Chapter 20

"Look, what's that in front?"

Shaoxing Yang pointed to a place in front, which seemed to be a small building. After walking in, everyone saw that it was actually a long-abandoned rural residential area.

The stone brick walls are covered with moss, and the original dirt road is completely covered with weeds. If it weren't for the fact that some houses have not collapsed, it would be hard to tell that this was once a residential area.

"It's completely deserted," Shao Xingyang said, looking at the few bungalows that hadn't collapsed. "Humans simply can't survive outside the polar regions. If the indigenous people here are still alive, they're probably at the base."

"The buildings we usually see are those template-based ones from the base. They look like they were copied and pasted," Yan Hong touched the greenish wall. "I haven't seen a house like this in a long time."

"Stay away from the houses. These houses with shallow foundations are at risk of collapse at any time." After Tang Zeyu said this, he called back the few people who had left the team.

"But since this is a rural area, are there any chickens, ducks or other animals raised by farmers here?" Lu Shiyu searched the surroundings.

"Even if there were originally, they were eaten by the deformed creatures after the transformation began," Shao Xingyang said, spreading his hands and sighing helplessly, "Poultry don't have any ability to protect themselves."

“Found it!”

“It’s true!”

A few people looked in the direction where Lu Shiyu pointed, and a snow-white round head emerged from the weeds, with two round black eyes opened, looking at them with curiosity.

"Ducks?" Yan Hong put her hands on her hips. "To my surprise, there are actually poultry that can survive safely in this aberrational apocalypse."

"That's great. Dinner tonight is finally settled." Shaoxing Yang rubbed his hands and walked towards the duck.

"Wait, do you really think that a duck, an animal with no ability to protect itself, can survive among a bunch of monsters?" A drop of cold sweat ran down Chen Yunliang's face, and his brows furrowed slightly.

At that moment, the duck suddenly quacked, a short, crisp sound, exactly like an ordinary duck. Shao Xingyang was now even more certain that this was just an ordinary duck. As he walked away, he turned back and said to Chen Yunliang, "Maybe it's because ducks can hide in the grass and water. Nothing in the world is absolute."

Lu Shiyu suddenly had a bad feeling and said to Tang Zeyu beside him, "Why do I feel like Shao Xingyang is going to be unlucky again? Every time he's so confident, something bad happens."

Tang Zeyu casually swatted a mosquito to death and said, "Let him be. He only remembers the food and not the beating. He will learn from his mistakes again and again."

"Haha, he is quite greedy." Lu Shiyu's premonition became worse.

"Little duck, do you want to play in your brother's belly?"

"quack."

The little duck quacked twice more. When Shaoxingyang squatted down and picked up the duck, everyone felt that something was going to happen to him. But nothing happened until Shaoxingyang picked up the duck and turned around to show everyone else.

"This duck is not afraid of people and allows people to hold it."

Shaoxing Yang held the fat white duck in his arms and treated it like a baby. The duck was just an ordinary duck, without any strange organs or behaviors. It was just a normal duck to the point of being abnormal.

Shao Xingyang frowned even more tightly: "How could it be a real duck?"

"Could it be that we're dazzled and missed something?" Yan Hong also began to doubt her own eyesight: "Hurry up and check if we missed anything abnormal."

"Hey! What are you guys whispering about?"

Shaoxing Yang was about to walk towards the few people holding the duck. At this time, Chen Yunliang finally remembered what he felt was wrong.

"No, if this duck really grew normally, it should have long since changed from a domestic poultry to a wild bird. If it's not afraid of people, there's only one possibility..." After figuring it out, Chen Yunliang anxiously shouted to Chen Yunliang, "Throw away that duck!"

"What?" The duck happened to quack when Chen Yunliang was speaking, so Shaoxing Yang didn't hear what Chen Yunliang said clearly. He took a few steps and tried to get closer to listen. "I didn't hear what you said just now! Say it again!"

"Lose the duck! There's something wrong with that duck!"

"Is there something wrong with the duck?" Shaoxing Yang stopped and held up the duck in his hand to take a look: "What could be wrong with it?"

The cute little white duck tilted its head and looked at Shaoxing Yang, looking particularly cute and harmless.

"Isn't this cute?"

However, seeing that Chen Yunliang was so anxious, Shaoxing Yang decided to listen to his teammates and release the duck. He was looking around to figure out where to put the duck when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hand.

The originally cute and adorable little duck was now showing its fangs and biting Shaoxing Yang's arm hard. Blood was flowing down from where the fangs were embedded.

Shao Xingyang tried to pull it free, but the duck's mouth was welded to Shao Xingyang's arm. Shao Xingyang's eyes flashed, and he used his free hand to break the duck's neck with his bare hands, which made the duck let go and freed his arm from the duck's mouth.

"Fuck, so shady."

Shaoxing Yang looked at the circle of teeth marks on his wrist. Fortunately, there were no bite marks on the bones, so it was not serious.

Just when Shaoxing Yang thought that the matter was over and was about to take the duck back, he saw several people looking at him behind him with terrified expressions.

"What happened again?"

Shao Xingyang turned around and saw many white round-headed creatures of the same style poking out from the bushes, blinking their eyes and staring at him. The originally cute scene now seemed particularly weird. Not only was it weird, but there was also a kind of chillness crawling up his spine. Countless pairs of black bean-like eyes were staring at him, as if their gazes were fixed on him.

Until the first duck opened its yellow beak, revealing its sharp fangs and making a "quack" sound.

"Fuck! Everyone run..." Shaoxing Yanggang turned around and told a few people to run quickly, but found that everyone had already run away and only their shadows were left.

"..." Shao Xingyang almost couldn't swallow his breath, and squeezed out a sentence with difficulty in his throat: "Asshole..."

The other side

Lu Shiyu asked as he ran, "Let's run first. Will Shao Xingyang be okay?"

"Don't worry, if he couldn't outrun those ducks, he would have died outside the base long ago." Yan Hong was not worried at all. Instead, she said to Lu Shiyu, "Don't always worry about others. You are the weakest among us. In the future, when you encounter danger, be more aware of it. Hide and run when necessary, otherwise you won't know how you died."

"Oh, okay." Lu Shiyu agreed obediently.

Tang Zeyu found a relatively high house, took Lu Shiyu's hand and threw her onto the wall. Then the other people climbed up one after another, walked along the wall to the roof, and then stopped to rest.

"We should be safe here for now," Tang Zeyu patted Lu Shiyu's back, who was frightened by being suddenly thrown away. "Those ducks probably can't fly, so let's take shelter here for now."

Lu Shiyu took a few deep breaths to calm his heartbeat and asked, "How do you know they can't fly?"

Tang Zeyu pointed at the weeds that covered the ground and said, "Even when these ducks grow up, they are still relatively small. They are still about the same size as normal ducks, which means that this size is suitable for them to survive. Considering the environment, we can simply speculate that these ducks usually hide in these weeds to avoid being attacked by hunters."

Lu Shiyu then raised another question: "If they are trying to avoid attacks from natural enemies, then what are the creatures that attack them? I don't see any other animals nearby. Could it be some kind of plant?"

While the few people were talking, Shao Xingyang had been chased to a nearby place by a group of ducks. After all, ducks have wings and have some flying ability. The ducks that flapped their wings and attacked from time to time gave Shao Xingyang, who was fleeing, a lot of trouble.

"Hey! Here!" Lu Shiyu waved his arms and shouted at Shao Xingyang. Shao Xingyang also noticed them on the roof, and then ran towards where they were, and successfully climbed onto the roof with a series of moves.

"Huh, huh, finally, I got rid of them."

Shaoxing Yang was panting heavily, supporting his knees with his hands. An ordinary person would not be able to recover from the excitement of running just now for a while.

"Strange, why don't they come over?" Chen Yunliang looked down at the house.

"What? Are you still afraid that they won't come?" Shaoxing Yang asked in a shrill voice.

"Something is wrong indeed."

Tang Zeyu looked at the army of ducks below. Although the ducks had not come up, his expression was more solemn than if he had seen the ducks come up.

Lu Shiyu also leaned over to look down, and saw that those scary ducks that had been coming with such a fierce momentum and bared their teeth and claws had actually stopped a few meters away from the house and would not come any closer, let alone go up to the roof.

The ducks stopped where they were, some of them pacing back and forth. The flock of ducks made restless noises, but they never stepped out of the boundary, as if they were afraid of something and dared not get close.

In the end, some of the ducks chose to disperse and staggered back to the grass where they had originally gathered. The other part did not give up and squatted below, waiting for a few people to come down and fall into the trap.

The abnormal behavior of the ducks was caught by several people. Chen Yunliang took a look at Shaoxingyang's bitten arm. The teeth marks were very deep. Including several other wounds on the body, they were all fatal bites. This shows that these seemingly innocent ducks really wanted to attack Shaoxingyang in groups and eat him, but why would they give up the prey that was about to be caught so easily?

"It hurts, it hurts, pinch it gently."

"Don't make a fuss, I'll heal you."

Lu Shiyu looked at the ducks below with some concern: "If they stay here, we won't be able to leave."

"I think the biggest question now is not why they are still here, but why the ducks that left are not here."

Tang Zeyu watched as more and more ducks chose to leave, and his premonition became stronger, as if something bad was about to happen.

"What's this?"

Yan Hong squatted on the edge of the eaves. Because she was light and agile, she didn't have to worry about falling. At this time, Yan Hong was standing on the edge in a very dangerous posture and looking down. There seemed to be something strange under the eaves.

"What's wrong?"

Lu Shiyu heard the sound coming from the other side, and Yanhong asked her to look down. Lu Shiyu naturally did not have as good balance as Yanhong, so she needed Tang Zeyu to hold one of her hands to prevent her from falling before she dared to look down.

When he looked down, he found something very strange. Even Lu Shiyu was surprised. On the wall under the eaves, there was a large ball of thorns stuck to the wall. Judging from the subtle changes on the spikes, this ball of thorns was still alive.

When they came up, they were in such a hurry that they didn't notice that there was such a thing hidden here.

"It's so disgusting, like a coiled-up caterpillar." Yan Hong commented with a look of disgust, and after saying that, she took out a long knife and tried to poke the thing down.

When Yan Hong started poking, it didn't move. After changing the direction a few times, she found the point of force and pried it hard from the root. The black thorn ball flew out in a beautiful parabola and then expanded in the air to form a hollow circle.

Yanhong:?

Lu Shiyu:?