On the hillside, the group lay prone behind a hill, peering over with just their heads visible as they watched the Tyrannosaurus trot back to its nest.

But just as it was about to reach the nest, the Tyrannosaurus suddenly stopped.

It raised its head, its nostrils flaring.

It glanced around before finally returning to its nest, where it curled up and lay in the center.

"Aim," Qin Ziwen ordered. The group set up the Car-Mounted Crossbows. The Crossbow Arrows had already been loaded before the Tyrannosaurus arrived.

Their positions had long since been adjusted.

All they had to do was wait for the guest of honor to take the stage.

Suddenly, the Tyrannosaurus raised its head.

From beneath sunken eye sockets, large, bright amber pupils stared straight in their direction.

It seemed to have noticed the group standing up on the hillside.

"Fire!"

Eleven giant Crossbow Arrows, fired almost simultaneously, struck the area where the Tyrannosaurus was within the span of a second.

Nine missed.

Two hit.

One struck the Tyrannosaurus’s side, and the other hit its tail.

In the distance, the Tyrannosaurus’s body shuddered. It struggled to its feet, let out an enraged roar, and charged straight toward the group.

"Load arrows!"

The group had anticipated this and began loading Arrows as the Tyrannosaurus charged.

In their haste, they fumbled frantically, finally finishing just as the Tyrannosaurus reached the bottom of the hill.

"Don’t be afraid! It’s wounded! Fire!"

At the foot of the hill, the Tyrannosaurus, whose movements grew more unsteady as it ran, looked up at the group, only to be met by a second volley from the Car-Mounted Crossbows.

The Tyrannosaurus’s body jolted violently, as if struck by a massive hammer.

The distance was closer this time, and a full five Crossbow Arrows found their mark.

One of them hit squarely in the neck, sending a great spray of blood into the air.

Its head snapped back, and its charge faltered as if it had slammed into an invisible wall.

Even so, it didn’t stop. Its massive body was like a rampaging tank, continuing forward with unstoppable momentum.

"Fall back!"

Du Yu shouted.

Everyone let go of their Crossbows and retreated backward.

The Tyrannosaurus charged to the top of the hill in one go, its body covered in blood that stained its scales red.

Standing at the summit, it gazed down at the fleeing people and let out a heavenward roar.

"ROAR!!!!"

The sound was filled with contempt and dominance.

The resonant roar echoed across the Gobi Desert, lingering for a long time.

BOOM—

The Tyrannosaurus, now pierced by seven arrows, collapsed with a tremendous crash.

It overturned several Crossbow Wagons as it fell.

Though it had fallen, it wasn’t dead yet. It just stared with wide eyes at the azure sky of the Gobi Desert.

Down the slope, someone stared blankly at the fallen form of the Tyrannosaurus.

"Is it dead?"

"Probably not yet. A Giant Beast of this level will definitely drop Cards when it dies."

The group remained vigilant, slowly making their way back to the summit.

The Tyrannosaurus’s body was still twitching unconsciously. Its pupils were dilated, and its mouth was foaming with blood, which had long since stained the ground beneath it red.

Qin Ziwen found a Crossbow Wagon that hadn’t been overturned.

He adjusted its aim, pointing it at the Tyrannosaurus’s head.

"BANG!!!"

A single bolt to the head, and the Tyrannosaurus, which had been struggling in agony, instantly stopped moving.

Countless points of white light coalesced on the surface of its body.

One, two, three, four, five.

Five Cards.

Qin Ziwen looked at the corpse of the Tyrannosaurus, riddled with Crossbow Arrows, its body still radiating a lingering sense of power even as it lay on the ground, and sighed with a mix of emotions.

’Throughout Earth’s history, from ancient times to the present, the Tyrannosaurus—a top predator in Asia that could rank in the top ten of all land carnivores—died just like this.’

’Killed by a large cold weapon created by the Horror Upright Ape.’

... 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

In the Gated Community, Zou Jianghe, Zhang Bo, and Huang Tao were seated at a dining table.

"Chairman, this is a 2018 Lafite. I had a hard time trading for it. With something like this, every bottle drunk is one less in the world. As for the taste... I don’t think it’s the least bit inferior to an ’82 Lafite. After all, even the best wine needs the right people and the right place to truly be appreciated," Huang Tao said, picking up a corkscrew. He braced the lever against the lip of the bottle and gently pressed down.

"POP~"

The cork came out.

"Good wine should be drunk sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you might not get the chance," Zhang Bo said, nodding in agreement.

"Yes, good wine should be enjoyed while you can," Zou Jianghe sighed.

Huang Tao stood up to pour the wine. "Today is the Chairman’s birthday. We have to celebrate it properly."

The three of them raised their glasses. "Cheers!"

The wine glasses clinked softly.

"Hm? I just got a notification from my Home. It says a new Hunting Celestial List task has been completed. It seems Chairman Qin is quite fast," Zou Jianghe said with a laugh.

He summoned his Home, wanting to see which task had been completed.

Huang Tao said, "Congratulations, Chairman! A double blessing. It looks like we have a good chance of completing our mission before the end of the month."

"Chairman Qin really is quite fast," Zhang Bo added with a chuckle.

Zou Jianghe, who was just about to take a sip of wine, suddenly froze.

The expression on his face shifted from confusion to surprise, then to an indescribable trace of apprehension.

Huang Tao asked, confused, "What’s wrong?"

Zou Jianghe was silent for a long moment before he finally said, "Tell me, are these Level 2 Tasks really that difficult? Another Level 2 Task was just completed. It’s only been five days, if I recall correctly."

The room fell silent.

Huang Tao suddenly felt that the red wine in his glass tasted a bit sour. He swirled the glass gently, hesitating to drink.

Zhang Bo suddenly laughed. "This is a good thing. At least we won’t have to stay in this desolate Gobi Desert. To be honest, being stuck here would be worse than death for me.

You’ve all seen those ruins to the northwest, haven’t you? Rather than wait around here to die, we might as well risk it all. Don’t you agree?"

...

"Yes, Boss! There really was something in the Tyrannosaurus’s nest!" Li Yue and Cao Biansheng came running from the direction of the nest, each carrying an egg the size of a football.

The egg on the left was brownish-purple, covered in off-white spots.

The egg on the right was pure black with dark red, cloud-like patterns on its surface.

"What a coincidence." Qin Ziwen held out his right hand. Among the five Cards the Tyrannosaurus had dropped, there happened to be an Advanced Building Card—[Giant Beast Breeding Center].

Seeing the Card in Qin Ziwen’s hand, Li Yue asked curiously, "Boss, what Card is that?"

"Giant Beast Breeding Center."

Hearing the name made Li Yue’s eyes light up.

"Doesn’t that mean we can raise our own Tyrannosaurs?!"

’He thought back to the scene of the Tyrannosaurus charging them. ’If we hadn’t set up the Car-Mounted Crossbows in advance, and if we’d encountered it in the wild, the outcome might have been completely different.’

’Plus, a tamed Tyrannosaurus could be fitted with external Armor. Then, even a Car-Mounted Crossbow might not pose much of a threat to it.’

"I suppose so," Qin Ziwen said with a nod. "I was just wondering where we could get some Giant Beasts to raise. Are there only two eggs in its nest?"

At the mention of this, Li Yue looked a bit embarrassed.

"Ahem... well, there were a few more, but a mysterious Crossbow Arrow that came out of nowhere accidentally smashed them... By the way, can an egg still hatch if there’s only half a yolk left?"

...

...