Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Zhu Jin also seemed to sense that something was off and released his Psychic Network to get a read on the area.

The moment the Psychic Network was deployed, the vines that had been drifting gently, looking harmless, through the dense forest suddenly changed. Those once peacefully hanging tendrils now stood upright, waving wildly and threateningly toward Jiang Se and the others.

The scene was both terrifying and bizarre, enough to make your skin crawl.

It reminded Jiang Se a lot of this movie she’d once seen, Anaconda.

“What the hell?” Jiang Se blurted out, completely stunned by the sight.

She thought she had just discovered a vine secretly corroding the mecha, but she’d stumbled onto something this insane.

“Mutated plants,” Zhu Jin said urgently. “We need to run. Now!”

In the rainforest, aside from mutated animals, what people were really scared of were the mutated plants.

After all, in such a densely vegetated environment, picking out a single mutated plant was like finding a needle in a haystack. What’s more, the mutated plants in the rainforest were all incredibly deadly.

Vines coated with highly corrosive fluid lashed out toward the four of them.

“Don’t let those vines make contact! They have corrosive substances—our mecha shells can’t withstand it!” Jiang Se shouted.

The four of them took off running, with the vines chasing closely behind.

At first, Jiang Se thought the vines were attached to a single tree and that they’d be safe once they passed its range.

But reality was far from what she expected. The vines seemed almost alive, chasing after them without letting up.

Even more eerie was how the once peaceful forest seemed to bare its fangs as they ran through, only to return to calm after they had moved on.

Witnessing this, Jiang Se felt a chill down her spine. “Did we just wander into a whole forest of killer trees?”

“Looks like it,” Zhu Jin said, sounding just as shaken. “It was hidden too well in the dense woods—we didn’t notice it at all when we passed by earlier.”

“If it hadn’t lost its patience and gone after Yun, we might have walked right into its kill zone!”

Just imagining being wrapped up by all those killer vines made Jiang Se feel like she couldn’t breathe.

She could accept being eliminated, but only after a life-or-death fight with some mutant beast that ended with both sides torn up—not by these underhanded, sneaky killer vines.

This kind of elimination was just too undignified. Too humiliating!

The four of them ran flat out for about half a mile before finally gave the pursuing killer vines the slip.

Once they stopped, Jiang Se caught her breath and looked back. “Are the vines still chasing us?”

Zhu Jin released his Psychic Network to sense the area. “Doesn’t seem like they’re following us anymore. It seems we’ve escaped its range.”

“Oh, thank god,” Chu Yun said with a long sigh of relief. “That was terrifying.”

The memory of those vines, countless and blocking out the sky, chasing and surrounding them… it was like something out of an apocalypse, and it left a serious mental scar.

“Hey, Yun,” Jiang Se said, turning to Chu Yun, “is your mecha okay?”

The shoulder armor of Chu Yun’s mecha had been corroded, and left a pretty nasty-looking hole.

“Looks bad, but it should be fine. Thankfully, we got away early. If those damned vines had entangled the whole mecha, the consequences would’ve been unthinkable.”

Jiang Se climbed out of her mecha cockpit, carrying a toolbox specially designed for Mecha Pilots. “Even if it’s minor, let me patch it up for you. I expect we’ll have a tough battle in the next couple of days.”

The toolbox contained materials for mecha repairs, including a specific kind of spray paint designed for damaged mecha shells. It could get the shell back to its original state, more or less.

Although it wouldn’t be exactly the same as before, they were in a critical situation, so they couldn’t afford to be picky.

Jiang Se was careful as she applied the spray paint to the corroded area. After all, each team’s Mecha Pilot was only supplied with one bottle—every bit they used now was a bit they wouldn’t have later.

The spray took effect quickly. A black coating gradually formed over the damaged area, covering the corroded section.

“All done,” Jiang Se said. She then gave it a quick once-over of the rest of Chu Yun’s mecha.

After finishing, she looked up. “Yun, test it out. How’s it feel?”

Chu Yun tried moving around and found that the minor damages had mostly been repaired. It even felt nimbler than before.

Jiang Se also inspected and performed some maintenance on Zhu Jin and Xi Qing’s mechas.

This was part of a Mecha Pilot’s duty—handling basic maintenance and repairs for each team member’s mecha after combat.

“Phew, nothing too major, basically. It looks like we can hold out in this rainforest for a few more days!” Jiang Se said once she was done.

“Thanks for doing that, Jiang Jiang!” Chu Yun said gratefully. “It’s times like this I really get how amazing Mecha Pilots are!”

“Yeah,” Zhu Jin agreed. “A team can do without anyone *except* the Mecha Pilot!”

“No doubt,” Xi Qing agreed.

“Alright then,” Jiang Se said, stretching before she climbed back into her mecha’s cockpit.

The air out in the rainforest was humid and stifling, unlike the climate-controlled and filtered environment inside the mecha cockpit.

Zhu Jin glanced at the darkening sky. “Now we gotta figure out where we’re spending the night!”

“You saw it yourselves—this rainforest is complicated. One wrong step could mean disaster, especially at night when things become even more unpredictable.”

If daytime was already as dangerous as what they had just experienced, no one dared to imagine what would happen after nightfall.

“Yeah,” Jiang Se said, thinking. “Where should we set up camp?”

“Hey, wait. Do you guys notice something?” Chu Yun said, her eyes scanning the area. “This place we’re in now is unusually quiet.”

It was more than just quiet—the place was dead silent, unnervingly so.

Aside from plants, there didn’t seem to be any trace of animals around.

Jiang Se thought for a moment. “Actually, that kinda makes sense. Think about what’s right next to us.”

What was next to them?

Naturally, it was that killer tree that devoured everything in its path. The immobile plants might be fine—even that deranged killer tree wouldn’t bother them—but any birds or beasts would be in trouble.

Recalling the chilling vines of the killer tree, Jiang Se thought to herself that even the giant crocodile they encountered when they first landed would likely stand no chance against it.

After all, the crocodile only has four legs, while this omnipresent killer tree has thousands of vines—it’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight!

What’s more, the weak point of the killer tree should be its root system, but given the terrifying scene we just witnessed, we were too busy fleeing for our lives to carefully analyze exactly where the tree’s roots are located.

"I have an idea," Jiang Se said. "Why don’t we just find a spot nearby to set up camp? After all, the killer tree’s roots won’t reach here anytime soon, and from the looks of it, the area around this tree seems pretty safe."

Zhu Jin: Seriously?!

It’s a good plan—it’s just that it sounds absolutely terrifying, yet it feels perfectly in line with Jiang Se’s talent for wild ideas.