Chapter 109: Breaking Up Fights Left and Right
It was perfectly normal for a few mutant creatures to differ in grade from the intelligence reports.
The dossier wasn’t updated in real time.
Mutated plants and animals weren’t static fixtures, so changes were only natural.
However, when a full third of the ingredients she ran into failed to match the records, things started to feel a bit strange.
Ling Jing squeezed the brakes out in the northeast, bringing the electric tricycle to a halt.
She checked the plant core she had just acquired.
The dossier clearly marked it as a D-rank mutated goji berry monster. Yet when she drove over, the mutant goji tree—its boughs laden with red dots—uprooted itself and bolted the second it caught sight of the white light.
Clearly, it had already broken through to C-rank.
Fortunately, it wasn’t fast enough. With a twist of the throttle, Ling Jing swept the massive, fused double-trunk goji monstrosity cleanly into her storage box.
Sure enough, it yielded a C-rank plant core.
Another mismatch with the intelligence file.
Ling Jing hadn’t kept exact count of how many mutants she had flattened along the way.
There were simply too many to track.
Aside from those marked in the dossier, countless others threw themselves directly into her path.
She deliberately took a different route every time she went out foraging.
Tonight, the wild ingredients were throwing themselves at her with extraordinary enthusiasm.
Even while seated on the tricycle taking inventory, new supplies kept popping into her crates out of nowhere.
They were literally running straight into her fender.
It was impossible to keep an accurate tally.
Still, Ling Jing retained a clear memory of the specific plants she had set out to hunt according to the map markings.
The mutated wild boar fused with wild ginger had been logged as F-rank, but after turning into ingredients, it dropped an E-rank beast core—the primary host had originally been an animal, after all.
The mutated tomato monsters were recorded as a pair, located eighteen kilometers west and slightly north.
Both were logged as E-rank.
Yet when Ling Jing arrived, she found it wasn’t just a pair at all.
It was an entire sprawling patch.
Smaller tomato monsters were brandishing their vines in a chaotic free-for-all.
A quick sweep revealed at least six or seven of them, likely hovering around G- or F-rank.
The larger ones were brawling just as fiercely. Three colossal tomato monstrosities thrashed their thick stalks, snapping with toothy maws that had sprouted directly from their blighted red fruit, tearing and gnawing at one another as if desperate to swallow their kin whole.
Ling Jing charged right in, breaking up the brawl by running them all down in one fell swoop.
She netted three E-rank plant cores, three hundred and sixty catties of tomatoes, and sixteen packets of tomato seeds.
She had even witnessed a mutant plant in the middle of a breakthrough.
A willow tree by the edge of a pond writhed with gnarled limbs, half its trunk encrusted in a dense carpet of glowing green mushrooms.
As Ling Jing cruised past on her tricycle, she caught the willow visibly swelling in size.
Emerald light pulsed through fissures in its bark, and right before her eyes, a stroke of blue bled into the pure green radiance.
Boss Ling was a polite person; she chose not to interrupt its evolution.
She brought the trike to a halt, resting comfortably in her seat as she took a few leisurely sips of hot chrysanthemum tea.
She waited until the willow stopped expanding and the blue-green aura dimmed down.
Only then did Ling Jing tighten the thermos cap, rev the throttle, and plow directly into it.
One E-rank plant core secured.
…Tonight, beyond being unusually agitated, these mutated organisms were rapidly surging in power.
She tilted her head toward the sky.
The heavy, bruised gloom, the saturated air.
These were the unmistakable harbingers of the approaching Rainy Season.
Vegetation was running wild; roots of pitcher and flytrap-type plants spread ravenously through the softened topsoil, dragging passing mutant beasts into the earth.
The concentration of emerald haze hung heavier in the atmosphere than ever before.
Crash—!
A violent ruckus echoed in the distance.
Ling Jing didn’t even need to look to know another brawl had erupted between mutants.
Along her drive, she had stumbled upon countless chaotic clashes.
The dense emerald mist accelerated their growth, driving the mutants into a frenzy to consume one another and claim territory.
She tucked the newly harvested core into her pouch.
Change of plans.
Beyond securing the ingredients earmarked in the dossier, Ling Jing gave herself an impromptu secondary task.
—Breaking up fights left and right.
The grand prelude to this downpour seemed to have flushed out every mutant in the area.
Usually scattered, they were now bunched together.
How could she pass up such prime pickings?
Hit the throttle!
Head straight for wherever the fighting was loudest!
…
“Hold.”
Chris raised a hand, calling the squad to a halt.
Sheltered under the effects of [Cloak], the operatives obeyed instantly, freezing in their tracks.
Rifle raised, Chris swept the surroundings with sharp vigilance.
According to previous reconnaissance reports, a D-rank mutant organism was supposed to hold territory right here.
The primary body of a mutated goji tree.
—Under normal protocol, Awakener detachments from the Three Great Cities would have arrived at Seed City well before the onset of the Rainy Season.
Before the rains supercharged the mutants, they would purge every threat within the safe zone perimeter.
Then, they would leave a garrison detachment behind to help the frontier outpost weather the seasonal beast surges and insect swarms.
Yet this Rainy Season had arrived without warning, far ahead of schedule.
During the emergency briefing, the Commander stated he had received verified intelligence: rain would begin falling by tomorrow morning.
Intelligence from the Three Great Cities? Then why was there no sign of an Awakener relief force?
…As an Awakener among the city guards, Chris understood the delicate friction between the frontier outposts and the Three Great Cities.
He also knew the rumors circulating among his fellow guards.
The intelligence… originated from the “Chinese Restaurant”?
On the night he assisted in extracting the Red Flag Society and Dark Star, Chris had already been shaken by the terrifying capabilities attributed to this “Boss Ling.”
A lone woman on a tricycle, wiping out an A-rank mutated organism.
Having awakened an ability himself, he understood better than anyone just how absurd a feat that was.
With the Chinese Restaurant as the source, the warning carried immense credibility.
After leading Team Y out into the wastes, Chris could distinctly feel the cloying dampness heralding the rains.
With the season arriving so prematurely, standard procedures were completely off the table.
There would be no preliminary sweep by high-tier Awakeners, and no reinforcements incoming.
The mission handed down by the Commander was straightforward: survey all mutant entities of F-rank and above near the perimeter safe zones.
A comprehensive reconnaissance sweep.
This time, Seed City would have to rely solely on its own strength to face the oncoming beast surges and insect swarms.
As the forward scouting unit, Team Y had to brave the perils of the wild to secure actionable intel.
To buy the city time to draw up a defense plan.
Before departure, Commander Yves had driven the point home: time was short, the crisis imminent.
Chris had accepted the assignment with grave resolve, leading his squad beyond the ramparts.
Every operative stepped out with the mindset that even if they faced mortal peril, they had to transmit the data back to buy Seed City precious prep time.
And yet…
Which one was this already?
Chris stared in utter bewilderment at the hollow pit in the earth.
The root cavity left by the mutated goji tree was plain to see, but the tree itself was gone.
Just like every other mutant target they had scouted along this path.
There were no signs of predatory consumption or fusion, and no higher-tier entity had emerged to take its place.
It was simply gone, vanished without a trace.
Some mysterious force had swept through the area like… a relentless swarm of locusts.
Leaving not even a single drop of toxic goji sap behind.
