Chapter 79

Chapter 79: ke li nuo grasslands

The storage room was a mess. White webbing had been tossed onto the floor at random, covered in dust.

Seeing it made Ling Mo’s heart ache. This was medicine, and it had been treated like trash. Such a waste.

She lifted a hand and collected every last bit into her pocket space.

After finishing the work, Ling Mo took a moment to breathe, then went to find the woman.

The woman checked the results and looked pleased. “Very good.”

Then she brought out a set of test tubes. “This is silk from our clan. I’ll give it to you. I heard your home situation isn’t very good. Keep one bottle to protect yourself, and sell the rest. It should fetch a lot and help you improve your living conditions.”

Ling Mo stared at the ten tubes in front of her—each about the size of her forearm—filled with a milky, viscous liquid.

Qie Man confirmed: “Long-legged spider silk, liquid form. In this form, its healing properties are well preserved.”

The woman then took out a black card and swiped it across Ling Mo’s chest.

Her smiley face badge was already beaming, but now it grinned even wider. She could even make out a red tongue and two bright white teeth.

A cheerful mechanical voice sounded in Ling Mo’s ear. “Congratulations, player Soy Sauce Drunk. You are the first to complete this game’s tasks. You may now choose to return to blue star immediately, or remain here until the game ends.”

There was no question.

Ling Mo chose to stay without hesitation.

Forget the treasures here—blue star’s heat alone was enough reason to delay going back as long as possible.

Once she confirmed, the badge on her chest turned pure gold.

The system added, “Based on the player’s choice, the smiley face badge will enter idle mode. When the game ends, you will be transported back to blue star with the other players. Enjoy your time.”

Tasks complete, pressure gone, Ling Mo felt like she could finally breathe. She had three full days left, and they were all hers.

“Oh, right,” she asked suddenly. “How are my companions doing?”

The woman smiled gently. “They’re fine. They work hard. Do you want to see them? I can take you to them.”

“No need,” Ling Mo said quickly. “I’ll wait outside.”

She stepped out.

The woman was beautiful, but remembering her species was spider still made Ling Mo uneasy.

It was already dark, but based on experience, the area around a beastman’s home was usually safe.

Outside, she noticed a faint green glow scattered across the tree trunks.

Up close, it was moss.

Qie Man’s voice sounded again: “Paralysis moss. A mutant variety that absorbed long-legged spider venom. Eating or inhaling it causes full-body paralysis and loss of mobility.”

Ling Mo’s eyes lit up. Natural anesthetic. Excellent.

She had time to kill while waiting, so she took out a small shovel and began scraping the moss off the bark.

Unlike purification moss, paralysis moss formed only a thin layer. It had to be collected bit by bit. To avoid accidentally paralyzing herself, she pulled on rubber gloves first.

When Jiang Xin and Ye Kai came out, Ling Mo was scraping off the last patch.

She noticed immediately that they were holding a clear tube each, cradling them like fragile glasswork. Inside was the same milky liquid spider silk.

“Mo Mo,” Jiang Xin asked carefully, “that woman gave us this. Do you know what it does?”

Ling Mo nodded and explained its healing effect.

Both of them stiffened on the spot, gripping their tubes like priceless treasures, barely daring to breathe.

“Mo Mo,” Ye Kai said, voice tight, “can we store these in your pocket space for now?”

They still had tasks to do. If they cracked one of these by accident…

“No problem,” Ling Mo said, and stored both tubes away.

She caught two sweetglow firefly to use as lights, then the three of them found a spot and settled in for the night.

Jiang Xin glanced at Ling Mo’s badge. “If I remember right, that should have been your last task.”

“It was,” Ling Mo said. “The system told me I could return to blue star immediately, or stay here.”

“You chose to stay?” Ye Kai asked.

Ling Mo rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? If I didn’t stay, would you still be seeing me? And the temperature here is comfortable. Why would I go back and suffer?”

Jiang Xin and Ye Kai nodded in full agreement. If it were them, they’d do the same. Comfort was comfort.

The next morning, Ling Mo had nothing left to do, and Jiang Xin and Ye Kai only needed one more smiley face. With three days still on the clock, the three of them were relaxed.

They rode the antler horses toward the next destination.

Whenever they spotted a patch of water-storage mushroom, they got down to harvest it, storing everything with Ling Mo and agreeing to split it evenly after the game ended.

Even brothers kept their accounts clear. Neither of them planned to use Ling Mo’s pocket space for free.

Around noon, Ling Mo spotted a familiar stretch of forest ahead and realized they’d wandered back into ding ding fish beastman territory.

She’d already cleaned out their warehouse once. Going again probably wouldn’t yield much. She’d rather spend the time collecting purification moss nearby.

Noticing her expression, Jiang Xin asked, “You’ve been here before?”

Ling Mo nodded. “I’ll tell you what to watch out for, but I’m not going with you.”

The two of them assumed the work here was exhausting and Ling Mo didn’t feel like doing it, so they didn’t push.

“Then wait here for us,” Jiang Xin said, and the two of them headed off.

As soon as they disappeared, Ling Mo turned her attention to the moss and the water-storage mushrooms with renewed enthusiasm.

A few days had passed, and besides the water-storage mushrooms, new mushrooms had sprouted here too—red ones and blue ones, bright and beautiful.

On blue star, there was a saying: the brighter the mushroom, the more poisonous it is.

But that rule didn’t apply here, so Ling Mo knew exactly who to ask.

“Qie Man,” she murmured, “what are these?”

Qie Man answered, almost smug: “Red and blue always come as a pair—positive and negative mushrooms. The red one is a positive shroom, the blue one is a negative shroom. They usually grow side by side. If one person eats one and another person eats the other, the two will stick together uncontrollably until the effect wears off. Note: just a little fun for couples.”

Ling Mo ignored the last line entirely.

Later, if she ran into an enemy, she could feed them one mushroom and toss the other somewhere far away. Let them try chasing her while glued to nothing.