Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 39: Mocha Forest 10

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Mocha Forest 10

An intense flash of light instantly blinded the others present.

Moira, however, had slipped on a pair of sunglasses just before the flashbang detonated. As the others stumbled around in panicked blindness, she dashed forward, snatched the basket from the skinny man’s hands, and then turned and fled.

As she made her escape, she didn’t forget to toss back a tear gas canister.

Moira sprinted without stopping, finally diving into a patch of tall grass.

She looked at the basket she’d stolen. There was no name displayed on it, but it held a little over a hundred thousand points.

She transferred the points to her own basket. Moira, who had previously dropped to seventh place, now shot up to third.

Moira hadn’t taken both men’s baskets. Firstly, she was worried the girl in the white dress would connect her current self to her previous disguise.

Her second reason, of course, was to make the three of them turn on each other.

After something goes wrong, people never look to themselves for the cause.

Now, only one of the three still had a basket, which meant only one of them could stay in the game.

Although they could try robbing others, they couldn’t take on stronger players, and weaker players had too few points to guarantee they’d qualify.

Therefore, those three would definitely do everything in their power to snatch the remaining basket.

Moira glanced down at her clothes and sighed. ’I just changed into this new outfit, and now I have to change my look again.’

Inside her space, Moira changed into a slightly loose-fitting sweatsuit and sneakers. She swapped her hat for a light-colored sun hat and removed the cross-shaped earring from her ear.

Emerging from her space, she looked down at her spotless clothes. ’When my outfit was black, it didn’t matter if it was clean. But a light-colored outfit this pristine will look unnatural.’

So, Moira found a muddy-looking patch of ground, lay down, and started rolling around.

Once her clothes were sufficiently grimy, she stopped, stood up, and then wiped her dirt-caked hands on her face mask a couple of times.

By afternoon, Moira still hadn’t found the plant depicted on the slip of paper, and she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

As she was walking, her Spiritual Body suddenly detected something unusual.

Not too far ahead, quite a few players seemed to be gathered together.

Remembering the slip of paper from that morning, Moira hunched over, secured her cloak, and crept closer, concealed by the tall grass.

Carefully parting the grass, she saw a clearing open up before her.

Unlike the rest of the forest, which only received dappled sunlight, this clearing was bathed in bright afternoon sun.

In the center of the clearing stood a purple, cactus-like plant, surrounded by many smaller cacti.

Moira quickly took out a white slip of paper and compared it carefully.

’That’s it. This is the limited-time ingredient I’ve been looking for.’

However, she wasn’t after the cactus itself, but the purplish-red fruits growing on top of it.

In the sunlight, the purplish-red fruits were translucent, like purplish-red gemstones.

’But a plant this large...’

Moira’s gaze shifted to the base of the plant.

’I’d bet anything there are a ton of Energy Ores at the roots of this plant.’

It was just that the plants were preventing her spiritual power from detecting them.

But...

Moira fell silent as she looked around. Numerous sharp thorns were embedded in the surrounding tree trunks and stuck in the ground. Some were even stained with fresh blood.

The longest of these thorns were longer than her arm and incredibly sharp. Getting hit by one would undoubtedly leave a bloody hole in you.

It reminded her of that formidable Glazed Thorny Grass.

Moira hid in the grass, her mind racing.

’I could just pull this whole cactus-like plant into my space, but with other people around... and since I just got here, if the plant suddenly disappeared, I’d definitely be the prime suspect.’

’Besides, if I put it in my space, what if the thorns accidentally hurt the other animals in there? Would I even be able to go inside myself anymore?’

But leaving now wasn’t an option either. She couldn’t bear to part with the massive number of points, nor the Energy Ores under the ground.

Just then, the grass nearby rustled twice.

Moira had known for a while that two people were hiding there; she had just been pretending not to notice.

A moment later, a somewhat youthful face emerged from the grass and pointed in a specific direction for Moira.

Seeing this, Moira hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to follow and see. ’If there’s danger,’ she thought, ’I’ll just use a flashbang.’

’Besides, the plant has plenty of fruit—more than enough for several people to share.’

She checked her equipment, put away her cloak, and then, carrying a basket with only a few points in it, she headed in the direction the person had pointed.

Before she even got close, Moira realized quite a few people had gathered there—nine of them. Including her, that made ten in total: six men and four women.

Aside from her, the last to arrive, the other nine were not a cohesive group. It was clearly a temporary team-up, and they didn’t trust each other, which was obvious from their positioning.

The young man who had directed Moira was with three other men. Of the remaining five, two men and two women formed another group. The last one was a woman, like Moira, with short, neat hair and a sharp gaze. You could tell at a glance she was a trained fighter.

Moira stood at the back of the crowd, trying to minimize her presence. Everyone was silent, warily watching one another.

A few more minutes passed before another group arrived.

When Moira saw who it was, she cursed internally, ’What rotten luck.’

It was the trio she had run into not long ago: the skinny man, the fat man, and the girl in the white dress.

Compared to before, the three of them looked much more disheveled. They were covered in new scratches, the girl in the white dress had lost one of her shoes, and her hair was a mess.

Notably, their single remaining basket was in the skinny man’s hands.

She silently withdrew her gaze. The group waited a few more minutes, and after confirming no one else was coming, one of the men from the group of four spoke up.

"Everyone’s here for the system’s limited-time ingredient collection quest. But we’ve already tried—as soon as anyone attempts to get close, the plant automatically shoots out its thorns.

"Trying to get near that plant for the ingredient is impossible with just one or two people. We have to cooperate. The plant’s attacks cover a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees with no blind spots."

After speaking, the man looked at the crowd, his unspoken message clear: don’t think you can get lucky and do it alone.