Chapter 167: Insecticide Water
Outside the base, four cocoons formed by insects appeared.
Kai York’s voice came from one of the cocoons.
"Boss, how much longer do we have to walk?"
Shane Rhodes’s voice emerged from another cocoon. "The military has cleared out all the Insect Attracting Grass around the base. If we want to find any mature plants, we’ll probably have to go much farther out."
Moira Lynch listened to their voices, her vision completely blocked by countless insects. She couldn’t help but sigh.
The insects constantly swarmed around them, like a pack of Hunters waiting in ambush. The moment the Insect Attracting Grass lost its effect, they would swarm in for the kill.
Right now, the best solution was to find mature Insect Attracting Grass as quickly as possible.
Moira’s previous research hadn’t been thorough enough.
She knew that ingesting immature Insect Attracting Grass repelled the insects. What she hadn’t realized was that the seeds from a mature plant, when soaked in water, created the best insecticide.
But it seemed they had discovered this a little too late. All the Insect Attracting Grass around the base had been uprooted, leaving only a few newly sprouted ones.
If they wanted to collect mature Insect-attracting Grass Seeds, they had no choice but to venture farther away.
After about half an hour of walking, Moira could feel the swarm of insects around her thicken in an instant.
Enveloped within the swarm, she felt as if she were plunged into darkness. Beyond that, she could feel the air growing thinner.
It was then that Moira realized the insects weren’t just waiting to ambush them. They had another goal: to kill them right then and there.
Moreover, from the very beginning, the insects had been subtly trying to influence their direction.
If it weren’t for Moira’s spiritual power, they might have actually been led astray.
’Can’t wait any longer.’ The sudden increase in insects meant that there must be Insect Attracting Grass nearby.
Moira decided to use her spiritual power to search directly.
Before long, a black, fully mature stalk of Insect Attracting Grass appeared in Moira’s hand.
She held the pod between two fingers and squeezed lightly. A crisp CRACK echoed.
The next second, five or six soybean-sized seeds fell from inside it into Moira’s palm.
She brought them closer to her nose. The black seeds smelled of earth and fresh grass.
She took out a spray bottle she had prepared earlier, already filled with water.
Unscrewing the cap, she dropped the seeds inside and shook it vigorously a few times. The clear water quickly turned a shimmering gold color.
Grabbing the bottle, Moira began spraying wildly at the overwhelming swarm of insects around her.
The moment the insects came into contact with the seed-infused water, the effect was almost instantaneous.
Huge swaths of insects rained down from the sky.
Soon, a thick layer piled up at Moira’s feet, covering the tops of her boots.
And for some reason—whether out of fear or something else—after she had eliminated the insects immediately surrounding her, no more dared to gather nearby.
Seeing this, Moira breathed a sigh of relief, a wave of ease washing over her.
While the insects hadn’t landed directly on her before, they had still been a nuisance, like trying to hold an umbrella on a windy day.
After an irresistible stretch, Moira finally remembered Shane and the others.
She glanced around and immediately spotted three oval cocoons moving slowly. For some reason, the three of them were heading in a completely different direction.
Seeing this, Moira quickly ran over, raised her spray bottle, and doused all three of them.
"Are you guys okay?" Moira asked.
Kai York jumped away from the pile of dead insects at his feet. "I’m fine, just a little tired. It felt like I was carrying a mountain while running a 5K."
Shane Rhodes’s gaze, however, was fixed on the spray bottle in Moira’s hand.
"You found the Insect-attracting Grass Seeds?"
"Yeah." Moira shook the bottle in her hand. "Got lucky and found one. There should be more up ahead."
Their main purpose for coming out here was to find Insect-attracting Grass Seeds.
Just then, Moira’s spiritual power suddenly detected something.
’What is that shape?’
’A giant mushroom?’
’No, mushrooms can’t move.’
’And there’s something strange under its cap, too.’
She checked the direction—it was exactly where Shane and the others had been heading.
"By the way, why were you three heading in that direction just now?" Moira asked them.
At her question, Shane Rhodes, Kai York, and Hugh Finch all looked confused.
"What do you mean? I was just following the Boss’s voice," Kai said.
The group looked at Shane.
Shane, in turn, looked at Hugh Finch. "I was following Hugh’s voice."
And Hugh just pointed at Kai, indicating he had been following him.
At this, Moira got up, found a few more mature stalks of Insect Attracting Grass, and then took four backpack-style pesticide sprayers out of her Space Button.
The water was a pre-prepared solution. She filled a sprayer with the insecticide water for herself and each of the others, then said, "Let’s go check it out. I have a feeling something’s off with these insects."
Moira simply made up an excuse.
Given Moira’s talents, Shane and the other two didn’t suspect a thing.
Kai York looked at the pink sprayer he was given and asked curiously, "Moira, when on earth did you prepare all this stuff?"
"I traded for them with someone in the System Shop," Moira explained.
She wasn’t lying. She had indeed just traded for the sprayers.
After all, no matter how well-prepared she was with supplies, it was impossible to anticipate everything.
’Who would have thought you’d need pesticide sprayers in the apocalypse?’
And so, the group moved forward with the sprayers on their backs, led by Moira.
About ten minutes later, Moira’s pace suddenly slowed, and her breathing grew much softer.
Kai York could sense things through the wind.
"Boss, I can feel something huge up ahead."
For Kai to say that meant the thing he was sensing wasn’t a rock or a hill; it was most likely a living creature.
At that moment, Moira added, "It’s definitely huge."
Through her spiritual power scan, she could clearly sense that the creature was over twenty meters tall—and that was just its height.
"I’ll do a divination."
As he spoke, Hugh Finch closed his eyes, muttering under his breath as one hand began making rapid calculations.
A moment later, Hugh slowly opened his eyes. "No danger."