Bait Stolen

On the fourth day of Desert Island Survival, Yu Hai had achieved preliminary freshwater independence. What a cause for celebration.

There was so much freshwater that he could not possibly drink it all. He could store some for bathing.

Of course, that was a conservative estimate. If the daytime temperature got too high and the water droplets were halved—or even stopped flowing altogether—he would be in trouble.

At least he no longer had to worry about freshwater for now. Next, he needed to consider food.

The four essentials of survival were water, fire, food, and shelter. Here, there was one more essential: safety...

He had secured freshwater and had a lighter, so fire was not a concern either. Until the lighter ran out of fuel, he would not need to worry about starting a fire.

As for shelter, the crude lean-to he had built yesterday was barely livable. The weather had been good these past few days, and he could see a sky full of stars at night. There probably would not be any heavy rain.

Even if there was heavy rain, it would be a good thing for him. He desperately lacked freshwater, and he could use plastic buckets to collect rainwater. He could even take a bath.

In the three days since arriving here, he had been thinking about how to find food and freshwater.

Combined with three days under the blazing sun, even as a modern man, he could not stand his own smell anymore. It was far too strong.

As for sheltering from rain, he could just hide beneath a tree. The rain could not keep falling forever. He just hoped there would be no wind. He had absolutely no protection against strong winds and could not withstand them at all.

To collect as much rainwater as possible when it rained, he had prepared many containers and planned to spread them across the entire stretch of sand.

He had not laid the rainproof plastic over the rags. Instead, he had dug pits and lined them with it, just waiting for rainwater.

Shelter was not the most urgent matter. Food was what he lacked most right now; even safety had to take a backseat.

Between starving to death and getting eaten, he felt starvation would come first.

Without food, Poliwag could not grow, much less train its physical strength and moves.

Remaining hungry all the time would only wear away Poliwag's already low Potential. Poliwag's Potential was low to begin with, and seeing it diminish further was something he did not want.

Securing enough food had to be put on the agenda. It was an urgent matter.

They also needed to change their diet. Fish was hard to come by, and fishing was far too mystical. He would only spend the morning fishing, and whether he caught anything depended entirely on luck.

Without bait to chum the waters, without bait for fishing, in such scorching weather, and with only a single Fishing Rod and no spare rod, things were difficult.

The right time, place, and people had nothing to do with him. It was easy to imagine how hard it would be for an angler to get fish to eat.

The fact that he had caught the first two fish had really been dumb luck. Otherwise, he could only have gone hungry.

As an experienced angler, once a fish bit, he could guarantee at least an eighty percent chance of reeling it in.

But no fish biting was an angler's fatal weakness.

Besides fish, they could eat plants. While searching for freshwater, he had seen plenty of seaweed by the shore—or rather, kelp.

There was plenty of that stuff. It was everywhere among the rocky shallows along the coast. He had even seen Kingler eating it. After all, it was an omnivorous Pokémon and also ate carrion...

"Fuck, carrion?" The moment Yu Hai thought of that, he immediately sensed trouble. The fish guts he had buried had most likely been eaten by those damned crabs again.

He was so furious that he forgot about Poliwag, set it down, and sprinted toward the shelter. When he reached the sand where he had buried the fish guts yesterday, the spot had already been dug up. The fish guts had vanished without a trace, leaving only a mess of Kingler tracks.

Staring at the large pit before him, Yu Hai collapsed blankly onto the sand. His bait was gone again. He hated this...

"Kingler..." Yu Hai gritted his teeth in hatred. He had never hated a Pokémon like Kingler this much before. It was practically becoming psychological trauma.

Because of Ash, he had rather liked the goofy, adorable Kingler. But now, there was nothing in him but anger.

The impression those street-roaming delinquents had left on him plummeted even further.

He swore that even if someone gave him a Kingler, he would not take it. Those things were just too fucking cheap.

He was already miserable enough, and they still had to steal his meat bait.

With his meat bait gone, he had to go back to plant bait. At the same fishing spot as yesterday, he cut leaves into the shape of a lure and cast his line into the sea.

At that moment, Poliwag came over to his side. Seeing how low-spirited he was, it called out twice, "Yo? Yo?"

"It's nothing." Hearing Poliwag's growl, Yu Hai instantly adjusted his expression and put on a smile. He reached out and stroked Poliwag's round blue head.

He did not pass the anger and frustration of having his meat bait stolen on to Poliwag. Poliwag did not need to know about such things. He would handle it himself.

Since Poliwag had chosen to follow him, he would not let the little tadpole go hungry. If he could not catch fish, then they could eat grass. It was not something impossible to accept.

Eating grass was all part of the basic skill set for an angler. There was no need to make a fuss about it.

Besides, Poliwag ate grass too. Like him, it was an omnivore.

Sigh...

That sigh carried far too much helplessness...

And so, Yu Hai guarded the Fishing Rod all morning. He was not as lucky as yesterday, when he had managed to lure a Sharp-toothed Fish into biting. Today, there was nothing.

Yu Hai had already prepared himself mentally for this. What anglers feared most was no fish biting, which meant coming up empty. But there was nothing he could do about it.

After turning the Fishing Rod into a fixed trap, he braved the blazing sun overhead and went to the water collection spot. He replaced the bucket with an empty plastic one, carried the half-bucket of freshwater he had collected back to the shelter, and lit a fire to boil the water before drinking it.

After all, drinking raw water before had only been out of necessity. Now that he could boil it, there was no reason to keep drinking it raw.

The container he used to boil water was an iron cup, only large enough to hold an adult's fist. He had not found any larger container.

For boiling water, though, this iron cup was enough.

After rinsing the iron cup with water and filling it, he set it over the fire to boil. Once the freshwater in the cup came to a boil, he could drink it.

By then, Poliwag was already unbearably hot and was lying beneath a patch of shade, resting. He did not disturb Poliwag, but with the fire burning in front of him, he grew even hotter.

Eventually, he even took off his shirt. But in order to safely drink freshwater, there was no other choice.

Once the water in the iron cup boiled, he removed the soot-blackened cup from the fire and placed it beside him, waiting for the boiling water to cool.

To drink this cup of safe freshwater, he had worked for half an hour. At last, after the boiled water cooled down, he drank a cup of refreshing, clean lukewarm water.

"Ah, that feels so good." After drinking the lukewarm water from the iron cup, Yu Hai let out a long breath. Savoring the faintly salty lukewarm water he had just swallowed, he felt his mood improve considerably.

After achieving freshwater independence, he had never felt so relaxed. He no longer had to worry about dying of thirst. Being able to drink whenever he wanted felt amazing, relaxing his whole body from head to toe.