Chapter Seventy-Five: The Crocodile Ticket and the Hunting Season

“Hiss, hiss, hiss…”
“Chirp, chirp…”
The three Siamese crocodiles, together with the magpie, all had greedy glints in their beastly eyes, locked intently on the purple stone lying on the ground. Yet, daunted by the aura of dominance Lu Chen had long imposed, they dared not immediately pounce to seize it.

In a daze, Lu Chen even felt that faint, blurry memories from ancient times surfaced in his mind, whispering that this stone would do him much good.

Instinct urged him, again and again, to swallow it.

Since he’d found this thing in the belly of the Black-tailed Rock Python, it was impossible to know how long it had been there, but at least it meant it wasn’t immediately dangerous to his life.

In the end, Lu Chen chose to trust his instincts.

As the crocodile siblings inched closer and closer, he stopped hesitating—gripping the stone with his sharp claws, he gave it a quick rinse in the river, then opened his maw wide and swallowed it whole.

The young creatures around him all wore looks of deep disappointment.

The moment the purple stone reached his stomach, Lu Chen felt a surging, roiling heat stirring within his body… It was a familiar sensation, much like the first time he devoured the flesh and blood of the Burmese python.

“A broken First-Grade Spirit Stone. Provides 100 energy points.”

A spirit stone?!

Seeing the words flash across his control panel, Lu Chen’s beastly eyes flickered with disbelief.

Even though he was already keenly aware that this world was quietly undergoing a transformation, the appearance of a spirit stone still caught him completely off guard.

It took him several minutes to fully accept this reality and, with it, the reason for the black-tailed python’s strength.

That creature must have stumbled upon a spirit stone somewhere in the primeval jungle. Driven by biological instinct, it swallowed it, which triggered its mutation.

Essence distilled in purest form.

The purple stone weighed only about a pound, yet could yield 100 energy points—the equivalent of fifty pounds of ordinary animal flesh.

Lu Chen still needed more than twenty thousand energy points to evolve into a fourth-rank Siamese crocodile. In other words… just two hundred more stones like this would suffice.

Thinking of this, he felt a pang of regret. If only he had known, he wouldn’t have killed the black-tailed python outright. He should have let it escape, then tracked it back to its lair—perhaps there were more stones hidden there.

Actually… he still could!

Pythons might lack a strong sense of territory, but by following their scent, one could always find where they had recently been dwelling.

With this thought, Lu Chen wasted no more time.

He hissed at the three crocodiles, then hurried back toward the tiger trap.

With his heightened sense of smell, the trail of the black-tailed python’s movements through the foliage was clear as day.

For half a day, Lu Chen searched the jungle, leaving no scented corner unexplored.

In the end… it was all in vain.

Lu Chen found no second strange stone, and his hopes of quickly evolving and leveling up were dashed.

Only after returning to his nest did his restless mood gradually subside.

He had been too impatient!

To gain it is fortune, to lose it is fate.

Even without spirit stones, he would be able to evolve to fourth rank within a month at most.

If there truly were more in this jungle, he would find them one day.

***

With ample food at hand, Lu Chen set aside thoughts of hunting tigers for now, turning his focus back to training his body.

With his massive frame, he could no longer leap nimbly between the trees as before.

Instead, his training now centered on building raw strength—sprinting, jumping, constantly strengthening his limb muscles.

At full pounce, he could now leap more than three meters. Not much compared to a human long jump record, but for a crocodile’s body structure, it was astonishing.

Seeing the third crocodile begin training, the eldest and the second obediently joined in, not daring to show the slightest resistance.

After all, the trauma from childhood beatings lingered.

After a bout of leaping, Lu Chen switched to another form of training.

He found two suitable stones, placed two meters apart, then pressed his four limbs onto them and did suspended push-ups.

This bizarre scene of training continued until the little magpie, Black Spot, fluttered back from its play.

“Chirp, chirp! Hiss, hiss, hiss…”

The little fellow landed before Lu Chen, chattering urgently—mimicking monkeys and crocodiles, but not uttering a single bird word.

Yet Lu Chen more or less understood: prey had appeared nearby, and in numbers.

His interest piqued, he called for the crocodile siblings to follow the magpie’s lead toward the main river channel.

Rounding a fork in the river, the view suddenly opened up.

“Chirp, chirp!” Black Spot sped ahead, chirping excitedly.

Damn… humans!

Lu Chen finally understood what “prey” Black Spot had found when he saw the nearly six-meter-long fishing boat not far off.

A group of blond, blue-eyed humans stood at the bow, gesturing toward the riverbanks, snapping photos with their cameras. Two of them even held hunting rifles.

They must be tourists exploring the tropical rainforest… No, there was a strong scent of blood—a familiar, kin-like scent.

Poachers?!

Lu Chen immediately grew wary, urgently signaling the three crocodiles.

With the command given, the eldest and the others turned tail and swiftly swam back toward the nest.

Watching the three youngsters vanish from sight, Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief and quietly sank beneath the water’s surface.

Half a minute later, he surfaced beside the boat, his head barely breaking the water.

Hidden beneath the hull, the people above had no idea a Siamese crocodile lurked nearby.

The language they spoke was very close to a foreign tongue Lu Chen had studied in his previous life, so he could mostly understand their conversation.

Crocodile hunting permits, hunting season, five thousand greenbacks… He quickly pieced together the truth.

He’d once thought the foreign moon was larger and rounder, never realizing it was even more dangerous here.

In Madura, hunting crocodiles was legal. So long as you paid five thousand bucks, you could hunt and take home a Siamese crocodile of your choice.

Lu Chen felt nothing but helplessness—this was the sorrow of being a wild animal.

In the face of humans wielding modern weaponry, often all animals could do was flee as far as possible.

As for warning other crocodiles to avoid danger… Lu Chen didn’t give it much thought.

So long as he and his three companions remained safe, the fate of the others was no concern of his.

For now, he needed to keep building strength. Before the new era truly began, he had to secure an advantageous position.

At over four hundred pounds, his weight was still far too small for a Siamese crocodile.

Still, for the sake of the three, Lu Chen felt it necessary to track these humans for a while and learn their methods for hunting crocodiles.

Stalking them in the water was unsafe—he could easily be spotted, and also risk being mistaken by other crocodiles as an intruder and provoke a territorial fight.

If he started a fight for the latter reason, he might walk right into the hunters’ guns.

After a moment’s thought, Lu Chen slipped ashore and climbed into a nearby tree to observe in hiding.

The boat soon moved forward. One of the guides took out several long cords—each with a red float at one end and a large chunk of meat baited with an iron hook at the other.

Then they tossed the cords into the river.