After the Hunter Association landed on the western coastline of the Dark Continent, they didn't proceed to explore further inland.
One of their objectives on the Dark Continent was to capture Beyond alive or kill him on the spot.
Therefore, the Association set up camp at the edge of the forest near the coastline, establishing a temporary base.
This location was on the fringe, likely one of the least dangerous areas on the Dark Continent.
However, perhaps because Dark Continent's creatures were xenophobic or sensitive to the scent of outsiders, ever since the Association set up camp in the forest, creatures would periodically emerge in groups from the forest depths to attack the temporary base, or more accurately, to attack the humans.
The stone beetles Netero fended off were actually just one of multiple lines of defense during the night. The creature groups heading toward their base weren't limited to stone beetles.
So, when the booming sounds from the forest subsided, Kanzai guessed his colleagues responsible for other defense lines had likely eliminated the threats.
"Judging by the earlier sounds, we might have extra food tomorrow."
Ginta said, head down, using the portable instrument he carried to measure the stone beetle heart's values.
"Hah, we owe it to this food that delivered itself. Ever since arriving here, we haven't had to worry about food reserves." Kanzai's eyes lit up. The thought of eating meat again made saliva well up in his mouth.
Pyon wrote swiftly in her notebook, quantifying the stone beetle's various capabilities and drawing its specific size proportions. The work experience she'd accumulated from constantly taking on side jobs was now evident.
Netero glanced at Kanzai. For once, his view aligned with Kanzai's.
Although they hadn't yet truly encountered the strange and bizarre ecosystem of the Dark Continent, even at the fringes, they could glimpse the tip of the iceberg.
These highly aggressive plants and animals all possessed a certain level of threat while also offering high nutritional value and delicious taste.
"In a way, this is really a good place to retire."
Netero inexplicably sighed, then approached Ginta and asked, "Well? Can this little piece of meat be eaten?"
Ginta stared at the values displayed on the portable instrument and nodded. "Edible. Moreover, the quality and quantity of nutrients are extremely high. No, relative to its size, one could say they are unreasonably high."
As he spoke, he again used tweezers to suspend the grayish, quail-egg-sized stone beetle heart before his eyes, his gaze full of wonder.
With his somewhat limited vocabulary, the most fitting phrase he could think of was… small size, big power!
Hearing Ginta's assessment, Netero immediately decided to harvest all the stone beetle hearts.
In this environment full of variables, the Association never passed up any usable resource, whether for recording information or for food.
Especially such ultra-compact, portable resources.
'Compared to Knov's Hide-and-Seek, Tokarine's capacity for carrying supplies is quite limited. That guy Law...'
Netero looked at the hundreds of stone beetle corpses around. Although the meat to be taken was minimal, once it involved supply storage matters, he inevitably thought of Knov's Hide-and-Seek.
With such a convenient ability, the manpower and resource pressures they faced after setting up camp would drop from a peak directly to the bottom.
One could only say Law acted too quickly, snatching Knov away before the Association could.
Thinking of this, Netero patted his forehead and said, "Based on Ginta's assessment, this little meat has harvest value. So, collect it all without missing a single one."
"Understood!"
Both Ginta and Kanzai responded.
"I need to record the specific values of the stone beetle hearts, so you two go ahead and work."
Once Pyon entered work mode, her usual lazy phone-playing attitude vanished instantly. She dismissed Netero's order with an indisputable tone and took over Ginta's monitoring instrument.
Having worked together for a long time, Netero and the others were familiar with Pyon's work style. They didn't say anything further. Instead, they took sharp scalpels and began dissecting the stone beetle corpses on site.
They had been dissecting for less than ten minutes when a pure white pigeon flew before them.
"Coo, coo."
The pigeon landed and called out to them a few times.
This was to notify them that the night's defense work was resolved and they could return to camp.
However, Netero and the others still needed some time to dissect the stone beetle corpses, so they had Pyon write a note and attach it to the pigeon's leg.
Afterwards, the pigeon left the area, flying toward the direction of the camp.
Three kilometers away, the Hunter Association's camp was rooted in the ground, facing the forest, backed by flat rocky ground and the sea and sky.
The distance from here to leaving the forest was only a few hundred meters.
One could say the Association chose the camp location without considering water sources at all… they truly chose the very edge of the forest.
The camp had no tents. Instead, there were orderly rows of wooden cabins built from solid wood.
The pigeon flew straight into the camp, landing on the hand of Cluck, who wore a tube top and hot pants.
She took the paper from the pigeon's leg, unfolded it, and immediately notified Cheadle, who was in the treehouse organizing recorded data.
After hearing Cluck's report and looking at the note, Cheadle said, "Thank you for your hard work. Also, the perimeter vigilance must not slacken in the slightest."
"Got it, so naggy, so annoying."
Cluck replied in a drawn-out voice, then opened the door and went outside the treehouse.
Cheadle watched the wooden door close and shook her head slightly. She was long accustomed to Cluck's attitude.
Outside the wooden cabin, Cluck stretched, her enticing curves fully revealed.
It seemed she had an unchangeable habit regarding clothing style. Even in the forest, she hadn't altered her fashion, leaving large areas of fair skin exposed to the air.
After stretching, she softly whistled toward the pigeons perched on the treehouse. The flock of pigeons all flapped their wings and flew into the forest.
[Path of Letter's Return]
This was her Nen Ability, allowing her to control ordinary pigeons to deliver messages.
Since Association's Hunters were spread across the world, with unstable whereabouts and communications, whenever the Association needed to issue a full notification for important matters, they utilized Cluck's ability.
Her ability could send out nearly a thousand letters at once and ensured the letters would definitely reach the recipients.
Besides this function, she could distribute pigeons around their location to serve as a warning system.
The operation of the camp's warning line was basically managed by her. Once a threat was detected in advance, she would notify the defense team members via radio or carrier pigeon as the situation required.
Since the controlled pigeons weren't conjured Nen Beasts, the ability's effect had ample room for setting and developing some auxiliary functions.
Disregarding the training difficulty, Cluck could extract information the carrier pigeons saw and heard. That was how she heard Kanzai complaining about her in the forest.
Additionally, the ability's effect included the characteristic of [Letters Guaranteed to Arrive], which was a crucial tool for finding people.
The Dark Continent was so vast. For the Association to catch Beyond after landing in advance, they had to rely on Cluck's ability.
Cluck directed the carrier pigeons to deploy the warning line, then saw the defense team members returning to camp.
The leader was Botobai, holding an unknown humanoid creature… it looked like a dwarf...
"So ugly, disgusting!"
Cluck immediately gave her assessment.