NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 229 - 226: Achievement Crushed
Chapter 229: Chapter 226: Achievement Crushed
Bi Fang suddenly stretched out his hand, and while the seaweed wasn’t paying attention, he violently scooped it onto the life raft.
“Ha, it’s quite heavy.”
As he flung the seaweed, Bi Fang estimated it must weigh quite a few pounds; if he actually ate it, he figured it could last him several days.
A truly nice catch.
“However, natural seaweed is tough and chewy with a high salt content, so it’s hard to digest, and eating too much at once can easily lead to constipation. It can only solve urgent hunger issues, and if you’re short on water, try not to eat it.”
Whether it’s constipation or difficulty urinating, or even highly concentrated urine, in harsh environments, all are quite abnormal and should be treated with caution.
Bi Fang absolutely did not want to encounter such situations, especially with the crew around. Even though he might be fine, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t film some bizarre stuff.
At that point, his lifetime reputation would be ruined.
“I’ve mentioned before that any food will consume the water inside your body unless you’re eating fruits that provide more water than they consume. But seaweed clearly doesn’t belong in that category, and it’s even a bit salty; too much consumption can easily lead to dehydration.”
Bi Fang fiddled with the seaweed on the life raft but didn’t find any small fish or shrimp. However, he wasn’t discouraged; harvesting the seaweed was already quite good. At least the gift from the ocean would allow him to hold on for a few more days.
As long as there’s enough time, there will always be a chance for a turnaround.
With a large enough base, even the least probable events can occur.
Picking one of the seaweeds, Bi Fang held it up to the moonlight to examine it closely. After a while, he confirmed with joy that it was indeed Horsetail Kelp!
Without hesitation, Bi Fang wiped down the stem a couple of times, cleaned it briefly, and stuffed the Horsetail Kelp into his mouth to chew; the mild salty and savory flavor spread out.
“Hmm, the taste is not bad, there’s a hint of the sea, but the plant itself is not dead or rotten, it’s quite crisp. After eating it, my mouth feels drier, but it’s not as salty as I thought it would be.”
Bi Fang picked another piece of Horsetail Kelp and threaded it onto the fish hook; though it wasn’t meat bait, having some vegetation as bait was much better than before, and he actually worried that true meat bait might attract some fierce carnivorous fish.
On this tiny broken boat, if a large carnivorous fish came, it would most likely be a situation of fish dead, boat broken.
After putting on the bait, Bi Fang zipped up the life raft, hoping to drink distilled water again.
“But what we’ve encountered is just a remnant. If you come across the actual growth area of Horsetail Kelp, you’d be absolutely shocked. It’s nothing like water plants; it’s more like a prairie at sea.”
While eating, Bi Fang described the real growing environment of Horsetail Kelp. When he had nothing else to do, he relied on this to pass the time, or you could say, to retain the audience.
Horsetail Kelp is a very common species among algae, but when they grow in the Atlantic, they’re different.
Once Horsetail Kelp starts reproducing here, people are accustomed to calling this sea area the Sargasso Sea. The sea surface is calm, stagnant throughout all seasons, with weak currents, and the sea water between different layers does not mix, so the nutrients in shallow waters are refreshed very slowly and are almost immediately occupied by Horsetail Kelp.
“Explorer Columbus, when he led the expedition fleet to explore the Atlantic, sailors on his ship had discovered a green ‘prairie.’ As you might have guessed, it wasn’t a prairie, but a Sargasso Sea.”
“At that time, Columbus was very happy, thinking he had reached India, and ordered the ship to enter the ‘prairie.’ The result was they realized it was an endless expanse of seaweed, and they ended up being trapped inside for a month before they managed to get out.”
[Damn, a month? That long?]
[Columbus was really tragic, I always thought mistaking North America for Asia was his black history, didn’t expect there’s something even darker]
[A month? Is it really that horrible?]
“Yes, the Sargasso Sea looks beautiful. But many ships, accidentally caught in the seaweed, fail to escape. The seaweed climbs onto their decks like snakes and wraps around the ship. Over time, due to lack of food and fresh water, many sailors end up dying from starvation. Hence, the Sargasso Sea is also known as the ‘Sea Graveyard’ and ‘Devil’s Sea.'”
“And because the surface is occupied, many plankton cannot survive, followed by a massive amount of fish dying from suffocation and rotting. The smell of this ‘green field’ is very disgusting, and there are wrecked ships everywhere.”
Bi Fang had not seen it with his own eyes, but his Wilderness Survivalist experience told him how horrifying that scene was, almost like Hell.
[Holy crap, is it that scary?]
[If Old Fang gets trapped, isn’t he screwed?]
[Horsetail kelp is that formidable? It can even ‘eat’ people? Damn!]
[Isn’t this stuff like red tide? How can it grow like that?]
“Pretty much, they’re both harmful, and about how horsetail kelp grow big, to this day, people still haven’t found a precise answer. Some oceanographers believe these types of kelp drift from other seas and accumulate over time.”
“Others think that these types of kelp originally grew on the seabed of this area, before floating up to the surface due to underwater current activity.”
“Of course, the most surprising is the mobility of horsetail kelp, like they’ve got long legs, drifting from time to time. Many scientists frequently encounter this strange phenomenon: They sometimes see a large green mass of horsetail kelp, but after a while, it disappears.”
As Bi Fang chewed the horsetail kelp in his mouth, he not only described its properties but also addressed the viewers’ suspicion about the “program crew setting things up.”
It really wasn’t.
Encountering horsetail kelp while drifting on the sea is normal, especially in the North Atlantic; it would be embarrassing to say you’ve been to the Atlantic if you haven’t run into it at least once.
[Damn, there goes the ‘three days without food’ achievement]
[Crap, Master Fang actually has food now]
[Here we go, back on track. Even in this situation, Master Fang turns it around, infuriating!]
[But I think another achievement has been unlocked, breaking the record for holding a tree stick!]
[Hey, damn, why didn’t I think of this, okay, I’m all in, howling to the moon, I bet Master Fang won’t get his hands on a tree stick this adventure!]
[Holy shit, I’m going all in too, all or nothing! If he manages to get a tree stick, I’ll eat my monitor!]
The livestream channel’s admin immediately opened a Wolf Brush betting round, wagering whether Bi Fang would get a tree stick this time.
It seemed to be a new rule on the platform, where betting with Wolf Brushes was either yes or no, and if you won, you’d share the Wolf Brushes of those who lost.
The moment the round opened, the ‘no’ option crashed the ‘yes’ one; everyone thought it was easy money, with over a hundred thousand Wolf Brushes staked. God knows how many people joined in.
Pretty clever play.
Bi Fang chuckled, placing a hundred ‘yes’ Wolf Brushes himself. He didn’t care much about such a small gamble, casually stuffing two more pieces of horsetail kelp into his mouth.
Not only did the kelp stave off hunger, but it was also rich in minerals and vitamins, nutritionally balanced—quite the catch. It directly revitalized Bi Fang, who had been starving for two days, replenishing a good deal of his strength.
After eating some horsetail kelp, water droplets once again began to condense inside the life raft. Perfect for Bi Fang who was parched and thirsty, he drank until there was nothing left. Then he scooped out the excess water from the raft and wiped the raft dry with a towel, laying himself down to rest.
“At night, you can’t let the raft get too damp; prolonged contact with seawater can cause skin ulcers. I’ve mentioned this before.”
“In a small boat or rubber raft without cover, water can accumulate everywhere, and you might have to soak your feet for long periods, which is quite troublesome.”
“Moderate exercise helps protect the feet, preventing frostbite. Sleeping bare is dangerous; make sure to cover your body while resting, and move your limbs slightly when keeping watch.”
“Too bad I don’t have a blanket, just this wet towel. Thank goodness I was nabbed in a bathhouse; otherwise, I might not even have this towel.”
Bi Fang made a self-deprecating remark,
He still had to think about how to survive the next nineteen days. A bunch of seaweed wouldn’t be enough, he needed meat.
Second day of survival at sea, harvest, a bunch of horsetail kelp.