Chapter 211: Shocking! Two Level 5 Players?

Chapter 211: Chapter 211: Shocking! Two Level 5 Players?

Along the way.

Seraphina Sullivan sat on the back of Nelly Nash’s aggressively modified motorcycle, the roar of its engine deafening.

They weaved through the gaps between the mountains of trash at breakneck speed.

Nelly Nash was clearly an unstoppable chatterbox.

Neither her helmet nor her special-made mask could dampen her enthusiasm for a chat.

She shouted to be heard over the wind:

"Hey, friend! Your moves aren’t half bad. So why are you heading to the Forest of Verdure all by yourself?"

"The roads around here aren’t safe! Besides Junk Monsters, you’ve got reckless thugs on the loose now and then. Going it alone is a huge disadvantage!"

Seraphina gave Nelly’s questions vague, noncommittal answers, glossing over most of the details.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She never would have guessed that beneath Nelly Nash’s cool, untamable biker-warrior exterior was the soul of a motormouth.

Despite Nelly’s chattiness, her driving skills were impeccable, and her familiarity with the complex terrain was astonishing.

With her and her modified bike, the trip to the Forest of Verdure was much faster.

Seraphina had expected an arduous, lengthy trek. But thanks to the bike’s powerful engine and Nelly’s expert navigation, it took them just over three hours before the landscape ahead began to change dramatically.

The mountains of trash grew more sparse, and the ground became considerably more level.

After Nelly executed a sharp drift past one last hill made of discarded tires, the legendary Forest of Verdure finally appeared before Seraphina’s eyes.

However, the sight before her was completely different from the "forest" she had imagined, and it sent a shock through her heart!

Seraphina had expected to see a lush, green jungle, stubbornly growing amidst the ruins.

Or, at the very least, some kind of retrofitted biodome.

But what greeted her eyes was a sprawling complex of buildings, mechanical and futuristic in style.

Several black metal towers soared into the clouds, piercing the dusky yellow sky like sharp swords.

Eerie blue lines of energy flowed across their surfaces, and transparent tube-like bridges connected them to one another.

Below the towers lay a grid of low-rise buildings constructed from some kind of synthetic material, all giving off a cold, hard metallic sheen.

It looked more like a futuristic, cutting-edge outpost built on the edge of an ocean of junk, rather than a "forest."

Still, one piece of good news was immediately apparent.

The junk in this area had been thoroughly cleared away, a stark contrast to the mountainous piles outside. The air even seemed a lot cleaner.

The stench wasn’t as overpowering as before, either.

When Seraphina and Nelly arrived at the base of the towers.

The area near the entrance was bustling with a crowd of people in all sorts of strange outfits and mismatched gear.

Clearly, these were all people who had come to take the test to become a Purification Envoy.

Many of them, like Nelly Nash, had flamboyant styles and carried an even wider variety of weapons.

Of course, there were also quiet, reserved individuals like Seraphina.

But Seraphina’s attention was soon drawn to another small group.

’Those people... how should I put it?’

’Their eyes looked a bit too... "clueless."’

They looked around with a curiosity and bewilderment that was completely out of place. Some of them didn’t even have a trace of the tension or sense of danger they should have had on their faces.

’Players...’

The word surfaced in Seraphina’s mind instantly.

She was all too familiar with that look.

It was especially common among new Players thrown into an apocalyptic instance for the first time. They tended to carry over their real-world mindset, lacking any real grasp of how brutal this environment was.

The moment that thought occurred to her, Seraphina felt a jolt.

A wave of self-reproach followed. ’Am I... looking down on them?’

Seraphina immediately chided herself.

’Seraphina, don’t get arrogant! Don’t forget, when you first became a Player, you were no different from them—clumsy, terrified, and completely lost! Never underestimate anyone. Weren’t you the one who, as a mere Level 1, used the instance rules and Eye of Resume to trap and kill a veteran Level 3 Player?’

’You’re only a Level 2 Player yourself, what’s there to be smug about? Any carelessness or overconfidence is a death sentence in a place like this.’

This round of self-reflection was like a splash of cold water to the face.

It snapped Seraphina out of her budding sense of superiority.

She took a deep breath, quietly quashing the fledgling cockiness that came with experience.

Out of caution, Seraphina discreetly activated Eye of Resume and scanned the ten Players who looked like newcomers.

She needed to assess the potential risks, to see if there was anyone among them she needed to be especially wary of.

She hadn’t expected much, but the results gave her a huge shock.

On the surface, these ten Players did look like a batch of newbies who had just entered the Level 1 instance, the "Junkheap Ruins."

Their Levels were mostly around LV1, and their Talents were relatively simple.

None of them seemed to pose a threat to her.

She did, however, see a name—Cole Ross—that felt vaguely familiar, as if she’d seen it somewhere before.

But then, the information that came back from two men standing on the periphery, who didn’t seem to know each other, sent shockwaves through her mind.

First was a young man who looked particularly slender, with a pale complexion and a dazed, helpless look in his eyes.

He stood alone in a corner with his shoulders slightly hunched, looking like a frightened fawn. He was completely out of place, easily inspiring a protective instinct in onlookers.

[Name: Yana Yates]

[Gender: Male]

[Level: Level 5]

[Professional Skills:

Talent 1 · Puppetry Technique: Can turn a target into a puppet, making them completely subservient. Note: Puppetry Technique requires the target to be immobilized or in a state of blurred consciousness. The Skill has a risk of failure if the target resists violently.

Talent 2 · Space Exchange: Under specific conditions, can instantly swap locations with a designated target within line of sight.

Talent 3 · Weak and Pitiful: Passive Talent. His frail and pitiful appearance and disposition greatly lower the hostility of others, inspiring a strong protective urge at first glance. People are less likely to view him as a threat and are subconsciously inclined to believe his words.

Skills: Gun Skill, Charm, Disguise]

[Weaknesses: A weakness for handsome men; has little resistance to strong males.]

Next, her gaze fell upon another man standing a short distance away. He was tall and muscular, with a cold, hard face, and he stood silently with his arms crossed.

[Name: Evan] (Yana Yates’s Puppet)

[Gender: Male]

[Level: Level 5]

[Professional Skills:

Talent 1 · Berserker: Upon entering a berserk state, gains terrifying explosive physical strength, multiples his attack power, and has his sense of pain drastically reduced.

Talent 2 · Healing Heart: While not in combat, wounds heal at an extremely rapid rate.

Skills: swordsmanship, Close Combat, shock wave]

[Weaknesses: Completely under Yana Yates’s Control. Currently brain-dead with no independent consciousness. The puppet’s life is bound to its master; if Yana Yates dies, the puppet will die instantly.]