Clenching the spear tightly in his right hand, Chang had the urge to hunt as if he was a cheetah hiding behind the grass. He was waiting quietly and patiently until the moment his prey lowered its guard.
This time he was lucky that he only had been lurking in the bushes for a while before he found a good opportunity – two wolfhounds were playing around and they both turned away, exposing their backs and black thick tails to Chang.
“A good hunter knows how to lurk, but what he knows better is to seize every fleeting opportunity he has to attack.”
In this moment, Qing Shui’s words flashed across Chang’s mind; without any hesitation, he took advantage of this perfect opportunity and carefully and swiftly moved forward towards his prey, and then shouted. He pushed off his legs like a hound to reach his greatest speed.
“Hah!” The wolfhounds were startled by the aggressive roar and turned to Chang at the same time with their tails tucked between their legs. Surprisingly, they didn't run away – it was a natural response for animals. They were shocked and frozen by the sudden threat.
The shout also granted Chang a perfect chance. Jumping up high widened his vision, so he chose the stout wolfhound and pierced through it with his spear from top to bottom.
This action made a muffled sound; it was an attack with all his strength, so the spear poked through its skin and penetrated its organs and finally broke through the skin on the other side of its stomach. The wolfhound was firmly nailed to the ground as the tip of the spear deeply thrust into the ground.
“WOOOO!!” The wolfhound screeched and instinctively began to struggle furiously. Despite blood spurting from its mouth, it still tried to bite Chang’s ankle.
This kind of desperate struggle was part of an animal’s natural instinct. Chang immediately jumped back and left the wounded wolfhound where it was. Chang took out the scalpels from his back pocket and turned to the other wolfhound.
“Arf! Arf!” The unwounded wolfhound didn’t go away as it saw Chang back off. It didn't attack Chang either, but it barked loudly as if that threatening tone would scare Chang away.
However, Chang wasn’t affected by its barking as he knew he could hunt this wolfhound too. His fingers rubbed on the handle as he was figuring out a safe way to capture the weaker wolfhound.
As if the wolfhound knew what Chang was thinking, it made a quick glance at its companion and fled after a few long threatening barks. Chang was surprised that it abandoned its partner, which meant that this probably wasn’t the dog’s habitat. However, the hunger stopped him from thinking further. Even if he was able to kill the other one, the extra meat would easily rot in this hot weather and with the evolving bacteria. It would only take two or three hours for the meat to rot.
The wolfhound he got weighed about 100 pounds; it was absolutely more than enough for the five of them.
Therefore, Chang was delighted from the bottom of his heart. The desire for meat had temporarily occupied his mind. He walked up to the wolfhound that was nailed to the ground and impatiently stabbed the dog with his scalpel into its neck.
One, two… after 30 seconds, the dog died from excessive blood loss; the blood spurted out from its artery and coated Chang’s sleeve.
After he finished that, Qing Shui, with Jing on his back, rushed to the scene.
“Jing just told me that a living being, which wasn’t you left her perception range; with the signal of the other organism suddenly disappearing, I knew you succeeded.” Qing Shui put down Jing and took out a giant garbage bag from his backpack. He then took Chang’s scalpel and said, “Give me your scalpel, I’ll dissect this beast. You can put the meat in the plastic bag, and be careful not to get more blood on your body.”
“Okay.” Chang opened the garbage bag and looked at how Qing Shui skillfully dismembered the wolfhound into chunks of flesh. The whole process was short, and what was even more amazing was that the way he cut the wolfhound kept the blood from oozing.
“Bag them quickly; the smell of blood is too strong and I’m afraid that it will attract danger.” Qing Shui wiped off the sweat on his forehead by lightly pressed his sleeve on it.
“Will do.” Chang was deeply amazed by his technique. He stuck those pieces into the black garbage bag – if he were to put everything into the bag, it would be too heavy for them to carry. Chang had a hard time choosing which piece to take, and once he finished, the backpack was stuffed with the meat Qing Shui cut.
“Alright, come on!” Chang “cleaned” himself with some plant juice that he squeezed from the plants around him, and then picked up the spear and let Jing lay on his back. The trio left the scene with hearts filled with joy.
“I didn’t expect such a harvest today.” On the way to the base, Qing Shui, Chang and Jing were so excited that they finally laughed for the first time since the red fog appeared.
“It was lucky for us.” Qing Shui said. “I wasn't expecting such a success in the first hunt with you either. However, the meat is too much for us, and honestly, we can’t eat too much right now, since we have been starving for days. A sudden large consumption will easily make us sick.”
“But if we don’t eat it, it will perish in two or three hours.” Chang felt pity for the amount of food that would go to waste.
“Well…we don’t have access to a refrigerator or something that can keep it longer. How about this, let’s try to trade some of the meat with the military for hardtack. The crackers can last longer than the meats. Plus, the military must be starving too. With the amount of soldiers they have, they definitely won't mind doing business with us.” As Qing Shui spoke, he lightly pinched his chin.
“But if we were to trade with them, they’ll probably interrogate us, won’t they? It could be troublesome and risky.” As an ordinary person, he didn't like to deal with the authorities – he would likely suffer losses as the military was in control of the shelter and safety; they were still relying on the military for providing a place to stay.
“I’ll try to avoid any trouble that might come up…” Qing Shui fell in silence as he dropped his voice. Apparently, he was wondering how to avoid trouble.
The three stopped talking. Their pace to the base was fast. When they got closer to the base, Jing suddenly sprang up.
“Chang!!!! Something is coming for us and… and they’re extremely fast! One is level 8 and… a level 1 is following it.” Jing hastily finished reporting this startling information. Both Chang and Qing Shui’s heart sunk; they wanted to run faster so that they could get into the base. But as she finished speaking, Chang heard a noise come from the bushes behind them.
How fast can a person run 100 meters? Before the apocalypse, there were people who could run the distance in 10 seconds, so now people could definitely do it.
But how fast could a dog run? It wouldn't be a surprise that most of them could run that distance within 10 seconds; with the possible mutations and evolution, it made perfect sense that their current speed could reach 5 or 6 seconds per 100 meters.
Therefore, at the same moment that the muscle on Chang’s leg contracted when he ran his first step, a dark shadow flew over his head; a gigantic wolfhound steadily landed in front of him after leaping from his back.
The path to the base was blocked. Chang immediately stopped so that he wouldn't run into it, and then he raised the spear and carefully scanned his enemy.
It was a giant dog.
But how giant was it actually?
It stood on four limbs and was bigger than the bears in the forest. Perhaps dogs were usually bigger than cats, but this dog was even bigger than the white cat they previously ran into. Its face was grim and its limbs were stout. The dog showed its anger by growling deeply; its teeth were exposed in the air and every single tooth was as long as Chang’s finger.
From a single glance, Chang knew that if he were to fight against this dog – he would be torn apart!