Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 290: Chapter 196: The Coming Storm (Part 2)

The Hat Lamp followed the underwater shadow closely, and he finally got a clear look at the creature.

It was a flat, fan-shaped fish with a long, thick, straight tail.

"Is that... a stingray?"

After watching for a moment, he saw the fins on its sides undulating like waves and quickly confirmed the mysterious creature’s identity.

A stingray has three venomous barbs hidden at the base of its tail. Getting stung would be a serious problem.

While stingray venom isn’t fatal, it can cause severe allergic reactions, which is especially dangerous for people from North America.

He had no intention of going after it. The Mangrove Forest was a paradise for fish, and he had already confirmed over the past two nights that skates and stingrays were common here. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Just as he was quietly watching the stingray, making sure it didn’t come any closer, a bright light flashed from the distance.

He instinctively raised a hand to shield his forehead and tilted his head a little over ten degrees to the side to avoid shining his Hat Lamp directly in the other person’s face.

"Lin?"

"Andre?"

An unexpected female voice called out from the light.

"Oh, it’s Erica. Hunting so late?"

"Yeah, I made a bet with Lin that I’d roast him a fish tomorrow to prove my skills. How is it? Are there a lot of fish out now?"

"I just got here myself, but based on the last two days, there are mostly small fish during the low tide at night. The big ones come out when the tide rises... Hey! Careful, don’t go that way!"

"What’s wrong?"

Erica froze, her eyes scanning the water in front of her with confusion.

There, a pale gray disc was gliding leisurely along the silty bottom.

Her eyes lit up, and without a second thought, she raised her wooden spear and hurled it with all her might.

With immense force, the spear broke the surface of the water and plunged deep into the silt below, where it stood straight up.

SPLASH... SPLASH...

The stingray struggled violently underwater, kicking up a huge cloud of murky silt that completely obscured the view.

Giving the big creature no chance to escape, Erica dashed forward, grabbed the wooden spear with both hands, and brutally shoved it deeper.

SQUELCH.

The spear sank another few inches into the mud.

Then, she pulled it straight out and held it diagonally in front of her Hat Lamp.

In the bright beam of light, she could finally see that the stingray wasn’t gray at all, but black.

It was a size larger than she’d imagined, as big as a washbasin. It was so heavy in the air that she needed both hands to hold it steady.

The stingray’s fins kept undulating, its thick, straight tail thrashing back and forth, but with its chest pierced through, it couldn’t find a proper angle to attack.

"Nice!"

Erica cheered and flashed Andre a V-sign.

Seeing the surprise in Andre’s eyes, she seemed to realize something and asked uncertainly, "Um, was this big guy your prey?"

Only after calming down did she realize that Andre had been here from the start and had even warned her. He must have spotted the stingray long ago.

’Did I just steal his kill?’

"Sorry, sorry! I was so focused on my bet with Lin. I got too excited when I saw it. I’ll give it back to you right now..."

"Don’t worry about it."

Andre smiled and waved his hand. "I wasn’t planning on catching it. Stingrays have venomous barbs in their tails, and getting stung can easily cause an allergic reaction. I was afraid you might step on it and provoke an attack, so I called out to warn you."

He hadn’t expected the young woman to just attack without a second thought, completely ignoring the potential danger.

’That’s youth for you. That kind of drive is certainly something.’

It was a good thing she hit it. If she had missed, the startled stingray could have used the chaos to hide in the stirred-up silt and silently swim to her feet to attack.

Seeing her, Andre felt as if he were looking at his twenty-something self.

Back then, he had also charged ahead recklessly like her, fearless in his confidence.

As he got older and experienced more, he gradually reined in that reckless nature, becoming more composed and calm.

"Congratulations. Now you can win your bet with Lin. He’s someone who takes promises very seriously."

He gave her a smiling nod, and with that, Andre turned and walked away in the opposite direction, resuming his search for prey hidden beneath the waves.

’Even Andre said so. Looks like my judgment was right after all. This should finally make Lin see me in a new light, right?’

After spending a day and two nights with him, although she seemed to get along well with Lin Chen on the surface, she always felt a sense of distance, as if she couldn’t get close to him.

It was as if an invisible chasm separated them, one she had to cross to truly become a friend he acknowledged.

She had come here specifically to follow her idol; of course she couldn’t give up so easily.

Being a fan is easy, but successfully getting close to your idol is a one-in-a-thousand chance.

Successfully getting close to your idol and becoming their friend is one in ten thousand.

This was her first time ever being such a devoted fan, so she wasn’t about to go home empty-handed. At the very least, she had to become friends with Lin. A perfect ending would be getting his contact information after the competition was over.

Looking at the big creature impaled on her spear, she grinned, turned, and walked off.

’To get such a big catch less than five minutes after coming to the Mangrove Forest... Lady Luck is on my side after all~’

Back on the beach, she suddenly stopped as she passed a few coconut trees.

’Wait a minute. I drank two or three of Lin’s coconuts today. To keep him from holding that against me, I should probably pick some to bring back.’