Taking a bite of the sweet and juicy peach, thinking about how the original novel’s female protagonist would arrive in Dawn City in half a year, Shen Tangtang couldn’t help narrowing her phoenix eyes.
The original female protagonist met the male lead two years later during a foraging activity, which meant Sister Daiyu still had to serve as a nanny for the male lead’s family for another two years.
Tsk tsk tsk. She had never been able to find the energy stone that the female protagonist used to awaken her abilities, yet the novel clearly stated it was dug up in the South District’s peach grove, right beneath a peach tree.
Shen Tangtang hadn’t gone to the South District’s peach grove fewer than a dozen times over the past year, but she hadn’t managed to find a single energy stone.
Chewing hard on the fruit flesh in her mouth, she carefully pondered the contents of the book: how on earth had the female protagonist discovered an energy stone buried five meters underground?
Why had the female protagonist chosen to come to Dawn City in the first place? As a young girl, she shouldn’t have been able to cross the dangerous wilderness all the way from a primary safety city to an intermediate safety city.
Shen Tangtang gradually stopped chewing the fruit, thinking back to the descriptions in the book. The space shouldn’t have been able to upgrade, remaining just like the one she had acquired, so how had the female protagonist managed to become a grain tycoon?
Perhaps she hadn’t paid close attention before; when reading novels, she used to scan ten lines at a glance, getting a rough idea of the plot, focusing only on the beginning and the end while letting the middle pass right through without sticking in her brain.
Tsk tsk tsk, she really wanted to travel back in time and shake herself awake for staying up late reading novels—otherwise, she could still be going out to eat KFC right now.
Thinking of KFC, Shen Tangtang rubbed her stomach. She had only eaten a tube of nutrient solution at noon, and since ability users had massive appetites, that little bit of nutrition had long since been digested.
After finishing the soccer-sized peach and feeling slightly full, she clapped her hands, walked out into the courtyard, shoveled a few scoops of dirt, fetched water from the well that had appeared after upgrading to Level 3, mixed it evenly, and built a small earthen stove for herself.
She lit a fire to dry it, let the charcoal heat bake the stove structure, and then Shen Tangtang exited the space entirely.
Tapping the time display: Wasteland Era year 609, March 18th, Tuesday, Dawn City sunny, afternoon 3:24:21 PM.
Goodness, hopefully heading out now wouldn’t be too late.
After locking her front door securely, Shen Tangtang glanced at the bag in her hand and strode swiftly toward the city gates.
People heading toward the city gates along with her only felt a faint breeze sweep past; when they focused their eyes, they saw only a figure in black tactical gear, short dark hair, making it hard to tell if it was male or female.
Standing at the city gates to confirm her direction, she headed straight toward the wasteland in the east.
Yesterday, she had chased a mutant rabbit in the eastern wasteland and caught a distant glimpse of a mutant rainbow spider, but since it had been getting late, she could only come out today to check it out.
The mutant rainbow spider was a species capable of spitting colorful spider silk. It was rare, formed through a special secondary mutation of ordinary mutant spiders. Its silk was impervious to water and fire, invulnerable to swords and spears, and fiercely contested by the noble and military districts—which was precisely what made mutant rainbow spiders so scarce.
Stepping into the pine forest, Shen Tangtang tightened the collar around her neck. The pine leaves here had mutated to become exceptionally sharp; a single careless slip could turn a person into a beehive, which was why very few people ever entered the pine forest.
Shen Tangtang walked about five minutes into the forest, checked her positioning, and realized she had only gone less than a hundred meters. She had only seen the mutant rainbow spider dragging its prey into the forest yesterday and didn’t actually know its lair.
On the surrounding tree branches, she occasionally spotted one or two strands of colorful spider silk, confirming this was indeed the mutant rainbow spider’s territory.
Rather than blindly wandering in and wasting time, it was better to lure it out.
With that thought, Shen Tangtang retraced her steps and walked back out of the forest. This place was a hundred miles away from Dawn City, and there were no traces of anyone else nearby. She retrieved a blood-soaked rabbit leg from her space, tied a vine around it, and fastened it to a tree branch.
Feeling that this bit of the bloody scent wasn’t quite enough, she pulled out a bottle filled with mutant beast blood and poured a little over it.
With everything prepared, Shen Tangtang gazed at the bait with satisfaction.
If she had some sort of tranquilizer or poison, this bait would be even more perfect. Unfortunately, the exchange hall didn’t stock those items; she would have to find a channel to purchase them in the shantytown’s black market.
Shen Tangtang concealed herself carefully twenty meters away from the bait. She wasn’t worried about other mutant beasts suddenly showing up; mutant beasts all had their own territories, and around a creature like the mutant rainbow spider, there definitely wouldn’t be any other powerful mutant beasts within a radius of several kilometers. Mutant rainbow spiders only liked to hunt within their own domains.
Since it had passed through here while hunting, its lair shouldn’t be more than two kilometers away from this spot.
Shen Tangtang stared intently at the bait ahead. Beneath the bait lay the vines she had accelerated using her wood-type ability.
Half an hour later.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
Something was sprinting rapidly toward this direction.
Shen Tangtang stiffened her spine, not daring to move a fraction of an inch.
Within a minute, Shen Tangtang laid eyes on the true appearance of the newcomer.
It was the exact mutant rainbow spider she had seen yesterday, the size of an adult tiger, dragging a large, oval-shaped abdomen behind it marked with several horizontal yellow stripes. Its eight legs were covered in white fluff, and its four compound eyes on top of its head scanned its surroundings. Upon spotting the tiny piece of mutant meat before it, all its eyes flashed with a trace of imperceptible disgust.
It spat colorful spider silk from its abdomen to wrap the little morsel into a rice dumpling shape; considering the rainy season was fast approaching, it would reluctantly count as a ration.
Shen Tangtang made her move precisely as the rainbow spider was wrapping the mutant rabbit leg. In a single second, the vines Shen Tangtang had previously controlled grew with blinding speed, as if imbued with life. They intertwined and wrapped around each other, forming a dense green cage that trapped the mutant spider inside.
If any other ability user had been standing nearby, they certainly would have been astonished at how a Level 2 ability user managed to control so many vines; alas, this was a personal battlefield exclusively belonging to Shen Tangtang.
Confusion flashed in the mutant spider’s eyes, quickly turning into rage. Stupid as it might be, it finally registered that this was a trap, and its spider legs slashed furiously against the vines trapping it.
Seeing the mutant spider attempt to escape—as if she’d let that happen.
Three spatial blades shot out, slicing clean through the vines. Two of them grazed the mutant spider’s rear, exposing the bright red flesh within, while the third struck a spider leg with a sound like clashing metal.
The mutant spider let out a piercing, miserable screech as it spotted the human who had ambushed it.
It was this tiny human right before its eyes plotting against it, and its eyes burned with fury.
Dragging its injured body, it shook off the mutant rabbit leg it had just wrapped up, and shot two streams of spider silk directly toward Shen Tangtang’s location.
Shen Tangtang pressed her lips into a thin line, her gaze resolute as she watched the silk hurtle toward her. Her figure flickered and vanished, reappearing fifty meters away.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
A puff of white smoke rose from the patch of grass where Shen Tangtang had been standing just moments before.
This mutant spider was venomous too; thankfully, after her spatial ability upgraded to Level 3, it unlocked teleportation, otherwise she wouldn’t even have known how she died.
Shen Tangtang kept her gaze locked dead on the mutant rainbow spider’s injured abdomen. Taking advantage of the fact that it hadn’t yet discovered her repositioning, she whipped two more spatial blades right at it.