Chapter 47

Three minutes later, everyone climbed to the highest point of the Tulou.

The rain poured down like spilled beans. Animals from the Uninhabited Zone rushed past each other, finally reaching the farm. They broke through the barbed wire and headed straight for the farmland greenhouses. The farmland greenhouses covered twenty thousand acres and looked no different from ordinary vegetable greenhouses. Driven by survival instinct, the animals charged directly.

One hit, two hits, three hits…

The Tulou was about one hundred meters from the greenhouses. With each impact, Qin Yun and the others could clearly feel the ground shaking. The farmland greenhouses were system-made, and even after ten minutes of pounding, the greenhouses stood firm.

The animals gave up smashing and turned their attention to the Tulou.

During those ten minutes, many birds had already flown into the Tulou. The Tulou had six floors, each with a one-meter-high railing around the edge. The birds flew over the railings and landed directly on the corridors and stairs.

The birds settled on the ground, licking their wet feathers. Before long, nearly a thousand birds had gathered in the Tulou corridors. Among them were golden eagles and hawks, white-shouldered eagles, and crested cranes—a complete bird encyclopedia.

“Too many.”

Everyone’s scalp tingled. This was only a small part of the birds. Looking out the window, they felt like they weren’t in a Tulou but had accidentally entered a bird’s nest.

“Everyone, be careful. If you don’t have to go out, don’t go out for now,” Liu Wensheng opened the walkie-talkie.

There were twenty-one people on the farm now. Besides him, Qin Yun, and the others, seven researchers were in the lab conducting experiments.

“Received.”

Static crackled over the walkie-talkie. The researchers had locked their doors as soon as the birds gathered. Their rooms had bathrooms and basic supplies to last a week.

“Stay safe,” Liu Wensheng sighed in relief.

After resting a while, Qin Yun opened the curtain. Outside the corridor was a mass of unknown birds, all soaked. A bald eagle spotted Qin Yun, tilted its head, and approached.

Qin Yun quickly closed the curtain.

“We’re trapped,” Liu Wensheng said, looking around.

This was a two-hundred-square-meter empty room, with only some research equipment inside—nothing else.

“I shouldn’t have come up here,” Zhao Zhishun said guiltily. This room was closest to the stairs, and he was the first to enter.

“Even if you hadn’t come, we would have had to move to other rooms,” Liu Wensheng waved his hand.

“Boom—”

Half a minute later, the Tulou shook twice.

They moved toward the outer windowsill. The Tulou was thirty meters tall, now being hit by many animals. It swayed slightly but showed no damage.

After some time pounding, the animals had no choice but to rest around the Tulou.

Acid rain pattered down. Many animals were injured fleeing; their wounds soaked by the acid rain, bleeding continuously.

“Sigh,” Liu Wensheng couldn’t bear to watch.

The Tulou covered over thirty acres. They could open the doors to let animals in, but there were nearly ten thousand animals outside, including fierce beasts like clouded leopards and tigers. Opening the gates now would pose a great threat to the farm personnel, and a year’s worth of research data would be lost.

They debated whether to open the doors or not.

Liu Wensheng thought seriously and reported the situation to his superiors.

While waiting, Qin Yun looked out the window. The animals lay exhausted on the ground, probably from fleeing so desperately. They didn’t attack each other but remained wary, conserving their energy.

Qin Yun saw dozens of white wolves huddled together. Within a fifty-meter radius around them was a vacuum zone. The largest white wolf had injuries on its back.

“Howl!”

Earlier, Xiaobai had gone upstairs with everyone. Seeing the white wolves, Xiaobai wagged his tail excitedly.

Qin Yun stroked the white wolves’ heads. He had been helping Xiaobai find the wolf pack but never expected to encounter this situation now.

Xiaobai wagged his tail for a while but, seeing the wolves paid no attention, reluctantly gave up.

“We must ensure personnel safety first.” Half an hour later, Liu Wensheng put down his phone.

He had just reported to Longxia. On the other end, they were seriously discussing and demanded that Liu Wensheng guarantee personnel safety. However, they also emphasized that if special situations arose, they could handle them independently.

“Let’s observe the situation first…” Liu Wensheng said.

It was now one in the morning. The group was preparing to continue discussions when a cry of an animal came from below.

They pressed against the windows and looked out.

At the bottom of the Tulou, a group of hyenas crouched with arched backs, confronting a herd of antelopes.

The antelopes backed away fearfully; the hyenas lunged forward. Soon, an antelope was knocked down, followed by a grisly scene.

“Those beasts!”

Liu Wensheng felt a surge of anger. He hadn’t expected these hyenas to come to the farm!

There were nearly seventy hyenas. After biting an antelope, they turned toward the animal group. In the blink of an eye, another yak was knocked down.

The hyenas’ beastly nature was unleashed. They circled the Tulou and looked toward the wolf pack on the south side.

The hyenas and wolves had fought many times. Now that the alpha wolf was injured, the hyenas seized the opportunity.

The hyenas and wolves tangled in a fierce struggle.

In the next half hour, the farm’s people witnessed the most primal battle of wild beasts. Both hyenas and wolves were kings of the Uninhabited Zone. The fight was cunning and fierce, with no clear winner.

“Woo!” Xiaobai anxiously paced nearby.

Though Xiaobai had never met the wolf pack, their similar appearance created a primal kinship.

“Quack!”

During the struggle, Zhao Zhishun suddenly shouted.

Qin Yun quickly looked down. The injured alpha wolf was clearly losing to the hyenas.

“No way to help!”

Liu Wensheng grew increasingly frustrated. Trapped in the room, with the current situation, the white wolves were sure to suffer. If the white wolves fell, the animal kings would all belong to the hyenas.

Survival of the fittest—normally, they shouldn’t interfere with animal battles. But watching so many animals get injured or killed… he couldn’t accept it.

The atmosphere grew tenser. Qin Yun looked at Liu Wensheng. “Report, Commander!”

“Speak.”

“Farm secretary Qin Yun, requesting AI assistance for the white wolves.”

Now the hyenas and wolves fought fiercely. Qin Yun recalled the scene seven months ago when the she-wolf fought hyenas. When he arrived, the she-wolf was barely alive.

Now the same scene was unfolding again… he didn’t want to see the same result.

“AI?” Liu Wensheng was stunned.

“AI grunt…”

Qin Yun thought for a moment and said, the AI grunt was a non-intelligent AI, costing one million. After the system upgrade, the farm had purchased two hundred AIs, mainly used for planting and basic labor.

Besides hard work, AI had one huge advantage: tough and resilient.

AI was immune to acid rain and was currently stationed around the farm.

When the hyenas and white wolves fought earlier, he thought of using AI for assistance but wasn’t sure if it was feasible…

“Can AI attack hyenas?” Liu Wensheng asked thoughtfully.

“I don’t know.”

Qin Yun opened the AI interface and issued the command: attack hyenas.

“Ding, AI grunt has no attack permission.”

“Protect white wolves.”

“Ding, AI grunt…”

Qin Yun tried three times, finally giving the order: “Drive away hyenas.”

“Detection: seventy-two hyenas in the farm area, initiate immediate dispersal?”

AI grunt’s duty was to serve the farm; hyenas were outside the farm boundary, so this complied with the program rules.

Qin Yun looked at Liu Wensheng.

“Drive them away,” Liu Wensheng ordered.

Qin Yun issued the command.

At the moment Qin Yun confirmed it, the farmland AI emitted a mechanical blue light and started moving steadily toward the hyenas. This surprised not only the nearby animals but also the hyenas and white wolves.

The AI locked onto the hyenas, attempting to capture them.

The hyenas pounced on the AI, biting its metallic neck without causing any damage.

The AI emitted beeping sounds and continued to target the hyenas.

After repeatedly hitting a wall, the hyenas finally learned and pinned the AI so it couldn’t get up.

Soon, a pile of AIs lay toppled.

Qin Yun and Liu Wensheng felt a chill in their hearts. AI could follow programming, but auxiliary AI had no capability for intelligent attacks.

Just as everyone was about to give up, a low growl came from the fighting.

They looked up to see an antelope charging into the hyena group, violently butting the hyenas with its horns. The hyenas were unwilling and bit the antelope’s leg hard; the antelope cried out in pain.

“Baa!”

Other antelopes did not stand by; they all rallied and charged toward the hyenas.

Yaks, wild horses, alpacas…

More and more animals chose to fight the hyenas.

The rain poured loudly, and a few golden eagles flew out of the Tulou to join the battle.

The fight lasted from one o’clock to three.

The animals suffered heavy injuries, but the hyenas were equally battered.

At 3:15, the hyenas, exhausted, fled toward the southwest.

The animals collapsed on the ground, exhausted; the ground was soaked with blood, and the area around the Tulou was in chaos.

Liu Wensheng and Zhao Zhishun were both soldiers by background. Even with strong mental fortitude, they found the scene hard to bear.

“Commander Liu…” Qin Yun hesitated.

Liu Wensheng waved his hand, “Open it.”

Qin Yun looked at Liu Wensheng.

“I understand what you mean… open the greenhouse.”

In previous discussions, besides opening the Tulou, another option was opening the farm’s greenhouses, which were all breeding fields and held important data for the food crisis.

They had hesitated, then the hyena standoff happened.

They had considered survival of the fittest, but in the face of disaster, there was no true survival of the fittest. They couldn’t watch so many animals suffer in the rain.

Compared to twenty thousand acres of breeding fields, animals were also life.

As for the breeding fields, Longfeng 001 and Zhongzhi 002 were about to be harvested. Losing farmland breeding fields wasn’t a problem this time.

Qin Yun directly opened the farmland greenhouse.

The farmland greenhouse had an excellent drainage system. The animals noticed the greenhouse, paused briefly, then ran toward the farmland instinctively.

Countless wheat and sweet potatoes were trampled.

Everyone watched the crops, hearts aching, but no regrets about their decision.

Hybrid seeds had already been developed.

If the wheat fields were gone, they could be replanted, but these animals needed protection… they were also victims of acid rain.

The rain grew heavier, and soon all the animals had fled into the farmland greenhouse.

Qin Yun closed the greenhouse.

The farmland spanned twenty thousand acres, enough space for the animals to rest. But confining so many animals in a closed environment made Qin Yun suddenly worry about the safety of the weaker animals…

“Ding, congratulations Host on earning the Species Great Savior title. System program updating…”

While pondering, the system updated.

Qin Yun was stunned.

“What’s wrong?” Liu Wensheng was surprised.

Qin Yun shared the system interface.

Host Name: Qin Yun.

Random Title: Species Great Savior. (Single rescue: 100 species)

Title Reward: Heart of Peace, Heart of Animals.

Heart of Peace: Within the farm, animals coexist peacefully with no fighting.

Heart of Animals: Host has 100% animal affinity and can freely select animals within the farm.

…

The achievement rewards were concise.

Heart of Peace was a farm reward; Heart of Animals was a personal buff. After examining it carefully, Qin Yun found the affinity buff worked not only on the farm but also in other areas.

After checking, the system reminded again: Congratulations Host for accumulating 5 titles, intermediate farm requirements met. Upgrade to intermediate farm?

Qin Yun and Liu Wensheng: !!!