hsntnovel Chapter 61 Premature Sabotage
Chapter 61 Premature Sabotage
One of them was the one she grew up with, but she couldn't remember its name anymore.
It's not the dry season here.
With ample food and lush vegetation, there's only one reason why the hyena pack would migrate north at this time: they are either searching for better hunting grounds or their leader is driving them in a certain direction.
She had seen both situations.
A hyena pack driven by a leader will not retreat after a failed attempt; they have a goal, patience, and will repeatedly try different angles.
Chen Fei emerged from the bushes.
He stopped next to Sel, lowered his head slightly, turned his nose to the south, and twitched twice.
Sel didn't move, but simply tilted the tip of his ear towards him.
This is a way of communicating that they've always had; it doesn't require sound or movement, just direction.
Chen Fei raised his head and glanced around at the ground where he had landed.
The little rascal lay down next to Sel's hind legs, belly pressed against the ground, head resting on its front paws, fast asleep.
Homeless A and Homeless B were in the northeast corner of their lodging, one in front of the other. Homeless A had his eyes open, while Homeless B had his eyes half-closed.
Meimei lay alone in the northwest corner of her spot, her ears also standing up, facing south.
Big head...
Chen Fei scanned the area but couldn't find it.
He glanced down into the bushes and saw a furry creature huddled next to a low thorn bush at the very back, its head tucked under its front paws, snoring softly.
He made a mental note of the location.
Big Head is changing seats tomorrow morning.
He kept this in mind, found a spot next to Sel to lie down, rested his head on his front paws, and kept his eyes half-open.
The scent from the south drifted in on the night breeze, then dissipated, then drifted back again.
The concentration is stable.
There was no sign of them continuing to approach, but there was also no sign of them retreating.
He mentally reviewed the information from tonight.
The survey team will be heading to the northern water source area tomorrow. All equipment will be reconfigured, and the team will depart around 6:00 AM.
The hyena pack, less than a kilometer to the south, is moving north at an accelerated pace, indicating signs of leadership involvement.
Both lines are moving simultaneously.
He needed to survey the terrain on the north side before dawn and change the position of the main body before the survey team set off.
He mentally ranked the two things.
The terrain on the north side comes first, followed by the main part of the terrain.
He turned his head and glanced into the depths of the bushes.
The furry thing stirred, rolled over, buried its face in the hole, kicked its hind legs twice, and then fell fast asleep again.
Chen Fei put his head back on his front paws.
I'll take a nap first.
Northeast corner outpost.
The homeless man was awake.
It was his habit; no matter the state of the pride, he always kept at least one ear alive. When he was still a stray, this habit saved him three times: once from a snake, once from a wild dog, and once from something he'd rather not recall, involving a buffalo he'd overestimated his abilities at the time.
He turned the tip of his ear slightly to the south.
The smell is coming.
He recognized the smell—it was the smell of a hyena, not just one, but the smell of a pack. The smell of a pack is different from that of a single hyena; a single hyena's smell is sharp, while that of a pack is thick, like the stuffy smell of rotting grass mats pressed together, carrying the pungent odor of being baked by the collective body heat.
He tightened his hind legs slightly and did not stand up.
We're not close enough; we don't need to stand up yet.
But he opened his eyes wider and adjusted his attention distribution from 70/30 to 50/50, listening half to the south and looking around half.
The stray dog was beside him, half asleep and half awake, its tail tip still gently sweeping the ground.
The homeless man did not wake him.
He stretched his front paws forward an inch, lay flatter and closer to the ground, minimizing his outline as much as possible.
The rule on the grasslands is to stay put, don't expose yourself, and only act when necessary.
He kept the tip of his ear facing south, his eyes fixed on the outline of a low meadow directly in front of him, waiting.
Before dawn.
Chen Fei started from where he had landed and headed north.
He didn't alert anyone.
Sel felt him stand up, turn his ear tip toward him, and then point his ear tip back toward the south without moving.
She knew what he was going to do.
Chen Fei emerged from the gap in the bushes on the east side of his landing spot and walked in a north-northeast direction, keeping his pace very slow and spreading his steps so that the sound of his footsteps could be heard in the ground.
The heat flow slightly activated his extremities, not in combat mode, but in a sensory mode, amplifying the vibration feedback from touching the ground, allowing him to more clearly feel the information transmitted from the ground.
It took about twenty minutes for the grassland to turn into the dense vegetation area.
The water source is an irregular ellipse, longer in the east-west direction and narrower in the north-south direction. The center of the ellipse is a shallow depression that is always filled with water. About two hundred meters outward from the edge are dense shrubs and reed-like plants, which are more than two meters high and provide excellent shade.
This is good news for thermal imaging, but troublesome for him.
He stopped at the southern edge of the water source and pressed his gaze inward.
Night vision is significantly reduced in dense vegetation.
Under normal circumstances, you can see for three kilometers. But with the current density, the distance you can see clearly is no more than eighty meters. Beyond eighty meters, the vegetation overlaps and obscures the outlines, making them blurry.
He walked west along the southern edge, stopping every thirty meters or so to change his perspective and find gaps with relatively low vegetation density.
After walking nearly two hundred meters, we found three gaps.
The first gap faces northeast, allowing a view of about 120 meters in. There are no high points in that direction, so if a thermal imaging system were set up there, the coverage area would be limited, but it could still see the edge of the shallow depression at the core of the water source.
The second gap faces due north. There's a natural break in the dense vegetation here, about four meters wide. After entering, the view briefly opens up to an open area of about sixty meters before closing again. This gap is where he is most wary.
If the investigation team chooses to proceed head-on, this is the most natural entry point.
The third gap faces northwest. This angle is rather off and is not the direction that would be chosen for a normal advance, but if they intend to cover the flanks, a pressure gauge can be set up here.
He mentally confirmed the locations of the three gaps, turned and walked east, scanning the eastern edge of the water source as well.
There is a protruding rock platform on the east side, about two meters high, which is the highest point on the entire edge of the water source.
He stood below the rocky platform for a while, then raised his head and looked in from that height.
You don't need to jump up; you can already tell from this angle.
The thermal imaging rig here has the largest coverage area he has ever seen, capable of simultaneously covering the core shallow depression of the water source and at least two gaps.
If the investigation team finds this location, that's the last thing he wants to see.
He marked this location separately in his mind.
The rock platform needs to be disposed of.
It's not about destroying it, it's about making it inconvenient to use.
He circled the rocky platform, taking in the angles of the side that could be climbed.
There is only one angle from which humans can stably set up equipment, which is the east side, with a slope of about thirty degrees and several protruding stone ridges on the surface that can be stepped on.