Newbie Guardians

Chapter 5 Kururu

The hill is not high, only about a hundred meters high, but it is a bit steep. The hillside is covered with waist-high shrubs and weeds, and every now and then a white shadow flashes by on the top of the hill.

"That must be Kuluru," Huang Xin muttered.

After doing several stretching exercises, he took a deep breath and began to climb. He grabbed onto bushes and grass roots for support, moving quickly and reaching the halfway point in one go, where he was so exhausted that he was bent over and panting heavily.

Huang Xin noticed several rough, large rocks nearby. Standing on them and looking around, he unexpectedly discovered a long, grassy slope stretching straight from the mountaintop to the foot. The slope was smooth, with no bushes or rocks in between. He had seen similar terrain in his dream—if you were fast enough and steady enough, it could be used as a slide, an excellent escape route. The problem was, sliding down such a long slope like that would not only rip through his pants, but his buttocks would definitely be torn and bleeding. He needed to find a mat.

After resting for two minutes, he continued climbing. Near the summit, he found a fruit tree under a large rock, laden with glossy, tempting black berries the size of hawthorns. Huang Shen picked one and popped it into his mouth; the flesh was sweet. Based on his experience in the dream, he knew the fruit was edible, but whether eating too much would cause diarrhea was another matter. Just to be cautious, he chewed it a few times and then spat it all out.

After climbing for another two or three minutes, they finally reached the summit. Huang Xin hid behind a thicket of bushes, peering ahead. In the center of the summit was a clearing with three thatched huts arranged in a triangular pattern, looking long abandoned. Three Kululu, each about 1.56 meters tall and covered in white fur, were playing. Each of them held a large ear of corn, tossing it high into the air before hopping and leaping to catch it, moving incredibly fast and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Huang Xin and Kulu were about thirty meters away, so he could see them clearly. They looked a lot like monkeys, with round heads that looked like soccer balls on their necks, large, round eyes with deep-set sockets, and they bared their teeth when excited, though their teeth weren't sharp. Their forelimbs were very long, and their strength was astonishing—they could easily toss two or three kilograms of corn twenty or thirty meters high and catch it steadily, as if they were playing house.

Avoiding their gaze, Huang Xin tiptoed to the back of the innermost thatched hut. The hut was about two and a half meters high and about seven or eight square meters in area, covered with a thick layer of thatch. There was a square window with sides of about sixty centimeters, but the window frame had long since disappeared. He peeked inside—the wooden door was ajar, and behind the door, on the ground, was a woven bag with several ears of corn piled haphazardly on it.

"Heaven is on my side!" Huang Xin thought with delight. He looked around and found a tree trunk as thick as his thigh. He placed it under the window, stepped on it, and found it to be quite sturdy. Using the trunk as a stepping stone, he climbed through the window, leaped down, and landed lightly. He quickly threw the ears of corn one by one into the dense grass outside the window, seven ears in total, and finally threw the woven bag out as well.

There was a broken stool in the room. I moved it to the window, stepped on it, and was about to climb out when I noticed a complete animal pelt nailed to the wall next to the window. It was about two meters high and two and a half meters wide. Judging from its size and fur color, it looked very much like the pelt of an adult Kururu. It seemed that this should have originally been a hunter's hut.

Looking at the fur, a brilliant idea flashed into my mind—if I could use this fur as a mat, wouldn't I be able to slide down the grassy slope?

Six nails were hammered into the fur, rusted and worn, but fortunately each nail left two or three centimeters protruding.

Huang Xin moved the stool under the fur, stepped on it, stood on tiptoe, grabbed the topmost nail, and shook it vigorously. His short stature became apparent—standing on tiptoe, he couldn't exert his full strength, and it took him quite a while to pull it out. His fingers were red and swollen, and the spot where he had touched the nail was covered in bruises and rust. The remaining five nails didn't require standing on tiptoe; he removed them all in less than ten minutes.

The nail was gone, but the fur was still stuck tightly to the wall, probably because it had been there too long and had become glued. Huang Xin lifted a corner with his fingers, pinched it tightly, and slowly pulled it upwards. The fur made a slight "sizzling" sound as it peeled from the wall, not loud but very crisp. Huang Xin was startled and immediately stopped, listening intently to what was happening outside. He discovered that the three Kululu were still playing, occasionally emitting loud "coo-coo" sounds. Without making a sound, he used the Kululu's calls as cover to tear the fur apart bit by bit, and it was completely removed in about three minutes.

He rolled up the fur, wrapped it three times with a thin rope and tied a slipknot. Standing on a stool, he first stretched the fur roll out of the window and leaned it against the wall. Then he jumped and flipped out.

Pack the corn into the woven bag. The task information will be updated every time a corn is packed. You have now obtained seven ears of corn.

Where could he get the three ears of corn he was short? Huang Xin tiptoed to the back of another thatched hut and peered inside for a long time, but there wasn't a single ear of corn. He dared not go near the last hut; the three Kululu kept circling it, and he'd be spotted if he went over. He racked his brains for a while without any ideas. Suddenly, he saw the ears of corn being tossed high in the air—that was exactly three! He had to find a way to steal them!

"Be careful of being surrounded!" The old lady's words kept echoing in her mind.

"No! We absolutely cannot face three Kururu at the same time! Is there any way to separate them?"

Another thought flashed through my mind, "That's it! That fruit tree!"

Huang Xin put down the woven bag and poured out all the corn. The task information changed back to zero.

Clutching a woven bag, Huang Xin crouched low and ran quickly towards the rocks. Finding a fruit tree, he picked about a hundred glistening fruits and carried them back behind the thatched hut. Seizing the opportunity, just as the three Kururus reached the hut, Huang Xin grabbed the fruits and tossed them forcefully into the air. He tossed them three times in a row; the first one had barely landed when—plop, plop, plop!—a rain of fruits fell from the sky. Some rolled into the grass, others shattered into pieces, splattering juice everywhere. The three Kururus stared blankly for a while. Finally, one of them tried picking one up, put it in its mouth, and took a bite. Its eyes immediately narrowed, and it threw the corn on the ground, busy searching for more fruit. Seeing this, the other two also threw their corn and joined the search. Huang Xin, seeing this was effective, was overjoyed. He tossed the fruits three more times, this time a little further, to lure the Kururus over. Then, in the third round, he tossed them even further. The area in front of the hut was empty, with only three ears of corn scattered on the ground.

Huang Xin first packed up the seven ears of corn, and the mission information was updated accordingly. Then, he tucked the fur roll under his arm, picked up the woven bag, rushed towards the corn, quickly picked it up, and put it into the bag. He was completely unaware that at this moment, a round head was sticking out of the wooden door of the thatched hut. It was an old Kururu, whose old eyes were dim and he could not see clearly. He just stared at Huang Xin's back.