Chapter 303: What is Its Evolutionary Ability?

Chapter 303: Chapter 303: What is Its Evolutionary Ability?

Da Ya guided Xiaqing through installing the phone app and connecting it to the cameras. Then, he picked a large tree on the high slope and had Xiaqing install a camera on it. As luck would have it, the tree he chose was the Green Light Big Chuntun Tree on the high slope.

Of all the trees on the high slope, this was Xiaqing’s favorite because it had the lowest concentration of Harmful Elements, making it the safest. Installing a camera on the Big Chuntun Tree brought not only the greenhouses on the high and low terraced slopes into the camera’s surveillance range, but also the Green Light Fruit Garden on the high slope.

After installing the camera on the high slope, the two of them went to the east and west sides of the greenhouses south of the reservoir and installed two more cameras.

In reality, this new model of camera had a surveillance radius of 300 meters, so one camera would have been enough for Xiaqing’s few greenhouses south of the reservoir. But Da Ya said installing two was a gesture of goodwill, and Xiaqing certainly didn’t object. After all, the more cameras, the safer the territory.

Next, it was time to install the cameras at her house. Xiaqing gave him a heads-up, "Brother Ya, one of the wolves from my territory is back. You’ll see it when we get to the house. As long as you don’t get close to it or draw a weapon, it won’t attack you."

Da Ya had seen the wolves in Xiaqing’s territory before and wasn’t worried at all. "I heard from Brother San. Which one came back? The one with the broken leg, Broken Waist, or the one infected with parasites?"

It was one thing when she called them that, but hearing it from Da Ya made Xiaqing feel as though all the wolves she knew were having a rough time. Leading the way, Xiaqing explained, "The one infected with parasites. It came back to continue recovering. It’s not fully healed yet, but it can run and jump and has regained its combat ability."

’So, Second wasn’t doing so badly.’

After hearing Xiaqing’s story about encountering the Sick Wolf in the Evolution Forest, Da Ya asked, "What’s this wolf’s Evolutionary Ability?"

Xiaqing paused for two seconds. "...I haven’t been able to tell yet."

Da Ya chuckled and tried to smooth things over. "Then it’s probably a balanced, all-around evolution."

The Sick Wolf and Sheep Leader, having finished their baths, were drying their fur on the hay under the eaves. With a full belly and clean fur, the Sick Wolf felt comfortable all over as it lay on the hay, getting drowsy.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, the Sick Wolf opened its eyes, stood up, and stared cautiously at the courtyard gate.

"BAA," bleated Sheep Leader. It remained lying on the hay, chewing its cud, its actions telling the Sick Wolf not to be nervous—Xiaqing was here.

But when the Sick Wolf saw Da Ya following behind Xiaqing, its gaze immediately turned fierce. It adopted an attack stance, ready to tear the human to shreds.

Under Xiaqing’s care, the Sick Wolf had put on some weight. Its fur, freshly washed and fluffy, made its aggressive posture look quite intimidating.

Da Ya, who hadn’t been nervous before, felt his heart pound. He pulled back the leg he was about to step into the courtyard with and whispered to Xiaqing, "This wolf has recovered a lot. It looks much fiercer than last time."

"It was scared by the wolf howls from the loudspeaker last time, so it’s become more vigilant than before after returning to human territory. Brother Ya, wait here a moment. I’ll get it to go back inside," Xiaqing explained, then entered the courtyard to soothe the Sick Wolf.

Da Ya watched as the Evolutionary Wolf, which had been so ferocious toward him, obediently followed Xiaqing’s words and went inside with the Evolutionary Sheep. He couldn’t help but respect Xiaqing even more.

’A human who can tame a wild, adult Evolutionary Wolf must be special.’

Once the wolf and sheep were inside, Da Ya quickly chose the locations for the cameras. "If you cut down those few trees between the back of the house and the farming greenhouse, the camera for the farmland will be able to monitor the area behind the house. Then, bury a three-meter-tall wooden post here and mount the camera on it. The entire courtyard and that large patch of ruins to the south will be covered."

"Okay, I’ll get to digging later." Trees had a dangerous possibility of undergoing Qiang Evolution during the Harmful Rain, which was why Xiaqing had cleared all the large trees near her house. To maximize the camera’s utility, she couldn’t mount it on the wall; she had to bury a post.

Since there was a wolf in the house, it was inconvenient for Da Ya to go inside, so he explained things to Xiaqing in the courtyard. "These are the highest security-level cameras available right now. All the data they collect is encrypted. If anyone tries to steal the data, they’ll be detected, and you’ll get an immediate alert on your phone. But..."

Da Ya lowered his voice. "You can’t just passively rely on the alert function. Use them for a few days, and once you have some baseline video footage, I’ll edit a few clips for you and then install an anti-hacking program..."

Xiaqing understood what Da Ya was saying at first, but then she got lost. Still, she felt the image of the man standing before her, who was shorter than she was, grow twice as tall with his words. "Brother Ya, I never knew you had these kinds of skills!"

"This is how I made a living before the Natural Disaster," Da Ya explained simply, then brought up the price of the cameras. "One camera is twenty thousand, so four is eighty thousand. How many kilograms of the Green Light Chinese Fir Fruit you just picked do you have?"

’One of the cameras Da Ya brought could buy a hundred of the common ones found in the Safe Zone. But you get what you pay for. The cameras in the Safe Zone were made of ordinary materials and offered no protection against damage from Evolutionary Animals, making them useless in a territory. The ones Da Ya brought were made of a new material and were military-grade; I would’ve taken them even if they cost thirty thousand, let alone twenty thousand.’

Only then did Xiaqing take the Green Light Chinese Fir Fruit out of her backpack. "40 kilograms."

Da Ya quickly calculated. "It usually takes 5 kilograms of Fragrant Nut Fruit to produce 1 kilogram of dried fruit. Brother San wants two kilograms, so with the pulp, that’s a total of 1,760 points. Let’s round it. Just give me 78,200 points for the cameras."

After transferring the points to Da Ya, Xiaqing had over thirty-one thousand points left from selling the fish, which was enough to build a fence around her territory. She was very satisfied.

Da Ya pointed to the cardboard box on the ground that had held the cameras, giving Xiaqing a meaningful look to indicate something was inside. Xiaqing understood immediately, nodded vigorously, and cupped her fists in a gesture of thanks.

’Although it’s just the two of us here, who knows if there’s a Top-Level Auditory Evolver in a nearby territory? The medicine for treating physical injuries can’t be revealed to outsiders. We have to be cautious.’

"I’m heading out. If you have any problems with the cameras, just let me know," Da Ya said. As he was about to leave, he heard the clucking of hens from the chicken coop.

Xiaqing asked Da Ya to wait. "The chickens I got from Brother San a few months ago started laying eggs yesterday. Wait a moment, Brother Ya. Take a couple of eggs back for Brother San to try."

’Green Light food was Brother San’s favorite.’ Although Territory Land No. 7 wasn’t short on eggs, Da Ya still happily accepted the "Thank you gift" for Lord No. 3, adding a reminder, "Try to feed the Green Light Chickens as much edible fodder and filtered water as you can. Otherwise, if they ingest too many Harmful Elements over time, the quality of the chickens will decline."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Ya," Xiaqing said.

Her Green Light Chickens were indeed semi-free-range, eating wild insects of unknown quality and pecking at various wild grasses. But Xiaqing fed them wheat bran mixed with vegetable leaves and Pollution-free Spring Water every day, and even protected them with Yi Stones during the Harmful Rain, so she wasn’t worried about their quality declining at all.

The Yi Stones and the Pollution-free Spring Water were the source of her confidence in farming and raising chickens.

After seeing Da Ya out of the territory, Xiaqing found a pine log over four meters tall, carried it home, dug a hole in the southeast corner of her courtyard, and installed the last camera on it.

After opening the surveillance software, Xiaqing registered her own face and figure, as well as those of Sheep Leader and the Sick Wolf, into the system. She then stressed the importance of the cameras to her two companions, telling them they absolutely must not damage them. Only then did she propose a plan, "Leader, Second, how about you two go catch some insects to feed the fish, and I’ll go clear the trees behind our house?"

After her two companions left the house, Xiaqing immediately opened the phone app. She watched them appear on screen carrying small baskets in their mouths, and sure enough, the cameras didn’t sound an alarm. Xiaqing tapped the intelligent recognition feature, and the names she had set, "Sheep Leader" and "Wolf the Second," immediately appeared above her two companions’ heads.

’A camera that cost 20,000 points was indeed much smarter than one from the Safe Zone that cost 200.’ With these four cameras in her territory, Xiaqing would feel much more at ease leaving for the Evolution Forest.