7: Chapter 7 Purely Technical Egg Stealing

Daybreak.

Lin Ye opened his eyes, his dagger already held horizontally across his chest.

The surroundings were quiet; the campfire was reduced to dark red embers, with sporadic wisps of white smoke rising.

He sat up from his sleeping bag; having slept with his back against the rock wall all night, his spine creaked.

He twisted his neck, his gaze falling on the circle of wood ash.

The ash line was continuous and hadn't been scattered by the wind.

But at the edge, there were a few small, blackish things.

Lin Ye got out of his sleeping bag and leaned in—three bugs.

He used the tip of his dagger to flip one over.

Each was about two fingers long and entirely grayish-black.

However, their limbs were curled up; they were dead as a doornail.

"It seems that no matter which world they are from, bugs are afraid of physical strong alkali," Lin Ye twitched the corner of his mouth.

...

Great Xia Live Stream.

The audience, who had been guarding their screens since early morning, felt a collective chill down their spines upon seeing the three stiff, dead bugs.

[Holy shit! There really are bugs?]

[If he hadn't sprinkled that circle of ash last night...]

[Damn, I have goosebumps all over!]

[Brother Eye-Gouger's crisis awareness is just too strong!]

Xu Mingyuan picked up his cup, took a sip of water, and set it down.

"In the wild, what kills you is often not the large beasts, but these inconspicuous little things."

Commentator Chen Guofeng yawned and leaned back against his chair.

"Teacher Xu, if you had said that yesterday, you wouldn't be here playing the armchair critic today."

With that one sentence, he had the audience on the barrage screen spamming "Hahaha."

...

Lin Ye packed up his sleeping bag and stuffed it into his backpack.

His stomach was growling.

The bit of fruit pulp from last night wasn't enough; he had to try his luck again.

He arrived at the cliff on the north side of the Floating Island.

Reaching the spot where he picked fruit yesterday, he saw that the vines along the cliff edge had been picked bare by him.

He continued walking east along the cliff edge.

After walking for three or four minutes, he saw another row of thick vines hanging down from the cliff face, bearing a cluster of grayish-green cloud berries.

He was familiar with the process.

He lay on the cliff edge, reached out to grab the nearest vine, and pulled it up.

He took out his dagger and pried open the first one.

Gray spots, toss.

Second one, pry open.

Still gray spots, toss.

Third one.

Clean light green, no gray impurities.

Lucky.

Lin Ye set this one on the ground beside him, preparing to pick a few more.

Just as his hand touched the vine...

"Screee—!"

A sharp screech came from overhead.

Lin Ye quickly lowered his body and pressed himself to the ground.

He held his dagger in a reverse grip, even slowing his breathing.

The screeching sound came closer from afar.

Lin Ye turned his face, slowly lifted his head, and narrowed his eyes to look at the sky.

A giant gray-brown bird of prey swept past the edge of the clouds.

Its wingspan was nearly four meters; it had a forked tail, and its wings were covered in a layer of rock-textured feathers.

[Rock Feather Kite]

After glancing at it, Lin Ye immediately lay motionless on the ground.

The Rock Feather Kite did not linger above the Floating Island but dived straight toward the bottom of the cliff.

He waited for a dozen seconds, confirming there wasn't a second one nearby.

Then he crawled forward, inching toward the cliff edge.

He braced his hands on the ground and leaned a small part of his body out over the cliff.

About thirty or forty meters below, a horizontal rock crevice had split open on the cliff face.

The crevice was filled with dead branches and mud, forming a bowl-shaped nest.

The Rock Feather Kite was squatting in the nest, head bowed, tidying up.

And beside it, a few grayish-white eggs were exposed.

Lin Ye's throat moved, and saliva uncontrollably secreted.

Bird eggs.

Real, solid protein.

Cloud berries could only replenish water and a small amount of sugar; the pulp barely served as a base.

But an egg this big would definitely restore his stamina.

Most importantly, his Eye of Destiny had already confirmed it just now.

Green, safe, edible.

But the nest was thirty or forty meters below, and a big bird was still squatting next to it.

...

In the Great Xia Live Stream.

[Brother Eye-Gouger's look is wrong! He doesn't want to steal the bird eggs, does he?]

[Be rational, bro! The size of this bird looks like it's not easy to deal with!]

[Don't be impulsive! Play it safe and don't be reckless!]

Xu Mingyuan frowned.

"With Lin Ye's current equipment and stamina, his survival rate in a direct confrontation with a large flying creature is extremely low."

"Furthermore, his vision has a natural defect."

He shook his head.

"My advice is to withdraw immediately; do not develop any unnecessary greed."

Commentator Chen Guofeng didn't speak; he stared at the screen.

Lin Ye in the footage neither climbed down nor retreated.

He just lay there on the cliff edge, motionless.

10 minutes.

15 minutes.

The Rock Feather Kite was still squatting in the nest.

Lin Ye was not impatient; the more it was like this, the more patience was needed.

A few more minutes passed.

The Rock Feather Kite finally made a move; it lowered its head and lightly pecked at the eggs in the nest.

Then it spread its wings, took off, and flew toward the sea of clouds in the distance.

Further and further away.

Smaller and smaller.

Finally, it disappeared from sight.

Opportunity!

Lin Ye turned over and sprang up from the ground.

He extended his right arm over the cliff, aiming the launcher of the Wind-Chasing Claw at the nest below.

He held his breath and pressed the switch.

"Bang!"

The three-clawed hook shot out, trailing a cable.

The hook landed in the nest.

With a "click," the claw tips locked onto a bird egg perfectly.

Pressed the switch again.

The cable hummed and began to retract at high speed.

The claw dragged the bird egg up at high speed, crossing the cliff edge.

Lin Ye scooped it up with his left hand, and the egg landed steadily in his palm.

Got it.

This thing was bigger than a fist and heavy.

He grabbed the clean cloud berry he had picked earlier and turned to run.

No looking back, no hesitation.

He didn't know the hunting range of that Rock Feather Kite, and he definitely didn't want to bet on how long it would take to return.

He sprinted all the way back to the Stone Forest.

...

The Great Xia Live Stream was filled with cheers.

[He got it! He really got it!]

[One shot, one kill! Pure technical egg-stealing! Professional!]

[Wind-Chasing Claw: I did this for my first time? I'm not clean anymore!]

[Teacher Xu, look! Brother Eye-Gouger got it, didn't he!]

Xu Mingyuan opened his mouth, held it for a long time, and struggled to squeeze out four words.

"This... this counts as a... tactical evasion."

Commentator Chen Guofeng laughed loudly and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Evasion my ass! This is called raiding the nest! The Art of War says, strike when the enemy is weak!"

"Lin's handiwork, beautiful!"

Su Qinglan chimed in at the right moment.

"Lin Ye used the equipment he obtained yesterday to remotely acquire a bird egg."

"Sometimes, the smartest fight is not to fight."

[Sister Qinglan's summary is spot on! Subduing the enemy without fighting... the egg!]

[King of the Old Six! Deserved!]

...

Back at the Stone Forest camp, Lin Ye squatted by last night's campfire.

He used a branch to rake away the embers; the charcoal underneath still retained some heat.

He placed the bird egg inside and covered it with hot ash and fine charcoal pieces.

Feeling the heat wasn't enough, he used a flint to reignite a pile of dried grass and added thin firewood.

Flames leaped up, and the heat slowly permeated from the outside in.

While waiting, he pried open the clean cloud berry and slowly drank the juice.

He waited for about 15 minutes.

He used a branch to pull the bird egg out of the fire and rolled it onto the ground.

The shell was steaming hot and covered in ash.

Lin Ye gently tapped it with the back of his dagger, and the shell cracked.

Steam escaped from the crack; he flinched a little and used the tip of his dagger to pry off the broken shell bit by bit.

The egg white had solidified into a porcelain white, with slightly charred yellow edges.

So fragrant.

Lin Ye couldn't wait to take a big bite.

The texture was much firmer than a chicken egg; it was chewy, and the more he chewed, the more fragrant it became.

The yolk was sandy, dense, and didn't choke his throat.

He poured another mouthful of cloud berry juice into his mouth.

Comfortable.

His stomach finally felt heavy and solid.

Just as he was about to finish the rest.

The voice of the National Destiny Challenge descended, echoing in everyone's ears.

[Endgame Simulation yesterday's battle report.]

[Total deaths of Challengers from various countries yesterday: 1,469.]

[Great Xia: 21 deaths.]

[USA: 13 deaths.]

[Russia: 11 deaths.]

[Japan: 17 deaths.]

[Saudi Arabia: 33 deaths.]

...

The list scrolled by, one country after another; every row of numbers represented real human lives.

Lin Ye sat by the campfire, holding a piece of eggshell fragment in his hand.

[Parachute failure: 47%]

[Environmental factors (poisoning/hypothermia/falling off a cliff): 31%]

[Beast attack: 18%]

[Challenger conflict: 4%]

The last piece of data hung there, exceptionally glaring.

Challenger conflict.

Lin Ye was slightly stunned, but quickly regained his calm.

He knew that the greatest threat never just came from the outside.

One's own kind is the most dangerous.