Volume 1, Chapter 60: The Plague of Mosquitoes Has Finally Arrived

Ever since leaving home in the morning, Lin Yifan had kept Mao Mao tucked away in his pocket.

Mao Mao had been very well-behaved, not making a single sound or causing any trouble to hinder Lin Yifan as he searched for supplies.

Even when Lin Yifan stripped off his clothes to step into the pool, Mao Mao did not make a single noise.

So much so that Lin Yifan had completely forgotten about Mao Mao and neglected to feed it all day long.

He hurriedly reached out and fished Mao Mao out of his pocket, only to discover that the little creature had fallen fast asleep.

He carefully cradled Mao Mao in front of his eyes, gently stroked its little head with his finger, and whispered:

"Mao Mao, Mao Mao, wake up!"

Only then did Mao Mao open its eyes, blinking its two mung-bean-like eyes and letting out two soft chirps.

The sound was so pitiful that it filled Lin Yifan with a deep sense of guilt.

He quickly sliced off a tiny piece of crocodile meat, handed it to Mao Mao, and apologized regretfully:

"Mao Mao, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about you earlier. You must be starving, right?"

"Next time you're hungry, you must let me know, okay?"

"Chirp, chirp!"

The moment Mao Mao saw the crocodile meat, its mung-bean eyes instantly lit up, and it eagerly began to chow down.

After finishing the first piece, it let out another two chirps.

"Still want more?" Seeing Mao Mao staring fixedly at the crocodile meat, Lin Yifan quickly cut off another small piece to feed it.

Yet, as soon as that piece was gone, the little thing still wanted more.

Lin Yifan hesitated for a moment, fed it one more piece, and firmly refused to give it any more after that.

He was worried that eating too much all at once would upset Mao Mao's stomach.

Having finished its meal, Mao Mao happily hopped down, bounced around a couple of times, and before long, returned to its nest to fall into a deep, sound sleep.

Feeling somewhat concerned, Lin Yifan sent a message to Ruan Qintan, who had some experience in raising birds:

"I'm raising a bird, and it has been sleeping the entire day. Just now, I woke it up and fed it some meat, but now it's gone right back to its nest to sleep. Is this normal?"

Ruan Qintan was chatting with Chen Yunuo at the moment. Seeing Lin Yifan's query, she didn't dare hesitate and quickly replied:

"That's completely normal. During their juvenile stage, birds need a lot of sleep to digest their food and absorb nutrients."

"Then again, I forgot to feed it during the day and only gave it one meal tonight. Will that be a problem?" Lin Yifan asked again.

Having raised birds before, Ruan Qintan was very familiar with this and answered:

"There won't be any problems! We used to have an ornithology research association at our school, and I heard people there say that fledglings only need to be fed once a day; they don't need constant feeding."

"If you feed them too often, they might actually get sick from indigestion. Besides, when fledglings are hungry, they will actively open their mouths for food. Just feed them whenever they do that."

Lin Yifan finally breathed a sigh of relief and expressed his gratitude:

"Thank you so much!"

By now, it was already quite late, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. At this hour, it had actually fallen below five degrees.

Lin Yifan wasn't cold; he lacked no warm clothing, not to mention that he was living in a Level 3 shelter—if anyone could stay warm, it would certainly be him.

Just at that moment, however, he suddenly heard a pattering sound against the window.

He looked up and was instantly met with a dense swarm of mosquitoes crawling all over the glass.

The sight of these mosquitoes made Lin Yifan's scalp tingle.

Earlier, in order to get a blue treasure chest hanging on a tree, he had encountered mosquitoes and even wiped out quite a few using [High-Potency Mosquito Repellent].

Although those mosquitoes had also been large, they were roughly comparable to the mosquitoes in the southern regions of Earth.

As a southerner, Lin Yifan had been shocked by their sheer numbers, but not particularly unsettled by the creatures themselves.

The mosquitoes before him now, however, were each a massive tiger mosquito, at least three times larger than southern mosquitoes—their size was comparable to that of bees.

Their proboscises were a good three or four centimeters long, resembling injection needles, enough to make anyone's skin crawl just by looking at them.

"How on earth did these mosquitoes grow so huge?!"

Lin Yifan stared at the mosquitoes, completely baffled.

Just two days ago, the mosquitoes hadn't been nearly this big. How had they grown to this size overnight?

Could mosquitoes actually keep growing?

Regardless, none of that mattered now. He immediately closed all the doors and windows of the shelter and carefully inspected every corner, terrified of missing any gaps or crevices.

With mosquitoes this terrifying, even letting a single one fly inside would spell a horrific disaster.

However, to prevent carbon dioxide poisoning, Lin Yifan extinguished the campfire in the living room. Since he now had a lighter in his possession, he no longer needed to keep a fire burning specifically for embers.

And right after he put out the fire, he suddenly noticed that the number of mosquitoes frantically slamming against the window had decreased.

Meanwhile, the windows in the bedroom still had mosquitoes crashing into them. After a moment of thought, Lin Yifan quickly figured out why.

All insects shared a universal instinct: the pursuit of light.

The prime example was moths, immortalized by the idiom "moths darting into the flame."

Since mosquitoes were also insects, they naturally possessed the instinct to chase light.

Earlier, with the campfire burning brightly in the living room, those mosquitoes had been drawn straight through the window.

Now that he had put out the fire, the mosquitoes had lost their luminous target and naturally dispersed.

Realizing this, Lin Yifan hurried into the bedroom, retrieved a down quilt from his spatial storage, and hung it over the window.

The down quilt was completely opaque. As soon as it covered the window, the glow emitted by the [Blazing Light Stone] inside the room was blocked out entirely.

Sure enough, the moment the window was obscured, the mosquitoes crashing against the outside of the glass immediately began to dwindle.

Lin Yifan let out a sigh of relief. Although he trusted that the defenses of his Level 3 shelter were impenetrable to the swarm, the sound of mosquitoes slamming against the glass was grating to the ears.

While he could manage just fine, others were not nearly as fortunate.

At this moment, the chat channel was filled with wails of despair.

"Oh my god! Why are these mosquitoes so huge? They're almost the size of bees! Luckily I upgraded my shelter to Level 2; otherwise, even with my [High-Potency Mosquito Repellent], I probably wouldn't have survived."

"These mosquitoes must have mutated! Ordinary mosquitoes could never get this big. I just took a close look at the patterns on their bodies—these things are probably venomous. Everyone must be extremely careful and try your best not to get bitten."

"Hurry up and use the [High-Potency Mosquito Repellent] put out by master Lin Yifan! My shelter isn't Level 2 yet, but I traded for two sticks of [High-Potency Mosquito Repellent]. I've lit one now, and not a single mosquito dares to come near me, hahahaha! I bet on the right horse!"

"Wuuu wuuu wuuu... I got bitten! It's all the Heavenly Earth Guild's fault for tricking me. I could have upgraded my shelter to Level 2, but the people from the Heavenly Earth Guild claimed that upgrading to Level 2 was useless and that I had to buy their mosquito repellent instead. They said they were willing to sell it to me cheap, so I gave them all my supplies. But look at where I am now—these ordinary repellents can't kill the mosquitoes at all, and I'm already covered in bites!"

"I got scammed by the Heavenly Earth Guild too. They told me their mosquito repellent was identical to master Lin Yifan's, but it turned out to be completely useless."

"Curse the damned Heavenly Earth Guild! If I manage to survive this ordeal, I will fight you to the bitter end!"

......