Infinite Hunter

In this situation, ears are more useful than eyes. At night, Cheng Yijiu seemed to have been strengthened by his punishment from the past, his ears sharper than a man-eating tiger. "I heard it," Cheng Yijiu thought. He listened to the sound of the golden lion moving, but he couldn't determine its exact location. At this time, he opened his eyes and stared at the lion's direction.

There were shadows everywhere under the moonlight. Cheng Yijiu's eyes had better night vision than most people, but even he found it difficult to distinguish the lion's figure - until the moment the lion pounced on the baboon because it could not bear the baboon's screams.

Chapter 9 Lions

As the lion moved, Cheng Yijiu's night vision gradually distinguished it from the light and shadow. "Okay..." Cheng Yijiu raised his rifle and began to aim. He was familiar with the lion's movements - cats did this before pouncing. He moved his aim forward a little bit and decisively pulled the trigger.

In the darkness, his Winchester burst into dazzling flames and fierce gunfire. Cheng Yijiu's body fell back to offset the recoil. He held the rifle with his left hand and pulled the bolt with his right hand to eject the cartridge. He pushed again to load the second round. The muzzle moved slightly and the second round was fired.

The second hot shell was ejected. Cheng Yijiu did not fire the third shot. He jumped down from the tree and walked to the side of the yellow-maned lion that was crawling only one step away from the baboon. On the other side, Remington had also jumped down from the tree and walked to the side of the lion.

The colonel on the platform was not very agile. He asked directly, "Did they kill him?"

Cheng Yijiu knew the lion's heart was already dead. "Two hits, good marksmanship," Remington said. One of the two bullets struck the lion's head, and the other pierced through its body. The lead-core bullet Cheng Yijiu had used had inflicted a horrific wound in the lion's body, killing it almost instantly.

"Don't wait until it's stiff, let's skin it first." Cheng Yijiu said, and Samuel came to help start skinning. No one wants to eat lion meat. At most, the lion's claws and skin would be useful, plus the lion's skull. Cheng Yijiu sat on the open chair, holding a bottle of wine in his hand.

Beside him were the Colonel and Remington. Samuel washed his hands and joined them. A lion roared in the distance. "It's the first time it's scared..." Remington nodded and said, "They always come in pairs, supporting each other. Now it's just one."

"It would be great if there really was only one." Cheng Yijiu leaned back in his chair and took a sip of wine. "I always feel it's not that simple. Two male lions... I haven't seen a lion group yet. I hope this is the only last one..." Cheng Yijiu said softly.

"I won't live in a tent. I'll try to rest in a tree. I'll go kill the other one at daybreak," Cheng Yijiu said. "I suggest you do the same. This lion has gone mad. There's a good chance it will attack people at night."

Cheng Yijiu waved the bottle and left first, but it seemed that the colonel and Remington hadn't drunk enough...

Did they listen to Cheng Yijiu's words? Cheng Yijiu didn't know. Anyway, he climbed to a high place, tied himself to a tree and fell asleep. After waking up, he untied the rope and climbed down the tree - but what he saw was a miserable scene.

Samuel stood shivering by the extinguished fire, flanked by two shattered tents. "They don't have any?" Cheng Yijiu grabbed Samuel. "How much alcohol did you drink? Damn it!" He didn't rush out to look for them, but instead surveyed the tents. "Damn it, there's more than one lion!"

He followed the claw prints behind the hole in Remington's tent and found the remains. These were done by the black-maned lion, while the colonel's remains were done by the lioness. He identified them from the footprints and said, "It's a pack of man-eating lions! Damn it!" An angry Cheng Yijiu returned to the camp and said, "Leave here, Samuel! I'm going to kill all the lions here!"

Anger seemed to effectively heighten the senses. At least Cheng Yijiu, who rarely lost his temper during a mission, had sharpened his hearing and vision. "Kill the Black-Maned Lion first!" He placed the remains of the two men on separate piles of pyre and cremated them, while simultaneously lighting the thatched grasslands with torches. "Protect yourself, Samuel." He told Samuel to take his gun and hide in the hospital, while he himself stood on the railway bridge. The Black-Maned Lion emerged from the flames and pounced with incredible swiftness, while a lioness appeared from another direction.

Cheng Yijiu raised his rifle and fired directly at the black-maned lion. After firing a single shot, he quickly twisted and spun, then lay prone, drawing his Remington pistol and firing at the charging lioness. The next moment, he casually dropped the pistol, braced himself, rolled backward, stood up, and ran. He headed for the railway bridge, the only place he could confidently deal with the lions—they could only come from two directions.

Cheng Yijiu's adrenaline surged, activating his vision, hearing, and speed. His mind was clear of all distractions. The flames from the burning grassland illuminated the ground. Cheng Yijiu spotted the approaching lioness, raised his rifle, and fired, cocking the bolt and continuing to fire...

He stepped carefully on the rails because the lion might push open the bridge planks on both sides from below and climb up - that's what the black-maned lion did. The fourth lion did appear in this way, and Cheng Yijiu fired a shot at it just as it appeared, and the lion disappeared.

After a long time, the lions did not appear again, and the fire spread farther and farther, and the sky gradually brightened. There were three lion corpses here. The black-maned lion was shot in the head by Cheng Yijiu, and a large hole was blown in the back of its head. The lioness was shot in the body by the pistol and died from excessive blood loss. Another lioness was shot and killed while charging. The last lion fell into the river and disappeared, but it was definitely dead because Cheng Yijiu accurately shot its head.

Cheng Yijiu carefully examined the three lion carcasses. The black-maned lion was surprisingly large, slightly larger than the yellow-maned lion that had been killed, but that was all. It stood just under 1.2 meters tall at the shoulder, and its length from nose to tail was about 330-40 meters. The lioness was much smaller, and was definitely a man-eating lion.

Otherwise they would not be accustomed to attacking humans.

"How big is this lion group?" Cheng Yijiu wondered. He cleaned himself up in Hanoi, loaded himself with bullets, and headed off into the distance. "I'll be back," he said to Samuel, taking the gift Samuel thrust into his hand. "This will bless you," the kind black man said.

Cheng Yijiu looked at the three lion claw necklaces tied together with ropes and silver rings, "The claws of the man-eating lion you killed." Samuel said, and he made a strange gesture, "The lion's heart will bless you." Cheng Yijiu smiled, put the lion claws around his neck, grabbed his hat and nodded to Samuel, then he walked towards the depths of the grassland jungle.

Man-eating lions have their own ranges. He might have killed four male lions here, so there might be four or five lionesses and even more cubs. Cheng Yijiu has decided to kill all the lions he sees within a radius of dozens of kilometers. These lions have a habit of eating people, so they can't be spared. His mission is not over yet. The fact that the door didn't appear indicates this conclusion.

Chapter 10 Hunting

Samuel looked at Mr. Cheng, an Asian, who was carrying a backpack and striding towards the wilderness. The brief interaction left a deep impression on him - it was he who shot and killed the two man-eating lions, and now he also wanted to kill the man-eating lion group to avenge his boss and friends.

Watching Cheng Yijiu's figure gradually disappear into the distance, Samuel never saw his friend again until the end of his life, but Samuel always believed that his friend was still alive...

Cheng Yijiu, backpack on his back, strode across the burned grassland. The flames were limited in scope, and could not continue beyond the Chawo River. The grassless, rocky ground also effectively limited the fire's range. Therefore, there were no large animal carcasses on the grassland, but there were many small animals burned to death.

The burnt grass provided an excellent view, and Cheng Yijiu had already seen hyenas gnawing on the burned animals. Although small, they were still meat. Cheng Yijiu didn't see the lions, but he had always been quite curious - if they were digging up corpses and eating the remains, that would be the job of hyenas. He hadn't seen many hyenas here recently.

You mean hyenas don't eat people? Cheng Yijiu didn't believe it at all. The hyenas barked at Cheng Yijiu, their strange laughter continued, and it seemed that they were about to attack him. So Cheng Yijiu raised his rifle and shot the largest hyena, and the rest of the hyenas immediately fled.

"We've been walking for several kilometers, but still haven't seen any lions." Cheng Yijiu passed the lion den he had discovered earlier, stood on the ridge, and took out his telescope to observe. Through the telescope, he saw the African herds, from elephants in the distance to wildebeest and zebras nearby. It took Cheng Yijiu a while to distinguish the lions from the shadows of the grass and trees.

"I haven't seen any male lions, but there are at least six lionesses. I haven't seen any cubs either, but this lion doesn't seem to be a lioness. It looks more like an underage male lion that hasn't grown a mane yet." Cheng Yijiu simply squatted down and carefully observed the lions. He wasn't worried about being ambushed, because he was already at the highest point of this ancient mountain. If a lion wanted to attack him, it would have to crawl over and jump.

Unless Cheng Yijiu is dead, it is impossible not to discover it.

Cheng Yijiu decided to observe for a while longer; he had to understand the total number of lions—this was probably the only lion group here. He lit a fire in the lee of the mountaintop and wrapped himself in an aluminum foil blanket—the only thing he had brought that was not from this era—to prevent hypothermia. He spent the night in a half-awake state.

The lions hadn't come up the mountain. It was likely that the pride had fallen into a state of panic. Their king and several older lionesses hadn't returned, and the lionesses and cubs were roaring frequently at night. Cheng Yijiu observed for two days and one night, ultimately counting seven lionesses, six cubs, and two underage males. This pride was already quite large.

Considering the density of wild animals in this area, this lion pride was quite large. Considering the number of lions he had shot, it only meant that the lions' food was most likely readily available humans. After confirming the situation, Cheng Yijiu packed up and headed down the mountain to hunt the lions. There were black tribes nearby, and these lions were likely to attack them.

Cheng Yijiu came down the mountain and walked on the grassland. The grass here was not that tall, so Cheng Yijiu could see a wider range when walking upright. "This is the advantage of walking upright. The field of vision is wider." Cheng Yijiu thought as he approached the place where the lions he had noticed resting on the mountain were.

Cheng Yijiu had already lodged the bullet in the ammunition bridge and placed it in his pocket. He raised his rifle and slowly approached. With mechanical sights, he could accurately kill a lion at a distance of about 60 to 70 meters. Any further and accuracy was unreliable. With white light sights, which hadn't appeared in this era, Cheng Yijiu was confident he could accurately kill a lion at 200 meters.

He circled, approaching from downwind. When he was over 400 meters away, he used binoculars to confirm the size of the pride—he didn't want a man-eating lion to follow him as he closed in. He first scanned his surroundings, paying particular attention to his back and sides. Two lionesses were resting in the shade. Cheng Yijiu crouched down over 300 meters away, waiting.

At the same time, he repeatedly observed his back and sides, never giving the lions a chance to backstab him. He waited for more than two hours, and two more lions arrived one after another. The remaining five lions did not appear, but the cubs did appear. Cheng Yijiu stood up and began to approach, step by step, looking around very vigilantly.

When he was about a hundred meters away, Cheng Yijiu stopped again and began to carefully observe his surroundings. He would then quickly approach and shoot the four lionesses as quickly as possible. After confirming that there were no lions within four or five hundred meters behind or to the side, Cheng Yijiu raised his rifle and quickly approached.

The four lions, having clearly heard the noise, quickly stood up, but Cheng Yijiu half-crouched and fired. The first shot hit one lion, and then he turned the gun slightly, also hitting the second. By then, the other two lions had already jumped up and ran away—wild animals rarely attack hunters on their own initiative.

Cheng Yijiu must have caught them off guard. The two lions fell flat on their faces. The power of smokeless gunpowder is definitely not comparable to that of black powder. Cheng Yijiu stood up. The other two lions had already disappeared into the grass. Cheng Yijiu tilted his head slightly, pointed the muzzle downward, and pulled the bolt.

As the third bullet was loaded, Cheng Yijiu turned around. A male lion, without a mane and not yet an adult, but already the size of a lioness, was rapidly approaching and about to pounce. Cheng Yijiu calmly watched the rapidly approaching lion, pointed the gun, and decisively pulled the trigger.

After one shot, he quickly ejected the shell and loaded the gun, but there was no need to continue firing because the lion had been accurately hit in the face by Cheng Yijiu when it paused before pouncing. The bullet shattered its skull, messed up its brain, and then flew out from the back of its head.

Cheng Yijiu didn't hear any movement from the fourth lion as he edged closer to the lions' resting place. The cubs weren't worth his bullets, and even if they escaped, Cheng Yijiu had no intention of chasing them—because if he shot the lioness, the cubs wouldn't survive. If there was only one lioness, most of the cubs wouldn't survive either.

He soon arrived at the shade of a tree. Two lionesses lay dead on the ground. Both lions had been shot in the torso, and the deformed lead bullets had shredded their internal organs, causing them to bleed to death. Cheng Yijiu also spotted two lion cubs, about the size of medium-sized sheepdogs, that had not yet fled. He immediately drew his dagger, ready to kill them.

Chapter 11 Night

The cubs were quite ferocious, at least three months old. One of them attacked him, but Cheng Yijiu feinted with his left hand and stabbed the cub with his right. The second cub escaped. The stabbed cub fell to the ground, and Cheng Yijiu stabbed it to relieve its pain. Cheng Yijiu had always opposed cruel killing, believing that killing an animal cleanly and directly was what a hunter should do.

Cheng Yijiu examined the dead lions, then headed straight for the direction one of them had fled. As he walked, he reloaded his rifle. With two bullets still in the chamber, he loaded three more to fill it up. He could now see the lion's footprints without even trying to discern them. Within six hundred meters, Cheng Yijiu spotted the lion's tracks. Through the telescope, Cheng Yijiu could tell the lion was lurking in the bushes. Human vision is one of the best things about it: it can accurately discern camouflage.

Many herbivores are color blind.

Cheng Yijiu was constantly watching his back, using his ears instead of his eyes, and he walked very slowly—felines are incredibly fast at pouncing, even if lions aren't masters of ambush like tigers. Cheng Yijiu placed his feet slightly apart, one in front of the other, leaning forward slightly. He held the rifle with his left hand, pressing it firmly against his right shoulder. He relaxed his breath, put his cheek close to the rifle, and began to aim. Cheng Yijiu adjusted the scale, but he couldn't adjust the wind direction and speed for the time being, so he could only compensate for it himself.

He aimed by feel—at a distance of over 150 meters, the lion through the iron sights was no bigger than a grain of rice. He missed the daylight scope a little. "It doesn't matter. May those who were killed by lions bless you. May Remington and the Colonel bless me." He muttered a few words, holding his breath, and then fired. He then drew the bolt and loaded the rifle while running.

The lion suddenly jumped up and ran away.

Cheng Yijiu quickly rushed to where the lion lay. He saw a trace of blood and thought, "Hit it?!" The next step was to follow the blood trail. Wounded beasts are very dangerous, and Cheng Yijiu had to be wary of the lion's counterattack while pursuing. However, now that he was alone, he found that his eyes and ears were sharper, and he even developed a kind of intuition, an indescribable sixth sense - intuition.

Cheng Yijiu trudged through the brush, spotting traces of blood. "With this much bleeding, if this lion doesn't strike back within five minutes... it won't be able to drag me along." Cheng Yijiu quickly spotted the injured lion—outside the brush, just ten meters away. Bleeding continued from its shoulder. The lioness looked at him, then charged in a split second.

Cheng Yijiu didn't fire—his rifle wouldn't hold a second shot at this distance, so he had to keep it that way, so he simply moved sideways. A normal person couldn't do that; they'd simply be pounced on by the oncoming lion, but Cheng Yijiu's movements were like those of a large cat. He dodged the injured lion's pounce with a single step, a move that was both fatal and inherently less swift than a tiger's. As Cheng Yijiu dodged, he used the butt of his rifle to strike down fiercely.

The butt of the rifle struck the lion's head where it met its neck, sending it crashing to the ground. This impact apparently inflicted significant damage—Cheng Yijiu's rifle butt was constructed of fine black walnut, reinforced with steel inlays at the rear. Furthermore, the lion was already severely injured and unable to rise immediately. If left alone, it wouldn't have much time left. The power of lead-core bullets was no joke. Cheng Yijiu lowered the barrel of his rifle, aimed at the lion's head, and fired decisively.

The bullet pierced the lioness's skull and ejected the fragmented bullet from her jaw. The lion simply stopped moving.

There were still five lions. Cheng Yijiu reloaded his magazine and began to return to the lions' resting place. They were just animals. All their actions had patterns. It was impossible for them to abandon their activity area and leave directly. If they were not hunting, their activities would have a certain pattern. So even if they were attacked in their resting place, these lions would not leave. Cheng Yijiu had already seen several places on the mountain where the lions might rest.

They were all shaded by trees. Vultures were already circling overhead where he had shot the lion, but Cheng Yijiu hadn't heard the strange laughter of the hyenas. Perhaps the lions had kept the hyenas at bay, and it wouldn't be long before any came to devour the lion's carcass. So the vultures had a rare opportunity to feast undisturbed—not for long, as Cheng Yijiu could already see hyenas in the distance as he approached.

Hyenas are actually quite docile and can be tamed—as long as they're raised from a young age, their personalities are similar to those of Huskies. Cheng Yijiu walked past the lion carcasses. Vultures had already begun tearing open their underbelly and devouring their internal organs. The hyenas dodged Cheng Yijiu and rushed towards the dead lions. Cheng Yijiu stood aside and calmly watched as more than a dozen hyenas devoured the bodies of the four lions.

A strong stench wafted in the air. The smell of hyenas was indeed unpleasant, and with over twenty hyenas now in the area, the odor was even more potent. The hyenas acted as if Cheng Yijiu wasn't there, and after watching for a moment, Cheng Yijiu turned and headed towards another possible lion roosting spot. "If it's not there, I'll go back up the hill and continue observing..." He didn't want to stay here for the night, so time was running out.

Sure enough, the lion had hidden itself and was out of sight. Cheng Yijiu decisively turned back up the mountain and set up camp at his original location. Wrapped in a thermal blanket and lighting a large fire, Cheng Yijiu fell into a light sleep on the mat, holding his gun.

He didn't sleep well, as if he had insomnia and couldn't fall asleep. But if anyone saw him, they would find that he was actually snoring. In his "insomnia", Cheng Yijiu "saw" the flames extinguished, and in the shadows under the moonlight, the beast was gradually approaching. Cheng Yijiu suddenly woke up, and at that moment his eyes also reflected the orange-yellow color in the moonlight.

The flames blazed fiercely before him. The temperature dropped dramatically on African nights due to the low humidity. On the other side of the flames, Cheng Yijiu spotted a lion standing quietly. It was a young male lion with a short mane around its neck, likely the brother of the sub-adult male lion he had shot. Beside it stood two lionesses, four pairs of eyes gazing at each other. "They have feelings..." Cheng Yijiu muttered.

Chapter 12: Increasing Difficulty

The distance between the lion and Cheng Yijiu was just a pile of fire, not even more than five meters. Cheng Yijiu was not afraid, he just felt a sense of "damn it!" He pulled out the double-barreled pistol from his waist with his left hand, grabbed the rifle with his right hand, held it level, and fired directly.

The lion roared furiously, ignoring the flames before it, and lunged forward. Three of the four lions lunged forward first, and Cheng Yijiu pulled the trigger with his left hand. Two bullets hit the lion, but the lion did not retreat. The rifle in his right hand probably brushed past the lioness and flew away. Cheng Yijiu used the rifle to protect himself, and dropped the pistol with his left hand to draw his knife.

Just as he pulled out his 30cm-long dagger, the underage lion pounced on him. Cheng Yijiu was knocked directly onto the rocks behind him, but he didn't fall down. He blocked the lion's mouth with his rifle in his right hand and stabbed with his dagger in his left hand. As his clothes were torn by the lion's claws and blood splattered everywhere, he also stabbed the lion's body with his knife.

The immense force made it impossible for his dagger to penetrate. After thrusting it in, he lifted his hand and pulled the dagger's blade through the flesh and skin. He was about to pull it out, but at that moment, the two lionesses also pounced. Cheng Yijiu's arm was bitten, and the bloody stench came from the lion's mouth. A warm air flow hit his face.

Another lioness bit his leg and tried to drag him down. Lions are much stronger than humans. The underage male lion may have been seriously injured, but its strength overwhelmed Cheng Yijiu, and its fangs also pierced Cheng Yijiu's shoulder. Cheng Yijiu didn't think much. His life was only a few tens of seconds away. His only thought was to push the lion's mouth open and pull out the knife.

His blood mixed with the lions', and he was also injured when the lioness bit him. The male lion took a blow from him, and it was hard to say whether he would die or not. It was a pity that there were still four bullets in the rifle, but now there was no chance to use them. Cheng Yijiu's physical strength was getting weaker and weaker, and the fourth lion arrived and bit his other leg.

"Damn it!" He probably was going to die this time, but Cheng Yijiu was not afraid. He just felt a little regretful.

The lion's weight was enough to easily drag him down. Cheng Yijiu's body began to sag, and the continued blood loss made him dizzy. Just then, a voice rang out. "Increase the difficulty." The voice echoed in Cheng Yijiu's mind, "Increase the difficulty! Bring in new prey!"

Warm breaths emanated from Cheng Yijiu's side. The beast, nearly red in the firelight, directly knocked aside a lioness. It then bit down on the cervical vertebrae of an underage male lion, and with a crackling sound, it lifted the lion alive. The lion was already severely injured; Cheng Yijiu's stab had already caused internal bleeding. Now, the cervical vertebrae were bitten, and the longest and largest canine teeth among carnivores had bitten directly through the joints, severing the nerves...

Leaving the dying lion behind, the massive tiger rose to its feet, slapping the lioness still biting Cheng Yijiu in the face. Then it slapped the neck of the last lioness, which had bitten Cheng Yijiu's thigh. The powerful blows from its front limbs were the tiger's ultimate weapon to defeat the lion. Its massive claws tore open the lion's face, shattering bones.

Lionesses are slightly smaller than male lions, while this Bengal tiger is even larger than the largest male lion. Its well-developed and sturdy limbs are far stronger than those of lions, so when it attacks these lions, it is like killing leopards. Moreover, in terms of overall fighting skills, this tiger also has the advantage.

It quickly killed the three lionesses, only paying the price of some blood on its body. Then the tiger returned to Cheng Yijiu and looked down at Cheng Yijiu, who was also dying. At this time, Cheng Yijiu's vision was blurred, and he could only make out that he was looking at a large animal.

The tiger watched for a moment, then grabbed Cheng Yijiu's shoulder and began to drag him. Cheng Yijiu's weight was nothing to the tiger, and the tiger carried him until they entered a door that stood alone in the wilderness.

The moment he entered the room, the tiger vanished, and Cheng Yijiu fell unconscious—but the bleeding from his wounds had all stopped. Cheng Yijiu's deep, sweet sleep lasted a full twenty hours. When he opened his eyes, he found his body completely restored to its full strength, as if the injuries he had sustained and the blood he had lost had never existed.

As he moved, the blood clots on his clothes fell off. Under the torn clothes, there was not even a scar on his skin. Cheng Yijiu sat up and asked, "How did I escape? Is this Hunter game still able to save lives?" He remembered what he heard, "Increase the difficulty?"

"Is this another way of saying it saved his life?" Cheng Yijiu thought. "Is the little house really that arrogant?" But the question still remained: how was he rescued? He vaguely remembered that there seemed to be a large beast standing in front of him, but he still couldn't figure it out.

Anyway, it’s best to come back alive.

He couldn't keep his clothes; they were stained with blood and sweat, so it was best to throw them away. He looked at his rifle and felt sorry for it because it was broken. The lion's desperate attack had cracked the wood of the rifle and bent the barrel, making the rifle essentially useless.

He had to change his gun, but that wasn't a big problem as he had already made several identical rifles. This time he had to bring the Competitor pistol, but he could also change to a double-barreled hand cannon with the same loading method - this thing was loaded with single-barreled bullets, which were extremely powerful at close range, but their penetration was not as good as the Competitor's.

"At worst, I can take them all with me," Cheng Yijiu said angrily. He went to the bathroom to clean up, threw away the torn clothes, put the damaged rifle back in the gun room, and walked upstairs to the trophy display room in his bathrobe. Not surprisingly, he felt that this place had become bigger, a lot bigger.

Several taxidermied specimens appeared in the hall: two male lions, six lionesses, and four cubs. This group of specimens was quite large, and in front of the group, which was enclosed by ropes, were two large lion skulls. They bore bullet marks, a record of Cheng Yijiu's killings.

This lion was indeed quite large, considered a giant among African lions. "It's a man-eating lion, indeed. Even with perfectly healthy teeth, it still eats humans. This habit is truly fatal for lions in the Tsavo region." Both male lions were magnificent. One had a yellow mane and was slightly smaller, but still weighed approximately 220 kilograms. The other, a black mane, was even larger, arguably one of the largest African lions, weighing a whopping 250 kilograms.

Chapter 13 Abnormal

The lions' fur was incredibly smooth, indicating they were fed a rich and nutritious diet. The idea that man-eating beasts would develop scabies for some reason was simply a myth. Cheng Yijiu also found photos on the wall. These photos truly resembled the style of the early 20th century. The black-and-white photos were a bit blurry, showing a shot lion. Standing next to the lion were Cheng Yijiu, Remington, the Colonel, and Samuel.

The four of them grinned widely. The lion, lying on its side, could easily fit them all from head to toe. Cheng Yijiu, looking at the photo, also smiled. How many people had these lions eaten? Cheng Yijiu only discovered this when he returned to his study and discovered a pile of pamphlets on Chavo's man-eating lions on his bookshelf. The authors of these stories must have diligently researched them, but some simply made up stories.

Those who'd investigated had reported numbers between a hundred and two hundred, while those who'd just come up with a figure as high as fifteen hundred. Judging by the bones Cheng Yijiu had seen in the lion's den, a figure of over a hundred was certainly true. If you counted the people the lions had killed in the wild, the figure could be as high as two hundred. After all, before the railway construction began, there weren't many people coming and going here. As for the size of the lion pride, everyone agreed: around ten adult lions.

What's unusual about this pride is that the male lions are primarily responsible for hunting. Perhaps it's because humans are so easy to catch? This is the conclusion of professional zoologists who carefully studied the remaining records, and of course, it has been disputed by many other zoologists. However, based on Cheng Yijiu's own experience with the lion pride, it was always the two male lions that entered the construction site to prey on the workers.

Although the two lions were quite cunning, looking back now, they seemed manageable. Cheng Yijiu still had some questions about what happened during the hunt; in a sense, it all felt a bit magical. For example, Cheng Yijiu found it difficult to explain the ambush at the old hospital that night. He found the movements of the two lions very strange, but if the presence of other lions was considered a factor, perhaps it could be explained.

But Cheng Yijiu knew in his heart that there were no other lions except these two lions at that time.

Walking back to the taxidermy specimens, Cheng Yijiu couldn't help but admit that the craftsmanship was truly impeccable. The animals looked just as they did in life. Even the bullet-ripped areas were repaired, invisible unless one looked closely. Looking at the fruits of his hunting haul, he suddenly felt an itch in his mouth. He felt around and found nothing unusual, so he went to the bathroom to check in the mirror.

Opening his mouth and parting his lips to take a closer look, Cheng Yijiu discovered that his canines seemed to have changed a bit. "Have they grown longer and thicker?" Not very noticeable, but they seemed a bit bigger than before. Cheng Yijiu didn't know what was going on, so he went downstairs to check on the computer, and the computer proactively explained the situation. "This is a rescue operation with increased difficulty. Once you have one, your mission will become more difficult and will also cause some changes to your body. The more rescues you receive, the greater the changes will be. The final result - unknown."

It wasn't a mystery at all. Cheng Yijiu knew he'd become a target if he wasn't careful. Was there really only one hunting lodge? Cheng Yijiu didn't quite believe it.

The next mission hadn't arrived yet, and Cheng Yijiu still had his days to live. His first priority was to continue crafting weapons. It seemed the hunting timescale was vast. What if he encountered an even more ancient era, and the Winchester rifle wasn't usable? Therefore, he needed to use even more ancient firearms—like a double-barreled shotgun with a slug handle. A clever trick was to use slugs, which, due to their size, could be modified to use black powder as a fuse.

But there's more to it than that. There are also crossbows, bows, and even spears to consider—what if he were to hunt in ancient times? The easiest way to increase the difficulty would be to throw him into ancient times. Hunting wild beasts with bows and spears would be incredibly dangerous for a single person. So Cheng Yijiu spent most of his daytime hours hiding in his house, crafting weapons, only taking a few moments each day to wander outside to show he wasn't detached from the human world.

The studio was well-equipped. Forging cold weapons didn't even require a hammer—there were pneumatic hammers available. So, he began by forging a boar spear made of folded patterned steel. Its sharp blade, coupled with a cross guard at the rear to prevent piercing too deeply and becoming difficult to extract, would surely be enough to hold its own against a lion or tiger. Even a tiger, stabbed by a spear with a blade nearly forty centimeters long, would likely bleed to death.

The crossbow's back was forged with cold steel, and it was impossible to draw the string without a capstan. Cheng Yijiu had tried—while wearing the reinforced finger guard, he could draw the string once with all his strength, but any more would risk straining a muscle. This crossbow was also incredibly powerful, comparable to a rifle—within a hundred meters. The steel arrowhead could easily penetrate ordinary plate armor, so even ordinary beasts wouldn't be able to stop it.

Even if the wild boar's fur is soaked with pine oil and mud, and has thick subcutaneous fat, this steel arrow may be able to penetrate it directly.

Cheng Yijiu would occasionally go to a small nearby coffee shop in his spare time. That day, something felt off about him. The two people sitting diagonally across from him, a man and a woman, seemed off. At first, Cheng Yijiu didn't think anything was wrong; his hearing wasn't good enough to listen to other people's whispers. But every time he glanced at the man's back, he felt something was off.

The other person had his back to him, but Cheng Yijiu felt that every time he looked over, the other person was also looking at him. "Unless this person has eyes on the back of his head, how is it possible?"

As for that woman, her appearance wasn't anything special, but Cheng Yijiu felt a little familiar. However, every time he casually glanced at her, he felt something strange. He couldn't figure out what was going on, but if he felt something was wrong, he should just leave. So, he only sat there for ten minutes before checking out and leaving. On the way back, he kept thinking about the strange feeling he had just had.

"Strange, why can't I remember what that woman looked like? And what was it about that man that made me feel abnormal?" Cheng Yijiu's pace was neither fast nor slow, and at this moment his footsteps paused slightly.

Chapter 14 Raid

Someone was following him, Cheng Yijiu sensed it. Could it be the police? Impossible. Cheng Yijiu felt he had committed no crime—he didn't have any guns or ammunition on him, and even his only knife was a small, pocket-sized Swiss Army knife.

You mean a weapon? He actually had a retractable steel string with a ring on one end. It could be used as a wire saw, and of course, it could also be used for strangulation, but it was more of a tool, a small string that could be pulled out about fifty centimeters.

If they were policemen, they should have come up now, shown their IDs, and asked him to go to the police station for questioning. Cheng Yijiu thought carefully about the only thing he might be questioned by the police about was his financial account. There were always deposits of varying sizes, but a careful inspection would only say that he had income from unknown sources - he couldn't get this money from writing books.