Chapter 34
The cries of giant panda cubs are actually similar to "hmm hmm". Qiao Ning noticed that when this iron-eating beast rubbed its head against her, it made the same sound as a normal giant panda cub. But as soon as she made a move to leave, it started howling, as if it was accusing her.
Qiao Ning stared at it for a long time before finally putting it into her beast-taming bag.
We can't keep wasting our time dealing with it.
She originally thought that the iron-eating beast cub would have a hard time surviving without its mother, so she might as well let it live according to the natural laws of this place. But this little guy was determined to cause trouble and wouldn't give up until it got what it wanted. What could Qiao Ning do?
Of course, I chose to follow its will and took it with me.
Since trading is not allowed in the wild, Qiao Ning had no way to buy food for it and could only wait until they got out of there.
Taming cubs as pets requires a lot of stamina from the player, especially if the cubs are uncooperative or difficult to tame, the stamina required will increase exponentially.
However, Qiao Ning's situation is different. The cubs jump into the beast-taming bag on their own initiative, so she doesn't have to exert any effort to capture them. Even though they haven't been tamed yet, they are all very well-behaved.
Next, Qiao Ning encountered a golden thorny boar cub, a giant anaconda's snake egg, a cloud-patterned black panther cub, and a red-eyed giant rabbit cub.
There were five giant rabbit cubs, and the mother rabbit herself brought them over.
Qiao Ning was stunned when she saw the string of babies following behind it. Later, she even suspected that the mother rabbit was too prolific and simply couldn't raise the babies herself, so she gave them to her to raise.
In this bio-mutant wilderness, all the animals are plus-sized, enormous; even the mosquitoes are as big as a human face.
No wonder Pei Jing sells the radiated beast meat so cheaply; there's so much of it. Just hunting one or two can yield hundreds or even thousands of pounds of meat.
They are indeed fierce, but unlike ordinary wild animals, they do not have high defense or health bars. As long as you seize the right moment to attack and find the vital point to strike, killing them in one blow is not difficult for a skilled player.
Qiao Ning spent two hours grinding monsters here; she lost count of how many she killed. Besides a large amount of experience points, her inventory was overflowing with supplies.
Stamina Potions: Large bottle (30), Medium bottle (100), Small bottle (200)
100 boxes each of the specific medicines for fungal and moldy diseases, and 100 portions each of their disinfectant powder and cleaning agent.
There are 500 skill cards, including the following cards that have never been obtained before: [Explosive Armor], [Bloodthorn Cage], [Ice Wall], [Ironwood Shield], [Fire Wall], and [Flame Meteor].
200 portions each of insect repellent incense and insect repellent powder
300 packs of desiccant
Pet nutritional supplements (suitable for all stages and types)
Pet nutritional supplement formula (tastier and more nutritious than regular pet food. The ingredients are half plant-based fertilizer and half animal-based fertilizer, providing a more balanced diet).
With these supplies, Qiao Ning felt confident enough to venture into the mutated plant wilderness to hunt monsters.
Many radiation-mutated plants are impervious to water and fire, and most weapons and skill cards are ineffective against them. However, the new skill cards that Qiao Ning has acquired have made breakthroughs in both attack and defense.
Dealing with mutated plants is much easier than before. The Black Flame Bone Blade, which has been working tirelessly, can finally take a break from its duties with the skill card.
After the Black Flame Bone Blade fused with the Black Stone for the second time, it awakened its self-healing ability, allowing it to automatically restore its consumed durability when not in combat.
Qiao Ning painted a rose patch, a sunflower patch, and a cactus patch.
She thoroughly cleaned every area, collecting even the broken plant corpses into her backpack, totaling 1200 items.
You also received 6 Dark Stone Fragments.
Although she didn't obtain the Black Stone, the exclusive fusion material for the Black Flame Bone Blade, she was already quite satisfied with the amount of resources that had been obtained.
Just as Qiao Ning was about to leave the variegated plant field, she was suddenly slapped on the back by something.
Qiao Ning immediately turned around to look, but found nothing unusual. All the plants stayed in their own territory, motionless.
At first glance, everyone seemed very honest.
The more she did this, the more deliberate it seemed to Qiao Ning. She didn't believe that the blow she had just received was just her imagination.
Of course, the force didn't seem like it was meant to kill her; it was more like... a child's prank.
Qiao Ning turned around again as if to leave, and sure enough, she soon felt something reaching towards her.
Qiao Ning turned her head sharply and met the "ambush".
A thin branch stopped a few millimeters away from Qiao Ning, and then slowly, little by little, it retreated.
For a moment, Qiao Ning even felt that the branches' movements were a bit stiff and awkward, like a scene of social humiliation after being caught doing something wrong.
Qiao Ning walked along the direction the branches extended, and only then did she see the real culprit.
It was an enormous, incredibly beautiful willow tree that radiated a shimmering green light.
Qiao Ning had never seen such a tall and beautiful tree.
[Evolved Willow Tree detected. Specific details unknown. Capture it?]
Qiao Ning chose yes, but after waiting a few seconds—
[The power gap between player Qiao Ning and the evolved Willow Tree is too large; by default, a special item will be used to compensate...]
[Insufficient items, failed to capture. Player Qiao Ning is advised to recognize her own limitations and not to overestimate her abilities.]
Qiao Ning was speechless. Could the dog even talk? It was clearly the dog that asked the question first.
Since she couldn't subdue it, Qiao Ning didn't want to waste time on it. She had spent seven hours clearing two jungle areas today, and she still had to go out and drive around looking for supply boxes.
This time, when she was about to leave, she was not ambushed again. Before leaving the variegated plant field, Qiao Ning looked back and saw that the big willow tree was swaying its branches, as if it was saying "goodbye" to her.
Qiao Ning suddenly understood how beautifully He Zhizhang described the willow in his poem "Ode to the Willow," with its line "Ten thousand green silk threads hanging down like crimson silk."
After leaving the wilderness area, Qiao Ning returned to her car around 5 p.m.
There are still three hours until dark.
After a long day, Qiao Ning didn't feel like cooking, so she simply ate the fresh boxed lunches that were readily available in the storage box.
She sent the boxed lunches and juice to Li Yangxing and Yuan Heng, and then saw that Pei Jing had come out of the wilderness area and was posting sales information in the chat channel, so she opened the chat window with her.
Qiao Ning: "Do you have any extra radiated beast meat? I'll take as much as you have, and you can trade it for anything you want."
"I caught a few wild beast cubs today, including birds, pigs, snakes, leopards, and rabbits. I haven't tamed them yet. Do you need any? If so, I can trade you a few. Attached: Photos of the cubs."
Qiao Ning copied and pasted the same message to Li Yangxing, Yuan Heng, and Miao Qinghe.
They replied quickly, as if they had planned it in advance, sending messages at the same time, and each of them had their eye on different cubs.
It's not surprising, considering the three of them have different personalities and preferences, so it's normal that they would have different preferences for the same cub.
Li Yangxing: [Sister Qiao, I've got my eye on a big rabbit! In the real world, I've raised rabbits before, working tirelessly year-round, updating daily with exclusive content. Unfortunately, I'm a pet killer; my rabbit died quickly… Pets in the game world shouldn't die so easily, right? Is my pet dream finally going to come true?!]
Pet killer… Qiao Ning seemed to understand why the cubs were so resolute in their attempts to capture them.
Qiao Ning: "There's a failure rate when trying to tame a cub. You'll lose the chance to tame it completely after a maximum of five failures. If you really fail, just mail the cub back to me, and I can sell it to someone else. Just don't kill it."
Li Yangxing: [Okay, I'll definitely treat it gently! Sister Qiao, do you need any supplies? Let me know, and I'll trade you some supplies for the cub.]
Qiao Ning really doesn't lack supplies.
There is no shortage of any kind of supplies.
"You can trade me Dark Stone Fragments. Giant Rabbit Cubs are relatively easy to obtain and have low value. Just give me two Dark Stone Fragments."
Darkstone Shards are only awarded as a reward of one or two when an entire Radiated Wild Area is cleared. With just over 50,000 players remaining in the entire server, there are probably fewer than a few hundred players who can clear an entire Radiated Wild Area on their own.
Qiao Ning's trading partners are actually quite limited.
Li Yangxing readily agreed: "Okay, I'll send it to you right away."
After receiving two Dark Stone Fragments, Qiao Ning sent a giant rabbit cub via email.
You can send live creatures via mail, but each time you send a live creature, both the sender and receiver have to pay 100 experience points.
This amount of experience points was negligible for the two of them.
Yuan Heng had his eye on the cloud-patterned black panther cub. He had a pet contract scroll with an 80% success rate in taming it. With such a high probability, it should work.
When it came time to pay, the original agreement was for 4 Dark Stone Fragments plus a Beast Taming Bag, but Yuan Heng gave me an extra 4 Dark Stone Fragments.
This cub is excellent and worth the price. Thank you!
Qiao Ning also thought the cloud-patterned black panther cub was good; it would definitely be a good helper in battle when it grew up. If she didn't already have Fatty Tiger, she would have kept the big cat for herself.
Fat Tiger was the name Qiao Ning gave to the iron-eating beast, and Green Vine was called Green Pearl.
Miao Qinghe's choice was a bit unexpected for Qiao Ning. She didn't expect that this seemingly gentle and good-tempered girl would be so daring. She chose the giant anaconda's egg!
This mutated anaconda is not only enormous, but it also has two heads, and when it opens its mouth, the vertical distance between them is greater than that between a human.
Qiao Ning isn't afraid of mice, moths, cockroaches, or spiders, but she's a little afraid of snakes. This fear stems from the trauma of being bitten by a snake and suffering from its venom when she was a child.
Now, when I enter the game, I often encounter snake-like monsters, so I'm not so afraid of snakes anymore.
But when she saw the giant anaconda with two heads, she couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine.
Miao Qinghe is a true warrior!
The Giant Anaconda costs 4 Dark Stone Fragments.
Pei Jing was the last one who hadn't made a choice yet; she had been busy and hadn't replied in time.
Currently, only the Golden-spined Boar and the Giant Rabbit remain.
Pei Jing has a newly tamed silver wolf cub named Little Grey, so she might not necessarily want either of these two pet cubs.
About twenty minutes later, Pei Jing sent a message.
She first apologized for not being able to reply promptly due to the sudden encounter with the treasure-guarding monster, then said: "I just asked my little Grey if it wanted a younger sibling, and it disagreed. Oh well, silver wolf pups have a terrifying appetite; I'm already struggling to care for just one, so I'm not considering getting a second pet for now."
[I have a few sisters who have been with me since the last natural disaster, and they want to buy it. Qiaoqiao, do you think you can sell it?]
It doesn't matter who she sells it to, and it saves Qiao Ning the trouble of finding someone to sell it to herself.
"Okay, I'll mail it to you directly, and you can distribute them privately."
The Golden Spiked Boar yields 3 Dark Stone Fragments, the Giant Rabbit yields 2 Dark Stone Fragments, and there is 1 Golden Spiked Boar and 4 Giant Rabbits remaining, for a total of 11 Dark Stone Fragments.
After receiving the fragments, Qiao Ning sent all the cubs over at once.
Looking at the 33 Dark Stone Fragments in her backpack, Qiao Ning was satisfied.
When she tamed the Great Willow Tree before, the system said that the gap between her and the Great Willow Tree was too large, and she needed to use special items to make up for it.
It did not specify what this special item was.
Qiao Ning suspected that the Dark Stone Fragment was the one that could fill this gap.
Of course, this is just her speculation, and it's unclear whether it's correct.
Qiao Ning encountered seven supply boxes in three hours. Most of the supplies she found inside were daily necessities and fresh food, followed by medicines. She already had all of these, so she counted them and casually put them into her storage box.
Just as Qiao Ning finished organizing her supplies and was about to find a movie to relax, she received a sad-face emoji from Li Yangxing.
[Sister Qiao, I'm desperate! Five times! I've tried to subdue it five times and failed each time!]
[But thankfully, Heng Ge was there to share my misfortune. He tried three times and even used up three pet contract scrolls without success, hahaha.]
Qiao Ningxin said, "Could you laugh a little quieter? I could hear you through the screen."
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