Chapter 60

Chapter 60: ke li nuo grasslands

After she stowed the sweetglow firefly in her pocket space, darkness swallowed the world again.

The sweetglow firefly really was a treasure. With it, she could forget about lightbulbs entirely.

Her pocket space held plenty of fruit trees, so the sweetglow firefly inside wouldn’t go hungry either.

Ling Mo dissolved sugar in water and made dozens of simple sweetglow firefly traps—clean dishes filled with sugar water.

Since she had nothing else to do at night, she set the dishes out. Before long, they drew a swarm of sweetglow firefly. Ling Mo leaned against a tree and collected them wherever the light gathered.

At daybreak, she packed the traps away to reuse later.

She pulled her electric scooter out of her pocket space and rode in the direction the old rabbit beastman had pointed out yesterday.

Come to think of it, did interstellar even have east, west, north, and south?

She shook the thought away. Even if it did, she’d never remember.

She’d been riding for a while when her scooter suddenly stopped.

A prompt appeared:

Dragon fang grass: Leaves shaped like dragon teeth. The most common plant on ke li nuo grasslands. Hardy, clears heat and detoxifies, and can ease heatstroke symptoms.

Clears heat and detoxifies? Eases heatstroke?

So it was basically a natural cooling medicine.

Ling Mo plucked a single leaf and brought it to her nose. A cool bite rushed into her sinuses, and she shuddered.

It smelled a lot like mint, only gentler.

The plant itself was tiny—barely finger-length.

She glanced down. Dragon fang grass covered the ground. But if she pulled it one sprig at a time, she’d waste half the day.

She wasn’t about to lose track of priorities. The mission came first.

Luckily, she’d stocked up on just about everything. A fully automatic weed mower would do nicely.

She drove it across the grassland. Wherever it passed, nothing remained.

In no time, she’d gathered a cart piled high with dragon fang grass. She swept it all into her pocket space and, while she was at it, collected plenty of dragon fang grass seeds too.

Give someone fish and they eat for a day; teach them to fish and they eat for life.

No matter how much she collected, it would run out eventually. Growing her own made more sense.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she noticed a group of people running toward her from the distance, waving as they came.

Once Ling Mo confirmed they were players, not beastman, she didn’t hesitate. She stored the mower in her pocket space, activated the illusory cloak’s invisibility, and slipped away.

From far off, Piao Miao Yun Yan had spotted the large harvester rolling across the prairie. She guessed it was a player and hurried over, planning to strike up a conversation—maybe even convince them to give her group a ride.

But the moment they got close, the harvester—and its driver—vanished.

If tire tracks hadn’t been left behind, they would’ve thought they’d imagined it.

Piao Miao Yun Yan stamped her foot in anger, her face turning ugly.

“What kind of person does that? How can they be so selfish?

We all entered the game together. Shouldn’t we be helping each other?”

A tall, skinny young man tried to calm her down. “Yun Yan, don’t be upset. People like that are just selfish and uncivilized. Next time we run into them, I’ll teach them a lesson for you.”

Even so, her expression remained sour. Anyone with a harvester as transportation probably had a rare, powerful talent.

Her own talent worked through interaction—people grew fond of her the more time they spent with her. Used well, it was terrifying.

In the last third game round, she’d relied on it to snatch victory at the final moment.

But now…

She looked at the two people beside her. It wasn’t enough. Not even close. She needed more people under her influence.

Ling Mo had no idea the group behind her was led by Piao Miao Yun Yan. If she’d known, she would’ve run even faster.

She traveled in the direction the old rabbit beastman had indicated for most of the day, but she still couldn’t find the two-tailed cat settlement. What she did find was a red door.

Someone had clearly discovered it first—a white man, judging by his appearance.

He walked up to the red door, looked around, felt it, then slapped it hard. The door didn’t react at all.

Just when Ling Mo thought he’d give up, the man planted both hands on the door and heaved with everything he had.

A crack opened down the center.

He moved with startling agility, slipping through the gap in a flash.

The next second, the door snapped shut.

Ling Mo waited outside for a while, but no one came back out. Instead, she watched several more groups repeat the same process and disappear inside.

She stopped waiting.

Who knew where the two-tailed cat village was? And even if she found it, odds were she wouldn’t be able to finish the task today anyway.

That would squeeze the time she had left and make every mistake more costly.

Fall behind once, and you keep falling behind.

She walked up to the red door, scanned left and right like the others, and then spotted a doorbell button in the upper-right corner.

She knew what to look for because the rabbit beastman village—stone houses and all—had doorbells too.

This one was set absurdly high, clearly installed for beastman height.

Ling Mo had to struggle to reach it, but she managed to press it.

The tightly shut red door slowly opened.

As soon as she stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind her with a heavy bang.

She didn’t bother looking back. The moment she lifted her head, she understood why.

Outside, it looked like a crude house built from dirt and stone. Inside, everything was refined—carefully chosen décor, sleek lighting, even patterned flooring that looked deliberately designed.

It was like stepping from an ancient world into the future in a single stride. The contrast was so sharp it felt unreal.

Then she heard a voice complaining from deeper inside. “What’s wrong with these people? Are they idiots? They can’t even understand what we’re saying. A bunch of pathetic wretches.”

Ling Mo’s mouth twitched. Of course they couldn’t understand—you’re speaking interstellar.

She quickened her pace.

After a long hallway, she reached a bright living room. The players who’d entered before her had changed clothes. Some wore aprons and masks and cleaned; some watched a child; some cooked.