Culinary God in Wilderness

He glanced at the scrolling comments on his wristband screen, smiled slightly, and wagged his index finger.

"No, the shelter can’t be built under the fruit trees. It has to be a certain distance away. Does anyone know why?"

He wasn’t idle while chatting with the audience. His gaze swept from side to side, and he quickly locked onto a suitable route down the slope.

[Why can’t you build it under the fruit trees?]

The question he’d anticipated appeared on the screen, just as he’d expected. Or rather, it was what most people had on their minds.

Fans of wilderness survival shows enjoy watching the process of a person encountering and solving problems in their struggle against nature. This includes activities like hunting, cooking, fishing, construction, and foraging.

Viewers fall into two camps. Some know nothing about the subject, so they’re curious to see how it’s all done.

Others have some survival knowledge themselves and want to see if a contestant’s choices align with their own experience.

That’s why every choice a contestant makes is bound to pique the audience’s curiosity.

[I’ve got it!]

Lin Chen didn’t rush to answer. As he made his way down the slope, he would occasionally raise his wristband to glance at the screen.

Sure enough, after just a few minutes, he saw someone post the correct answer.

[The fruit on the trees is food for humans, which means it’s also food for animals. In other words, wild animals will show up around the fruit trees often.]

[Small animals like birds or squirrels would be one thing, but if you run into thieves like monkeys, or dangerous predators like harpy eagles and pythons that come to hunt other animals, the shelter’s safety would be at risk.]

"Exactly! That viewer is absolutely correct!"

Lin Chen gave a thumbs-up. "And it’s not just about the fruit in the trees. The fruit that falls to the ground is usually overripe, which will also attract many wild animals that can’t climb."

"Think about it. If you drop a piece of fruit on the ground, won’t it be covered in ants within half an hour to an hour?"

"It’s the same principle here. I’d rather not be lying in my shelter only to find myself covered in ants, so it has to be located far away from the fruit trees."

Using the "ants on fruit" analogy, the viewers instantly got the picture he was painting.

The female viewers in particular couldn’t help but shudder, their faces showing expressions of disgust.

[Oh, so that’s why. That makes sense.]

[So where would be a good place to build the shelter?]

[I think it definitely can’t be too far from the fruit trees, or else hauling the fruit back will waste too much energy. It should also be close to a water source.]

[Anyway, he must be looking for a spot nearby. There’s no way he’s going all the way back where he came from, right?]

While the audience was busy chattering away, Lin Chen had already descended swiftly into the river valley.

First, he circled a few of the mango trees, occasionally crouching to part the grass and moss and check for animal tracks.

"This area is very close to the river mouth, so the soil salinity will be higher. That means the problem of salt is more or less solved."

The production team hadn’t provided any salt this time. In a wilderness survival situation, you can get by without catching prey, but you absolutely cannot do without salt.

Insufficient salt intake leads to severe dehydration. That means rapid weight loss—losing a pound or two a day is common—followed by a quick loss of muscle and fat. A person can become visibly emaciated.

The coast was, without a doubt, the best place to obtain salt, and getting here was the most critical step in his plan.

’In his view, any contestant who hadn’t made a beeline for the coast would probably start losing significant weight within a few days.’

’Even with the protein drops from the production team, he figured that after half a month or a full month, very few contestants would still be in healthy condition.’

’Muscle and fat are crucial for survival. Losing too much in a short period severely impacts a person’s mental and physical condition. Their thinking becomes clouded, and they lose their ability to make sound judgments.’

But reaching the coast was just the first step. The salt in seawater isn’t directly edible; it contains too many impurities and other minerals and must be purified before consumption.

But that was a task for later. First, he had to get a shelter built. The temperature by the sea dropped quickly at night, creating a large temperature differential with the daytime. He needed to find a place that offered protection from the wind and would stay warm.

After searching for a while, he finally settled on a location that felt very familiar.

It was at the end of the river valley, in a nearly ninety-degree corner right up against the hillside, with a drop of about four to five meters from the slope above.

Because the river valley was enclosed by the foothills extending from the mountains on either side, there was poor air circulation. This spot, being at the very end of the valley, was almost completely sheltered from the wind.

’One side was backed against the mountainside, a cliff-like terrain. Wasn’t this just like the site he’d chosen in Alaska?’

While gathering firewood, he did indeed find a few mangoes on the ground. Their skin was a grassy green with a faint, apple-red blush.

There weren’t many, though; he only found four in total.

"Looks like it’s not quite peak mango season yet. But it is only February, so that makes sense. It’s a bit early, which is actually better."

This was the tropics, where the temperature was constant year-round, so the fruit ripening seasons didn’t follow conventional patterns. Especially for fruits like mangoes and bananas, with their numerous varieties, ripe ones could be found in the wild almost all year.

Unlike the cliff in Alaska, which had a natural crevice at its base for him to use, this slope was just a simple dirt embankment at a steep, nearly ninety-degree angle.

He didn’t gather much wood, just a dozen or so branches. After all, in a place with plenty of water and a warm climate, it was hard to find any dead, dry trees.

Lin Chen stared at the dirt slope, pondering for a moment, before suddenly turning to the camera to ask a question.

"I don’t have an axe, so I can’t chop down any trees. Can anyone guess what kind of shelter I’m going to build?"