Culinary God in Wilderness

Their questions were the same ones all the contestants wanted to ask.

The Panama Canal is the only express channel connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It’s a maritime chokepoint that can cut shipping times by more than half.

Cargo ships are quite slow, unlike speedboats or yachts that can race across the sea. Their average speed fluctuates around thirty knots.

The Panama Canal is about eighty kilometers long. Not counting queues and congestion, it takes these super-sized cargo ships about eight to nine hours to pass through, with a significant portion of that time spent navigating the three sets of locks.

If you factor those in, it takes at least a full day.

But a faster, more agile patrol-style speedboat can cross the entire canal in just over an hour. Their speeds can easily reach the fifty to ninety-knot range.

Having them travel by speedboat was undoubtedly to save time.

But speedboats aren’t built for long-distance travel, which meant they would have to disembark somewhere along the canal banks or near Cologne.

If that was the case, they would be too close to the city.

Everyone knows that the closer you are to a city, the less likely you are to find a pristine forest, and biodiversity suffers as a result.

’Is there a second mode of transportation?’

Lin Chen remained silent the whole time, quietly gazing at the shore. He had already reached a conclusion in his mind.

If it were simply about reaching the destination, they could have had the contestants take a bus to Cologne beforehand and filmed the opening there. That would have been the cheapest and easiest method.

But since the production team chose to cross the entire canal, they must have had their reasons.

’Was it to film this segment on the canal?’

An idea struck him. He looked over at the other speedboats cutting through the water, which did create a unique visual contrast against the backdrop of the giant cargo ships.

The branches in the thickets on both banks, which shook from time to time, added to the eerie atmosphere.

He knew that these inexplicable movements were actually white-faced capuchins or mantled howler monkeys leaping between the branches.

’How could a tropical forest not have monkeys?’

The presence of monkey troops meant there were bound to be many fruit trees growing in the nearby forest, especially banana and plantain trees.

’Just as the research showed, fruit trees grow everywhere in the Panama Forest. That’s good news.’

’If I can find just one banana tree, I’ll have at least two weeks’ worth of food.’

Panama’s climate was the complete opposite of Alaska’s. Back there, he hardly had to worry about storing food.

But here, if meat wasn’t stored properly, it could rot in a single afternoon.

Fruits were relatively better, lasting five to seven days. Wild fruits, in particular, were usually devoured by animals long before they could ripen.

"Hey! Look at that big guy!"

Following the cry of alarm, dozens of pairs of eyes shot toward a dead, moss-covered tree on the bank.

A giant bird with strange feathers on its head was perched on the deadwood. Its sharp gaze was fixed on them from afar, and the mere sight of its hooked beak was enough to send a chill down one’s spine. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

With just a fleeting glance, Lin Chen immediately recognized the creature.

The Harpia Harpy Eagle, also known as the Harpy Eagle, is the largest eagle in the world and one of the four most ferocious raptors.

They have an average body length of one meter, a wingspan of two meters, and weigh around nine kilograms. They excel at hunting most arboreal creatures, like raccoons and sloths, and will also prey on other birds. They are the undisputed aerial sovereigns of the forest.

It is also the national bird of Panama, symbolizing power and strength.

In just a moment, detailed information about the Harpy Eagle surfaced in Lin Chen’s mind.

For the past month, he had spent nearly every day collecting and organizing all sorts of information about Panama. As the country’s most famous creature, the Harpy Eagle had naturally left the deepest impression on him.

While most of the other contestants were marveling at the eagle’s majestic appearance, Lin Chen suddenly lowered his head and sighed quietly.

’Looks like these people still have no idea what level of difficulty they’re about to face. They can actually still smile.’

As one of only two people in the entire competition who knew the survival location in advance, one piece of intelligence he absolutely could not ignore while gathering information was the list of protected species.

National law supersedes the rules of the show. If you cross that red line, you’ll face a fine and a warning at best. At worst, you’ll be "invited for tea."

The facts he uncovered during his research had once almost made him want to quit the competition.

The reason was simple: Panama, along with nearby Central American countries like Colombia and Costa Rica, all enforced a similar policy of absolute wildlife protection.

*(In reality, these countries prohibit the hunting of all wild animals under most circumstances, with rare exceptions for special situations like scientific research permitted by the government. Normally, it is absolutely forbidden. However, as this novel is set in a fictionalized world, for the sake of convenience, the hunting of some invasive and overabundant species will be permitted.)*

Most of the creatures they would normally see were protected by law. They could be observed from a distance, but not hunted, let alone eaten to fill one’s stomach.

According to his research, the only things they could freely catch were various types of seafood. In the forest, invasive species like the Green Iguana and the Nile Tilapia were also fair game, provided one didn’t overdo it.

If these greenhorns knew they were about to face a survival challenge where hunting was forbidden, they probably wouldn’t be smiling anymore, would they?