Chapter 41: Making Weapons

Between September 21st and September 23rd, Xia Mi had played the game twice in succession, reaching four different endings. The energy she had replenished in between was nowhere near 1,000 Zhuo Coins. Since she had not replenished enough energy, it meant her body already contained enough energy to sustain four playthroughs.

If that was the case, why did the game only allow Xia Mi to play twice? Wouldn’t it be better to play indefinitely until reaching the final conclusion?

Mi Xiangyan suspected that if Xia Mi continued to use her own energy to play the game, irreversible changes might occur within this nest. The game was Xia Mi’s ability, controlled by her will. To protect the host’s peaceful life and stable mental state, the game likely limited the number of completions.

To attempt a third completion within the same nest, one would need to use energy collected from the outside. Only then could the balance of Xia Mi’s original power be maintained.

However, Mi Xiangyan believed the game could not repeat indefinitely; that would be too unrestricted and contrary to natural laws.

Even with external energy, one or two more chances at completion were likely the limit.

Furthermore, previous games showed that Xia Mi’s maximum Zhuo Coin count in the Underground Laboratory was 2,300. One completion attempt required 1,000 Zhuo Coins. Xia Mi had also mentioned that Liao Tianhua could use the Zhuo Coins on her person to treat the team’s injuries and replenish energy for “Shield.” They had to set aside enough energy for that; 1,300 Zhuo Coins was already a small amount, and it could not go any lower.

Therefore, they only had one chance left to clear the game.

Mi Xiangyan said, “Everyone must be careful. We need to gather as much intelligence as possible in reality to avoid wasting our precious game opportunities.”

“We think so too,” Qiu Hailan replied. “But the monsters in the Underground Laboratory are too difficult to deal with. We have been careful enough, but we still get hurt, and we can’t replenish our consumed energy as quickly as Xia Mi can.”

Sitting beside Xia Mi, Fang Zihan heard Qiu Hailan’s words and involuntarily raised a paw to lick it.

His paws were worn raw from running. Three of his sharp claws had snapped off. One was not completely severed; half of the nail was still attached to the paw, sending a jolt of pain through him every time it was touched.

Fang Zihan was originally too embarrassed to lick his paws, but after hearing Mi Xiangyan’s words, he realized he could not hold the team back. He licked the blood off the nail and, with a sudden surge of resolve, bit off the broken claw. His face contorted with pain, turning his handsome features into a twisted mask.

Xia Mi also noticed that her teammates were more or less covered in injuries. Duan Feng had not died this time, but one of his two mantis arms was broken.

They had no weapons, so everything required hand-to-hand combat. Duan Feng’s mantis arms served as two great sabers, and they relied entirely on him to cut through the sunflowers.

The stalks of the sunflowers were very tough, and Duan Feng’s mantis arms had quickly become dull and notched. He still had to use them to hack at the sunflowers, which eventually led to one of them breaking.

Looking at the scarred and battered team members, Mi Xiangyan also felt they could not go on like this. However, they truly had no weapons, and there was no way to contact Liao Tianhua. She was like a clever wife trying to cook without rice¹; she had no way to provide weapons for everyone.

Mi Xiangyan could only promise, “I will find the weaknesses of the Zhuo monsters in the laboratory as quickly as possible. For now, everyone should rest in the next archives room. Recover some strength before we move again. I will take this time to look through the records.”

The others nodded; there was nothing else they could do.

Xia Mi tilted her head, listening intently to Mi Xiangyan. Her hands unconsciously cracked her knuckles, making sharp popping sounds. It seemed like she was plotting something.

The group arrived at an archives room near the Sunflower Greenhouse. It contained cultivation and observation reports for the sunflowers, and Mi Xiangyan was very interested in the data here.

She wanted to know why plants could also become Zhuo-corrupted.

Until now, the “Zhuo” related incidents the Disposal Bureau encountered were always related to humans. She did not understand why there were so many animal and plant Zhuo monsters in the Underground Laboratory. She needed to understand the situation.

However, most archives rooms were guarded by Zhuo monsters. For instance, the archives room Mi Xiangyan wanted to visit next was located on the inner side of the Sunflower Greenhouse; they had to pass through the defense of the Zhuo sunflowers to enter.

The room outside the archives room they were previously in had been home to over a dozen large butterflies with terrifying ramming force and bite strength. Qiu Hailan and the others had been injured while eliminating those butterflies.

After killing the butterflies, they had originally planned to try and craft Zhuo weapons from the corpses. Only then did they discover that the butterflies’ corruption was at the cellular level. It was impossible to separate the Zhuo-corrupted parts, meaning they could not make weapons.

Qiu Hailan and the others had placed the butterfly corpses in a storage room. When they checked a while later, they found the butterflies had turned into rotting carcasses, and the Zhuo energy had decomposed and dissipated.

The energy within these Zhuo creatures was unstable. Even within the nest, once they died, the energy would decompose and vanish.

As for where that energy went, Mi Xiangyan suspected it was absorbed by the master of the nest.

The more monsters died, the stronger the master of the nest became.

Qiu Hailan and the others had originally wanted to wipe out the monsters in the laboratory first and explore step by step. But a mere swarm of butterflies had caused them heavy losses, and the death of the butterflies did not increase their own strength. Instead, it added energy to the master of the nest. After hearing Mi Xiangyan’s analysis, the Second Team decisively gave up on direct confrontations with the Zhuo monsters. Instead, they had the fast-moving Fang Zihan search for the “Eye” and lure enemies into their traps.

If Fang Zihan had not been leading the way, the moment Xia Mi opened an archives room door, Duan Feng, hanging from the wall, would have swung his two mantis blades down, followed immediately by Qiu Hailan’s heavy punch.

Doing things this way carried great risks for Fang Zihan and the team. Fortunately, he had met Xia Mi. Since Xia Mi could absorb the energy within living Zhuo monsters, the group could continue exploring the Underground Laboratory.

As Mi Xiangyan entered the new archives room, Xia Mi seemed to reach a decision and gently tugged on Qiu Hailan’s bear fur.

Qiu Hailan stopped and looked at Xia Mi.

Xia Mi pointed to the left and said, “I remember there is a crocodile over there acting alone. It has about 150 Zhuo Coins inside it. Let’s the two of us go take it out.”

Xiao Huo, having had his Zhuo energy absorbed, was now just an ordinary team member without a weapon. He essentially served as manual labor and a decorative mascot.

Xiao Fang’s claws were severely worn, and the nails he had just bitten off were still bleeding. He would have to wait for the wounds to stop bleeding and scab over before they could set out again.

Xiao Duan’s mantis arms were broken, making him useless for the upcoming battle. He could only stay behind with Xiao Wang and Xiao Li to protect Group Leader Mi.

Qiu Hailan, relying on her powerful physique, was the least injured member of the team. It was true that only she and Xia Mi working together could kill that crocodile.

The figure of 150 Zhuo Coins was a specific amount. Qiu Hailan immediately guessed Xia Mi’s intention. “You want to gather 1,000 Zhuo Coins to restart the game?”

Xia Mi answered vaguely, “I have something I want to experiment with.”

Qiu Hailan did not know what Xia Mi wanted to test, but her previous experiences had taught her to trust Xia Mi. She nodded firmly, gave a quick word to the team, and followed Xia Mi out.

Fang Zihan and Duan Feng wanted to help, but after being scolded by the two women, they obediently went to the records room to rest.

Xia Mi and Qiu Hailan walked about a dozen meters to the left, arriving at a room containing a shallow pool.

They quietly cracked the door open to observe. Inside was a crocodile seven meters long, weighing roughly 1.5 tons. On the sandy bank beside the crocodile lay fifteen white eggs. The crocodile was half-submerged in the water, guarding its nest.

In the previous game, Qiu Hailan had died beneath the massive jaws of this very crocodile.

Xia Mi handed the fish-belly knife to Qiu Hailan and said, “Its weakness is the roof of its mouth. This knife is sharp enough to pierce its brain. I don’t have enough strength, so I’ll lure it to the door. You’ll be the one to drive the blade into its brain.”

Both tasks were dangerous, but strictly speaking, Xia Mi’s was the more perilous of the two.

Even though Qiu Hailan was the one executing the kill, she only needed to wait by the door.

The monsters in the Underground Laboratory had a strange trait: they were territorial and would not leave their respective rooms. When Xia Mi had been provocatively taunting the sunflowers earlier, they had not tried to leave the greenhouse to attack her.

Since every monster habitat was followed by a records room, Mi Xiangyan suspected these creatures were like the monsters in novels that guarded heavenly treasures², placed there to protect the Underground Laboratory’s data.

With these monsters present, no spy would be able to steal the files.

Mi Xiangyan also suspected that the reason these monsters stayed so obediently in their rooms might be due to drug control.

She was constantly deciphering data in hopes of quickly creating a chemical agent to suppress them.

The crocodile would not leave the room under any circumstances. Qiu Hailan’s job was to stand by the door and wait for Xia Mi to lure it over. She would seize the moment to pierce its brain and then immediately exit the room.

That way, even if the crocodile went into a death frenzy after being stabbed, it would not dare step outside. Qiu Hailan would be safe.

In contrast, Xia Mi, who was inside the room, would become the target of the crocodile’s rage.

Xia Mi had wanted to slip out during Qiu Hailan’s attack, but Qiu Hailan’s physique was too large. She blocked the doorway completely, leaving no gap for Xia Mi to squeeze through.

If Xia Mi wanted to escape first, Qiu Hailan would have to stand further from the door. But if she did that, it would be difficult for Qiu Hailan to escape after attacking the crocodile, as her size made her slow to move.

It would be hard for Qiu Hailan to dodge a frenzied crocodile, so she had to be the one blocking the door to strike and then retreat, while Xia Mi looked for another way out.

Xia Mi stepped into the room. The crocodile watched her warily but did not rush to attack.

Crocodiles were strongest in the water and rarely left it without reason.

Xia Mi maintained a distance of five meters and began taunting the beast. Unfortunately, the crocodile did not understand human speech and could not grasp her insults.

Xia Mi muttered a silent apology in her heart and released a strand of “Silkworm” silk with one hand, wrapping it around a crocodile egg.

“Silkworm” activated, rapidly absorbing the Zhuo energy from the egg.

A single egg provided only 5 Zhuo Coins. Even if she absorbed them all, it would not be enough to reach 1,000.

Once the silk retracted, the egg turned into a dead, petrified stone.

The crocodile was visibly enraged.

Xia Mi extended both hands, absorbing two more eggs from a distance.

Completely losing its temper, the crocodile lunged out of the pool toward Xia Mi.

Despite its massive body, its movements were incredibly swift. If Xia Mi had not been a full five meters away, that full-force lunge would have definitely caught her.

Xia Mi sprinted toward the door. Seeing the crocodile stop its pursuit, she used her “Silkworm” silk on the eggs again. In reality, the distance was too great for the ability to actually trigger, but the crocodile did not know that. As soon as it saw Xia Mi release the silk, it chased after her without hesitation.

Xia Mi ran all the way to the door. Just before reaching Qiu Hailan, she leaped into the air, jumping over two meters high to clear a path for the attack.

Qiu Hailan was already in position. The moment Xia Mi jumped, she lunged downward with practiced precision, driving the fish-belly knife deep into the crocodile’s brain.

Qiu Hailan did not linger. Having landed the blow, she immediately backed out of the room.

Xia Mi, meanwhile, grabbed the top of the door frame with one hand and braced her feet against the wall, using her powerful core strength to hold herself steady high up.

The crocodile thrashed on the floor in agony. Seeing Xia Mi hanging on the wall, it reared up in a frenzy to attack.

At seven meters long, it only had to lift its upper body slightly to reach a height of two meters. Xia Mi was right in its path.

The crocodile’s attack was too fast; Xia Mi had no time to drop down and run. Making a split-second decision, she pulled out the only Zhuo weapon Liao Tianhua had given her from her waist: the Zhuo pistol.

There were only ten bullets in the magazine. Since the pistol had not been very effective against the sunflowers, the team had not let her use it during that fight.

Xia Mi aimed at the crocodile’s gaping maw and fired nine consecutive shots. The power of the Zhuo bullets was far greater than the penetration of a standard handgun. The crocodile was knocked back by the impact, its strength gradually fading until it slumped by the door.

Xia Mi extended a hand toward the beast. Countless “Silkworm” threads wrapped around its body, draining every bit of energy from within.

Once the crocodile was completely dead, Xia Mi walked over to the sandbank and absorbed the remaining eggs.

This harvest totaled 225 Zhuo Coins.

Qiu Hailan looked at the crocodile that had killed her in the game and said, “It’s great to experience it in advance. Knowing its movement patterns and its weaknesses… without the game, I’m afraid I would have died under that terrifying bite force.”

“Mm.” Xia Mi, who was usually accustomed to receiving praise from her subordinates, remained silent this time, lowering her head slightly.

It suddenly occurred to Qiu Hailan that just a few days ago, Xia Mi had been nothing more than an ordinary college student. And college students were naive and soft-hearted.

She reached out with a bear paw and pulled Xia Mi into a hug, cradling Xia Mi’s 173cm frame against her and rubbing gently. “Those crocodile eggs would have hatched into crocodiles anyway,” she consoled. “Eliminating them early was the right call.”

“This crocodile killed me in the game. You did nothing wrong by using the eggs to provoke it so we could take it down.”

“Kindness is a beautiful quality, but being kind to your enemy is being cruel to yourself. You did the right thing.”

Xia Mi looked up at Qiu Hailan. For someone who usually carried herself with the poise of a leader, she rarely showed such a soft expression.

Seeing this, Qiu Hailan grinned and playfully rubbed her head against Xia Mi’s. “Xiao Mi, you lack experience. You’ll need to attend some proper pre-job training in the future!”

The name “Xiao Mi” instantly revitalized Xia Mi. She lifted her head proudly and declared, “I, Xia Mi, was born excellent. I don’t need training; I can go straight to the employment exam! Xiao Qiu, your bear fur is too prickly, stop rubbing against me!”

Qiu Hailan burst out laughing and gave her two more vigorous rubs, only stopping when Xia Mi looked like she was about to snap.

Xia Mi picked up her phone. “I have serious business to attend to, so I won’t lower myself to your level. Just wait until we leave this nest, hmph!”

She did not specify what she would do once they left the nest, but the “hmph” said enough.

Seeing Xia Mi focus on the game, Qiu Hailan stopped teasing her.

Qiu Hailan first tried to retrieve the fish-belly knife from the crocodile’s head. It was their last remaining Zhuo weapon, but unfortunately, the blade had snapped off inside the crocodile’s body and was now useless.

Left with no other choice, Qiu Hailan guarded the game-absorbed Xia Mi all the way back to the archives.

She glanced at the game interface and saw “Xiao Mi” alone, kicking the glass windows of the Sunflower Greenhouse. She could not tell what the girl was trying to achieve.

Qiu Hailan considered herself a combatant; she was happy to leave the strategy to Group Leader Mi and Xia Mi while she acted as the muscle. She did not bother looking at the phone screen anymore. She was too tall, and constantly looking down at such a small screen was inconvenient.

As the two of them walked into the greenhouse, Xia Mi suddenly put her phone away and announced, “It’s done!”

She stepped up to the glass wall and delivered several heavy kicks, creating a small web of cracks. Then, she pulled Qiu Hailan away from the glass to a specific spot. Xia Mi drew her Zhuo pistol and aimed her final bullet at the cracks she had just made.

The bullet struck true. The glass wall shattered, and shards flew in every direction, yet they miraculously missed the spot where Qiu Hailan and Xia Mi were standing.

It seemed Xia Mi had used her repeated trials in the game to find this exact safe zone.

Once the shards had all settled on the floor, Xia Mi walked over to a few large pieces and carefully picked up a sharp fragment.

“What are you doing?” Qiu Hailan asked curiously.

“We lack firepower, and hand-to-hand combat is too taxing on the body,” Xia Mi said, holding the glass shard. “I want to try making some Zhuo weapons.”

“Zhuo weapons are hard to come by. Naturally formed ones are unstable and decompose quickly,” Qiu Hailan pointed out. “Besides, where are you going to get the Zhuo components?”

Xia Mi grabbed her ponytail and sliced through it with the glass shard. The hair fell away, landing on the glass fragments on the floor.

The strands of hair quickly coiled around the glass shards, and the two materials fused together. They transformed into sharp glass blades complete with functional hilts. The handles were wrapped in black hair, ensuring the user would not be cut.

Sporting a jagged, uneven haircut, Xia Mi picked up the largest glass blade and handed it to Qiu Hailan. “The only downside is the lack of sheaths, which makes them hard to carry. But for this nest, they’ll do. We have weapons now!”

Qiu Hailan was not one for pretty words. She took a deep breath, wiped her face, and looked at Xia Mi. “Your hair looks hideous.”

“It’s fine!” Xia Mi said, completely unbothered. “I have a two-thousand-yuan hair salon membership with Sister Li. Once we get out, I’ll have her give me a proper cut.”

In reality, she had not bought the membership yet, but that did not matter. Xiao Liao would take care of it for her, Xia Mi thought optimistically.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. clever wife trying to cook without rice: A translation of the Chinese proverb ‘qiaofu nanwei wumi zhichui’ (巧妇难为无米之炊). It describes a situation where, despite having the skill or talent to succeed, one lacks the essential materials or resources required to complete the task. ↩
2. heavenly treasures: A common trope in Chinese Xianxia and Wuxia fiction (tiancai dibao 天材地宝). These are rare, naturally occurring spiritual items, herbs, or minerals that grant immense power, often guarded by powerful spirit beasts in remote locations. ↩