Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 31: Mocha Forest 2

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Mocha Forest 2

Then she remembered the warning not to carry it. It seemed to be true—her entire hand had started to stiffen just from holding the stone.

Best of all, it was reusable.

’If I could bring this back to Caelus...’

A smile tugged uncontrollably at Moira Lynch’s lips.

If her rational side hadn’t reminded her that the game was more important, she would have been tempted to stay in the stream and hunt exclusively for these Water-cooling Stones.

Water-cooling Stones only formed in pristine streams, and they had to be soaked in clean stream water to regenerate.

To avoid the possibility that the water on Caelus wouldn’t be up to standard, Moira Lynch planned to dig a pond in her personal space to store the stream water.

She got to work immediately.

Moira Lynch put away the Water-cooling Stone. While she continued searching for ingredients, she also began a major landscaping project in her personal space, all the while glancing over at the stream from time to time to see if any new Water-cooling Stones had appeared.

Fortunately, Moira Lynch had been training herself to multitask.

Juggling three tasks at once made her seem a bit flustered, but it was still manageable.

Just then, Moira Lynch sensed an unusual stirring up ahead.

She immediately dropped into a crouch. Lightening her footsteps, she crept forward, one slow step at a time.

Carefully parting the tall grass, she saw a giant rabbit, as tall as a sitting adult, grazing.

Moira Lynch was simultaneously surprised and unsurprised. She had expected the fauna of the galaxy to be large, but a rabbit of this size still gave her a jolt.

’How am I supposed to catch this?’

’And what would I do after I caught it?’

’Just stuff it in the basket?’

She glanced at the rabbit’s massive frame, then at the basket in her hand. The basket probably wasn’t even as big as the rabbit’s front teeth.

But there was no way Moira Lynch was going to give up on the prey right in front of her.

She silently shifted her position, a Repeating Crossbow materializing in her hand.

A crossbow was much simpler to use than a regular bow, not to mention more compact and convenient.

She had smeared a tranquilizer on the crossbow bolt’s tip.

She had originally considered using poison, but since this was an ingredient, she’d decided a tranquilizer was better.

Once she was in a good position, she aimed for the rabbit’s eye and fired!

The bolt shot straight through the rabbit’s eye.

Blinded and panicked, the rabbit began to charge about wildly. A moment later, it slammed headfirst into a large tree, killing itself on impact.

Watching from the bushes, Moira Lynch excitedly stepped forward. ’So *this* is what it feels like to have a rabbit run right into a tree for you! What a rush!’

’It would be great if every hunt was this easy.’

With that thought, Moira Lynch grabbed the rabbit by its ears and tried to stuff it into the basket.

However, at that moment, a message suddenly popped up from the basket.

[Please process meat ingredients before Teleportation.]

Looking at the enormous rabbit, she sighed. ’Looks like I’ll have to play butcher.’

Before, Moira Lynch would never have been able to do this. But now, having long anticipated such a day, she was fully prepared.

She took out the tools she had prepared long ago and began to process the rabbit in front of her.

She worked for a good two hours, but in the end, the basket only accepted four cleaned rabbit legs. It rejected the rest.

Moira Lynch stored the rest of the rabbit in her personal space. There was still plenty of meat left over, plus a rabbit hide.

She finally understood. These Starfarers were incredibly picky eaters. They only ate the tastiest parts, and the rest was hers.

Moira Lynch then went into full hunting mode. Rabbits, pheasants—her crossbow bolts never missed their mark. The points in her basket began to climb rapidly.

Unfortunately, despite searching for so long, she hadn’t found a single trace of an Energy Ore.

If things continued like this, Moira Lynch seriously doubted whether she could find all ten Energy Ores before the game ended.

When evening came, Moira Lynch began looking for a place to rest.

The previous two game rounds had taken place on a ranch and a farm, so she hadn’t faced any real danger even without sleep. This, however, was a Primeval Forest, and Moira Lynch wasn’t about to gamble with her life.

The pond in her space was dug. Now she just needed to rest a bit before she could start filling it with water.

Moira Lynch found a tree near the stream and climbed it with some difficulty. After confirming there was no danger around, she hid herself within the dense canopy.

As Nightfall descended, the once-quiet Mocha Forest came alive with activity.

Then, Moira Lynch saw it: the unremarkable stream from the daytime had turned a brilliant blue under the cover of darkness.

’So all the pebbles in the entire stream are Water-cooling Stones?’

Not only that, but she also discovered a faint green light glowing from under the large trees on the ground.

Moira Lynch took out her Learning Machine and did a search.

Water Wood Stone, also a specialty of the Mocha Forest. Its effect was to allow plants to grow healthily in even the harshest environments, and it could shorten a plant’s growth cycle by half.

After reading the description, Moira Lynch’s eyes lit up again. If not for the obvious danger, she would have jumped down to start collecting the stones immediately.

At this moment, a shrill and terrified scream suddenly echoed from the distant forest.

Even from so far away, the fear in the screamer’s voice was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

The sound also served as a stark reminder to the other players in the forest. This game was different from the previous two rounds. While failure didn’t mean death, no one wanted to be disqualified due to a moment of carelessness.

The restless impulse that had been building in Moira Lynch subsided, and her reason returned.

’I’d better just meditate. Sleep is out of the question. I’m at least twenty meters off the ground. If I fall while fast asleep, I’ll be crippled, if not dead.’

Throughout the night, terrified screams from players and unsettling roars echoed continuously from the forest, making it impossible for Moira Lynch to concentrate even in meditation.

As the sky began to lighten, the sounds in the forest finally stopped. Moira Lynch took out a ladder, climbed down from the tree, and without a moment’s delay, began picking up stones from the ground.

She collected them all the way to the riverbank, to the spot where she had set her fishing net. Countless slender, silver-scaled fish were trapped inside.

Grabbing a small fish and tossing it into the basket, Moira Lynch’s breath hitched as she watched her points change.

A single palm-sized fish was worth fifty points!

Keep in mind, a single rabbit leg was worth a mere five points, making four of them a total of twenty points—and that was after they were fully processed.

Looking at the school of fish in the net, Moira Lynch felt her victory in this round was assured.

While tossing the fish into the basket one by one, she also siphoned stream water into the pond she had dug in her space.

Soon, the pond was filled with stream water. Moira Lynch even tossed some of the small silver fish inside.

After taking all the silver fish from the net, Moira Lynch reset the fishing net trap and then began to collect stones.

A large number of Water-cooling Stones were thrown into the pond in her space. The small silver fish inside, which had been a bit unsettled, instantly calmed down after sensing the presence of the Water-cooling Stones.