It was a group of men. The leader was tall with a square face, but there was a deep scar on his brow, which added to his fierce look. When he saw Lin Yiran, his eyes first showed surprise, and then his gaze turned to the fallen pine tree next to him.

Sixth-tier pine and camphor trees,

It had been cut down by the roots, but the core was still embedded in the ground beneath the tree roots.

The man looked up at Lin Yiran and thought: This girl is indeed capable, so it's probably unlikely that she'll obediently hand over the mission.

Lin Yiran: "Who are you? What? What grudge do we have against each other?"

Upon seeing this, the man's henchman immediately jumped out and said, "What grudge do you have? We're from the Cheetah Mercenary Group! If you know what's good for you, quickly give us the core of that sixth-tier pine tree next to you, and we might still be able to..."

Then, seeing the man in front of him raise his hand to signal him to be quiet, he shut his mouth again.

The man spoke up again: "Miss Lin, right? It's like this, the S-rank mission you just accepted is one we've had our eye on for a while, but you beat us to it. So, I have a suggestion, I wonder if Miss Lin would be willing... How about we cooperate and take on this mission together? We'll split the reward 50/50?"

Lin Yiran pointed to the fallen mutated pine and camphor tree beside her: "Do you think I need to cooperate with you?"

"I won't give you the mission. If you know what's good for you, there are plenty of S-level missions at the service center. You can take on other ones. Your names aren't on the mission, so it's first come, first served. Alright, I won't keep you company any longer. You should leave now! I have a bad temper, and I'm afraid I might do something impulsive later, which would be bad."

Lin Yiran then turned around and picked up the laser knife to dig out the core of the pine tree she had been digging, but before she could even touch the core, another gunshot rang out, followed by bullets whistling through the air.

Lin Yiran barely dodged the bullet, but the rapidly approaching bullet still grazed her wrist, instantly turning it red and causing it to bleed.

That splash of red was particularly glaring.

"Miss Lin, you can reconsider. It's just a collaboration. We've already done more than enough by including you. You should know that even if we don't cooperate, we have ways to take on this mission!" Was this a threat?

Lin Yiran smiled contemptuously, thinking that it was fortunate that Wu Yongde and the others had told her before that the Cheetah Mercenary Group was coming to steal the mission, so she was prepared. She had also exchanged two crystal cores from the system earlier. After absorbing them, her ability level was now at the peak of level six. Dealing with these few small fry should be no problem, but she would still need to rely on some external forces.

Lin still remembered clearly that although her special ability had a restraining effect on the plants in the Forest of Hope, it was not enough when fighting against interstellar people. So, she said, "I understand what you mean, so let's stop talking nonsense and come on. I'm not giving you this mission! You want to force me to hand over the mission? Fine, then trade your leader's life for it. As long as he dies, I'll give you this core as funeral expenses, how about that?"

"Damn it, how dare you talk like that, you bitch? Brother, let me teach this woman a lesson!" He then channeled his spiritual energy, which formed into knives that flew directly towards Lin Yiran's location.

Lin Yiran calmly used her supernatural ability to summon throwing knives and block them against the mental blades.

The two knives clashed fiercely, one a tangible blade, the other an intangible one, which seemed somewhat unbelievable to everyone. However, what they found even more unbelievable was Lin Yiran's ability.

"Who is this woman? How can she wield knives?" they asked their teammates, but no one could answer the question.

The man opposite was about to lose the upper hand, so Lin Yiran gritted her teeth and used her supernatural abilities to send her throwing knife through the mental barrier and straight into the middle of the man's forehead.

Seeing the situation was getting out of hand, the man who was watching from the sidelines reached out and pulled away the man who was confronting Lin Yiran, thus saving the man from being attacked.

The leading man said, "My name is Zhou Ling, and I'm from the Cheetah Mercenary Group. Miss Lin, actually, we don't need to fight. Making friends will make things easier for us later. How about this, I'll offer you 100,000 star coins for this mission, and also..."

Lin Yiran said firmly, "I'm not selling. I don't have time to go back and take on the next mission! If you want to fight, then do it now; if you don't want to fight, then get lost!"

Now Zhou Ling was also furious, and laughed in anger: "Fine, since Miss Lin has said so, then I will tell you the truth. Our Cheetah Mercenary Group is determined to take this mission today. As for whether you are willing or not, that is not your choice!"

He then channeled his spiritual power, and Lin Yiran immediately felt a strong sense of oppression, as if a huge rock was pressing on her chest, making it hard for her to breathe. Her limbs felt incredibly heavy, and she couldn't lift them at all.

The henchman behind him spoke up at the opportune moment: "Heh, our boss is an S-level mental strength martial artist. This girl dares to mess with us; she's just asking for death. Just watch, this girl is going to die a horrible death!"

Although Lin Yiran felt like she was weighed down by a thousand pounds, she still told the system, "System, don't help me yet. I'm going to deal with them myself this time!"

She always felt that facing off against a psychic warrior would help her superpower, so she wanted to try it out and see if she could still use her superpower freely under this super gravity.

This is a challenge for her.

Even though Lin Yiran couldn't lift her arms and wrists, she still managed to manipulate her superpowers, turning dozens of knives into a series of sword flowers as she attacked Zhou Ling, but there was something else mixed in with them.

Afraid that others would see what it was, Lin Yiran twirled the knife so quickly that it almost became a series of afterimages.

Therefore, Zhou Ling's subordinates only saw something approaching, but did not discover what it was.

As the spinning blades approached Zhou Ling, just as Lin Yiran had predicted, Zhou Ling easily used his mental power to throw the knives away one by one, along with the object, which he accidentally threw behind him where his brothers were standing.

As the last dagger flash was deflected, Zhou Ling looked up and asked, "Is that all Miss Lin is capable of? That's hardly impressive!"

But then a loud 'bang' came from behind him, forcing him to quickly use his mental barrier to block it! His mind was unsteady, and the huge impact made him suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood.

He looked back and realized that what he had fired was a small bomb.

It won't kill people, but without deliberate precautions, anyone who comes into contact with this kind of bomb will either die or be seriously injured!