HLM – Chapter 1032 The Super Big Bird

When McGee entered the office, he ran into Hani at the door. The latter waved and gave him a friendly smile. “Hey buddy, you’re late.”

McGee, about to respond, suddenly froze.

He had barely sat down when a young man came over and placed a box of flyers in front of him. “Mr. McGee, I’m not doing this job anymore.”

This young man had been hired to distribute election flyers, and McGee had been very satisfied with the design. The main image featured Prime Minister Lawrence and her team of advisors. Among them, McGee had even photoshopped his own face, making it easy for people to mistakenly think he was an important member of the National Party.

These classic flyers couldn’t be distributed, and McGee was anxious. “Why don’t you want to do it, buddy? If you think I paid you too little, that’s a bit unreasonable. You’re making a good income.”

The young man waved his hand. “Forget it. You should find someone else. I just can’t do this job.”

Although he didn’t say why, McGee knew for sure that someone from Sunset Town must have threatened the young man.

“This is downright fascist authoritarianism!” McGee slammed his hand on the table. Interestingly, his tone wasn’t angry but rather envious.

Just then, someone pushed the door open. McGee quickly regained his usual elegant demeanor.

It was Ralph, who saw the flyers on the table and said, “The images are really well done. If these get released, they’d definitely help Prime Minister Lawrence pull in quite a few votes.”

McGee sighed. “I agree, but unfortunately, due to some damned reasons, these flyers can’t be distributed.”

“How come?”

“You know the reason. Damn it, nobody wants to do things for us. I hired some people to distribute the flyers, and they refused after a short while.”

Ralph said, “Alright, I get it. How about we do it ourselves? I don’t believe anyone can even take away our freedom to distribute flyers!”

McGee looked at him in surprise. “Distribute the flyers ourselves? That’s impossible—we have to work!”

“There’s plenty of time—before work, after work, even at lunch,” Ralph said. “Let’s just do it ourselves.”

McGee didn’t want to do it. He was an ambitious rising star in politics, with a bright future. If he had to personally hand out flyers, what future would he have left?

The other two also refused, saying that work was already exhausting, and adding more would be too stressful.

Ralph didn’t mind. He took the flyers and said, “Then I’ll do it. I have less work. I should help Boss McGee out.”

“You called me what?” McGee asked.

“Boss McGee! Aren’t you our boss?”

Hearing this, McGee’s face lit up with a broad smile. “Yes, yes, I like that title—perfect.”

Over the next few days, McGee became much closer to Ralph. He didn’t have many people he could rely on, and Ralph was diligent, polite, and capable, making him highly valued.

Wang Bo also liked Ralph. On weekends, when he trained Little Meng, he brought Ralph along to familiarize him with Sunset Town.

Little Meng came to the small grove at the Heart of the Nest every day to practice hunting skills and to bully the kea parrots—its favorite activity.

The weather on Saturday was still bad, even with a hint of snow, and a few snowflakes occasionally fell. So Wang Bo planned to train Little Meng for a short while before returning.

They had just reached the grove when they saw the kea parrots gathered at the edge of the trees.

Wang Bo released Little Meng. The young raptor floated leisurely in the air for a while, rising to mid-air, and then suddenly shot down like a missile with a loud boom!

Its target was the kea flock. But as it swooped down, the parrots didn’t panic and scatter like before; instead, they surrounded it.

Little Meng was startled—a hundred or so large birds charging at it looked pretty intimidating.

Not one to act recklessly, Little Meng quickly climbed to the treetops and stabilized itself, glaring fiercely at the flock, preparing to take out a lead bird first.

It thought the kea had teamed up to cause trouble—an act of rebellion! As a star predator, it was extremely displeased and felt it had to use force to subdue these idiots.

However, the parrots didn’t fly up to attack. They stayed on the ground looking pitiful, and those that flew only landed on branches lower than Little Meng, still looking helpless.

Little Meng didn’t notice this, but Wang Bo did. Seeing that Little Meng was about to strike again, he waved and called it back.

At the same time, he opened the sandbox to check the grove.

As his controlled area expanded, Wang Bo rarely paid attention to the sandbox, only occasionally checking when drawing rewards. He had recently drawn a Heart of Residence and a Level 2 Restaurant Heart, both placed in town.

Spotting the grove, he noticed some large birds inside.

These were real big birds, with long necks. Some held their heads high, even taller than Wang Bo himself. They had gray feathers, no wings, and two long legs—birds he had never seen before.

Just then, the kea’s cries drew a few of these large birds out, allowing everyone to see them clearly.

Wang Bo was shocked. “Ostriches? There are ostriches in New Zealand?!”

Juan shook his head. “Not ostriches. I’ve raised ostriches before. These should be emus from New Zealand.”

Ralph confirmed, “Yes, these are emus, not ostriches. There are significant differences. Look, these birds barely have wings. Ostriches can’t fly either, but they have large wings. And look at their feet—ostriches have two toes, emus have three. The biggest difference is ostriches look more handsome.”

Wang Bo recalled the ostriches he had seen on TV. “You’re kidding—handsome?”

But upon examining the emus’ appearance more carefully, he said nothing.

Emus indeed looked very similar to ostriches. They were huge—Wang Bo estimated the largest could weigh over 100 pounds.

These large birds originated in Australia but were easy to breed, rarely got sick, and were good at finding food, giving them strong survival abilities in the wild.

Wang Bo hadn’t seen many emus because New Zealand didn’t allow them to survive in the wild, fearing they might proliferate uncontrollably.

Seeing them in the forest, Ralph was surprised. “Emus and ostriches don’t just look alike—their habits are similar too. From what I know, they prefer grasslands and deserts, so I didn’t expect to see so many in forested hilly areas.”