The rustling sound from the bushes started again, this time even closer.
Chen Hao's hand was still resting on the edge of the trap, his whole body frozen. It wasn't that he didn't want to move, it was that his mind hadn't caught up with his body—he had just caught that rabbit, hadn't even had a meal yet, and now this was going to happen?
Nana's blue light swept across the front, her voice a half tone lower than usual: "The heat source is thirty meters away. Judging from its size, it is a large predator. Its limbs are about 1.2 meters high when they touch the ground. It is speculated to be a mutated family."
"Could you please stop using words like 'speculation'?" Chen Hao finally pulled his foot out of the vines, his knees buckling and he almost collapsed to the ground. "What I need now is a definite answer, like 'it doesn't eat people' or 'it has already eaten its fill today'!"
“I can’t offer any comforting data,” she paused, “but it’s definitely moving in your direction.”
Chen Hao rolled away and hid behind a rock about half his height, his back pressed tightly against the rock face, his heart pounding as if it would burst through his chest. He caught his breath and asked in a low voice, "Are we now considered to be in the official combat phase? Should we shout something like 'Bring it on' to bolster our courage?"
"It is recommended to conserve oxygen."
Before he could finish speaking, a dark shadow suddenly darted out of the bushes, moving so fast it created a gust of wind. Chen Hao only saw a huge, furry creature leap into the air, its fangs flashing in the dim light, before hurtling towards the trap.
He instinctively grabbed a stone axe and held it horizontally in front of him.
boom!
The beast's forepaws slammed into the axe, the force so great that his entire arm went numb. He was thrown back half a meter, his rear slamming hard against the corner of a rock. The pain made his vision blur and he almost cried out.
“This thing is way more ruthless than a fitness coach…” He gritted his teeth and propped himself up, only to find that the axe blade had only left a shallow mark on the other man’s shoulder, with a few coarse gray hairs falling down like a failed barber shop freebie.
After landing, the beast shook its head, seemingly surprised that its blow hadn't killed its prey instantly. It let out a low growl, its ears pressed back flat, and its tail taut.
Chen Hao swallowed hard, his palms sweating so badly that his grip on the axe handle was slippery. "The last time I was this nervous was when I was caught cheating on a test by the teacher... but at least back then I could pretend to be stupid. Now, even pretending to be dead won't work."
Nana suddenly raised her hand, and a weak magnetic wave shot out from her palm, striking the beast's right hind leg. There was already a small piece of metal residue there—a fragment of the old life pod, which had been scraped into the flesh by the vines and hadn't been expelled.
The beast suddenly stopped, its right leg twitched, and its movement was delayed for less than a second.
It's this very second.
Using the wall as leverage, Chen Hao leaped two steps to the side, barely escaping the close-quarters control. He leaned against a tree trunk, his chest heaving like a broken blower.
"You were hiding this function?" he panted. "Why didn't you bring it out earlier?"
“The jamming device needs four minutes to cool down each time it’s activated,” she said. “I just used it for the last time.”
"So now all we can do is rely on our acting skills to make it laugh?"
The beast turned around, its eyes red and nostrils flared, clearly enraged by the interruption of its meal. It stopped probing, pawing the ground with its front paws, muscles tense, preparing for a second attack.
Chen Hao stared into its eyes, then suddenly remembered something.
"Nana! When you talked about animal neural structure before, you mentioned that predators rely on the oculomotor plexus for vision, right?"
"correct."
"So, if you blind it, it's as if it loses its navigation system?"
"The theory holds true."
“Great.” He wiped the sweat from his face. “Now I’m going to do something big—not a hunter, but an ophthalmologist.”
The beast roared and leaped up again, its entire body pressing down like a mountain.
This time, Chen Hao did not block.
At the last moment, he ducked and slid, skimming the ground into the blind spot beneath the beast's belly. That area had short fur and thin hide, but it was the most difficult to reach—who would dare to crawl under a tiger's belly?
He raised the stone axe high with both hands and thrust it upwards with all his might.
Pfft!
The axe tip pierced the beast's right eyeball with pinpoint accuracy, reaching a depth of half an inch. Blood mixed with clear liquid spurted out, and the beast let out a heart-wrenching roar. It lost control of its body and crashed to the ground, convulsing and rolling wildly, its claws digging three deep trenches into the soil.
Chen Hao took the opportunity to roll away, panting as if he had run ten kilometers.
"Can it...can it still fight?" He lay on the ground, digging his fingers into the grass roots to steady himself.
“The visual center is damaged, the sense of balance is lost, and the ability to attack is reduced by 70 percent,” Nana said after the scan. “But it still poses a deadly threat.”
Sure enough, the beast struggled to its feet, its left eye still intact, and locked onto Chen Hao's position, blood dripping from its mouth as it approached step by step.
Chen Hao knew he couldn't wait for it to recover.
He leaned against the tree trunk to stand up, his legs trembling violently, but he still gripped the axe tightly. This time, he circled around to the side, and in the instant the beast turned its head slowly due to limited visibility, he suddenly rushed forward, swung his arm in a wide arc, and smashed the stone axe hard into its other eye.
A dull thud.
With its left eye ruptured and its brain nerves damaged, the beast's entire body stiffened, then it collapsed to the ground with a thud, its limbs twitching a few times before becoming still.
The scene quieted down.
Chen Hao stood beside the corpse, his hands still trembling. The axe was covered in blood and slime, so heavy he could barely hold it. He looked down at his shoes—no, his bare feet—which had been cut in several places by gravel.
"Did I just...kill a wild beast?" he murmured. "And did I take the initiative to attack?"
"Kill confirmed." Nana approached and scanned. "Cause of death: complete destruction of both optic nerves, accompanied by increased intracranial pressure leading to cessation of brain function."
"It sounds like a death certificate from a hospital." He plopped down on a rock three meters away, his clothes soaked with cold sweat. "I thought my greatest achievement in life was winning a game of hide-and-seek, but now I can write a resume: I once fought a 200-pound beast and won."
He looked up at Nana and said, "Do you think it might be the boss of this forest? What if a bunch of its relatives show up later to come looking for revenge?"
"There are currently no other large heat sources within the detection range."
"That's good." He breathed a sigh of relief, looking down at the stone axe in his hand. The blade had a small chip, and there were cracks in the handle, but it was still usable.
"Actually..." he grinned, "I tried that move eight times in simulation training, and each time I fell and got a bloody butt. But when it really came down to life or death, it actually worked."
After he finished speaking, he raised his foot and gently kicked the beast's hind leg.
The body swayed, but didn't react.
He suddenly realized something.
"Wait a minute." His eyes widened. "We have meat to eat now, don't we?"
“The prey is quite large, and it is estimated to provide more than 6,000 calories,” Nana said. “That’s enough to maintain your normal metabolism for twelve days.”
"Twelve days?" He jumped up, then nearly sat back down because his legs were too weak. "Then I can eat hot pot for three days straight? Even without a pot or a fire... but I can imagine it!"
He dragged the axe to the corpse, squatted down to look at the enormous creature, and reached out to poke its nose.
Hard.
"If it were alive, could we take a picture and post it on WeChat Moments?" he muttered to himself. "I've even thought of a title: 'How a mediocre student outmaneuvered a top predator in the wilderness.' It'd definitely get over ten thousand likes."
Nana stood quietly to the side, the camera flashing a steady blue light.
A bird call came from afar.
Chen Hao raised his head and squinted at the edge of the forest. Sunlight slanted down, falling on the beast, and the bloodstains began to darken.
He suddenly felt a little hungry.
"Nana." He licked his chapped lips. "Do you think... if we eat this raw, will it cause diarrhea?"
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