The Natives of This World Are Fierce

"You’ve got some nerve, you shameless thing! Big cousin, we’ll make him bleed when we get back!"

"Mmm~"

Doudou and Qin Xiaoxia’s exchange was simple and brutal.

Then came the creepy, low chuckles of one big and one small person, "Hehehehe..." but the sound was short, lasting less than a second.

Su Su thought she was imagining the sound of that laughter, which sent shivers down her spine. When she turned around, she saw her Mentor and Doudou frowning as they looked down below.

"Mentor, did they really bomb Mumu by mistake?"

"Next time, you can ask it yourself."

"Oh..."

...

It was hard to know how to respond to the Thorns’ statement. From words like "Dark Realm Demon Vine" and "underground," it wasn’t hard to tell that this thorn plant knew about the Rong Town incident.

Of course, Huang Jiutian knew exactly when this Mumu fellow had joined Dawn—it was after Qin Xiaoxia had beaten it into submission.

Faced with such a shameless creature (or plant, rather), all he could do was curse ’What the hell...’ in his head while keeping his face expressionless.

However, his conflicted expression was now mirrored by his several Special Security Team colleagues inside the vehicle.

"Jiutian, did we bomb the wrong target last time?" someone couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Huang Jiutian quickly waved his hands.

"Even if it’s true, you can’t blame me. I’m just the Radar!"

Outside, however, after Mumu had finished its aggressive questioning and waited a while without a reply, with its "inside man" Huang Jiutian also remaining silent, it started to panic.

"You’re not planning to hit me again, are you? I’m warning you, Master Sage said I can’t hurt people proactively, but that doesn’t mean I can’t act in self-defense!! You’d better think this through!! Okay, I’m leaving now, don’t see me out!"

Mumu and Doudou had studied a lot about this world. It understood just how "insidious" a species humans were. It wanted to slip away now. ’Failing the mission just means taking some punishment, at worst.’

All bark and no bite. Completely all bark and no bite!

It wasn’t just Jiutian and the Special Security Team; this time, everyone on site could tell.

"Holy crap, it’s trying to run! Jiutian, keep it here! We can’t miss this opportunity!"

Liu Yue couldn’t be bothered with a Commander’s decorum right now; he was openly cursing.

Huang Jiutian quickly picked up the communication device to placate Mumu.

"Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t go yet. Didn’t you say we bombed you by mistake last time? If that’s true, we should at least apologize. Or you could tell us how we can compensate you?"

Liu Yue gave Jiutian a thumbs-up.

Mumu heard this and thought, ’Compensation? Way to go, Jiutian! I’ll grow you a fruit next time!’

"Okay, yes, you must compensate me! Give me back the other half of my body! Let me think, what else..."

"Right, I also want Golden Fertilizer!"

A sense of excitement tinged Mumu’s synthesized voice.

"PFFT~" "PFFT~" "PFFT~"...

Countless soldiers and police officers, who had been drinking water or eating to replenish their strength, spat everything out.

Some nearly discharged their weapons by accident and hastily flipped on the safety.

Silence fell once more inside the command vehicle.

"I want the authentic Golden Fertilizer!! The kind where a few pellets can make me grow a whole new section! They said the real stuff was monopolized long ago, and everything you can buy on the market is fake!"

Mumu was still clamoring, adding more details.

Huang Jiutian felt it was getting a bit difficult to continue this conversation.

’The monsters under Dawn’s command are truly monsters.’ He once again understood what Qin Xiaoxia meant by "short-staffed." He figured that unless it was absolutely necessary, Qin Xiaoxia didn’t consider creatures of this caliber "staff" at all. He wondered if the association had any more of these Top Grade specimens.

"Ahem... well, none of that is a problem..."

Huang Jiutian glanced at Liu Yue, who gave him an "OK" sign.

"But that part of your body is pretty far from here. Do you want to wait here for us to transport it over?"

"No way, no way!"

The large thorn plant swayed its branches from side to side.

"It’s broad daylight. If I just stand here, in Master Sage’s words, it’s called ’disrupting public order’ and will cause a panic! How about you bury my body outside the city, and I’ll go find it myself?"

While some of the things Mumu said were comical, it wasn’t stupid—it had just been scammed before. It began to use their growing trust to drop a few "hints."

Inside the command vehicle, several people quickly jotted down key information.

A lot of crucial information could be gleaned from those last few sentences.

Huang Jiutian decided to strike while the iron was hot.

"That works too. Can you tell us who the Sage really is? Is he human?"

All of the thorn plant’s branches recoiled slightly into the manhole cover.

"Don’t try to trick me. But I can tell you this: Master Sage is definitely not human!"

This brought a wave of disappointment to everyone on site. The command vehicle fell silent for a moment. Although they had been prepared for this, they had always leaned toward the hope that the mysterious faction was a human-led organization. Now, it seemed the chances of there even being humans inside were slim.

Huang Jiutian grew anxious. ’Why isn’t this thing sticking to the script? How could Qin Xiaoxia not be human?’

"Heh heh, just because Master Sage looks like you, you think he’s human? With that terrifying quality and characteristic of Magic Power, you’re telling me he’s human? In your words, that’s just you trying to flatter yourselves!"

To be honest, this was truly what Mumu thought. Whether it was his Magic Power, his body, or his Spirit, it was far more fitting to call Qin Xiaoxia an Elf than a human.

But, ultimately, Qin Xiaoxia was human, and Mumu knew this. It was just teasing them to show off its newly researched "sense of humor."

Huang Jiutian’s tone of voice suddenly became calm. ’Alright then. You’re in the fast lane on the highway to hell, with no brakes, aren’t you.’

"Did your Master Sage tell you he wasn’t human? Or did you ask him?"

"Does a question like that even need to be asked? Even if he doesn’t say it, I know!"

After answering, Mumu suddenly felt a chill. ’Maybe I shouldn’t continue this topic. Better scram.’

"Everything’s settled, so I’m leaving. Remember to bury my other part outside the city. Oh, and the Golden Fertilizer, ten bags!"

Before anyone could react, all the Thorns showing from the manhole covers retracted back into the sewer.

Huang Jiutian pounded the wall of the vehicle in frustration.

"I couldn’t keep it here!"

"Is it still in the sewers?"

"I don’t know. I lost my Perception of it the moment it went down."

"You’ve worked hard. The valuable information we’ve obtained today will likely become one of our main priorities from now on."

After a ten-minute wait, the on-site command finally gave the order to clean up the "battlefield."

In the process, someone discovered a sharp spike on the corpse of a rat. It was immediately transported to the Special Security Team’s Capital research institute for analysis and comparison with the thorn fragment.

...

Up on the construction floor, Qin Xiaoxia lost interest in watching after hearing the line "Master Sage is definitely not human." He turned to stare at Doudou with a faint, knowing smile.

He didn’t even need to ask to know who had been feeding Mumu all that nonsense. That guy only had a senior’s phone; it couldn’t receive such a rich and colorful array of "knowledge."

"Uh-heh, uh-heh... Big cousin, it was an accident..."

Doudou was frantic.

"At least I never told it you weren’t human!"

WHAM~

’This was a damn accident too.’

...

The roar of the helicopter’s propellers was deafening. There was still some distance to the airport, and Tao Xingzhi sat inside, burning with anxiety.

Only ten-odd minutes had passed, but the situation in Shen City could take a nosedive at any moment.

If he weren’t in a helicopter, if he were on the ground, he probably would have urged the driver to step on the gas for the nth time by now.

The importance of Shen City as a major economic hub goes without saying. But whether it was the rat infestation or the mutated plant, as long as the country was willing to be ruthless, they had a high degree of confidence in containing and resolving it within a small area.

But with two different mutations discovered underground in Shen City, even staging a chase between mutated creatures, Tao Xingzhi couldn’t help but wonder.

’Has the situation really gotten this bad?’

What was even more of a headache was another piece of information from the scene.

Huang Jiutian had sensed the mutated plant’s high sensitivity, so he couldn’t pull out.

Tao Xingzhi felt that Jiutian was also being somewhat headstrong, not wanting to desert his post. But since he cited his Perception as the reason, no one dared to force him.

Perhaps it was also because his previous order had made Jiutian think that his own escape might require sacrificing the lives of others to buy time.

Alright, Tao Xingzhi admitted that if the mutated plant was truly that sensitive, Liu Yue would certainly make the right choice.

This wasn’t to say the people in the Special Security Team were cold-blooded; it was simply that Huang Jiutian was far too irreplaceable.

At this anxious moment, a situation report from the front lines came over the radio.

Thirty seconds. A mere thirty seconds.

The expression on Tao Xingzhi’s face shifted dramatically, from unease to anxiety, then to a daze, and finally to utter disbelief.

’So you’re saying this is my fault?’

The situation on the ground had actually developed in a completely unexpected direction.

PS: Second Chapter of the day.

The third Chapter will definitely be after midnight, so you all should probably read it tomorrow.