The burly man was thrown aside, but the axe remained embedded in the crocodile's head. The intense pain made its head, still concealed beneath the curtain, thrash violently as it let out a furious roar filled with rage.
Huang Tao shouted, "Don't go to its sides, attack it head-on directly."
A large iron shovel smashed down on the crocodile's head from beside them.
"Clang!"
The shovel impact was loud and resonant.
It struck so hard that the crocodile's head immediately jerked upward.
"Clang!"
The shovel continued its downward swing, this time hitting the axe handle, causing the crocodile to shake its head repeatedly in pain.
Qin Ziwen stepped forward half a step, raised his rod, and thrust straight forward, stabbing the crocodile's skin. The impact sent numbing vibrations through his arm. "Such tough hide. We need heavy weapons to deal with this."
Bearded Brother sneered viciously, "Damn it, no matter how fierce it is, it's still just a beast. When it hurts enough, it'll run."
The crocodile charged toward the other side, and with a tearing sound, its head finally broke through the small hole in the curtain.
It glanced back at the humans, then twisted its clumsy body and began fleeing toward the river direction.
"Stop it!"
A group of people chased after it. In the grassy area, the crocodile couldn't outrun humans.
From the side, two security guards wielding riot forks approached from left and right, pressing them against the crocodile's head.
The crocodile instinctively opened its massive jaws. Qin Ziwen, who had circled around to the front, seized the opportunity and thrust his clothes-drying rod straight into the crocodile's gaping mouth, essentially giving it a deep throat.
Qin Ziwen didn't even know what he had struck inside, but he grabbed the rod and began twisting and churning it.
The crocodile's claws scraped at the muddy ground as it struggled desperately.
Meanwhile, axes, iron rods, and wooden clubs rained down like hailstones around it.
The crocodile's strength gradually diminished.
Finally, it stopped struggling altogether.
Qin Ziwen stared intently at the crocodile, waiting to see if it would "drop" any cards.
Three seconds, four seconds...
Even when someone took an axe and nearly severed the crocodile's head from its neck, no changes occurred.
It seemed this crocodile still didn't meet the criteria for being judged as a powerful life form in the current area.
Over a dozen adult strong men, using curtains to first blind its vision, then taking turns attacking with long weapons, had only managed to kill it on land.
"The crocodile's dead?"
"Incredible!"
The crowd that had been watching from behind gradually approached, with some bold individuals stepping forward to kick the crocodile's corpse with their feet.
Huang Tao produced a tape measure from somewhere and stepped forward to take measurements.
"Five meters and three centimeters long!"
"Whoa, that's quite long."
"Oh my, you guys are amazing. You just killed such a huge crocodile just like that."
The young man who had once worked as a crocodile keeper squatted down, unable to contain his amazement. "A five-meter-long crocodile is rare even in nature. Even zoos rarely raise specimens of this size."
Because he had experience raising crocodiles, he understood even better how terrifying a crocodile of this size could be in the wild.
Qin Ziwen emerged from the surrounding crowd and found the security guard who had been swept away by the crocodile earlier.
He had been dragged by onlookers to sit against the wall in the back. A section of his exposed calf showed an unnatural twist, covered in blood, with white bone fragments protruding from the wound. It appeared his tibia and fibula were broken.
If he could be rushed to a hospital immediately, there might still be hope, but here... he was essentially done for.
The security guard's face was drenched in sweat, his eyes tightly closed, with a large pool of blood accumulating beneath him.
A middle-aged man wearing glasses squatted beside the security guard, carefully observed him, then stood up. "Unless he receives surgery immediately, his chances of survival are very low. He's currently in hemorrhagic shock from arterial blood loss and needs an immediate blood transfusion. We don't have surgical conditions here either. Does he have any family members..."
"Doctor Lin, none of these security guards have their families here."
Doctor Lin shook his head regretfully. "Based on my experience, even if we miraculously save him, the sequelae would be severe, and he has no family to care for him."
An old man nearby commented, "Even Doctor Lin says there's no hope. Ah, this young man is just unlucky."
An elderly woman wearing a floral print thin shirt shook her head. "Doctor Lin is a senior doctor from the city hospital. If even he can't treat him, then it seems there's really no solution."
"Isn't Doctor Lin a chief physician? Even a chief can't save him?"
Doctor Lin's face turned green. I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker.
Give me an emergency room and I could try, but without an emergency room, what can I use to save him?
Huang Tao parted the crowd, came over, squatted down, and gently shook the security guard. "Dou Gu, Dou Gu."
Dou Gu's eyelids fluttered, his lips moved slightly, but ultimately he couldn't respond.
Doctor Lin explained, "Shock isn't the same as sleeping. It's the collapse of the body's circulatory system, with severe ischemia and hypoxia in the brain and vital organs. It's a physiological coma."
Huang Tao hesitated upon hearing this. "Then he... has no hope?"
Doctor Lin sighed softly and didn't answer.
Bearded Brother came over, glanced at Dou Gu in shock, hesitated for a moment, then said, "This brother... what a pity. Let's divide the meat. In this weather, meat won't last long before it spoils."
Huang Tao nodded. "Alright."
Bearded Brother, who had followed behind, extended his hand to Qin Ziwen, his eyes filled with admiration. "You were quite brave back there, buddy, shoving that spear right into the crocodile's mouth. Let's be friends. I'm Zheng Yuan, living in Building 3."
The two shook hands.
"Qin Ziwen, Building 8."
Old Deng came over from the side, laughing heartily. "Brother Qin, that thrust with your rod was spot on earlier. Thanks to you, we got ourselves a five-meter-long big fish. I've never caught one this big in my entire life."
Qin Ziwen modestly replied, "We all worked together to achieve this. I couldn't have dealt with the crocodile alone."
Someone brought over a bathroom scale and a large iron basin from their home.
They spent the entire morning dividing the crocodile meat.
There were many onlookers, and some tried to use moral coercion to get a share of the spoils.
They were immediately rebuked by the hot-tempered Zheng Yuan. "Get the hell out of here! Where were you when we were killing the crocodile? Now you come crawling out when it's time to divide the meat. There are plenty of crocodiles in the river—if you want some, go kill one yourself!"
Zheng Yuan had been cutting meat while standing up and speaking, directly raising the boning knife in his hand, which frightened the person into quickly retreating back into the crowd.
Huang Tao eased the tension. "Brother Zheng, you're quite skilled at cutting meat. What did you do before?"
Zheng Yuan pulled and sliced with his boning knife, cutting off a piece of bright red meat. "I was a pig butcher. The meat yield from this crocodile is really low, probably only half that of a pig."
In the end, Qin Ziwen received eighty jin of meat.
This crocodile yielded a total of six hundred and four jin of meat. There were sixteen people who participated in killing the crocodile. Dou Gu had met with misfortune, and since he had crossed over alone with no family, everyone tacitly agreed to omit his share.
Zheng Yuan was responsible for distributing the meat. Butchering the crocodile was also physically demanding work—this crocodile weighed one to two tons, and ordinary people couldn't handle such labor.
So the extra four jin were considered Zheng Yuan's "service fee."
Qin Ziwen and Qin Ziwu were two brothers, so together they directly received eighty jin.
The heavy meat was packed in bags. The crocodile meat overall was pale in color with some light pink marbling.
He received meat from the tail area, which from a distance looked like a huge piece of chicken breast with coarser fibers.
After receiving their share of meat, not only Qin Ziwen but also Old Deng lost interest in fishing.
Such a large piece of meat would be enough to feed a family for quite a long time.
Old Liu was so envious his eyes turned red. Forty jin! He had only caught a little over two jin of fish after fishing all day yesterday.