Apocalypse Hoarder: I Have Billions in Supplies

After Jiang Si brought back the anesthetic rhizomes, she had Bailiman and Aisar crush them. The plan was to filter them into a liquid later, making them easier for the Dai Mao vulture to digest.

Meanwhile, she went to retrieve the fishing net.

As she reached the shore, a mischievous seabird pecked her on the head a couple of times.

Jiang Si ignored them, so they swarmed her, seemingly testing her temper.

If Jiang Si didn’t lash out, they would treat her as prey to be hunted.

The instant one of the seabirds flew at her again, Jiang Si shot out a hand. SWISH. She clamped down on its neck, sealing its fate. A second later, she snapped it and tossed the body onto the ground.

The other seabirds, which had been about to close in, instantly realized Jiang Si was not to be trifled with. They wisely beat a hasty retreat, terrified that she would turn the tables and hunt them instead.

This volcanic island was its own miniature world, one where the law of the jungle was on full, brutal display.

Jiang Si gazed at the restless waves and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her fishing net hadn’t been washed away.

She climbed down from the reef and stepped into the water, ever watchful for any danger that might suddenly emerge.

As she hauled in the net, it grew taut. She could feel a powerful force struggling to escape.

’Must be a big one.’

The corners of Jiang Si’s mouth curved up in a happy smile, which widened as she saw fish leaping from the water’s surface as she pulled in the net.

’The haul’s definitely not small.’

But a moment later, the smile vanished from her face.

She had spotted killer whales heading in her direction.

Jiang Si frantically pulled faster, but the nearby seabirds also came to get in on the action, diving from the sky to snatch any fish that jumped out of her net.

Jiang Si’s heart pounded with anxiety. The net was too heavy; it was an immense struggle for her to pull it in alone.

But the killer whales were drawing nearer and nearer.

Jiang Si gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to drag the net onto the reef, a killer whale lunged forward and bit down on the fish tangled inside.

The force of the bite tore a huge hole in the net.

The fish Jiang Si had struggled so hard to catch escaped in a flash, and the killer whales began to chase them down, playfully eating them like snacks.

Staring at the broken net in her hands, Jiang Si seethed with anger, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about the killer whales in the sea.

’They’re nothing but a bunch of sea gangsters, completely unreasonable.’

’Still, if I want to tame this young vulture, I have to be able to feed it.’

She would just have to find another way.

Jiang Si mulled it over for a while. She figured that instead of wasting time weaving a new net, it would be better to just use a fishing rod. She would catch what she could and just make do. The first priority was to get the young vulture to eat something with the anesthetic.

Jiang Si found a sturdy, flexible bamboo pole and rummaged through her suitcase for a piece of wire that could be bent into a fishhook.

In just a few moments, Jiang Si had put together a makeshift fishing rod.

The young vulture they had dragged into the woods was still watching them warily.

Jiang Si said to Bailiman and Aisar, "Watch it. Don’t let it get away."

Bailiman and Aisar nodded, and Jiang Si took the rod and headed back to the shore.

She was an experienced fisher and knew where to find the big ones.

But before she could catch big fish, she needed bait.

The tide pools around the reefs were teeming with small fish, but she had to catch them first.

Jiang Si used a coconut shell to bail the water out of a pool. The small fish clustered together, and she scooped them up with ease.

With her bait secured, Jiang Si hooked one and cast her line far out into the sea.

She thought she would have to wait a while for a bite.

But unexpectedly, the fish here were ridiculously easy to catch. The moment her bait hit the water, she felt a huge tug on the rod, and the line snapped taut in an instant.

Jiang Si’s eyes lit up. She gave a mighty heave and swung the fish up onto the rocks.

The fish was about five or six pounds—a good size, and plump.

But soon, Jiang Si was pulling in one large fish after another—some seven or eight pounds, others eight or nine.

The makeshift rod nearly snapped several times.

Luckily, Jiang Si used skill rather than brute force, swinging the fish up onto the shore.

If she had tried to simply drag them in, the rod wouldn’t have lasted long at all.

She placed all of her catches in a tide pool, but this stash was soon spotted by seabirds and vultures.

Jiang Si could deal with the seabirds, but she was in no condition to pick a fight with the vultures.

She could only watch as the vultures swooped in behind her and snatched away several of her fish.

She couldn’t catch fish faster than they could steal them. Finally, she put down her rod and quickly started stringing the fish together on a length of vine.

Whenever a vulture swooped down, she would toss a fish into the air, hoping to keep them from dive-bombing her in a desperate attempt to steal the rest.

Jiang Si managed to string twelve of the large fish. She tossed all the smaller ones that remained into the air, creating a diversion for the vultures and seabirds, then sprinted desperately toward the woods.