Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Some time later, in the afternoon.

Because of the dense branches, even though the sun has not set yet and it is only afternoon, the inside of the primeval forest has already begun to darken. Although the surrounding environment can still be seen clearly with the current brightness inside the primeval forest, at this rate, it will be pitch dark inside the primeval forest in about an hour or two.

"Ouch~~"

Han Zu, walking in the primeval forest, heard the calls of some wild animals. Just a minute or two ago, Han Zu discovered through his perception ability that a small group of wild animals passed by him. Han Zu looked in the direction they passed and found that they should be a small group of wolves, but because of their large size, Han Zu was not sure what species they were.

Continuing to go deeper into the primeval forest, Han Zu arrived at the depths of the primeval forest after dozens of minutes according to the guidance of the research team and the location coordinates they provided. According to Han Zu's moving speed, he should be one hour away from the center.

"We need to activate night vision here. The vegetation is denser in this area and visibility is too low. How are you?"

"I have night vision, so it makes no difference to me."

The visibility at Han Zu's current location is already very low, and the night vision function of the device on Han Zu must be turned on to continue observing. However, for Han Zu, who has night vision capabilities, there is really no difference.

"According to our model of the primeval forest, you should have reached the innermost area of ​​the primeval forest. We have sent search and rescue robots into the forest. They have carefully searched the area they passed through before. The data they sent back shows that they did not find any survivors or traces of the giant creature in these areas. If there are any survivors, they should be in the area you are in now. The giant creature is likely to be in this area as well. Be careful, γ."

Gray mist emerged from Han Zu's body, dissolving his coat and revealing the muscles underneath. Han Zu moved his arms, did some warm-up exercises, and then continued to move deeper into the central area of ​​the primeval forest.

Starting from this range, Han Zu's perception ability could basically not detect any large wild animals. Except for some bats, other wild animals seemed to instinctively stay away from this area. Han Zu also found some friction marks left by giant creatures on some nearby tree trunks.

"It seems that the giant creature we are tracking should have a strong sense of territory, so there are almost no other wild animals around here. However, we can see a lot of these big bats here. Maybe it is a kind of mutual assistance and symbiosis between these two creatures?"

"So the deserters at that time should have invaded the territory of this giant creature? But I think there is a problem. The place where they were attacked is not close to where I am now. There are many other wild animals within this distance. If, as assumed, the entire primeval forest is the territory of the giant creature, then why were other wild animals not attacked by that creature?"

"This is indeed a problem. According to our last investigation, although we can find a lot of animal fights and signs of predation in the primeval forest, most of them are normal predation behaviors. Apart from the deserter team, we did not find any other wild animals or signs attacked by such giant creatures. You know, such a huge creature consumes a lot of energy every day, so it must eat a lot of food. However, apart from some signs of its activities, we did not find any signs of its predation and hunting."

"Is it possible that this giant creature was herbivorous? Perhaps it didn't need to hunt other animals."

"It shouldn't be. If this giant creature is herbivorous, it would consume a large amount of plants every day. However, during our search, we did not find any area in the primeval forest where a large amount of plants were missing. Therefore, we believe that this giant creature should not be herbivorous."

"Hmm... I have an idea..."

"explain."

On the other side of the communication, a new researcher squeezed in front of the communication screen and boldly expressed his ideas. Han Zu also allowed him to freely express a possibility he had thought of.

"Well... I think this giant creature is probably not very aggressive towards other creatures. Of course, I'm not saying it can't do that. You can think of it as a docile creature."

"I don't think those deserters who were annihilated think so. Do you have any basis for your speculation?"

"Yes, the last time we explored the primeval forest, when we photographed the outline of the giant creature, we were not far from it, only a few dozen meters away. With the size of that creature, it wouldn't take it long to rush to us. Based on the body structure of this animal, it should also be able to see at night, and its eyesight must be good, so it must have seen us last time. If it was a very aggressive creature, it would definitely attack us, but our research team, including the guard team responsible for protecting us last time, did not suffer any attack. Now think about it, the giant creature may have deliberately avoided us after discovering us."

"But from the traces at the scene, we can indeed judge that it was the same creature, or possibly the same kind of giant creature, that killed the deserting group. If, as you said, the giant creature was not a very aggressive creature, then the deserting group must have done something or behaved in some way to anger the giant creature."

This speculation by the new researcher provided everyone with a new idea. Han Zu discussed it with the person in charge of the Institute of Biology and asked about the test report on the team of deserters that was killed at that time.

After careful observation of the test reports at that time, it was discovered that the deserters had a large amount of energy residue on their bodies and were also carrying a kind of unfilled spores.

"Will these spores cause hallucinations in people?" Han Zu asked.

"No, we also extracted a lot of fungi carrying these spores nearby. After testing, we found that they did not have hallucinogenic effects. However, they will stimulate the brain in a short period of time, making those affected by the spores extremely excited in a short period of time." The head of the Biological Research Institute replied.

“Perhaps the excitement caused by the influence of the spores caused the deserters to take the initiative to attack this giant creature?” the new researcher raised the question.

"That's a possibility, and it's one of the issues we need to study," Han Zu said thoughtfully. "But it may also be that the deserters' actions at the time destroyed its living environment, or destroyed something important it was guarding, such as its cubs or eggs... After all, we don't know how this animal grows yet."

"Hula~~~"

While Han Zu was talking to the researchers on the other end of the communication, a large number of bats suddenly flew out from the front. Due to their large number, the sound of their flapping wings superimposed on each other and was very clear, even though they were still quite a distance away from Han Zu's position.

"According to the brightness inside the primeval forest now, these big bats should have entered a dormant state. Such a large-scale movement is likely to be scared away by something."

"They appeared from quite a high altitude. I think it is very likely that some giant creature has appeared!"

"Dong~dong~"

"Sigh~~~"

Han Zu also heard heavy footsteps and the hissing sound of a snake. Han Zu temporarily stopped communicating with the Biological Research Institute and slowly walked towards the direction where the sound came from.

Han Zu walked lightly and approached the source of the sound. He jumped onto the trunk of a large tree and quickly climbed up to a high branch. With the cover of the dense leaves around him, Han Zu peered through the gaps between the leaves and saw a huge figure moving slowly not far away.

It was a unique creature of gigantic size, covered with rough black scales. Its body was like a giant rhino, with four legs on the ground, its front legs like gorilla's feet, its hind legs like yaks' giant hooves, and its tail, like a crocodile, swayed from time to time, leaving deep friction marks on the surrounding tree trunks.

Three long necks connected to the huge torso, the skin on the necks was very rough, with short and smooth hair growing on them, the texture looked a bit like an otter. Each of the three necks had a different head, with pupils of different colors, reflecting different colors of light.

The head on the left side looked like a giant python. The hissing sound Han Zu heard just now came from this head. It was sticking out its tongue and its pupils were reflecting green light, but it seemed that its eyesight was not very good and it was only observing the area near its body.

The head on the right side looks like a giant lion's head. It lowers its head from time to time and sniffs the ground, as if it is tracking the smell of something, or perhaps it is looking for the smell it left when it marks its territory. The pupils flashing red light are particularly conspicuous in the dim primeval forest.

The head in the middle looked like a giant vulture. It looked like it had the same vision as a normal bird of prey. It was always observing the tops of the surrounding trees. The pupils of this head were very special. They were golden yellow. I wonder if it had any special abilities. Based on the direction and movements of this head, Han Zu was able to confirm through his perception that it was tracking the bats that had just been scared away.

The python's head seemed to sense Han Zu's presence, and turned to the tree where Han Zu was hiding, raised its head towards Han Zu, and used its tongue to sense the smell in the air. Han Zu quickly transformed his body into gray mist, quietly left his original position, and moved to the branch of another giant tree through the cover of these leaves. However, just when the body had just been reorganized, Han Zu found that the neck of the python's head had become bulging, and it seemed that something was squirming inside.

As Han Zu was thinking, a breeze blew by, bringing with it a strong and special aroma. Han Zu looked down and saw the python's head opened its mouth and began to spit something toward the ground. After careful observation, he found that it was a transparent liquid. When this liquid touched the ground, it immediately turned the ground into a swamp-like appearance, which was exactly the appearance of the swamp discovered by the research team before.

Han Zu noticed that some plants and bushes on the ground quickly withered and aged when they came into contact with the liquid. They looked almost the same as the samples Han Zu had extracted before. The soil covered by the liquid also turned gray. Han Zu's skin's adaptation to the air temperature allowed him to discover that there were two extreme changes in temperature around the giant creature.

In the area to one side of the lion's head, the air temperature was rising rapidly. Although it was not high enough to burn the surrounding tree trunks, it did evaporate a lot of water droplets hanging on the plants. The warm water vapor floated up, and some of it happened to float near Han Zu. After sensing the water vapor, he found that there was no special harmful substance in it, just some ordinary high-temperature steam.

In the area on one side of the python's head, Han Zu noticed that the remaining water droplets on the nearby tree trunks were rapidly turning solid. It seemed that the temperature in that area had dropped to a level that could produce frost in a very short period of time.

The extreme temperature difference between the two sides of the head did not cause the vulture head in the middle to feel any discomfort. Judging from the fact that it occasionally shuttled between the two areas without any abnormalities, the vulture head should not be affected by the temperature difference created by the other two heads.

Soon, in front of the body of this giant creature with three heads and multiple biological features, some special plants quickly grew on the swamp they created. Some of them looked like some kind of flowers, and at the ends of these plants, flowers with fluorescent properties grew. These flowers were not affected by the swamp and did not dry up. On the contrary, their growth rate seemed to be accelerated, and a large bush quickly grew.

"Grrrrrrr~~~~"

After these fluorescent shrubs that exuded fragrance, swayed in the breeze, and were covered with special flowers had finished growing, the lion head let out a few low growls. In the growls, Han Zu noticed that in the woods behind the giant creature, several three-headed creatures the size of wild deer and with the same appearance as the giant creature ran out. They surrounded the giant creature, made some childish calls, and then ran into the swamp and began to eat the fluorescent shrubs.

Han Zu counted them and found that there should be seven or eight of these small three-headed creatures. He estimated that they were the offspring of this giant creature. Han Zu also roughly understood why the deserters' team was attacked. They must have attacked the cubs of these giant creatures.

The giant creature lay down outside the swamp and began to rest. After eating, the cubs gathered around the giant creature and rested their heads on it. Two particularly naughty cubs even climbed onto the back of the giant creature. After more than ten minutes, Han Zu felt their breathing gradually become slow and steady, and confirmed that they had fallen asleep, so he quietly left the giant tree and came to the ground.

Han Zurang asked the Biological Research Institute to send some sample boxes over. He first collected some samples of the fluorescent shrubs and sent them back. Then he moved quietly and walked towards the location of the sleeping giant creature and its cubs.