Chapter 16 Encountering a Giant Bear!
Roughly pushing Andrea away, Ling Feng exerted force with his legs, stepping on the slippery fallen leaves and sprinting desperately toward the upper slope.
He casually shoved the machete in his hand back into his lower back, and smoothly pulled the M200 down from his back. At a time like this, hitting a large beast's skull with a nine-millimeter caliber like the glock pistol was no different from scratching an itch.
Plowing through the last patch of dense bushes, Ling Feng's vision suddenly opened up.
"Roar—!"
A strong, foul stench mixed with the beast's unique roar rushed right at them, making people's eardrums ache.
In the open space less than twenty meters ahead, an exaggeratedly large grayish-brown wild bear was standing upright on its hind legs.
That massive body was a good two meters tall, its whole body's fur standing on end like steel needles, and its thick forelimbs waving randomly in the air, creating a strong visual sense of oppression.
And less than five meters directly in front of the giant bear, Amy was sitting collapsed in the mud.
The canvas bag that the little girl had originally been holding in her hand had long since fallen aside, and the freshly picked wild mushrooms were scattered all over the ground.
Her whole body seemed as if her bones had been drained, her face was pale, and she propped herself up with both hands to back away. She couldn't even scream for help, leaving only rapid breathing and incessantly trembling legs.
To think there was still such a big guy in this forest!
Ling Feng's eyelids twitched violently.
"Don't move!"
Ling Feng roared at the top of his lungs, his voice drowning out the bear's roar.
Hearing this familiar voice, Amy abruptly turned her head, her tears instantly breaking through the dam: "Ling... save me..."
"Sit there and don't move! Don't run no matter what!" Ling Feng knelt on one knee, resting the heavy gun body on his arm, supporting the handguard with his left hand and pulling the heavy metal bolt with his right hand.
Click.
A 7.62mm bullet was pushed into the chamber.
On Ling Feng's current ability panel, there was only Intermediate Combat Skill, and he hadn't spent any Pleasure Points to exchange for any shooting specialization at all. This was the first time he was operating this heavy sniper rifle—usually used just to put up a front—with real bullets.
Heavy, it was too heavy.
Even with the system-enhanced physical constitution supporting him, without a dedicated stand and relying purely on the strength of his arms to hold this big guy weighing over a dozen jin, the muzzle still couldn't help shaking slightly. It wasn't a shake due to lack of strength, but rather like a rookie who had never shot before.
Right at this moment, violent rustling came from the bushes behind again.
Andrea rushed up, panting heavily.
"Amy!"
When she saw clearly the scene ahead, she was instantly frightened out of her wits, her legs going soft and almost causing her to kneel on the ground.
But the instinct that blood is thicker than water made her unable to care about any reason, and she screamed like crazy, about to rush toward her sister's side.
"Stop right there, dammit!" Ling Feng cursed angrily.
Too late.
Andrea's violent movements and high-decibel screams directly stimulated the giant bear that was still probing.
The giant bear's massive body suddenly hit the ground, its four limbs striking the ground with a muffled, booming sound. It gave up on Amy on the ground, turned its head to stare fixedly at Andrea who was rushing over, opened its blood-red mouth full of fangs, and sprinted straight toward her.
The speed at which a bear ran was definitely much faster than a human.
The sound of several hundred catties of heavy objects trampling the ground was like an out-of-control small bulldozer.
Andrea completely froze in place, her mind blank, forgetting to run and forgetting to draw the gun at her waist.
"Damn it!"
Ling Feng clenched his teeth tightly, his right eye pressed dead against the scope.
Within the crosshairs, that oversized bear head was shaking violently, making it impossible to precisely lock onto the center of the brows. Fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead slid down Ling Feng's bridge of the nose, splashing onto the metal receiver.
There was no time to hesitate.
The distance was too close; the giant bear had already rushed within ten meters!
Ling Feng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed his breathing, predicted the trajectory of the giant bear's sprint, and slammed his finger down on the trigger.
"Bang—!"
The deafening gunshot exploded in the mountain forest.
The terrifying recoil of the M200 slammed fiercely against Ling Feng's right shoulder along the stock, shocking half of his body into numbness.
The bullet exited the barrel at an extremely high initial velocity.
Without shooting skill blessings, this shot failed to hit the fatal brain, instead ruthlessly burrowing into the side of the giant bear's thick neck.
Splashes of blood mixed with shredded flesh burst open instantly.
"Awoo—!"
The giant bear let out an extremely painful howl, its forelimbs suddenly going soft, and its massive body tumbled forward under the action of inertia, rolling a circle on the ground and breaking a large swath of bushes.
"Ling!" Andrea, still shaken, stumbled and dodged to the side.
The giant bear was not dead.
The non-fatal gunshot wound on its neck completely enraged this beast.
It struggled to climb up, blood flowing down its brown fur, dyeing a large area of muddy ground red. That pair of blood-shot beast eyes directly locked onto Ling Feng who had fired the shot.
It roared, changed its target, and crushed overwhelmingly toward Ling Feng's position like crazy.
Eight meters.
Five meters.
Ling Feng had no time to dodge, nor did he plan to dodge.
He slammed open the bolt, the scorching brass-colored shell casing bouncing into mid-air, falling onto the withered leaves with a sizzling sound, and then quickly pushing forward, chambering the second bullet.
"Run!" Andrea shouted from afar with a cracking voice.
The giant bear had already rushed in front of Ling Feng.
That massive shadow directly shrouded Ling Feng's whole person, and the thick smell of blood and the stench from the beast's mouth hit him head-on.
It stood upright again, its two bear paws, each as big as a cattail-leaf fan, carrying a whistling wind as they slapped fiercely toward Ling Feng's head.
If this blow landed solid, even his skull would be directly smashed to pieces.
At the critical moment.
Ling Feng's legs were firmly planted on the ground. Instead of retreating, he suddenly exerted force from his waist, lifting the heavy sniper rifle in his hand upward diagonally, pointing the muzzle directly into the giant bear's open bloody maw.
The distance was so close that he didn't even need to use the scope.
A flash of ferocity crossed Ling Feng's eyes as he decisively pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
The second gunshot seemed to tear apart the surrounding air.
This time, there was no suspense at all.
The bullet shot directly into the giant bear's lower jaw, penetrating its hard skull with a destructive posture, blowing off a large piece of the cranium, and spraying red and white brain matter onto the tree trunk behind in a jet-like fashion.
The giant bear's paw waving in mid-air suddenly froze.
That massive body collapsed with a crash like a meat mountain that had suddenly lost support.
With a muffled thud.
The giant bear's heavy carcass crashed straight down beside Ling Feng's feet. After twitching twice, it completely stopped moving, leaving only blood bubbling out from its throat.
The surroundings instantly plunged into a deathly silence, with only the leaves rustling in the wind.
Ling Feng maintained the posture of holding the gun for a full three seconds.
After confirming that the thing under his feet was thoroughly dead, he let out a long breath of foul air, lowered the heavy sniper rifle, and casually propped it against the ground as support.
A strong sense of exhaustion washed over him.
The series of actions just now relied entirely on instinct and adrenaline to push through. His back had long been drenched in cold sweat, clinging tightly to his spine, feeling chilly when the wind blew. This was truly walking before the gates of hell.
"Ling!"
Andrea stumbled and rushed over. She couldn't care less about looking at the giant bear with its miserable deathly appearance on the ground, and lunged straight to Ling Feng's side.
"How are you? Are you hurt? Did it catch you?" Andreacried anxiously, her tears falling as her hands randomly fumbled and checked Ling Feng's arms and chest.
After that scene just now, where was she left with any trace of a female lawyer's arrogance and tit-for-tat attitude?
This man, in order to save them, held his gun and stubbornly stood in place facing a bear weighing several hundred catties. Such an extremely shocking picture completely shattered all her psychological defenses.
Amy also crawled up from the ground at this time.
The little girl's legs were weak. It was almost only when Andrea turned around to help her that she barely managed to stand steady, walking over step by step while trembling.
"I'm fine, not a single hair is missing." Ling Feng slapped away Andrea's wandering hands and shook his head.
Hearing this, the hanging hearts of the two sisters finally dropped completely.
Amy threw herself directly into Ling Feng's arms, hugging his waist tightly with both hands, burying her face in his chest full of sweat and gunpowder smell, weeping bitterly.
"Wuwu... I was scared to death... I thought we were both going to die..."
Ling Feng wrapped one arm around Amy's trembling shoulders, gently patting her back as comfort.
But soon, Ling Feng's gaze shifted downward.
He hadn't noticed earlier because of the distance, but now that someone was pressed against his body, he immediately found something wrong.
Chapter 17 Amy Peed Her Pants...
Amy was wearing that pair of light gray cargo pants today.
At this moment, starting from the top of her thighs downwards, a large and extremely obvious dark water stain appeared. Along the pant leg, a few drops of transparent liquid were dripping onto her mud-covered high-top sneakers.
A faint, extremely weak strange odor drifted faintly in the air, mixed with the surrounding scent of blood.
Ling Feng was stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately, his expression becoming extremely bizarre.
This girl actually pissed her pants out of sheer terror from that bear just now?
Following Ling Feng's line of sight, Andrea also noticed the abnormality on her sister's pants. The female lawyer's face instantly turned flushed red, and she was so embarrassed that she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Amy buried herself in Ling Feng's arms and cried for a while. Noticing that the atmosphere was a bit wrong, she raised her tear-stained little face, just in time to meet Ling Feng's teasing gaze.
Looking down following his gaze, Amy's whole body suddenly stiffened.
" Ah! "
She let out an exclamation, released her grip on Ling Fengas if electrocuted, and retreated several steps backwards repeatedly. With both hands tightly covering between her legs, her fair face blushed directly down to the root of her neck, and even her earlobes were as red as dripping blood.
" Don't look! You're not allowed to look! " Amy said with a crying voice, feeling so ashamed she was about to faint. Peeing her pants in front of her favorite man—such a socially dead scene was practically more fatal than encountering a bear.
Andrea hurried over, using her own body to block in front of her sister, but she herself was also in a complete mess right now with wrinkled clothes. She could only force herself to glare at Ling Feng: " What are you looking at! Isn't it all because it was too dangerous just now! "
This glare had zero lethality, and instead exuded a hint of a little woman's coquettishness.
Ling Feng really couldn't hold it in and laughed out loud quite wantonly.
" What's there to hide from. " Ling Feng casually slung the M200 over his shoulder, walked forward, and pinched Amy's burning cheeks unconcernedly with his gunpowder-scented fingers.
" When people encounter extreme fear, sphincter loss of control is a normal physiological response, completely normal. "
Ling Feng withdrew his hand and stopped poking at the little girl's sore spot. He turned around, raised his foot to kick the heavy giant bear carcass on the ground, the corners of his mouth curling up into a satisfied arc.
" But this trip was definitely not in vain. " Ling Feng pointed at the bear meat all over the ground, his tone revealing undisguised excitement, " Who was it that said not even a mouse could be found in the mountains just now? Look at this big guy, at least four hundred pounds. "
He turned to look at Andrea, raising an eyebrow: " Now, we won't lack fresh meat to eat for the next half a month or so. Grilled bear paws will smell much more fragrant than those preservative-laden canned goods. "
Andrea looked at the fresh blood all over the ground, swallowed hard, and completely couldn't say a word of rebuttal.
Just as the three of them were planning to figure out how to get this behemoth back to Camp.
A sound of footsteps snapping branches came from the bushes nearby.
Immediately after, Daryl, carrying a recurve crossbow on his back, parted the leaves and drilled out. He was also holding two newly dead gray-skinned wild rabbits in his hand, obviously having heard the series of gunshots over here and rushing over to support thinking something big had happened.
When Daryl's sight crossed Ling Feng and landed on the giant bear with a blossoming head, the steps under his feet instantly nailed him to the spot.
The two wild rabbits in his hand dropped to the ground with a "clack" sound.
Daryl's mouth was open, looking at the dead bear on the ground, then looking at Ling Feng with a relaxed expression. Those eyes, cold for years, were filled with undisguised shock.
" You fucking... " Daryl's voice was hoarse to the extreme, " Took this thing down all by yourself? "
Ling Feng looked at the rabbits he dropped on the ground, grinned, and reached out to point at the dead bear on the ground.
" Keep the rabbits to roast yourself, Daryl. " Ling Fengfished out a cigarette box from his pocket, " That crossbow will serve as your hard-earned fee for helping me carry this guy down the mountain. Deal or no deal? "
" Deal! "
Daryl didn't have any nonsense. Only a fool wouldn't do this deal—two crappy rabbits plus some physical labor in exchange for a top-tier recurve crossbow; no matter how he calculated it, he was taking a massive advantage.
He walked forward, bypassed the two abandoned dead rabbits on the ground, and went straight in front of this behemoth.
The closer he got, the stronger the sense of oppression belonging to a large apex predator became.
Daryl raised his foot and kicked the giant bear's thick belly fat with his mud-stained sole. The feedback tactile sensation was extremely heavy.
He had hunted for years and had a very clear idea of the weight of living creatures.
" Bro, I'll take this deal, but this job can't be done. " Darylstraightened his waist, turned to look at Ling Feng, and a clear look of difficulty appeared on his face.
" What? " Ling Feng fished a lighter out of his pocket and lit the cigarette dangling in his mouth with a "snap".
" Just looking at its size, this thing definitely exceeds five hundred pounds. " Daryl pointed at the brown fur all over the ground, " It was satisfying when you blew its skull off with one shot, but how are we supposed to get this dead-heavy lump of meat down the mountain? Even if I, Daryl, used every ounce of my strength, I could at most carry two hundred pounds. What, leave the remaining three hundred pounds here to feed the wolves? That would be too much of a waste. "
Ling Feng exhaled a puff of light blue smoke and laughed.
" Have you been in the mountains for too long and forgotten how to do math? " Ling Feng's cigarette-holding finger pointed to the side, " There are four people here. You and I will split the main chunk of meat and bones. As for the remaining bits of meat and this bear skin, let the two sisters share a bit each. Won't the weight be evenly distributed then? "
Daryl looked over in the direction of Ling Feng's finger.
Andrea was leaning against the tree trunk panting heavily at the moment, with one of her shirt buttons popped open, looking a complete mess.
Amy beside her was even more outrageous. A large area of her thigh pant leg was soaked, and standing straight was difficult for her. She was covering her face with both hands, not daring to see people.
Let these two delicate city women carry bloody raw meat?
Daryl seriously doubted that these two could even drag a single bear leg.
But he was just someone hired to do a job. Since this Asian man who could take down a black bear with his bare hands had spoken, he couldn't be bothered to mind other people's business.
" Fine, I'll listen to you. " Daryl nodded very decisively.
He squatted down, his hand directly felt for the leather holster at his waist, and pulled out the folding knife he carried with him.
Pushing his thumb against the back of the blade, the blade popped open. He knelt half-way in the muddy ground, ready to cut directly from the bear's neck to disembowel it.
" Wait a minute. "
Ling Feng immediately shouted to stop him, his voice very loud.
Daryl's movement stiffened, his hand stopped in mid-air, and he turned to look at Ling Feng with confusion.
Ling Feng took strides over and pulled out the machete tucked into his lower back with a backhand. This knife was something he had swiped during his escape. The back of the blade was thick and it hadn't been used much.
Ling Feng directly threw the machete onto the grass beside Daryl's feet.
" Use this. " Ling Feng spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth, extinguished it with the sole of his shoe, his face full of undisguised disgust, " Put that folding knife of yours away right now. "
Daryl lowered his head to look at the machete on the grass, then looked at the folding knife in his hand.
" I just sharpened this knife on a stone by the lake last night, it's very sharp. " Daryl subconsciously wanted to explain a couple of sentences, " It's completely enough for skinning and deboning. "
" I don't care if you're sharp or not. " Ling Feng crossed his arms, looking down at him from above, " In this crappy world, there are maggot-infested biting monsters everywhere. Heaven knows what disgusting things this little crappy knife of yours has cut in the woods usually. What if it just cracked open some dead person's head and now you're coming to cut my rations? "
Ling Feng waved his hand unceremoniously: " Cutting meat with a virus-carrying knife? Use the one I gave you, it's clean. "
Even though Ling Feng knew this wouldn't actually cause infection, it was just gross...
Chapter 18: A Full Harvest, Heading Down the Mountain...
Daryl was full of frustration.
His folding knife was his prized possession; he never used it on those stinking Walkers, only for dressing clean game.
He opened his mouth to argue, but when he met Ling Feng's unyielding face, he swallowed the words back down.
There was no good outcome in crossing a benefactor.
"Suit yourself," Daryl replied sullenly.
He put away his folding knife, shoved it back into his pocket, and grabbed the machete from the ground; the weight of this blade was indeed much handier than his own small knife.
Daryl stopped wasting words and focused all his attention on the giant bear on the ground.
He pinned the giant bear's forelimb with his knee, drove the tip of the blade precisely into the flesh under its chin, and with a sudden snap of his wrist, sliced downwards along the white line on its chest and abdomen.
Rip—
The tough bear hide tore open, and a smell mixed with the intense stench of blood and the heat of internal organs burst forth, rushing straight to their heads.
Daryl's hands were covered in blood, but his movements were extremely practiced.
He was someone who did this for a living; finding bone joints, skinning the hide, avoiding the bitter gallbladder—the entire sequence of actions flowed like water, requiring no help from anyone else.
In fact, Ling Feng and the others couldn't help at all.
Among modern people raised in a society ruled by law, who knew how to field-dress a five-hundred-pound beast?
Ling Feng was happy to be idle. He walked over to a slightly cleaner tree root nearby to sit down and patted the empty spot beside him.
"Come over and rest," Ling Feng beckoned to the two sisters not far away.
Andrea was still feeling awkward about the forced kiss from earlier, but her legs were truly too weak to support her. She gritted her teeth, walked over, and leaned against a tree, deliberately keeping a half-meter distance from Ling Feng.
Amy didn't have so many reservations.
Although the young girl was still immersed in the extreme shame of having wet her pants and her gait was awkward, when she heard Ling Feng's words, she still blushed and trotted over to sit beside him.
Ling Feng turned his head, his gaze falling directly on Amy's soaked trousers, where he could even faintly see the outline traced by the fabric clinging to her skin.
"Still uncomfortable?" Ling Feng teased, deliberately lowering his voice.
Amy felt burning hot all over from being stared at, her hands tightly covering her thighs, her head nearly drooping to her chest.
"Don't say it..." Amy's voice was as small as a mosquito's buzz.
Ling Feng chuckled, his right hand naturally wrapping around her delicate shoulders, pulling her half into his embrace, his thumb rhythmically stroking the side of the young girl's fair, tender neck.
[Ding! Intimate physical contact detected, Pleasure Points+50!]
The delightful prompt sounded. Amy was rendered so weak by this intimate action that she didn't even have the strength to struggle, completely collapsing into Ling Feng's arms.
Andrea, standing to the side, took in this entire scene. Just over ten minutes ago, this man had pressed her against a tree and taken her roughly, and now he had turned around to coax her sister.
This shameless behavior made her chest feel tight.
But she didn't say a word.
Just a moment ago, she had watched with her own eyes as Ling Feng faced the giant bear with his gun, and she had personally felt that irresistible suppression.
This world had changed; her lawyer's code was worth less than a scrap of paper here. In this cruel wilderness, attaching oneself to the strong was the only way to survive.
Andrea turned her head, forcing herself to watch Darylbutcher the meat. Bloody intestines and colorful internal organs were ripped out by Daryl and tossed into the mud nearby.
A wave of intense nausea surged into her throat. Andreacovered her mouth and began to retch violently.
"Can't handle even this bit of gore?" Ling Feng didn't even turn his head, still toying with Amy's fingers. "In the future, there will be live disembowelments a hundred times more disgusting than this everywhere. If you're vomiting at the sight of a dead bear, what will you do when you actually meet those monsters? Won't you just be offering yourself up as a snack?"
These words were harsh, but every word was the truth.
Andrea forced the sour bile in her throat back down, took two deep breaths of the blood-scented air, and with a pale face, braced herself to stand straight. She no longer looked away, forcing herself to face the remains scattered on the ground.
More than half an hour later.
Daryl wiped his blood-covered hands on some grass leaves and stood up, letting out a long breath.
The giant bear had been completely butchered.
All the useless internal organs and meat shredded by bullets had been discarded.
The four thick bear legs, large chunks of back meat, and chest and abdominal meat were tied into two heavy bundles by Daryl using sturdy vines.
The bloody, intact bear hide was still spread on the ground, holding dozens of pounds of relatively smaller rib pieces and hindquarter meat.
"Done," Daryl said, pointing at the spoils on the ground. "These two big bundles, one for each of us. As for that pile of scraps, let your two women handle it; the weight will be evenly distributed."
Ling Feng stood up and released Amy from his embrace.
He walked over and grabbed one of the knots tied with vines with one hand.
This kind of pulling, which relied purely on muscle power, was the ultimate test of arm strength. The veins on Ling Feng's arm bulged violently, and with a burst of power from his waist, the hundred-pound meat bundle was lifted by his single hand and settled steadily onto his left shoulder.
Daryl gasped as he watched from the side; this Asian man's strength was completely unreasonable.
Ling Feng turned his head to look at Andrea and Amy, pointing at the bear hide on the ground that contained the ribs.
"You two carry this thing. If you can't lift it, drag it. It doesn't matter if you walk slowly, but don't fall behind."
Andrea didn't dare to talk back; she walked over and grabbed a corner of the bear hide.
Amy also hurried over and tightly gripped the other side with both hands. Although the meat was heavy, the two of them working together to carry dozens of pounds was barely manageable.
Daryl strapped on his crossbow and shouldered the remaining large bundle.
The four-person team formed a single file line and began to head down the mountain, retracing their original path.
The path down the mountain was harder to walk than the path up. The ground was covered in slippery moss and rotting leaves.
Because a large part of Amy's pants was wet, the fabric chafing against her thighs was extremely uncomfortable, and her gait was awkward to the extreme.
Just as she walked down that slope, her foot stepped on a loose, round stone, and she lost control and pitched forward.
"Ah!"
Ling Feng, who was walking in front, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He stopped, with the hundred-pound bear meat on his left shoulder, and his right arm shot out like lightning, wrapping around Amy's waist.
His powerful core strength kept him standing motionless, and he forcibly hauled Amy back from the brink of falling.
His palm passed through the thin clothing and pressed directly against her warm, soft, and firm waist.
"Don't step on stones when you walk, go slower." Ling Feng unceremoniously gave the young girl's waist a squeeze before letting go.
Amy was still shaken; feeling the sensation on her waist, her face turned red again, and she could only lower her head and agree in a small voice.
Andrea, following behind, watched Ling Feng's habit of taking liberties whenever he could; she could only pretend not to see it and silently tightened her grip on the bear hide.
Daryl walked at the very back, turning a blind eye to the little antics in front; he only cared about how to safely get the meat back to the Camp.
The four of them continued downwards, the dense canopy gradually thinning. Sunlight spilled onto the ground through the gaps, the stuffiness in the air dissipated slightly, and the terrain ahead began to level out.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, they could already faintly see the huge reservoir lake of the Quarrybelow, as well as the few old, dilapidated cars arranged in a circle.
Chapter 19: Want to Eat Meat? Bring Something to Trade!
The midday heat at Quarry Camp was breathtakingly stifling.
The tire tracks of the off-road vehicle rolling over the muddy ground were still clearly visible. Inside the temporary shelter formed by a few dilapidated cars, most people were hiding in the shadows, gnawing on dry compressed biscuits.
A wave of extremely strong blood stench suddenly drifted into the air.
Miranda was sitting on the plastic sheet by the tent, laboriously turning a rusty can opener in her hand.
The tin can was pried open, and it was filled with soybeans soaked in preservatives, with a layer of cloudy soup floating on the surface.
Looking at this pile of things, her stomach churned with sourness.
"Oh God! Look over there!"
Miranda abruptly stopped what she was doing and used her elbow to push her husband Morales, who was tidying up a tattered blanket beside her.
Morales followed his wife's gaze toward the slope exit.
Four figures emerged one after another from the shadows of the tree canopy.
Walking at the very front was the Asian man Ling Feng. He carried a huge meat bundle tightly wrapped with vines on his left shoulder, leaving deep footprints on the soft mud with every step he took.
Fresh red blood seeped down through the gaps of the vines, dyeing half of his work shirt dark red.
Following behind was Daryl, who was also carrying an outrageously heavy meat bundle, his face bearing the fatigue of doing heavy labor and an undisguisable excitement.
Walking at the very back were Andrea and Amy, the two of them dragging a gigantic bear skin left and right, with dozens of catties of fresh ribs and leg bones cradled inside the bear skin.
Meat!
A massive amount of fresh meat!
The entire Camp fell completely silent at that instant, even the sound of chewing biscuits stopped. Everyone's gaze was tightly locked onto those red-and-white chunks of meat, unable to move their eyes away at all.
In the wilderness where even a sip of clean water had to be rationed, the visual impact brought by hundreds of pounds of fresh meat was enough to drive any starving person crazy.
Morales's Adam's apple rolled violently as he swallowed a huge mouthful of dry saliva.
He could no longer remember how long it had been since his family ate a truly greasy hot meal. Emotions of envy and jealousy instantly churned in his chest.
He turned his head to look at his son and daughter beside him. The two children were sallow and emaciated from hunger, and at this moment, they were staring eagerly at those few dripping ribs without even blinking.
"Do you want to eat meat?" Morales asked in a hoarse voice.
The two children did not hesitate at all, nodding their heads extremely hard.
Miranda's face was filled with confusion as her hands involuntarily clenched the edge of the can: "Where did they get so much meat? How could there be such a huge prey in these mountains?"
Before she could figure out the situation, Morales had already stood up.
"I'll go over and take a look." Morales wiped the hot sweat from his forehead and directly strode toward the direction of the off-road vehicle.
Miranda worriedly tried to reach out and pull him, but withdrew her hand halfway.
She stayed in place, her hope overpowering her fear. She desperately hoped her husband could bring back even just a small piece of scrap meat to satisfy the children's cravings.
By the RV on the other side of the Camp.
Lori was sitting on a folding chair.
The half-piece of hard oatmeal biscuit in her hand had already been crushed by her.
She stared straight at Ling Feng's full pectoral muscles and the meat chunks carried on his shoulders, her gaze falling once again on the intact bear skin.
A breeze blew by, and the raw, gamey scent of meat drifted into her nasal cavity.
Far from feeling disgusted, Lori instead developed an extremely strong desire to eat.
She unconsciously raised her hand and stroked her flat abdomen back and forth, involuntarily letting out a rumbling sound.
Shane? He had taken Carl to the edge of the woods early in the morning to pick some damn poisonous mushrooms, and after going for most of the day, there wasn't even a shadow of them to be seen.
What good could picking mushrooms possibly do?
Lori looked at Ling Feng's stride-filled back, calculating quickly in her heart.
Everyone else also put down the work in their hands, focusing their attention entirely on Morales.
Carol stood behind the tent, while Ed, the fat guy who always committed domestic violence, directly shoved her aside and leaned forward to look.
Everyone was waiting. As long as Morales opened his mouth and successfully got the meat, they would have plenty of reasons to go up and get a share.
In this so-called "Camp," sharing things equally among everyone—wasn't that the natural and proper rule?
Ling Feng completely ignored the greedy gazes around him.
He walked straight to the off-road vehicle, dropped his left shoulder, and exerted force from his waist.
Bang!
The meat bundle weighing over a hundred catties was fiercely slammed by him onto the hood. The muffled impact made the whole car shake along with it, and the sheet metal of the hood emitted an unbearable groan.
Daryl walked to the other side and threw his share onto the ground.
He had no intention of talking nonsense with the freeloaders at the Camp. He untied the vines, nodded at Ling Feng as a greeting, and directly burrowed back into his tent area to make a fire and roast a rabbit.
Andrea and Amy finally let go of their tightly clenched hands on the edge of the bear skin.
Sweating profusely from exhaustion, the two women collapsed and sat by the tire of the off-road vehicle, panting heavily. Their palms were covered in red marks left by the rough fur.
Even though she was this tired, looking at this pile of meat, Andrea still had undisguisable excitement deep in her eyes.
Morales walked over at this very moment.
He rubbed his dust-covered hands, stopped two meters away from Ling Feng, and squeezed out a somewhat flattering, dry smile on his face.
"Hey, Ling." Morales pointed at the meat on the hood. "This haul is really big. The size of this prey is truly not small."
Ling Feng pulled a few tissues from his waist, casually wiping the semi-dried blood on his hands. He glanced sideways at Morales with no intention of answering.
The scene became somewhat awkward for a moment.
Seeing that Ling Feng remained silent, Morales had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue speaking.
"Here's the thing, the kids haven't eaten anything fresh for days. Those few cans were eaten up long ago, and the biscuits are hard to swallow." Morales's tone carried a hint of pleading. "Look, you guys got so much, and you can't finish it all at once anyway. Can you share a little bit with our family? Just casually cut a small piece of leg meat, just enough to let the kids fill their stomachs."
The surroundings were exceptionally quiet.
The Camp refugees eavesdropping with pricked-up ears even slowed their breathing, afraid of missing Ling Feng's response.
Ling Feng crumpled the waste paper used to wipe the blood into a ball and casually tossed it into the bushes nearby.
"No."
Blunt.
Crisp.
There wasn't a single word of nonsense, nor any hypocritical evasion.
Morales's smile froze directly on his face. He completely hadn't expected the other party to refuse so bluntly, leaving no room at all.
Having stayed in civilized society for too long, even if one wasn't willing to give, they would at least find some excuse to brush it off.
This single word "No" directly killed the conversation completely.
"Ling, this is too much. The temperature is so high; the meat will stink and rot after sitting out for one night." Morales grew anxious, trying to use common sense to persuade the other party. "We are all in the same Camp, everyone is a companion, helping each other through hard times is the way to survive! Our two kids really are starved..."
Ling Feng was directly amused by this sentence.
"Companions?" Ling Feng turned around, his hands supporting himself on the blood-soaked hood. His highly oppressive height directly forced Morales back half a step. "When you guys were sleeping soundly in the cars last night, were we companions? Early this morning when we went deep into the mountains, drilled through bushes, and almost had our heads smashed in by this five-hundred-pound bear, why didn't you run over to be companions?"
Morales opened his mouth, his face turning alternating shades of blue and white.
Ling Feng didn't give him a chance to retort at all.
"When danger came, you all hid in the back. Now that I've brought the meat back, you run over to talk to me about helping each other?" Ling Feng heavily tapped his fingers twice on the hood. "Where in this world is there such a good thing as only using your mouth without growing hands?"
The fat guy Ed not far away couldn't hold back at this point, and he sarcastically shouted from the back.
"Since we're clustered in the same Camp, supplies should be shared equally. Can you finish eating so much meat all by yourself? That's too selfish!"
With one person taking the lead, a few survivors who hadn't given up immediately chimed in, attempting to use the pressure of the crowd to force Ling Feng to bow his head.
Andrea, who had been resting on the tire all along, abruptly stood up.
She didn't even wait for Ling Feng to speak, stepping directly in front of Morales.
The female lawyer's aggressive aura was displayed vividly at this moment.
"Selfish? Who set the rule of equal sharing? That good policeman of yours, Shane?"
Andrea stretched out her hands covered in friction marks, almost poking Morales's nose. "This pile of ribs was dragged down step by step from the top of the mountain by Amy and me! Our hands are full of blood blisters! What qualifications do you have to stand here and demand a share of the meat? If you want meat, take a knife and go chop it in the mountains yourself!"
If it were yesterday, Andrea might have sympathized with Morales's family.
But after personally experiencing the brush with life and death this morning, her saintly heart had long been eaten by dogs.
In this broken world, having food clutched in your hands gave you confidence. Whoever dared to come and grab her rations, she dared to fall out with them.
The commotion in the crowd immediately subsided.
These civilians were used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Encountering a tough cookie like Andrea who cursed right in their faces, they instantly lost their temper.
Ling Feng gave Andrea a look of extreme appreciation.
Once this woman was properly trained, she would be simply extremely useful as a shield in the Camp.
He walked straight forward, his right hand naturally embracing Andrea's slender waist, and even intentionally pinching a handful of that resilient soft flesh.
[Ding! Intimate physical contact detected, Pleasure Points+50!]
Andrea's body stiffened slightly. Being hugged like this in front of the entire Camp, a blush quickly flew across her cheeks.
But not only did she not push Ling Feng away, she instead obediently leaned against the man's chest.
She was very clear that she was now a community of shared interests bound together with Ling Feng.
This scene fell completely into Lori's eyes.
Lori raised an eyebrow.
That hot-tempered woman had actually been completely tamed? The control this man Ling Feng had over women was even more terrifying than she had imagined.
"Listen up, all of you."
Holding Andrea in his arms, Ling Feng's gaze coldly swept across the people around who still had green lights in their eyes.
"In this open space, my rules are very simple. If you want to eat the meat in my hands, sure, bring something valuable to trade for it!"
Ling Feng let go of Andrea's waist, turned around, and pulled a machete out from the off-road vehicle. The blade gleamed with a chilling light in the sunlight.
He fiercely stabbed the machete into a thick tree root nearby.
Wood chips splashed.
"Bullets, medicine, or hard currency supplies that can fill your stomachs. If you really have nothing to trade, then work for me! Do laundry, keep watch and stand guard, or even help us move heavy objects. As long as I think the job is worth the price of a piece of meat, the meat is yours."
Ling Feng pulled out the machete and rubbed off non-existent dirt on the bear skin.
"Whoever dares to bring up that bullshit theory of equal sharing and companions to me again, I'll shove these scrap meats down their throat."
The extremely domineering declaration echoed over the Camp.
Chapter 20: Fat Man Looking for Trouble and Deserving a Beating? Lori Delivers Herself to the Door!
"You damned Asian, you're way too arrogant!"
The flesh on fat Ed's face trembled violently, his eyes turning red from being stimulated by those hundreds of pounds of fresh meat.
He suddenly took a large step forward and roared at the surroundings with his raspy voice.
"Everyone look at this attitude of his! We should unite! No matter how well he can fight, he's just one person, what the hell do a few grown men like us have to be afraid of! We are a team, things should be split equally, why should he hog it all by himself!"
Ed's highly instigative words were like dropping a huge boulder into calm water.
The few people who were originally deterred by Ling Feng's machete became active in their minds once again.
Morales looked at the two shivering, starving children beside him, and then at the bloody meat chunks dripping on the hood, the fear in the depths of his eyes completely overridden by greed.
He gritted his teeth, exchanged glances with the other two strong-looking middle-aged men, and simultaneously took strides, closing in on Ling Feng in a semi-enrounding stance.
At the edge of the Camp.
Delivery guy Glenn crossed his arms over his chest and shrank back slightly. He still remembered Ling Feng's warning on the hillside yesterday, and coupled with that figure carrying a heavy sniper rifle, he had no desire to court bad luck.
T-Dog, the stout black man next to him, was also a smart person.
He glanced at the dead bear skin on the ground, then looked at Ling Feng's arms that effortlessly carried a hundred-pound heavy object, decisively choosing to keep his mouth shut and retreating two steps toward the RV.
These people wanted to court death, but he wasn't going to accompany them.
The atmosphere was taut with tension.
Seeing a few people step up to back him, Ed felt even more confident. Waving his thick arms and spitting as he spoke, he strode toward the SUV.
"Today, you have to hand over this meat whether you want to or not..."
Bang!
Before Ed could finish speaking, and before he could even see Ling Feng's movement clearly, he only felt a dark shadow flash before his eyes.
The muscles in Ling Feng's right leg instantly exploded with power, carrying a fierce wind that tore through the air. A powerful front kick struck Ed's fat-filled stomach with pinpoint accuracy.
The several-hundred-pound fat man was like a tattered sack; his feet left the ground directly, and his entire body flew backward for a full two to three meters.
He crashed heavily onto the gravel-filled muddy ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
"Ugh ah—" Ed let out a warped scream, clutching his stomach like an overturned turtle, rolling back and forth in pain on the ground, unable to even curse a complete sentence.
On the other side of the Camp, Carol, who was hiding anxiously behind a tent, let out a startled cry.
"Ed!" Carol instinctively wanted to rush over to check on her husband's injuries.
Jacqui, the quick-handed and quick-eyed black woman beside her, grabbed her tightly in a bear hug and forcefully dragged her back to her spot, whispering a hurried warning in Carol's ear.
"Are you crazy! Don't go over there and add to the chaos! Do you want to be beaten to death together with that jinx?!"
Shouted at like this, Carol immediately stopped in her tracks, looking at the open space ahead with a panic-stricken face, tears spinning in her eyes.
At this moment, Morales and the others, who had aggressively followed behind Ed, had their steps forcefully nailed to the spot.
Looking at Ed wailing on the ground, and then looking at Ling Feng standing in place without even panting, they finally realized what a stupid mistake they had made.
One person?
Even if the opponent was just one person, this was a Tyrannosaurus rex draped in human skin.
Cold sweat streamed down Morales's forehead; he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and his feet began to back up uncontrollably.
"Weren't you quite spirited just now?" Ling Feng's mouth curled into a mocking arc as he twisted his neck, his joints making crisp cracking sounds.
"Since you stepped out, don't be in such a hurry to leave."
As soon as his voice fell, Ling Feng, like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, charged directly into the circle of these men.
He didn't use any weapons at all; relying solely on that national-champion-level Intermediate Combat Skill, it was simply a dimensional-reduction strike in front of this group of ordinary people.
Sidestepping to dodge a haymaker from a tall man, Ling Feng delivered a precise jab straight to the bridge of the opponent's nose.
Crack.
The sound of the nasal bone breaking was crisp and piercing. The tall man screamed and covered his face, blood instantly gushing out from between his fingers as he collapsed to his knees with a thud.
In a panic, Morales raised a piece of dead wooden stick in his hand, intending to smash it down onto Ling Feng's back.
As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Ling Fengviolently twisted his waist, his right leg acting like a steel whip as a high roundhouse kick lashed directly onto Morales's wrist.
The wooden stick flew out of his hand, and Morales only felt his entire right arm go completely numb and lose all sensation.
Immediately following that, Ling Feng stepped forward, his big hand reaching out to grab Morales by the collar, and with an extremely crisp and neat shoulder throw, he slammed him heavily onto the hood of that beat-up pickup truck.
Less than ten seconds.
The grown men who had just been clamoring to split the fresh meat equally were now lying haphazardly all over the ground. Some were clutching their stomachs and retching, while others hugged their arms and wailed, each in a miserable state.
The entire Camp was dead silent, with only the muffled groans of these people remaining.
Ling Feng raised his foot and ground his sole against Ed's flesh-filled face, looking down condescendingly at this bunch of fools.
"Can't you understand human speech? This world long ago stopped caring about your playhouse equal-sharing rules. If you don't have the strength, then tuck your tails between your legs and behave yourselves, stop putting on airs as team leaders here."
His gaze swept across the refugees on the outer perimeter who were so scared they didn't even dare to breathe heavily.
"My rules from just now are still effective: exchange with supplies, or exchange with labor. If anyone dares to come and rob again..." Ling Feng reached out and patted the heavy glock at his waist, "Next time, I won't be using my feet."
Dropping this extremely domineering warning, Ling Fengturned and walked toward the SUV.
Returning to the front of the car, Andrea and Amy had already stood up.
The two sisters' gazes looking at Ling Feng had undergone a heaven-and-earth transformation.
Especially Amy, whose blue eyes were practically glowing with stars, casting the embarrassment of wetting her pants on the mountain just now to the winds.
This aesthetic of violence, with fists hitting flesh and crushing everything, was simply the most fatal aphrodisiac in this completely insecure doomsday.
"Your moves just now were really fast." Andrea lowered her voice, her tone carrying an appreciation that even she herself hadn't noticed.
Watching that bunch of men who usually slacked off and played tricks in the Camp lying on the ground groaning, she actually felt a strange sense of gratification rise in her heart.
Ling Feng chuckled softly and raised his hand very naturally to pat Andrea on her perky buttocks.
"Slap."
"Stand still and clean up the pelt." Ling Feng casually instructed.
Andrea's whole body stiffened, her cheeks flushing red, but she didn't make the slightest movement to resist, obediently lowering her head to organize that blood-stained bear skin.
On the other side, Amy was even more proactive, pressing directly forward, grabbing Ling Feng's arms with both hands and leaning most of her body into his arms.
"Ling, you're not hurt, are you?" Amy tilted her small face upward, her eyes completely filled with him.
Ling Feng lowered his head to look at this clingy little kitten, his large palm sliding straight down her lower back, uninhibitedly kneading that astonishing softness.
[Ding! Intimate physical contact detected, Pleasure Points+50!]
[Ding! Intimate physical contact detected, Pleasure Points+50!]
The electronic sounds ringing out one after another in his mind put Ling Feng in a great mood. Not only did these refugees help him establish his authority, but they also incidentally raised the two sisters' favorability, making them simply the perfect tool characters.
Just as Ling Feng was calculating how to continue farming points from the two sisters.
A burst of extremely faint footsteps came from the side.
Ling Feng turned his head slightly, his line of sight crossing over the hood.
A woman wearing a plaid shirt with a good figure was walking toward this side with short, dainty steps.
It was Lori.