Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Wasteland, Scavenger Vulture, Baiting with the Body

Ding Yi hesitated for a moment, then understood what Lin Feng meant:

“They are edible, but hard to kill.”

“They are the most cautious scavengers on this wasteland…”

“They follow a target and only approach slowly after confirming the prey is completely dead and pose no danger. If there’s any disturbance within a hundred or two hundred meters, they’ll fly away immediately.”

“At this distance, the bow and arrow of the deserters don’t have enough power. Professional Desert Hunting Teams with rifles don’t value the few scraps of meat on a Scavenger Vulture.”

“Because rifle bullets are more expensive.”

At this point, Ding Yi sighed softly:

“Don’t even think about it, unless you press your gun to their face, or else it’s not even as good as a firestick. Wait for me to look around for any lizards, beetles, or ants.”

Lin Feng took a deep breath, smelling the foul stench coming from his right leg, he shook his head:

“They are the only large prey in sight.”

“How much longer until we set off again?”

Ding Yi was already rummaging through the rocks, pulling out a ten-centimeter-long dagger knife from her waist, her hands and feet agile:

“We’ve walked for nearly eight hours, covering twenty kilometers. Now we have sixteen hours left, but Captain Chen needs eight hours of rest, leaving eight hours to gather food.”

“This is the life of most deserters on the wasteland, unless you have enough strength and resources to catch up with the main force, spend a fortune to get on a motorhome, and have a decent sleep.”

“If you rest while on the move, time becomes more ample.”

“I heard that in the advanced RVs of the Evolvers, there’s even a special electric fan and air conditioning…”

As she spoke, Ding Yi licked her deeply cracked white lips; after more than a month, she’d forgotten the feel of cool air:

“Able to drink the condensate from the air conditioner!”

Lin Feng’s mind conjured up memories of air-conditioned rooms, especially missing them under the scorching forty-degree heat:

“So… is this still Earth?”

Ding Yi nodded, then shook her head:

“It’s Earth, but not as it used to be. We’ve lost much of our memory during dormancy, and only by constantly evolving can we recall the past.”

“The captain has been awake for over five years, covering almost forty thousand kilometers. The equator is just over forty thousand kilometers; her awakening point is nearby, so she’s been saving people lately.”

Lin Feng squinted his eyes, acknowledging the captain’s strength:

“Is she looking for her family from the past?”

Ding Yi glanced at Lin Feng, using the knife to dig out an unidentified root from a rock crevice:

“That’s right. You have delicate skin and handsome looks, definitely wealthy or noble before. Once you regain your memory, you might help recall things.”

Lin Feng licked his cracked lips, only remembering vague fragments about his past.

But none of that mattered; what was important now was finding meat by any means possible, to survive!

Lin Feng then struggled to stand and tore the bandage from his right leg, revealing a mass of roots soaked in putrid pus.

Enduring the immense pain, he peeled them off with trembling hands, exposing a dozen-centimeter long, festering wound to the air.

“No known anti-inflammatory herbs, let’s try this.”

Ding Yi tasted the unknown root in her hand, confirmed the sour and numbing sensation on her tongue, and walked towards the cart.

Lin Feng shook his head. He was too weak, and no amount of herbs would help.

After applying the putrid pus from the roots on both hands, he said to the woman in front of him, who looked puzzled:

“Just like this, bury me…”

Ding Yi paused, then felt a bit angered:

“You don’t want to live anymore? You’re the first to give up so soon! It’s a waste of the captain’s goodwill. I should’ve listened to Qi Mountain, selling you off early!”

Lin Feng smiled, smeared the pus onto his face, and slowly raised the revolver, aiming at the black dot far in the sky:

“I can’t hold on much longer, starving to death is a slow demise, might as well give it one last shot.”

“Bury me under that obvious scorched earth, cover with a layer of yellow sand. The rest… leave it to me.”

Ding Yi was stupefied, only realizing Lin Feng intended to play dead, lure the Scavenger Vultures down and ambush them.

Looking at the man’s pale face and determined eyes, Ding Yi felt a strange sensation, even ignoring the strong stench he emitted.

Then she put away the roots, pushed the cart:

“To use oneself as bait, facing death… to live.”

“I’m quite curious, who exactly were you before… Adapting so quickly too.”

Lin Feng lay on the cart, tightly gripping the revolver:

“I… just want to live…”

……

More than ten minutes later, Lin Feng was “abandoned” two hundred meters away from the temporary camp, on a barren scorched earth.

The smell of decay wafted into the air along with the heat, following the wound on his right leg.

Soon, those Scavenger Vultures circling the horizon gradually lowered their altitude, hovering a hundred to two hundred meters above Lin Feng’s head from a thousand meters high.

They were verifying if the prey was truly dead.

Time ticked by, second by second, until ten minutes later…

When Lin Feng was nearly at the end, a small group of Scavenger Vultures landed just a few dozen meters away from him.

They cautiously approached this side.

Hopping and hopping, craning their necks, eyes darting suspiciously.

Hearing the noise, Lin Feng came to his senses, narrowed his eyes slightly, half-drooping them, leaving only narrow slits, holding his breath and concentrating.

With his weakened and pale cheeks and the rotting stench emanating from his body, he looked like someone long dead.

Before long, a hungry Scavenger Vulture mustered the courage to come up, tilting its neck sideways, glaring with its marble-sized red eyes, observing the human half-buried in the ground.

The nauseating stench from the prey was, to the Scavenger Vulture’s eyes, a rare delicacy.

Due to the scarcity of food, most carnivores on the Wilderness have evolved to develop scavenging abilities, but few animals actually prefer eating carrion.

The Scavenger Vulture just happens to be one of the few.

Birds have a straightforward digestive system; in fact, they often need to peck at gravel and sand to aid digestion, while the creatures in the Wilderness have low moisture content, with thick blood and flesh that is like wind-dried cured meat, even harder to digest.

So Scavenger Vultures sometimes wait for the corpse to undergo initial bacterial fermentation, becoming soft and mushy, before tearing into the carrion and devouring it ravenously.

Fortunately, before playing dead, Lin Feng specifically endured the nausea to spread the foul pus from his right leg all over his body, to lower the Scavenger Vultures’ guard…

In the Scavenger Vultures’ eyes, this was basically a delicious meal delivered to their door.

The hungry Scavenger Vulture approached the foul-smelling right leg wound, using its hooked beak to peck at the rotten flesh…

Seeing this, the rest of the flock let down their guard.

Driven by hunger, they gradually approached.

The pain from the Scavenger Vulture’s pecks made Lin Feng exceedingly alert.

He bit his tongue hard, breaking out in cold sweat.

But the craving for food and fear of death overcame the increasingly numb pain nerves.

Keeping his body rigid, secretly gathering strength.

Until more and more Scavenger Vultures gathered…

Lin Feng seized the opportunity, gripped one Scavenger Vulture’s talons with his left hand, and with his right hand, which held the 05 Revolver, raised it instantly!

And fired wildly at the flock of vultures around him!

Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang!

Six bullets fired in one go!

The revolver has many drawbacks, but it never jams. Even with a dud round, it simply advances to the next shot.

Therefore, rapid firing is very smooth.

And the reduced power of the 05 Revolver makes the recoil very manageable, easy to control.

Even someone as weakened as Lin Feng could manage to control it to spray fire at the flock of Scavenger Vultures.

After emptying all the bullets, along with a series of gunshots, the flock of Scavenger Vultures instantly scattered like a frightened flock of animals!

Among them, four unlucky ones were hit at close range by the 05 Revolver, losing their stable flight ability, flapping awkwardly on the ground, or struggling to glide a few dozen meters before crashing down.

And the Scavenger Vulture whose talons Lin Feng clutched tightly was startled, frantically flapping its wings, pecking with its sharp beak at his arm, trying to break free.

This was the one kept for the worst-case scenario.

But by this time, Lin Feng had exhausted all his energy, barely able to lift his hand, with weakening strength in his left hand.

Just as he was about to let go, a steel bar pierced through the struggling Scavenger Vulture, driving it straight into a rock crevice.

The next moment, Lin Feng was completely spent, collapsing to the ground.

With a sidelong glance, he saw a person bending a bow, aiming,

Shooting down the other wounded Scavenger Vultures attempting to flee.

Before he closed his eyes and fainted…

A reminder flashed in the corner of his eye:

“Scavenger Vulture, lv1/9, deceased”

“Life Value: 0, Physique: 5, Spirit: 3; Each lv1 attribute upper limit 10”

“Evaluation: A survival master of the Wasteland, the harbinger of death, often cooperating with other carnivores, guiding them in hunting and eliminating the old, the weak, and the sick. The meat is dry, hard, sour, and fishy, with energy-rich chest muscles.”

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