Chapter 22: Arrangement

In the faint gray fog, Lu Mian woke up.

He immediately rolled out of bed and headed straight for the window, looking outside.

That mountain peak, composed of brownish-red stones and reddish-brown mud, stood quietly on the wilderness as usual.

Although it was only twenty or thirty meters high, it gave people the feeling of being inserted into the clouds and connecting to the sky, so much so that Lu Mian subconsciously used the word "mountain peak" to describe it.

At its feet, those buildings in various states of collapse formed a ring on the wilderness, layer upon layer outward.

"Judging from its body structure, that monster with the hunting rifle must be good at running and jumping, and at the same time, it possesses a certain degree of intelligence and can use relatively complex weapons like hunting rifles...

"It has a very strong tracking ability...

"It's uncertain whether it's like Aurora, possessing some supernatural abilities...

"..."

Various details about the target surfaced in Lu Mian's mind.

He initially judged that if he were to confront that monster carrying a hunting rifle head-on, the probability of him being killed was as high as ninety percent. If he tried to utilize the specialness on his body, he would die even faster, because once he entered meditation, he could put himself into a near-death state, and the other party only needed a simple strike to complete the harvest.

Besides being unable to confront it head-on, sneak attacks and assassinations were also not in Lu Mian's consideration—this was because, firstly, given the tracking ability it had shown, he likely couldn't truly hide his figure, so he couldn't pull off a sneak attack; secondly, he had no long-range weapons. Even if he were given a revolver, he wouldn't be in such a dilemma now.

For the past two days, Lu Mian had repeatedly thought about how to deal with that monster and could only think of one way:

Use traps!

He had once followed hunters in the village into the deep mountains and learned how to set some simple traps, and later practiced the techniques in a few pranks.

Lu Mian originally thought of using the oil at home—for example, putting it in a lidless large barrel, placing it in a hidden high place, and tying it with a rope. Once the target passed by, he would pull the rope immediately, letting the large barrel tilt, splashing the other party with oil, and then taking the opportunity to throw a lit torch over.

But after weighing it, he gave up this idea.

On the premise that the monster showed strong tracking ability, he had to fully overestimate its sense of smell!

The smell of oil was quite obvious.

And if he used other strong smells to cover it, Lu Mian wasn't sure if the other party would change its strategy, or if it would be like a wild dog, able to distinguish even the slightest wrongness.

Finally, he chose to dig a deep pit and bury sharp stakes.

This also had a certain problem: given the tracking ability the monster had shown, there was a not-so-low probability that it would discover the abnormality in advance and see through the trap.

Lu Mian's response was to try to lower its guard and make good use of the blind spots in thinking.

Simply put, he could only hope that he could suppress the other party in terms of IQ, and in a situation where weapons were inferior to the target, make good use of the greatest advantage humans had.

"At least from last time, it has a certain degree of intelligence, but it won't be too high..." Lu Mian comforted himself in his heart.

Of course, he wouldn't underestimate that monster because of this. He planned to treat the other party's IQ as being at the level of a normal person.

The target person was Pons Béné.

"No, that guy is too stupid. If he didn't have so many thugs, I would have made him kneel down and call me daddy long ago." Lu Mian thought for a moment and cautiously raised the monster's expected IQ. "Hmm, treat it as a parish priest who hasn't read any books."

He looked out the window again, his gaze lingering on the wilderness between his house and those ruins.

This place was closer to the "safe zone," which was the safest for him, but it lacked cover and was completely exposed, really not suitable for an "ambush."

"Digging traps is fine, but if I use myself as bait, the other party will be able to see me from far away and just shoot me directly; it won't come over at all..." Lu Mian muttered two sentences and decided to take the risk of entering the ruins to find a suitable place to set traps.

A draft plan quickly took shape in his mind, with only one last point needing confirmation:

Digging a deep pit and burying sharp stakes required quite a bit of time. Lu Mian couldn't order the other party to wait for him to finish before coming.

Thinking about it, Lu Mian spread his arms, made the "Praise the Sun" gesture, and prayed more devoutly than ever before:

"My God, my Father, please protect me in solving that monster.

"Praise the Sun!"

For most things in the world, it was impossible to have a hundred percent certainty. Lu Mian didn't hesitate anymore, picked up the steel fork and axe, left the bedroom, and entered the study.

Considering the target's weapon, he decided to change his "protective equipment."

Lu Mian took off his cotton coat and used a rope to tie books with hard covers onto his chest and back.

This was a homemade "paper armor"!

Vaguely, he remembered his sister saying that this might cause some internal injuries, but he couldn't care about that anymore.

Lu Mian stretched his body, confirming that the current number of books wouldn't affect his combat too much.

He put on the leather jacket outside again, went all the way to the bottom floor, and searched for materials that might be needed to set traps:

Not long after, he had a shovel in his hand, and a bundle of rope around his waist—this was for climbing, and also for making rope nets to replace branches.

After finishing the preparations, Lu Mian took a deep breath and pulled open the door with his right hand holding the iron axe.

Faint gray fog permeated the wilderness, and he walked step by step toward the mountain peak that seemed to be stained with blood.

In the dead silence, Lu Mian reached the edge of the ruins.

He walked sideways for a distance, threw the shovel, steel fork, rope, and other things into a dark corner of a collapsed building, and then returned to the place where he had entered the ruins before, carrying only the axe.

He did some exploration without any abnormalities, sneaking slowly toward the depths of the ruins just like last time.

He stayed for nearly a minute at the place where he was scared away by the three-faced monster before turning back.

Halfway through, he started to take a detour, heading toward the collapsed building where he had stored the shovel, steel fork, and rope.

Approaching the destination, Lu Mian began to observe the terrain, looking for a place suitable for setting traps.

"There's a crack here that's relatively wide but not long. A little modification will make it a good trap, and it can save me quite a bit of time. As for the other one, maybe it will take a long time; I can only hope that monster won't track me so quickly..."

Lu Mian took the shovel and other things, returned to the chosen position, and quickly set up the traps.

After initially modifying the crack itself, he used the axe to cut and sharpen pieces of wood, placed them at the bottom of the trap, then wove a rope net, laid it on top of the trap, and covered it with a layer of floating soil, trying to keep it as consistent with the surroundings as possible.

After finishing this, he pretended to be the monster, tracking himself, and arrived in front of this trap.

"If it can detect this trap, it will definitely choose to go around, or even jump over it directly. It will probably reach this position...

"What I need is for it to see me only when it reaches here, and not before. So, I can only hide here..." Lu Mian measured the distance with his feet, identified the direction with his eyes, and slowly came to a wall that was still relatively intact.

He squatted there and confirmed the line of sight.

Then, he began to dig the second trap.

This was an arrangement aimed at "normal humans":

When a person is tracking a target and discovers that the other party has set a trap for them, and they easily detect it and find the enemy hiding nearby, they will often be very proud and eager, ignoring the possibility of a second trap and rushing toward the prey.

Ordinary IQ easily falls into such thinking traps or blind spots.

Lu Mian only hoped that the monster didn't reach the average IQ of a human; otherwise, he could only turn and run, likely being caught up and dying somewhere in the wilderness, with a small probability of escaping back home and hiding in the "safe zone."

The abnormalities in Cordu Village forced him to risk his life.

Time ticked by, and Lu Mian finally finished the second trap, but the monster carrying the hunting rifle hadn't appeared yet.

Other monsters were the same.

He was finally able to be a bit at ease. After hiding the shovel and other items, he stood up straight and spread his arms.

"Praise the Sun!" This time, he was even more sincere.

Lu Mian then shrank to the side of the wall, half-squatting on the ground, staring at the first trap.

From where he had just come, he couldn't see this side because a completely collapsed building blocked the line of sight.

He waited patiently.

Thump, thump, thump... Lu Mian clearly felt his heartbeat accelerating.

For him, this was an experience he had never had before.

When wandering, he had faced "enemies" older and stronger than himself, but they didn't aim to kill each other; it was mainly to fight for food, money, and places to sleep. Even if someone died in the process, it was an accident.

But now, the enemy he was about to face was a monster that wouldn't abide by human laws and morality, and it was far stronger than him. It might even possess a small amount of supernatural power. Once there was a flaw in the plan, the consequences were imaginable.

Thump, thump, thump... Lu Mian couldn't avoid being highly tense.

No one didn't want to live well, and he was no exception.

Inhale, exhale... Inhale, exhale...

Lu Mian did deep breathing to adjust his tense spirit.

And this didn't seem to have a very good effect.

For a moment, he both hoped that the monster would come earlier and was afraid that it would really come.

The former was because it would let things end faster, so no matter the result, Lu Mian wouldn't have to be as nervous as he was now, on the verge of collapse. The latter was simply a kind of fear.

Seeing that

That crimson sun was harder to outline than before, but with Lu Mian's efforts, it finally emerged.

This also made Lu Mian much calmer, though his body still trembled slightly.

Just at this moment, he heard a slight movement.

It was as if there were a pasture where his eyes could not see, and some shepherd was approaching on tiptoe.

(End of chapter)