Chapter 159: The Righteous Troublemaker
Cheng Tian's forceful intrusion, coupled with the incredibly shocking act of instantly killing the Triceratops leader, directly altered the outcome of the Herbivorous Dragon Alliance's assault on the poacher camp.
Under the influence of Cheng Tian's battle vehicle matrix, the Vulcan cannon's hit rate—one creature, two machines, and three battle vehicles—was remarkably high. Of course, this was also directly related to the fact that the enemies were large creatures with low agility.
The Stegosauruses and Triceratopses that were originally charging the camp were now falling one after another. The Pterosaurs, who were more cunning and whose overall personality was shifting towards that of a scavenger, chose to stop their dive and re-circle when they saw the situation was unfavorable.
Don't forget, one of those battle vehicles was still carrying a Goddess Archer!
Guided by the wind, sharp elven arrows mercilessly began to shoot towards the circling Pterosaurs in the sky.
Although she didn't use skills like Power Shot this time, Irene adjusted her target from the hard-to-hit torsos to the Pterosaurs' broad, membrane-covered wings.
Pterosaurs, rather than truly flying, were more like gliders that utilized updrafts. Therefore, if the wing membrane on any one side was punctured, what awaited them was a free fall.
This act of delivering an effective strike and then relying on free fall to kill was actually considered a normal kill, and would still drop treasure chests as usual.
Environmental kills are also kills.
Before the enemy could figure out her strategy, Irene had already ruptured the wings of over a dozen Pterosaurs, sending them plummeting with screams. Only then did the Pterosaurs belatedly choose to flee en masse, no longer bothering with the ground-dwelling herbivorous dragons of their alliance.
At least while Irene was still present, they dared not approach easily.
As for the ground-dwelling herbivorous dragons, due to the impact of Cheng Tian's initial impact drill, several timid ones had already fled. The remaining individuals, no longer a cohesive force, were either killed or escaped under the human side's firearm barrage.
However, even without that drill impact, with the heavy firepower output of Cheng Tian's squad, while completely annihilating the Herbivorous Dragon Alliance might be difficult, driving them away was no problem at all.
Although this didn't align with Cheng Tian's initial plan of having the Bald Butcher act as a decoy to attract the dinosaurs' attention, adapting to circumstances was an unavoidable part of being a player.
If the game had followed its normal progression, what should have happened in this area was the player fighting the Bald Butcher to stop his abuse of dinosaurs. However, now the situation had turned, and they were directly fighting side-by-side.
It's worth mentioning that the Bald Butcher clearly misunderstood the identity of Cheng Tian's squad, believing them to be armed reinforcements from Dr. Fessenden.
The Butcher wasn't very familiar with the two strangely shaped but powerful battle vehicles and didn't know how to evaluate them. However, in his impression, the elephant-like creature, which was supposed to be extinct and comparable to a battle vehicle, that charged into the battlefield alongside the vehicles, could only have been bred by Dr. Fessenden's research institute.
However, this misunderstanding didn't last. Cheng Tian directly revealed his identity as an ally when he passed the Butcher.
Upon hearing Cheng Tian's identity, the Butcher still wore a smile that he tried hard to make friendly, but which inevitably appeared incredibly ferocious.
Because no matter what Cheng Tian's identity was, it didn't change the fact that they had saved his group at the most critical moment.
The Bald Butcher wasn't truly brainless; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to establish his own family faction, have so many subordinates who followed him for money, and be valued by the Fessenden Research Institute among numerous large and small poacher organizations, leading to an employment contract. This was a testament to his comprehensive strength.
Of course, words alone are not enough. The hostile status between Cheng Tian and the Butcher's organization had quickly turned to yellow, representing neutrality, as the battle progressed. This meant that while the Butcher's side maintained a certain level of vigilance, they no longer chose to be hostile towards Cheng Tian.
Even though Cheng Tian had killed several of his subordinates earlier, such minor conflicts were no longer on the Butcher's mind.
The Bald Butcher, whose main business was smuggling, was very flexible regarding the spirit of contracts. As long as Cheng Tian consistently possessed a battle vehicle and had no strong conflicts of interest with the Butcher's organization, his yellow neutral reputation would not easily turn red... However, just as the dinosaur crisis was about to be completely resolved, a troublemaker, in a sense, appeared.
It was the protagonist group, who had followed the wild path Cheng Tian had blazed, insisting on driving an old model open-top Cadillac even in the swampy jungle!
"Stop! All of you, stop! Immediately cease your actions of harming innocent dinosaurs!!!"
The car hadn't even come to a complete stop when a curvaceous white woman, with a hairstyle, figure, and attire very characteristic of the Latin American region, leaped out of the passenger seat of the convertible, landing steadily with a foot brake, while screaming at the top of her lungs towards Cheng Tian and the Butcher's location!
Hannah Dundee, adventurer and part-time diplomat, the agile character among the four protagonists of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, skilled in using daggers and short knives.
The chaotic poacher camp was littered with dinosaur corpses. These tragically dead dragon bodies were deeply etched into her pupils... but the equally scattered poacher corpses, lying dead from the dinosaur charge, failed to register in her mind even slightly.
On the other side, upon hearing the words, Cheng Tian couldn't help but get goosebumps because the translation was too heavy. Only when he turned around did he notice the old Cadillac and this woman who always made him wonder, "Why doesn't she get bitten by mosquitoes?"
He got so caught up in killing dinosaurs that he forgot about these dinosaur lovers.
"Damn it! It's these sons of bitches from the Dinosaur Protection Association again! If you're really that bored, why don't you screw each other, instead of screwing with my money-making!"
Every time the Butcher saw Hannah, Jack, and their group, he would get infuriated. With all that energy they spent chasing poachers, wouldn't it be better to go back, drink some alcohol, pop some hallucinogens, and have some fun?
"To still be doing this in the 26th century, it just means they're living too comfortably."
Cheng Mouren, half his body out of the hatch, casually dug his ear while watching the protagonist group cursing.
"Let's just take care of them directly," the Bald Butcher suggested.
"Suit yourself, but I suggest leaving a few alive to attract your employer's attention. I assume you probably don't know what kind of shenanigans your employer is up to, do you?"
"What Fessenden, that balding guy, is up to, what does it have to do with me? As long as he pays, that's all that matters! I don't care about him!"
"What if I told you that this guy wants to conquer the world through genetic research, and you're one of his planned test subjects?"
"...Huh? That balding guy has such lofty ambitions!?"
The Bald Butcher couldn't help but scratch his head with the hilt of his knife, truly unable to understand what dinosaur gene research had to do with conquering the world.
Meanwhile, the main quest player squad, who had bumpy-ridden to the camp following the Cadillac, was looking at everything before them with grave expressions.
Based on their dungeon experience so far, they were likely facing a critical choice that would completely affect the main storyline and faction alignment.