Chapter 224: Gaemi’s New Nest

After being captured by those people, they had initially thrown things like unwanted organs and other scraps of food to it.

However, they had not left it any food at all during the past few days.

It was both hungry and thirsty.

At first, it had pretended to be dead in an attempt to make them let it go, but now it was genuinely close to starving to death.

However, the person standing in front of it now was not either of the two people it had seen before.

There was also the smell of blood.

Joo Joowon did not miss the fox’s act of observing him. Considering the distribution of foxes, he guessed that it was probably a mutated red fox, and red foxes happened to be very cunning animals.

He did not know whether the fox was pretending to be dead or genuinely on the verge of death. Life energy was a very complicated thing. With Joo Joowon’s current perception, neither the fox’s energy field nor the two men’s energy fields were particularly strong. In his eyes, there was not much difference between them. Otherwise, he would not have mistaken the fox’s condition.

However, since the fox could be locked inside a cage and was unable to escape on its own, it was clearly not a mutated beast either.

This made Joo Joowon directly open the cage. "Alright, you’re on your own now."

He had no intention of bringing every animal he encountered back to his home. Not to mention that this was a completely useless fox with a strong smell.

The silver fox did not move, looking as though it truly had no strength left at all. Joo Joowon did not care either. There was nothing in this house worth coveting, so after opening the cage, he simply left.

Only after Joo Joowon had walked far away did the silver fox suddenly dart out of the cage.

Naturally, the silver fox’s movements could not escape Joo Joowon’s sharp senses, but he did not care. The nature of wild animals was to fear humans. It was not as though he could expect an animal to immediately bow its head and pledge loyalty to him.

In all the years Joo Joowon had lived, apart from Byeol, he had never had another cat approach him and cling to him on its own. He had always been the one to take the initiative and approach them.

It was only after he began raising Byeol that perhaps his aura or presence had somehow changed, causing him to occasionally encounter little cats that would willingly approach him on their own.

After leaving the house, Joo Joowon looked at the sky. He did not go any farther to investigate the surrounding area. There was still plenty of time tomorrow.

He sensed the location of the queen ant, Gaemi, and discovered that she had already stopped moving, so he immediately headed over.

After sensing Joo Joowon’s approach, Gaemi stood up from the ground and moved her two antennae.

Everything around here will do!

Joo Joowon looked around at the surrounding environment. This place was somewhat far from the farmland and even farther from the main road. It was considered one of the relatively undeveloped areas nearby, with some shrubs and weeds growing freely. Further inside was a pine forest. After passing through the pine forest, there was another road on the opposite side, along with some houses and other buildings.

While driving the wheel loader around, Joo Joowon had already gotten a general understanding of the surrounding area. Compared to this side, there were many more houses over there. It looked as though almost all of the residential plots belonging to the entire village had been preserved.

That was also why Joo Joowon had given up on that area. More buildings meant too many uncertainties. If there were a lot of living people there, it was not as though he could make them move away one by one.

"Alright, then let’s settle on this place." Joo Joowon could not see anything wrong with this location. It was impossible for large animals to be living in the pine forest, and there did not seem to be any on the mountain side either, so it was relatively safe. There was also a house only a few steps ahead, which was a place he had already explored. It happened to be suitable as a temporary residence.

Gaemi moved her antennae. How big should the tunnel be?

She looked at Joo Joowon’s body size and hesitated somewhat. If she were the only ant doing the work, she did not know how long it would take to dig a tunnel large enough for him to enter.

"As long as you can get inside yourself, that’s enough. There’s no rush." Joo Joowon reinforced the mental imprint on her body, then pulled off all the crab legs from the crab stored inside his spatial waist pendant and handed them to Gaemi. "You can stay here for now. I’ll come back to find you when I have time."

Gaemi happily hugged the crab legs and immediately agreed. She felt as though a happy life was waving at her.

Haha, finally, I don’t have to face those two giant furball anymore!

She immediately began digging. The stamina of a queen ant was actually not bad at all. After all, when an ant nest was first established, the queen ant had to dig it out little by little by herself.

Moreover, Gaemi was a mutated beast. Her digging speed was much faster than that of an ordinary queen ant. In a very short time, a small pile of freshly dug soil had already appeared beside her.

Joo Joowon watched for a while and felt that Gaemi did not need his help, so he left with peace of mind.

Perhaps the severed limbs and remains scattered across the ground had provided enough deterrence. When Joo Joowon returned, he did not see any signs of fighting around the area.