Chapter 188 (Exclusive on Jinjiang Literature City): I'm not human, but you guys are...
Seeing the countless rats lying on the ground, easily counted to be thousands, the villagers who came out to help clean up got goosebumps again.
Miao Jinfeng rubbed her arms and said, "I don't know where all these rats came from. Could Hongyue possibly give birth to rats?"
The audience found it funny.
This is nothing compared to what's to come.
Although the Covenant only has mutated plants and animals, they still understand the habits of some primitive species.
Rats are animals that you may not see often, but in fact, their numbers are greater than those of most other animals.
In particular, it is also very prolific.
The gestation period is only about 20 days, and each pregnancy can produce up to 15 or 16 offspring, with an extraordinary rate of reproduction.
The number of rats that the streamer and his hunting team could kill in half an hour might not even be as many as the total number of rats in this small town, and there might be even more to come.
Old Man Wei, whose spirits were getting better and better after his leg recovered, shook his head and said, "It's a pity there's no meat to share today. It was a hard fight, and all that effort was wasted."
Ge Yuan said, "There will be more later. It's impossible for rats to come every day."
After chatting for a while, the group quickly piled up the rat carcasses and burned them clean.
Considering the numerous germs on rats, Lu Xuan bought a large amount of disinfectant from the mall and had everyone thoroughly disinfect the village and the area around the greenhouse.
While the villagers were disinfecting, Li Tie couldn't help but pull Lu Xuan aside and praise, "Your protective shield is really amazing. Once activated, the rat swarm can't get close at all. I checked it, and there wasn't even a single mark left on the training room window."
Lu Xuan thought to himself, "This thing is worth millions, and it consumes a lot of energy stones every time it's activated. How could it not work well?"
Viewers laughed: "Luckily, the streamer pulled out another protective shield from the black gold blind box, otherwise the whole village would have crowded into the Lu family's house, and it would have been a bloodbath."
However, it's not to say that there have been no losses at all.
The Lu family's house and training room remained intact thanks to the protective shield, but the other people's houses were not so lucky.
Although the rats first gnawed on the mushroom lamps, and only a small number of rats gnawed on the house, the overall damage was not serious.
However, several small gaps appeared on the perfectly good house, and the villagers who went home to disinfect couldn't help but curse when they saw it.
That stinking rat covered in dog poop!
They're inedible, cause damage everywhere, and carry germs that make people sick. Why weren't they frozen to extinction during the extreme cold season?
After walking around the village to check the extent of damage to each house, Li Tie returned to Lu Xuan, who had already gone home, looking somewhat worried.
"The impact of rats on the village is more pronounced than that of other wild animals. What if they come back again, or even in greater numbers?"
If you chip off a few gaps at once, you'll chip off even more gaps next time. Sooner or later, you'll chip away at the house!
When he asked the question, Li Tie looked at Lu Xuan with an expectant gaze.
At first, the audience didn't understand and thought the village chief wanted Lu Xuan to make the house protection shields available to the whole village.
Just as I was about to say that this idea was too extravagant, I heard Lu Xuan say, "During the beast attack, I will put the blood-sucking vines outside to prevent wild animals from breaking in."
The main group that needs to take this opportunity to improve their strength is the young and strong. The elderly, weak, women and children have low needs in this regard, so it's not a big deal to take care of them a little more.
The audience suddenly realized that it was a reference to the vampire vine!
The streamer actually agreed?
Isn't the streamer being a bit too overprotective?
[Exactly, the catastrophe has been going on for over half a year now, are we still treating the elderly and vulnerable like hothouse flowers?]
But the hunting party members work hard to hunt and kill wild animals to improve their strength, all so that their elderly parents, wives, and children can live well. Why should they have to suffer along with them?
Although the Star Alliance values strength above all else, it doesn't stipulate that strong individuals can't have wives and children. And the wives and children of strong individuals must also be very powerful.
[In some worlds, the entire population is mobilized to be soldiers, which sounds impressive, but is it because they enjoy it? They're forced into it by circumstances.]
Only incompetent people insist on making their wives and children suffer along with them.
Lu Xuan also agreed with this statement.
In the apocalypse, no one should be underestimated, whether they are old, young, women, or children, because they have a harder time surviving than anyone else and will resort to any means to stay alive.
Who wouldn't want a peaceful and stable life if they had the means?
He provides various items from the mall to help people get through various disasters, and when needed, he can provide the elderly, weak, women and children in the village with some humanistic experiences.
But for a beast devoid of reason, letting the able-bodied men slaughter it and cook it for them was already making the best use of it.
...
With the vampire vines guarding the area around the village.
Aside from the children being forcibly confined indoors and not allowed to run around, and a small number of timid people still not daring to go out, most people have returned to their normal lives.
Those who need to shovel snow should do so, and those who need to continue processing by-products should continue processing.
Even though the villagers could occasionally hear the howls and roars of wild wolves, boars, or jackals in the nearby open space, they remained unfazed and chatted with those around them, even finding the animals too noisy.
What are you yelling for? No matter how loudly you yell, you'll still become spoils of war under their son's or husband's control, humph!
However, it is impossible to say that the beast attacks had no impact on them at all.
Because we don't know when the herd of beasts will appear, we can't go to the hot springs, which is just a relatively insignificant matter.
At worst, they can take a bath in their own bathroom and enjoy the feeling of washing away fatigue with hot water.
It's heartbreaking that winter fishing has been forced to stop.
Inside the processing shed.
Aunt Chen sighed, "Before, Chen Rong complained that there were too many fish, feeling that the fresh, salted, and cured fish in his space were almost piled up and marinated. Now, well, this supply has been completely gone!"
Aunt Zhang sighed, "Who can argue with that?"
Every five days they go winter fishing, they bring back a catch of more than 200,000 catties of fish.
Because of the appearance of the beasts, even though the frozen lake was right there, they couldn't go there, and all that income was lost. The loss was too great.
Grandma Lin was quite optimistic and comforted them, saying, "It's heartbreaking that we can't get the supplies, but safety comes first. It would be too dangerous if we encountered a pack of beasts attacking us on the frozen lake."
"Although we're out of fish food, we still have meat, don't we?" Granny Lin picked up a piece of lean wild boar meat.
In just five or six days, the village had encountered no fewer than five groups of wild boars.
Each family can get two or three hundred catties each time. If the beast attack and the polar night last for a whole month, they can stockpile at least three to five thousand catties of meat.
Grandma Lin exclaimed, "Before the catastrophe, who would have dared to imagine that we could get so much meat every day?"
The daily meat consumption we get now would have been more than we could eat in a whole year in the past.
Others are not unaware of this principle either.
But didn't the private school teach a saying: It's hard to go from extravagance to frugality?
Each batch of meat yields two to three hundred catties, while each batch of fish yields one to two thousand catties.
A difference of more than five times, who wouldn't feel heartache in that situation?
But if they were really given the choice, they would never actually disregard the safety of their loved ones for the sake of a catch of fish.
In the end, all I could do was sigh and console myself.
"In any case, since the beast attacks started happening so frequently, at least the young and strong are not as agitated as they were at the beginning of the polar night."
“That’s true,” Aunt Liu said. “Every time my Liu Chun comes home after fighting, if he doesn’t smell so bad that I have to make him take a shower, he can just lie down and go to sleep in his blood-stained clothes.”
I don't have the energy to feel depressed about not seeing the sun.
The most important thing is to get some sleep and restore your energy.
Those who didn't need to participate in combat used the method provided by Grandpa Zhang to bask in the holographic sun in the training room, and their mental state improved quite well. Yuanyuan's appetite, which had been somewhat lacking, also returned.
In addition, the appearance of the herd brought another benefit.
As the amount of meat they had increased, the amount of hides they had accumulated also increased noticeably.
Families with few members have accumulated at least seven or eight wolf pelts and ten or so pigskins.
In areas with large populations, a dozen or more are not enough.
Some people felt they didn't have enough hides, so they asked the village chief to exchange them for a batch from the public supplies.
Although the leather in the public supplies was mostly damaged, you could still piece together a lot of good stuff.
Animal hides are much thicker during the extreme cold season than in previous disasters, making it the perfect time to tan them for making warm clothing or bedding.
These past two days, besides processing meat, the women and helpers have mainly been cleaning these hides.
There aren't many people in the village who know how to tan leather; only Wu Cheng, Wu Yang, and Gao Dalin do.
At first, Gao Dalin thought he could make a fortune by helping the villagers tan leather, since he had been spending more money than others recently.
But when the villagers brought over all the hides, he was dumbfounded when he saw hundreds of hides.
With so much leather, how long will it take to finish? My hands will be ruined!
Finally, after consulting with Wu Cheng, Gao Dalin hesitated for a moment but decided to reveal the methods they knew for tanning leather, such as water tanning and oil tanning, so that the villagers could learn to do it themselves.
In the past, tanning leather was a skill that was essential for making a living and was not easily passed on to outsiders.
But they have spatial rings, so they can buy safe houses in the future. They can also sell the supplies they've accumulated after the disaster ends. The children who attend the private school can also write and do math. It's a sure thing that they'll become rich in their later years.
Looking at it this way, there's no need to cling to this skill so desperately.
It even made Gao Dalin, who insisted on earning this hard-earned money, seem like a fool.
Having learned the tanning method, the villagers, who were not responsible for fighting, quickly started processing meat and hides at the same time.
After removing any remaining meat and fat from the hide, it is washed and then either soaked in a solution for tanning or pounded for tanning. After this careful processing, the finished product is usually not too bad.
Wild boar hides are mainly used to make brushes and sturdy, durable gloves, while wolf skins are made into wolf skin rugs.
With a wolfskin rug, even without a self-heating blanket, you'll still feel warm while sleeping.
The key point is that the leather was a spoil of war for the able-bodied young men in the family, and the sense of accomplishment it brought was something that could not be obtained by buying a blanket from a general store.
·
On the open ground outside the village, a new day of battle has begun.
The hunting team members skillfully launched an attack on the surrounding wild boar herd.
Fireballs, ice arrows, and earth spikes flew all at once, making for a very intense battle.
Because of the large number of wild boars, people could be seen occasionally dodging attacks from multiple berserk boars, making the scene quite dangerous.
However, Lu Xuan, who stayed behind to oversee the overall situation, showed no intention of helping, only occasionally offering some guidance on his special abilities.
"Don't always think about winning by sheer numbers. Try to compress your strength, achieve great results with minimal resources, and target the vital points."
"It's not just the heart that's the vital point. Use earth spikes and ice arrows to stab the wild boars in the eyes and blind them. If you use enough force, you can even pierce their skulls and kill them."
"Don't shoot the water at the wild boars. Their skin is so thick. Haven't you noticed how inefficient it is after shooting at them for days? Just cover their heads with water balloons and drown them."
Lu Xuan looked at Zhang Chengming, who was always trying to imitate him in cutting off the head or heart of a wild boar, and reminded him: "Cut at the limbs, and then cut off the head when the wild boar can move around more easily."
Zhang Chengming's spirits lifted, and he immediately changed his attack direction.
The viewers in the live stream were amazed:
[The streamer's heart is truly filthy.]
[Wild boar: You damned two-legged beasts, you have no sportsmanship! (cursing)]
[Anchor: You've come here to die, I'm just doing you a favor!]
[Haha, actually besides poking the eyes, you can also kick the groin.]
[Is kicking someone in the groin a joke? Wild animals run on all fours, how can you kick them? Are you supposed to crawl between their legs first?]
[You're the one who's going to make me laugh to death by crawling between my legs.]
Despite the audience's enthusiastic banter and jokes, the attack methods Lu Xuan mentioned are actually frequently used by the Star Alliance's superhumans.
What truly shocked the viewers in the live stream was Lu Xuan's advice to Li Jing.
He actually made Li Jing reverse the operation of the wood-type superpower!
What is reverse?
Forcing plants to grow is a positive thing; it gives plants more vitality and allows them to grow quickly.
Conversely, could wood-based superpowers also deprive plants, including animals, of their life force?
After seeing Lu Xuan explain the reverse operation method to Li Jing and then personally demonstrate it to him, using his wood-type ability to instantly kill ten wild boars at the same time without any visible wounds, the entire live stream exploded.
Wait a minute!!! Wood-based abilities can be used like this!?
This is way too overpowered!
Why are there so many untapped abilities in the Wood element? It's completely different from what I used to think.
[I only knew before that wood-type ability users could accelerate food production, making them incredibly wealthy. Later, I learned they could contract mutated plants as bodyguards. Now you're telling me they're also powerful combatants?!]
What's even more absurd is that we, who have possessed superpowers for much longer, somehow know less than a streamer who's been around in the post-apocalyptic world for ten years?
[A direct criticism of the official team! I'm extremely disappointed in you all because you know absolutely nothing about wood-based superpowers! (Pointing and gesturing emoji)]
[Aaaaaah! I've never really thought about awakening wood-type abilities, but now, I really want to be a wood-type!]
[+1, it's profitable and powerful, who wouldn't want it?]
[I feel like there will be even more people wanting to awaken the Wood element in the future.]
[If superpowers were something you could just wish for, I'd be the first to wish for superpowers to be copied!]
While the number of online viewers soared and the atmosphere in the live stream was electric, Li Jing's own reaction was rather subdued.
On the one hand, even when absorbing life force, Li Jing's low proficiency and low level resulted in a less than satisfactory effect, leaving the pig half-dead and the overall experience not very enjoyable.
On the other hand, Li Jing still prefers farming at heart.
The audience, who saw through his thoughts: ...
They wanted nothing more than to grab Li Jing by the shoulders and shake him frantically: "Don't give me such a useful superpower!"
...
Defeating the wild boar herd does not mean the battle is over.
Because there were also several large insects mixed in with the wild boar herd to launch a sneak attack.
When Lu Xuan and the audience first discovered that the wild boar and the giant insect were mixed together, they were speechless.
What I'm saying is, how is it reasonable that predators and prey are mixed together without fighting?
Is the influence of the Red Moon really that serious? It's even defying the laws of nature.
However, the chance to encounter several large insects at once is indeed rare.
Without the harassment of the wild boars, the hunting team members would be surrounded by the giant insects that Lu Xuan had trapped, and they would start taking turns practicing on the insects.
The hunting team had only previously tested their skills in combat with the giant worm through holographic equipment; this was their first time facing it head-on, so they needed to practice a lot!
The worm being slowly butchered by them: I'm not human, but you are real dogs!
[Hey, why not just live a normal life? Why do you have to go and cause trouble for the streamer? Isn't that just asking for trouble?]
[If you encounter a herd of wild boars, it would be much better to just grab a couple, eat your fill, and run away quickly, rather than being repeatedly tormented by hunting teams.]
[We can't really blame these giant insects; it's mainly the blood moon's fault.]
There are only three large worms in total, but there are about twenty superhumans who need to practice on them.
The three-headed worm didn't last long before collapsing to the ground, overwhelmed with anger and frustration.
Zhang Chengming and the others clearly showed that they were still not satisfied.
Xiong Mao arrogantly added, "The tiger is nothing special. Its meat isn't tasty, and only the skin is passable."
The leather is still tattered and torn from their beating.
It could be said that the only contribution these three giant insects made was to give them some practical experience.
Even in death, this giant worm is still despised: %￥#@!
Li Tuo, who personally participated in the hunt for the giant insect, felt a great sense of accomplishment at this moment.
However, after listening to Xiong Mao's words, and considering that the animals that had come these past few days were wild boars and wolves, which were carnivorous and had a very strong, gamey smell, he felt somewhat disappointed.
"Sigh, I wish the next herd of beasts would have the kind with delicious meat."
Lu Xuan: "..."
Live stream audience: The beasts are here to kill you, and you've chosen to fight them?
Lu Xuan and the audience hadn't taken Li Tuo's words to heart.
But just as they finished cleaning up the game scattered all over the ground and were about to go back to sleep, the ground began to tremble slightly again, and a muffled cry came faintly from afar.
The hunting team members, exhausted and hungry, had run out of superpowers: "..."
Liu Chun, whose lips had turned pale from giving buffs to others, covered his head and said, "No way, another group has arrived so soon? Don't they let people get any rest?"
The other people didn't look too good either.
Based on the pattern of the past few days, we should have been able to rest after one wave of attacks, so why is the beast horde working overtime today?
All they want to do right now is go back and get a good night's sleep.
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow in surprise after seeing the types of beasts approaching in the distance through his binoculars, and said to Li Tuo, "You were right."
Li Tuo: "?"
The others had an idea and quickly grabbed their binoculars to take a look.
Zhang Chengming was the first to stand up excitedly, and slapped Li Tuo, who was standing right next to him, with great enthusiasm. "You little rascal, is your mouth blessed? You actually managed to attract meat!"
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