Chapter 13
Su Jing hid behind a rock about half her height, her fingertips gripping a folding shovel tightly, her eyes first locking onto two giant beetles under the rock.
They huddled in the crevices of the rocks, their dark brown shells gleaming coldly, their antennae twitching occasionally, unaware of her presence for the time being.
She didn't rush to take action. As her gaze swept around, it suddenly stopped at a pile of rubble three meters away.
There were several irregular stone fragments scattered there, each about the size of a washbasin, with not very sharp edges, but thick enough—they were discarded by the giant, and their surfaces were still covered with dry soil, probably from when they were moving stones earlier.
"Perfect for smashing honey fruit."
Su Jing's eyes lit up. She had previously used the bluestones in her space to smash the branches, but the number of bluestones was limited. These stone shards were plentiful and didn't consume any of her space reserves.
She crouched low, tiptoed around the crevice where the beetle was, and walked to the pile of rocks.
I bent down and picked up a stone slab. It was heavy in my hand, weighing about five kilograms.
She tapped the stone with her fingertip, and it made a dull "thump" sound. There were no cracks, indicating that it was hard enough.
Once she confirmed that it was usable, she began collecting them in batches: she bent down to pick up a piece, and with a thought, the stone piece disappeared instantly and was stored in the "tool area" of her space;
Pick up another piece, repeat the same action, and each piece falls precisely into the tool area grid without overlapping with other supplies.
The system panel displayed the following message: [Added 1, 2... 20 "Giant Stone Fragments" to the space]. She only stopped after collecting the twentieth fragment and clearing out most of the usable fragments from the pile of rocks.
"That's enough, more than enough to smash the honey fruit."
Su Jing brushed the dirt off her hands and turned to look at the honey fruit tree not far away.
The tree was thicker than the previous one, and eight honey fruits hung on its branches, each one round and plump, with a pale yellow sheen, looking full and healthy.
She didn't approach directly. First, she took out a stone shard from her spatial storage, weighed it, and aimed it at the lowest branch—a branch with two honey fruits hanging on it, five meters above the ground, the perfect position.
With a powerful thrust of his arm, the stone shard flew out with a whoosh, crashing into the base of a branch with a loud thud. The branch snapped, and two honey fruits, still wrapped in leaves, fell to the ground, landing unbroken on the soft grass.
Su Jing walked over quickly, picked up the honey fruit, brushed off the grass clippings, and stored it in her spatial storage.
A system notification popped up: [Honey Fruit +2, Weight +16 kg, Total Weight: 278 kg].
Then, she took another stone and aimed at a higher branch.
This time the branch was thinner, so she deliberately held back a bit of force. The branch broke gently, and three honey fruits fell steadily to the ground.
Each stone slab corresponds to a branch, and all eight honey fruits were quickly knocked down without a single one being damaged.
She carefully inspected the surface of each one she picked up—only storing it in her storage space after confirming that it was free of insects and damage.
When the last one was harvested, the system notification popped up again: [Honey Fruit +8, Weight +64 kg, Total Edible Plant Weight: 294 kg].
“294 kilograms…” Su Jing looked at the numbers on the panel and breathed a sigh of relief.
This weight far exceeds the mission requirements; even if we don't collect any more, it will be enough to sustain us until the end of the dungeon.
Just as she was about to put the remaining stone fragments back into her spatial storage and prepare to go to the core area to find Giant Mai, she suddenly heard light footsteps behind her.
It is not the heavy footsteps of giants, but those of humans, and more than one.
Su Jing tensed up instantly, quickly dodging behind the rock, her fingertips gripping the folding shovel tightly again, while simultaneously focusing her mind to ensure the climbing rope in the space was readily available for retrieval.
She cautiously peeked out and looked in the direction of the sound—three figures were walking from the other side of the rocky area. The one in the lead was tall and burly, carrying a rusty machete. It was Luke, whom she had seen near the honey fruit tree before.
Two armed men followed behind him, their eyes scanning the surroundings, clearly looking for something.
“That woman must be around here. Someone saw her coming this way earlier!” Luke’s voice was filled with hostility and clearly reached Su Jing’s ears.
Su Jing's heart sank—it seemed they were after her, most likely because she was being watched while collecting her belongings. She didn't move, remaining hidden behind the rocks, silently adjusting her breathing, preparing for the impending conflict.
Su Jing hid behind the rocks, her fingertips slightly damp with cold sweat as she gripped the folding shovel even tighter.
The footsteps of Luke and his two companions grew closer. Luke, in the lead, gripped a rusty machete, its blade gleaming coldly in the light, and muttered curses under his breath: "That woman is definitely hiding around here. If we find her and steal her supplies, we can climb the rankings too!"
The tall, thin man behind him held up an iron rod, his eyes scanning the surroundings, the grass at his feet crunching under his feet: "Boss, she's taken a lot of things, there's definitely something fishy going on, maybe she has weapons, we need to be careful."
The burly man in the middle, carrying a wooden plank, scoffed nonchalantly, "No matter how tough she is, she's still a woman. There are three of us; are we afraid we can't handle her?"
Su Jing stared at the three men's positions—the tall, thin man was on the far right, two meters away from the other two, making him the easiest opening to break through.
She took a deep breath; the power boost from the sweet grass roots tensed her arm muscles, while the speed boost from the honey fruit kept her heart beating steadily despite its rapid pace. With a thought, the climbing rope in her spatial storage instantly flew out—
The rope, with a metal hook at one end, was precisely wrapped around the tall, thin man's ankle, while the other end was firmly tied to a crevice at the base of the rock.
The tall, thin man had just taken his first step when his ankle was suddenly grabbed, and his body fell to the ground with a thud, like a kite being torn apart. The iron rod clattered to the ground.
Before he could even shout, Su Jing darted out from behind the rock and slammed her folding shovel into his wrist. With a sharp crack, the tall, thin man screamed in pain as his wrist went limp and he could no longer grip anything.
"who?!"
Luke and the burly man turned around at the same time. When they saw Su Jing, Jack's eyes lit up, and he charged over, brandishing his machete: "Finally found you!"
The burly man also raised the wooden plank and smashed it down on Su Jing's back, the wind from the plank causing grass blades to fly everywhere.
Su Jing didn't turn around. She sidestepped Luke's machete, bent down to pick up the iron bar that the tall, thin man had dropped, and swung it at the strong man's knee with her backhand. With a "thud," the strong man's knee buckled, and he knelt on one knee, the wooden board slipping from his hand.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Su Jing circled around behind him, pressed her elbow against the back of his neck, and pressed down hard. The burly man's face slammed heavily onto the decaying leaves, his nose bled instantly, and he passed out.
Seeing his companions fall one after another, Luke's eyes flashed with panic, but he still gritted his teeth and swung his knife.
Su Jing manipulated the giant stone fragments in her spatial storage, and a five-kilogram fragment suddenly appeared in her hand. She raised her hand and hurled it at Jack's arm—
The stone shard whistled through the air and struck Luke's right arm with a thud. The machete clattered to the ground, and Jack clutched his elbow in pain, his clothes instantly soaked with cold sweat.
"What...what kind of trick is this?"
Luke took two steps back, his eyes filled with fear. He finally realized that the woman in front of him was someone he could not afford to mess with.
Su Jing didn't speak, but approached step by step, the blade of the folding shovel aimed at his chest.
Luke tried to run, but tripped over the grass. Su Jing seized the opportunity, stepped forward, pressed her knee against his back, and held a folding shovel to his neck: "Who sent you?"
Luke trembled all over, his voice shaking: "No... no one ordered me to do this, I just wanted to steal your supplies... please don't kill me, I'll give you all my supplies!"
Su Jing's eyes turned cold—in the apocalypse, being soft-hearted towards the enemy is being cruel to oneself; she remembered the lessons of her past life for the rest of her life.
Without another word, she lightly sliced Luke's neck with the folding shovel, and blood gushed out instantly. Luke's body twitched twice and then fell still.
She turned to look at the tall, thin man who was still groaning. When he saw that Luke and the burly man were both dead, he was terrified and tried to run away as fast as he could.
Su Jing picked up the machete from the ground, and with a flick of her wrist, the machete struck his calf with lightning speed. The tall, thin man screamed and fell to the ground. Su Jing then delivered the final blow, silencing him completely.
Only after confirming that all three of them were no longer breathing did Su Jing breathe a sigh of relief and lean against the rock to catch her breath.
She looked down at her hands—they were stained with blood, but she didn't tremble at all. Having experienced hell in her past life, this kind of scene could no longer frighten her.
Instead of leaving immediately, she used a climbing rope to drag the three bodies into a crevice behind the rocks—a crevice deep enough to block the view and prevent them from being discovered by other participants.
After dragging the corpses, she picked up the three men's weapons: machetes, iron bars, planks, and a small amount of supplies from their backpacks (about 15 kilograms of giant mushrooms), and put them all into her spatial storage. A system notification popped up: [Added 15 kilograms of supplies, total edible plant weight: 309 kilograms].
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