"Eh? What is that? A shooting star?" In Greenshade Spring, a passerby walking on the street suddenly pointed toward the night sky at a dazzling trail of flame streaking across the firmament.
Other passersby were drawn by these words and looked up one after another.
"It really is a shooting star... haven't seen one in a long time, right?"
"No way? Since when do shooting stars fly upwards?"
"Shooting star, shooting star, bless me with a promotion and a raise!"
"Could it be a missile or something?"
The voices in the crowd were very noisy—some were marvelling, some were questioning, some were making wishes, and some were guessing. However, without exception, not a single person could discover the true identity of this "shooting star."
The "shooting star" at this moment was none other than Sam, covered in flames and flying rapidly toward the Forest Forbidden Zone.
Before long, Firefly flew over the forest.
After locking her gaze onto the location of the Forest Forbidden Zone, a dazzling burst of flame erupted from Sam's body once more. Then, with an astounding burst of speed, she charged straight into the Forest Forbidden Zone.
At this moment, as if sensing some kind of danger, the Forest Forbidden Zone reacted. Many thick trees and vines rapidly interlaced and combined, forming a massive green net in the blink of an eye.
"Pathetic."
Watching this scene, Sam coldly uttered two words. Then, with her fist clenched, she punched through this seemingly impenetrable defense in a single strike.
Her speed was not diminished in the slightest by this giant net as she crashed directly into the ground of the Forest Forbidden Zone.
In an instant, an extremely powerful shockwave accompanied by flames scattered in all directions, uprooting all the thick trees in the vicinity. The bushes and leaves also caught fire.
Suddenly, with Sam as the center, everything within a ten-kilometer radius was overturned by this terrifying shockwave, leaving the ground flat.
Except for one eerie, giant tree that emitted a blood-red glow.
The entire trunk of this giant tree was an even shade of deep dark red. The color looked like a unique hue gradually formed after being continuously soaked in thick blood for years, radiating an extremely strange and evil feeling.
Its thick branches interlaced and twisted around each other like the hideous tentacles of a demon, stretching wildly in the air. Moreover, hanging beneath every branch was a dark red Fleshy Cocoon.
The lower half of the giant tree was similar to the Fleshy Cocoons on the branches, except it was much more massive than those, occupying a full third of the giant tree's volume.
These Fleshy Cocoons seemed alive, slowly contracting with a fixed frequency.
A blood-red light emanated from these Fleshy Cocoons, acting like a protective shield to guard the giant tree and the circles of... creatures that looked human but didn't feel human—the followers of Forest's Wrath—surrounding the base of the tree.
Standing up, Sam looked at the bizarre giant tree that remained intact and spoke:
"Are you the mastermind behind Forest's Wrath?"
The giant tree did not answer Sam. The blood-red light appearing around its body began to grow stronger. Then, the earth began to tremble as many trees started rising from the ground.
Immediately following this, these newly appeared trees rapidly catalyzed various strange plants that attacked Sam.
"It seems I was right."
Seeing the giant tree answer her question with action, Sam finished speaking and took out a vintage-looking camera.
Then she took a step forward, instantly vanishing from her original spot, causing the attacks from the plants to miss entirely.
Arriving in front of the giant tree, Sam held up the camera and pressed the shutter button at the bizarre giant tree before her.
She hadn't forgotten that Lu Jianyi's commission required a recording. That was why she had held back a lot of strength when she landed, primarily to prevent herself from directly destroying this mastermind.
But just as she pressed the shutter, a blood-red light flashed across the camera. Immediately after, Firefly felt a strange energy trying to invade her mind through the camera.
Firefly could clearly feel that this strange energy shared the same source as the bizarre giant tree in front of her.
Effortlessly wiping away this energy that wanted to invade her mind, Firefly lowered the camera and looked somewhat strangely at this item given to her by Lu Jianyi.
Why would energy from the same source as this giant tree appear in this camera?
At this moment, the vines and plants attacked Sam once again. Sam merely shifted her body slightly, dodging the attacks of the vines and plants.
"Annoying plants."
Looking at these endless and death-defying plants, Sam snorted coldly, then silently placed her hand over her chest.
"Initiate, Secondary Combustion."
"I shall... set the seas of forest ablaze!"
The moment she finished speaking, the indicator light on Sam's forehead suddenly lit up. Scorching flames gushed out once again. Just like last time, the trees within a dozen kilometers were instantly ignited, then rapidly burned into black charcoal by the high-temperature flames.
Seeing the annoying plants dealt with once more, Sam looked back at the camera in her hand.
She had taken special care of this object to prevent it from being incinerated in the high temperatures just now.
Then Sam picked up the camera and pressed the shutter again.
Only this time, she didn't aim it at the giant tree, but at the sky.
But the result was as she expected—the dark red light emerged from the camera again, attempting to assault the user.
After wiping away this energy again, Firefly sighed.
"Firefly Type-IV, start recording."
After speaking, Firefly put the camera back into her System Inventory.
Having finished all this, Firefly looked back at the giant tree in front of her.
She saw that the faces of the "humans" inside the giant tree were all twisted with rage. They seemed to be shrieking something inside, but perhaps due to the isolation of the blood-red light, Firefly could not hear what the "humans" inside were shrieking.
Although she could understand through lip-reading, she felt it was unnecessary.
Walking up to the red light, Firefly raised her hand, intending to break the defense to see what exactly was inside the Fleshy Cocoons.
But before she could raise her hand, the familiar tremors returned. Firefly looked back to see many more trees rising from the ground again. These trees also began to glow with blood-red light and ignored the high heat of the flames as they attacked Sam's position once more.
"..."
Looking at this scene, Firefly fell into a long-lost silence.
Were these trees inexhaustible? And could they evolve according to the environment? Was she fighting an ultra-weakened version of Abundance or Propagation?
"It seems that without dealing with the giant tree in front of me, it will be hard to resolve all these trees."
Sighing, Sam stepped back a few paces, dodging the attacks of the trees once more.
"I originally wanted to see what was inside the Fleshy Cocoons, but now... forget it."
As her voice fell, Sam quickly crouched down. Then, her legs suddenly exerted force as she leaped upward.
Subsequently, a massive pillar of fire shot into the sky from the center of the Forest Forbidden Zone.
Now in the air, Sam locked her gaze onto the blood-red bizarre giant tree on the ground. Her cold mechanical voice slowly formed a sentence:
"Now commencing, Scorched Earth Operations."