Chapter 349 - 224: The Missing Pot

Chapter 349: Chapter 224: The Missing Pot

It wasn’t just Andre. News that Lin Chen had made rope from bamboo spread to nearly every contestant in just half a day.

The unbelievable news was like an atom bomb, instantly detonating in everyone’s minds.

With rope, you could make most of the things commonly used in the wild—houses, tables, chairs, tools, weapons...

The contestants living in the forest barely hesitated. They abandoned the shelters they had painstakingly built and began moving toward the Dalian Mountain Range.

The Dalian Mountain Range not only had bamboo forests, but the coastline was also nearby. Such favorable survival conditions were a huge improvement over the forest.

...

「Day Fifteen.」

At the crack of dawn, Lin Chen, who had gone to bed early, was already in his yard doing stretches.

"Today’s breakfast is simple: roasted potatoes and roasted oyster meat, with a bit of coconut water. Just need to make sure I get my protein and carbs."

"I have a lot of heavy work to do today, so I have to get enough carbs. If I don’t, I won’t have any energy. That means I probably won’t have time for any real cooking today. But once I finish the bamboo raft, I’ll have more seafood than I can eat."

After a few simple stretches to loosen up his joints, the potatoes were about done roasting.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he plopped down on a bamboo tube and raked the scorching potatoes out of the fire to cool.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he stared at the charcoal-blackened potato for a moment before slapping his thigh.

"Fuck!"

"I knew something felt off, like I’d forgotten something! The black-tailed deer skeleton—I buried it and forgot to dig it up!"

The original plan was to let it slow-roast underground overnight before digging it up. But I got too busy. Then came the storm and the high fever, and with one thing after another, I just forgot.

’Erica went through pretty much the same ordeal, so it’s normal that she forgot too. Besides, I never expected someone as carefree as her to remember in the first place.’

’But for Bartel to have forgotten as well... that seemed a little ridiculous.’

’Or maybe he didn’t forget? Maybe he just found something better and didn’t care about it anymore?’

"Ah, forget it. It’s been so many days. After being cooked and then soaked, it’s probably either burnt to a crisp or completely rotten by now."

He shook his head, putting the matter out of his mind completely.

He picked up the hot potato, broke it in half to let the steam out, and peeled off the charred skin. Then, he spread a thin layer of oyster sauce on it for seasoning.

He wasn’t a fan of eating plain roasted starches; he needed some kind of seasoning to get them down. The only exception was the kind of syrupy-sweet potato that was like a dessert on its own—that he could eat plain.

Nibbling on the potato, he idly tapped his watch screen, curious to see if anyone was watching the livestream this early.

The first thing he saw was, surprisingly, a comment in familiar Chinese!

[Bro, if I were you, I wouldn’t be sitting around eating. You’d better hurry up and chop some bamboo, or you won’t get any in a couple of days when everyone shows up to fight for it.]

The message had been sent three times in a row, nearly filling the entire chat box. It stood out in the quiet, six a.m. livestream.

"?"

Lin Chen froze, forgetting to even chew the potato in his mouth. He hurriedly asked, "What do you mean? What do you mean everyone is coming to fight for resources?"

[Did your fever a couple of days ago fry your brain? This is a livestream, the audience sees everything you do. You never should’ve let them see you making something as important as bamboo-strip rope. Well, great, now everyone knows.]

What the fuck?

Blinking, it slowly dawned on him what was happening.

’So the news that I made bamboo rope yesterday got out?’

In an instant, he understood what the comment meant.

"It’s fine. No rush. Even if the sky falls, you still have to eat."

With a slight smile, he continued to nibble at the fluffy potato, occasionally dabbing on some oyster sauce before pulling a roasted oyster from its skewer and chewing on it.

It was an incredibly difficult meal to eat. If not for the coconut water helping to wash it down, he might not have been able to swallow even half the potato.

"This isn’t going to work. Looks like I’ll just make mashed potatoes tonight. Life is short. If you don’t like something, you don’t like it. Why torture yourself?"

After finishing the fist-sized potato, his hunger was finally curbed. Having chugged a bellyful of water, he finally got up, gathered his things, and started walking slowly up the mountain.

’Traveling takes time, and most contestants wouldn’t risk traveling in the pitch-black of night.’

’For one, visibility is poor, and a headlamp’s battery won’t last that long. Moving through a tropical forest at night is basically a death wish.’

’For another, many wild animals are nocturnal. While this forest doesn’t have dangerous creatures like bears or wolves, and Jaguars rarely attack humans, that doesn’t mean the wildlife isn’t dangerous.’

’Many species of flora and fauna have evolved defense mechanisms to protect themselves.’

’Especially in a tropical rainforest, venom and poison are among the most common of those defenses.’

’Any contestant with an ounce of common sense wouldn’t choose to travel long distances through the forest in the middle of the night. At most, they might wander around the immediate vicinity of their shelter.’

’So, even if those people want to migrate, they’ll have to wait for daylight to make their move.’

’The Dalian Mountain Range stretches for hundreds of kilometers. It’s a vast area. Tossing a mere thirty people into it wouldn’t even make a ripple.’

’There are already four people in my current area. That includes Andre, me—a well-known contestant from last season—and Bartel, who’s famous in the Hunter Realm.’