After this battle, the Lin Mo Hunting Special Task Force's reputation at Outpost No. 03 soared.
Wang Feng's trust in them also increased significantly. Not only did he readily approve their request to expand their hunting grounds, he even provided them with maps of areas the outpost had yet to fully explore, hoping they could serve as the outpost's "feelers" and venture farther afield.
In the days that followed, the convoy stopped limiting itself to familiar patrol routes and began heading toward the "unknown areas" marked on the map. The three Armored Vehicles were like three sharp blades, cutting into the vast and dangerous wilderness.
But reality soon began to show its dull side.
They crossed weathered canyons strewn with jagged boulders, waded through shallows choked with aquatic plants, and ventured deep into primeval forests where the light was dim and vines tangled everywhere. The drones buzzed ahead like industrious bees, circling constantly and sending back live footage.
But their haul fell far short of expectations.
The Beast General Rank monsters seemed to have caught wind of them overnight and gone into hiding. After several days of exploring and searching, nearly all they encountered were groups of Beast Soldier Rank monsters.
Sometimes, a tide of hundreds of Iron-Toothed Rats came surging toward them, a black mass that Wang Haitao's Heavy Machine Gun and Wang Keke's Flying Daggers cut down like stalks of wheat, leaving carnage across the ground. Lin Mo couldn't even be bothered to lift a paw. These little things barely amounted to a mouthful of energy.
"Rats again! Can't we get something new? This king's about to develop trypophobia!"
At other times, they ran into herds of irritable Hard-Skinned Warthogs, which charged wildly with their coarse, thick hides and sharp tusks. Shield Warrior Li Kai had to hold them off before Lin Mo stepped in and crushed their skulls with one slap each. The Advanced Beast Soldier warthogs yielded a little more energy, but to Lin Mo it was still a drop in the bucket—not to mention that they were no help in inheriting talents.
"What a drag! It's just like whack-a-mole—there's no challenge at all! And this pork's so tough!"
They also cleared out a Venom-Tailed Scorpion nest and a cave inhabited by Vampire Bats... It wasn't that there was no fighting, but the intensity couldn't compare to hunting the Wolf King or the Forest Anaconda. The members of the Wind-Breaking Squad still carried out their missions meticulously, but even their eyes had taken on a hint of the numbness that came with routine.
Lin Mo was so bored he was about to yawn on the roof of the vehicle.
"This is bad, this is bad! I seem to have fallen into another kind of 'day job'! Isn't this just an advanced version of patrolling? We've just swapped the trash around the outpost for trash in unknown territory! Hunting? What hunting? We can't even find a decent target!"
He realized that the hardest and most time-consuming part of hunting was often not the battle itself, but the process of searching for and identifying worthwhile prey. It took tremendous patience, luck, and expertise to analyze tracks and determine habits. That was a far cry from the scene he'd imagined: hacking through enemies with ease and feasting on delicacies every day.
"Report: three kilometers northeast, a small herd of Sharp-Horned Antelope spotted, around thirty head. There appears to be an Advanced Beast Soldier leader," the scout Li Ning reported over the communicator.
Wang Deshui looked up at Lin Mo on the roof. "Your Majesty the Tiger King, the target is a herd of Sharp-Horned Antelope. Should we hunt them?"
Lin Mo lifted his eyelids, lazily flicked his tail, and yawned.
"Antelope? They're pretty fast. The meat should be all right, but what talent could they have? [Agility]? This king already has [Lightning Strike]! Forget it, even a mosquito's leg is meat. Better than coming away empty-handed."
He gave a listless growl of assent.
The battle was utterly one-sided. The sniper took out the leader from a distance, and Lin Mo didn't even bother using [Lightning Strike]. A simple pounce was enough for him to deal with most of the antelope. The whole process was efficient and quick, but also... unremarkable.
As the team cleaned up the battlefield, Lin Mo lay on a large rock, watching them expertly skin the carcasses and cut the meat. His golden tiger eyes were full of frustration.
"So hunting isn't as easy as I thought... The whole process of spotting prey and tracking it down is so boring and such a pain! It's like searching for a needle in a haystack! Are all the powerful monsters dead? Or has this king run out of luck?"
He began to miss the Horned Forest Python. The fight had been grueling, but at least it had been satisfying, and the rewards had been substantial. Unlike now, when he'd spent several days swallowing all sorts of Beast Soldier odds and ends, and his strength had grown so slowly he could barely feel it.
Wang Keke came over and rubbed one of his drooping ears, trying to comfort him. "Mimi, don't be discouraged. Exploring unknown territory is just like this. Most of the time, you're traveling and searching; battles only happen now and then. Mapping out this area in detail is a great achievement in itself."
"An achievement? This king wants evolution! Talents! Energy! Who cares about a little credit!" Lin Mo turned his head aside and presented Wang Keke with his backside to show his displeasure.
Still, he knew Wang Keke had a point. Exploration itself had value. It was just that, to him, when he urgently needed high-quality "ingredients" to break through, that value seemed rather beside the point.
The convoy continued onward, crushing the dry grass beneath its wheels as it drove deeper into the wilderness. Lin Mo gazed at the boundless landscape stretching ahead and quietly made up his mind.
"No, I can't keep searching aimlessly like this! I need to figure something out. Either find the patterns in Beast General Rank monsters' movements, or... go provoke a real big shot! If I keep clearing out these little fry, when will I ever break through to Beast General Rank?!"
The tedious exploration continued, but the Tiger King's restlessness was already building like a gathering storm. He needed a real, exhilarating hunt to break this maddening calm.
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