Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 384 When Jumpy Starts Destroying the House

The matter of the mad dragon turning into a monster was of great importance, and Lin Lin dared not delay. After catching up with Steak, he took the fire dragon's corpse and rushed to the meeting place in Kokot Village as quickly as possible.

During their journey, the little black cat Nia suddenly approached the dragon corpse, trying to touch the blood, which had turned purplish-black due to the high concentration of the Mad Dragon Virus, with its paws. However, it was stopped by the sharp-eyed Date.

"Are you crazy, meow? You knew that guy had a terrible virus and you still touched it?"

Because Lin Lin was sick, Date was already in a bad mood. Nia Lu's sudden actions further aggravated its nerves, and it scolded the little black cat until it cowered in fear.

"Yes, I'm sorry, meow... Date-senpai... I just wanted to get a better look, meow..."

Nia's sincere apology calmed Date's anger somewhat. Only then did Date realize that she might have been a little too harsh, so she took a deep breath and softened her tone:

"Don't blame me for being too harsh, meow. That virus is a real problem, and I'm only doing this for your own good, meow..."

The little black cat blinked, its tone still timid:

"But I don't seem to be afraid of it, meow..."

"What nonsense are you talking about, meow? That's a completely new and unknown virus, meow!"

Date frowned. Could this little black cat have been infected with a virus, causing its brain to become so damaged?

"It's not a meow!"

Nia shook her head vigorously. "Senior Date, do you remember I said that I wandered here because my tribe was attacked by monsters?"

Of course I remember dates, but why bring this up all of a sudden?

Is it...

"Was the monster that attacked you also infected with this virus?"

Lin Lin spoke before the date could, asking them their guess.

Nia nodded, then shook her head, leaving both the human and the cat completely bewildered by her reaction.

What does it mean? Is it true or not? Can you please stop being a riddle-maker?
"I'm not sure, meow..."

Nia Lu glanced at the Rathalos corpse on the cart and continued:

"When I saw this guy get up from the ground and exhale that dark purple smoke, I suddenly remembered some fragments of the attack I was in back then, when the surroundings seemed to be filled with that kind of dark purple smoke..."

"I don't know if it's because my memory is hazy or because my panic is amplified, but I always feel that the smoke and dust back then was much denser than that of the Rathalos..."

Dates suddenly realized:

"So you mean you had an epic lung infection with that virus before, but didn't have the same symptoms as the boss, so you think that virus might not be effective against you, meow?"

Nia nodded slightly: "That's what I was thinking, meow, so I just wanted to try and confirm it, meow..."

Date pondered for a moment, then shook her head:

"No, meow. The reason you weren't infected might be because your tolerance threshold to the virus is relatively high. What you encountered before was just smoke, but this guy's blood has turned purplish-black, so it must contain a high concentration of the virus, meow. Just because it's smoke doesn't mean it's safe to touch the blood, meow!"

Nia nodded in agreement, withdrew her cat paw, and decided to follow the advice of her senior.

"I think the boss thinks so too, meow?"

As if afraid that his words were not convincing enough, Yezao turned to look at Lin Lin, who was deep in thought, wanting him to corroborate his point of view.

"what?"

"Oh, yes, yes."

After hearing Nia's description of the memory fragments, Lin Lin began to drift off and didn't listen to the two cats' subsequent conversation.

Nia Lu's description of the Mad Dragon Virus in her memory was much more concentrated than that of the Mad Dragon Rathalos. If she wasn't mistaken in her memory, there really could be a virus much more concentrated than that of a Mad Dragon monster. Either it was the Black Eclipse Dragon itself, or it was an individual that had overcome the limits of the Mad Dragon Disease. Either way, it was clearly not good news.

Besides this, there was another thing that Lin Lin was very concerned about.

According to Niaru, its original home should be in a large desert. When the date palm was preparing to skin the Rathalos to obtain materials, it also found sand hidden in the crevices of the Rathalos's shell. In other words, this Rathalos was likely infected with Rathalos disease in the desert before flying to Senqiu.

So, does this mean that the source of the virus first appeared in that desert?

Lin Lin felt that this was very likely; even if it wasn't 100%, it was probably close to 80 or 90 percent.

Senchiu and Kokot Village are very close; in less than three hours, standing on a swaying cart, you can already see the village gate of Kokot Village ahead.

Lin Lin wasted no time, stopping the corpse of the transformed male fire dragon in the center of the village before rushing into the meeting hall, startling the two idly standing signboard girls. Lin Lin took out his water pouch, gulped down a mouthful, and breathed heavily. Peiqi, looking at his face, asked with slight concern:
"Mr. Lin Lin, how are you?"

As she spoke, she pointed to her eyes, "Your eyes look a little red..."

Lin Lin was slightly taken aback, touched his face, and sighed:

"It's not great, but you'll be fine after eating some fruit later."

"Huh? Why?"

"Forget about that, it's not the point. What I'm about to tell you, don't be afraid."

Lin Lin slammed the Hunter's Notebook onto the counter:
"I've completed the mission. The body is in the center of the village, and I can process the payment now—oh right, I took the cat cart, so I'll have to deduct one-third of my reward—sorry, my mind is a bit muddled right now, let's get to the point."

Lin Lin took a deep breath, enduring the discomfort of the Mad Dragon virus growing stronger in his body, and reported the entire hunting process in detail. He also briefly mentioned some information about the Mad Dragon disease in the form of speculation.

The reason why they didn't talk to the guild leader or other managers, but instead only talked to the two signboard girls, was not because they didn't want to, but because they simply didn't have the resources. Although Kokot Village is famous, it is just a small village. It is already the limit that they can barely build a meeting place. They simply cannot have a complete structure like Lokrak. The daily operation of the entire meeting place is almost entirely maintained by the two signboard girls.

Because the Rathalos that had transformed into a male Rathalos was hunted as soon as it appeared, and did not cause any large-scale ecological disaster, after some discussion, Peggy and Doris concluded that based solely on the male Rathalos corpse whose blood had turned purplish-black, it was difficult to determine whether Lin Lin's speculation was exaggerated.

But in this small village, Lin Lin, a five-star hunter, is practically the top hunter, and since he personally experienced this hunt, the two female hunters couldn't possibly ignore his opinion.

So, at Lin Lin's insistence, Peggy wrote a letter explaining the situation and had the peregrine falcon send it to East Doruma as an urgent request. At the same time, Doris sent a letter to Minagard, requesting an airship to transport the dragon corpse to East Doruma. As a small gathering place that was barely set up, Kokot Village did not have its own airship at all, and if it needed one urgently, it could only apply to borrow one from a nearby big city.

The letter was sent, received by the guild in Minagard, and they discussed and decided whether to agree to the secondment to Kokot Village. Then they prepared the airship, assembled the crew, and headed to Kokot Village... When Lin Lin boarded the airship deck with the dragon corpse, it was already dusk. Even by airship, it would take at least two days to fly between Kokot Village and East Doruma.

The closest desert to Senqiu is the Dede Desert. Even with Melalu's speed, it would take at least ten days to get there. If it were any other desert, this time would be much longer. This means that from the appearance of the Black Devouring Dragon to his return to East Doruma with the corpse of the Mad Dragon transformed into a Fire Dragon, there would be at least twenty days.

The Black Eclipse Dragon can fly and moves at incredible speeds. This amount of time is more than enough for it to spread a large-scale plague, infecting monsters across a vast area with the Dragon's Madness. The situation is likely dire…

……

The words are divided into two parts.

Leaving aside Lin Lin's anxiety on the airship, let's turn our attention back to Dongdoruma.

Since Lin Lin decided to go to Kokot Village to hunt alone, Jump Jump and Gu Jia have been spending all their time idly in the yard.

Of course, for Guga, who had suffered greatly under the cannon beetles in the past, life now was like paradise. He didn't have to worry about becoming cannon fodder for the tyrannical empress, he didn't have to scramble for food, and he didn't have to fight other monsters for the precious water in the oasis. He spent his days eating and sleeping, living a life that couldn't be more comfortable.
—Especially with Yoko, a wielder of the Insect Glaive, applying her experience in raising Insect Hunters to this lazy beetle, not only did she make its carapace shine, but she also greatly increased the intimacy between them. If Lin Lin hadn't been able to communicate directly, the tacit understanding Yoko and this beetle had probably surpassed that of Lin Lin.

Sometimes, Ye Zi couldn't help but think that if she continued to train him in this way, she might be able to take Gu Jia into the hunting grounds in the future, just like she was cooperating with Xiao Jia now, treating this giant beetle as a super-sized predator and fighting together... It seems that apart from not being able to absorb essence to light the lamp, it still has quite a few advantages.

Unlike Gujia, who happily gave up and enjoyed his new life, Tiaotiao was actually a little restless.

Since he started following Lin Lin, the two have spent most of their time together, even when hunting, unless they go to places that he finds difficult to adapt to, such as the time they went to the Frozen Islands and the Waterless Forest.

At that time, Tiaotiao was handed over to Huoya for care by Lin Lin. Although it was quite comfortable at first, after a while, it couldn't help but recall the days when it was ruthlessly driven out of the clan by the original leader. If it hadn't met the current leader, it would probably have starved to death long ago and turned into a pile of bones in the sand.

Thinking about it this way, it naturally cherished the days it spent with Lin Lin even more, worrying and fearing that Lin Lin would never come back and that it would be abandoned by the tribe again. It was just as uneasy as that when Lin Lin returned from the hunt that its heart finally settled down.

Ever since Lin Lin created the Bond Stone, allowing them to fully understand each other's thoughts, whenever they need to part, Lin Lin tells it what to do, that he will be back soon, and that he will never abandon it. Jump Jump's anxiety has never reappeared until now.

It didn't understand why Lin Lin had told it he was going on a long hunting trip as usual. It hadn't felt anything was different at first, but suddenly it became uneasy.

This unease, whose origin is unknown, is completely different from the anxiety of being abandoned again. But the problem is that Jump Jump itself doesn't understand the root of the issue, which makes it inexplicably restless and unable to resist the urge to attack something.

But it also knew that the humans and monsters around it were all the leader's partners, not the targets of its venting. However, if this restlessness was not released, it would only grow stronger in its heart. So it had no choice but to shift its target to the objects around it—in layman's terms, that is... destroying the house.

Moreover, as a large monster over ten meters long, it's fine when it's behaving itself, but if it starts causing trouble and destroying things, its destructive power is far beyond what a husky or similar creature can match.

Just as Yoko finished preparing Guga's nutritious meal, she brought the medium-rare grilled meat to Tiaotiao. When she saw the mess in front of her, with wood fragments and stone shards that were broken beyond repair, she couldn't help but cover her face and let out a long sigh.

"Jump Jump, what's wrong with you...?"

Breve, who had just finished drinking at the meeting place, was stunned when he saw this scene. It took him a while to understand what had happened, and he couldn't help but smile smugly.

"I never expected that Jumpy would start destroying the house like this. I wonder what kind of expression Shion will have when she comes back and sees this..."

Meanwhile, Shion, whom Brave was nagging about, had just finished her day's entertainment at the brothel.

Hmm... calling it a brothel is a bit inappropriate. Although both are places to listen to music, the Grand Theatre is much more solemn and formal than a brothel. Strictly speaking, it should be compared to the Sydney Opera House, where only very famous or talented people can perform on its grand stage.

Take, for example, the songstress who just finished her performance. She's quite a heavyweight. It's said that she comes from a very special branch of the Dragonkin race. She started training in music from a young age. It's no exaggeration to say that her voice is like a living hunting flute. Although it doesn't provide any combat advantages, it can wash away the listener's physical fatigue, soothe their heartache, help them get a good night's sleep, and greet the next day refreshed.

"It's really beautiful to hear, but unfortunately, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to listen to more..."

(End of this chapter)