Chapter 205: A Doggish Wolf

Chapter 205: Chapter 205: A Doggish Wolf

At 5:15 the next morning, Xiaqing entered Zone Three of Mountain 49, carrying spring water. She had only waited for a couple of minutes before Yang Jin appeared.

Yang Jin was carrying a long wooden box on his shoulder, his Protective Mask hanging from his waist. The rising sun shone through the leaves, lighting up his short, thick, black hair, but his Protective Suit didn’t reflect any light at all. The suit was a color and style Xiaqing had never seen before. One look was enough to tell it was very, very, very High Level.

’Is this the latest product from the Research Institute? I wonder how many points a set costs, and if they’re even for sale to outsiders. I want one too.’

Yang Jin saw Xiaqing, who was wearing her Protective Mask, staring at... his Protective Suit, and a hint of a smile touched his eyes. He handed the Grenade Launcher to Xiaqing. "This is the Grenade Launcher from our last trade. I’ll have Hu Zifeng bring the shells over later."

"Thanks, Captain Yang." He was about to head out on a mission, so Xiaqing didn’t ask about the price of his gear at such an inappropriate time. After taking the Grenade Launcher, she handed the Yi Stone Protection Shell to Yang Jin. "The cord is made from the skin of an Evolved Poison Snake, so it should have some insect-repelling properties."

Yang Jin took off his gloves and accepted the date-sized Yi Stone Protection Shell. He pulled the Yi Stone from his pocket, snapped it inside the shell, and fastened it shut.

Although the shell was a bit difficult to open and close, it had a satisfying weight and was polished smooth. It was clearly very sturdy. Two hundred points—Xiaqing had sold it too cheaply. Yang Jin put the Yi Stone Protection Shell back into a side pocket on his waist and reminded Xiaqing, "We don’t have many shells in stock, so use them sparingly."

"Understood." The Grenade Launcher wouldn’t be used often, but it was an insurance policy for the territory. With it, the territory’s safety factor had gone up another notch. Shouldering the Grenade Launcher, Xiaqing’s confidence surged as well. "Captain Yang, I wish you a successful mission and a safe return."

After Yang Jin left, Xiaqing hoisted the wooden box, which weighed dozens of pounds, and hurried back to her territory under the cover of the trees. Once home, she shut the doors and windows tight, opened the box, and shouldered the Grenade Launcher. She looked down at the Sheep Leader and asked, "Well, Leader? How’s this? Badass, right?"

The Sheep Leader was busy inspecting the straw inside the wooden box to see if it was edible and didn’t even lift an eyelid.

Xiaqing turned to the Sick Wolf. "Second, what do you think? Cool, right?"

The frail Sick Wolf looked up, its clear eyes showing a hint of vigilance. Xiaqing understood. "Have you seen humans use this type of weapon before? Or did your Wolf Group fight against humans who used them?"

The Sick Wolf, of course, didn’t answer. But Xiaqing, with her sharp hearing, heard the sound of its sharp Wolf Claws digging into the floorboards. The Grenade Launcher had made the Sick Wolf sense danger, and it was growing tense.

Xiaqing was afraid the stress would upset its digestive system, causing another bout of vomiting and diarrhea. She quickly pushed aside the Sheep Leader’s pawing hooves, placed the launcher back in the wooden box, and stored it away. She soothed it in a soft voice, "Don’t be afraid, Second. This is my weapon. It’s for protecting the territory."

The Sick Wolf’s body was tense as it stared at the wooden box, as if it wanted to tear it to shreds. Even the clueless Sheep Leader noticed something was wrong with its friend and came over to nuzzle it with its neck.

Xiaqing took the wooden box upstairs to put it away. On her way down, she grabbed a new satchel she had made and hung it around the Sick Wolf’s neck. Then, she stuffed a small piece of roasted jerky inside. "Don’t be tense, Second, I put the weapon away. Go patrol the territory with the Sheep Leader and catch some bugs to feed the fish. We’ll eat after you’re done."

After getting the satchel and jerky, not only did the Sick Wolf relax, it even gave its drooping tail a little wag.

That little wag was so dog-like it left Xiaqing completely stunned.

"BAA—"

"CLOMP!"

The Leader was angry. It bleated and pawed the floor with its hoof, ready to pick a fight with Xiaqing.

Xiaqing immediately pulled out a compressed ration, stuffed it into the satchel around its neck, and started cooing, ruffling its fleece. "This one’s for the Leader. The Leader is the most capable, so its ration is bigger than Second’s, and its basket is bigger than Second’s too. If it weren’t for the Leader working hard every day, our fish would have starved to death long ago. The Leader is truly a sheep that stands at the top of the Pyramid, a sheep heralding a new era in the history of Blue Star’s Evolutionary Sheep..."

Having received the food, the Sheep Leader stopped pawing and looked up at Xiaqing with a sidelong glance.

"I understand. I’ll go get it for you right now, Leader." Stifling a laugh, Xiaqing scurried over and presented the Sheep Leader’s basket. "Thank you for your hard work, Leader. Our entire territory depends on you."

The Sheep Leader took the basket in its mouth, turned, and trotted to the door. It kicked the security door open with one hoof and went out to catch bugs to feed the fish.

Xiaqing didn’t make a sound, but her shoulders were shaking with laughter.

Seeing the Sick Wolf still sitting motionless beside her, Xiaqing handed over its small basket as well, coaxing it gently. "You go catch some bugs too, Second. Let the Leader catch the tough Evolutionary Worms. You can catch the dumb, slow ones. Be careful not to get scratched by them. When you come back from feeding the fish, I’ll cook you some spinach and jerky."

Because of its frail body, the Sick Wolf wasn’t as nimble as the Sheep Leader, but it was very conscientious in its work. When the Sheep Leader fed the fish, it would just toss the basket at the edge of the fishpond. Most of the Evolutionary Worms would fall into the pond, but a good portion would be thrown onto the bank, becoming a free meal for the crows and large Magpies waiting in the nearby trees.

After Xiaqing discovered this, she started timing her visits to sweep the Evolutionary Worms into the fishpond or put them back in the basket to take home and feed the snakes. After watching Xiaqing do this a few times, the Sick Wolf took on this task itself. It would throw some of the bugs into the pond and put the rest back in its basket, guarding them until Xiaqing arrived.

The birds squatting in the trees, discovering there were no more free meals, cursed and grumbled as they showered the Sick Wolf’s head with droppings.

’A tiger stranded on level ground gets bullied by dogs.’ Now that the wolf was sick and weak, even palm-sized birds dared to bully it.

But was this just any sick wolf? Of course not! It was the SSVIP guest of the Third Territory!

After teaching the obnoxious birds a lesson with her slingshot and some pebbles, Xiaqing chopped down the large tree by the fishpond with a few swings of her machete. She dried the trunk and made it into charred wood planks to widen the tatami mat, giving the Sheep Leader and the Sick Wolf more room to sleep. After that, Xiaqing noticed that the look in the Sick Wolf’s eyes grew even clearer.

Now, the Sick Wolf, which had reacted so strongly to seeing the powerful human weapon, had calmed down after being soothed and receiving its "gift." It, too, took its basket in its mouth, opened the security door, and went to work.

Xiaqing put the meat and bones in a large iron pot to simmer slowly over a low fire. Then, she shouldered her medicine pack and went to deliver medicine to the injured wolves in the abandoned cave in the Zone Three Valley.

On the way, Xiaqing opened an app on her phone to check the Red Squirrel’s location. The screen showed only a green dot representing her phone’s position and a red arrow pointing outward. This meant the Red Squirrel, carrying the locator, was more than four kilometers away from her phone. Early morning was when squirrels were most active, so the Red Squirrel had probably gone out to forage for food.

The arrow pointed to the location where the locator had disconnected from the phone. Xiaqing turned her phone, and the small arrow’s direction moved with her, consistently pointing northeast. This large mountainous area to the northeast was all part of Mountain No. 49, so it wasn’t too dangerous.

Xiaqing put her phone away. She planned to deliver the medicine to the wolves and then take a run to the northeast before heading home for breakfast.