piece of cake."

Robert’s suggestion was exactly what he’d been thinking.

A place called the White Whale Restaurant had already seen a huge increase in customers by recreating the wilderness dishes he’d made. If he personally bought an estate near the forest and opened his own restaurant, wouldn’t that solve all his problems?

An all-in-one restaurant, tourist destination, and farm-stay business!

"When does it start?"

"You’ve agreed? That’s great!!"

Robert couldn’t help but cheer. He had personally guaranteed to his bosses that he’d get Lin Chen. For the sake of his bonus of tens of thousands of US Dollars, he had to sweet-talk Lin Chen into joining the next season.

"I haven’t agreed to anything yet. Don’t celebrate too early. Let me ask about the details first."

"Er, this is supposed to be confidential, but since you’re asking, I’ll let you in on a secret. It takes time to screen the contestant applications, and the production team needs time for promotion. Plus, you just finished the last challenge, so you need time to rest and recover for your health."

"The earliest it could start is probably a month from now, but the specific date isn’t set yet. Also, Daniel and his team have already left for Panama to do some on-site scouting. I’m sure we’ll hear back from them soon."

’A month from now?’

That buffer period was just about right. The broadcast of the current season should be wrapping up, and to build hype for the next one, they would definitely leak some rumors.

If he agreed, they’d probably leak the news of his participation to create a huge buzz.

"We’ll see when the time comes. Let me think about it. By the way, do you know where Andre is right now?"

"Andre? Let me check. I’ll message you in a bit."

After hanging up, Lin Chen immediately went online to search for information about Panama.

Just as Robert had said, Panama was located in Central America. It was a tropical region with a constant year-round temperature of 20-30 degrees Celsius, putting it at roughly the same latitude as Hainan.

It not only had tropical rainforests and pristine mountain ranges, but as part of the Caribbean Sea region, its coast was dotted with countless small islands. This meant the shallow waters were almost entirely coral reefs.

Coconut trees, king crabs, and Boston lobsters were everywhere, along with countless species of fish, shrimp, crabs, and shellfish.