Chapter 265 – The People of the First World
Tu Ran waded ashore, glanced back at Cha, who was spinning around while eating an apple, and waved her hand. “Goodbye.”
After saying that, she allowed her intuition to guide her toward the hill where Pangpang was.
Along the way, the weather was quite pleasant, and the temperature was gradually warming up. Tu Ran stopped occasionally, killing any alien creatures with inner cores she encountered and stuffing any tasty fruits into her storage space.
Her space had already accumulated a lot of items, and she was too lazy to organize them.
Today, Tu Ran had walked from morning until evening without taking a break. In the evening, she happened to come across a small stream and decided to end her journey for the day.
Squatting by the stream, she washed her face with the water, drank a few sips to quench her thirst, and took out several water bags from her storage space to fill them all with water.
After finishing all this, Tu Ran stood up to survey her surroundings, planning to find a place to sleep well for the night.
In the end, she still chose to sleep in a tree.
She had become increasingly skilled at climbing trees and quickly reached a branch.
Tu Ran picked a very wide branch, which was more than half the width of a single bed. Lying flat on it felt no different from sleeping in a bed, except that it was a bit harder.
Of course, she quickly got used to the discomfort.
In any case, she was no longer picky about where she slept.
Taking out a soft pillow from her storage space, Tu Ran placed it behind her head, lying on her back and crossing her legs.
Her gaze fell on the crisscrossing branches, lush green leaves blocking the setting sun’s light. A gentle breeze blew through, but the leaves… remained perfectly still.
These leaves were so large that even plucking one could serve as a blanket; the wind could hardly move them.
As it was not yet completely dark, Tu Ran felt no sleepiness. With nothing else to do, she opened her [Ability Identification] panel and pulled up all the abilities she had acquired.
Now, Tu Ran possessed fifteen primary abilities. Looking through them one by one, aside from [Teleportation], [Illusion Realm], [Mountain Collapse and Earth Crack], and [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon], the rest were rather insignificant.
For every six primary abilities, she could choose one to upgrade to an intermediate level.
From her fifteen primary abilities, Tu Ran selected ten and discarded them, upgrading both [Illusion Realm] and [Teleportation].
“Congratulations, [Illusion Realm] and [Teleportation] have been successfully upgraded. Your current primary abilities are: [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon], [Mountain Collapse and Earth Crack], and [Dreamless Sleep]”, the glowing green text appeared on the panel.
Tu Ran exited the primary abilities panel and opened the intermediate abilities panel.
After counting, she had eleven intermediate abilities.
She had already met the requirement for an upgrade. According to the rules, for every eight intermediate abilities, one could be chosen for an upgrade to an advanced ability.
However, after a closer look at her eleven intermediate abilities, including [Future Prediction], [Memory Reading], [Immunity to Poisons], [Wheel of Time], [Immense Strength], [Diamond Body], [Shadow Storage], [Illusion Realm], and [Teleportation], she realized all nine were frequently used and couldn’t be discarded.
She was still short of inner cores.
She needed to speed up.
Tu Ran closed the intermediate abilities panel and opened the advanced one.
At a glance, there were only four advanced abilities listed sparsely: [Ability Identification], [Language Talent], [Sense of Direction], and [Annihilation].
Except for [Annihilation], the other three were all support-type abilities.
[Annihilation] was very powerful but also drained a lot of energy, so she couldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary.
Tu Ran had always wanted to upgrade [Illusion Realm] to an advanced ability. This ability required little stamina and was highly practical. Once upgraded to the advanced level, she could control anyone she wanted. If used well, it would definitely be more effective than [Annihilation].
Closing the abilities panel, Tu Ran shut her eyes.
She needed to rest as much as possible since tomorrow she would need to find more alien creatures with inner core.
…
At dawn the next day, Tu Ran climbed down from the tree and resumed her journey.
She first decided to test her newly upgraded intermediate ability, [Teleportation]. As soon as she activated it, the scenery around her rushed by in a blur. When she stopped, she found herself on a completely different hill.
This hill was covered with short, dense trees, allowing no light to penetrate. As she ventured deeper, the surroundings became eerily dark and damp. The ground was moist, the air filled with the scent of wet earth, and vines tangled all around, some hanging from tree trunks like the webs of a spider’s lair.
Tu Ran gripped her laser gun tightly, not forgetting the bloodthirsty vines she had encountered on her first day in the Threshold.
She proceeded cautiously. Everything around her was unusually quiet—until she heard faint, disordered footsteps.
The sound came from directly in front of her, about a hundred meters away. There were many footsteps, chaotic and irregular, sometimes stopping, sometimes speeding up. It wasn’t just one individual, but probably a group.
The footsteps were light, and since there was no vibration on the ground, it was likely that the creatures were small in size.
Feeling confident, Tu Ran carefully moved closer to the source.
At the same time, whatever creatures were on the other side were also approaching her.
When they were close enough, Tu Ran quickly darted behind a tree trunk and hid, waiting for the unknown creatures to approach.
She didn’t have to wait long. The footsteps grew louder behind the tree, and along with them, she heard the trembling voices of humans.
“Will that monster catch up with us?” someone whispered nervously.
Tu Ran froze, about to turn around.
Humans? Pioneers? What a coincidence?
“I don’t know, we need to get out of here. It’s too quiet,” another female voice responded, sounding strained.
Tu Ran felt a surge of confusion. Since when did pioneers become this cowardly?
She cautiously peeked out from behind the tree trunk. Three women were hurrying forward, supporting each other, their steps frantic yet careful, trying to avoid making too much noise.
What caught Tu Ran’s attention the most was their strangely inappropriate clothing.
The woman in the middle wore a white dress and white canvas shoes, with slightly wavy hair draped over her shoulders.
The woman on her left, dressed in athletic gear with her hair tied in a ponytail, was the one urging them to hurry up and leave.
On the right, the third woman had short hair, a t-shirt, and a short skirt, also wearing canvas shoes.
Tu Ran’s eyes widened in shock. She had never seen such attire in the Federation before.
These were outfits from the First World!
Upon closer inspection, she noticed that none of them carried any weapons. Their clothes were filthy, their hair wet and clinging to their faces, and the girl in the middle had three bloody gashes on her lower leg, as if slashed by sharp claws from top to bottom.
Tu Ran pressed a hand to her pounding heart, struggling to contain her excitement.
She opened her mouth, wanting to call out to them, but a furious roar from another direction drowned out her voice.
Moments later, the ground beneath her feet began to tremble. “Thud, thud, thud”—the sound of something massive stomping on the ground grew closer and closer.
The three women’s faces turned pale in an instant. The girl in the athletic outfit shouted, “Run!”
ahhh clifhanger😩