Chapter 344 - 221: Heaven’s Messenger (Part 2)

Chapter 344: Chapter 221: Heaven’s Messenger (Part 2)

"Are you... boiling oysters?"

he asked, a little unsure.

After all, if one simply wanted to cook them, there was no need for such a complicated setup. Just tossing them in the fire, shells and all, would have sufficed.

"No, I’m making a sauce."

"Huh??"

’Making a sauce with oyster meat?’

’I’d love to see how he does it, but on second thought, wouldn’t that just be plagiarism? I’m not about to stoop to that.’

"Well, I wish you success. I hope to see the finished product next time I bring a Lobster."

Lin Chen nodded in response, too lazy to explain much.

If it had been Erica, he might have explained things more patiently.

’As for other guys, they can figure it out themselves.’

Not long after Bartel left, the water inside the bamboo tubes gradually began to boil.

Ten minutes later, he scooped out all the oyster meat as quickly as possible and piled it into an empty bamboo tube for temporary storage.

The cooked oyster meat had barely shrunk. It looked plump, white, and tender, and as it steamed, a rich seafood aroma filled the air.

It was his first time boiling so many oysters—a full five kilograms’ worth. The meat filled two entire bamboo tubes and nearly spilled over.

After the oyster meat was removed, the water level in the original bamboo tubes dropped by about half.

He didn’t touch the tubes, letting them continue to boil and evaporate.

After all, the bamboo tubes were too long to pour from easily. It was simpler to let the liquid reduce before collecting it.

Tonight’s dinner was simple: just this oyster meat and that live spiny lobster.

For the sake of future Happiness Points, he had to eat modestly for now. This was a pattern he’d figured out back in Alaska.

...

「The next day.」

Lin Chen woke up early.

He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d slept so much the past few days, but despite only getting six hours of sleep, he wasn’t very tired. All of yesterday’s accumulated fatigue had vanished.

The first thing he did after getting up was go to the stream to check on the progress of his oyster sauce.

He hadn’t added much firewood to the pit, intending to use the constant heat from the embers to simmer it overnight after the open flame died out.

Before bed, he had combined the liquid from the original six bamboo tubes into two. He’d also added some extra water to each, filling them about seventy percent full, afraid they would dry out or even burn overnight.

When he got closer, he saw that most of the oyster broth in the tubes had evaporated, leaving only a shallow layer of caramel-colored liquid.

He grabbed one of the bamboo tubes and carefully tilted it, letting all the broth pool at the bottom before cautiously pouring it into the other tube.

He even used a spoon made of tree bark to scrape the inside clean, trying not to waste a single drop of the precious liquid.

Once it was all collected, he stirred it evenly, then scooped up a spoonful and poured it out from mid-air.

The liquid was clearly showing signs of thickening, but it hadn’t yet reached the honey-like consistency where it would pour in a continuous stream. It was still falling drop by drop.

’That makes sense. There’s still so much left. It’s definitely more than two hundred grams; I’d guess it’s around five or six hundred. Reducing it for another half hour should be about right.’

The embers in the ashes below still had some residual heat, but it had grown very weak.

He added more wood to rekindle the fire. He planned to reduce the sauce over high heat to shorten the cooking time and take care of breakfast at the same time.

Breakfast was simple: a taro, which he just tossed into the fire to roast.

Because the bamboo tubes were over three meters long, half a liter of water spread out to form a very shallow layer.

To better control the heat, he only lit a small fire. This way, he could tilt the bamboo tube at any time to adjust the liquid level over the flames.

At the end farther from the fire, he propped the tube up with a rock, keeping it at a slight incline of about ten degrees. As the sauce slid toward the bottom, he used his spoon to scrape the residue down with it.

Under his precise control, after half an hour, the oyster sauce in the bamboo tube had completely transformed into a dark, brownish-red color.

Although the color was a bit different from the oyster sauce he was used to seeing, the taste was quite similar. It was incredibly savory and had an added scent of the ocean—a unique flavor that store-bought oyster sauce could never match.

’I’ve never tasted authentic handmade oyster sauce, but I imagine it’s something like this. So this is what it tastes like with zero additives...’

He collected the small amount of rich oyster sauce into a palm-length bamboo tube. This was one of the tubes he had cut down yesterday with a tremendous amount of effort. He didn’t have many of them—he could count them on one hand—and they were mostly used for storing food or spices.

The bamboo tubes that had been used for soaking and boiling water didn’t seem to be damaged, aside from being charred black at the bottom. They were definitely still usable.

The problem was, this spot was some distance from the sea. He couldn’t just haul seawater back and forth, could he?

He had been bringing back one or two tubes of seawater almost every day to extract salt, which was barely enough.

If he wanted to preserve food, that amount definitely wouldn’t be sufficient.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to leave the tubes here. They might come in handy later.

He put the warm oyster sauce back in his shelter, grabbed his fire-starter and bamboo basket, picked up the piping-hot taro, and then, dragging three bamboo stalks by their tops, ran straight down the slope.

SCRAPE—

The bamboo scraped along the ground, startling a large flock of Seagulls from the nearby treetops.

The Seagulls flocked toward the beach in a large group, looking like they intended to compete with him for food.

Fortunately, his target for the day wasn’t the shellfish on the beach, so he let them be.

His gaze traveled past the beach and the waves, landing on the brilliant golden sunrise in the distance.

He squinted slightly, an indescribable feeling of contentment welling up inside him.

「Suddenly.」

He thought he saw a white shadow glide past the rising sun before plunging into the sea and disappearing.

"Hm?"

He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He shook his head and stared at that spot on the ocean for a while, only to see a seabird actually re-emerge into the air.

’Holy crap, you’ve got to be kidding me.’

’How big does a seabird have to be for me to see it so clearly from this far away?’

’I’m at least a kilometer away from that spot, and the Seagulls on the beach just a few hundred meters away are already so small I can barely see them.’

’In other words, that bird must have a wingspan of at least... three meters?’

’My goodness. Is that even a seabird anymore? You could call it a condor or an eagle at that size.’

’Wait a minute. As far as I know, there’s only one type of seabird that gets that big.’

’The kind they call messengers from the heavens.’

’An Albatross!’

However, Albatrosses mainly live in the Antarctic Ocean. Only a few species roam the world, and usually only during their non-breeding season.

He didn’t know any more details, since he hadn’t redeemed the *Avian Encyclopedia*.

"They say the Albatross is a seabird that can sleep while flying. Their left and right brain hemispheres can think separately. If any viewers are knowledgeable about seabirds, feel free to share some info in the chat for everyone."

His hands were full, so he didn’t check if anyone in the stream was responding and just continued toward the sea on his own.

"I don’t know if seeing an Albatross is considered lucky, but I hope this ’Air Force General’ can finally get a catch today."

Ever since Erica thoroughly crushed him at the seashore last time, he hadn’t returned to this painful place for the past few days.

After reaching the sandy beach, he didn’t linger and headed straight for the reefy shore.

The sun had just risen. The sand was too damp during low tide to start a fire, and the catch would surely be poor.

He found a relatively high spot on the reef near the water, took the firewood out of his bamboo basket and stacked it, split a bamboo stalk in half, propped up both ends with rocks, and started a fire.

Finally, he filled the bamboo tube with seawater.

While the seawater was boiling, he planned to wander around the area to see if he could find anything.

Soon, he arrived at the spot where he had previously found Green Mussels and Goose-necked Barnacles.

Those Goose-necked Barnacles were delicious, but they were a pain to prepare, and harvesting them was extremely dangerous. He had no intention of going after them.

His gaze scanned the clear surface of the sea like a hawk, focusing on the large rocks whose bases were submerged underwater.