Pick 20% and kill them?
Inside the hall, the numerous Black Rat stared at their chieftain, somewhat bewildered.
This plan is indeed less radical than the previous one that killed all the Calamity Beast below, but the problem is, it doesn't solve the problem either!
Will this plan be able to find those Calamity Beast hiding among the herd that are truly trying to escape?
Obviously, that won't work!
We can't expect that randomly selected 20% of the Calamity Beast will just happen to include all of them, can we?!
Even the dumbest guy in the tribe wouldn't dare to think like that!
Why did the clan chief bring that up?
The Black Rat looked at their chieftain with suspicion.
Based on their understanding of the clan leader, the clan leader shouldn't be unaware of this problem!
"Chieftain, this..."
Let me finish speaking.
Upon hearing this, one Black Rat after another stared intently at their chieftain, awaiting what would follow.
Under the watchful eyes of the other rats, the Black Rat Chief slowly spoke:
"The first thing you need to do is, as I just said, pick out 20% of the Calamity Beast and kill them!"
"After that, the mining tasks that originally belonged to them were assigned to the remaining Calamity Beast."
"In this way, the remaining Calamity Beast will be unable to handle the sudden increase in tasks and will not be able to mine enough ore."
"After that, you just need to punish them according to their missing share, as usual."
"However, this time the punishment should be lighter, enough to cause them pain, but not so much that it will significantly impact their mining the next day."
"If this continues day after day, only a small percentage will eventually be able to complete their daily tasks!"
"Then, you will take that small portion of the Calamity Beast..."
After a slight pause, the Black Rat Chief looked at the Black Rat staring intently at him and said in an icy tone:
"Catch him and kill him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell slightly quiet.
The Black Rat were deep in thought.
Having dealt with the mines all day, they quickly realized that the chieftain wanted to use this method to filter out the stronger Calamity Beast from the herd!
This method does indeed work!
Those who can complete their mining tasks every day under such high intensity must be stronger than other Calamity Beast in overall strength.
but...
"Chieftain, in that case, we might not be able to find those who devised this plan and are hiding among the beasts, right?" Black Rat Gray Whiskers asked.
Upon hearing this, the other Black Rat also looked at their chieftain with puzzled expressions.
"When did I say I was looking for them?" the Black Rat Chief retorted.
Upon hearing this, the Black Rat in the room were all slightly taken aback.
"Aren't we going to look for... them?"
"You still haven't figured out what we should really be doing," the Black Rat Chief sighed slowly.
Not daring to respond, the Black Rat exchanged bewildered glances.
The Black Rat Chief looked up at them and said in a heavy tone:
"If you were in that situation, and were forced to mine like this, would you consider running away?"
There was a brief silence in the room upon hearing this, before a response rang out.
"If given the chance, they would definitely try to escape!" Black Spine said from the side.
"Yes, that's right!"
The Black Rat Chief nodded, his gaze remaining fixed on them as he said:
"In other words, as long as we keep letting them mine, it's impossible to stop this idea."
Even if we find and kill the real Calamity Beast this time, there will still be another batch of Calamity Beast trying to escape!
"It's just a matter of whether things get a little bigger or a little smaller!"
There was no response. The Black Rat stared, unsure of what to say.
After a while, one of the Black Rat finally raised its paw and scratched its head, looking somewhat annoyed.
"But we can't just ignore them completely!"
"Of course we should manage it, otherwise I wouldn't have revealed that plan!" the Black Rat Chief said in a deep voice.
Upon hearing this, the Black Rat seemed to only then realize what was happening, and said:
"That plan—to weed out the strongest among those guys and kill them?"
"Um!"
The Black Rat Chief slowly nodded, then looked at them and said:
Does anyone know the purpose of this plan?
Not daring to reply immediately, the Black Rat turned and looked at each other.
Finally, one of the Black Rat spoke:
"Once we kill the strongest of the selected horde of Calamity Beast beasts, the rest are no longer a concern. They're not strong enough, and no other Calamity Beast would believe them if they said they wanted to escape!"
"Um!"
The Black Rat Chief slowly nodded, then looked at them and said in a solemn tone:
"Remember this: as long as we continue to let the Calamity Beast below mine, their desire to escape will not be stopped, nor can it be stopped!"
"There's only one thing we really need to do!"
"Take care of those stronger, more assertive individuals!"
"In this way, even if the remaining ones have the idea of escaping, they can only run away on their own, and will no longer have the ability to incite others..."
The following day, the group headed to the mine again.
"... So, have you found any clues?"
A question came from inside.
The Black Jade Lion glanced sideways at the approaching Steel-Mane Bear and said in a low voice:
No, what about you?
"Neither do I," Steel-Mane Bear replied.
Upon hearing this, the Black Jade Lion nodded without any surprise.
After what happened yesterday, they immediately went to find the Spiny-Back Lizard that had previously helped contact other Calamity Beast, but unfortunately, they couldn't find it.
So they went to find another Calamity Beast that had previously helped the Steel-Mane Bear search for the other creatures.
But again, it wasn't found.
This idea seems to confirm some of their previous guesses.
However, due to some uncertainty, they spent a day re-checking the existing, surviving Calamity Beast that had entered with them.
Nineteen, that's the current number!
The initial number of surviving Calamity Beast discovered was 34!
There are 15 more of them!
They did a careful calculation.
According to the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros, three of them died on their first expedition.
Ten Calamity Beast were sent out a second time to search for the possible escape route discovered in the first expedition.
Next, there were three more Calamity Beast that had helped Steel-Mane Bear find the other guys who came in with it.
There appear to be sixteen, but the problem is that one of the Calamity Beast that helped find the others who came in together was at the mine of the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros and the Gray-Clawed Xingxing; it was sent out.
In other words, it was included in the teams that went out to explore the first and second times, and it was counted twice!
After removing the duplicate count, there are exactly fifteen!
The exact amount sent a chill down their spines.
It's one thing for the Calamity Beast that went out to explore to die, but why did the two Calamity Beast that didn't go out and had seen the other creatures also die?
Everything confirmed their previous guesses.
There was indeed something helping them from the side!