"I never expected there would really come a day when I'd spend the night in the wild."
"After we get back, Soma, Takumi, you two help secure the tent again. Mito, lay out the sleeping bags. Megumi, help me process the wild vegetables; we'll have wild vegetable fish soup for dinner."
The moon was gradually rising in the sky, and the sun had completely set. Okabe walked at the very back of the team, assigning tasks to the four people in front of him, who all had heavy hearts.
The operation of the camp couldn't do without a single person. If they wanted to complete the task assigned by Gin Dojima in these difficult wilderness conditions, they had to work together efficiently.
"Alright, leave the work of reinforcing the tent to us."
Takumi nodded slightly. Previously, because their focus had been on the cooking, they hadn't paid much attention to the tent issue, simply fixing it to the ground.
Now that they had secured this piece of land and would be living here for the next month, they naturally needed to reinforce the tent to prevent it from being destroyed by wind and rain.
"We've arrived."
As they spoke, the group of five reached their destination.
The charcoal still retained some residual warmth. The air was filled with the smoky scent of fully burned vegetation and the faint aroma of grilled fish; the temporary fire pit still held some heat.
"Megumi, you go wash the wild vegetables. I'll simply process these grass carp. As for these female shrimp with roe, let's keep them in the water for now and see what use they might have later."
Okabe picked up the simple shrimp trap woven from vines, then walked to the stream to place the trap, using three branches as ropes to tie it to the bank.
Patting the dust off his hands, Okabe gazed at the stream before him under the moonlight, falling silent for a moment.
For the next month, they would all have to live here, searching for ingredients on the island to create dishes for Gin Dojima, while simultaneously achieving the fusion of each other's cooking in this place.
'Survival and assessment running in parallel, huh!'
Okabe couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He stood up and returned to the front of the tent, looking at the grass carp lying in the ingredients area. Raising his hand, the knife fell, dismembering it.
At this moment, Megumi Tadokoro also walked over with the washed wild vegetables. Okabe took them, nodded slightly, cut them into sections, and put them into the pot, seasoning it with salt.
Not long after, a rich aroma spread towards the surroundings.
The bonfire radiated an orange warmth under the moonlight. After completing their respective work, Soma Yukihira, Takumi, and Ikumi Mito all sat down beside Okabe.
"Here."
Handing the boiled fish soup to the other four, Okabe picked up a bowl and took a sip. A faint warmth spread from it, and a comfortable expression appeared on his face.
If this were at Tōtsuki, he wouldn't even spare a glance at such fish soup.
But this was the wilderness. The group, exhausted after a long day and having not drunk a drop of water aside from eating a few slices of sashimi, found this fish soup, simply seasoned with salt, to be a supreme delicacy of the world.
"I think there's no need to hone any cooking skills. Just grab someone, starve them for three or four days, and give them a bowl of wild vegetables mixed with rice; they'll eat it with relish."
Downing a bowl of fish soup in two or three gulps, Okabe complained to the other four while ladling a fresh serving into his bowl.
"That is indeed true. It's just simply seasoned fish soup, yet right now it feels even more delicious than A5 Wagyu. This is something the old me couldn't have imagined at all."
Ikumi Mito lamented equally.
Clearly, it was just the most ordinary wild vegetable fish soup, but the flavor blossoming at this moment was even more delicious than that Wagyu beef which required heavens-knows-how-much effort to raise a dozen pounds of A5 meat.
"I feel it's mainly because Okabe-kun's skill is good. When you processed the fish meat, you removed all the bones from the grass carp, right?"
Swallowing the last piece of fish meat without any obstruction, Megumi Tadokoro looked at Okabe and said.
Although removing fish bones was a small matter, for the taster, it was the foundation for gorging oneself. Especially when hungry, having to spit out a fish bone after every two bites was something that would drive a person crazy.
"I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it. So all the fish bones were removed? No wonder I haven't encountered a single bone from just now until now."
Takumi was somewhat surprised.
It had been less than twenty minutes since Okabe started cooking until now. Including the time to boil the fish soup, that meant he spent at most five minutes processing the fish meat.
With time so tight and without tools, he actually removed all the bones from the grass carp using only a kitchen knife.
What kind of technique was this?
Asking himself honestly, he felt he couldn't do it.
"Of course, one must remove bones when eating fish. What I hate most is encountering small bone spurs while eating fish. It's a pity we don't have oil, otherwise, pan-frying it before making fish soup would have made it more fragrant."
Okabe shrugged, pondering in his heart how to hunt tomorrow. He had to hunt an animal with more fat on its body; he needed to extract some oil from it.
"This is already very good. One sip and my body feels all warm and fuzzy."
Hearing Okabe talking to himself, Megumi Tadokoro spoke with a face full of happiness.
"In a wilderness environment with such harsh conditions, being able to drink a mouthful of salty fish soup is indeed a very satisfying thing.
However, we really do have to think of a way to obtain oil tomorrow. Unfortunately, rabbits don't have much fat; even if we cut off all the fatty meat, we won't be able to render much oil."
Ikumi Mito nodded from the side.
However, she wasn't worried about this. With Okabe's hunting skills, casually killing a few pheasants or marmots—small animals like that—could yield quite a bit of animal fat.
'Tomorrow I need to go deep into the jungle to see if there are wild boars. Hunting one would mean we won't lack oil for this month, and we could even trade for some ingredients with other teams.'
Unlike Ikumi Mito, who thought of hunting small animals with more fat on the mountain, Okabe prepared to hunt large creatures directly, securing the oil in one go.
At the same time, survival in the wild didn't mean trading was impossible. After obtaining oil, he could absolutely cooperate with other teams, using oil to exchange for other ingredients from them.
In this way, they could save a large amount of labor, and the remaining time could all be used to research cuisine.
The plan for tomorrow was set.
Hunt a wild boar.
If there were no wild boars, hunt medium-sized creatures; they could similarly harvest quite a bit of fat.
As for the even larger bear species, although he heard from the fishermen that they existed on this island, unless absolutely necessary, Okabe did not intend to hunt them.
The reason was simple. With his current strength, he couldn't defeat one with one hundred percent certainty. In these years at Ryōzanpaku, he had mostly honed his culinary arts rather than learning martial arts.
Even though his physical fitness had been greatly strengthened in the process and he knew a few moves, hunting a brown bear would inevitably require a life-and-death struggle. In a situation where food wasn't extremely scarce, he had absolutely no need to provoke one.
If he accidentally got injured in the process, the subsequent life in the wild would become very unbearable. If he accidentally got an infection, he might even lose his life.
This was also the reason why powerful wild beasts, upon seeing each other, would not choose to duel but rather withdraw separately.
I won't die if I miss one meal, but getting injured in the wild affects hunting, and I definitely wouldn't live long. Which is lighter and which is heavier? Even an animal can distinguish clearly.
"Rest early after eating your fill. Get up tomorrow and clear the surrounding land. We can plant the uneaten wild vegetables and spices. Not to mention harvesting, at least we can ensure freshness."
Having made up his mind, Okabe spoke to Soma Yukihira and the others.
In this instant, he suddenly understood why previous sessions had left behind things like plantations. To be more precise, they should be called temporary vegetable patches.
"Reclaim land? Don't we need to go search for ingredients..."
Soma Yukihira asked in confusion.
Counting today's dinner, their current ingredients consisted only of one wild hare, one sweetfish, some female shrimp with roe, a few mountain litsea peppers, and some wild vegetables.
If they didn't go search for ingredients, they would run out of food tomorrow.
At that time, let alone completing the evening assessment, just surviving would become a big problem.
"Search in the afternoon when the sunlight is better. The weather is rather cold in the morning, and there is a certain probability of fog appearing. Rash action makes it easy to get separated."
"That does make sense. Till the land in the morning, search for ingredients at noon. But this leaves another problem: what about breakfast and lunch..."
Takumi asked the key to the problem.
There were too many things to consider for survival in the wild. So many that if you arranged for someone to do one thing, there would definitely be another thing left undone, and then difficult-to-solve problems would arise.
"Resolve breakfast with wild vegetables and fish, just enough to pad the stomach. Leave this part to Megumi. Just leave lunch to me when the time comes.
Mito, stay behind for a while. Make some stone tools for hoeing and hunting tomorrow with me. Tomorrow, Soma and Takumi will till the land within 50 meters of the water source."
Okabe closed his eyes for a moment to clear his thoughts, then gave instructions to the few people around him.
Tools were necessary for hunting, plus hoes were needed for tilling the land, so they needed to be made at night.
Ikumi Mito had strength plus dexterity; she could become his good assistant.
For breakfast, Megumi Tadokoro, who didn't have much strength, would handle it. Soma Yukihira and Takumi would till the land according to the original plan. Once he brought back prey at noon, they could start the pot to render oil. After rendering the oil, he could find Adana, who lived nearby, to conduct 'Oil Goods Trade'.
After obtaining extra ingredients, they could research the cuisine needed for dinner. At that time, whoever the ingredients suited would serve as the head chef responsible for making dinner.
This was the most ideal state.
"I understand."
Ikumi Mito nodded slightly to show she understood. The firelight reflected on her face, making her look a bit flushed. The air still retained the aroma of stewed fish.
"Since you've made the decision, then let's proceed according to the plan."
Takumi and Soma Yukihira looked at each other. Although they had some doubts in their hearts, they didn't object. They also couldn't come up with a better solution.
"Then everyone, rest well tonight."
Okabe stood up, patted the grass clippings off his trouser legs, and looked at Ikumi Mito beside him: "Mito, let's go to the stream to find some suitable stones."
"Okay."
The night grew deeper, and the moonlight sprinkled on the stream, rippling with shimmering light. Ikumi Mito followed behind Okabe, watching him squat down by the stream, carefully rummaging through stones.
"What kind of stones do we need?"
Looking at the stones of strange and myriad shapes in the stream, Mito asked with a bit of a headache.
"Flatter ones, preferably with thinner edges, suitable for tying to a wooden stick to make a stone axe."
Okabe picked up a dark green stone and examined it under the moonlight: "Also this kind with hard texture and long narrow shape. With a little polishing, it can be made into a stone spear or stone pickaxe."
Ikumi Mito mimicked his manner and rummaged by the stream. Soon, the two collected a small pile of stones.
Okabe then cut down a few branches of suitable thickness from nearby trees, then used a hand axe to knock the stones into the shape of a hoe, tying them firmly to one end of the wooden stick with vines.
This was a long process.
Besides requiring strong endurance, it required extreme meticulousness even more. If too much force was used, the stone would have no thickness, and its durability would drop very quickly when tilling the land.
But if the stone was too thick and lost its sharpness, the efficiency of tilling would be too low. After a busy morning, they might not even turn over a few square meters of land.
"Try it."
Okabe handed the freshly made stone hoe to Mito.
Mito took the stone hoe and swung it a few times. The weight was just right, and it was tied very firmly.
"Not bad. Although it can't compare to metal tools, it should be enough for reclaiming land. Using it continuously for a few hours shouldn't be a problem either."
Looking at the exquisite stone hoe in her hand, excitement exploded in Ikumi Mito's eyes, and her gaze looking at Okabe was filled with admiration.
Women desire the strong.
Especially a girl like Ikumi Mito, who had been required by her family to be tough outwardly since childhood.
Don't look at how flamboyant she usually behaves; in reality, upon meeting someone much more amazing than herself, she would turn into his most loyal fangirl in minutes.
Okabe was exactly this case for Ikumi Mito.
"Tomorrow morning I'll go hunting first. You guys start farming with these tools."
Okabe lowered his head again, picked up another flat stone, and patiently struck its edge with another harder stone, slowly grinding out a sharp cutting edge.
At the same time, he didn't forget to instruct: "The land within 30 meters of the water source is relatively moist, so it will be easier to reclaim. Remember to clear the weeds cleanly, then turn the soil loose."
"Is it no problem for you to go hunting alone?"
Thinking that Okabe might encounter danger hunting alone outside tomorrow, Mito asked with some worry.
Okabe smiled and raised the spear tip he had just sharpened. The sharp edge glinted with a cold light under the moon: "When I was at Ryōzanpaku, Master Shigure taught me some wilderness survival skills. Plus my physique, which far exceeds that of ordinary people, dealing with a few brainless wild beasts is more than enough."
"The reason humans can become the primate of all spirits has always relied on this."
Okabe raised his finger and pointed to his own head. Then he used vines to fix the stone onto the wooden strip. Subsequently, the spear shot out like a dragon; the breaking wind sounded, fully displaying its power.
It was hard to deploy a knife in the forest, and a gun [spear] was too long. Only a spear with a medium attack range—which could stab, throw, block, and even catch fish—was suitable.
This was also the reason he chose a spear.
"No matter what, be a little careful. Even if you don't hunt anything, absolutely do not get injured. We are still here in the camp; you don't need to shoulder everything yourself."
The two sat on the stone platform by the stream, one polishing stones, one responsible for tying the stones to wooden sticks. The water reflected the faces of the two. Looking at Okabe's expression which was confident to the extreme, Ikumi Mito spoke in a low voice.
"Are you worrying about me?"
Looking at her appearance, a smile suddenly appeared on Okabe's face. Like a prank, he leaned his face close, gazing at the young girl's face.
Subsequently, he clearly saw the expression in her eyes change from worry to panic, and finally, she nearly fell off...
Fortunately, his eyes were sharp and his hands fast; he embraced the young girl's waist, preventing her from falling to the ground and getting hurt. However, her heartbeat beat even more rapidly.
"I... Of course I'm worried! Don't overthink it!
I'm worried about you because you are going out to hunt for our team. If something goes wrong, we are all responsible. Under these circumstances, how could I not be worried!"
Although she really wanted to express her worry for Okabe, saying it bluntly was inevitably somewhat shameful. Ikumi Mito forcibly saved face, transforming her worry for him into the worry of the entire team for him.
"Is... is that so? I thought it was you, Mito, who was worried about me. I was happy for a moment. Just concern on a team level is somewhat..."
Looking at Ikumi Mito, whose face was completely red and who was dancing with her hands and feet trying hard to argue, Okabe feigned a disappointed look. And this performance caused the other party to make a misjudgment.
"I... personally, I'm also quite worried about you."
"Is that so? Then I'm too happy. Tomorrow, even if it's for Little Ikumi, I will work hard to hunt."
Okabe would not have thought that his few prank-like sentences would stir up such a storm in the young girl's heart.
He just felt her shy appearance was very cute, so he couldn't control himself and teased her a few more times. For him, this could alleviate mental pressure.
"Mhm."
Hearing Okabe's words, Ikumi Mito responded softly, then lowered her head.
The two made a few more stone hoes and stone spears, and even made a stone axe, only returning to the tent area when the moon rose to the zenith.
Because they had to get up early tomorrow, Soma Yukihira and the others had already crawled into their sleeping bags. The sound of even breathing came from the tent.
Okabe placed the tools neatly outside the tent and added a few more logs to the bonfire to ensure the fire could continue burning until dawn.
"Rest early tonight. Only get up after sleeping enough. Build up your spirit and energy; tomorrow I still need your butchering skills to help me divide the animal carcass."
After doing all this, he looked at Ikumi Mito and instructed with a smile, before lightly crawling into the tent and entering his own sleeping bag.
Early the next morning, just as the sky began to brighten, Okabe woke up.
He got up quietly and glanced at the empty sleeping bag next to him. After leaving the tent, he found that Megumi Tadokoro was already preparing breakfast.
Wild vegetables and soup made from the fish bones left over from last night were boiling in the small pot. The aroma drifted in the morning mist.
"Okabe-kun, morning."
Megumi Tadokoro greeted him softly.
"Morning, Megumi."
Okabe walked to the stream and washed his face. The ice-cold water made him wake up completely: "I'm setting off now. You guys act according to the plan."
"Breakfast will be ready soon. Eat a little before you go. Hunting consumes a lot of physical strength."
Seeing Okabe grab the long spear and prepare to leave, Megumi Tadokoro grabbed his arm, simultaneously pointing to the wild vegetables in the pot, telling him that the wild vegetable fish soup would be ready immediately.
"This small amount isn't even enough for you guys to eat. It's nothing for me to miss one meal."
Okabe wasn't speaking falsely.
When he was at Ryōzanpaku, he underwent fasting training quite often. Missing one meal didn't affect him much.
But for Soma Yukihira and Takumi who were tilling the land, efficiency would drop drastically without breakfast. Out of consideration for the team, he chose not to eat.
"Eat a little. I'm not responsible for physical labor; take my share and eat it."
Hearing Okabe's words, Megumi Tadokoro blocked his path. She refused to let him leave directly no matter what; the worry in her eyes was about to overflow.
"That's what you say, but with your personality, you definitely won't stand idly by watching them till the land. You'll do whatever is within your power.
Breakfast is very important. After eating your fill, act according to the plan. I will take care of my own body."
Looking at the worried Megumi Tadokoro, a wave of warmth rose in Okabe's heart. He then patted her head, picked up the long spear, and quickly left the camp.
Megumi Tadokoro wanted to chase after him, but the fish soup stewing in the pot couldn't be left unattended. In the end, she could only sigh, gazing at the direction Okabe left, somewhat lost in thought for a long time.
However, she cheered up very quickly.
Since this was what he wanted, she would do the logistics work as best as she could to alleviate his pressure.
____
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