Chapter Forty-Four: Bullfrog

“Probably between three and four,” the little girl replied. “Ordinary people have evolved to around two, making them twice as strong as before. Some individuals have reached values above eight, and in terms of physical prowess, they’re even sturdier than the giant wild dog from before.”
“We just don’t know if those people have any special abilities,” Liu Chang said as he routinely rubbed the pungent stinkweed over himself.
“They probably don’t. Didn’t Teacher Li conclude a few days ago that the strength of physical evolution isn’t closely related to the emergence of abilities? If those people evolved so rapidly and had special powers on top of that, it would be terrifying. Mutants are rare, and so are those super-evolved types. The probability of such rare events coinciding is even smaller. Look at me and Teacher Li—we both have mutated abilities, but our physical strength is about the same as ordinary people.” The little girl continued, “You’re already lucky to have good physical stats and a special ability.”
“That’s true. Because of this, it’s easier for me to find food. Let’s stay sharp—today, let’s get some new ingredients!” With a light laugh, Liu Chang fell silent. The little girl, perched atop his head, closed her eyes and began to scan the surroundings.
As Liu Chang entered hunting mode, his concentration heightened, and his footsteps became nearly silent. His pores instinctively contracted, no longer emitting the strong human scent. After so many days of hunting, he had fully adapted to the rhythm of the chase, and his body had begun to evolve accordingly.
“A giraffe’s neck grew long because it wanted to reach the leaves high up the trees. Generation after generation, it evolved into its present form,” said Lamarck, who proposed the theory of evolution before Darwin.
In the old world, a species needed generations of elimination and change to transform, a slow process. But now, in the powerful world of the Red Mist, if an individual wishes to “reach the leaves above,” their genes can evolve in the direction their mind desires. This million-fold speed of evolution is like the speed of light—only in such a world could one truly call it an “Era of Splendor.”
Liu Chang moved lightly, the grass and gravel beneath his feet making only faint rustling sounds. He wandered like a phantom hunter, driven solely by the need for food and survival.
Over the course of the morning, Liu Chang and the little girl encountered seven lifeforms, but they were either too powerful or swarm-living insects—not suitable hunting targets—until the last one.
“Brother Liu Chang, there’s a single lifeform with a danger rating of five about a hundred and ten meters ahead, diagonally to your right.”
“Danger rating five?” Liu Chang stopped searching and stood still. “Worth a try.”
“Yes, if the ambush succeeds, there’s a chance,” the little girl nodded. “But be careful. You won’t be a match for it in a direct confrontation.”
“Don’t worry.” After a week of hunting together, they’d developed a strong rapport. The little girl understood Liu Chang’s cautious nature and no longer tried to persuade him as she had before.
After detecting the lifeform, she jumped down from Liu Chang’s body, disappearing into the grass—her task was detection; the rest was up to him. During the hunt, her greatest contribution was simply not causing trouble—sometimes, not interfering was the best help.
Curled in the grass, wrapped in leaves, the little girl held her breath and watched Liu Chang take off his shoes and advance.
Finding the downwind direction, Liu Chang moved like a silent lynx, his feet muffling all sound. After testing the wind, he entered the hunting zone.
As he advanced, Liu Chang strung his military crossbow and loaded an arrow, carefully circling to the downwind area and moving toward the location the girl had indicated. After circling a few hundred meters, crouched in the grass, Liu Chang finally saw his prey—a bullfrog.
Yes, a bullfrog.
Not the ordinary kind, but a frog the size of an ox. Its shape was similar to the common frogs of years past—gray-green skin, bulging eyes, crouched in the grass with its cheeks pulsing. It was mostly the same, but with notable differences.
Aside from its massive size, the frog’s back was covered with a layer of keratinous material, resembling a rhino’s horn, draped over its body like armor. It looked thick and solid, offering strong resistance to blows.
“This won’t be easy,” Liu Chang thought, gripping his crossbow and weighing their relative strengths. “I have a weapon and the advantage of surprise, but its danger rating is more than a point higher than mine. If I don’t inflict serious damage with the first shot, this hunt will end in failure.”
When facing prey slightly stronger than oneself, failing to land a decisive blow could mean being overpowered, or worse, scaring the prey into fleeing. So caution was paramount.
Holding the crossbow, Liu Chang carefully searched for the frog’s weaknesses. But no matter how he looked, he couldn’t find any obvious vulnerabilities—the creature’s body was entirely covered in keratin, and Liu Chang estimated that even if the crossbow bolt pierced it, it wouldn’t reach the organs to cause fatal harm.
So the only places to inflict grievous damage were the frog’s jaw and eyes. Liu Chang gazed at the creature’s large, moist eyes and formed a plan.
“I’ll aim for the eyes—maybe it’ll be fatal in one shot.” Liu Chang thought, edging closer. “Frogs have excellent dynamic vision, but poor static sight. They don’t have a sense of smell, so approaching slowly shouldn’t alert it.”
Step by step, Liu Chang crept within ten meters of the bullfrog, then raised his crossbow, aiming at the enormous eye the size of a soup bowl.
At ten meters, with such a large target, Liu Chang felt fairly confident. Once he confirmed his aim, he squeezed the trigger. The crossbow twanged, and the bolt tore through the air as a black shadow, heading straight for the moist, shining spot.
Whoosh!
The bolt traveled so fast that Liu Chang’s dynamic vision could only catch a fleeting streak of black before it vanished.
Because of the bolt’s incredible speed, it reached the giant frog’s eye in less than the blink of an eye. Everything happened in a flash. Just as Liu Chang rejoiced at his aim, the giant frog suddenly opened its mouth and shot out its tongue, striking at the black arrow.
Everything happened in a split second, with lightning speed.
Liu Chang didn’t know how fast a frog could flick its tongue, nor how fast the bolt flew, but he saw the result—the crimson tongue intercepted the arrow midair. Although the bolt’s power prevented it from being deflected completely, it did shift its trajectory.
With a sound like a muffled thud, the redirected bolt sliced through the frog’s tongue, folded in the air, and buried itself deep in the keratin on the frog’s forehead, causing it to let out a pain-filled, guttural cry.