Chapter 35 - 31: The Tattooed Big Yellow Eel
A thought crossed his mind, and the Recruitment Card appeared in his palm.
The Recruitment Card was made of neither gold nor jade, yet it felt warm and smooth to the touch. Its back was a deep purple, and the front featured a three-dimensional, highly intimidating image of an adult Beaked Eagle.
The moment he held the Card, he understood how to use it.
He just needed to aim it at an empty space to summon the unit within. Once summoned, it could not be returned to the Card.
The recruited unit was a real, living being, possessing all the physiological needs and instincts of its species. It would get hungry, tired, injured, and sick. It would age and experience natural emotions like fear, joy, and irritation.
Recruited units also had a loyalty rating. The initial loyalty was 60 (Obedient).
If its loyalty dropped too low, the recruited unit couldn’t harm the Lord of the Homeland, but it would shirk its duties, refuse to follow commands, and might even flee in the face of danger.
As the Recruiter, he could also sense the simple emotions of his non-human recruits.
(Image: Beaked Eagle)
A Beaked Eagle...
Before today, this was an animal Qin Ziwen was largely unfamiliar with. All he really knew was that it was a bird of prey.
He only knew what it looked like from the picture on the Card.
Judging from the picture alone, it looked fairly large.
But he had no idea just how big it was.
He wondered about the Beaked Eagle’s combat prowess. Could it defeat an adult who wasn’t carrying a firearm?
If it was small, letting it fly out the window wouldn’t be a big problem. One side of his apartment faced the western outer wall of the Gated Community. The bats from the first day had clung to the glass on that very window.
But if it was large, there’d be no way to hide the noise of its movements.
After much consideration, Qin Ziwen decided to put the matter aside for now and see how things developed.
Besides, it was an ace up his sleeve—a flying unit he could summon instantly in a crisis.
As for the other three Earth Cages, they were an unexpected bonus.
He could keep the new Earth Cages as spares or set them up somewhere a bit farther away.
Downstairs, Deng Guang was nagging him relentlessly.
"Hurry up, let’s go check."
"What if we’re too late and someone else took them?"
"I’m telling you, the spot I picked yesterday was perfect! The Earth Cages are gonna be overflowing today, guaranteed!"
Deng Guang chattered nonstop the entire way.
It was clear he was truly passionate about it.
When they reached the spot where they’d set the Earth Cages yesterday, Qin Ziwen hooked the rope and pulled, lifting the cage from the water.
The moment the first cage was lifted, he saw many things wriggling inside, splashing noisily.
SPLASH~
𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Qin Ziwen was overjoyed. The resources in this untouched river were truly abundant.
He dragged the Earth Cage onto the bank, took out his flashlight, set it to the lowest brightness, and shone it on the trap.
"Whoa, are these loaches? They’re so fat."
In the top compartment were four huge, fat loaches.
The second compartment held some bitterlings. They weren’t big, but they were very active, flopping around ceaselessly now that they were out of the water.
The third compartment was empty.
In the fourth compartment were a few transparent marsh shrimp.
"Hurry and check the second one."
Qin Ziwen picked up the second Earth Cage.
"Holy shit!"
With a SPLASH, the Earth Cage fell back into the water.
Deng Guang was startled. "What’s wrong?"
Qin Ziwen’s face was stiff. "There’s a big eel."
"What’s there to be afraid of? Eels don’t bite." Deng Guang paused, then asked tentatively, "It’s not one of the... tattooed ones, is it?"
"It is."
Deng Guang’s expression changed, and he gulped.
He then tiptoed over and gingerly picked up the second Earth Cage.
Inside the Earth Cage, a large, coiled, brown-patterned "eel" was staring coldly at Deng Guang with its triangular head.
"Holy shit!"
Deng Guang’s hand went slack. SPLASH~
The Earth Cage fell back into the water a second time.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, being suddenly stared down by such a thick, triangular-headed creature still made his heart pound with fear.
"That thing has a triangular head!"
Qin Ziwen looked at him. "Do you recognize it?"
"It looks a bit like a Spearhead viper."
Qin Ziwen nodded. "So it’s a Spearhead viper..."
The two fell silent again.
Deng Guang said, "If we don’t deal with this thing, the Earth Cage is a goner. Of course, it might find a way to escape on its own after a while."
Qin Ziwen said grimly, "With it here, would you still dare to set traps in this spot? The fact that it got caught means this is its hunting ground. What if next time we come, it’s not in the cage?"
At this thought, they exchanged a look of understanding. They knew they had to find a way to deal with this Spearhead viper.
Carefully dragging the second Earth Cage back onto the bank, Qin Ziwen told his brother to stand back.
He then picked up a stick, but Deng Guang stopped him.
"Don’t hit it directly. This Earth Cage might not be sturdy enough. If you break the edge of the cage, it could escape through the gap. You can tell this thing has a nasty temper just by looking at it."
"Then what should we do?"
"Let me try first." Deng Guang took a deep breath. The Spearhead viper was in the cage’s second compartment.
The space inside wasn’t very large, and it was coiled up tightly.
Sensing the humans approach, it grew more agitated, its head swaying from side to side.
Deng Guang first slowly stretched out the Earth Cage, then placed two rocks on top of the first and third compartments, effectively pinning the second one in the middle.
This way, the cage wouldn’t spring up even if they dropped something on it.
Qin Ziwen understood Deng Guang’s logic.
"I’ll do it."
He brought over a rock and dropped it from directly above the Earth Cage, letting it fall onto the Spearhead viper.
The huge rock crushed it, pressing the air from its body.
Its exposed tail thrashed wildly.
Qin Ziwen found more rocks nearby. As he piled them on, the Spearhead viper’s movements went from violent thrashing to gradually stiffening.
Finally, its tail hadn’t moved for several minutes.
Qin Ziwu had been watching the whole time with a furrowed brow, tense. "Is it dead?"
"I don’t know. Snakes have very strong Life Energy. I think we should wait a bit longer," Qin Ziwen said. Seeing the Spearhead viper pinned down, he was no longer in a hurry.
Deng Guang sounded regretful. "What a shame. This Earth Cage is probably ruined. I can see it’s bent in a lot of places."
"It’s fine. A broken cage can be fixed." Qin Ziwen shook his head. Compared to one cage, he felt the reward for killing a Spearhead viper would be greater.
He just wondered how the daily settlement would rate the kill of such a venomous snake.
If it was calculated by weight, the score wouldn’t be high. But if it was based on threat and lethality, the Spearhead viper’s score would definitely not be low.
The two of them emptied the catch from the first cage into a bucket and covered it with a cloth.
They stood beside the second Earth Cage for a long time, watching the crushed snake. After ten minutes, they pushed the rocks off.
The Spearhead viper’s head and body inside the Earth Cage were completely flattened.
The edges of the Earth Cage were inevitably damaged as well; the frame connecting several compartments had been bent out of shape.
Still uneasy, Qin Ziwen poked it with the stick for a while. Once he confirmed it couldn’t move, he grabbed a corner of the Earth Cage and shook it out.
The Spearhead viper flopped onto the ground like a pile of mangled flesh.
After all was said and done, Qin Ziwen finally felt a sense of relief. From crocodiles to tigerfish, and now a Spearhead viper, this river was like a treasure trove. You never knew what surprising little creature it would spawn for you next.
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