Tonight, there were three teams responsible for dealing with the incoming creatures outside. The team led by Botobai was one of them. The members were Morel and Mizaistom.
They were the first team to return to camp. Netero's team, needing to dissect the stone beetle corpses, wouldn't be back for a while.
The last team had to transport the meat of the prey, so they would also be delayed, but they should be faster than Netero's team.
Cluck saw the dwarf creature Botobai brought back, felt disgust first, then surprise.
Because, the defense teams dealing with threats outside usually only brought back edible prey. This dwarf humanoid creature, less than a meter tall, clearly wasn't within the edible category.
So, what was Botobai's motive for bringing back the corpse, especially such a disgusting thing?
Puzzled, Cluck braced herself against the disgust and approached Botobai's group as they entered the camp.
"What is this thing? So disgusting." Cluck looked closely at the dwarf 'corpse' held by Botobai.
The dwarf's body type and appearance had several similarities to humans. Its whole body was dark gray. From the tightly closed eye slits, the eyes seemed large. It had no eyebrows, and the nose area was very flat, only showing two nostrils.
This 'corpse' only wore a short, ragged animal skin around its lower body. The skin exposed to the air was deeply wrinkled, layer upon layer of flesh, like a Shar-Pei dog.
Cluck's disgusted glance swept over it, and she simply averted her eyes.
Botobai looked at Cluck and said, "This is one of tonight's attackers. Because it somewhat resembles a human, I purposely kept one alive."
"It's alive?"
Cluck was startled, couldn't help but glance at the ugly dwarf man again, and hadn't noticed any signs of breathing.
"Yes, alive."
Botobai glanced at the dwarf man, then asked, "Has the Chairman returned yet?"
"No, they were dealing with a type of insect called stone beetles. It seems the stone beetles' hearts have high utility value, so they need to dissect the considerable number of stone beetles one by one. They probably won't be back soon."
Cluck explained, then frowned deeply as she looked at the dwarf man whose breathing movements were almost zero.
If Botobai hadn't said it was alive, she would have thought it was a dead object.
"During the fight, this creature communicated using a language we couldn't understand." Mizaistom pinched his chin, his eyes thoughtful.
"Is that so?"
A flicker of surprise passed through Cluck's eyes. She pursed her lips, "Then we'll have to wait for Pyon to return. She's on Chairman's team."
"That's all we can do. Gel's team isn't back yet either, right?" Mizaistom nodded.
"Hmm, the attackers they encountered were also 'food'. They'll definitely take some time too. Anyway, I have zero interest in this disgusting thing. I'll just check the logged information later. So, I'm heading off first."
Cluck waved her hand and walked toward her wooden cabin.
To control the pigeons for the warning line, she needed to maintain a constant Nen output. So during idle moments, it was best to be in a semi-meditative state to extend the duration.
Morel watched Cluck leave and said, "I'm going to rest. I have to take over Cluck's shift in the latter half of the night."
"Alright."
Botobai nodded to Morel.
Afterwards, Morel also headed toward the wooden cabins.
He could use smoke to conjure a group of rabbit-like and bird-like creatures, so he could also handle warning line duties. Having just been in a fight, he naturally needed to rest as soon as possible to be in optimal condition for guard duty.
From this, one could see the importance of the ability that Law valued in Biscuit in such an environment.
Time passed.
Half an hour later, the team led by Gel also returned to camp, bringing back over a thousand pounds of meat.
Perhaps due to machismo, the meat was carried by Dafifi and Zizhu, while Gel had empty hands, looking quite leisurely in contrast.
"Huh?"
Upon returning to camp, the three of them immediately noticed the dwarf man still held by Botobai.
"Human?"
Dafifi casually placed the meat on the ground and quickly walked over to Botobai.
Zizhu looked at the meat on the ground, then at the kitchen. As a Gourmet Hunter, he was the team's cook, so the responsibility for ingredients lay with him.
After thinking for a moment, he decided not to get involved in Botobai's matter and dutifully moved the ingredients to the kitchen.
Gel also came over, examining the dwarf man whose body structure, aside from height, closely resembled humans.
Botobai looked at Dafifi and said plainly, "I don't think this bloodthirsty creature can be called human."
"Simply based on body structure..."
Dafifi glanced at Botobai, stopping mid-sentence.
After a moment of silence, he continued as a Beast Hunter, "It's still too early to draw conclusions."
Botobai nodded.
Another half hour passed. Netero and the two others, carrying over five hundred small hearts, finally returned to camp.
Seeing Netero and the others return, Botobai's group immediately went to meet them.
"What's up?"
The strikingly noticeable dwarf man was immediately noticed by Netero's trio as well.
"Wow, so ugly."
Pyon exclaimed in surprise, then took out her phone and started taking pictures of the dwarf man from various angles.
Everyone looked at her helplessly, not knowing what to say.
"Is it alive?"
Netero looked at the dwarf man. His observational skills were clearly superior to Cluck's. Even though the dwarf man showed no signs of breathing, he could tell it was alive.
"Yes."
Afterwards, Botobai explained the motive for bringing back the dwarf man.
"Language..."
Hearing it was related to language, Pyon immediately shed her lazy demeanor, instantly entering serious mode.
Just then, Sanbica, wearing a white medical uniform with only her big, dark eyes visible, came out of a wooden cabin.
Due to the shift system, some members operated during the day, some at night. Sanbica belonged to the night shift.
She had heard the commotion outside after waking up and came out to check.
Upon seeing the dwarf man, she first glanced at the gloves Botobai was wearing, then softly reminded, "Any plant or animal other than ourselves may carry viruses or bacteria. Please be extra careful and mindful."
Everyone looked at her.
Botobai replied straightforwardly, "Understood."
Then he turned to Netero and asked, "Chairman, shall we wake it now?"
Netero gave a slight nod.
Regarding the language mentioned by Botobai, it inevitably piqued the curiosity of everyone present.
With permission granted, Botobai abruptly increased his grip strength slightly, then quickly released it.
The dwarf man's body trembled slightly. Its long eye slits snapped open, revealing pure black eyes that filled the entire eye sockets.
…
On the calm sea surface, a large ship cut through the waves.
At the ship's bow, Beyond and Pariston looked ahead.
On the ship's starboard side, two hundred meters away, a massive sea beast with six horns on its head, resembling both a snake and a dragon, floated on the surface, most of its body visible.
The ship's size compared to that sea beast was only about twice the size of the beast's eye.
Such an impactful threat was right there, yet Beyond and Pariston seemed to ignore the sea beast's presence, showing not a hint of fear or even a trace of worry.
"They think I'm heading east."
Maha looked ahead, a trace of mockery at the corner of his mouth.
"It's also possible their original plan was to go east," Pariston replied.
The 'they' in their conversation referred to the International Permit Agencies.