A Farm Deep in the Jungle

"Awoo—"

A shrill howl rang out. Before Shen Feng appeared an enormous head, its twisted features seeming to have melted together, beastlike fangs, and a grotesquely bent, muscle-covered body.

His eyes were filled with madness, greed, and an animal's savagery.

He wanted nothing more than to tear these two people apart!

"Barbarian!" Firefly cried out, instantly recognizing the origins of this ugly monster.

The dagger had already pierced the uninvited visitor, protruding from the back of his neck. Yet his body could still move. He clung tightly to Shen Feng, immense strength surging forth as he tried to crush this frail human's bones and ribs!

This guy was unbelievably strong!

Shen Feng let out a muffled grunt. The surface of his body rapidly turned to stone, but it did little good.

Petrified skin could not protect his organs and bones!

At the same time, Shen Feng's muscles rapidly swelled as he fought against the other's strength. Yet he could only maintain a stalemate and could not break free!

The Barbarian seemed equally astonished. He had exerted all his strength, yet he could not crush the other man's bones, as if he were holding a rock!

"Ah—die!" Firefly shouted. Overcoming the fear in her heart, she leaped high into the air and drove the small knife in her hand through the Barbarian's eye socket and into his skull.

The Barbarian's gaze abruptly turned vacant. His hands loosened, and he fell stiffly to the ground.

Shen Feng took a breath. With daggers in hand, he and Firefly stood back-to-back, turning to look around them with grave expressions.

In the dark forest surrounding them, dots of green and red fluorescence appeared one after another.

They were pairs of eyes.

From the darkness came the continuous sounds of swallowing and teeth grinding.

Then dozens of strangely shaped humanoid creatures emerged from the undergrowth, surrounding them completely.

What kind of freakish things were these?

Tentacle-like arms, a single eye, curved snake-like spines, sharp shark-like teeth, enormous heads, bent horns, furry tails.

Every Barbarian displayed a different variation of these features.

Shen Feng instantly thought of the giant-headed Chernobyl babies and photos of spinal deformities he had once seen.

But compared to the mutations before him, those had barely scratched the surface.

The appearances of these Barbarians could hardly be called human anymore.

Their bodies were twisted in a wild and grotesque fashion, much like the trees in a radiation zone.

Their eyes were filled with the same look as animals. Occasionally, a glimmer of clarity belonging to an intelligent creature appeared, only to be swiftly replaced by madness.

All the Barbarians stayed far away from the campfire, seemingly afraid of fire like animals.

But the two prey before them were simply too tempting, nearly enough to make them overcome their fear of flames.

"Shen Feng, do you have any more of those cylinders that explode?" Firefly asked softly, her voice trembling slightly.

"No..." Shen Feng shook his head. "But there's a legend in my hometown. People once used firelight and noise to scare away a monster called Nian..."

Then Shen Feng abruptly straightened up, stretching his body as he beat the two hidden speakers on his chest with both hands. A savage lion's roar instantly rang out!

The roar of the king of beasts echoed through the dim jungle. Combined with Shen Feng's bulging muscles and the blade gleaming in the firelight, it immediately gave off an overwhelmingly powerful impression.

The surrounding Barbarians actually retreated a little. Fear filled their eyes as they looked toward the center of the forest, then turned back to Shen Feng, who was still roaring, as though they feared something.

It worked!

Shen Feng's eyes lit up. Against beastlike creatures such as these, brute force truly was not the answer. He had to outsmart them.

"Roar—" This time, it was a tiger's roar.

Shen Feng had previously downloaded quite a bit of random audio, including the sounds of all kinds of animals. He had not expected it to actually come in handy.

The Barbarians grew even more agitated. They were already hostile toward one another, and something terrifying seemed to have resurfaced in their damaged brains.

That was more like it.

Shen Feng nodded, grabbed a burning branch from the campfire, and waved it at one of the Barbarians. He immediately saw terror on its face.

The thunderous sounds echoed through the area. Every Barbarian now wore a fearful expression, and they kept glancing toward the surrounding forest.

Shen Feng vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

What these Barbarians feared did not seem to be him, but something else...

Just then, a pleasant melody drifted over. It sounded like Schubert's Serenade, the sort of background music usually played in restaurants or cafés.

Along with it came the creaking of rusty wheels turning.

Then, four square, rust-covered metal cabinets emerged from the darkness.

These metal cabinets looked like oversized refrigerators. Solar panels sat on top, each one stood four meters tall, and tracks ran beneath them.

Huge smiling faces were painted on all four sides of the metal cabinets. Several small red and green lights flashed beside them, while a line of words was written in the upper left corner:

"Mijia Farm Robot, the rancher's trusty helper."

What was this thing?

Shen Feng frowned, while the Barbarians acted as though they had seen ghosts. They let out howl after howl. Some turned and fled, while others stood frozen in place, seemingly scared senseless.

Then one farm robot bearing a huge smiley face swiftly approached a Barbarian mutant who was standing there stupidly. Several mechanical claws extended from both sides of its body and seized the Barbarian.

The metal panel at the front abruptly slid open upward and downward, revealing densely packed metal rotary blades inside. In an instant, the mutant was swallowed whole!

"Ah—"

The grinding began at his legs. The Barbarian did not die immediately and let out a miserable scream, but he soon fell completely silent.

Streams of bloody flesh residue were discharged from the rear of the farm robot.

These farm robots seemed to have been part of some slaughtering and processing system. There should originally have been something behind them to collect the minced meat, and the overall processing should have involved more procedures—skinning, deboning, grinding, and so on.

But now, only the grinding process remained.

The metal panels closed like a bloodthirsty maw. The smiley face above remained bright as ever as it turned toward Shen Feng and Firefly.

The other three farm robots simultaneously lit up green lights and began walking toward what their programming recognized as farm animals.

Shen Feng and Firefly exchanged a glance, then immediately turned and ran.

The dozens of Barbarians also began fleeing for their lives. Any who failed to escape in time and were caught were instantly turned into minced meat on the spot.

Shen Feng finally understood why the Barbarians had been so terrified when he roared earlier.

They were afraid of drawing these farm robots here!

Shen Feng cursed inwardly. What kind of hellish place was this?

Why were there things like this here!?

And judging from the exterior paint on these robots, part of it was actually radiation-resistant coating.

These things should have had human-recognition systems, but they had obviously malfunctioned long ago.

Two farm robots rapidly chased after them, apparently convinced that Shen Feng and Firefly were two healthy livestock ready for slaughter.

The direction they were running in led deeper into Death Forest.

The farther Shen Feng ran, the more alarmed he became.

Along the way, quite a few damaged farm robots lay scattered throughout the forest, either buried beneath rotten wood or lying exposed.

This place might once have been a farm!

Because of the radiation, they could only move along winding paths, while the two farm robots could travel in straight lines. They were nearly caught in no time.

Shen Feng tried throwing rocks into the farm robots' rotary blades to jam them, but the blades immediately spun in reverse and pushed the rocks back out.

These things even had an anti-jamming program!

"Warning, warning. Intruders detected."

An electronic synthesized voice sounded. Shen Feng and Firefly abruptly looked up and immediately realized they had burst through a patch of bushes and arrived before an open clearing.

This seemed to be the deepest part of Death Forest!

In the clearing stood a gray reinforced-concrete building, with faint lights still flickering inside!

At the same time, the two machine-gun mounts on the roof suddenly turned, and two targeting lasers shone toward Shen Feng and Firefly!