Troublemakers

It had to be said, Lilia really did have a knack for provocation.

The same words, the same pose-coming from her, they made people especially want to punch her.

The Rubber Beasts in the clearing were drawn to Lilia and converged on her.

Soon, the first wave of Rubber Beasts pounced on the puppet girl.

The two sides immediately became tangled in battle.

For a time, dust and grass flew everywhere, with assorted bloody limbs and wooden parts flying out among them.

It was clear how brutal the fighting was.

Strangely, though wooden parts kept flying out, the battle never stopped, and Lilia's voice remained full of vigor:

"Ha! Taste my scythe!"

"Hey, no biting my legs!"

"Ow! Who pecked my head?!"

Soon, more and more Rubber Beasts joined the fray, and the entire scene became utterly chaotic.

Meanwhile, the area outside the battlefield became incredibly open and empty.

There were no longer any wandering Rubber Beasts blocking the way between the adventure ship and the Giant Tree Forest.

Spotlight simply hadn't expected Bai Ling to attract them this way.

Wasn't she afraid that precious eldritch servant would be beaten to death by the Rubber Beasts?

Spotlight put himself in her shoes. If he had obtained a follower of that caliber, he would have treasured them beyond measure. How could he throw them out as a punching bag to draw fire?

But Bai Ling not only showed no distress, she didn't even look worried.

A crazy, heartless woman! Spotlight made his judgment.

But that had nothing to do with him now. With the path clear, he gave the order and led his team into the Giant Tree Forest.

The Rubber Beasts inside the Giant Tree Forest were all resting in their nests. As long as they took care not to hit the giant trees, the Adventurer Group's movements would go unnoticed.

Seeing the inconspicuous impressions in the grass extend all the way into the Giant Tree Forest, Bai Ling knew her task was complete and finally let out a long breath.

It seemed she had done a good job, successfully playing the part of an ordinary, delicate female player in front of the Adventurer Group.

Uh, no, I am an ordinary, delicate female player. Bai Ling immediately corrected herself inwardly.

I can't let myself become like those eldritch beings just because I've spent too much time around them. I need to keep thinking like an ordinary player. I can't let them influence me!

Bai Ling reminded herself inwardly.

Just then, a wooden puppet arm flew out of the melee and landed right at Bai Ling's feet.

"Stay safe," Bai Ling said, picking up the arm and throwing it back to Lilia. At the same time, she looked toward the coffin. "Um... aren't you going to come out and kill all these Rubber Beasts?"

"Has the Adventurer Group gone far enough?" Lin Yuan asked from inside the coffin.

He felt that if the Adventurer Group discovered another player had been lying in the coffin the entire time, it might give them some strange ideas.

Of course, that was only because Bai Ling didn't know what Lin Yuan was thinking. Otherwise, she would definitely have told him he was overthinking things.

Lin Yuan had simply grown so used to lying in the coffin that he had completely forgotten it was an eldritch thing itself. The Adventurer Group's members had probably lost quite a bit of Sanity just looking at it earlier.

No matter how human a being crawling out of this eldritch coffin looked, no one else would think they were a player.

"They have. I can sense that their ship has already entered the depths of the Giant Tree Forest."

Bai Ling's answer also showed that the Adventurer Group's adventure ship was no ordinary object, since it could actually trigger her Inspiration.

"Okay, time to get to work!"

Lin Yuan kicked the coffin lid open and charged out.

The sight of so many Rubber Beasts had long since left him salivating.

The Shell Pump was still asleep, so Lin Yuan currently had no means of moving quickly. Fortunately, Lilia had drawn every Rubber Beast's attention, allowing him to approach the Rubber Beast Herd without trouble.

"Sea Serpent Ram!"

Faced with a heap of enemies like this, Lin Yuan wanted to test the power of his new equipment.

A phantom pointed horn over three meters long appeared above Lin Yuan, then thrust forward viciously!

Like a hot knife through butter, the ram pierced straight through every Rubber Beast in its path.

Meanwhile, the Rubber Beasts within several meters of the ram that hadn't been struck directly were frozen on the spot by the icy whirlwind stirred up by its charge.

At that moment, this ability's combination of area damage and crowd control displayed tremendous power.

More importantly, it wasn't an ultimate move that required a long cooldown after use.

Five seconds later.

"Sea Serpent Ram!"

"Sea Serpent Ram!"

In just a dozen or so seconds, every Rubber Beast had either been torn to pieces or frozen into a block of ice.

The Frost Sea Serpent Ram's freezing effect wasn't unlimited, but judging by these Rubber Beasts, a creature with an ordinary body probably couldn't realistically break out of the ice in less than a few minutes.

And that was enough time for Lin Yuan to kill them a hundred times over.

"Very good. From now on, I'll use Light Blade for single-target damage and the ram for groups. Against powerful enemies, I'll use the ram for control and Light Blade for damage. At least my close-combat options are fairly complete now."

Having tested its power, Lin Yuan was very satisfied as well.

He then collected the seeds inside every Rubber Beast and discovered that the few Rubber Beasts that looked like two creatures spliced together each contained two seeds.

The more seeds inside, the stronger the Rubber Beast? Or is it the other way around, and stronger creatures need more seeds to control them?

A question arose in Lin Yuan's mind.

But it passed in a flash. Gathering 1,000 Rubber Seeds was more important right now.

"Let's go, Lilia. Let's hunt some more Rubber Beasts in the nearby nests."

Lin Yuan called to the puppet girl. He had discovered that she could also gather enemies together when clearing out lesser monsters, which was genuinely useful.

As for Bai Ling, Lin Yuan asked whether she wanted to enter the nests with them or wait outside.

He's letting me wait outside alone? Isn't he afraid I'll run away? No, this is a trap. He's testing whether I'm thinking of escaping! After talking herself through it, Bai Ling decisively chose to go in with them.

The trio then entered the Giant Tree Forest and began clearing the Rubber Beast nests one by one, starting from the outermost ones.

The Rubber Beasts in the nests were spliced together from more kinds of creatures and were stronger than those outside.

There were even some monstrous Rubber Beasts pieced together from four or five kinds of creatures that could survive one hit from the ram.

Lin Yuan's response was simple: just ram them again.

However, after discovering that the Rubber Beasts were growing stronger, he began acting more cautiously.

He and Lilia would be fine, but if those rubber monsters formed a stampede and charged, Bai Ling might be in danger.

Whether out of humanity or practical considerations, Lin Yuan didn't want anything to happen to Bai Ling.

What he didn't know, however, was that Bai Ling was considering something else entirely:

I could only sense it after entering the nests. These nests have wills of their own, and the Rubber Beasts are merely extensions of their wills.

But the wills of these giant trees are all concentrated in a particular area. They seem to be suppressing something and don't even have time to deal with our intrusion.

The being being suppressed gives off a faint sense of hoping outsiders will enter, but not to save it. It wants them to release it...

That area is definitely extremely dangerous, but there will also be tremendous rewards...

Bai Ling had a premonition that once she led someone as powerful as Lin Yuan into that area, it would definitely cause violent upheaval throughout the entire Giant Tree Forest!

Should she tell Lin Yuan about this?

Bai Ling wrestled with it for only a moment before making up her mind.

The rougher the seas, the greater the catch! Bai Ling, think about why you entered this instance despite the risks!

Her experiences during the first few days of the game had already made her understand that players with high Inspiration like her encountered countless times more dangers and opportunities than ordinary players.

Either she used her high Inspiration to grow rapidly, or she died because of it!

"Lin... Captain," Bai Ling hesitated over how to address him, then continued, "I've sensed an unusual area. Would you like to take a look?"

Meanwhile, Spotlight led his team deep into the Giant Tree Forest aboard their adventure ship.

This stretch of forest was particularly quiet, and none of the troubles they had anticipated appeared.

That left him enough attention to observe the path ahead while thinking about Bai Ling:

That woman seems quite interested in some of the Adventurer Group's technology. She wants to acquire it through cooperation.

Heh, the Adventurer Group never refuses cooperation, but most of our partners eventually give up on their own, because we're simply too good at stirring up trouble.

Still, this operation has gone surprisingly smoothly. I wonder how things are going for that woman. Haha, surely it won't turn out that we haven't caused any trouble this time, but she has?

Spotlight then silently laughed at himself for overthinking it:

We're the ones known as "troublemakers." If even we haven't stirred anything up, it's even less likely that anything will happen on her end.

Looks like this operation will go very smoothly!