Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Warped Jungle 6
What she didn’t know was that not long after she left, several players approached, carrying a dead wild boar.
The young man in the lead observed his surroundings and said, "Let’s set up camp here for the night."
Hearing this, the others stopped in their tracks. Some began to process their kill, while others grabbed containers and headed toward the distant lake.
The young man who had spoken, however, didn’t help. Instead, he found a clean rock to sit on, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and began to smoke with a look of pure enjoyment.
Meanwhile, Perry Yates hadn’t actually gone far.
Unable to find a safe shelter, her first thought was to bury herself. But on second thought, ’digging a hole is easy enough, but who’s going to fill it in?’
’Even if I did manage to bury myself, anyone passing by would surely notice something was amiss. So that method isn’t safe either.’
After racking her brain, Perry Yates’s gaze fell upon her Weed Suit.
After its latest Ascension, the Weed Suit could now completely conceal her within the jungle and even mask her scent.
And so, Perry Yates was currently perched in a tree not far from the group.
She watched from afar as they bustled about, and before long, the aroma of roasting meat drifted over.
The scent made Perry Yates swallow hard.
For two days since entering the game, she had eaten nothing but fruit. It hadn’t seemed so bad before, but now...
Perry Yates stared intently at the distant group. At that moment, she cursed her excellent eyesight.
Even from such a distance, in the pitch-black night, she could still clearly see the wild boar meat sizzling and dripping with fat as it roasted over the fire.
Its color and aroma were so incredibly tempting.
Perry Yates tore her gaze away, forcing herself not to look. ’That’s right,’ she told herself. ’Out of sight, out of mind.’
Perhaps because of their presence, Perry Yates slept especially soundly that night. She didn’t wake until the next day, just as they were preparing to leave.
She waited until they were completely gone before jumping down from the tree.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered joining them last night. ’After all,’ she mused, ’as a brand-new player, traveling with a group is always safer.’
’At the very least, I could have learned a few things from the veterans.’
’Then again, not all veteran players are willing to take on newbies.’
’More often than not, those veterans see newbies as nothing more than disposable pawns.’
That was why Perry Yates hadn’t revealed herself the night before.
There were five of them and only one of her. And while her talent level was high, her Talent wasn’t suited for combat. If they had harbored any ill intentions, she wouldn’t have even been able to escape.
She went to the spot where the group had camped. It had been cleaned meticulously, a clear sign of their experience.
Recalling the direction they had taken that morning, Perry Yates chose to head the opposite way.
Her goal for the day—or rather, her current primary goal—was to find a long-term place to stay. Finding a new spot every night just wasn’t a sustainable plan.
’That cave from before wasn’t bad, just a little small,’ she thought. ’But I can’t find my way back there now.’
Besides, the rat she’d encountered that night had left a dark impression on her; she had a nagging feeling that it would return to the cave.
...
As she walked on, Perry Yates came across a circular clearing, roughly twenty meters across, in the middle of the dense jungle.
Unlike the rest of the jungle, where the dense canopy blocked out the sun and only sparse rays could filter through the gaps in the leaves, this area was different.
It was more like a specially cleared-out area, allowing the sunlight from above to shine in perfectly.
And in the center of this circular area grew a giant Sunflower.
A normal sunflower is only about one or two meters tall, but this Sunflower stood a full seven or eight meters high.
Furthermore, this single stalk had two different heads. One was a brilliant gold, its face tilted up to absorb the sunlight. The other was silvery-white, its petals currently closed.
With her enhanced vision, Perry Yates could clearly make out the delicate patterns on the Sunflower’s surface.
The edges of its leaves were slightly curled, and she could clearly see specks of golden light being transported through their veins.
Seeing this, Perry Yates’s eyes widened in disbelief.
’I don’t know what this plant is yet,’ she thought, ’but something this strange has to be special.’
Besides, every other plant in the jungle was grim and sinister, an atmosphere this Sunflower clearly didn’t share.
To use an idiom, it was like a crane standing among chickens.
Perry Yates tightened her grip on her Chopping Blade. After scanning the area and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she began to inch her way toward the Sunflower.
The Sunflower seemed to sense a creature approaching. It swayed its stalk, and a warm ray of sunlight landed on Perry Yates.
Feeling the pleasant warmth on her skin, Perry Yates grew even more certain that this plant was extraordinary.
’So, I’m sorry!’
A determined look flashed in her eyes. The next moment, she raised her Chopping Blade high and swung it down hard at the base of the Sunflower.
Whether it was because the Ascension had made her arms stronger or because the stalk simply wasn’t very sturdy, she severed the root of the Twin Sunflowers with very little effort.
The instant the Sunflower fell, Perry Yates raised a hand and stored it in her System Space.
At the same time, a white light shot out from the severed root, coalescing into a white card in front of Perry Yates.
"White?"
The moment she saw the card’s color, Perry Yates couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
Cards of different levels had different colors. From one-star to five-star, they were yellow, purple, black, red, and gold, respectively.
A white card was a tier even lower than a one-star card.
Among players, this type of card was collectively known as a junk card.
Perry Yates took the card in her hand, initially giving it just a casual glance. But that one glance was enough; she was instantly captivated by the attributes listed on it.
"Thr-three attributes!"
She rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn’t mistaken. The card actually possessed three different attributes: a Grass attribute, a Sun Attribute, and a Moon attribute.
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