Chapter 182: Desert Giant Worm |
The message was delivered in the afternoon, and by evening, intelligence had arrived.
In the northern part of the eastern sand dunes, someone had spotted traces of the Desert Giant Worm.
That night, Qin Ziwen led the vehicle-mounted crossbow and the team to the destination, but they did not manage to ambush the Desert Giant Worm.
The next day, Qin Ziwen continued to go to the destination to lie in wait.
Several days passed in succession, and the dust in the air had decreased considerably compared to before.
The scorching white sun blazed overhead, and the wind blowing in carried warmth.
After lying in wait all morning, finally, the Desert Giant Worm surfaced.
Sand and dust churned as a giant beast appeared here.
But this time, the Desert Giant Worm did not emerge directly like the previous two. Instead, it stopped within the sand dune, only exposing a small portion of its head, vigilantly observing the outside.
Qin Ziwen shook his head. "A beast is a beast after all. It won't be able to hold out for long."
As soon as the words left his mouth, after observing for a few minutes, this Desert Giant Worm finally couldn't restrain itself and slowly emerged from the sand dune.
Then it crawled towards the bait outside.
It opened its chrysanthemum-shaped mouthparts and slowly swallowed the prey into its throat.
What it failed to notice was that inside the prey's body, there was a chain extending outwards from the prey's anus, with the other end tied to a large rock not far away.
The Desert Giant Worm swallowed the prey and lay quietly in place. It was secreting a paralyzing liquid to anesthetize the prey.
Even though this prey appeared to be dead, there were too many animals on the Gobi skilled at feigning death and camouflage, so it wouldn't let its guard down.
It just found it strange that a group of humans was standing not far away.
It had eaten two of them not long ago; the taste wasn't very good.
But it wasn't picky.
"Thud!"
The Desert Giant Worm's eardrums suddenly heard a low, muffled sound.
The next second, its head exploded.
Although it wasn't the first time seeing this scene, Luo Gang still felt somewhat emotional. "When will your vehicle-mounted crossbows from the rear be ready?"
"In two more days."
"ROAR!!!"
Suddenly, an earth-shaking roar came from the side.
In this open plain, it was like a thunderclap.
Everyone's faces changed in alarm as they looked towards the direction of the sound.
A huge, enormous dinosaur was jogging towards them from the mouth of a valley.
"Tarbosaurus."
Cao Biansheng's breath hitched.
This Tarbosaurus was heading straight for them.
It was a behemoth fifteen meters long and weighing over seven tons. Its appearance was extremely similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex known to mankind.
This monster was very tall. Their long spears would have difficulty piercing its head or heart; they could only hit its feet. But unfortunately, with the Tarbosaurus's body structure, to hit its feet, they would have to walk under its belly.
"Go!" Luo Gang urged.
Qin Ziwen said decisively, "Retreat!"
"Wait, wait." Cao Biansheng's forehead was sweating. He watched the approaching Tarbosaurus, then turned and reloaded the crossbow bolt, aiming it at the Desert Giant Worm!
"It's just the final blow. Captain, you go first!" Cao Biansheng muttered.
"I absolutely cannot let this damn Tarbosaurus steal my kill." He was about to complete the Level 2 task and was unwilling to retreat like this.
He heavily triggered the mechanism.
"Whoosh!"
The giant crossbow bolt shot out like an arrow from a bowstring, striking the Desert Giant Worm heavily.
The Desert Giant Worm's body trembled violently.
Then, a large number of small white light points burst forth from its body surface, condensing into two cards on it.
"Hahahaha." Amidst his wild laughter, Cao Biansheng was yanked away by Qin Ziwen.
The Tarbosaurus that had charged over from the east side paused for a moment upon seeing the Desert Giant Worm. It turned its head to glance at these humans, a cunning glint flashing in its eyes.
Finally, it walked up to the Desert Giant Worm, extended its forelimb, pried open its head, and then stuck its snout inside.
It didn't directly bite. Instead, it pressed its huge nostrils tightly against the opening, sniffing deeply and forcefully.
"..."
A low, satisfied whimper, completely different from its previous roar, rumbled from deep within its throat.
It seemed to feel this wasn't enough. It actually extended its rough tongue and, as if savoring a peerless delicacy, greedily licked every inch of the giant worm's cranial cavity.
Watching this scene from afar, everyone felt a chill of disgust.
"What is it doing?"
"Is the worm's brain that good to sniff?" Qin Ziwu murmured to himself.
Wang Yun guessed, "Could it be sniffing the paralyzing liquid inside the giant worm's head? Like how some dogs like to lick toads."
"Withdraw first." Qin Ziwen glanced at the vehicle-mounted crossbow.
This thing was very heavy. Although it could be pushed away, the Tarbosaurus was right next to it.
They could only temporarily abandon it here.
Qin Ziwen took two steps back, his expression changing uncertainly.
Just as the last Desert Giant Worm died.
He received a prompt.
[Complete Hunting Ladder Level 2 Task? Hunt Adult Desert Giant Worm *3]
[Reward Obtained: Human Constitution Enhancement Card (One Star), 4 Points]
[Challenge Task Completed, Current Progress 1/10]
[Honorable Level 3 Authority Resident, you have obtained partial information about the next stage map]
[Next Stage Map: Island]
[Next Stage Stay Duration: 45 Days]
[Next Stage Supplemental Personnel: None]
[Next Stage Type: Competition]
The next stage actually wouldn't add personnel anymore, and the type had changed to competition mode.
This stage's challenge was the Hunting Ladder challenge against giant beasts. Was the next stage's competition between complexes within the same residential complex, or was it cross-complex competition?
Pulling his thoughts back, the matter of the next stage map was still far off for them. The main task now was to first figure out how to complete ten hunting tasks.
It was already the tenth day since crossing over to the Gobi Desert.
Only one task out of ten was completed.
They needed to speed up the progress.
Everyone retreated several hundred meters, watching the distant Tarbosaurus.
After sniffing for quite a while, the Tarbosaurus shook its head unsteadily and stood up. Swinging its thick tail, it walked back into the canyon.
Only after it had gone far away did Qin Ziwen return to the Desert Giant Worm's corpse, first retrieving the two cards.
He discovered that with the same type of beast, after hunting it too many times, the rewards would decrease.
In the evening, Zou Jianghe brought important news.
They had discovered a Desert Raptor on a cliff wall to the east, but this Desert Raptor was larger than any individual they had encountered before.
It should belong to a leader-level or alpha-level individual within its species.
"Is this the target? Should we change to another one?" Qin Ziwen suggested.
Du Yu shook his head. "Master, tomorrow is the last day. We might not necessarily find a suitable target again. At least compared to that Tarbosaurus, it's more suitable."
"Mm." Qin Ziwen nodded. At least in a fight against this Desert Raptor leader, Du Yu still had a chance of winning. If it were against the Tarbosaurus... the chance of victory would be infinitely close to zero.