Chapter 174: Animal Abnormality |
Night fell, the sky outside studded with stars.
The Gobi’s night sky was even more dazzling than the forest’s.
Moonlight poured over the Gobi plain.
But tonight, above the residential complex, black shadows darted wildly, and the sky filled with the thunderous cries of pterosaurs.
Those sounds disturbed countless people’s sleep.
“Annoying as hell, can they stop? It’s the middle of the night, constantly screeching outside the window.”
Having just gained the extreme physique and feeling excited, Qin Ziwu had stayed up late and finally fell asleep in bed, only to be woken by the ruckus of pterosaurs outside.
He climbed out of bed and went into the living room, where he saw his elder brother standing on the balcony.
“Bro, you’re still awake?”
The pterosaurs were acting strangely tonight. Then again, maybe it was because they had only recently transmigrated here and weren’t familiar with pterosaur behavior.
The sky overhead was packed with pterosaurs, and they emitted ear-piercing noise.
These creatures didn’t weigh much, but they were loud, like giant trumpets of the wilderness.
Especially in the open plains, thousands of pterosaurs roaring all through the night was a disaster.
Two pterosaurs noticed the two on the balcony and dove toward them.
“Big brother, watch out!” Qin Ziwu grabbed his brother and pulled him back.
“It’s fine.” Qin Ziwen had barely finished speaking when a pterosaur slammed into the balcony, as if it had hit a wall of air.
With a smack, it stuck to the surface and then slid down the transparent air barrier outside the balcony.
Another pterosaur sensed something wrong but couldn’t stop in time, “smack!”
It too hit the air barrier and slowly fell.
“What is this!” Qin Ziwu was stunned. He reached out to touch and found a layer of transparent obstruction along the balcony railing. “An air wall?”
“No.” Qin Ziwen shook his head. It was the Home’s Safe House function.
Once activated, outsiders could neither enter nor leave the Home; even windows and balconies would have an invincible transparent air barrier.
After two of the creatures had slammed into it, the rest learned not to crash into that spot anymore.
They flew toward other balconies in the complex instead.
“Smash—”
Glass shattered.
Soon the complex echoed with pterosaur cries and human shouts.
Qin Ziwen frowned. “These things are mad. Xiao Wu, take people and notify the others in our building.”
“Got it.” Qin Ziwu hurried out.
In fact, most residents in the complex had been woken by the racket. Many hid behind windows and balconies to watch.
Occasionally some pterosaurs landed in the middle of it all.
This commotion went on until after two in the morning before it gradually dispersed.
The pterosaurs flew eastward.
When people woke the next day and did a tally, six residents had been injured the previous night: four had only light scratches, one had been frightened awake and run into a wall, getting a big bump on his head, and one unlucky person had been clawed deeply, almost damaging tendons.
At the same time, six pterosaur carcasses had appeared in the complex, two of them even retrieved from beneath Building 8.
This abnormal atmosphere cast a shadow over the complex.
The last time something like this had happened was when swarms of lizards moved upstream through the forest and drew the giant toad’s arrival.
This time, the pterosaurs suddenly going berserk clearly felt unusual.
Qin Ziwen went to the balcony and took out a newly made small backpack for the Crowned Eagle—this was the third one. As the Crowned Eagle grew larger, the need for a small pack grew as well.
Using newly traded cloth, an old pair of jeans, and some leather, he had sewn a fresh little chest pack. It was just the right size to fit the eagle’s body, hung a bit below its neck, and from afar looked like a decorative necklace.
He put his phone inside, then sent the Crowned Eagle up to film.
After circling the sky a few times, the eagle landed.
Qin Ziwen took out the phone and checked the recorded video.
This time he discovered some clues.
First, many pterosaurs had been living on the rock pillars and cliff tops on the west side of the complex.
But in the footage, the number of pterosaurs was very sparse now—only twenty or thirty remained.
Roughly more than half were gone.
Besides that, the recording captured traces of two animal groups moving toward their direction.
Qin Ziwen immediately called everyone together. “Two animal herds are heading toward us. Because of the filming altitude they look far away; I can’t tell exactly what animals they are.”
He handed the phone to the others; the distance made the video a bit blurry.
“Too far away, can’t see clearly.” The others shook their heads.
Qin Ziwen said, “No matter. Continue work today. You guys go east; Du Yu and I will go south.”
“Captain, why are you going south? Take us with you,” they protested.
“Yeah, come with us. If you two go alone and run into a large group of beasts, it’s too dangerous.” Yuan Ming and the others chimed in.
Qin Ziwen planned to place a node in the southern rift.
Although the node was a one-way passage, only allowing travel from the Home to the node area, it would still cut the trip distance roughly in half. Fetching cards each day would save almost half the travel time.
It was also closer to the water resource point, making guild water collection more convenient.
After sending someone to tell Luo Gang, he led the team south. Before nine in the morning they reached the altar. That day the altar refreshed an ordinary Building Card: Fermented Wine Cellar.
The card was a bit mediocre, but better than nothing; during settlement it could still pull up decent points.
Qin Ziwen then set up the node within the rift.
An oval light curtain formed, like a door opening out of the void, materializing from nothing.
A group behind him stood agape. Yuan Ming exclaimed, “Guild Leader, what is that?”
“A node. You can think of it as a one-way wormhole. From now on, when you come here you can save half the round-trip distance via the node.” Qin Ziwen explained succinctly.
Those who understood wormholes gasped and showed delight. They had already joined the Qin Alliance; the stronger the guild, the more they benefited. Everyone wanted the guild to grow more powerful.
Du Yu and Yang Cunshen may not have heard of wormholes before, but they understood the idea of saving half the journey.
“This has great strategic value!” Du Yu was excited.
Yang Cunshen said, “If a battle breaks out, you can use the node to go around and strike the enemy from behind unexpectedly.”
“You can use it that way.” Qin Ziwen agreed, then paused. “I originally planned to share the node with the guild’s Ordinary Members so they could save half their trips when collecting water.”
Yang Cunshen replied, “No need. This place isn’t that far, and if it’s public the node can’t be hidden. Once exposed, surprise attacks become very difficult.”
Du Yu also thought such a strategic asset should be kept secret for now, at least until a better alternative appeared. “Master, a wise man keeps his tools hidden and waits for the right time to act.”