Chapter 71: New Mode
However, I didn’t have more than a moment to be grateful. As soon as the top of the net closed around me, I immediately called on my wrist blades to cut a hole in the ropes. The ropes appeared to be made of a thick, organic material the width of my wrists. I thought that it was similar to the vines that pulled me across the jungle, but at the same time, they weren’t smooth enough. Whatever it was made out of, it wasn’t that easy to cut through, even for blades as sharp as mine. However, I wasn’t going to wait around for whoever set this neat little trap up.
They clearly expected for something to be falling out of the upper canopies with how they had the net set up, and I didn’t think that it was especially for me. No one knew I was here, nor could they guarantee the exact fucked up situation that brought me here to this moment. Which meant that I was screwed from both sides.
Jun Li said that there were no longer civilizations living on this planet due to the harsh conditions, which meant that whatever species was able to set up this net was not a local. And if they weren’t local, then it could mean that they were hunters, and the only hunters I know of were the big, bad Saalistaja, whom I was actively making a point never to meet. You know, because I have most, if not all, of their stolen technology.
On the other hand, if whatever they were trying to hunt was my size and falling out of the top of trees, then I didn’t want to meet them either. Jun Li said that the Saalistaja only hunted worthy prey capable of putting up a fight. And that was more than definitely not me.
Either way, I was getting out of here and preferably hiding somewhere far, far away.
It took me several minutes to saw through enough ropes for me to have a hole the size of me to get out of. However, I also didn’t want to send myself into another free fall. Did that once, and it was not something that I wanted to do a second time.
I gripped the ropes above my head and looked around.
I was hanging like a forbidden fruit at the end of a fairly thick branch, but I was too far away from the massive trunk to be able to grab it from where I was.
Decision made, I started swinging back and forth like a pendulum, trying to get closer to either the trunk or branch. "Hey, Sha Shou, I don’t suppose that there is an invisibility button on this suit."
"Hey, Mei Xing. I don’t know what you mean by an invisibility button," said Sha Shou, sounding confused.
"Something that can make me invisible, unable to be detected by anyone or anything."
"Yes, I do come with the ability to camouflage. Is that what you are looking for?" she continued.
"Yup, that is exactly what I am looking for," I said with a grunt as I started to pick up momentum. It was a good thing that this suit helped with motion sickness. Otherwise, I would be spending more time right now puking my guts out rather than trying to escape.
"Second button from the left on your wrist unit, Sweetie," she answered in a cheery voice.
"Is there any way you can turn it on? I am a bit busy at the moment," I said as I missed the branch I was trying to grab and ended up with a vine instead. Figuring that beggars couldn’t be choosers, I tightened my grip on the vine, praying that it wasn’t going to send me to another man-eating tree.
Luck was on my side for a second when the vine didn’t so much as move when it took all my weight.
I quickly slipped through the hole in the net and gripped the vine with both hands. Now was not the time to remember that I sucked at the rope climb in high school. Then again, I wasn’t worried about someone eating me in high school as I was here. And that thought was good enough motivation to boost me up the vine and cling onto the branch.
I hung there, upside down like a sloth, wondering where I was going to go next. I tightened my grip so that my torso was against the branch and tried to worm my way around so that I was on top of the branch and not underneath it. I think that this suit has the ability to either increase my strength or displace my weight enough that it took less effort than I thought it should to pull myself up in a seated position.
"Have you turned it on?" I asked Sha Shou, realizing that I never heard her confirm that I was in camouflage mode.
"No," came the sullen reply. "Apparently, your suit doesn’t like me right now and requires your direct input for that... mode..."
I looked down, found the second button from the left, and pressed it. As soon as I did, my vision in the helmet immediately changed. "What the hell is this?" I asked with a sigh as I leaned my back against the trunk of the tree, taking a well-deserved break.
"When in camouflage mode, your vision automatically changes to infrared, allowing you to be able to see prey and your surrounding environment in a more enhanced way," explained Sha Shou as I looked around. The entire world had changed from various shades of green to blue, green, yellow, and red.
The floor was covered in blue with green and yellow streaks, while there were brief glimpses of red here and there. And they looked big.
"Isn’t infrared the thing the military uses to be able to see in the dark?" I asked, confused.
"Yes, and it will look different when there is no light to penetrate. Right now, you are seeing the different levels of heat, with the coldest being blue and red and purple being on the warmer end of the spectrum."
"Okay, then what is purple in the center, covered in red before turning to green and then blue? Oh, and walks on two feet?"
