Chapter 250: Giant Creatures 8
「Day Seven of the Game.」
It had been raining since last night, and it was still coming down.
Compared to before, this rain wasn’t as torrential, but it was definitely still a downpour.
Listening to the roaring sound outside, Perry Yates and Amber Sheridan sat face to face, a deck of poker cards in their hands. A plate of small red fruits sat beside them, serving as chips.
"This rain isn’t going to last until the game ends, is it? Pair of eights."
"Pair of Jacks. Probably not. After all, it’s only the seventh day of the game," Perry Yates said.
’If it was just rain, this game would be far too simple.’
She hadn’t forgotten the visions from her foreknowledge—besides the plants, there were also insects, birds, and all sorts of ferocious beasts.
’The giant plants have already appeared; it’s only a matter of time before the others do too.’
「Day Eight of the Game.」
The rain lessened, but it continued to fall. The RV’s battery was now down to half. Unsure when the rain would stop and the sun would reappear, they had to start conserving power.
The darkness wasn’t a problem for them, but they needed electricity to cook.
「Day Nine of the Game.」
The rain still hadn’t stopped. The water level was rising and was about to reach the RV’s door. Seeing this, Perry Yates couldn’t think of a better solution than to block the gaps under the door to prevent leaks.
She also sent Water Lotus out.
Because of the rain, it was difficult for her Spiritual Body to linger outside. In contrast, Water Lotus was much more covert, and with water everywhere from the rain, it was the perfect environment.
Through Water Lotus, Perry Yates learned about the situation outside. It was even worse than she had imagined.
She discovered that not only had the plants grown in size, but their very nature had changed.
Some previously harmless plants had become poisonous, while those that were already toxic had mutated in different ways.
According to the information she gathered, food shortages caused by the rain had led many people to die from accidentally eating poisonous plants.
As for getting treatment at a hospital—sorry, but the hospitals were gone. To be precise, they had been washed away by the plants and reduced to piles of rubble.
All the medicine and medical equipment inside had been rendered useless by the water.
「Day Ten of the Game.」
Good news: the rain finally stopped, and the water level was even receding.
Bad news: the insects appeared.
Perry Yates was the first to notice.
A sudden chirp in the night woke her from her sleep.
Perry Yates used her vines to find the insect that had woken her. It was a cricket, but it was larger than two adult fists put together.
’First plants, and now it’s the insects’ turn, huh?’
Perry Yates quickly woke Amber Sheridan. Together, they sealed every possible gap in the RV to prevent any insects from slipping through the cracks.
The Mosquito Repellent Incense and bug sprays they had bought before could finally be put to good use.
After they set these items out, the surroundings immediately became much quieter.
The rain stopped, and the sun came out.
The enormous sun radiated heat, constantly evaporating the moisture from the ground. The environment instantly became like a steam basket—stuffy, hot, and humid.
An environment like paradise for insects was like hell for humans.
But even so, people didn’t dare take off their clothes, because the moment they did, their bodies would be covered in various insect bites.
Some bites just left a red mark that would quickly fade, but other insects were venomous. A single bite from one of them caused an unbearable, intense pain.
In comparison, Perry Yates and Amber Sheridan had it much easier.
With their arsenal of bug-repelling artifacts, the insects didn’t dare approach. The sun was out, providing ample solar power, so the solar panels could work normally. With plenty of electricity, they could naturally turn on the air conditioning.
「Day Twelve of the Game.」
In just one day, the insects outside had grown another size larger.
Perry Yates held a half-eaten apple, observing her surroundings.
In fact, it wasn’t just the local plants and insects; even the plants Perry Yates herself had released were affected.
Their location had now transformed into a sea of roses and briars, the air thick with a rich rose fragrance.
However, Perry Yates had not, in fact, given these plants the command to bloom.
「Day Thirteen of the Game.」
Early in the morning, Perry Yates didn’t see Amber Sheridan in the RV. It wasn’t until noon that she saw him returning from a distance, seeming to drag something behind him.
As he got closer, Perry Yates saw it was a grasshopper, one meter long, which Amber Sheridan was dragging with a rope threaded through its body.
"What did you catch that for?" Perry Yates asked.
Hearing this, Amber Sheridan said with a smile, "Back in my hometown, fried grasshopper is a delicacy."
"This morning, I saw it hopping around the RV and it wouldn’t leave, so I just grabbed it. See if you can fry it up. This is high-quality protein, you know."
After hearing Amber Sheridan’s words, Perry Yates’s brow furrowed. "Leaving aside whether this thing is edible or if it’s become toxic after growing so large, where are we going to get a pot and enough cooking oil that big?"
"Looking at the size of this grasshopper, the pot would have to be over a meter wide."
Hearing Perry Yates say this, Amber Sheridan finally snapped out of his excitement. He looked at the plump, meaty grasshopper, his eyes full of regret.
"Such a big grasshopper, and we can’t even eat it. What a shame."
Perry Yates was at a loss for words.
’She just couldn’t bring herself to eat an insect.’
Just then, Perry Yates’s eyes suddenly caught a black shadow diving rapidly toward Amber Sheridan.
Without any hesitation, Perry Yates whipped out a vine, lashing it viciously at the black shadow.
Reacting instantly, Amber Sheridan dropped the grasshopper and scrambled onto the RV.
Only then did the two of them get a clear look at the black shadow. It was a mosquito, but it was the size of a soccer ball. Its needle-like proboscis, used for sucking blood, was a full twenty centimeters long and exceptionally sharp.
This was no longer a simple tool for feeding; it was a lethal weapon.
A mosquito this big... if it had succeeded just now, it probably could have run Amber Sheridan straight through. Of course, whether it would have actually succeeded is another matter entirely.
As the mosquito died, a light converged half a meter above its corpse, then transformed into a card glowing with purple light.
A two-star card!
Perry Yates hadn’t expected that a mere mosquito would drop a two-star card upon death.
This was truly a pleasant surprise.