dkrc Chapter 13: Identifying Popular Online Biological Videos!
Chapter 13: Identifying Popular Online Biological Videos!
The drone hovered high overhead, its camera locked on the scene ahead.
However, when Lin Ye finally parted the dense grass and saw the scene before him.
The wild boars or large herbivores he had anticipated did not appear, and the chewing sounds had also disappeared.
In the middle of that lush, thriving mutated alpine rye meadow, the grass, which was originally as smooth as a giant green carpet, had been carved out with more than a dozen perfectly regular holes!
That's right, it's not random gnawing, but perfectly square holes! Each hole is almost exactly the same size, about 20 centimeters long and wide.
Not only were the tender leaves on the ground swept away, but even the soil underground, along with the grass roots rich in the essence of the life spring, were dug up cleanly.
The edges of the pit are vertical and flat.
As the drone's camera zoomed in, the tense chat in the live stream instantly went off-topic.
"Holy crap? Am I seeing things? Is this Minecraft game coming to life?"
"Cube-shaped grass?! Did some obsessive-compulsive alien come to the Northwest in the middle of the night to make crop circles? No, these are 'square crop circles'!"
"This is so neat! If the anchor hadn't been there, I would have thought it was dug out using a mold!"
"What a divine grass-stealing thief! Not only did he steal grass, but he also helped you with grid-based management?"
Lin Ye stared at the square-shaped pits, his lips twitching uncontrollably.
"Aliens my foot!"
He put away his hunting knife, knelt on one knee, and approached one of the square pits to examine it carefully. Relying on his solid foundation in veterinary medicine from the agricultural university, he quickly switched into on-site reasoning mode.
"Brothers, this definitely wasn't done by a wild boar. If a wild boar came to dig for grass roots, the scene would look like it had been plowed by a hand tractor, a mess with mud flying everywhere. There's no way it would leave such a neat cut."
As Lin Ye spoke, he used two fingers to pick up a small tuft of gray animal fur stained with blood from the soil at the edge of the pit.
He placed the clump of bloody hair in front of the drone's camera lens and solemnly explained:
"Look at this. The fur is extremely fine and soft, grayish-brown in color, with a distinct undercoat. And there were no footprints of any large ungulates left at the scene... This means that the first animals to arrive at the crime scene were the infamous 'plateau pika' (pika) of the grasslands!"
"These guys are the ancestors of burrowing. Because I used... cough, I used the top-quality nutrient solution from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the grass on my pasture is so fragrant and sweet that it has attracted all the plateau rabbits and voles from several kilometers around."
At this point, Lin Ye changed the subject, pointing to the square pit, his brows furrowing slightly:
"But! Plateau hares only eat grass; they could never create such a bloody scene, let alone dig such a square burrow that exudes an 'obsessive-compulsive' aura!"
There is only one truth!
"These mutated grasses attracted hordes of rabbits and mice, and these plump rabbits and mice, in turn, attracted a predator at the top of the food chain—a predator with an extremely eccentric personality and an exceptionally clean nature!"
Lin Ye stood up, dusted off his hands, and sneered:
"You dare treat my prime pub like your private buffet? Tonight, I'm going to find you, you charlatan!"
……
As night fell, the temperature at the foot of the Qilian Mountains plummeted.
A huge, fuzzy moon hung in the sky, casting a cool, silvery glow over the vast grassland.
Lin Ye put on a thick windproof jacket, night vision goggles, and his loyal general, preparing to head to the mutated grassland from the daytime to lie in wait.
As soon as he stepped into the courtyard of the observation post, he felt his trouser leg being pulled by something extremely heavy.
Looking down, I saw the enormous Snow Mountain King, "Lonely High," whose injuries had mostly healed.
This once majestic snow leopard was now clinging tightly to Lin Ye's leg with its two large furry paws, its deep blue eyes filled with a resolute "If you don't take me with you, I'll die" attitude.
Through [Listening to the Voices of All Things], Lin Ye heard the deafening sound of Gu Gao's abacus in his mind:
"Sneaking out in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, he must be going to eat alone! Roasted whole lamb? Or his secret-recipe pork bones? Whatever, even though I've lost my testicles, I can't be without a midnight snack! Take me with you! I am the Snow Mountain King with top-notch night vision, this is definitely a powerful ally!"
Lin Ye was speechless, looking at this increasingly shameless big cat, and laughed in exasperation:
"What are you doing here, a sick eunuch like Leopard? Are you here to catch a thief, or to freeload a meal?"
"Awoo~ (Equivalent exchange! I'll keep watch over the darkness for you, and you give me a bowl of spiritual spring meat soup! Fair and reasonable!)"
He shouted with extreme righteousness.
"Okay, okay, I'll take you there. Consider it a walk to digest your food."
Left with no other choice, Lin Ye could only take a dog and a leopard, in this extremely bizarre combination, and stealthily make his way to the grassland.
They lay in ambush behind a mound downwind.
Lin Ye launched the drone into the air and activated the ultra-high-definition infrared thermal imaging mode.
The general lay prone on the left side of the forest, like a ruthless mini sniper, his eyes fixed intently ahead.
And he lay alone on the right side of the forest...
He was shamelessly burying his head in Lin Ye's backpack, sneaking a bite of the spiced beef jerky meant for a midnight snack.
Time passed by, second by second.
The wind was howling across the grassland.
suddenly!
On the drone's infrared screen, a large area of tiny red dots appeared.
Those are swarms of plateau hares that have come out to steal pasture grass!
Just as the group of rabbits and mice were enjoying their meal, a slightly larger, dark red heat source signal silently slid into the edge of the screen!
"They're here!"
Lin Ye perked up, immediately zoomed in on the drone's camera, and switched to low-light night vision mode.
In the video, the unknown predator, like a ghost, bursts out of the grass in an instant, and with an extremely precise pounce, pins a plump plateau hare-mouse firmly under its claws.
Without any further movement, with a "click," the rabbit and mouse fell silent.
This predator's movements were extremely skillful; although its eating manners were fierce, they were exceptionally clean and efficient.
What shocked Lin Ye and the hundreds of thousands of viewers who stayed up all night to watch the live stream even more was its next move!
After finishing the rabbit and mouse, it did not leave immediately. Instead, it turned around and stretched out its two front paws towards the patch of grass that had been gnawed and stained with blood by the rabbit and mouse.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
With utmost care and focus, it covered the bloodstains with soil, then used its two front paws to pat and smooth the ground, transforming the irregular pit into a perfectly square with sharp edges and corners!
"Holy crap! Case solved! It really did dig that square hole!"
"Damn, what kind of extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder is this?! Killing a mouse and then building a perfectly square grave for it?!"
"Was this animal a bricklayer in its previous life? The smoothness of this surface is so perfect, you couldn't find a single flaw even with a level!"
"General, you are so arrogant, prepare for encirclement!"
Without further hesitation, Lin Ye made a thought, and the drone in mid-air suddenly swooped down, its extremely bright searchlight under its belly turning on instantly!
"Snapped!"
The snow-white beam of light struck the predator with perfect precision, just as it had finished its "construction."
Lin Ye had thought that the sudden burst of bright light would frighten the other party into fleeing in panic.
However, he was wrong.
Big mistakes.
Under the bright light, the animal, which was about the size of an ordinary mongrel and covered in thick, sandy-yellow fur, not only did not run away, but instead calmly turned its head away.
It sat upright next to the square pit it had just dug, facing the extremely bright light from the drone, and slowly raised its head, staring straight at the camera.
For a moment, the screen in the live stream seemed to freeze.
His face was extremely square, as if someone had hit it hard on both sides with bricks.
Two pitifully small eyes were squeezed together on either side of a broad nose, appearing as slits that could never be opened.
Its mouth droops slightly, giving it a half-smile.
And in the close-up shot from the drone's high-definition lens, the way it looks at the camera perfectly illustrates what it means to be—
"Three parts mockery, seven parts disdain, and ninety parts utter despair for this messed-up world."
"Ahhh! It's it! The walking meme!"
[Identify popular online videos featuring biological creatures!]