The maddened herd of deer are ultimately just flesh and blood.
In the fiery onslaught of metal bullets, there's no room for struggle.
After expending roughly over three hundred bullets, the herd of deer before him all fell, not one remained intact.
Chen Ming immediately halted the torrent of fire, precisely identifying a few deer that still had their last breath.
Then the Machine Gun fired again, sending these few deer to where they belonged.
Chen Ming meticulously checked once more, confirming there was nothing alive within his sight.
He then repaired the Machine Gun, replenished the ammunition, tidied up his gear, and descended from the spaceship with a pistol in hand.
Cautiously approaching the position of the deer herd, Chen Ming glanced at the chaotic scene, a cloud suddenly overshadowing his face once again.
Because in Chen Ming's eyes, the bodies of the deer were already showing signs of decay.
The animals that were just active, in the blink of an eye, rotted away.
Even if you placed meat in the most humid, hottest place, it shouldn't decay this quickly.
Chen Ming furrowed his brows tightly, turned on his terminal, took a picture of a mostly intact corpse, and began searching.
The terminal quickly provided an answer.
"Purple-tailed deer, herbivorous, timid and easily startled..."
Sure enough, just like the group of air jellyfish Chen Ming encountered before, their temperament had almost a 180-degree reversal.
Chen Ming couldn't comprehend what happened to this group of deer, and those air jellyfish.
The image of the first deer he saw emerging earlier suddenly flashed in Chen Ming's mind.
At that time, the deer's eyes were very dull, with saliva continuously dripping from its mouth, appearing very off at first glance.
Now, Chen Ming's gaze was fixed on the carcass of a deer whose skull had been blown open by the Machine Gun.
The decay in its body was manageable, but its brain had essentially turned into a rotten mush.
As if its rotting started from the brain.
This kind of manifestation... Could it be that a brain-infecting disease drove them mad, causing rapid decomposition post-mortem?
The more Chen Ming thought, the more plausible the idea seemed.
Thus, leveraging the Protective Suit he wore, he immediately selected two corpses that were somewhat complete and less decayed, dragging them to the riverbank west of the spaceship.
Then he took out a small knife, directly stabbing it into the abdomen of the purple-tailed deer, slicing vigorously.
The next moment, a large mass of even more rotted organs spilled out from the opened incision.
Chen Ming took a few glances, withstanding the nausea, then extended the knife towards the deer's head.
With the assistance of his pistol, Chen Ming quickly pried open the deer's skull.
As he expected, just as he had seen earlier, this deer—which didn't appear that decayed externally—also had a brain that turned into a mushy rot.
Chen Ming examined it for a few moments, then moved on to another deer.
The results met Chen Ming's expectations; the brain of the other deer had also completely decayed.
Such conditions forced Chen Ming to consider the possibility of something akin to rabies.
Chen Ming feared that he might be dealing with a disease unique to the Planet, spreading among the animals, and he couldn't rule out its potential to infect humans.
His face changed suddenly at this thought, gazing at his left wrist with a tense expression.
Only three lines remained there.
Habitable air environment.
No lethal gases.
No pathogenic microorganisms.
Chen Ming's expression relaxed slightly; fortunately, this suspected virus wasn't air-transmittable.
But he didn't dare eat these deer, nor even process them like he did with the insects' corpses. He had to find a way to dispose of them.
Otherwise, leaving these decaying bodies for days would render the spaceship's vicinity untenable.
Yet, Chen Ming hadn't thought of a good method to dispose of these deer corpses.
If he were to dig a pit deep enough to bury all the bodies, not only would he need the right tools, but it'd also take several days of hard work.
But Chen Ming didn't have that much time to spare for this task now.
After pondering for a moment, Chen Ming simply dragged the deer carcasses, along the river, to where he found the slime orange fruits before, disposing of them there.
Ditching them here was better than letting them rot beside the spaceship.
For the rest of the day, Chen Ming could only shuttle between the spaceship and this spot.
Even without digging a pit, handling the corpses took Chen Ming quite some time.
It wasn't until noon that Chen Ming finally disposed of the last deer body into the woods.
The plans for today were utterly disrupted, and tracking the animals' footprints would definitely not be possible in time.
Might as well go back to reinforce the fence, set some traps, ensuring his basics wouldn't be meddled with by creatures sneaking in at night to steal food.
Chen Ming sighed.
He patted his hands, knocking off the dried, dirty blood chunks on his Protective Suit.
Returning near the spaceship, he picked up the bucket he used to water his fields, heading back to the river once more.
He cleaned himself and his blood-stained knife thoroughly.
Chen Ming was very cautious not to let any of the dirty water flow into the river directly,
yet he knew that this was only temporary, and the blood-tainted water seeping into the soil would eventually seep into the river too.
He could only hope the soil's filtration could remove the impurities contained in the blood.
Once the Protective Suit was clean, Chen Ming returned to the spaceship.
He took out a kind of antiseptic herb he had collected earlier, spraying himself, the Protective Suit, and the interior with its juice.
After finishing this last task related to cleaning up after those crazed deer, Chen Ming, unable to endure the high-intensity physical activity, collapsed onto the bed.
Reaching for the terminal, he documented the recent events in the log.
He learned this from a doctor; perhaps someday, if he forgets something, he could rely on the logs on the terminal to recall it.
After having lunch and resting, Chen Ming spent the afternoon reinforcing fences and crafting traps.
By nightfall, Chen Ming noticed a distinct decrease in the number of animals spying on his spaceship.
They were likely scared off by the scent of blood and the gunfire during the day.
The remaining animals observing Chen Ming mostly displayed no aggressiveness, and would even flee at the slightest disturbance.
They appeared perfectly normal and remained the best source of hunted meat for Chen Ming.
However, Chen Ming clearly understood one thing at this moment.
Though these animals seemed normal, who could guarantee they weren't infected with the virus, or that the virus had no incubation period?
Unless Chen Ming could successfully hunt them and witness their corpses remain intact post-mortem,
there was fundamentally no way to confirm this issue.