Chapter 277: Migratory Bird Flocks

Crouching in the freshly dug pit over two meters deep, the visual-evolution user Xia Qing finally spotted the evolution spiny moth pupa hidden in a crevice between rocks, confirming what Li Si had said the night before.

No wonder burning the mountain last year to clear the evolution forest hadn't killed the pupae — they were hidden this deep underground.

The spiny moth hadn't evolved iron teeth or iron legs; it had burrowed down through the gaps between grass roots and soil.

Damn it — can Blue Star get any crazier after the evolution?!

Fortunately, the researchers in Zhang San's territory had developed a soil pesticide tailored to this land's characteristics; even if these evolution spiny moth pupae hatched into moths and burrowed upward through the pesticide-laden soil layer, they'd still be wiped out.

Xia Qing let out a breath of relief and climbed out of the pit to the surface, just as she heard Beard Feng use the lord channel to announce, "All lords, starting today, Mountain Forty-Nine enters the bird-hunting period. If you hear gunfire on the mountain, please don't panic. Territory One promises the bird-hunting activities will absolutely not spill over into the territories."

After Blue Star's evolution, the population plummeted by over ninety percent, but wild animal numbers multiplied dozens to hundreds of times, and migratory birds became a rampant disaster.

Massive flocks of migratory birds flying over this territory brought both danger and harvest to the humans here.

Beasts and raptors needed to prey on the migratory birds to build up fat for winter. Humans also took advantage of this once-a-year feast to hunt large numbers of migratory birds, beasts, and raptors, stockpiling supplies.

So during this period, most of the army and combat squads' fighting strength would head into the swampy and lake regions of the evolution forest, hunting continuously for several days.

There was a large stretch of swamp on the northern side of Mountain Forty-Nine, so the Azure Dragon Squad didn't have to fight other squads for hunting grounds — naturally they'd make full use of it.

Tang Huai, who always opposed Territory One, unexpectedly asked politely, "Captain Hu, can people from our territories join your training camp? I'll bring my own gear and pay a per-head fee."

"No." Beard Feng refused outright. "The training-camp hunting activities during migratory bird season are extremely dangerous; non–Azure Dragon Squad members are not allowed to participate."

Tang Huai immediately turned hostile, viciously warning, "If you make so much noise I can't rest, I will definitely file a complaint!"

Migratory bird flocks generally traveled at night and landed to rest during the day, so the Azure Dragon Squad's combat hunting all took place in the daytime — it was absolutely impossible to disturb Tang Huai's sleep.

Beard Feng couldn't be bothered to deal with the Tang family's lunatic; the lords continued discussing how to handle the half-month-long migratory bird season.

Kuang Qingwei asked, "How is everyone planning to keep the birds away?"

Before Blue Star's catastrophe, birds could be classified by diet into three types: carnivorous, herbivorous, and omnivorous. Among carnivorous, there were four subcategories — insectivorous, piscivorous, scavengers, and raptors.

After the catastrophe began and the great biological evolution, birds also evolved, and the old classifications no longer applied.

Apart from the few raptor species sitting at the top of the avian food chain, nearly all evolved birds were omnivorous. Simply put: when food was plentiful, they picked what they liked; when food was scarce or they were too hungry, they ate anything.

The corn, mung beans, vegetables — even humans — in the territories were food for hungry migratory birds. And once these migratory birds landed to rest, hungry carnivorous raptors would soon swoop in to prey on them.

The greenhouses in the territories were built mainly with bamboo and couldn't withstand raptors' iron beaks and sharp talons. So during migratory bird season, the lords' main task wasn't hunting birds, but preventing migratory birds from landing inside the territories — especially near the farmland.

Qi Fu answered, "Birds should be afraid of noise. We plan to bang on iron basins to drive them off as soon as we spot migratory birds showing signs of landing."

"Good idea, I'll bang on basins too." Zhao Ze quickly noted it down. The Azure Dragon Squad would be concentrating their hunting, so he couldn't hire Azure Dragon members to guard his territory — every available method had to be used, just in case.

"Evolved birds aren't necessarily afraid of banging basins. I'm thinking of recording calls of eagles, cats, wolves, that sort of thing, and playing them when birds fly over to scare them off." Xia Qing joined the discussion too, though what she planned to "play" wasn't a recording — it was the real wolf version.

She had two wolves in her territory — no point letting them go to waste.

"I've prepared the same thing." Kuang Qingwei immediately chimed in. "I've already set up loudspeakers. Each high-power speaker has a transmission range of about 600–700 meters. With just two speakers, you can absolutely cover the farmland and houses in your territories. Do you need to buy or rent speakers? Purchase is 60 points each, rental is 10 points per day."

After saying that, Kuang Qingwei played two clips of evolved eagle and cat calls — clear, sounding very imposing, not to be trifled with.

Shi Chong immediately responded, "I'll buy one."

"I'll take one too." Qi Fu followed suit, and Zhao Ze and Xia Qing each took one as well. The migratory bird period lasted fifteen days — renting a speaker would cost 150 points, enough to buy two. Naturally everyone chose to purchase.

Then Shi Chong began selling his homemade bird-scaring products. "I've made quite a few evolved raptor kites. The kites also carry small amplifiers and can fly over three hundred meters high. If anyone wants to buy, 23 points each."

Kuang Qingwei immediately asked, "Brother Shi, are your kites still being sold in the Safe Zone?"

Shi Chong answered with a smile, "Yes. When we were in the Safe Zone, we relied on these to trade for compressed rations. This year we also found time to make quite a few, and asked Captain Zhong to bring them back to the Safe Zone for consignment sale."

Evolved raptor kites were a low-cost yet effective bird-scaring method among the base's approaches. Everyone immediately started buying — three here, five there.

Xia Qing hadn't known Shi Chong made these. A few days earlier, she'd asked Zhong Tao to buy ten from the Safe Zone at 25 points each.

Zhong Tao hadn't told Xia Qing that kites were available right in Territory Ten — which was perfectly normal. Because according to relevant regulations, without a lord's permission, patrol teams couldn't disclose the trading activities of lords to outsiders.

Kites, loudspeakers, wolves, and the guns and chest-level grenade launchers in Xia Qing's hands — plus the super security team of Beard Feng's squad — even though Xia Qing's territory had a reservoir, she was still quite confident about driving off migratory bird flocks.

On September 25, with Tan Junjie's announcement, this year's migratory bird season began.

"Attention all lords, attention all lords. The first batch of migratory birds will pass over the territory in half an hour. The raptors in the evolution forest north of the territory have already taken flight. Please be prepared."

Tan Junjie hadn't specified the exact species of migratory birds — he definitely hadn't received the notice. Xia Qing asked Beard Feng, "Captain Hu, what species is the first batch of migratory birds, and roughly how many?"

After consulting the observation post atop Mountain Forty-Nine, Beard Feng answered through his earpiece walkie-talkie, "About a thousand migratory birds — evolved sand gulls, flying at an altitude of five hundred meters."

A thousand was too many. Xia Qing immediately gave the order, having the two speed-evolution users in her territory release the evolved sea eagle kites — they were the natural enemies of evolved sand gulls.