Culinary God in Wilderness

Andre stared at Lin Chen, looking him up and down with a face full of suspicion. His eyes practically screamed disbelief.

He’d said before that he couldn’t use a bow, but then he ended up shooting a Musk Ox from two hundred meters away, not to mention killing six or seven Yukon Wolves and a Black Bear.

And you call that not knowing how to use a bow?

So, am I supposed to take "I can’t swim" to mean you can’t free-dive twenty meters deep?

While he himself was a good swimmer, swimming in a river was a completely different concept from swimming in the ocean.

He had once spent half a year specifically practicing diving. Without any equipment, the deepest he could free-dive was just over ten meters.

From what he knew, the average depth for an amateur was around ten to fifteen meters, equivalent to the height of a three- to five-story building.

Any deeper than that, and every extra meter became a huge test of one’s physical conditioning and mental state.

Under Andre’s skeptical gaze, Lin Chen put on a swim ring, cautiously waded into the ocean, and flailed around for a bit.

He wasn’t really swimming, but just by watching his movements, Andre was shocked to discover that the guy actually, truly couldn’t swim!

Not just bad at it—completely clueless.

His coordination looked like it was his first time in the ocean, ever. He even started doggy-paddling. Andre suspected that if he took away the swim ring, the kid would probably swallow a year’s worth of salt in one go.

Still nursing his doubts, he tried to teach Lin Chen how to swim. To his surprise, the kid actually started practicing earnestly in the sea.

The hotel the production team had arranged had a pool, but Lin Chen never went once. Instead, he spent two hours a day soaking in the ocean, practicing his swimming.

He went through several bottles of sunscreen, but it still wasn’t enough to block the vicious UV rays. Compared to when he first arrived, he looked like a refugee from Africa.

The two of them spent a full week acclimatizing before they finally saw Robert and Daniel.

"Gentlemen, looks like you’ve had a lot of fun these past few days. You’re so tanned I almost didn’t recognize you."

On the beach, Robert, followed by Daniel and a VJ, started filming the pre-competition interview right there on the sand.

As they were filming, Hei and Ariana appeared next to the VJ at some point, waving to them.

Since the relevant details had been revealed a month ago, this interview was just a formality. All they had to do was act excited.

Lin Chen had just finished filming and hadn’t even had a chance to grab a drink of water when he saw Ariana walking over, carrying that familiar first-aid kit. In her hand, she clutched the stethoscope he both hated and feared.

"Time for the pre-competition physical. We need to make sure all your physical indicators are in a healthy range."

Ariana still had that same icy demeanor, but after spending two months with her, Lin Chen knew that this girl wasn’t incapable of smiling—she was just too lazy to fake it.

’Makes sense,’ he thought. ’Who can smile while they’re working anyway?’

"Hm?"

As the stethoscope slipped under his collar, Ariana let out a soft sound of surprise and gave him an astonished look.

"Looks like you’ve recovered well this month. Your pecs are clearly fuller. They were flat when I felt them before, but now they have a noticeable curve and elasticity."

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Lin Chen protested, looking up at the woman. "A physical is a physical. Why are you groping me?"

"So?" Ariana shrugged, her expression blank. "It’s not like I haven’t touched them before. Don’t act like some innocent little boy."

As she spoke, she deliberately squeezed his pec, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"It was just a compliment. It doesn’t mean you have a great body. If you want to talk about pecs, take a look at this."

She reached out with her right hand and poked Hei’s prominent chest muscles. You could see her finger sink in a fair distance.

The sheer muscle mass was obvious at a glance. The light short-sleeved shirt he wore looked like a compression shirt on him, as if it might rip at any moment.

"?"

Lin Chen blinked. "Hei, if you’re being coerced, just blink. Why do you look so used to this?"

"Go ahead and squeeze. What’s the big deal? Aren’t muscles for showing off anyway~"

Hei grinned, revealing a mouthful of silver teeth. He then proudly flexed his pecs a few times, making them dance like someone was playing the drums. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

By the time all the procedures were finished, an hour had passed.

"In about three days, in the morning, we will officially begin the competition. Right now, I need to explain some of the new adjustments for this season in advance."

Robert picked up the iced Coke beside him, took a few sips to wet his throat, and then continued.

"First of all, unlike the past dozen or so seasons, the format this time is significantly more brutal. The number of contestants has increased from the original ten to a whopping fifty!"

"How many?!"

The two of them thought they had misheard.

"That’s right. Fifty."

Robert glanced at each of them, lowered his voice, and said with some embarrassment, "To be honest, the schedule was too tight, and way too many people signed up. We didn’t have time to vet everyone’s qualifications one by one, so we just picked the fifty candidates whose résumés looked the most promising."

Panama has limited land and resources. Dropping so many contestants into one area at the same time will naturally create competition among them.

It will have a significant impact on building shelters, finding fresh water, foraging for food, and so on.

It’s very likely that as soon as you land, you’ll find several, or even a dozen, competitors within a five-hundred-meter radius.

Forget about finding a shelter; you’ll probably have a hard time just scrambling for food.