The Toad

"Then ordinary people must be living pretty badly," Li Rui continued.

The girl in the white dress followed closely behind. Her name was Song Bai, and her voice was gentle and soft—one look told you she was the refined type. "The upper Rulers are highly centralized, wealth disparity is huge, and social stratification is severe."

Tu Ran was impressed. In just a few words, they had summed up the Federation's current social conditions.

The girl in the tracksuit added, "If that's the case, then the upper Rulers must have cultivated a bunch of loyal dogs to suppress any resistance from the common people." Her surname was Xiang, given name Sheng—Xiang Sheng.

"Right!" Li Rui clapped her hands, gesturing excitedly. "That's exactly how it is in the movies! Those lackeys must wear cool-looking tactical gear, carry high-powered weapons, and when they meet anyone who doesn't comply, they either arrest them or shoot them on the spot. The laws of the Second World must be unfair too, favoring the ruling class. Even if those dogs kill people, they won't be sentenced. Hey, why do you keep tugging at me?"

Li Rui finished in one breath and turned to Song Bai, who had been frantically pulling at her arm. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Song Bai's expression was utterly strange. She glanced at Li Rui, then at Tu Ran, and pinched Li Rui's arm.

Only then did Li Rui realize what she'd done. She stiffly turned her neck to look at Tu Ran.

It seemed... maybe... everything she'd just said fit Tu Ran perfectly. The nameplate on Tu Ran's chest reading "Pioneer" looked like the code for some organization or department.

Li Rui bit her tongue. "Um... I was just talking nonsense. Don't take it to heart, sis. I've just watched too many movies... haha... my brain's not working right."

Tu Ran shook her head. "It's fine. What you said isn't entirely without merit." She stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. "We've rested enough. Let's get going."

The three of them stood, cautiously watching Tu Ran's back, assuming she'd suddenly suggested moving on because she was angry.

But Tu Ran genuinely hadn't taken it to heart.

That afternoon, as they passed through a dense forest, Xiang Sheng stopped, looking at the familiar scenery around her. "This looks like the place we came through!"

Tu Ran also halted. Her "Sense of Direction" ability was indeed quite useful. She carefully surveyed the surroundings, searching for any suspicious energy fluctuations.

"Seems like it's gone," Li Rui said. She jumped up and down a few times in one spot, stomping the dirt flat. "This is where we came out."

Everyone sighed. The joy of being able to go home had vanished in an instant.

"Let's go," Tu Ran said. She hadn't held out much hope anyway.

The group continued on, with Tu Ran setting their target on Fatty this time.

The trio behind her walked in silence, but their earlier tension had eased; they now had the leisure to admire the scenery.

The landscape here was vastly different from that of the First World—nature untouched by human hands was always greener, more secluded.

Until a thunderous "croak" rang out, and all four stopped in their tracks.

Li Rui and the others instinctively pressed closer to Tu Ran, glancing around, afraid to make a sound.

Tu Ran tilted her head back at a forty-five degree angle, staring at the lush, leafy tree before her. The sound had come from the canopy.

She caught the reek of rot and decay.

"You three, fall back and find somewhere to hide. As far away as possible," Tu Ran said in a low voice.

Song Bai whispered, "What about you?"

"There's a mutant here. I can't leave. Once I kill it, I'll come find you."

"Then be careful," Xiang Sheng said, hurriedly pulling Song Bai and Li Rui back.

Perhaps sensing that three were about to flee, the mutant hidden in the canopy grew restless.

"Croak!"

A blood-red tongue shot out from the dense foliage. Its tip was forked, and its surface was coated in translucent slime, lashing toward Li Rui and the others.

From the moment it extended to the instant it pressed against their backs, it happened in the blink of an eye—incredibly fast.

"Ahhh—" The wet, slimy touch sent a jolt through the three. Goosebumps erupted on their skin, and their screams tore through the forest. They bolted forward like they'd been injected with adrenaline, desperate to escape.

The tongue chased after them, but Tu Ran charged forward, drawing her blade and slashing at the tongue.

It didn't sever. Instead, the tongue curled back, wrapping around her arm and the dagger together, dragging her toward the tree trunk.

"Ah! Tu Ran's being dragged off! We have to save her!" Li Rui happened to glance back and saw the scene. She immediately skidded to a halt, yanked the other two back, and they raced toward Tu Ran to help.

Tu Ran quickly shouted, "Don't come over!"

As she spoke, she used both bound hands together, forcibly prying the mutant's tongue loose.

The creature, in pain, retracted its tongue for the moment.

Li Rui and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

The next second, the blood-red tongue shot out again, this time aimed at Tu Ran's head.

Tu Ran met it head-on, grabbing the tongue and wrapping it around her arm a few times. Then she spread her legs, planted herself in a horse stance, and yanked backward with all her might. The mutant hidden in the canopy was pulled out, slamming face-first to the ground.

"Thud!"

The ground was gouged into a deep pit.

Tu Ran got a clear look at the creature in the pit.

It was a frog-type mutant.

"What a huge toad," Li Rui said, blinking in disbelief. "And Tu Ran's really strong!"

Xiang Sheng hadn't forgotten Tu Ran's instructions. She pulled the two gawking girls behind a tree trunk, and the three hid there—though "hidden" was a stretch, as their heads poked out in a row from behind the tree, watching the battle.

After dragging the toad to the ground, Tu Ran whipped out her laser gun and opened fire.

Blue beams struck the toad's head like a sword of light, but they were all deflected by the scales on its skull, sending off tiny sparks without leaving a scratch.

Looking closely, its entire body was covered in scales, unevenly distributed, making its form look lumpy like a toad's. Under the laser's glow, those scales reflected light in different ways, which was the only way they were noticeable.

"What do we do? The laser gun doesn't work. Should we just grab Tu Ran and run?" Song Bai tugged at her two companions' hands, asking for their opinion.

Xiang Sheng said, "Let's see what Tu Ran does next. Maybe she has other powerful weapons."

"Right, look how calm she is," Li Rui added.

Since the laser gun was useless against the mutant's scales, Tu Ran set her sights on its mouth.

She backed up a few steps, then leaped into the air, kicking off a nearby trunk as if she could scale walls. She ran along the trunk to a branch, while her left arm dragged the mutant's tongue along with her, leaping off the branch.

The toad was dragged helplessly to the base of the tree, its tongue just long enough that it wasn't left dangling mid-air.