Chapter 1157 - 5: Dung Beetle

While people outside the arena were all talking about Hua Yun’s behavior.

In the northern part of the Fourth Oasis, as soon as Yoshikawa Feng hit the ground, he shouldered his supplies and quickly headed toward the helicopter’s next landing point.

He didn’t dare head to the oasis alone, especially with Hua Yun having already landed first.

If Hua Yun was lying in ambush in the oasis, charging in recklessly would be a straight road to death!

Of course, "death" here meant being eliminated.

So right after Hua Yun got off the helicopter, the four of them immediately discussed a countermeasure: while Hua Yun was busy setting up an ambush in the oasis, they would first regroup.

They’d pair up two by two, then once all four had gathered, they’d move toward the oasis together.

This would waste a lot of time, but there was no better option.

Yoshikawa Feng walked among the dunes for about ten minutes before he finally saw a figure ahead—it was Nelson, the second person to get off the helicopter.

The moment the two saw each other, they immediately waved in signal.

After linking up, they both let out a breath and their expressions relaxed a lot.

"Have you seen the others?"

Yoshikawa Feng asked.

Nelson nodded and pointed to the west side of the oasis: "Over there. Let’s follow the plan and go meet up on the west side first."

"Yeah. Stay sharp."

Yoshikawa Feng drew his bow and arrow, glanced at the rolling dunes around them, and said, "That guy might also just come straight out to hunt us. He’s got the confidence and the ability to do that."

Nelson nodded and likewise took out his own weapon—a set of javelins.

Nelson’s javelins were similar to Hua Yun’s spear, but shorter, and the material wasn’t as solid as Hua Yun’s, so he carried a set of five.

With weapons in hand, the two of them advanced cautiously, heading off to look for Darren and Musa.

Little did they know, Hua Yun had already moved far away from the oasis and gone deep into the desert.

...

In the desert.

Hua Yun stood under the blazing sun, surrounded by desert heat of over thirty degrees Celsius, and the sand under his feet was getting hotter and hotter, probably in the high twenties or low thirties by now.

But he didn’t have a single bead of sweat on him, and his mental state wasn’t the least bit dulled by the heat.

On the contrary, he felt fresh and relaxed, as if he were out on a casual outing.

[Tenacity] and [Cactus Quality] were in full effect. These two sun-protection and cooling entries made it feel as if Hua Yun were in an air-conditioned room, completely unaffected by the desert heat.

These two entries were really something.

Hua Yun walked as he thought.

Just as he was getting a little distracted, something dark on the ground ahead caught his attention.

He quickened his pace, squatted down, and carefully examined the dark little balls on the ground.

"Oh, dung beetles."

Hua Yun used the butt of his spear to nudge one of the round balls piled on the dune, a flash of surprise in his eyes.

Dung beetles, the scientific name should be Scarabaeus, also known as scarab beetles.

They’re a type of insect found all over the landmasses of the Earth, except Antarctica and the oceans.

There are over twenty thousand species, and quite a few of them can survive in deserts.

There are many species of dung beetles in the Sahara. When Hua Yun was looking up information, he’d come across two of the most common ones.

One is called the desert scarab, and the other is the black dung beetle.

These two are among the more common local species.

Dung beetles are called dung beetles because their lives revolve around dung—that is, the feces of other animals.

They eat dung, lay eggs and rear their young in dung, and their homes are piled with dung balls. You could say their entire lives are inseparable from dung.

It sounds pretty disgusting.

In many animated works and folktales, dung beetles often appear in a negative light.

Egypt is an exception. In ancient Egypt, these little guys were called sacred beetles and were even regarded as symbols of the sun god.

Setting culture aside for the moment.

In reality, dung beetles are considered a major beneficial insect in the biological world, and for a Survivor, their presence often means there are wild animals active nearby.

These guys live off dung, and the easiest place to find them is in the droppings of mammals, especially herbivores.

So finding dung beetles usually means there’s a high chance that herbivores are living in the area.

Hua Yun glanced at the dung balls on the ground and made his own judgment: "These should be camel droppings. The dung beetles here got hold of camel dung, rolled it into balls, and piled them here."

After examining the dung balls, Hua Yun looked around at the surroundings.

There was a large dune to his east.

"Dung beetles don’t push dung very far. That means there’s a good chance there are camels living on the other side of that dune, and when they head to the Fourth Oasis to feed and drink, they drop dung along the way."

Hua Yun reasoned this out, and the decision in his mind was already made.

He planned to go see if there were camels on the other side of the dune.

If there were camels, all the better; if not, he at least had a guaranteed entry now.

Hua Yun looked around the dung balls.

He had already spotted a dung beetle, or to be precise, a dung beetle larva.

This larva was plump and pale, looking a bit like a beetle grub. It had grown to its current size inside the dung ball and was close to pupating.

But because of Hua Yun’s interference, the dung ball it was hiding in had been cracked open by his spear, and the larva had fallen out.

The larva was now struggling in panic, a little scared of the world outside the dung ball.

Hua Yun looked at the larva, feeling a bit torn.

There was no denying that dung beetle larvae are an excellent source of protein and could also give Hua Yun a very strong entry.

Insects generally provide pretty good entries.

But this little thing had just come out of a dung ball and had been feeding on dung, which made it hard for Hua Yun to bring himself to do it.

After all, Hua Yun felt that he now had some standing.

And he didn’t exactly want to end up getting a camel entry, or some kind of plant entry, right as he was eating these things.

Then he thought it over again: status is worth crap!

Can you eat it?

Can it make you money?

Can it drop entries?

Three questions in a row, and Hua Yun successfully convinced himself that status was useless.

And even if he did end up getting some other entry from eating it, that’d be killing two birds with one stone!

So after talking himself into it, Hua Yun immediately stowed the dung beetle larva away.

Not only that, he used his spear to crack open the remaining dung balls one by one, and found two more dung beetle larvae inside.

These larvae were also close to pupation. Each one had stored up a lot of energy, pale and tender, chubby and fat, and actually looked kind of appetizing.

Provided the person being tempted didn’t know what they were.

Hua Yun put the three dung beetle larvae into his backpack, rinsed his hands with sand, and walked toward the dune as if nothing had happened.

...

"Savage!"

Watching Hua Yun’s actions, Chen Wen couldn’t help saying, "I thought he wouldn’t go after dung beetles."

Hearing this, Xu Qiang and Liu Yu both gave Chen Wen a surprised look.

Liu Yu said calmly, "If you joined Heat Extreme Challenge, your first meal would probably also be dung beetle larvae. These things are the best food in the early stages of survival."