Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 38: Mocha Forest 9

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Mocha Forest 9

I followed the Budgerigar for about another half hour before finally arriving at our destination.

Actually, Moira Lynch had sensed something was off twenty minutes earlier when she heard a loud BUZZ BUZZ.

It was a sound that everyone, stung or not, would recognize.

Staring at the giant beehive on the tree, which was as big as a building, and the bees, each one the size of her face, Moira Lynch gasped.

She turned to look at the Budgerigar that had led her here. "Are you serious?"

Her only answer was a pair of innocent, beady eyes.

With a wave of her hand, she recalled the Budgerigar into her space. She wanted to leave, but she couldn’t give up on the massive beehive.

’A hive that big must have a ton of honey stored inside,’ she thought. ’And wild honey is incredibly nutritious.’

Moira Lynch remembered harvesting honey in her space once before entering the game. The Budgerigar must have seen her do it then.

She took out her Learning Machine and searched for how to harvest wild honey.

There was actually a way!

Following the method described on the Learning Machine, Moira Lynch found a nearby plant called "Bee-wilder."

When lit and placed beneath the hive, it would temporarily render the bees unable to attack. Then, all one needed was a ladder or other climbing tool to get near the hive and harvest the honey.

The Bee-wilder’s effect only lasted for half an hour, so she had to be quick.

For Moira Lynch, the tree-climbing part could be skipped entirely. She could collect the beehive with a simple raise of her hand.

However, Moira Lynch didn’t take all the honey, leaving a third for the bees.

After doing all this, she left the area without a second glance. Don’t ask why—the simple answer was that she was afraid of getting stung.

A sting from a tiny bee on Caelus was already painful enough. A sting from one of these huge bees would probably be the end of her.

Around noon, the other five parrots gradually flew back. However, it seemed they hadn’t found anything; they had simply returned because they were hungry.

One of them had a bald patch on its wing, and she couldn’t tell if it had been attacked by a player or one of the animals living in the Mocha Forest.

Moira Lynch hid in the bushes and took out a lunch box to eat. While eating, she kept an eye out for anything suitable for making a cloak.

Without some sort of weed camouflage, she felt like something was missing, leaving her with no sense of security.

After shoveling the last bite of food into her mouth, Moira Lynch wiped her lips, took out her sickle, and began cutting grass. She also tore a few vines from a nearby tree for reinforcement.

Soon, a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing grass skirt appeared in her hands. But she wasn’t done. Moira Lynch made a slightly smaller piece that fit perfectly around her neck, and with the remaining weeds, she fashioned a hat.

She looked at her new outfit with satisfaction—it was attractive yet practical. Just then, the basket in her hand twitched twice, and a white slip of paper appeared inside.

The basket Moira Lynch was currently holding wasn’t her own; it was just a random one she had taken from the baskets she’d stolen earlier.

’Didn’t they say there were no quests in this game?’ she thought, looking at the slip of paper.

She looked again at the contents of the paper. At the very top were the words "Seasonally Limited Ingredient," and below it was a drawing of a cactus, but it was purple.

Collect the fruit from the purple cactus. Fifty points per fruit.

Moira Lynch then took out all the other slips of paper from her space. Every single one of them had the words "Seasonally Limited" on them.

This meant the ingredients were only available during this season.

Excluding duplicates, there were a total of four types of seasonally limited ingredients: three plants and one insect.

Because the only insect quest came from her own basket, Moira Lynch made a point to search for it on her Learning Machine.

Immortal Cicada, an insect with a lifespan of up to a hundred years.

Moira Lynch read the description and found that the Immortal Cicada was very similar to the cicada nymphs on Caelus.

One Immortal Cicada was worth ten points. It might not seem like much, but anyone who had ever caught cicada nymphs knew that the main challenge was having a good eye; there wasn’t much other difficulty involved.

Cicada nymphs are active at night, and these Immortal Cicadas also emerged from the ground after dark.

The Mocha Forest was fraught with danger at night. Other players might give up, but for Moira Lynch, it wasn’t much of a challenge. She just wouldn’t be able to hide in her space anymore.

As for the other three plants, Moira Lynch also committed them to memory.

The Immortal Cicadas only came out at night, so she could search for the three plants during the day.

Besides her, other players were searching too. Moira Lynch could clearly feel that the forest had become much livelier, and she was encountering players more often.

Although she constantly tried to avoid contact with other players, some encounters were inevitable.

Like right now.

Standing before Moira Lynch were two men, one fat and one thin. Following behind them was the girl in the white dress.

’Meeting her twice in one day must be some kind of fate,’ she mused.

Compared to her previous arrogant demeanor, however, the girl in the white dress now seemed much gloomier, as if she had suddenly gone from a queen to a serving girl.

’What about her companions? Did they abandon her?’

But that wasn’t important now. The two men in front of her were what mattered.

"Friend, we don’t mean any harm. We just want your points," the thin man said in a low voice.

Moira Lynch cursed inwardly. ’And they call this "no harm"?’

She crossed her arms, feigning impatience. "Will you people ever give it a rest?"

"What do you mean by that?" the thin man asked.

"I mean you’re too late. My points were stolen a little while ago. If you don’t believe me, look for yourselves."

As she spoke, Moira Lynch held out the basket for them to see.

"It’s really zero," the fat man said, a little regretfully.

They had finally run into a player, only for someone else to beat them to the punch.

"Hold on," the thin man suddenly stopped Moira Lynch. "If you were robbed of your points, how come you’re not upset at all?"

Moira Lynch shrugged. "I’m just a naturally optimistic person. Besides, worrying about it won’t do any good. It’s better to use the time before the game ends to collect ingredients for more points."

The thin man nodded. Suddenly, he felt someone tugging on him from behind. He turned and met the gaze of the girl in the white dress, only then remembering his promise to her.

So he cleared his throat and, feigning a serious expression, said, "Let me check your basket again. What if you pulled some kind of trick?"

The girl’s action hadn’t escaped Moira Lynch’s spiritual power, so when the thin man spoke, she immediately understood their plan.

’Using the same method as last time might expose my identity,’ Moira Lynch thought. After a moment of consideration, she took a flashbang from her space and threw it.