Chapter 98: Oh, So You Think You Can Steal My Kill?
At the very end of the dossier Yves had provided, a final note was appended.
[Mutants of F-rank and below possess energy crystals. Mutants of E-rank and above possess Beast/Plant Cores.]
[Core Color Reference: E-rank: Blue-Green; D-rank: Blue; C-rank: Blue-Purple; B-rank: Purple; A-rank: Purplish-Crimson]
Ling Jing had seen the blue-purple and purple ones before.
When she traded them at the Farm Supermarket, they indeed corresponded to C-rank and B-rank respectively.
The higher the rank, the greater the payout.
Excellent. This dossier even cataloged the threat level of every listed mutant.
She could harvest a tidy sum of Beast and Plant Cores while doing her grocery run.
Worrying that a single storage box wouldn’t be enough, Ling Jing purchased another [Unremarkable Storage Box] from the system.
She secured both crates onto the bed of her electric tricycle and hung up her lantern.
A full thermos of water—packed.
A bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts for a midnight snack and casual munching—packed.
She spent a few points on a system compass for pinpoint navigation.
That would speed up her ingredient hunt considerably.
Alright, fully prepped.
Rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck, Ling Jing hopped onto the saddle.
“Go get ’em, Boss!”
Turning her head, she saw Caicai waving its mechanical arms enthusiastically from the restaurant entrance: ヾ(°°)?
Ling Jing cracked a smile.
Truly worthy of the title “Fully Automated Service Robot.” The emotional support was maxed out.
She waved back at Caicai, twisted the throttle on the handlebars, and peeled out into the night.
Heading straight for the nearest ingredient listed in the dossier.
Ling Jing’s first target was the Mutated Perilla Monster.
The coordinates in the dossier were pegged from the city gates. Calculated from the Chinese Restaurant, that meant roughly six or seven kilometers west, then three or four kilometers north.
As she drove toward the destination, a sliver of doubt crossed her mind. What if the mutants listed in the dossier didn’t stay put?
These mutated flora and fauna weren’t statues; they roamed and hunted.
Moreover, Yves had explicitly warned her that the data wasn’t real-time, relying on patrol logs from days prior.
As it turned out, Ling Jing had worried for nothing.
—Rumbling through the pitch-black wilderness on an electric tricycle, radiating light and noise, she was practically a rolling dinner bell for the local mutants.
The immediate vicinity of the Chinese Restaurant was relatively calm, but a few kilometers out, the shadows sprang to life.
One after another, horrors hurled themselves at her protective sphere of white light.
Mutated wild blooms, a monstrous bracken fern, and an unidentified blighted sapling.
By the time she neared the Perilla Monster’s coordinates, she didn’t even have to search. A man-sized F-rank Mutated Perilla came charging aggressively toward her, whipping its broad leaves in a frenzy.
The perilla leaves were neatly deposited into her storage box without a hitch.
Too easy.
Along the way, Ling Jing casually ran over two other mutants locked in a vicious turf war.
She hadn’t even caught a clear look at what they were before flattening them.
Checking the storage box, she realized it had been a mutated potato brawling with a mutated radish.
She had plenty of both, but who in their right mind would turn down free ingredients?
Whoa, both plants were E-rank.
Two E-rank Plant Cores chimed into her system inventory.
Combined, that was 50 Flora Tokens.
Not bad at all. Every little bit counts.
Onward to the next target!
Driving north, she was out to secure some bird’s eye chilies.
A mutated conifer shaking its branches to block the road? Cleared like a speed bump.
A mutated Manchurian walnut fused with a silver birch, sprouting deep crimson berries from massive green spores? No idea what that was.
Curiosity piqued, she slammed the trike into it just to see.
Oh, nice, the crimson berries were actually wild jujubes.
Three mutant plants fused into one had graciously donated a D-rank Plant Core to Boss Ling’s coffers.
A mutated termite mushroom? Mine now, thank you.
Whoa! A swarm of mutated bees! And they were actively fleeing from her, which meant their rank had to be high.
Ling Jing whipped the trike around, chased the swarm down across the plains, and proudly secured a C-rank Beast Core along with several jars’ worth of wild honey.
Backtrack, backtrack, she still needed those bird’s eye chilies.
Successfully running over the Mutated Little Red Pepper Monster, Ling Jing ticked off a box on the dossier in her hand.
Excellent. A clean haul of one hundred and ten catties of bird’s eye chilies.
Next target: the Mutated Broad Bean and Wheat Chimera, further north and slightly east.
Checking her compass bearing, Ling Jing revved the throttle and continued her warpath.
Once she bagged the broad beans, she would pivot east.
The dossier noted a D-rank Mutated Hu Sheep and Winterberry Chimera in that sector.
Along with two E-rank Black Goats—one further north, the other slightly south, both deep in the eastern expanse.
Sheep meat was milder, perfect for tossing into Malatang skewers, braising red-cooked mutton, or brewing rich offal soups.
Goat meat carried a heavier, gamier punch with firmer texture, making it ideal for robust dishes like roasted ribs or sour broth hotpots.
Cruising on her electric trike, Ling Jing was already mentally mapping out recipes for her soon-to-be-acquired ingredients.
The dossier stated the southern sector was swallowed by swampland, barricaded by high walls that cut it off entirely from the eastern and western wastes.
She didn’t know how far those walls stretched, but an electric tricycle certainly couldn’t ford a swamp.
That meant circling around the south back to the restaurant was out of the question.
Once she secured the mutton, she’d have to double back and loop around from the north.
Ling Jing cranked the throttle to the max. Time to pick up the pace.
She had a restaurant to run tomorrow; she couldn’t afford to stay out hunting all night.
What’s this? BAM—a quick detour to run it over.
Ah, a mutated jujube tree.
What’s this? BAM—a quick detour to run it over.
Ah, a mutated chestnut tree.
What’s this? BAM—a quick detour to run it over.
Ah, mutated winterberry.
Just like that, Ling Jing carved her way into the northeastern sector.
The terrain here was noticeably flatter. Through the gloom, the jagged silhouettes of massive structures loomed in the distance.
This had to be the urban ruins mentioned in the dossier.
Judging by the distance, Ling Jing figured she was closing in on the Broad Bean and Wheat Chimera.
It shouldn’t be deep inside the city.
Ah, there it is.
Following her bearing, Ling Jing spotted a mutated monstrosity speckled with yellow dots.
It looked remarkably similar to the mutated rice stalk from before. This had to be the mutated wheat.
And it was massive.
Drop a huge yield for me!
Gripping the handlebars tight, Ling Jing drove the trike straight over the mutant.
Broad beans and wheat secured.
Let’s see the haul… Ling Jing checked the storage box.
Two hundred and sixty catties of broad beans, and just over a hundred catties of wheat.
Plus six bags of wheat seeds and an E-rank Plant Core.
Not bad.
Just as she was reviewing her inventory, a sudden rustle broke the silence.
A shadow darted past, just beyond the edge of the white light.
A massive… rabbit?
Ling Jing didn’t catch a clear look.
But the mere fact that it fled instead of mindlessly charging the white light proved its rank was high.
C-rank or above, without a doubt.
This was a rule of thumb Ling Jing had deduced while cross-referencing her kills with the dossier tonight.
E, F, and D-rank mutants blindly hurled themselves at the white light and any humans inside it.
No chasing required.
But the C-ranks she encountered—along with that one B-rank from before—fled like their lives depended on it, as if they possessed the instinct to sense the lethal threat radiating from the white light.
For this suspected rabbit mutant to bolt that fast, its rank had to be stellar!
Having stumbled right into it, how could she let a high-tier Beast Core slip through her fingers?
That was at least 100 Fauna Tokens!
Ling Jing cranked the throttle, tearing after the mutant rabbit straight toward the urban ruins.
The rabbit was remarkably fast, but the electric tricycle was no slouch either.
Throttle pinned.
“Beep, beep. High speed detected. You are currently exceeding the speed limit.”
Ling Jing pretended she didn’t hear it.
She drove the trike onto the cracked asphalt of a highway skirting the dead city, flanked by low-slung buildings smothered in green overgrowth.
Closer. She was practically breathing down the fleeing rabbit’s neck.
The electric trike tore across the pavement like a bolt of lightning. Just as the mutant rabbit was about to be swallowed by the lethal white light projecting from the vehicle…
Swish—!
The mutant rabbit stepped onto a thick green vine, which instantly whipped around it with a violent snap and dragged it screaming into the dark.
Ling Jing: “?”
Oh, so you think you can steal my kill?
