Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 251: Chapter 183: Black Clouds Press Down, Emergency Construction (Part 2)

"By the way, Max, how’s the recruitment going?"

"We’ve received a lot of résumés, but not many are a good fit. I’ve narrowed it down to three or four candidates, and I’ll have a remote video conference with them tomorrow morning to chat."

"Mm," Gray nodded, closing his laptop. "If possible, hire them as soon as you can. We’re most in need of manpower right now. They absolutely must have experience; don’t bother with anyone who doesn’t."

"That’s what I was thinking too. It’s better to hire someone with experience than waste time on training. Getting supplies here is a hassle, so we don’t have extra ingredients for them to waste."

...

He opened his eyes.

The world outside was shrouded in darkness.

He raised his hand to check the time. As usual, he had woken up a dozen or so minutes before his alarm.

’It’s 5:46 AM. The sun isn’t up yet. It’ll probably be another twenty-something minutes before I see it.’

He crawled out of the cave and went through his usual stretching routine to wake up his still-heavy body.

A cool morning breeze blew past, bringing with it a hint of chill.

This unusually cold wind carried a faint, damp smell, like a sea breeze blowing in your face on the beach.

Although his location wasn’t too far from the coast, there was a river valley forest between them, so he shouldn’t have been able to feel the dampness.

’What’s going on?’

For no reason, a sense of foreboding surfaced in his heart.

6:06.

The first golden ray of light appeared on the eastern horizon.

As the world was slowly illuminated, the entire sky was stained with a layer of brilliant, golden-red clouds.

Lin Chen stood at the mouth of the cave, looking up at the sky with a heavy expression.

’Did you see that?’

’Clouds.’

’So many clouds.’

’Looks like it’s going to rain today... oh, no, soon.’

The last downpour came in the middle of the night without any warning. Only before the rain stopped could he clearly see the dark clouds in the sky rapidly dispersing.

Now, it was only early morning, and there were already so many clouds that they almost completely blanketed the sky. Although they weren’t dark clouds yet, his intuition told him it would rain soon.

The weather at sea was unpredictable. It was perfectly normal for clear skies to turn into a torrential downpour within half an hour.

He’d even seen real-life videos of more absurd situations, like one half of the sky having a downpour and a tornado while the other half was under a blazing sun.

If it was going to rain, then it wasn’t a good time to travel far.

Just as he was hesitating about whether to go back into the cave and get some more sleep, the image of the open-air pit over by the wooden cabin flashed through his mind.

He froze for a moment, then his expression changed drastically.

’I’m screwed, I’m screwed. If it rains heavily, the pit is definitely going to fill with water, isn’t it?’

’Water is supposed to seep into the soil and disappear, but the material of that pit is special. An Ant Nest is made of termite saliva and excrement, which gives it a natural waterproofing effect. If a lot of water collects, it won’t be able to drain on its own.’

I have to get the roof built before it rains!

At that thought, he couldn’t stand still any longer. He quickly shouldered his bamboo basket, grabbed his bamboo knife and military knife, and sprinted toward the wooden cabin.

On his way past the Bamboo Tree, he went so far as to chop off all the leaves from two of them and stuff them in his basket, also picking over twenty large tobacco leaves to take with him.

By the time he reached the abandoned wooden cabin, a thick layer of white clouds had unknowingly gathered in the sky, and they were even showing faint signs of turning gray.

The once-brilliant golden sunrise had completely vanished, with only a faint glow filtering through the thinner parts of the clouds.

’This fast?’

He glanced at the time. He had traveled as lightly as possible to make better time, saving about ten minutes compared to his usual trip, but the dark clouds were gathering even faster than he had imagined.

At this rate, it would probably start raining within half an hour.

Even though the four posts were already set up, building a roof was actually not that easy.

The most common method was to first lay four branches horizontally across the tops of the four posts, then place a framework of beams side-by-side in the middle, then lay down long, sturdy materials like broad leaves or straw, and finally add a layer of leaves or moss to achieve a waterproofing effect.

A project of this scale, starting from chopping down the trees, would take at least two hours of normal work.

Not to mention, he didn’t have any rope for securing things. If he simply laid the branches on top, they would be blown apart as soon as the wind and rain hit.

Was there any way to build a sturdy roof in the shortest amount of time without using rope to secure it?

To be honest, this was really a bit beyond his scope of knowledge.

As far as he knew, there were only a few mainstream methods for building without rope.

Y-shaped tree forks, stone houses, digging a pit, and bamboo weaving.

The first two were definitely impossible. The third was what his current shelter was. The fourth, bamboo weaving, was delicate work that couldn’t be completed in a short time.

’Is there really no other good way?’

Watching the clouds overhead grow thicker and their color darken at a visible rate, he was so anxious that he paced back and forth like an ant on a hot pan.

At this moment, all he could do was frantically search his memories for anything related to wilderness tools, hoping to find a useful tool or a spark of inspiration.

As he pondered, his gaze didn’t rest, sweeping back and forth across his surroundings.

’This cellar pit is about a meter and a half long and a little over a meter wide. It’s mainly deep, but the depth doesn’t really affect the roof area. I should be fine as long as I cover the opening.’

With an area this small, the workload would be cut by more than half.