Chapter 770: Frightened Shrill In The Morning
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Each person was given a bowl of meat soup, which had large chunks of meat, fragrant soup, and fresh vegetables inside.
When Li Du chewed a mouthful of meat soup, the extremely fragrant meat juices squirted out from the shreds of meat and overwhelmed his taste buds. After carefully chewing and swallowing the mouthful of meat soup, he could not help but exclaim, "So fragrant!"
One after another, the exclamations of others could be heard. With a smile on his face, Victor raised his cup and said, "To the gifts from the Creator, to us rascals who are trying our best to survive."
Everyone followed suit and raised their cups. "To the gifts from the Creator, to this group of rascals."
Wanting to have a casual conversation, Victor asked, "What are you guys here for? Vacation? You guys look like wealthy people. However, a composition like that of your group is very rare."
Li Du replied, "Sort of. We are also harvesting black gold abalone."
"Oh, you guys have a black gold abalone harvesting permit?" Victor further questioned.
As Li Du felt that he'd said too much, he nodded and kept quiet.
Since they were on such a barren island, exposing the fact that they had a black gold abalone harvesting permit would very easily ignite the greed in others.
In the end, a very capable-looking middle-aged man pointed west and said, "Want to harvest black gold abalone? Keep heading west. You guys will encounter an island with a lot of breadfruit trees. There are black gold abalones around the island."
"Best not to go into the water in that area, that area is very dangerous," another person said. "Also, don't go onto the island. The island is also very dangerous. That is a bad idea."
"But the area of the sea surrounding the island has black gold abalones," the capable looking middle-aged man said. "We have gone there and seen the black gold abalones. We have also secretly harvested and eaten them."
Someone else suddenly shouted, "Hey, Bauer, don't f*cking talk nonsense just because you're drunk. We didn't harvest black gold abalones illegally!"
"There's also no officer from the Department of Fishing and Hunting here. What are you guys afraid of?" Bauer asked bitterly.
As these people had a high level of legal consciousness, they no longer talked about this topic afterward.
When Li Du asked what dangers the island had, Bauer and the others changed their view on the matter. They told him that the island was indeed very dangerous and advised Li Du and his group not to get close to it. After which, they refused to talk about this matter and changed the conversation topic to something else.
As there were not many recreational activities that could be done since they were on a barren island, and these people did not like recreational activities, they chatted under the light for a while more after finishing the food. After digesting their meal, they went back to their own apartments.
Li Du and his group stayed on the island for the night. In the early morning, while they slept soundly, a frightened shrill could suddenly be heard in the building: "Ah! Ah! Ah!"
As the shrill sound was very grim, Li Du jumped from being startled by it. After also jumping, Ah Ow, Ah Meow, and Crispy Noodles, who slept below Li Du's feet, looked around themselves with wide frightened eyes.
Having figured out that the shrill sound was Hannah's voice, Li Du hurriedly ran out of the room.
Brother Wolf, Big Quinn, and Godzilla had also lost no time in rushing out of their rooms. With a dazed look, Hans opened his door and asked, "I think I heard my silly sister's cry?"
Seeing Hans's dazed look, Li Du became furious and said, "Brother Wolf, give him a slap to wake him!"
Brother Wolf, who was compliant, grabbed hold of Hans and gave him a slap. After which, Hans also let out a shrill that was almost as loud as Hannah's.
After rushing up one floor and kicking open the door of Hannah's room, which was on the floor above theirs, they saw Stephen hugging Hannah. At this point in time, both of them were not properly dressed.
Seeing both of them unharmed, Li Du let out a sigh of relief before asking, "What's the matter?"
Without waiting for both of them to answer, Brother Wolf pointed at the window and said, "Look."
After taking a look, Li Du also felt his blood run cold.
The apartments on the island were built in a very slipshod manner, and some of the apartments' had unglazed windows. When the weather turned cold during winter, the residents would stick two layers of plastic sheets, which were cheaper and better insulators than glass, to cover the unglazed windows.
As it was currently autumn and the weather had not yet turned cold, the unglazed windows were completely empty and did not even have a single plastic sheet covering them.
At the moment, Hannah's and Stephen's room was not completely empty, and there was something hanging on the ceiling that was looking coldly at them with large black eyes.
The creature that hung upside down on the ceiling was about two feet long and had a completely black body, thin hair, a pair of very large, black, terrifying eyes, and an ugly, evil appearance.
Li Du could tell that the creature was a bat. However, according to his memory, bats were only about the size of a human palm and it was not possible for them to grow to the size of this bat, which was the size of a human child.
One after another, the others hurried over. After squeezing into the room and seeing the large bat, Ah Meow and Ah Ow became excited and ran toward the large bat while howling and purring.
After swinging its claws and free-falling, the large bat opened its wings and flew away.
At this moment, the large bat became even larger. Like a small black plane, the large bat had a wingspan of over three feet.
In pursuit of the large bat, Ah Meow jumped out of a window. Like many animals, the large bat had also underestimated the prowess of an ocelot. Thinking that land animals would be helpless against it as it was able to fly, the large bat flew away in a slow and carefree manner.
However, Ah Meow was able to run fast and jump far. After pressing four of his limbs down on the window frame, Ah Meow flew out, like an arrow leaving a bow, and landed right on the large bat's body.
Even though the bat was huge, its body was very light, or else it would not be able to fly. As such, the amount of force that it could withstand was small.
As Ah Meow was too heavy, the large bat was unable to support him and immediately crash-landed!
After the group of them squeezed over to the window and looked outside, they saw Ah Meow sitting on the large bat. While the large bat was twitching underneath him from being sat on, Ah Meow looked at them with a helpless look on his face.
Li Du hurriedly motioned to Ah Meow to move aside by waving his hand and shouting, "Are you not afraid of being paralyzed? Quickly move aside."
Brother Wolf said calmly, "Don't worry, boss, that's an Australian black flying fox. It's a type of fruit bat that likes eating the fruits of various types of plants and will not harm humans and animals."
At this point in time, the couple who owned the apartment had also woken up. As Hannah's terrified shrill had been very loud, the residents in the apartments nearby had most likely been startled awake.
Having noticed Ah Meow stepping on the large bat's body, the owner of the apartment waved his hands to chase him away before squatting down to take a look at the large bat's condition and carrying it onto a table.
After the wife of the owner went to take some ointment and handed it to him, he began applying it on the bat's body.
Li Du went downstairs and asked, "What's this for?"
The owner replied, "For treating it. This is a black flying fox, it won't harm humans. Don't need to be so afraid of it."
Hannah said bitterly, "It looks so scary and is also so big—who would have known it doesn't harm humans? When I opened my eyes, it was looking coldly at me." Speaking of the bat, she began trembling again.
Li Du was able to empathize with her. As they had never seen such a large bat before and the size of the bat was very shocking, seeing it after just waking up was indeed very frightening.
After laughing for a while, the owner began introducing the Australian black flying fox to them. Other than being a type of animal found on the island, the Australian black flying fox was also a very important animal.
Australian black flying foxes neither bit humans nor attacked them and their livestock. As they were fond of eating the fruits of various types of plants, the fruit kernels and undigested seeds would migrate along with them when they flew to other places.
In the primeval forests of the island, seedlings had a very hard time surviving under the crown of their parent trees. Some female trees would even go as far as to secrete a type of toxin to prevent their seedlings from maturing.
Therefore, the Australian flying fox played an important role in the spreading of seeds, which was essential to the ecosystem of the island's rainforest.
As they ate the fruits of farmers, there was a period of time when a large amount of them had been caught and killed. Due to there being very few of them left today, the Australian government had started protecting them.
As the Australian black flying foxes played a more important role than the people on the island in the island's ecosystem, it was even more imperative that the people on the island protected the flying foxes. This was the reason why the owner lost no time in treating the bat after noticing that it was injured.
Just like the Maui's dolphins, the black flying foxes were also extremely valuable and protecting them was necessary.