Chapter 662 - 9: Divergence (Part 2)
"The next action will be arranged by Chen Zhou."
At present, Chen Zhou did not make any irrational decisions, nor did he cause them any loss. Instead, he stepped forward and saved him in the face of the cave hyena hazard. He should not continue insisting on his own ideas for both emotional and logical reasons.
"But I think that if we take on more pressure to raise them, we will have a greater advantage in confronting other challengers in the future.
Apart from us, no one else should be raising predators as aides.
Even if someone is raising them, they wouldn’t choose large carnivores like saw-toothed tigers, at most a few cave hyenas.
Moreover, even if they want to raise them, they probably can’t find these serrated tiger cubs at such a perfect age for training, just weaned off milk and ready to eat meat. I think this is a rare opportunity.
As for the food issue you mentioned, I think it’s only challenging initially. Once they grow up and cooperate in hunting under our instructions, our speed in obtaining food will be several times that of others, and lack of food will never be a problem.
Furthermore, according to the challenge rules, special species from other continents have been added to the challenge areas, which increased the biological density of the challenge areas, making food acquisition simpler.
Therefore, no matter how I look at it, taming serrated tigers seems to be a relatively suitable choice..."
Paul saw Chen Zhou’s face grow more sullen as he spoke, and sensibly shut his mouth, waiting for Chen Zhou to reject his proposal.
"I admit your proposal has some merits. If saw-toothed tigers can be tamed, they could indeed assist in challenges once grown.
But haven’t you overlooked a problem—
The initial difficulties you brushed over lightly, how much pressure will these little things add to us, and who should bear this pressure?
Will you?
If you can guarantee finding adequate food to care for these four serrated tiger cubs without affecting my plan progress, then I have no objections.
If you want to shift the pressure onto me for your own personal preference, and expect me to be responsible for your idea together with you, then I’m sorry, I firmly oppose it.
That’s my opinion. I won’t force you to do anything, but I won’t support actions I deem irrational. It’s up to you to decide what to do next."
After saying this, Chen Zhou left Paul and walked up to higher ground.
He hoped Paul would make a wise decision rather than acting on impulse.
He doesn’t think raising animals is impossible, but believes raising saw-toothed tigers, as carnivores, is too pressuring.
After all, this mountain is full of grass and trees, and herbivores can easily find food, merely need to watch out while grazing. Even without grazing, they can be satisfied with some flowers and grass during exploration every day.
But carnivores are different.
Meat doesn’t grow from the ground, obtaining food requires time and effort, bearing the risk of competing with other beasts to complete the hunt.
Even a family of saw-toothed tigers disband due to this risk, let alone the two of them.
Other challengers are probably busily preparing to vie for supplies or building sufficiently solid semi-permanent shelters, and even unwilling fighters like the "shy turtle" party should be stocking food.
At such times, every second is critical, not allowed to waste on a few cubs.
...
Chen Zhou’s figure gradually disappeared behind a tree trunk, and Paul looked at the sleeping serrated tiger cub in his arms, gritted his teeth, crouched down and picked up the other two cubs from the cave entrance, wrapped them in his coat.
The three serrated tigers huddled together, the sleeping ones couldn’t sleep naturally, while the ones awake felt cramped, tumbling and biting into a ball.
Paul adjusted his big coat to prevent the cubs from escaping before rolling up his sleeves and preparing to pull the last serrated tiger cub from the cave.
Paul was tall and had long arms.
Unfortunately, the cave’s depth greatly exceeded his arms, and the last serrated tiger cub was much more timid than its siblings. After diving into the cave, it hid inside and refused to come out, no matter what Paul tried.
Without choice, Paul had to abandon that serrated tiger cub. He wrapped the other three cubs in his clothes and followed in Chen Zhou’s footsteps up the mountain.
As a carefully selected challenger by the empire and a soldier who completed brutal training, he had his pride. Since he made a choice, he wouldn’t drag anyone down.
As long as he could spare time and found opportunities, he would hunt every herbivore he saw and feed their meat to the three little ones until the cubs showed inclination to hunt outside and succeeded in their first hunt.
Paul could hardly say whether he stubbornly insisted on feeding the serrated tiger cubs because of personal preference or because he truly felt raising serrated tigers was more beneficial than harmful, or perhaps there might be an element of spite.
In any case, he quickened his pace, caught up with Chen Zhou, carrying the three tightly packed little serrated tigers.
As for the last one left in the cave, Paul could only silently wish it good luck.
Cruel nature won’t spare the little one’s life because of its cuteness or pitifulness.
Without parental protection, nor any adult to care, it wouldn’t take long before the little one starved to death or possibly be dug out by passing beasts sensitive to the scent and eaten.
That was its choice, and also its destiny. Paul knew the same fate might await the three serrated tiger cubs in his arms.
They temporarily parted ways and seemed to be on different paths, but the endpoint might be the same.
...
Before sunset, Chen Zhou still hadn’t found a place with an open view suitable for building a shelter.
But nearing the mountaintop, the trees are far sturdier than those on the grassland, and he luckily found a fallen tree, whose trunk formed an angle with the ground, just right for supporting tree branches to make a simple hut.
Moreover, there’s a snowmelt stream nearby for easy water access.
As dusk neared, Chen Zhou selected several dead trees in the forest as fuel, broke off some sturdy branches to lay them on the fallen trunk, making a simple nook.
Before long, he also prepared a fire pit dug from the ground and materials for starting a fire by friction.
While rubbing a stick to start the fire, Chen Zhou saw Paul approaching.
From afar, he already smelled the scent of the cubs wrapped in Paul’s clothes, but he didn’t say anything.
Paul was his partner, and also an independent person, and he respected Paul’s choices, while confident—
Based on his personal ability, Paul was unlikely to successfully raise these three cubs, feeding them enough meat alone would challenge Paul gravely, and it’s just a matter of time before the cubs would starve or freeze to death.
After realizing it’s infeasible, Paul would definitely return to their original path and work together with him to defeat other challengers.
Without talking to Paul, Chen Zhou focused on making a fire.
Paul felt a bit guilty for breaking their initial agreement, walked to the side of the fallen tree, placed the wrapped serrated tiger cubs on the ground, then snapped some nearby branches to form a simple fence around them to prevent them from crawling away.
Looking at the sky, it wasn’t very dark yet, so Paul walked over to Chen Zhou’s side, handed him the flint, alcohol, and other survival tools.
"I’m giving you all my survival tools, this time it’s my fault, I’ll trouble you to look after them, I’ll prepare food for them."
Saying so, Paul picked up two long spears and walked down the mountain.
Chen Zhou watched him leave, looked at the survival tools beside him, then at the serrated tiger cubs lying in various positions within the simple fence, and helplessly shook his head.
He really couldn’t understand why this Soviet was so stubborn about this aspect.