People from the First World

Tu Ran waded ashore and turned back to look at Zha, who was spinning in circles while munching on an apple. She waved. "Goodbye."

With that, she let her intuition guide her toward the mountain where Fatty was.

The weather had been pleasant along the way, with temperatures gradually warming. Tu Ran walked in fits and starts, killing any exotic creatures with inner cores she encountered and stuffing tasty fruits into her space.

The space was already piled high with things, but she couldn't be bothered to tidy up.

Today, Tu Ran walked from morning to dusk without resting. Just as evening fell, she came across a small stream and decided to call it a day.

She squatted by the stream, cupped water to wash her face, drank a few mouthfuls to quench her thirst, then pulled out several water bladders from her space and filled them all.

After that, she stood up and surveyed her surroundings, looking for a place to spend the night and get a good sleep.

In the end, she still chose to sleep in a tree.

Her tree-climbing skills had grown increasingly practiced—she scrambled up to a fork in just a few moves.

Tu Ran picked a wide branch, nearly as broad as a single bed, and lay flat on it. It felt no different from sleeping on a bed, except it was harder.

But she'd gotten used to the hardness through sheer repetition.

Besides, she wasn't picky about where she slept these days.

She pulled a soft pillow out of her space, tucked it under her head, and lay face-up with her legs crossed at the ankle.

What she saw above were interlocking branches and dense green leaves that blocked the last rays of sunset. A gentle breeze drifted through, but the leaves didn't stir at all.

The leaves were too large—any one of them could serve as a blanket if plucked, and the wind simply couldn't move them.

It wasn't fully dark yet, and Tu Ran wasn't sleepy. To pass the time, she opened her ability identification panel and pulled up all the abilities she'd acquired.

She now had fifteen basic abilities. Scanning through them, aside from [Instant Shift], [Realm of Illusion], [Mountain Crumble], and [Moonlit Blossom], the rest were either here or there.

For every six basic abilities, you could choose one to upgrade to intermediate.

Tu Ran picked ten of the fifteen basic abilities and discarded them, then upgraded [Realm of Illusion] and [Instant Shift].

"Congratulations, [Realm of Illusion] and [Instant Shift] have been upgraded. Your current basic abilities are: [Moonlit Blossom], [Mountain Crumble], [Dreamless Sleep]." Green glowing text appeared on the panel.

Tu Ran exited the basic ability panel and opened the intermediate one.

She counted them—she had eleven intermediate abilities.

Already meeting the upgrade requirement, the rules stated that for every eight intermediate abilities, one could be upgraded to advanced.

But looking closely at her eleven intermediate abilities, [Future Prediction], [Memory Reading], [Poison Immunity], [Time Wheel], [Unlimited Strength], [Adamantine Body], [Shadow Storage], [Realm of Illusion], and [Instant Shift] were all abilities she used frequently—she couldn't part with any of them.

She was still short on inner cores.

She needed to pick up the pace.

Tu Ran closed the intermediate ability panel and opened the advanced one.

At a glance, the advanced abilities were sparse—only four.

[Ability Identification], [Language Talent], [Sense of Direction], [Annihilation].

Except for [Annihilation], the other three were all support abilities.

[Annihilation] was powerful, but it also had a heavy cost, and she couldn't use it unless absolutely necessary.

Tu Ran had always wanted to upgrade [Realm of Illusion] to advanced. That ability had low physical demands and high practical value. Once upgraded, she could control anyone she wanted—used well, it would absolutely outperform [Annihilation].

She closed the ability panel and shut her eyes.

She needed to rest up and find more exotic creatures with inner cores tomorrow.

The next day, as dawn barely broke, Tu Ran climbed down from the tree and set off.

She first tested her newly promoted intermediate ability, [Instant Shift]. The moment she activated it, the surrounding scenery blurred past her. When she stopped, she was already on an entirely different mountain.

This mountain's trees were short and dense, blocking out all light. Entering it, the surroundings were dim and eerie, the ground damp, with the smell of wet earth pervading the air. Vines twisted and hung down from trunks, strand after strand, like stepping into a spider's den.

Tu Ran gripped her laser gun tightly. She hadn't forgotten the bloodthirsty vines she'd encountered on her first day entering the Threshold.

She advanced cautiously. The silence was unnerving, until she heard faint, chaotic footsteps.

The sound came from directly ahead, roughly a hundred meters away. Many feet, irregular and disorderly, pausing and then speeding up. Not a single entity—more likely multiple.

The footsteps were also light, and since the ground wasn't shaking, the creatures ahead weren't large.

Feeling more confident, Tu Ran crept closer carefully.

As she moved forward, the creatures also moved in her direction.

When the distance was close enough, Tu Ran darted behind a tree trunk, hiding, and waited for the unknown creatures to approach.

She didn't wait long. Footsteps sounded from behind the tree, along with a human voice trembling with suppressed fear. "Will that monster catch up to us?"

Tu Ran paused mid-turn, about to look back.

People? Pioneers? What a coincidence?

"I don't know. We need to get out of here now—it's too quiet here." Another female voice forced itself steady.

Doubt stirred in Tu Ran's mind. Since when were pioneers this timid?

She quietly peeked out from behind the tree. Three women, leaning on each other for support, hurried forward with panicked, cautious steps, doing their best not to make too much noise.

What caught Tu Ran's attention most was their out-of-place attire.

The woman in the middle wore a white dress and white canvas shoes, with slightly curled long hair draped over her shoulders.

The one supporting her left hand was dressed in sportswear, ponytail tied back, and she was the one urging them to leave quickly.

The woman on the right had short hair, a t-shirt, and a knee-length skirt, also in canvas shoes.

Tu Ran's pupils dilated. She had never seen such outfits in the Federation.

These were First World clothes!

What's more, they carried no weapons, their clothes were filthy, their hair plastered wetly to their faces, and the girl in the middle had three bloody wounds on her calf, as if slashed from top to bottom by sharp claws.

Tu Ran pressed a hand to her pounding heart, suppressing her surging excitement.

She opened her mouth to call for them to stop, but a furious roar from another direction drowned out her voice.

Then the ground began to tremble—thud, thud, thud—as heavy footsteps grew closer.

The three women's faces went pale instantly. The one in sportswear shouted, "Run!"