Chapter 118 – The Man-Eating Vines
Sturdy trees soared nearly a hundred meters high, their dense canopies blocking out the sun, allowing only occasional slivers of light to filter through. The vast space below was damp and dark.
Vines as thick as Tu Ran’s thighs dangled from the towering trees above.
The air was filled with the fresh scent of soil, a smell absent from the technologically polluted cities of the Federation.
Tu Ran cautiously surveyed her surroundings.
The pioneers who had entered before her were nowhere to be seen.
They had been sent to different locations.
The scene before her resembled a tropical rainforest, something that hadn’t appeared in the original owner’s memories.
This was a completely unfamiliar place.
The Federation’s publicly available holographic maps of the Threshold had never depicted a tropical rainforest.
She might be the first human to set foot here.
Tu Ran’s mood grew heavy. This meant she couldn’t rely on the experiences and memories of the original owner.
Everything she faced would be new and unexplored.
She turned to look in the direction she had come from.
It was a very thick giant redwood.
Even with her arms spread wide, she couldn’t encompass a tenth of the tree’s girth.
The Threshold had opened its gate on this tree trunk, and she had emerged from it.
Tu Ran reached out to touch the tree trunk.
The rough bark and solid texture felt real under her fingers.
Her hand did not pass through.
The gate had closed.
She couldn’t return the way she came.
If she wanted to leave, she would have to wait for the next time the Threshold opened and find the gate within those few hours.
Since she was here, she had to settle in.
She needed to complete her mission.
Tu Ran began to move forward.
The ground beneath her feet was very soft.
It felt comfortable to walk on.
Tu Ran cautiously continued forward, observing her surroundings.
Everything here was enormous.
She felt like an ant at the feet of giants.
Like an ant, she was curious about everything she encountered, stopping to examine things before moving on.
Sometimes a small branch would block her path, and she would climb over it, using her hands and feet, even if the branch was no thicker than a toothpick.
Other times, she would avoid the branch altogether, finding another direction to continue.
Occasionally, she would try to crawl under the branch.
Tu Ran was that little ant.
She couldn’t count how many giant trees had obstructed her way.
One or two might have fallen due to aging, unable to support their dense canopies, but encountering a fallen tree every few steps didn’t seem like a natural occurrence.
Tu Ran examined the fallen trees and noticed their break points were jagged, as if they had been struck by something massive.
A massive impact?
It was possible.
In such a tropical forest, the likelihood of encountering large, exotic creatures was high.
Tu Ran continued forward, observing the site.
She noticed the trees had fallen in different directions.
Some of the standing redwoods had cracks in their trunks, and some even had dents that looked like impact marks.
It seemed as if two giant creatures had fought here, leaving the area in chaos.
As she walked, the ground suddenly gave way beneath her.
Before she could react, she fell into a large pit.
Fortunately, although the pit was wide, it wasn’t deep, barely reaching her waist.
The large fallen leaves had blended seamlessly with the surrounding ground, making Tu Ran unaware of the pit.
She braced herself against the edge of the pit and jumped out.
Looking back at the pit, she noticed it resembled a footprint, especially like a horse’s hoofprint.
From the feel of the ground when she fell, the bottom of the pit was solid, unlike the soft surface above.
It looked like the ground had been pressed down by something heavy.
If it was indeed a footprint, there wouldn’t be just one.
Tu Ran looked around.
She spotted two more distant dark holes, easily visible because they weren’t covered by large fallen leaves.
There were likely many such pits, hidden by leaves and forming natural traps.
Cautiously, she walked about twenty more steps, closely observing the ground. She saw several leaves appearing slightly sunken and picked up a thick branch to throw into the spot.
The leaves collapsed, revealing another meter-deep pit beneath.
This confirmed her suspicion: a giant creature had indeed been here.
Its enormous size and weight had caused the soft, leaf-covered ground to sink significantly.
Judging by the chaotic footprints, Tu Ran guessed that a fight between two giant creatures was likely.
She didn’t linger there.
Her mission was to capture more footage.
To do that, she needed to explore various locations.
She had spent enough time in this area, gathering sufficient visual data.
Without a map, Tu Ran had to rely on her instincts to choose a direction.
Initially, the scenery along the way consisted only of trees—nothing but towering trees.
There weren’t even any low shrubs.
Gradually, Tu Ran noticed the trees were becoming less thick and dense. Through the gaps in the canopy, she could see the blue sky, and small shrubs began to appear on the ground.
After walking for nearly an hour, vibrant colors started to come into view.
Mushrooms that changed colors with the light—pink, purple, blue—released spores like clouds when the wind blew.
“These are most likely poisonous mushrooms,” Tu Ran remarked.
There were many such colorful mushrooms along the way, increasing in number the deeper she went.
In addition to the mushrooms, there were tall, color-changing flowers, some even taller than Tu Ran.
The petals also shifted colors.
The leaves supporting them had somehow turned fluorescent green.
Flying insects resembling fireflies began to appear, but their lights weren’t just green; they came in all colors.
They started circling Tu Ran, perhaps curious about this uninvited guest clad in black.
Tu Ran felt as if she had stepped into a fairy world.
Everything around her glowed and changed colors.
The various shaped fruits on the trees were all multicolored.
Everything here was like the neon lights of the Federation at night.
Tu Ran was captivated, unable to pull herself away.
Suddenly, she tripped over a branch.
She fell face-first to the ground.
Tu Ran didn’t feel any pain.
She rolled over, looking up at the sky as her eyelids grew heavy.
It was so comfortable, even more so than in a nutrient pod.
In the last second before she lost consciousness, an image appeared in her mind.
A person was tightly entangled by vines.
The vines squeezed tighter and tighter.
Blood began to flow from the seven orifices.
Blood dripped onto the vines, making them tighten even more frantically.
Bones were broken piece by piece.
Flesh was squeezed, twisted, and turned into pulp, oozing through the gaps in the vines.
The entire scene resembled squeezing fresh orange juice by hand.
“Fresh orange juice, haha…”
Thinking of that scene, Tu Ran giggled in a daze.
Then.
“!!!”
The orange juice was her!!
Tu Ran woke up instantly.
She attempted a kip-up, only to be yanked back down by several coils of vine around her waist, dragging her across the ground.
The ground blurred past her eyes, and then she was hanging in the air.
The vines, noticing her awakening, began to tighten faster.
Tu Ran’s hands were tightly bound together, and her breathing became labored.
Gritting her teeth, Tu Ran controlled the mechanical arm, pushing outwards with all her strength.
Two vines snapped instantly.
Before Tu Ran could celebrate, more vines wrapped around her.
But she managed to free one arm during the struggle.
She drew her dagger and furiously stabbed at the vines around her waist.
The vines recoiled in pain, quickly retracting.
Tu Ran’s body plummeted from four meters high.
Anticipating the fall, Tu Ran landed in a crouch, avoiding injury.
Scanning her surroundings, she no longer saw the vibrant, colorful fairy garden. It was now a sinister, deathly place, filled with vines and scattered with bones.
The moment she entered this area and saw the first vibrant mushroom, she had been poisoned.
Everything she saw after that was an illusion.
Surveying the ground littered with corpses—both animal and humanoid—Tu Ran even spotted a mechanical exoskeleton leg.
There were indeed pioneers who came here, but none of them left alive!
The man-eating vines still did not give up, lunging at Tu Ran with their fangs and claws.
Tu Ran raised her machine gun and fired.
The defense of the man-eating vines was not strong, and they were forced to retreat under the barrage.
Tu Ran did not want to stay here any longer.
She had spotted another dazzling mushroom.
At some point, these vines had released toxins to confuse her again.
If she stayed here, she would definitely fall into their trap again.
Tu Ran took a bomb from her waist.
She pulled out the safety pin, threw it, and quickly retreated to a safe distance, hiding behind a large tree.
At the moment the bomb exploded, Tu Ran seemed to hear a scream.
She shook her head, trying to stay clear-headed.
An illusion, all of it was an illusion.
Do not believe anything.
After no sounds came from behind, she stepped out from behind the tree and looked back.
That area had already been scorched, with charred vines scattered on the ground.
These vines were only good at confusing people; in other aspects, they were rubbish.
Tu Ran had intended to leave quickly, but after a few steps, she stopped.
Were these man-eating vines considered alien species?
If they were, did their bodies contain inner cores?
Tu Ran quickly turned back.
The ground was already scorched, with small flames still spreading.
Tu Ran stamped out the flames first.
She worried that if the fire ignited the entire forest and she hadn’t left yet, it would be a disaster.
She began to search for the roots of these man-eating vines.
In the dense mix of bushes and trees, Tu Ran found a vine burned down to just its head.
Instead of asking directly, she first extended her right hand deep into a dense thicket.
Because her right hand wore a holographic recording bracelet, it would capture everything she did.
Her next actions couldn’t be known by the Federation.
Her right hand remained still, while her left hand carefully touched the green body of the man-eating vine.
“Do you have an inner core?” she whispered softly.
At the same time, her right hand quickly shook left and right, creating noise by rubbing against the grass.
This way, the holographic recording bracelet wouldn’t record her voice.
If someone happened to be here and saw her talking to a plant while her other hand moved around, they would surely find this scene ridiculous and might think she was crazy.
As Tu Ran asked the question, the remaining body of the vine twisted a few times.
It understood her words.
It attempted to retreat, to move backward.
But its roots were right there, how could it escape?
Tu Ran had seen what she wanted to see.
She took out a dagger and quickly inserted it into the soil burying its roots.
This man-eating vine had an inner core.
It was an unexpected surprise.
Tu Ran quickly dug through the soil, following its roots downward.
When she dug to nearly thirty centimeters deep, a bright shiny bead emerged.
Tu Ran used the tip of her knife to pry the bead out.
The robust root of the man-eating vine twitched violently for a moment, then slumped down onto the ground, motionless.
Tu Ran wiped the bead clean on her clothes and swallowed it.
The bead instantly transformed into a clear stream and vanished.
Tu Ran didn’t immediately test this new ability.
She hadn’t forgotten that there was a camera on her chest.
Everything just now had been recorded by it.
Tu Ran didn’t make a special effort to avoid it because she had already planned to dispose of this camera.
It was troublesome enough to conceal the one on her wrist; she didn’t want to waste more energy and time on the one on her chest.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Tu Ran unclasped the camera from her chest and buried it in the soil.
Then she retrieved her right hand from the bushes.
She pretended to rub her knee and dusted off some dirt.
She acted as if she had simply stumbled.
After the charade, she stood up and left the place.
Walking along the road, Tu Ran tried to activate this new superpower.
From her experience accumulated from the previous abilities, she knew that the powers gained from consuming the inner core of an alien were related to the alien’s original abilities.
