Chapter 123: Signs of a Level 3 Breakthrough
Opening the article, her eyes were met with two pictures. One showed withered, yellow leaves lying on the ground.
Think they were scorched like that by the sun?
No, that’s just how the plant naturally looks.
Scientists named this plant "Dried Greens." It’s edible as long as it’s cooked, and the taste is supposedly quite good.
The other picture was of a mushroom, very similar to the Extremely Hot Mushroom, but its cap was a much deeper color.
Flavorful Mushroom: Delicious and slightly toxic. Overconsumption will cause hallucinations, but it is not life-threatening.
Compared to starving to death, mere hallucinations really didn’t seem worth mentioning.
Moira Lynch showed the article on her phone to the other three.
The entire base was now encouraging everyone to go out and collect Dried Greens and Flavorful Mushrooms, which could be turned in for mixed-grain biscuits.
"The base is probably doing this for security reasons," Shane Rhodes analyzed.
Although the base’s location hadn’t been made public, the number of people inside was increasing every day.
If they didn’t find something for these people to do, it was only a matter of time before trouble broke out. Besides, people needed something to strive for; otherwise, all that was left in this post-apocalyptic world was panic.
However, Moira Lynch and the others didn’t plan on participating. After all, their days were packed with studying, exercising, Body Refining, practicing their Talents, and meditating. They simply had no spare time to do anything else.
Lately, Moira Lynch had felt her spiritual power become exceptionally active and difficult to control.
According to Patience’s prompts, this was a sign that she was about to break through to level three.
But this was merely a sign of the breakthrough; actually achieving it would still take some time.
Although she didn’t know what level three would be like, Moira Lynch felt she was on the very cusp of it.
But it was a step she just couldn’t seem to take, which was an incredibly frustrating feeling.
According to the information she’d looked up via Patience, Talents of the Spiritual System awaken a Spiritual Body upon reaching level three.
The earlier the Spiritual Body awakens, the better one’s innate talent.
The awakening process for a mutated talent, however, was far more difficult than for a standard Spiritual one. This process was known as a "difficult birth."
Thinking of her own mutated talent, Moira Lynch sighed. She was about to think, ’I can’t be that unlucky, right?’
The moment the thought appeared, she immediately squashed it.
’No way, no way. I absolutely cannot jinx myself.’
’Better to just let nature take its course.’
「Meanwhile」
Because of a single sentence from Moira Lynch, the entire upper echelon of Cathaya launched a massive investigation, mainly centered on those who had access to hemostatic bandages.
They were looking for someone who knew about the hemostatic bandages and was ranked ninth in their family. Regarding this last piece of information, the authorities even conducted a nationwide census to see who came from a family with nine siblings.
In this day and age, it was extremely rare for a couple to have nine children, unless it was one of those families with an extreme preference for boys, determined to have a son no matter what.
Aside from those, most families only had one or two children.
Therefore, the "ninth" most likely referred to their ranking within a large, extended family.
In the end, after several days of frantic work, they didn’t find a single trace of SoySauceDrunkard, though they did manage to root out quite a few spies.
At the same time, other countries around the world had not given up their search for Moira Lynch.
Because she had the Illusion Cloak, fortune tellers were unable to divine her location. So, these people took to posting messages, shouting out, and even incessantly harassing her with private messages in any place she might possibly see. It was incredibly annoying.
After Moira Lynch learned of this, she was silent for three seconds, then asked Patience, "Can you obtain the lists of spies that those other countries have planted?"
[I can infiltrate their systems.]
The implication was clear: it could be done.
With Caelus’s current level of technology, no firewall could stop Patience. If Moira Lynch wanted, Patience could even monitor the every move of these people in real time.
"Good. In that case, find those lists and print out a copy."
Ten minutes later, a list of spies planted by various countries in other nations was brazenly hung up in the little yellow shopping cart—no, wait, on the store shelf.
The first page, written in bold, read: List of Infiltration Personnel from Country X.
Fearing that these people wouldn’t be able to understand it at first glance, Moira Lynch had thoughtfully had it printed in their own respective languages.
If they wanted to ransom the lists back, they would have to pay to buy them.
Of course, Cathaya’s list was not among them.
In addition to those, Moira Lynch also had Patience post details on all the organizations that had appeared at home and abroad after the Great Heat—including their members, abilities, and even their locations.
These people were the main force behind her harassment.
They wanted to hide their strength and prey on the unsuspecting? Well, she simply wouldn’t let them get their way.
She was just trying to be an honest merchant, selling her goods every day. These people clearly had too much time on their hands.
All of a sudden, thanks to Moira Lynch’s latest move, international relations became exceptionally tense.
Numerous countries sent condemnations to Cathaya.
Cathaya, however, neither initiated nor responded to the matter. Don’t ask. If you did, the answer was that it had nothing to do with them.
At the same time, Moira Lynch’s actions served as a wake-up call for these nations.
This personnel data was their most confidential information, yet SoySauceDrunkard had stolen it just like that. If she hadn’t put it up for sale, they would never have even realized it was compromised.
This indicated that SoySauceDrunkard was likely a hacker with exceptional computer skills.
In the end, most of the information Moira Lynch had posted was bought back by the respective nations for a hefty price.
Although they could have simply abandoned those agents, they didn’t dare to take the gamble. What if SoySauceDrunkard didn’t get what she wanted and continued to steal their classified information?
After this incident, those who had been trying to find SoySauceDrunkard did indeed quiet down considerably.
When Moira Lynch came downstairs, she saw Shane Rhodes and Kai York sparring.
Their so-called sparring consisted of one person hitting the other twice, then switching so the other person could hit them back twice.
After this period of Body Refining, the group’s physical conditioning had improved significantly. Now, it was difficult for ordinary weapons to even harm them.
According to Patience’s explanation, their current physical strength had already reached the intensity of a level-one Body Enhancement Talent.
Once their Body Refining was complete, their physical fortitude would increase even more. By then, they could be thrown into an extreme environment and would not die instantly.
"I just learned a new move. Who wants to spar with me and test its power?" Moira Lynch asked as she descended the stairs.
The moment her words were out, Hugh Finch, who had been sitting on the sofa, rose to his feet without hesitation. "I have something to do, so I’ll have to pass."
Shane Rhodes and Kai York also stopped what they were doing in perfect sync. "We have things to do as well. Let’s put a pin in that spar for now."
Before leaving, Kai York gave Moira Lynch a look that was difficult to put into words.