Culinary God in Wilderness

Light Wood is the lightest of all known tree species in the world.

A one-meter-long section of another type of wood might weigh dozens of kilograms, but a piece of Light Wood of the same size could be wielded as casually as the Golden Cudgel.

The reason is its honeycomb-like internal structure. On the outside, it looks no different from normal wood, but it’s actually completely hollow.

Light Wood is also widely used for model-making and construction materials, making it one of the most commercially valuable species.

Its honeycomb structure not only made it easy for him to carry, but it was also easy to cut and offered both insulation and water resistance.

He took the Acheulean Thin-Blade Axe and chopped down a branch of suitable thickness, trimming off the extra forks and bumps as a simple test.

He had originally wanted to embed the thin-blade axe into a branch to make a proper axe, but when he placed the two items together, he realized he had overlooked a crucial point.

The shape.

Acheulean series stone tools were designed primarily to be handheld. No consideration was given to adding a handle—or rather, the concept didn’t exist at the time—so the crafted weapons couldn’t be embedded into a wooden stick.

To make the kind of stone axe he envisioned, he would need to process it further, shaping the grip end of the stone into a T-shape or a relatively smooth triangle.

"Forget it, I’ll deal with it tomorrow. An axe that can cut wood is a good axe."

After half a day of chipping and grinding, his hands were almost completely exhausted. He couldn’t grip the stone axe to chop a tree; the recoil alone would have been enough to make his forearms cramp.

Since it wasn’t up to chopping trees, he would chop branches first.

The Light Wood branches were still very easy to chop, like slicing through a cardboard box. It didn’t take much effort; just a few small swings would snap them clean in two.

He collected a full bundle of branches, tied them with a cord made of bark, and carried them back to his shelter on his shoulder.

He laid the branches flat on the ground, selected ones of similar length and lined them up, then secured them with the bark cord. He stood the bundle upright and wedged it in the entrance of the pit to serve as a simple wooden door.

"My standards aren’t high. I just don’t want some clueless creature disturbing me while I sleep. I’ll put up a door to block the entrance and make it through the night."

"It’s just gotten dark, and there’s still some time before midnight. I’m going to sleep for a bit to recover my strength. See you all later~"

After setting the wooden door in place, the entire pit plunged into darkness.

Lin Chen said his goodbyes to the camera and immediately fell asleep. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

「On the other side.」

Lights flashed intermittently in the dense forest.

Andre glanced around. "There are people to the left and right. Can’t tell the distance yet, but it looks like they’re all here for the ptarmigan."

He held two ptarmigans bound together with vines, their ankles marked with white tags. He ducked his head before finally switching on his Hat Lamp.

There were too many poisonous plants in the Panama Forest; walking at night without a Hat Lamp was too dangerous.

The contestants in this competition all had their own pride and confidence; after seeing someone was in the area, they generally wouldn’t get any closer.

"What? Lin’s asleep?"

Seeing the live comments flashing on his watch screen, Andre rolled his eyes in envy.

’That guy is ridiculously fast. He actually reached the coast on the second day and even found a few mango trees. Now he just needs to build a shelter, make a fire, and find a water source. After those three things, the rest will be easy. Even though Lin Chen isn’t a good swimmer, he’s definitely aware that the Panama coast is lined with a Mangrove Forest. The water in the Mangrove Forest is generally only shin- or knee-deep, never rising above the thigh. It’s not dangerous at all. As long as he stays in that area and forages the tide pools in the evenings and early mornings, he’ll never be short on food. He won’t have to risk diving into the sea to catch seafood. Not that the guy can dive anyway.’

What he hadn’t expected was that not long after he turned on his Hat Lamp, the light to his left started moving straight toward him.

"Hey! Bro~"

From a distance, the beam of light landed on his legs, a courtesy to avoid shining the bright light in his eyes.

The person shouted, "Have you seen any ptarmigan? I found some of their feathers around here earlier."

"You mean these?"

Andre deadpanned, lifting the two ptarmigans he was holding upside down.

"?!"

Hearing his voice, the person froze. They looked up, their own headlamp illuminating their face in the darkness.

"Andre!!"

The newcomer’s expression changed. After a moment’s hesitation, they turned and left.

As they left, they seemed to be muttering under their breath.

"Dammit... How did I run into this guy? Looks like I can’t stay around here. I have to find a new spot."

Andre’s ears twitched, catching every word of the man’s complaint.

He gave a scornful laugh and continued on his way.

Although there were no explicit rules against it in this competition, the show was called Wild Survival, after all. And as a survival elimination game, no contestant would choose to cooperate with another. Doing so would make them seem weaker than the rest.

As the previous season’s top contender and reigning champion, he and Lin Chen were figures that nearly everyone was wary of. Even if someone wanted to team up, they wouldn’t choose either of them.

Most of them were probably just hoping that the two would get eliminated early due to some accident.

While Andre traveled through the night toward the Dalian Mountain Range, the remaining forty-eight contestants also began to receive intel about the two of them.

"Lin has already reached the coast and is preparing to build his shelter?"

"Andre is heading for the Dalian Mountain Range too? Looks like his target is the coast as well."