Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

However, even the energy-depleted types of Originium are useful for Covenant technology.

If we disregard the fact that the heat exchange efficiency isn't particularly high, it's actually an excellent heat dissipation agent and thermoelectric medium—from boiling water to burning Originium, it might be the future trend of Terra's power industry.

For the Covenant, its primary use is to create thermal batteries, much like "planting" them on the edge of stars, utilizing the star's corona to recharge themselves and become a type of rechargeable high-energy crystalline battery for use in various handheld devices, drone weapons, and so on.

If we can decipher the essence of Originium Arts and industrialize this art, we can create even more specialized large-scale industrial equipment.

For example, the Originium Arts of the White Rabbit, if industrialized, would be an excellent tool for planetary terraforming for the Covenant, far more effective than the cooling method of bringing in comets to smash into planets.

Given its numerous industrial applications, Xia Lin believes that if livestock can also be infected and produce a stable output, the Originium Ranch project is entirely feasible.

We started with animals, then tissue-cultured meat, and finally, after fully understanding how Originium multiplies within organisms, we could use culture media for targeted cultivation, just like growing fruit trees to grow Originium ore.

However, as things stand, this thing is not very meaningful to him personally, as he can hardly consume any Originium minerals, even after the Originium Engine is completed.

"This is one small step for you, one giant leap for humanity on Terra..." The white rabbit stood bewildered beside a cylindrical device situated on a power supply base. Xia Lin held her hand and placed it on the holographic panel. "A safe, pollution-free, and highly efficient Originium generator, 20,000 kilowatts of power floating at your fingertips..."

"Wait, is this powered by Originium?" The white rabbit looked at Xia Lin with some confusion as he stuffed a polyhedral pure Originium weighing about 2.5 kilograms into the fuel tank. "Yes, but it's a safety feature!"

"Wait, I..."

"Ding!" Xia Lin's small hand pressed on the panel, and the entire device entered the ignition state. Several wisps of blue flame shot out from the top turbine exhaust port, and then entered the normal operation mode.

"Hmm, the Originium particle filtration emission rate is only 0.007u/L..."

"What do you mean?" The white rabbit leaned closer to look at the detector in Xia Lin's hand. "Didn't you say it wouldn't emit Originium particles?"

“It’s impossible to completely prevent any leakage; this isn’t a Covenant machining plant. However, this emission level is already lower than the average person’s breathing emissions.”

Xia Lin put away the testing equipment. A 20-megawatt generator was connected to the grid, which was very helpful for the farm's ever-increasing electricity consumption.

"It would be even better if we could get our hands on some so-called etching bombs to study," Xia Lin pondered, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to make any sense, since the farm hadn't encountered any danger or threat.

Dinner was the same ordinary home-cooked meal: rice, stir-fried shredded potatoes, pickled cabbage, and a plate of dry-fried chicken and potatoes. The greenhouse was full of all kinds of vegetables, but the only ones available to eat were the potatoes and cabbage that had been harvested earlier.

The rice seeds obtained from breeding are enough for sowing, but it is already autumn. If seedlings are raised now, they can only be grown in greenhouses during winter and early spring, so they will still be frozen.

However, Xia Lin has already sorted out a batch of corn and sweet potatoes to start breeding work. By early spring next year, there will be enough of these two things to plant in the ground for the first round.

Then, in the second round, soybeans and rice can be planted. After the third round, as the newly reclaimed land is used, the low-value crops in the greenhouse will be gradually moved out to make room for more useful spices, sugar crops, and so on.

Among sugar crops, sugarcane's enormous consumption of water and fertilizer means it can only be grown in greenhouses, while the relatively cold-resistant sugar beets can be moved to cultivated fields outdoors.

However, this only applies to the area around the farm; the land cultivated by the infected cannot be used to grow these crops—mainly because sugar crops require a lot of fertilizer and irrigation, which they find difficult to care for properly.

There are also high-end crops like fruits, coffee, cocoa beans, and coconuts that are not suitable for the climate and must be grown in greenhouses. Xia Lin will have to gradually move basic and staple crops out of the area within one or two years. But then again—

If coffee and cocoa beans were grown in Ursus, not only the guerrillas, but even the nearest cities in Ursus would go crazy.

After trekking through the snow and ice for most of the day, a cup of hot cocoa with lots of sugar is an irresistible temptation for both the military and the guerrillas. For the guerrillas in the snowy plains, it is practically a lifesaver.

"Xia Lin, I have something to tell you..." When they were almost finished eating, the white rabbit put down her chopsticks and looked at Xia Lin with a serious expression. The latter also put down his data tablet and looked at her. "What is it?" [Copper miners, please replace "Xia Lin" with "Old Xia".]

Xia Lin wondered if it was because she had been hanging out with the infected people for a long time, but she felt that White Rabbit's accent had changed a bit, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It just sounded a little strange.

"The infected workers are reporting that, as autumn approaches, animals are frequently running into the fields to steal potatoes and cabbages."

"Hmm, so what?" Autumn is just around the corner. Autumn on the snowfield is incredibly short. All the creatures living here must store up enough fat and nutrients during this last season of abundant food. The rodents, with their habit of saving, are keeping the infected busy.

Not to mention wild boars and giant deer, which are not only strong and robust, but also travel in large groups. Although the infected have organized teams to protect the farmland and used torches, scarecrows, and gongs and drums to scare these animals, the effect is getting worse and worse.

“I was thinking, could we organize a hunting team to protect the farmland? And the game we hunt, after being cured, makes excellent meat…”

"That's a good idea," Xia Lin thought for a moment; it was indeed necessary. On some of the Star Alliance's larger agricultural planets, the local colonists also organized large-scale hunting expeditions—

However, 99% of them are just deliberately organized activities to attract tourists—they can't even find such a large group of burrowing insects, and the geological exploration department can be executed without a single innocent person.

"So, you're planning to have me provide them with some hunting rifles?"

“No, those hunting crossbows will do…” Yelena shook her head. “They’re behaving themselves now, and they may continue to be behaving themselves in the future, but it won’t be like this forever.”

"Judging from your tone, it seems you're planning to organize it yourself?" Xia Lin touched her rabbit ears, and the latter's face turned slightly red. "My ears are itchy... Well, I'm planning to lead it myself, after all, I'm the only hunter on the farm!" The white rabbit proudly puffed out her currently unremarkable chest.

“Alright, consider it your internship…” Xia Lin didn’t see anything wrong with it. Children in the Star Alliance, not just now, but even in a more relaxed generation decades from now, all have similar hands-on internships.

The Covenant society is severely lacking in manpower and qualified personnel, and doesn't have the time or effort to allow them to grow slowly and take a lot of detours.

"Since you're planning to form a hunting team, have you considered the equipment? And the training? Hunting isn't that simple. Do you remember how long it took you to learn hunting and shooting when you first started?"

"Well, it's better to train than to wait until winter when all the prey has disappeared."

"Now that you've made your decision, what do you need me to do?" Xia Lin looked at the white rabbit with great interest, as if she were looking at her little daughter who was mysteriously preparing a "surprise" for her.

"First, I need a hunting crossbow, a hunting knife, a cold-weather suit and a tent, ropes for wilderness survival, an axe, and fire-starting tools. In addition, I need a lot of arrows, some wound medicine, and poison."

"Poison hunting will contaminate the meat..."

"However, the Ursus Giant Bear is very difficult to kill without poison..."

"That makes sense, but I insist that you be the only one to keep this poison..."

"Of course," the white rabbit raised an eyebrow, its rabbit ears perking up and even twitching. "I also need some explosives, the kind you use to blow up the rocks blocking the stream."

"Explosives?" Why would hunting require explosives? Xia Lin frowned.

“I mean the kind that’s not very powerful, but very loud…” Yelena added, “Didn’t you say that an important step in hunting is to scare the prey, make them run in a specific direction, and exhaust them to death?”

"Oh, I'll give you some gunpowder in a bit..." Humans are a species that loves explosions, explosions, and more explosions. So, even in the interstellar age, firecrackers still exist.

"I can provide the equipment, but what about the training..."

“Those infected are good hunters. They can hunt with simple traps and tools. If they have good equipment, I don’t think they need to worry too much about training.”

“Precisely because they are good hunters, I am even more worried about the training. Are you sure they will listen to you…”

Xia Lin said with some concern, "If they're just a bunch of noobs, then there's nothing to say. But having a skilled hunter as a mentor is an opportunity for the locals."

However, if the other party is a skilled hunter, and a little girl who is not even as tall as a gun comes along and says, "I'll teach you how to hunt," then it will definitely be treated as a game of make-believe, and may even lead to conflict.

"They won't, they'll definitely listen to me..."

"Are you so sure?"

“Yes,” Yelena was certainly certain of this, but Xia Lin rarely went out and hardly ever interacted with the infected. He had too many things to do, so he didn’t understand Yelena’s and his own prestige among the infected.

Yelena had no doubt that if Xia Lin were to raise an armed force to attack nearby towns, these infected would immediately select the able-bodied men, take up arms, and report for duty.

The farm is the foundation of their current comfortable life, where they can barely afford to eat and stay warm. The infected have always spared no expense in protecting their peaceful lives.

"Alright then, since you're so confident..." Xia Lin could only let her do as she pleased, thinking that the infected wouldn't make things too difficult for this little rabbit out of consideration for him.

A few days later, the infected settlement—strictly speaking, apart from the lack of a mobile platform, it should be called an infected village—had its tents replaced by small wooden huts covered with moisture-proof cloths, and the sheds in front of and behind the houses were piled high with firewood for winter.

Wisps of smoke hung over the settlement as two burly Ursus men, shirtless, dragged logs with ropes toward a construction site around the village, carrying axes. To prevent hungry wild animals from rushing in during the winter and snatching away the children or killing the hens Yelena had given them, they planned to build a simple wall at the village chief's suggestion.

A bright red tractor drove into an open space in the village, where about twenty young men from Ursus with milder Oripathy were already waiting. They looked somewhat nervous. These were young men that the village chief had found for Yelena who were interested in and physically fit to be hunters.

"Alright, two people come and move the equipment," Yelena called out as she jumped off the tractor. Although she was short, not even reaching the waist height of some strong men, no one dared to disregard her orders.

The uniform array of carbon fiber hunting crossbows and bows, the incredibly sharp hunting knives with a dark matte finish, and the snow camouflage winter clothing all matched in style and color.

To be honest, if they pulled up their masks and wore sunglasses to prevent snow blindness, they would look more like a regular special operations team from Ursus.

Well, Xia Lin really did prepare sunglasses and masks for them, and even entrenching tools and ropes, so they were fully armed.

If it weren't for the bear trap and hunter's backpack on his back that seemed a bit out of place, everyone would think that the white rabbit was preparing to form a "hunting team" to hunt down the Ursus picket line on the snowfield—well, after all, humans are also a kind of prey, and the word hunter is a pun, right?

“You all have some experience in tracking, setting traps, and living in the wild. Our main training is on how to cooperate in a hunt. Going it alone is useless against herds in autumn and winter. Also, we need to learn how to use this device.” The white rabbit pointed to the radio on its ear, which looked like two black ropes around the rabbit’s ears.

“And from now on, I’m your captain, and our team will be called… uh…” Yelena scratched her face, feeling unsure what name to choose.

"What about the Yeti?" the elder asked in a low voice, because Yelena and the hunters were all dressed in white winter clothes with snow camouflage patterns, and from a distance they looked like the Yeti from the legends of northern Ursus, which stealthily attacked humans in the snowstorm.

“Yes, let’s call it the ‘Yeti’ Squad,” Yelena agreed, thinking it was a good name. “Then, starting today, the Yeti Hunting Team is officially formed.”

The white rabbit stood before a group of tall, sturdy Ursus youths and declared with great authority, if one ignored the large wooden crate at her feet.

Chapter 29 The pig advances suddenly

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

After autumn arrives, the snowfields and forests are a riot of colors. The various berries and bright leaves seem to be the last burst of vitality before the arrival of winter. The air seems to be filled with a sweet fragrance that is almost rotten, or perhaps a rotten smell that is almost sweet.

The high-strength polymer soles made almost no sound when stepping on the thick layer of fallen leaves and humus; only the slight rustling of the fibers rubbing together was heard. A small, fair hand, encased in a half-finger glove, gently parted the large ferns in front of it.

If it were Xia Lin, she would find it strange that such ferns, which should only exist in the tropics, would grow in a clearly cold region, but for the locals, it is already commonplace.

The girl hid herself among the leaves, sticking out her pink tongue to gently lick her index finger. The slight coolness from the front indicated that she was downwind, and her scent would not spread.

"Click!" He skillfully pulled back the bolt, chambered a round, and disengaged the safety. The muzzle extended slightly from the foliage, and he aimed at the valley below the hillside.

"Buzz, Hound One calling 'Frostnova,' I'm in position, over..."

"Frostnova received," the girl whispered. "The others report..."

"Hound No. 2 in position, target not in sight."

"Hound No. 3 is still on its way. Damn it, this damn road..." A few minutes later, "Hound No. 3 is in position. I see Old One-Eye. It's a real big guy."

In a low-lying swamp some distance from the valley, a group of wild boars were rolling around in the mud, coating themselves with a composite armor made of pine resin and mud. Among the herd, the one-eyed leader of the wild boars stood warily on a rock.

Its wound came from an adult brown bear, a symbol of the ability to fight and win against a bear, which led its herd of wild boars that migrated here a week earlier.

Then he fell in love with the crisp and refreshing potato sprouts and the sweet and soft sweet potato vines in the fields. He even tried to break through the farm's fence and supplied Xia Lin with about 700 kilograms of pork and pork products.

Wild boars pose a greater threat to the Infected than bears. Bears are covered in fur, and some Infected who have mastered Originium Arts and can emit flames can scare them away.

Wild boars are different. These guys charge without regard for anything, and their plate armor makes them immune to most damage. Not to mention the infected's axes and pitchforks, even gunpowder hunting rifles would have a hard time penetrating this composite armor and taking down these hundreds of kilograms of behemoths with a single shot.

Having injured many people and driven by her craving for braised pork, Yelena set off with her newly formed hunting party, determined to capture these lawless bastards.

The specific battle plan is as follows: three hunters codenamed Hounds will go around to the back of the boar herd. They will carry tin buckets filled with firecrackers. Once in position, they will light the firecrackers from three directions to scare the wild boars and drive them into the valley.

Then, the crossbowmen lying in ambush on both sides of the valley will continuously fire crossbow bolts loaded with explosives to scare them, causing them to advance along the valley and then rush headlong into the trap at the end of the valley.

Yelena, armed with a weapon powerful enough to pierce the old one-eyed man's seemingly metallic armor, lay in ambush in the middle of the valley as a safety net. Surrounding her were hunters wielding powerful crossbows that required two Ursus men to draw.

They would kill some of the wild boars on the way, otherwise the hastily dug trap wouldn't be able to hold so many prey, and engaging in close combat with a large group of wild boars would be too dangerous.

"Ready..." Hearing the voice on the radio, the infected hunter stuffed a string of firecrackers into the tin bucket in his hand and carefully brought a tinderbox close to the fuse.

"Boom!" "Roar!" With a roar from the old one-eyed man, the herd of pigs scattered towards the valley, the charging wild boars heading off with an indomitable momentum.

"Suka! Peter, what are you doing!" Yelena slammed her fist on the muddy ground. The aggrieved voice of Hound No. 3 came through the earpiece, "It wasn't me, the voice was coming from behind!"

"Everyone, plan failed, backup plan B, free fire, scatter them!"