Chapter 50: Chapter 50: The Farm Deep in the Jungle

"RAAAWR—"

A piercing shriek rang out. A massive head appeared before Shen Feng, its features twisted as if melted together. It had sharp teeth like a beast’s and a bizarrely contorted, muscular body.

Its eyes were filled with madness, greed, and animalistic savagery.

It only wanted to tear these two people to shreds!

"A Barbarian!" Firefly exclaimed, instantly recognizing the ugly monster’s origin.

The dagger had already pierced through the uninvited guest, protruding from the back of its neck. But its body could still move. It locked Shen Feng in a death grip, a tremendous force surging forth, trying to snap the weak human’s bones!

’This thing is too strong!’

Shen Feng grunted. The surface of his body rapidly petrified, but it didn’t do much good.

’Petrified skin can’t protect my organs and bones!’

Shen Feng’s muscles bulged in response as he struggled against its strength, but he could only manage a stalemate, unable to break free.

The Barbarian seemed surprised as well. It used all its strength but couldn’t crush his bones, as if it were hugging a block of stone.

"AHH—DIE!" Firefly screamed. Overcoming her fear, she leaped high and plunged her small knife through the Barbarian’s eye socket, piercing its skull.

The Barbarian’s eyes instantly went vacant. Its hands loosened, and it fell back stiffly.

Shen Feng caught his breath. He and Firefly stood back-to-back, daggers in hand, and scanned their surroundings with grave expressions.

In the surrounding dark forest, points of fluorescent green and red light began to appear.

They were pairs of eyes.

From the darkness came the continuous sounds of swallowing saliva and grinding teeth.

Then, dozens of bizarrely-shaped humanoid creatures emerged from the woods, completely surrounding them.

’How grotesque!’

Tentacle-like arms, a single eye, a curved, serpentine spine, teeth as sharp as a shark’s, a gigantic head, crooked horns, a long-haired tail.

These various forms manifested in different permutations on each Barbarian.

Shen Feng was instantly reminded of the photos of the macrocephalic Chernobyl babies and pathologically curved spines he had once seen.

But compared to the mutations before him, those were just scratching the surface.

The appearances of these Barbarians could hardly be called human anymore.

Their bodies were twisted in the same crazed, bizarre ways as the trees in a radiation zone.

Their eyes held only an animal-like gaze. A rare glimmer of sapient clarity would occasionally surface, only to be swiftly replaced by madness.

All the Barbarians stayed far from the campfire, seemingly afraid of fire, just like animals.

But the two prey before them were simply too tempting, almost allowing them to overcome their fear of the flames.

"Shen Feng, those exploding cylinders... do you have any more?" Firefly asked in a low voice, which trembled slightly.

"I’m out..." Shen Feng shook his head slightly. "But there’s a legend from my hometown. People used fire and loud noises to scare away a monster called the ’Nian’..."

Then Shen Feng suddenly stood up straight, stretched his body, and pounded his hands on the two hidden speakers on his chest. A ferocious lion’s roar instantly erupted!

The roar of the King of Beasts echoed through the gloomy forest. Paired with Shen Feng’s now bulging muscles and the blade glinting in the firelight, it created an impression of immense power.

The surrounding group of Barbarians actually retreated a few steps, their eyes filled with terror. They glanced toward the heart of the forest, then back at the still-roaring Shen Feng, as if afraid of something.

’It’s working!’

Shen Feng’s eyes lit up. ’To deal with these beast-like things, I really can’t use brute force. I have to outsmart them.’

"ROAR—" This time, it was a tiger’s roar.

Shen Feng had downloaded all sorts of random audio files before, including various animal calls. He never thought they’d actually come in handy.

The Barbarians grew more chaotic. They were hostile even toward each other, and now, something terrifying seemed to stir in their damaged minds.

’That’s it.’

Shen Feng nodded, grabbed a burning branch from the fire, and brandished it at one of the Barbarians, immediately seeing terror on its face.

The massive roars echoed through the area. Now all the Barbarians wore looks of fear, glancing intermittently toward the surrounding forest.

Shen Feng vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

It seemed the Barbarians weren’t afraid of him, but of something else...

Just then, a pleasant melody drifted over. It sounded like Schubert’s "Nocturne"—the kind of background music one might hear in a restaurant or coffee shop.

It was accompanied by the creaking of rusty wheels.

Immediately after, four boxy, rust-spotted metal cabinets emerged from the darkness.

These metal cabinets looked like oversized refrigerators. They had solar panels on top, each stood four meters tall, and they moved on caterpillar tracks.

Large smiley faces were painted on the four sides of the metal cabinets, next to which several small red and green lights flickered. In the top-left corner, a line of text was written:

"Mi’s Farm Robot, a Herder’s Good Helper."

’What is this thing?’

Shen Feng frowned. The Barbarians, however, looked as if they had seen a ghost. They let out howls; some turned and fled, while others stood frozen in place, seemingly scared witless.

Then, one of the farm robots with a big smiley face rapidly approached a Barbarian mutant that was standing dumbfounded. Several mechanical claws extended from its sides and seized the Barbarian.

The front metal panel suddenly split open vertically, revealing a dense array of metal rotary blades inside. It instantly swallowed the mutant!

"AHH—"

The grinding began at its legs. The Barbarian didn’t die right away and let out a wretched scream before quickly falling silent.

From the rear of the farm robot, chunks of bloody residue were expelled.

These farm robots seemed to be part of some automated butchering system. Originally, there should have been something behind them to catch the minced flesh, and the entire process should have had more steps, like skinning, deboning, and grinding.

But now, only the grinding process remained.

The metal plates closed like a great, bloody maw. The smiley face on it remained as cheerful as ever as it turned toward Shen Feng and Firefly.

The three remaining farm robots also lit up their green lights and began to move toward what their programming recognized as farm animals.

Shen Feng and Firefly exchanged a look and immediately turned and ran.

The dozens of Barbarians also began to flee for their lives. One that wasn’t fast enough was caught and instantly turned into mincemeat.

Shen Feng finally understood why the Barbarians had been so terrified when he roared earlier.

’They were afraid of attracting these farm robots!’

Shen Feng cursed inwardly. ’What the hell is this place?’

’Why would something like this even exist?!’

Moreover, looking at the robots’ exterior paint, it seemed they were even partially coated with anti-radiation paint.

’Logically, these things should have a human identification system, but it’s obviously long since broken.’

Two farm robots gave chase, rapidly closing in from behind. They seemed to have identified Shen Feng and Firefly as two healthy livestock ready for slaughter.

The direction they were running was straight into the depths of the Death Forest.

The farther they ran, the more alarmed Shen Feng became.

Along the way, he saw quite a few damaged farm robots lying in the forest, some buried under rotten wood.

’This place might have been a farm once!’

Due to the radiation, they had to follow a winding path, but the two farm robots could move in a straight line and caught up to them almost instantly.

Shen Feng tried to jam one of the farm robot’s blades by throwing a rock into it, but the blades immediately reversed direction and pushed it out.

’This thing even has an anti-jamming program!’

"Alert, alert. Intruder detected."

A synthesized electronic voice rang out. Shen Feng and Firefly jerked their heads up and saw that they had just burst out of a thicket into a clearing.

This seemed to be the very heart of the Death Forest!

In the clearing stood a gray, reinforced concrete building, from which the faint flicker of lights could be seen!

At the same time, two machine gun mounts on the roof swiveled abruptly, and two targeting lasers shot out toward Shen Feng and Firefly’s position!