Chapter 238: Tasted the Thrill of the Hunt

Lu Xingfeng laughed, "Why am I scaring you?"

Ning Yao still had an incredulous look, "Uncle Lu, you mean... people?! Treating people as prey... hunting them?"

Lu Xingfeng explained, "Exactly, compared to hunting animals, hunting humans is the hardest, so it yields the highest points."

Ning Yao's face turned deathly pale, "So... do participants in the hunt kill each other? Is this hunting or a battle royale?"

Lu Xingfeng froze for a moment, then burst out laughing, doubling over.

"Hahaha! You think we're hunting each other?"

"Otherwise...?"

"Hahahaha!"

Lu Xingfeng laughed until tears came out, leaving Ning Yao bewildered.

After Lu Xingfeng's explanation, Ning Yao finally realized she had misunderstood.

It wasn't that participants, besides hunting animals, could also hunt their own people for points.

Rather, it was hunting the primitive tribal natives on this land.

Even so, Ning Yao was still greatly shocked; she could not comprehend or accept treating living people as animals and slaughtering them at will.

Even if they were uncivilized tribal natives from over two thousand years ago, they are still living human beings.

How can they be compared to animals?

Is this something civilized modern people would do?

"Miss Ning, you don't need to regard them as people," Lu Xingfeng advised, "In our eyes, they're hardly different from monkeys, baboons, or orangutans; you'll see for yourself—at most they're a bit more cunning and cruel, with intelligence just a notch above animals."

Ning Yao waved her hands repeatedly, "No, no, I can't accept this no matter what you say. Uncle Lu, the people here often organize hunting activities, capturing natives as if they were animals—do their supervisors know about this?"

Lu Xingfeng laughed and said, "Of course they know."

Ning Yao widened her eyes and asked, "The supervisors don't intervene?"

"Not only do they not intervene, they actually support it," Lu Xingfeng said, "In this world, aside from various undeveloped harsh and dangerous environments and myriad dangerous flora and fauna, the greatest threat is the native tribes. The more thoroughly we clear them out, the better for our development efforts—why not?"

Ning Yao stared blankly for a few seconds, "Then... what about my dad? Does he know too? Doesn't he try to stop it?"

Lu Xingfeng looked at her trembling eyes, "People working here get recreation and entertainment, while development operations gain benefits, allowing your dad's project to proceed smoothly and efficiently—what reason does he have to stop it?"

Ning Yao was completely stunned, her mind went blank.

Such a cruel act is hard for her to digest in a short time.

"Couldn't... we make the natives here into laborers?" Ning Yao's voice trembled slightly, "They're still human, even if... even if they're savage, backward, ignorant, and foolish, at least they could help with work—why kill them?"

"Little girl, you're truly naive and kind," Lu Xingfeng said earnestly, "In our era we already have plenty of labor, plus all kinds of high technology—where would we need to spend time and effort getting backward, illiterate natives who can't even communicate to work? Wasting time and resources to civilize a thousand natives isn't worth as much as one soldier equipped with modern gear."

Ning Yao fell into silence.

Lu Xingfeng continued, "Your dad told me that about four hundred years ago, wave after wave of Europeans crossed the ocean and set foot on North America, then over the following centuries slaughtered the local natives, seized land, plundered resources, until they established M Guo. Look, M Guo developed exactly that way—they called it... oh, colonization. Now M Guo is merely imitating their ancestors. Miss Ning, you've become an M Guo citizen yourself, haven't you? Just go with the flow; you'll have to adapt."

Ning Yao now found herself completely unable to rebut.

"Come on, I'll take you hunting," Lu Xingfeng said, "With me around, I guarantee you'll get first place."

Ning Yao was still eager for the hunt, but unable to accept killing people, so she said, "Uncle Lu, I only want to hunt animals, not natives."

Lu Xingfeng narrowed his eyes slightly, "No problem—it's not mandatory to hunt natives to earn points, and besides, there aren't many natives left around here; spotting one isn't easy anyway."

Afterwards, Lu Xingfeng and Ning Yao changed into outdoor sportswear for ease of movement, wearing M Guo Special Forces uniforms and boots, plus night-vision helmets designed for night combat.

Apart from these being modern equipment, the hunting gear consisted of crossbows and blades—cold weapons.

Their means of transport were also changed to horses.

She had specially practiced horseback riding and archery before, and was fairly skilled at them.

As for Lu Xingfeng, he only brought a dagger for self-defense, then took charge of carrying Ning Yao's weapons.

Everything was ready, with only one hour left until the hunt ended.

Ning Yao couldn't wait; she mounted her horse and charged into the primeval forest under the night curtain.

In the forest, trees were tall and vegetation lush; the terrain was relatively flat, and with it being deep night, animal activity was frequent—indeed it suited hunting.

Only after she had gone far from the camp, unable to see any modern buildings or facilities, did she finally feel as if she had entered another world.

The air was filled with the scent of primordial nature.

One could hear insect chirps in the grass and rustling sounds from unknown animals; distant calls of unidentified birds echoed, and occasionally the low growl of a beast could be heard.

Moreover, the surroundings were pitch dark, so the environment could only be observed with a night-vision device.

Everything made Ning Jinli feel both nervous and fearful, yet also unusually fresh and excited.

Suddenly, a wild rabbit darted out from the grass not far before her, then ran off to the other side.

This was the first prey Ning Yao spotted; she immediately raised her crossbow and quickly pulled the trigger.

Whoosh—

The bolt flew like lightning, piercing the rabbit clean through.

The rabbit struggled desperately, but to no avail.

"Hehe! Got it!"

Ning Yao couldn't wait; she swung off her horse and sprinted over.

She crouched down, staring at the rabbit twitching all over, on its last breath.

At first, she thought the rabbit was somewhat pitiful.

But after a few seconds, the blood welling from the rabbit and the growing smell of gore gave her a different kind of excitement.

Especially seeing the creature she had struck gradually lose life before her eyes, this feeling restored her sense of control.

What could be more fascinating than holding the life and death of a being in one's grasp?

Ning Yao's fleeting sympathy was quickly tossed aside.

She placed her hand on the rabbit, feeling its warm blood, greedily sensing the creature's life completely ebbing away in her palm.

It wasn't until the wild rabbit was completely dead that she, still eager, nocked a crossbow bolt, ready to show Lu Xingfeng her first trophy.

"Uncle Lu, look!"

She turned around, happily holding up the rabbit.

But the next second, she saw Lu Xingfeng, a few meters away, raise his arm and fling a sharp dagger toward her.

"Uncle Lu! You…" Ning Yao froze in place, terrified.

Swoosh—

The dagger whizzed past her and plunged into the nearby grass.

Then Lu Xingfeng vaulted off his horse, sprinted two steps to her side, and shielded her behind him.

At that moment Ning Yao noticed something in the grass beside them.

Looking closely, a half‑visible fluffy tail emerged.

"Uncle Lu, you scared me to death; I thought you…" Ning Yao, still shaken, patted her chest.

Lu Xingfeng laughed, "Sorry, Miss Ning, that thing was too close to you; I didn't have time to warn you, so I had to act directly."

"What was that?" Ning Yao asked cautiously.

Lu Xingfeng walked over and brushed aside the grass.

A fox over a meter long appeared before them.

The dagger struck its chest, the blade—over ten centimeters long—piercing all the way in.

Although it hadn't died yet, it had lost all mobility and was clearly on the brink of death.

Ning Yao, unsatisfied with merely watching the prey die, reached out, grasped the dagger's hilt, and slowly twisted it with force.

The fox convulsed in pain, let out a wail, and died in agony.

"How about it, hunting is fun, isn't it?" Lu Xingfeng asked.

Ning Yao's face was alight with excitement, "Fun, more interesting than I imagined. Uncle Lu, let's keep going!"

Since the hunt was merely for amusement and ranking, they didn't need the game for food or pelts.

So they only needed to cut off the animal's tail to tally points back at camp.

That made it easy to carry.

For the next half hour, Ning Yao launched a slaughter of the surrounding animals.

The animal resources here were extremely abundant.

Common species could be encountered effortlessly without deliberate searching.

After shooting a few wild rabbits, Ning Yao quickly upgraded to hunting foxes and wolves.

With Lu Xingfeng's help, she even wiped out a pack of eight adult wolves, found their den, and killed the ten‑ish newborn wolf cubs still unopened eyes.

Facing a modern person clad in special‑forces protective gear and equipped with a Night Vision Device, these beasts could hardly hide.

Although Ning Yao's main hunting tool was just a crossbow, it was crafted with modern technology.

In both accuracy and lethality, it was far beyond anything the locals could make from stone.

Once spotted by Ning Yao, they had no chance to flee.

Ning Yao's great interest and astonishing talent in hunting also surprised Lu Xingfeng.

In just half an hour, Ning Jinli was already unsatisfied with hunting wolves.

She asked Lu Xingfeng to find her more challenging beasts.

Lu Xingfeng naturally didn't refuse and soon led her to a few leopards.

Undoubtedly, Ning Yao shot them all with crossbow bolts without a hitch.

At first, hunting leopards required Lu Xingfeng's assistance, but later he didn't need to intervene at all; even cutting off the leopards' tails was done by Ning Yao herself.

"Uncle Lu, how many points do I have now?" Ning Yao asked, wiping the blood‑stained sweat from her face.

"One hundred twenty‑three points," Lu Xingfeng praised, "Not bad. In the first hunting contest, only M Guo soldiers could reach a hundred; others didn't even snag a hair."

Ning Yao was a bit dissatisfied, "I recall the leaderboard: first place scored as high as five hundred, tenth place over two hundred. I'm only at one hundred twenty‑three, far behind, not even making the list."

Lu Xingfeng smiled, "The animals around here aren't as plentiful as before; perhaps this hunt you could rank near the top."

Ning Yao pursed her lips, "No, I want my name on the leaderboard! Uncle Lu, didn't you promise to guarantee me first place? I want to be number one on the list!"

Lu Xingfeng slowly withdrew his smile and said seriously, "Time may be insufficient; finding a large beast worth more points than a leopard is difficult. A bit farther, tigers and brown bears occasionally roam, but beasts of that caliber are more elusive and fewer in number. Oh, there is a herd of wild elephants, yet your weapon this time is only the basic crossbow bolt version, making hunting an elephant too hard."

Having finished, he steadied his gaze on Ning Yao's eyes.

Ning Yao's expression grew complex, as if hesitating.

A few seconds later, she inhaled deeply, "The locals here… have the highest points, right? How many points each?"

Lu Xingfeng gave a knowing smile, "Regardless of age—young, adult, or old—it's one hundred points each."

"One hundred points! That's so high?" Ning Yao's eyes widened, pupils dilating, "If I can kill four… then I could surpass the first place of the last hunting contest!"

Lu Xingfeng didn't bring up Ning Yao's earlier refusal to hunt locals; he simply nodded slightly.

Ning Yao clenched her fists, paced back and forth twice, "Uncle Lu, can you lead me to the locals?"

Lu Xingfeng replied, "You asked the right person. In a hidden valley nearby, a few locals who evaded previous hunts are concealed. No one else knows; only I do. Do you want to go?"

A blood‑thirsty excitement flashed in Ning Yao's eyes, "I want it! Take me there quickly!"

Soon after, Lu Xingfeng led Ning Yao to a sheer rock wall.

The ground was steep, making it impossible to ride.

The two walked on foot toward it.

Lu Xingfeng pushed aside grass taller than a person, revealing a narrow crevice that could fit only a single person sideways.

"Inside there?" Ning Yao asked.

Lu Xingfeng nodded, lowering his voice, "Pass through this crevice into the valley. Stay behind me and keep quiet, or you'll startle the locals inside."

Ning Yao quickly closed her mouth tightly.

Lu Xingfeng was the first to enter the crack in the rock wall, and Ning Yao swiftly followed.

After walking for a few minutes, Ning Yao felt she could barely catch her breath.

It wasn't because the crack was too narrow; the pressure from the rock wall made it hard for her to breathe.

Rather, in this environment, the overwhelming sense of oppression made her feel intense pressure.

The farther she walked, the more laborious it became; fear rose in her mind, her heart pounded faster, as if it would burst out of her throat.

In the darkness, a strong hand gently clasped her hand, and Lu Xingfeng's low voice rang out, "We'll be there soon."

Ning Yao instantly felt reassured, unconsciously gripping Lu Xingfeng's hand tighter.

After another ten or so steps, the path ahead suddenly opened up; faintly she could see the flickering glow of a fire nearby and the rough outline of a Thatched Hut.

Ning Yao's heartbeat began to accelerate again.

Lu Xingfeng released her hand, turned his head to signal her to stay still, and made a shushing gesture.

Ning Yao's whole body tensed; she stood obediently in place.

Lu Xingfeng pressed himself against the crack's exit, slowly moved to the right side, then bent over gently, without making a sound.

Although Ning Yao didn't know what he was doing, she couldn't help but hold her breath…