Enemies Are All Nourishment for My Fungi..

After a brief rest at noon, we continued to hunt giant frogs in groups in the afternoon.

Ye Nai didn’t play games like she did in the morning, instead she pulled an off-road vehicle out of the Space to replace a tracked vehicle, and a logistics member taught her how to drive.

You could say she had a bit of talent in operating machinery; after practicing for an afternoon, she could drive in a straight line normally. By evening, when the walkie-talkie called her to retrieve a giant frog, she drove there herself, with the logistics member who taught her sitting in the passenger’s seat, watching as she steadily parked the car without hitting anyone.

As usual, the giant frog remains were collected into the Space, and its internal organs were put into several cages before being sunk into the water on the spot.

When everyone was about to get back into the vehicle to return to the camp, the walkie-talkie rang again, calling Ye Nai to collect birds.

A group of people arrived at the location where the bird-catching nets had been set up and witnessed a battlefield of humans fighting the birds.

Setting up bird-catching nets was to capture live birds, a high-difficulty task, but for the sake of scientific research, new animals had to be captured for samples whenever they were discovered.

Actually, some live water snakes should also have been brought back, but snakes were much more dangerous than water birds. What if they wiped out the researchers?

However, none of these wild water birds were of a tame variety; each one was full of wildness, struggling desperately after being caught in the net, resulting in their bodies being bloodstained.

The warriors wore protective gear to catch the birds, and even through the thick protective gloves, they were pecked painfully. The long legs, suited for wading through wetlands, kicked hard, and their large wings smacked faces just like slapping, making a loud slapping noise.

Luckily, the protective gear worn by the warriors was effective this time, and it wasn’t torn apart, although their faces were a bit swollen from the slapping.

Ye Nai arrived and immediately took out several large iron cages.

First, the birds were classified by their feathers, with birds of the same kind being put into one cage, not stuffed to death, and leaving some room for movement.

Then she watched as the birds in the cages fought each other, feathers flying and a cacophony of squawks filling the air.

Some birds were alone, placed in a single cage, only to watch as they incessantly rammed into the sides, committing suicide by hitting themselves against the cage, eventually dying from the impact.

All of this process was recorded by people specially assigned for this task.

"Why are so many dying when they were caught alive and brought back? These videos are the explanation," the team members patted the cameras mounted on their shoulders, "For the task of capturing live creatures, this is definitely a must-have."

Ye Nai nodded repeatedly, showing a humble and eager-to-learn expression, deciding to buy one when she got back.

Even if it wasn’t for the task of capturing live creatures, having a camera handy wasn’t a bad idea.

As for the various self-destructive behaviors of the water birds, humans did not interfere. The large cages were secured on top of the vehicles, new bait was reinstalled on the bird-catching nets, and Ye Nai pulled out another off-road vehicle to return to the camp together.

Back at camp, the bird cages were offloaded at a corner of the camp, and Ye Nai sprinkled them with spores to stabilize their Life Force, so they wouldn’t die halfway.

They wouldn’t be fed water or food that day; they would wait until tomorrow to avoid them fighting again after eating.

Before nightfall, after having dinner, and as the people not on guard duty were preparing to rest, a raucous sound of birds screaming suddenly came from the sky, followed by waves of foul odor spreading over the heads of the people.

"Bird droppings attack!" Ye Nai shouted loudly, experienced in such matters, "Quick, back to the tents!"

Everyone ran into their own tents at the fastest speed they’d ever mustered, rummaging through their personal luggage for gas masks to wear in case the pervading disgusting smell contained unknown components that could cause allergies or other discomfort.

The walkie-talkies of every person buzzed, with everyone talking at once.

"What is this? Birds retaliating? Are the water birds around here this united?"

"Thank goodness we set up the nets in advance."

Several tents shot out beams of light like searchlights, sweeping over the campground floor.

"Just swept the floor, no bird droppings, hoping they all landed on the nets."

"We strung up three layers of nets, which should block most of it."

"Can’t see clearly at night, let’s wait until morning."

"Now you know how it feels to have your tractor covered in a load of bird shit? I washed the car for a whole day, and all my car wash money went on water charges," Ye Nai couldn’t help but complain.

Laughter filled the walkie-talkies.

The bird droppings attack lasted for five or six minutes before ending, but the stench lingered on and on, forcing everyone to tighten their tent zippers and sleep with their masks on.

It was impossible to keep watch, in the end, it was the Earth Element warriors who circled the camp with a strong earthen wall that saw everyone through the night.

The only one who had a good night’s sleep was Ye Nai.

She removed her gas mask, her energy quickly circulating inside her body, her nasal passages filled with fungus, filtering the foul air for her, breathing in nothing but clean air.

At dawn, everyone checked for damages and were pleasantly surprised to find very few bird droppings on the ground and tents, with the majority stopped by the three layers of protective nets above the camp.

Of course, those three nets were no longer of any use.

Everyone swiftly dismantled the nets, rolled them into a large ball, and the logistics team members took them to a downwind location to burn.

Ye Nai took out three worn old nets from Space and set up three new layers of protective nets.

It’s all about recycling, old nets are plentiful.

After cleaning up the few scattered droppings in the camp, the air finally cleared. The only place that still stank was the corner where the bird cages had been placed the day before, but since that was downwind of the camp, one wouldn’t smell it unless going to feed or water.

The water birds locked up all night now looked listless, and the warriors carefully removed the dead birds from the cages, put down bowls of food and water, and then covered them with several layers of old nets, allowing a little light but not much, mainly for ventilation. The rain tarp was thick and heavy, cutting off all air when placed over the cages.

After breakfast, they split into groups and went to the water’s edge to pull up the shrimp cages they had set the day before, handing them over to Ye Nai, then went hunting, collecting innards for bait.

Ye Nai continued practicing driving in this wide-open space; flooring the gas pedal, she played at racing the track vehicle.

The logistics team member who taught her to drive was firmly convinced that Ye Nai was addicted to racing, but this fearless spirit was also a merit, like when one needs to escape, save lives, or pursue, a driver who can race can save a lot of time.

Days passed at a leisurely pace, with more and more prey being caught.

The giant frog remained the main target. After a few days, it was pretty certain that these amphibians weren’t the type to hibernate and lie still, asleep yet waking to feed when hungry.

As long as you didn’t let it jump, it was easy to kill; two Quadruple Multi-barrel Cannons could take out one. But once it started moving, it was fast, jumping distances of up to a hundred meters, escaping the range of the multi-barrel cannon in just a few leaps.

The high-altitude guns meant to defend against fierce birds ended up being used to horizontally shoot the giant frogs. A single hit from these guns did the job.

After nearly ten days of staying, with more than half the ammunition used, the local giant frogs faced a catastrophe. Any that could be found were brought out and blasted away, killing over ninety. If wanting to kill more, they’d have to change the campsite.