Friend, Want a Coconut?

Liu Qiang was gathering mulberry stalks on the outskirts of the jungle.

He tirelessly stripped off the leaves along their grain and tossed them aside.

Though he was already drenched in sweat, he could not hide the joy in his eyes.

"Mulberry stalks are good stuff! The juice you boil out of them is sweet and really filling! It'd be even better if we could filter it, dry it, and make griddle cakes!"

When they had first set out to sea a year ago and passed Stone Ape Island for the first time, their fleet had gathered these mulberry stalks.

The memory was still fresh.

Liu Qiang could not help thinking back to before the apocalypse.

Almost every autumn, his mother would go up the mountain to dig up a kind of ugly root.

She would bring them home, wash them, chop them into chunks, grind out the juice with a stone mill, add something to let it settle, pour it out, then filter and dry it.

Then she would mix it into flour and cook it into flatbreads. One bite tasted so good you could bite your tongue off.

Sadly, the apocalypse had come, and his mother had not escaped the anomaly in the well.

He would never eat his mother's griddle cakes again...

A pang filled Liu Qiang's heart. He rubbed his eyes and was about to get back to work.

Suddenly, a hand gently patted his shoulder from behind.

"Hey, friend, a fresh coconut... want one?"

"What coconut? The boss already said..."

Liu Qiang wanted to snap.

Boss Wang had already told them not to talk or wander off once they landed, just gather supplies.

Why wouldn't this person listen?

Had he had enough of living and wanted to become a bullet in the boss's gun?

No, he was going to milk this secret for life!

Whoever this was, unless they gave him seven or eight Green Fruits as hush money today, he would report this to Boss Wang!

Liu Qiang made up his mind.

He turned around and immediately froze.

He had never seen this person aboard the ship!

It was an ordinary middle-aged woman with disheveled hair and a filthy face.

Despite the blazing sun, she wore a padded cotton jacket and trousers.

Holding a coconut, she beamed at him.

"Hey, friend, want a coconut?"

Her mouth clearly had not moved, yet the question came out of it.

Liu Qiang turned back around and clenched his teeth.

Sweat poured from his forehead. He pretended not to see her and certainly did not answer.

Even a corn on your foot could tell this woman was not human. She was an anomaly!

"Hey, friend, want a coconut?"

The woman asked again, her tone growing impatient.

"You're the ones who wanted coconuts, aren't you? Why won't you admit it!"

The woman grew more and more agitated.

She shouted with a hideously contorted face, then abruptly shoved the coconut into Liu Qiang's arms.

"No, I don't want it!"

Utterly terrified, Liu Qiang could no longer keep up the act. He immediately tried to throw the coconut away and run, but it was already too late.

Crack!

Without warning, a huge mouth split open on the coconut.

In an instant, it bit off Liu Qiang's head and began chewing with loud crunches.

The woman waited a moment, then gave Liu Qiang, who lay on the ground, a puzzled shove.

"Hey! You haven't paid yet!"

Liu Qiang: ...

"Hey! The coconut-is it not to your taste?"

Liu Qiang: ...

She kicked him a few more times, but Liu Qiang still did not move.

Grumbling, the woman picked up the coconut and headed deeper into the jungle.

"If you don't want it, just say so. Why pretend to sleep... broke-ass."

A commotion broke out among the survivors who had been gathering mulberry stalks in an orderly fashion.

The moment people started screaming and running for their lives, Wang Tai knew things had gone wrong.

Even if the anomaly had not come before, it would come now after hearing the noise.

He could only hope it was not very powerful and could be dealt with in two shots.

"Take the supplies back to the ship. I'll cover the retreat!"

At his command, the panicked crowd hoisted the mulberry stalks they had gathered and ran toward the shore.

Seeing everyone flee, the woman selling coconuts let out a furious shriek.

"Coconuts, coconuts, who wanted coconuts!"

She stumbled into the crowd.

She asked everyone she could like a madwoman.

Some people swung wooden clubs and axes at her, but they all passed straight through her body without doing any damage.

This was an anomaly's most powerful ability-only anomalies could touch humans, while humans could not touch anomalies.

Except for Beyonders!

Qin Mao backed up a few steps and followed the crowd as they withdrew.

For a moment, he thought the woman resembled a delivery worker whose order was about to run late, lost among the densely packed cubicles of an office building and unable to find the recipient.

"Ah! Who's picking on a poor woman like me!"

Seeing that almost everyone had escaped, she cried out anxiously.

She grabbed a random survivor nearby and shoved the coconut into his arms.

"You're the one who ordered it, right?"

"Fuck, I didn't order-" the man swore loudly.

Bang-

[Just Verdict] let out a tremendous roar!

Wang Tai's wish to save ammunition had fallen through after all. He had no choice but to act.

A fishbone bullet slammed into the woman's head.

Then its Explosion effect triggered, instantly scattering countless bone fragments.

The coconut-selling woman's head burst like a watermelon, and her body was knocked back two or three meters.

"At least I saved o-"

Before he could finish, there was a crack, and the unlucky man who had been forced to hold the coconut lost his head.

"Damn it, I didn't save him!"

"Forget it. At least this anomaly needs five minutes to regrow its head. That should be enough for everyone to escape."

Wang Tai cursed inwardly and urged everyone to run.

One bullet. Not bad. The loss was not too severe.

But what happened next left him dumbfounded.

In only about ten seconds, the head that [Just Verdict] had blasted apart grew back.

Only this time, the newly grown head belonged to a teenage boy.

The boy nervously scrambled up, retrieved the coconut, and turned his gaze toward Wang Tai.

"Uncle, did you buy this coconut?"

"What?! How was it so fast!"

That wasn't right. The ship's log definitely couldn't be mistaken, and there was no reason to record it incorrectly!

The fleet had encountered this anomaly on its last voyage.

After his own captain, who belonged to the [General] Sequence, smashed his head, it had clearly taken about five minutes for a new one to grow!

Even if there was a discrepancy between reality and the record, it could not possibly be this large!

Could it be... because he wasn't a Beyonder after all, and was too weak?

Or...

Thoughts raced through his mind as he covered the crowd's retreat and aimed his gun at the boy holding the coconut.

No, there weren't many people left aboard. He couldn't let anyone else die, could he?

If there were too few people, he would probably still die trying to sail alone.

Fortunately, the coconut-holding boy had already witnessed the gun's power and did not dare act rashly.

He only kept moving his mouth, trying to sell Wang Tai the coconut.

Wang Tai aimed coldly without replying.

The first people to escape had already boarded the ship, and the boy grew more anxious as he watched.

He lunged several times, only for Wang Tai to stop him with gunfire.

The cost was two bullets.

Whether he shot the head, chest, or legs, each hit could only buy about ten seconds.

The boy followed the crowd as they retreated.

Seeing that they had reached the ship and that these living meals were about to escape, he threw back his head and roared in fury and frustration.

"Why! Why won't you buy my coconuts!"

"You're all bad people! You all deserve to die!"

By the end, even his vocal cords had torn, producing a terrifying, hoarse, indescribable cry.

Without dodging or evading, he lunged at Wang Tai.

Already prepared, Wang Tai sidestepped him and moved to aim at the anomaly and fire.

But a bundle of mulberry stalks happened to lie scattered right beside the ship, washed over by seawater and almost impossible to see without looking closely.

He stumbled, tripped over the mulberry stalks, and fell to the ground, kowtowing to the boy on the spot.

The boy froze for a moment, then lunged at him with a delighted grin...

"Eat coconuts, eat coconuts, hehe, everyone come eat coconuts..."

"Dad said coconuts are the most nutritious. They've got ten times the vitamins of beef!"