Chapter 62: Social Animals
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After spitting at Gao Peng, the Green-Skinned Frog seemed delighted. Even its eyes were smiling, curving into crescent moon shapes.
Only after the Green-Skinned Frog rose to the surface did Gao Peng manage to see its whole appearance properly. It was like a round ball floating on the surface of the water. Its body was totally green, with darker green stripes running from its head to its rear end. It basically looked like a walking watermelon.
He felt that “Watermelon Frog” would be a more suitable name for the Green-Skinned Frog.
The frog saw that Gao Peng did not react. Its eyes rolled around in its sockets and then it spat another mouthful of saliva onto Gao Peng’s left trouser leg. It excitedly slapped the water surface, sending water splas.h.i.+ng about.
Gao Peng looked the frog straight in the face.
The Green-Skinned Frog’s eye focused upwards at Gao Peng. There was a rather human-like look of curiosity in its eyes.
Heh.
Gao Peng laughed.
Then,
Pooh!
That’s right, I’m the kind of guy that would do such pointless things.
Gao Peng’s troll side acted up. He looked with delight at the expression of the Gree-Skinned Frog which just got a mouthful of Gao Peng’s saliva on its face.
Guu! The Green-Skinned Frog wailed in despair, as though it had been horribly wronged.
In the blink of an eye, the pond erupted with a crescendo of frog croaks. The croaks combined into a wave of sound that rumbled as loudly as thunder.
Guu! Guu! Guu! Guu!
Countless croaks rang in the air.
One by one, frog heads began to pop out from the originally still water surface. Some were large and some were small. The smallest were only the size of an orange while the largest were easily three feet wide. All of them were staring coldly at Gao Peng. At a glance, there seemed to be over a thousand of them. Just their sheer number would make one’s hair stand on end. The entire pond was Green-Skinned Frog territory.
“Run!” said Gao Peng, as he immediately turned and ran with Da Zi.
Mu Tieying followed closely behind with Lotus Seed. She was slightly doubtful at first, as to what harm these frogs could do to them while in the water.
The next moment, she understood.
The sound of inhaling could be heard behind them. The water was being continually sucked in by all the Green-Skinned frogs, bubbling as it entered their bellies.
Then –
Bangbangbangbang.
Water arrows flew through the air like torrential rain.
The water arrows. .h.i.t the trees in the area and resulted in varying degrees of damage. Weaker ones only broke the bark, but the stronger ones blew the branches apart, as though they were hit by an air cannons.
Twigs and broken leaves were flying in the air.
Lotus Seed was still all right because of her strong defense. The water arrows did nothing but give off a dull thud as they hit her body.
Mu Tieying hid in front of Lotus Seed, allowing her to avoid the water arrow attacks.
Looking at the damage done to the trees around her, Mu Tieying lowered her head. If these attacks. .h.i.t her, they might actually cause damage to her internal organs even with her protective gear on.
This would explain why there were so few plants and animals near the pond. It was all because of these Green-Skinned Frogs.
At this moment, in some location unknown to Gao Peng, an infrared camera installed right at the top of a large tree was slowly panning, recording the entire scene.
This was a large room with many large screens. A few soldiers sat in front of each screen, which was divided into many separate smaller screens. Each of the small screens represented one monitoring camera.
In front of one of the screens, a soldier in military uniform said, “Someone has gone to the Green-Skinned Frog’s territory, and I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but he managed to anger the group of Green-Skinned Frogs.”
“What the heck? How did this guy p.i.s.s off that bunch of croakers?” said a soldier with a small goatee as he poked his head over. He spoke with a heavy Sichuan accent.
“These Green-Skinned Frogs hate being spat on the most,” said the first soldier with a perplexed look on his face.
Hearing that, everyone in the room also began to wear a similar expression on their faces…
To spit on a frog in the wild; how dumb could you get?
…
They were heading back to the safe house now. After a day of exploring, the two of them had finished exploring the areas surrounding the safe house. To the north was a small patch of jungle. Travelling through that would lead them to the Green-Skinned Frog territory. There were at least a few thousand of them in that pond. These monsters were nothing to be afraid of if there were only one or two of them, but after coming together in such large numbers, they formed a formidable force.
Water arrows carried a strong attack power. If a few thousand Green-Skinned Frogs spat those arrows all at one target, the strength of such an attack would prevent any target from advancing a single inch.
To the west was the direction where they came from. The trees were less dense there and they hardly saw any large or threatening creatures there in the day.
To the south was a dense jungle with many trees, which were often thicker and st.u.r.dier than normal. Such an environment was difficult for Lotus Seed to move in, so they only explored the perimeter of the jungle. There were most likely large carnivorous monsters inside, as Gao Peng managed to spot some of their tracks.
To the east was a small slope. Going up to the slope led to wide gra.s.sland. The gra.s.sland showed signs of grazing, indicating that there were herbivorous creatures there.
That was all that they could gather within a day’s time.
Other than that, Gao Peng managed to pick up a few types of plants along the way.
Mu Tieying recognized some of them such as the Mint Clove, Golden Stranded Nutmeg, and Blue-Black Gra.s.s. These were all edible plants that were usually used as condiments.
There were also some that she did not recognize.
“You’re planning to prepare some seasoning?” asked Mu Tieying with a little hesitation.
“Yup,” Gao Peng nodded.
“But we have no food.” Mu Tieying was a little uncertain.
“We do.” Gao Peng raised his right hand. He was holding the dead Green Tree Snake.
“This snake… seems poisonous,” asked Mu Tieying suspiciously.
“Let’s just try.” Gao Peng did not want to elaborate any further. The two of them managed to reach the safe house with their two Familiars, but they then found that it was locked on the inside. Gao Peng frowned. He knocked on the door, “Hi, please open the door.”
“n.o.body’s here, n.o.body’s here,” a voice came from the room, then paused as if realizing how stupid the response was. Embarra.s.sment turned to anger as the person said, “It’s already full. We’re already packed full of people here, we can’t fit any more. You guys should go look for other safe houses.”
Gao Peng’s brows furrowed even more. He and Mu Tieying found this safe house first.
Of course, no one would really care about who came first out here in the safe houses in the wilderness. They could only blame it on their bad luck for running into such people.
Seeing Gao Peng turn to look at her, Mu Tieying shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not so bad, I took my bag with me when I left.”
“We have only two of us here, and it’s already dark outside. Can we just cooperate for one night? We don’t mind just sleeping on the floor,” said Gao Peng.
“We can’t. Sigh. You guys should just find someplace else.” The people in the room were getting impatient. They then heard some muttering. “Why are you even explaining to him anymore, just tell him to scram. The safe house is so small, who would want to squeeze with them.”
It seemed as though after hearing from Gao Peng that there were only two of them outside, someone had felt a bit bolder and naturally began to raise his voice.
Gao Peng stared at the people in the safe house, then he walked up…
And bolted the door from the outside.
“Let’s go,” said Gao Peng as he turned to leave.