RNP Chapter 55 As expected of humans
Chapter 55 As expected of humans
Chen Fei took this detail into account.
As expected of humans...
But it doesn't matter, he's just here to see where they've put their equipment.
He stood up steadily in the low grass, turned his body to the side, and slowly moved towards the grass on the south side. He didn't run or speed up; his stride was even, and he disappeared into a section of higher grass.
It took about twenty seconds.
He wasn't sure if the device had captured anything.
But he was certain of one thing: Ella had just stood up and glanced in the direction he had disappeared.
But only once.
Big Head slept for a while next to the skeleton, then was awakened by the sound of the off-road vehicle's engine. He groggily raised his head and saw two big metal lumps parked not far away, with humans walking around nearby.
He stood up.
His head tilted slightly.
Then he made a very natural judgment:
Chen Fei is gone, but his skeleton remains. There are humans not far from the skeleton, and the smell of food can be smelled next to them.
He had seen these metal lumps yesterday; Chen Fei was nearby at the time, and Chen Fei hadn't asked him to do anything, so they shouldn't be in danger.
He looked very calm and planned to follow Chen Fei to the south.
I took two steps.
stopped.
He turned back, looked at the skeleton, then at the busy humans beside the two SUVs, and at the various strange boxes and supports they were unloading from the vehicles.
One of the boxes had a very peculiar smell.
Big Head took two steps closer.
The smell was coming from a hard-shell box, which was sitting on the ground with the lid still closed, but there was a small crack through which he could smell a scent he had never encountered before.
It wasn't food, it wasn't animal, it was the smell of some kind of metal and composite material mixed together, unfamiliar, but it didn't make him feel dangerous.
He ran over, stopped beside the box, and sniffed it.
Then he raised his head.
Marcus was crouching just two meters away and could see Big Head perfectly.
Their eyes met.
Marcus did not move.
Big Head didn't move either.
They stared at each other for about three seconds before Da Tou made a judgment: the smell in front of him wasn't strong and wasn't dangerous. He lowered his head again and sniffed the crack in the box, his expression one of serious, professional connoisseurship.
Marcus slowly reached for the walkie-talkie at his waist.
Big Head didn't notice this movement. He had already lost interest in the box; it didn't smell of food and wasn't worth spending any more time on. He turned around, took a step, and followed Chen Fei in the direction he had disappeared to the south.
His gait was very calm; he didn't run or panic, he just walked, like someone leaving a supermarket who decided not to buy the item and then left.
Marcus's hand hovered in mid-air for a moment before slowly lowering it.
He took out the walkie-talkie, pressed the button, and said, "Ella, I just... encountered a young male lion."
There was a second of silence on the other end of the walkie-talkie. "What's going on?"
"It just... came over, sniffed the equipment box, and then left." Marcus paused. "It's completely unafraid of people."
There was no immediate response from the other end of the walkie-talkie.
After about three seconds, Ella's voice came through, "It's gone?"
"Let's go, south."
Are there any other individuals?
Marcus glanced around. "I don't see it."
silence.
Then Ella said, "Marcus, have you ever wondered why it would head south?"
Marcus frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Our advance direction is to the south." There was something in Ella's voice that he couldn't quite describe. "It knows we're coming from the east today, so it's heading south, actively choosing a direction that we don't yet have equipment coverage for."
"Ella, it's just a young lion, it may have only walked a short distance."
"Maybe," Ella said. "Marcus, record the movement of every single one of them today."
There was a beep on the walkie-talkie, then it hung up.
Marcus stood still and glanced south towards the low grassland. There was nothing there anymore, only the wind pressing down on the low grass, pushing it layer by layer southward until it disappeared on the distant horizon.
He lowered his head, opened the equipment box, and continued working.
Chen Fei lay down on the grass 300 meters to the south, lowered his body, and listened to the sounds coming from the north.
The sound of the SUV door opening and closing, the sound of the metal box opening and closing, and the low-frequency hum of the engine were the same sound as the generator in the tent, only closer.
Big Head popped out of the grass and lay down next to him.
He smelled of metal and composite materials.
Chen Fei turned and glanced at him.
When Da Tou met his gaze, there was a subtle calmness in his expression, an attempt to appear nonchalant, like a child who had just done something wrong and was now trying to pretend nothing had happened.
Chen Fei stared at him for a while.
Big Head seemed unable to bear the pressure and turned his gaze elsewhere.
Chen Fei turned his gaze back to the north.
He already knew what Big Head had just done.
It didn't cause any trouble.
In the distance, the off-road vehicle's engine started up again and began moving south. After the equipment deployment had progressed a bit, Marcus jumped out of the vehicle and re-set up the instruments at the new location.
Chen Fei marked the coordinates in his mind, added them to today's map, overlaid them with yesterday's data, compared them, and calculated where they would place the third point tomorrow.
Then he mentally reassigned the rest of the day.
In the morning, the observation and survey team set up observation points to confirm the equipment coverage area for the day.
In the afternoon, I took Meimei to walk along the western boundary of the territory again, and also to check if there had been any changes in the scent of the hyena pack on the south side recently.
In the evening, have Big Head accompany Stray A on a patrol of the northeast corner.
These are the three things for today.
Big Head's positioning and judgment have improved recently, so he can participate in patrols now, even if it's just following along, it's still a good practice.
The big head next to him yawned, rested its head on its front paws, and went back into a semi-sleep state.
Chen Fei's gaze remained fixed on the north side.
The SUV stopped.
Marcus lay down in his new position and began driving piles into the ground.
Chen Fei thought silently:
Today they can deploy a maximum of three points, covering an area of about one kilometer in a north-south direction.
There are still two kilometers to the east that they cannot enter today.
There was a dry riverbed there that could cut off their route.
The river is not wide, and off-road vehicles can cross it, but the mud on both sides of the riverbed will cause the wheels to get stuck in this season, so they are unlikely to risk going down.
He glanced slightly to the side.
On the east side of the river, a small crocodile is sunbathing.
Chen Fei raised an eyebrow and made a note of it.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 876↑]
Sunset.
The survey team's off-road vehicles returned to base half an hour before sunset and headed north.
Chen Fei made an estimate.
Today they deployed a total of three devices, covering an area of about 1.2 kilometers from the northern end to the middle of the eastern hunting grounds: two pressure gauges and one thermal imaging camera.
The thermal imaging camera is pointed at the area around the skeleton and records automatically when a large animal passes by.
This afternoon, he kept his movements completely out of the camera's field of vision.
This action cost him about fifteen minutes of extra time taking the detour.