Chapter 269 – Sharing Information
But this was exactly what Tu Ran wanted, as, from this angle, the creature’s mouth was wide open, directly facing her.
The frog seemed to realize this too, struggling violently and desperately trying to retreat and close its mouth. Its claws dug deep marks into the ground, but it was futile; it couldn’t move Tu Ran even a bit.
Tu Ran raised her laser gun, aimed at its wide-open mouth, and pressed the firing button.
The blade of light shot forth, piercing into the soft tissue inside the frog’s mouth with unstoppable force.
After a fierce sound of burning, the frog’s tongue was severed.
Since it had been stretched so tightly, the sudden break caused it to snap back, rebounding entirely onto Tu Ran.
The limp, sticky tongue clung to her head and face, making Tu Ran stomp in disgust as she hurriedly shook it off and took several steps back.
The frog was not dead.
The intense pain from losing its tongue made it extremely irritable, and now, without the restraint of its tongue, it kept its mouth tightly shut, leaving Tu Ran with no opening to strike.
“Gwaaah!”
The frog lunged at her, its eyes blood-red with vengeance.
Tu Ran dodged, stepping back just as the frog’s attack missed, leaving a deep crater in the ground as dirt flew everywhere.
She raised an arm to shield her visor from the flying soil.
The frog continued to leap at her, determined to crush her into paste with its massive size.
Its attack strength wasn’t particularly high, nor was its intelligence. The terrifying part was its impenetrable defense.
Forced to retreat repeatedly, Tu Ran noticed countless deep pits forming in the forest floor from its impacts.
Finally, Tu Ran decided to go on the offensive.
She stowed the laser gun on her back, leapt into the air, and with terrifying force, descended onto the uneven surface of the creature’s back.
The creature was overpowered by the strong force, its forelimbs bending under the pressure.
Tu Ran knelt down on one knee, lowering her center of gravity. Grabbing two scales at the back of its neck with both hands, she activated [Immense Strength] before the creature could react.
“Riiiip—”
The two scales, tightly pressed together, were torn apart, revealing the dark green flesh beneath.
A foul stench hit her face.
Tu Ran gagged slightly, quickly activating the air purification device and taking out her laser gun, aiming it at the exposed flesh and firing.
A blue flame laser beam pierced straight down through the creature’s spine.
In an instant, its consciousness was extinguished, and it fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Tu Ran didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she took out a dagger, forcing herself to sift through the back of its neck until she found a shining inner core.
Superpower: [Super Jump]
Tu Ran jumped down from the creature and regrouped with the three people hiding behind a tree.
Li Rui stared at her, her eyes wide with amazement. “Tu Ran! How are you so incredible?! You actually managed to kill that massive creature!”
Her words couldn’t fully express her shock and admiration.
She grabbed Tu Ran’s hand, holding it to his chest. “You must be sent from heaven to save us! I thought I had terrible luck ending up in this messed-up world, but it turns out I was meant to meet you here!”
Tu Ran blushed at the genuine compliment and quickly changed the topic, “Let’s go somewhere else to talk.”
“Yes, yes,” Li Rui eagerly let go of her hand, fully supporting her decision—clearly her number one fan.
Xiang Sheng and Song Bai, watching her reaction, didn’t know what to say.
After moving a safe distance from the frog-like creature’s corpse, Tu Ran opened her palm, revealing the inner core she had just extracted for everyone to see.
“What is this?” Li Rui leaned in for a closer look and poked it with her finger. “It looks like a pearl.”
“It even glows. Is it a high-quality pearl?” Xiang Sheng guessed.
Tu Ran shook her head, pinching the core between her fingers. “This thing is called an inner core. It grows naturally inside creatures like this one. If a human consumes it, they gain some of the creature’s abilities.”
Li Rui opened her mouth in surprise. “Ah… Is it really that magical?”
They could understand the existence of alien creatures, products born in specific natural environments, with their large size and ugly appearance not being their fault. But what was an inner core?
Noticing the skepticism in the eyes of the three, Tu Ran ignored it and continued explaining. “This toad has the ability of [Super Jump], allowing it to jump ten times higher than an average human. Whoever consumes this inner core will gain this ability. Who wants to give it a try?”
The three exchanged glances, and finally, Xiang Sheng spoke up first. “I’ll try it.”
Tu Ran didn’t hand the inner core over immediately; she maintained her stance. “There’s one more thing you need to know: the abilities associated with inner cores are varied and bizarre. From what I understand, there’s an ability that allows someone to see if others possess an inner core. If that person wants to take your inner core, it’s clear that you would be in danger.”
“Also, if you consume an inner core and it gets removed, you will fall into a coma. If you can’t retrieve the inner core within a month, you will die.”
Tu Ran looked seriously at Xiang Sheng. “You need to be mentally prepared for this.”
Listening to Tu Ran’s solemn explanation, Xiang Sheng suddenly started to believe it.
She nodded. “I understand. I can handle the risk.”
“Good.” Tu Ran handed the inner core to her.
Xiang Sheng took the inner core without hesitation and tossed it directly into her mouth.
Just as she was about to swallow, she realized the inner core was gone, and a flow of energy surged through her body. Her pupils dilated as she looked at Tu Ran in disbelief.
It was real!
“Jump and see,” Tu Ran prompted her.
“Okay.” With that, Xiang Sheng slightly bent her knees and jumped upward.
She was athletic and had previously measured her vertical leap at 70 centimeters, but this time, she soared far beyond that. She continued to rise, showing no signs of stopping.
As she watched the ground and Tu Ran receding further and further away, the shock in her heart was beyond words.
Oh my God, what kind of world was this? The height had far exceeded the laws of physics; even Newton wouldn’t be able to explain it.
On the ground, Li Rui and Song Bai stared at the unnatural height in shock, rendered speechless.
When Xiang Sheng finally descended back to the ground, she bent her knees to absorb the impact. Standing up, she brushed the dust off her hands, exclaiming, “This is unbelievable!”
Still feeling a bit incredulous, she stretched her legs, tested her strength, and jumped lightly again, reaching the peak height she had previously achieved in her best days.
Finally calming down and accepting the reality of the situation, she asked, “Why is this happening? What’s going on? Isn’t this the world of Classic of Mountains and Seas? I’ve never heard of monsters from Classic of Mountains and Seas having inner cores.”
“I can’t explain all of this to you,” Tu Ran lowered her head and smiled bitterly. “The events I’ve experienced over the past few months have truly shattered my understanding of things.”
She lifted her head to face the three girls before her. “I’m sharing this about the inner core because three worlds have connected, and these connections may increase over time. I can’t even imagine what kind of scenarios might emerge from that.”
“In these three worlds, our world is at a disadvantage. I hope to quickly address these disadvantages; the inner core is our only starting point. The technological world has only just become aware of the inner core and doesn’t have much of an advantage over us. There is hope for our world to catch up.”
“As we are currently trapped in this world, it’s uncertain whether we can return to the First World, and whether everyone can return to the First World is also unknown. The more people who know about the inner core, the greater the chance of being able to bring it back to the First World.”
yayy plot direction