Chapter 204: Giant Beast Breeding Center |
On the hillside, everyone lay behind the hillock, peeking out with half their heads, watching the Tarbosaurus jog all the way back to its nest.
But just as it was about to return to the nest, the Tarbosaurus suddenly stopped.
It raised its head, nostrils flaring.
It looked around left and right, but in the end, it still returned to the nest, curling up into a ball and lying down in the center.
"Aim." Qin Ziwen said. Everyone raised their vehicle-mounted crossbows. The bolts had been loaded long before the Tarbosaurus arrived.
The direction had also been adjusted well in advance.
They only needed to wait for the guest of honor to take the stage.
Suddenly, the Tarbosaurus lifted its head.
Beneath its sunken eye sockets, its large, bright amber pupils stared directly at them.
"Fire!"
Eleven giant crossbow bolts, almost simultaneously, within a second of each other, struck the area where the Tarbosaurus was.
Nine missed.
Two hit.
One struck the Tarbosaurus's side, the other hit its tail.
In the distance, the Tarbosaurus's body shuddered. Then, struggling, it got up, let out a furious roar, and charged straight towards the group.
"Reload!"
They had anticipated this. While the Tarbosaurus was charging over, they began loading bolts.
In their haste, they were all thumbs, but just as the Tarbosaurus finished its mad dash to the foot of the hill, they finally finished loading.
"Don't be afraid, it's injured. Fire!"
At the foot of the hill, the Tarbosaurus, its movements becoming more and more distorted as it ran, looked up at the group. What greeted it was the second volley from the vehicle-mounted crossbows.
The Tarbosaurus's body jolted violently, as if struck by a heavy hammer.
The distance was closer this time, and a full five bolts found their mark.
One struck its neck squarely, splashing a large spray of blood.
Its head snapped backward, the momentum of its charge halting abruptly, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall.
Even so, it still didn't stop. Its frenzied body, like a tank plowing forward, carried an unstoppable momentum.
"Fall back!"
Du Yu shouted.
Everyone let go and scrambled backward.
The Tarbosaurus charged up to the hilltop in one breath. It was covered in blood, its scales stained red.
Standing atop the hill, looking down at the fleeing people, it raised its head to the sky and roared.
"ROAR!!!!"
The sound was filled with contempt, with dominance.
The resounding roar echoed across the Gobi for a long time.
Thud—
The Tarbosaurus, pierced by seven bolts, collapsed heavily.
It knocked over several crossbow carriages.
Even as it fell, it wasn't dead yet. It just stared with its eyes, gazing at the Gobi's azure blue sky.
At the foot of the hill, someone stared blankly at the fallen Tarbosaurus.
"Is it dead?"
"Probably not yet. A giant beast of this level would definitely drop cards if it died."
Everyone remained vigilant, slowly climbing to the hilltop.
The Tarbosaurus's body was still twitching unconsciously, its pupils unfocused, its mouth full of bloody froth. The blood had long since dyed the earth beneath it red.
Qin Ziwen found a crossbow carriage that hadn't been overturned.
He adjusted its direction, aiming it at the Tarbosaurus's head.
"BOOM!!!"
A bolt to the head. The Tarbosaurus, still struggling in agony, instantly stopped moving.
On the surface of its body, numerous white points of light coalesced.
One, two, three, four, five.
Five cards.
Qin Ziwen looked at the Tarbosaurus corpse, riddled with crossbow bolts, lying on the ground yet still exuding a lingering aura of power, and felt a sense of awe.
Looking across all land carnivores on Earth, from ancient times to the present, in the rankings of top predators, the Tarbosaurus, an apex predator of Asia capable of making the top ten, had died just like that.
It died at the hands of a large cold weapon crafted by the Terrifying Upright Ape.
...
In the residential complex, Zou Jianghe, Zhang Bo, and Huang Tao sat at the dining table.
"Guild Leader, this is a 2018 Petite Lafite. I managed to trade for it from someone with great difficulty. This stuff is one bottle less with every sip. As for the taste, I think it's in no way inferior to the '82 Lafite. After all, even the best wine needs the right person and the right place to bring out its most beautiful qualities." Huang Tao picked up the corkscrew, used the lever against the bottle's mouth, and gently pressed down.
Pop~
The cork was pulled out.
"Good wine should be drunk early. Otherwise, if time passes, there might not be a chance to drink it." Zhang Bo nodded in agreement.
"Yes, good wine should indeed be drunk early." Zou Jianghe sighed with feeling.
Huang Tao stood up to pour the wine. "Today is the Guild Leader's birthday. We must celebrate properly for the Guild Leader."
The three raised their glasses. "Cheers!"
The wine glasses clinked gently.
"Huh, I received a prompt from the Home. It says a new Hunting Ladder task has been completed. It seems Guild Leader Qin is quite fast." Zou Jianghe laughed heartily.
He summoned his Home, wanting to see which task had been completed.
Huang Tao said, "Congratulations, Guild Leader. A double blessing. It seems we have hope of completing the task before the end of the month."
"Guild Leader Qin's speed is still pretty quick, huh." Zhang Bo said with a chuckle.
Zou Jianghe, who was just about to drink, suddenly froze.
The expression on his face shifted from confusion, to surprise, then to a hint of an indescribable wariness.
Huang Tao was puzzled. "What's wrong?"
Zou Jianghe was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. "Tell me, just how difficult is this Level 2 task? Another Level 2 task was just completed. I remember it's only been 5 days, right?"
The air in the room grew still.
Huang Tao felt the red wine in his glass tasted somewhat sour and astringent. He gently swirled the glass, hesitating to drink.
Zhang Bo suddenly laughed. "This is a good thing. At least we don't have to stay in this desolate Gobi plain anymore. To be honest, if I had to stay here, it would be worse than killing me.
You've all seen that ruin to the northwest, right? Rather than staying here waiting to die slowly, it's better to take a gamble. Wouldn't you say?"
...
"Yes, boss! There really was something in the Tarbosaurus's nest!" Li Yue and Cao Biansheng, each holding an egg the size of an American football, came running over from the direction of the Tarbosaurus nest.
The egg on the left was brownish-purple, its surface covered in beige speckles.
The egg on the right was pure black, with dark red cloud-like patterns on its surface.
"What a coincidence." Qin Ziwen extended his right hand. Among the five cards dropped by the Tarbosaurus, there just happened to be an Advanced Building Card—[Giant Beast Breeding Center].
Seeing the card in Qin Ziwen's hand, Li Yue asked curiously, "Boss, what kind of card is that?"
"Giant Beast Breeding Center."
Hearing that name made Li Yue's eyes light up.
"Doesn't that mean we can raise Tarbosauruses too!?"
He thought of the scene just now when the Tarbosaurus charged. If they hadn't set up the vehicle-mounted crossbows in advance, if they had encountered the Tarbosaurus in a wild skirmish, the outcome might have been completely different.
Moreover, a tamed Tarbosaurus could be outfitted with external armor. At that point, even vehicle-mounted crossbows might not be able to pose much of a threat to it.
"Probably, yes." Qin Ziwen nodded. "Originally, I was still thinking about where to get some giant beasts to raise. Were there only two eggs in its nest?"
Mentioning this, Li Yue looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Ahem... There were originally a few more, but they were accidentally smashed by a mysterious crossbow bolt that flew in from who knows where... By the way, if only half the yolk is left, can it still hatch?"
...
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