"BOOM!!!"
An explosion that resounded through all of Greenshade Spring came from the Forest Forbidden Zone, briefly dyeing even the night sky as bright as day. Most of the citizens of Greenshade Spring were drawn by this terrifying blast, staring in utter bewilderment at the sky turned white.
Alarms blared, and Greenshade Spring began deploying a large number of helicopters toward the site of the explosion to investigate the cause.
Meanwhile, the culprit was slowly standing up from a stretch of scorched earth.
A forest spanning dozens of kilometers had been leveled by that single strike; it had come within just a few kilometers of affecting Greenshade Spring itself. As for the bizarre tree that Firefly had targeted, it was now blasted into nothingness, not even a scrap remaining.
After looking around for a moment to confirm there were no living reactions left in the vicinity, Firefly directly controlled Sam to fly toward the Mercenary Association.
Relying on its terrifyingly acute perception, Firefly easily evaded the search of the helicopters and soon arrived at the entrance of the Mercenary Association.
Upon entering, without waiting for the Receptionist to say anything, Firefly walked straight to the exclusive elevator and swiped a Black Gold Card (which had replaced the platinum card after completing the S rank powerhouse certification).
Immediately after, the elevator doors opened.
"Go to the eleventh floor."
As soon as she spoke, the request to go to the eleventh floor automatically appeared on the display. The elevator began to move quickly, and before long, it reached the Eleventh Floor. But the moment she stepped out, she witnessed an unexpected scene.
Lu Jianyi had fallen to the floor for some unknown reason, and her chair had tumbled aside. She was clutching her head tightly, her forehead covered in dense beads of sweat, and her body was trembling uncontrollably, looking to be in immense pain.
"What's going on? Is this caused by the death of that strange tree?"
Seeing this, Firefly frowned.
When she had pressed the camera shutter for the second time, she roughly understood why Lu Jianyi's previous commissions to explore the Forest Forbidden Zone always ended in failure.
Every time the shutter was pressed, the blood-red energy hidden within the camera would invade the user's mind. Although she didn't know exactly what would happen, Firefly felt it certainly wouldn't be anything good.
She hadn't expected the mission item to be the biggest traitor, and since the method to complete the commission was inseparable from this item, it was no wonder that several A rank mercenaries had vanished without a trace after taking the job. They had likely been screwed over by Lu Jianyi's camera.
To be fair, Firefly had not sensed any malice from Lu Jianyi at the time, and she could guarantee that the emotions Lu Jianyi showed when talking about Forest's Wrath didn't seem fake.
So she currently had two guesses. First, Lu Jianyi's cognition had been unknowingly altered, causing her to subconsciously make others take commissions related to the Forest Forbidden Zone while secretly sabotaging the mission.
After all, she remembered Lu Jianyi saying during her description, "Though I don't quite remember how I escaped back then." It was possible her cognition had been remodeled after that point.
The second possibility was that her acting was superb and she had fooled even Firefly, though Firefly felt this was less likely.
"However... I'm not very good at saving people... If only Cipher were here..."
Looking at the agonizing struggle of Lu Jianyi, Firefly appeared somewhat troubled. The main issue was that she didn't know the detailed orientation or path between here and the Pit Bottom District; otherwise, with Cipher's speed, running here directly with Godspeed shouldn't be a problem.
But soon, she came up with an idea.
"Wait a moment, can't I just put Bartholos into the System Inventory first, and then have Firefly take Bartholos out? That way, wouldn't it get the coordinates for this place?"
Thinking of this, Cipher immediately got off the bed to look for Bartholos, who had gone out for who-knows-what. It wasn't a big problem; she could sense Bartholos's location.
"A famous hospital in the Pit Bottom District? What is Bartholos doing over there?"
Although somewhat puzzled, she quickly found the location where Bartholos most frequently teleported and waited.
After a while, a blue-purple circular portal opened, and a purple figure crawled out of the hole, seemingly humming an unknown song.
"Hum hum hum... Eh?! Big Sis, why are you here?"
Just as it stepped out of the portal, Bartholos saw Cipher standing in front of it. It hurriedly stopped humming and asked Cipher with a fawning expression.
"What were you doing? Why are you holding an oxygen mask?" Looking at the item in Bartholos's hand, Cipher was somewhat confused.
It didn't go to the hospital and pull off someone else's oxygen mask, did it? No, wait. Was Bartholos really that wicked?
Hearing this, Bartholos said with a face full of pride:
"Jie jie jie jie jie! I pulled this oxygen mask off!"
"Uh..." It really was. Cipher was momentarily speechless.
"Big Sis, I wouldn't do something that doesn't have benefits!"
Seeing her expression, Bartholos instantly realized that Big Sis must have misunderstood, so it hurriedly explained:
"I found the hospital where that guy named Lin Zhiyuan is staying! That man actually dared to capture Big Sis back then; it's absolutely unforgivable!"
Speaking to this point, Bartholos held up the oxygen mask in its hand. "So! While no one was around, I just pulled his oxygen mask right off!"
"Good job, I'll give you a hundred thousand Credits later!"
After hearing the explanation, Cipher immediately gave Bartholos a thumbs up, but she soon put her hands on her hips and continued:
"But be careful not to accidentally play him to death, otherwise there will be no one left to come and capture me!"
"Yes, Big Sis! No problem, Big Sis! I guarantee I won't let him die! I'll go back and return the oxygen mask right now."
Bartholos's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and it immediately wanted to open a portal to go back. But before it could take action, it was stopped by Cipher.
"Wait a second, I need your help with something."
"In a moment, I will send you to a place quite far away. Then you open a portal there to bring me over. Can you do that?"
"Jie jie jie jie jie! Absolutely no problem!" Hearing that Big Sis actually needed its help, Bartholos couldn't help but start laughing again.
But soon, it tilted its head in confusion and asked:
"But since Big Sis can send me over there, why do you need me to open a portal?"
"Don't worry about that. Off you go!"
Before its voice could fade, Cipher reached out and grabbed Bartholos, stuffing it into the System Inventory.
Then, Firefly took it out in a seamless transition the instant Cipher stuffed it in.
"Eh eh eh?!"
Bartholos only felt the scene before its eyes instantly switch from a purple environment. In the next heartbeat, Big Sis Cipher had disappeared.
In her place was a silver-white armored figure radiating a terrifying aura, and a woman twitching on the floor.