345: Chapter 357 Octopus Farm!

An Ke's expression was reflected in the black eyes of the Giant Octopus.

He looked like a tiny Two-legged Beast, but his entire body exuded a terrifying aura.

This aura was indescribable and inexplicable; the Giant Octopus didn't know why it felt afraid, but its body couldn't help but tremble slightly.

Clearly, the opponent was just a small Two-legged Beast.

He wasn't even enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.

Why was it afraid?

If an octopus could sweat, this Giant Octopus would certainly be drenched in it.

It could clearly feel that An Ke wasn't lying; this truly was An Ke's final ultimatum.

If it didn't agree now, it wouldn't have another chance to negotiate.

It would live like livestock, just as An Ke had said.

A devil! This guy is simply a devil.

A tiny Two-legged Beast with such a ruthless heart—doesn't your conscience ever hurt?

The Giant Octopus chose to follow its heart.

It spoke in a deep voice, "If I agree to your demands, how much food will I get each week?"

If it was a lot, the Giant Octopus might find it acceptable.

Anyway, it could only starve here.

It would be better to trade its body for food and eat its fill.

"Heh!"

An Ke chuckled lightly. "Sorry! I've already lost all my patience."

"You are no longer in a position to set conditions. Your only options are to agree or not agree."

The Giant Octopus was starting to lose its composure, and its tone changed noticeably.

Gone was the arrogance of believing it was at the top of the food chain. "If there's not enough food, I won't have the energy to regrow my tentacles."

An Ke watched the Giant Octopus silently, not giving an answer.

He intended to keep this Giant Octopus and establish an "octopus meat farm."

Therefore, he had to make the creature fear him and be in awe of him.

That way, it wouldn't cause trouble in the future.

After all, it wouldn't always be him or Little Scar coming to harvest the octopus tentacles.

It could be the savages, or perhaps other animals.

What if the octopus got hostile or suddenly attacked someone?

So, he had to extinguish its flame of arrogance first, making it think twice before it ever considered making trouble.

The Giant Octopus saw that An Ke wasn't answering.

He was too overbearing!

And too decisive in his actions.

The Giant Octopus knew that as a prisoner, it no longer had the right to negotiate.

How much food it got each week depended entirely on the other's mood.

When had it ever lived so pathetically?

But now it had no choice. Either agree and keep some semblance of freedom,

Or refuse and be imprisoned.

The pride of being an apex predator made the Giant Octopus want to refuse with backbone.

But in the end, its backbone was suppressed by rationality.

After finally sighing in its heart, the Giant Octopus agreed:

"I agree..."

"Very good! Congratulations on making the most accurate choice."

An Ke grinned.

With this, the first farm was established.

He said straightforwardly, "Three Hairs, Little Scar, you two coordinate and cut off all eight of this Giant Octopus's tentacles."

"All eight?!"

Hearing this, the Giant Octopus... no! The entire fish felt terrible.

If all eight tentacles were gone, wouldn't it become a "vegetable octopus"?

If that were the case, what would be the point of its fishy life?

It wanted to speak up firmly and refuse adamantly, but when the words reached its mouth, they came out in a pleading, negotiating tone:

"K-King..." The Giant Octopus copied Little Scar's way of addressing An Ke.

"Could you leave me one tentacle?

That way, I can at least move in the water, turn around, and scratch an itch. Otherwise, what's the point of me being alive?"

Pausing, the Giant Octopus added, "Or even half a tentacle would do!"

"At least let me feel like I'm alive, King..."

Meanwhile, within the team.

The Husky already admired An Ke to no end and was also very envious.

It could clearly feel earlier that the Giant Octopus hadn't softened.

And the opponent had the kind of personality that preferred death over surrender.

But when facing An Ke, it was completely intimidated by An Ke's presence. Its pride was crushed, and it chose to compromise.

Isn't this exactly what it had always wanted?

No need to lift a finger—just standing there, relying solely on presence to intimidate an opponent.

Lord An Ke truly is a true god!

I must work even harder to learn from him in the future.

The Husky swore to study seriously. When it succeeded, it would only need to appear, stand there with its back turned, and with just a few words, make an opponent fear it or even tremble in terror.

On the other side, Aman didn't quite understand.

"Boss, why keep it?"

"Could it be that it's a hermaphrodite and can reproduce on its own?"

Aman voiced the confusion of many of the animals.

They didn't understand why An Ke wanted to keep the Giant Octopus.

It was indeed huge, but no matter how big, there would come a day when it was all eaten.

Keeping it seemed pointless; it would be better to just eat it directly.

That way, they wouldn't even have to provide food for the Giant Octopus.

An Ke smiled faintly. "Octopuses are very special creatures."

"After their tentacles are severed, they can regenerate."

"They can regenerate tentacles?!" Xiao Mei was surprised.

"An octopus has that kind of ability?"

The animals were all incredibly surprised, finding this ability of the Giant Octopus novel.

None of the animals or savages present were capable of regeneration.

Once a limb was lost, that life was basically declared over.

"Master, can This Muscle Man gouge out that Giant Octopus's eyeballs to eat?" King Kong tilted his head and asked.

"This Muscle Man has taken a liking to its eyeballs."

"Are you crazy?! Whose eyeballs can regenerate?"

The Giant Octopus over there had been paying attention to An Ke's group, and upon hearing this, it immediately began cursing.

If An Ke and the others really wanted to gouge out its eyes, it swore it would fight back with everything it had.

Even if it meant dying, so be it.

What was the point of living as a blind octopus?

An Ke was also speechless at King Kong; this guy was truly an oddball.

Who eats an octopus by eating its eyes?

"King Kong, how long has it been since I last beat you?" An Ke suddenly asked.

He asked because King Kong had started calling himself This Muscle Man in front of him again lately.

It seemed it had been a long time since he'd given King Kong a thrashing.

While everyone was chatting and the atmosphere was lively,

Aman kept staring at the Giant Octopus, its eyes full of envy.

If only it could be like the octopus and have regenerative abilities.

That way, would it ever have to worry about running out of giant python meat?

When it wanted to eat, it could just have the Boss cut off a piece of its own body, and charcoal grilling would solve everything perfectly.

What an enviable ability.

Meanwhile, on the Giant Octopus's side.

Little Scar and Three Hairs were in position.

He picked up the tiny Three Hairs and prepared to cut the Giant Octopus's tentacles.

The Giant Octopus stared blankly at the scene. "Wait... why does this feel so wrong?"

"You want to use a Hamster to cut my tentacles?"

"Are you serious?"

...

While King Kong was being questioned by An Ke until his fur stood on end and was hurriedly flattering him, pretending to be a pigeon,

Little Scar held Three Hairs, intending to cut off the Giant Octopus's tentacles.

The giant-sized Little Scar felt he couldn't quite apply the right force; Three Hairs was simply too small.

Held in his hand like a grape, it was really hard to cut with.

So Little Scar simply returned to his original size.

Animals with bestowed attributes didn't need to master them; they could use their obtained attributes skillfully.

It was as if it were second nature.

King Kong and Three Hairs were like this, and naturally, Little Scar was too.

Above the Moon, inside the Control Room.

No. 1379 and the Mysterious figure in the long robe watched Little Scar change back to his original size, their expressions noncommittal.

Why was a cosmic-level supercomputer unable to detect An Ke's abnormality?

Clearly, these cheats were so obvious...

What secret did An Ke really have?

...

"Hey, hey..."

The Giant Octopus's expression was subtle. "Don't tell me you plan to have this mouse bite off my tentacles bit by bit?"

Is there no sharp and slightly larger knife?

"No need to bite," Little Scar replied while starting to work.

After he spoke, the Giant Octopus saw a shocking scene.

The Hamster's fur stood up one by one, and when it cut into the tentacles, it actually sliced through instantly.

One must know that its tentacles were very strong; ordinary weapons would find it hard to cause much damage to them.

But this Hamster's fur could cut through easily.

No! That wasn't the point.

The point was, how could fur do any cutting? Shouldn't fur be soft?

The Giant Octopus couldn't understand, but it was deeply shocked.

It felt that none of the animals in An Ke's group were normal.

A monkey that could grow and shrink, a mouse with rock-hard fur... and a Two-legged Beast with unfathomable strength.

Just how many more oddities were in this team?

Forget it, forget it!

The Giant Octopus decided to stop thinking about it. As long as there was food later, it would be fine.

Although cutting the tentacles was painful, the proud Giant Octopus didn't make a sound.

As long as it didn't die, it wasn't a big problem.

Watching the tentacles being cut off one by one by Little Scar, the Giant Octopus couldn't help but remind them, "Remember to leave me one tentacle."

"I know, I know!"

Little Scar replied without even looking up.

"Since the Master said to leave you one, we Little Mice will naturally leave you one.

What are you shouting for? Do you not trust us Little Mice?"

The mouth beneath the Giant Octopus's belly twitched, and it simply stopped talking.

Since all the creatures obeyed An Ke, it shouldn't be a big problem.

There was nothing to worry about.

However, ten minutes later, a roar of extreme anger erupted from the Giant Octopus.

"God damn it!! Look at what you've done!"

The sound was deafening, attracting everyone's attention.

An Ke, who was currently "disciplining" King Kong, immediately looked back and asked with a frown:

"What happened?"

"King, come over and settle this for me," the Giant Octopus said angrily.

"You said to leave me one tentacle, and I kept reminding them just now.

"And then, and then..."

The Giant Octopus was so angry it couldn't even speak.

Its head expanded and contracted, as if its chest were heaving.

An Ke raised an eyebrow and looked at Little Scar and Three Hairs. "You didn't leave it a tentacle?"

Little Scar gave a dry laugh and scratched the back of his head.

Three Hairs said with conviction, "Master, Master, we Little Mice did leave it one~~"

The Giant Octopus gnashed its teeth. "Right! You left it!

You left a roasted tentacle! What use is that?"

An Ke's expression suddenly became subtle.

Just now during the battle, two of the Giant Octopus's tentacles had been scorched by Little Scar.

Although they weren't completely burned away, they were basically useless.

The tentacle Little Scar and Three Hairs had left was now essentially non-functional.

"King, you settle this," the Giant Octopus said crossly.

An Ke coughed dryly and put on a stern face. "Little Scar, Three Hairs, can't you be a bit more serious about your work?"

"Since I promised them, we have to follow through.

Now doesn't it look like I've broken my word?"

Little Scar and Three Hairs lowered their heads, indicating to An Ke that they knew they were wrong.

An Ke turned back to the Giant Octopus.

"This time, consider all the tentacles as given to us. I'll give you a month to rest and recover properly."

"I'll also give you some extra food as compensation. Is that okay?"

The Giant Octopus nodded. "Fine."

What else could it do if it wasn't fine?

It had no other choice. It couldn't exactly eat them, could it?

Or chop off their limbs in return?

The Giant Octopus believed that as soon as it made such a request, An Ke would certainly flip out.

This human's face could change in an instant.

Now that the other party was willing to compensate, it was good enough.

An Ke grinned, smiling brightly. "Brother Octopus is generous!"

"Come, this is the food I've prepared for you for this week."

An Ke took out cooked beef from his Portable Space, the amount roughly equal to two cows.

In fact, the reason An Ke was willing to go to such lengths to keep this Giant Octopus,

Besides his love for grilled octopus, was to keep it here as a guard.

An Ke planned to build a hydroelectric power station here to supply power to the Camp.

With the Giant Octopus here, who would dare come in to sabotage it?

Even if there were many other National Destiny Bearers, they would all be mere snacks in front of the Giant Octopus.

Unless the opponent had obtained a black technology core in the new map of the second stage.

Otherwise, no one could set foot in the Underground Lake.

"This meat has been roasted?" the Giant Octopus asked.

An Ke nodded.

"Can roasted meat be tasty?" The Giant Octopus frowned, clearly not very fond of cooked food.

"Give it a try. If you don't like it, I'll give you raw food in the future."

An Ke didn't have much raw food left in his hands.

This was also why he was so eager to establish farms and ranches.

As the team grew larger and larger, hunting and gathering could no longer satisfy their needs.

The Giant Octopus felt helpless but still nodded, indicating it would try it first.

"By the way! King, what about the extra food compensation?"

The Giant Octopus hadn't eaten for a long time, and it had an intense craving for food.

It planned to eat its fill all at once.

However, An Ke's answer made the Giant Octopus almost lose it.

The extra compensated food was actually its own roasted tentacles.

Good grief! What kind of compensation is that?

Using its own meat to compensate it??

Is that reasonable?

But An Ke's following explanation left the Giant Octopus with nothing to say.

It even felt it was quite reasonable.

Both sides had reached a cooperation, and now the ownership of its tentacles actually belonged to An Ke.

In that case, wasn't it perfectly reasonable for An Ke to use the tentacles as compensation?

But the Giant Octopus still felt like it had been completely scammed.

Ah well! That's what happens when you're not as strong as the other guy.

The Giant Octopus accepted reality.

Then, with Little Scar's help, it began to eat the cooked beef.

As for An Ke, he began working on diverting water to the Camp.

Speaking of which, with the Underground Lake in the south and the Camp in the north, did this count as South-to-North Water Diversion?

...