Day 22.

When Lin Yu’an woke up, it was still a cloudless, sunny day outside.

He got up calmly, taking the sea urchin roe steamed last night from the wooden bowl and paired it with a few pieces of roasted scallop pillars for a simple yet incredibly high-energy breakfast.

Then, he boiled the melted ice water from the 5-gallon bucket overnight to make a steaming hot cup of Labrador Tea.

Sitting in front of the fireplace, he spoke to the camera: “Yesterday’s harvest was great, and today’s goal is just as clear.”

“Yesterday, I only explored a small part of the southern coastline and gained immense rewards.”

“I believe there are more hidden catches among the chaotic ice ridges.”

“Before the next snowfall covers the floes, I need to carry out a thorough search for food resources to expand my food reserves as much as possible.”

He hoisted his empty backpack again, dressed properly, and set foot once more into that white world covered with snow and ice.

This time, wearing his snowshoes, he directly crossed the natural bay where he found cod and sea urchins yesterday, moving further south.

The terrain of the southern coastline became increasingly rugged, with huge snow-covered rocks intertwined with towering ice pressure ridges.

Forming labyrinth-like canyons and straits, the search here was much more challenging than before.

But it was precisely in such complex terrains that most likely intercept debris brought by the storm.

“The storm tides and ebb tides’ currents are not random; they follow the basic principles of physics.”

“What I need to find are ‘deposition areas,’ and finding them only requires reading three things: the main water flow channel, obstructions, and energy decay zones.”

He searched for a while, then pointed to a large gap in the distant ice wall that connected to the open sea.

“Look there, that gap is the main path for seawater trapped behind the ice wall to return to the ocean during low tide.”

“Everything brought by the storm would be moved by this ‘main river channel.'”

Then, his fingers moved to lock onto a semi-enclosed area not far from his feet, consisting of three giant stranded ice floes and a massive rock.

“And these huge ice floes and rocks are like natural dams and boulders in the river.”

“When the current of the ‘main river channel’ passes here, it will inevitably be blocked and diverted by them.”

Finally, he pointed to a relatively gentle area with noticeably weakened current behind these massive obstructions.

“Finally, after the current hits and bypasses these massive obstructions, its speed will drop sharply, and its energy will rapidly decay.”

“Just like how a river forms a calm zone around bends and behind rocks. When the current loses kinetic energy, it can no longer carry heavy objects.”

“So, that area behind the obstruction is very likely the storm’s highest probability ‘treasure deposit point!’ Let’s go verify it now.”

After finishing those words, he swiftly slid down the rock, stepping firmly and decisively towards the area he had deduced.

Sure enough, when he arrived, he found his judgment was completely correct.

In the eddy zone sheltered by huge ice floes and rocks, there was a large pile of black seaweed, thicker and more concentrated than he had seen anywhere else before.

The surface of the entire seaweed pile had been frozen into a glass-like hard shell by low temperatures and splashing seawater.

He didn’t rush to dig but first used the end of the axe handle to probe systematically in various spots on the hillock-like seaweed pile.

“Thud, thud…” In most places, the axe handle hitting the frozen seaweed emitted a dull sound, indicating soft seaweed underneath.

While he patiently moved and probed, a rusted metal object suddenly appeared in his sight from a distance!

He immediately walked over, crouched down, and brushed off the snow, revealing a weather-beaten iron bucket.

Grabbing the edge and pulling hard, he withdrew a simple rusted and calcified metal wire handle from the ice weeds.

He continued cleaning until the full contour of the iron bucket lay before his eyes.

The bucket’s body appeared with a dull, lead-gray metallic texture covered with dents and white, salt-frost-like encrustations.

The bottom third of the bucket was coated with thick, orange-red rust, marking its long immersion and oxidation in seawater.

He turned the bucket upside down, tapping the bottom to clear out sand and ice, and although the bucket was rusted, it was still structurally intact without any perforations.

“A galvanized steel bucket, this thing looks worn out, but to me, it’s a portable small stove!”

After cleaning the iron bucket, Lin Yu’an continued probing the seaweed with the axe handle until suddenly, a crisp “clack” echoed!

A hard feedback similar to hitting stone transmitted back from the end of the axe handle, immediately revitalizing him!

He moved to that point, using the axe blade as a hoe, to start digging layer after layer through the semi-hard frozen seaweed.

He had only dug about a dozen centimeters deep when the first prize emerged, a giant Deep Sea Scallop, even larger than his palm, perfectly frozen within the seaweed.

Its shells remained slightly open, as if time had paused in the final moment of its life.

“A perfect start.”

This discovery further solidified his judgment.

He didn’t continue digging deeper at this spot but temporarily set aside the giant Deep Sea Scallop.

Then, he began to apply his sedimentary zone theory to conduct a systematic and thorough inspection of the entire southern bay.

“Alright, the first sediment point has been successfully verified.”

He said to the camera, “Now, what I need to do is search for more such locations on this massive accident site.”

Soon after, he found a narrow corner formed by a massive log of driftwood and an ice wall.

The space here was narrow, and the water flow would slow down after being compressed, making it easier for things to be left behind.

He probed back and forth in the frozen heap of seaweed with the handle of his axe, and soon felt a hard response once again.

He started digging, and this time, what he unearthed wasn’t shellfish, but a few long-bodied herrings frozen stiff and straight.

As well as a small pile of hairy scale fish, glinting like silver knives.

“Bait fish.” He collected these small fish and placed them in the side pocket of his backpack.

“Their appearance indicates that the storm not only overturned the seabed but also disrupted the entire oceanic food chain.”

“Although these small fish don’t have much meat, they’re rich in fat and provide an excellent source of energy, also making the best bait.”

He continued forward, arriving at another depression which he identified, formed by several massive stranded icebergs and in a lower terrain.

Here, the seaweed was piled thicker and more moist, and even at some of the ice cracks at the bottom, one could see seawater that hadn’t completely frozen.

He changed his digging strategy, no longer turning over large areas with his axe, half-kneeling beside the cold seaweed, he took out the Damascus steel hunting knife.

With the tip of the knife, he began peeling away the semi-frozen seaweed layer by layer, methodically.

Suddenly, his knife tip touched a hard object beneath the seaweed, sending back a distinctive, non-stone scraping sensation.

He paused and reached into the cold, slippery seaweed with his gloved fingers.

The texture he felt was rough with distinctly jointed appendages.

Carefully, he brushed aside the surrounding seaweed to reveal a snow crab, its carapace showing a beautiful reddish-brown, and its long legs still in a crawling posture!

He picked up the frozen snow crab: “Snow crabs… live at least tens of meters deep on sandy or muddy seabeds, it seems the storm’s power was even greater than I imagined.”

This discovery was just the beginning; he realized that these benthic creatures were likely washed ashore in groups, prompting him to immediately expand his detailed search in the area.

Sure enough, in the following ten minutes or so, he found three more snow crabs of similar size beneath the nearby piles of seaweed.

Suddenly, right beside where he dug out the fourth snow crab, he saw another pair of spiny pincers that did not belong to a snow crab, along with a long antenna extending out from under the seaweed.

He immediately dropped his tools and cleared the surrounding broken ice and seaweed with his hands.

When the creature was fully revealed to him, he instantly recognized its iconic massive claws and dark green shell.

He couldn’t help but let out a low exclamation: “Unbelievable… it’s an American Lobster! Commonly known as the Boston Lobster!”

“Lobster! Unbelievable!”

He carefully picked up the equally frozen stiff lobster.

“They usually hide in rock crevices in deep waters, the rulers among benthic creatures, and for it to be washed ashore, shows just how terrifying the waves must have been.”

He even found another slightly smaller lobster not far away, also perfectly flash-frozen.

After carefully packing the four snow crabs and two lobsters – these precious treasures – into his backpack, his exploration continued.

He arrived at the last sedimentary area he was surveying today, and which he believed to be the largest and most promising, a natural bay formed by a massive stranded iceberg and coastal rocks.

The area was in stark contrast to other places, displaying a deep purple-black color, resembling an extraterrestrial landscape.

It wasn’t like the beached seaweed piles, nor was it as loose as the rocks on land; it covered an area of three or four square meters.

“This is…”

With curiosity, he quickly stepped forward, crouched down, and brushed away the surface snow with the axe handle. When he saw the true face of the object, he couldn’t help but exclaim.

It wasn’t rock, but mussels! Countless, densely packed deep-sea blue mussels!

“A complete mussel bed was lifted entirely?”

The sight was incredibly magnificent; this black reef was a ‘mussel carpet’ laid flat here.

He could clearly see countless mussels, much larger than those he’d collected in the intertidal zones before, intertwined and connected, forming an inseparable whole.

Due to the instantaneous low temperature, the entire mussel bed, along with the rocks it enveloped, had been frozen into blocks of ‘mussel ice bricks.’

He struck the ‘mussel reef’ with the back of his forest axe, producing a dull ‘thump-thump’ sound, like hitting cement.

“Now, my protein food reserves have reached an unprecedented level of security.”

Looking at this inexhaustible ‘black gold mine’ before him, his face broke into an immensely reassuring smile.

“Though individual value may not match that of lobsters or snow crabs, this quantity is enough to last until the challenge ends.”

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep