Chapter 1171: Evolved Goose

The five days after the autumn rain belong to the late migratory bird season. The Hui-3 officials and combat squads, having harvested over 200,000 migratory birds, halted the migratory bird hunting missions.

Humanity, too, is a vital link in the post-evolution ecological balance of Blue Star.

Without human hunting, migratory birds would overrun the land and become a disaster, disrupting the existing ecological balance. But over-hunting would also damage that balance.

200,000 to 220,000 birds, nearly a million jin — that was the upper and lower limit the Huaguo higher-ups set for the Hui-3 base's migratory bird season hunting quota.

The vast majority of this meat was sent to the safe-zone food processing plant, made into various foods and rations to meet the eating needs of the base's 1.81 million population; a small portion of premium meat flowed into the high-end market, becoming delicacies on the tables of the upper class. Eating green-light migratory birds during this season was a status symbol for the elite.

During these five days, Xia Qing, the low-key Lord of Territory Three whose freezer was stuffed full of premium meat, accepted Hui-3 Base Commander's invitation and went out on two more missions.

After returning to her territory from the second mission, Xia Qing carried an eighteen-jin green-light evolved migratory bird into Territory Seven.

"I've long heard the meat of this evolved goose is extremely delicious, but unfortunately they live deep in the evolved forest where humans can hardly reach, and they fly above 8,000 meters during migration, so they're very hard to catch. I didn't expect you to run into one."

Zhang San looked at the evolved goose, his whole face radiating benevolence, "Was last night's mission smooth?"

"Not bad. We tangled with the other side near the Gui-6 base border for six hours and took out two of their top snipers."

The truth that greater ability brings greater responsibility — Xia Qing now fully understood it, and also understood why Luo Pei, after being detoxified, rarely stayed in the safe zone or the territory.

Top-tier combatants taking on cross-base high-difficulty missions was not only for earning points, but more importantly to foster cooperation between squads and between bases.

For the Azure Dragon Squad to hold firm at the top of Hui-3 base's squad rankings, and for Hui-3 base to obtain more survival supplies, they had to learn from each other's strengths and cooperate with other bases and squads that possessed the supplies they needed.

In the past, missions like this that required two top snipers, Hui-3 had no ability to take on, so they couldn't get the corresponding resources. Now they could.

Hui-1 could before, but not anymore. Because Blaze Squad's top sniper was blown up by the Doomsday faction, and Black Panther's top sniper was killed by Xia Qing, Hui-1 only has one top sniper left.

After brushing off the mission content in one sentence, Xia Qing eagerly got to the main topic. "On our way back from Gui-6, we took a plane to Hui-1, then a helicopter back to our base. I spotted this evolved goose you've shown me photos of — over three hundred of them. Brother Luo and I sniped thirty-two from the air. Pretty lucky — got three green-lights and six yellow-lights."

Zhang San asked amiably, "How do you retrieve geese shot down in midair?"

Xia Qing answered, "Brother Luo and I did the shooting. Yang Jin led a team on individual flight devices to collect them in the air."

Zhang San paused for two seconds. "That was your idea?"

"Yang Jin's. He said this evolved goose is extremely valuable, that we'd definitely make back the fuel and ammo costs." If they hadn't startled the raptors in that patch of evolved forest, they would have packed the whole flock into the cabin. Xia Qing asked with a grin, "Third Brother, what's the best way to cook this goose?"

"Braised." Thinking of the delicious meat, Zhang San's mood lifted again.

Xia Qing immediately made a request. "Third Brother, can I bring my green-light goose over and have Sister Ping braise it together with the rest?"

Territory Seven's chef Ge Ping's cooking skills were far superior to those of Er Yong and Yang Jin.

"Sure." After having someone take the evolved goose out, Zhang San asked, "Did you bring that brain-evolved red squirrel?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Brought it."

"Good." Zhang San entered a code to access the inner storage room, took out some herb seeds weighing about one jin in total, each about the size of a spinach seed, and placed them on the table. "These are seeds of a scarce evolved herb. Can you have it pick out the cultivable optimized ones from inside?"

"Sure. Please get me a bigger paper box or a winnowing basket, Third Brother."

Zhang San didn't have a winnowing basket, so he brought a large paper box, lined it with a layer of paper, carefully poured the seeds in, then looked up to see Xia Qing pull a red squirrel out of her protective suit pocket.

The veins on Zhang San's temple twitched involuntarily. "You keep it in your pocket?!"

"No, I carried it in my pocket when bringing it out, and let it move freely when in the territory." Xia Qing stroked Little Feimao's head and gently placed it in the paper box.

The attraction of the premium seeds outweighed the unease brought by the unfamiliar environment, and Little Feimao quickly began sorting through them in the box.

Seeing this scene, and recalling how a few months ago Xia Qing had brought this palm-sized little squirrel into his territory, begging him to administer special medicine for it, Zhang San was filled with emotion.

"You let it move freely — aren't you worried it'll run off or be killed by other animals?"

"I am worried." That's why Xia Qing collected fur from many powerful creatures for Little Feimao to arm itself with. No need to tell her idol about that — she'd get scolded.

"But you can't just lock it in a cage out of worry, right?"

Zhang San pressed, "Why can't it be kept in a cage?"

Xia Qing answered directly, "I feel that if I lock it up, with no worries about food and drink, it won't have the motivation to seek out and store premium food."

Zhang San was silent for a long while, until Little Feimao burrowed into Xia Qing's pocket and refused to come out, then spoke again. "You're right. Without survival pressure, an organism's instincts will degrade. What do you want to trade this evolved goose for?"

Xia Qing took the forty-plus cultivable optimized seeds Little Feimao had picked out from her pocket, handed them to her idol, and carefully proposed her trade condition. "After the migratory bird season ends, the old wolf from the southern wolf pack will bring the half-grown Scarface wolf over for a follow-up. Can Third Brother personally examine and treat it?"

……

"Sure."

"Thank you, Third Brother!" Seeing her idol's expression wasn't great, Xia Qing tried to make amends. "If Lord Cui Yan of that wolf pack hadn't blocked me, I would have brought Scarface back right then and had you or Zhang Song stitch it up, and there wouldn't have been all this follow-up trouble."

Zhang San rolled his eyes at Xia Qing, who clearly hadn't mastered Medical Ethics, and couldn't be bothered to deal with her.

Xia Qing continued making amends. "Third Brother, how big and how heavy is the equipment needed to collect the specific environmental data from the native habitat of the evolved purple ziding?"

Zhang San perked up again. "A camera plus a high-precision detector — less than a quarter of this goose, total weight under 8 kg. You're going to the western evolved forest?"

That was tiger territory — Xia Qing didn't dare. "This equipment isn't that big. Once the old wolf brings Scarface over, I'll discuss it with it and have it carry the equipment into the western tiger territory to collect data."

Having a wolf carry precision instruments into tiger territory to gather data humans needed — this was absolutely not something a normal human would do.

Zhang San keenly sensed that, under Xia Qing's influence, the animals in the evolved forests around Hui-3 were evolving in directions that no AI large model or highly evolved human brain could possibly predict.

A big shot never lets himself be uncomfortable, so he simply chased this weirdo human — who kept a rat in her pocket — out of the lab.

Out of sight, out of mind.