BXBX NOVEL Chapter 226: 223 My Only Opponent Is Myself
When Bi Fang woke up, he felt an unprecedented pain in his head.
It was not an acute pain, but a continuous one, like the erosion of waves, as if his brain had been stirred in a washing machine for three days and nights, turned into pulp, and with every movement, he could hear the sloshing of the liquid inside.
In addition to the headache, his stomach was also very uncomfortable, with stomach acids burning his stomach lining.
Bi Fang had no catch the previous day, but the severe headache alleviated his desire to eat, in short, he had no appetite.
If he actually ate something, he probably would have vomited it back up.
For sea survivors, the greatest dangers are not wearing clothes and severe dehydration, and seasickness can exacerbate dehydration.
The production team saw that the main character was awake, so they quickly turned on the drone and started the second day of live streaming.
The Discovery Channel cut off the documentary that was playing and switched to the live broadcast, with the narrator once again introducing the current state of affairs.
“Today is the second day of the live stream, and so far, our protagonist has gone more than twenty-four hours without food. On this vast ocean, with only a life raft at his disposal, what will he do next?”
There wasn’t much pontificating in the live room, just a lot of silly comments after greetings.
[Good morning, Master Fang!]
[Will you catch anything good today?]
[I doubt it, this time you really might starve. I remember Master Fang went without food for two days once, right? Are you going to break that record this time?]
[Starve for three days, skipping nine meals? Seems plausible to me.]
[Congratulations Master Fang on unlocking a new achievement: Starving for three days, skipping nine meals!]
Still groggy from sleep, Bi Fang gave a disdainful wave of his hand after reading the comments, “Go away, it’s only the second day and you’re already cursing me, how could I possibly starve for three days without nine meals.”
The audience laughed heartily. As a host, Bi Fang always managed to show a personable side, which was one of the reasons he was able to quickly gather a following.
After laughing, Bi Fang took off an undershirt and began to unravel it.
The only items Bi Fang could use at this point were the life raft and the clothes on his body, and he intended to turn his clothes into line in order to make a fishing line.
“If you’re truly stranded, it’s good to keep a navigation diary if you can. This helps with your state of mind, gives you a clear understanding of your surroundings. You can record the names of the survivors, the location of the accident, the date and time, weather conditions, and salvaged items into a table to help you organize your thoughts,” he explained.
“In cold oceans like this one, if there are more survivors, everyone could huddle together to maintain body temperature, prevent muscle or joint stiffness, and keep the blood circulating. Move your body moderately, but be careful not to move violently or suddenly to avoid unbalancing the raft or boat,” he said.
“When the climate is hot, you can remove excess clothing, but be sure to shade from the sun to avoid heatstroke and sunburn, and you could also make simple protective goggles to prevent damage from strong light.”
“If it’s really too hot, you can also soak your clothes in water to help cool down, but be careful not to catch a cold at night.”
“If necessary, you could dip your lower body in seawater to reduce the loss of water, but make sure to fasten your safety belt, and be aware that prolonged exposure to water can cause skin ulcers.”
“In the tropics, there’s one more thing that must be kept in mind, and that is when the temperature is too high, some of the air inside the rubber raft should be let out, as air expands when heated—we just need to loosen the valve, and then inflate it again at night.”
Bi Fang pointed to a valve on the life raft, and in his hand, a line more than three meters long was already being twisted together.
He zipped his jacket all the way up and forcefully broke off the zipper pull, then tied it with a thread, gently bending the two metal rings on each side open to create a makeshift fishhook shape.
Bi Fang was very careful with this step as the zippers’ toughness wasn’t great, and they could easily break; fortunately, he succeeded on his first try.
After completing this, he continued explaining, “Besides serving as a fishhook, this zipper pull can also be used for…”
Before Bi Fang could reveal the answer, some of the Shuiyou (Online Friends) had already figured it out.
[Many types of fish like reflective objects!]
[Wu Hu, I remember this!]
[A snap hook can reflect light!]
“That’s right, that’s the point, even though the reflection from the snap hook is not strong, it’s the only thing I have that can be used.”
The smooth surface of the snap hook, under the illumination of either sunlight or moonlight, can produce a fair amount of reflection, so even without bait, with a bit of luck, it might still attract some small fish.
Bi Fang tied the other end of the rope to the safety lock rope of the life raft and then dragged the snap hook out of the raft, letting the fishing line shimmer with the movement of the drifting raft.
[Swish, swish, swish, are we even forgoing bait now?]
[Is this like Master Jiang fishing in the sea?]
[Feels like there isn’t much hope, huh?]
[Why not hold it in hand? That way, wouldn’t you instantly know when a fish bites?]
“Absolutely not hold it in hand.”
Bi Fang shook his head, for sitting on an inflatable life raft, that was very dangerous.
“Do not manipulate the fishing line with bare hands, nor wrap the line around your hands or simply tie it to an inflatable rubber raft.”
“After being soaked in seawater, the line will release salt, and salt accumulated on the line is quite abrasive. This is dangerous for both the hands and the rubber raft. That’s why I put the locking rope that binds the fishing line into the sea instead of leaning against the raft.”
Life rafts are equipped with locking buckles to secure the people in distress, but the buckles on this life raft had been cut off, leaving only a small section of locking rope.
Bi Fang had tied the fishing line to this locking rope, knotting them together to ensure it was fail-safe before letting it into the sea.
Next was a long wait, but Bi Fang was quite optimistic.
“If not today, there’s tomorrow; if not tomorrow, the day after. Given my physique, going hungry for three days shouldn’t be a big problem.”
“Besides, the odds of catching a fish are pretty good. Not only do many types of fish like shiny objects, but since we are on a life raft, to avoid sunlight, some fish species and turtles are often drawn to the shade under rubber or life rafts and come to rest beneath the boat.”
“So if we had a net, we could hang it at both ends of the ship’s keel, and it would need two people to hold firmly on each end.”
After explaining all this, Bi Fang unzipped the life raft to let the fresh sea breeze blow in.
He wasn’t thirsty yet, preferring to breathe some fresh air to relieve his headache somewhat.
Perhaps the drifting process wasn’t very interesting to watch—throughout the morning, the number of people in the live stream hadn’t made any significant breakthrough.
From a peak of over two million after the start of the broadcast, it had now dropped to about 1.2 million stable viewers, which was quite modest.
This included nearly 500,000 viewers from within the country, with the rest being international audiences.
It might not sound like a lot, but it was already a figure that all the other streamers couldn’t match.
Take the most popular Shark streamer, Ri Bao, for example: his live broadcasts rarely exceeded 300,000 in real viewers. The so-called 20 million viewing figure was basically data released by the platform, not very credible, even virtually non-existent.
Just thinking about it, you would know it’s not possible.
And moreover, saying it was modest is relative to Bi Fang’s previous “achievements”; he had always climbed a notch every time he went live, always climbing, and except for some major live competitive events, no one else could beat him when it came to personal broadcasting.
Bi Fang’s only competitor was always himself.