The Mutant Leech's Bane

The trade had concluded. After leaving Wetland Park, Sun Shiqi, his face dark with indignation, finally could not help but vent aloud. "Unbelievable!" "I've never seen such stingy bluecoats! Where's their civilized reserve? What happened to reciprocal courtesy? Greedy moles!" "I shouldn't have had any illusions about them!" In the tavern of the Red River Town trading post, four out of ten of the most widely shared tales were about bluecoats. People spoke of travelers who walked away with heaps of fine goods from those bluecoats with just a few flattering words, or swindlers who brought in stacks of colorful paper to get free food and drinks, only to be escorted out carrying a massive bag of "survival supplies" prepared for them. These bluecoats had become practically synonymous with having more money than brains, and stories about them rarely parted with the phrase *overnight fortune*. Sun Shiqi had never expected to pry open a shelter's treasures with sweet talk like the street rumors suggested; conducting honest business seemed like a decent alternative. And yet... Their reaction had defied all his expectations. To the point where he couldn't help wondering if these guys were just drifters in disguise. Would real bluecoats actually build houses on the surface? Besides, to the very end, he hadn't even seen where their shelter was... The gunslinger walking ahead glanced back at him, then eyed the bulging packs on the two-headed ox's back, asking in confusion, "So we lost money on this deal?" He had worked as a bodyguard for years and dealt with plenty of merchants, yet he had rarely seen them take a loss. "It wasn't a loss," Sun Shiqi said angrily, "but I could have made far more!" "..." Left speechless, the gunslinger looked away and resumed scanning their surroundings on alert. Sun Shiqi dug out his ledger, an expression of sheer agony on his face. Ten kilograms of salt had fetched only thirty kilograms of smoked meat. If his itinerary hadn't lacked a trip to Boulder City, he would never have accepted such a harsh price, not even if someone held a gun to his head! Unfortunately, there were no *what-ifs* in this world. Nor could he actually do what he had proposed—haul this salt to Boulder City, trade it for daily necessities and appliances, take those to a farm to trade for grain, and then bring the grain here to trade for meat. Going back and forth like that would waste at least four days, if not an entire week! The ruins inside the city were far harder to traverse than the open wastes. What was worse, winter was fast approaching, and both humans and mutants were frantically preparing for the coming cold. On the wasteland, this time of year was more dangerous than any other. Between the time cost and the inherent risks, taking that roundabout route was out of the question. And that man had clearly seen right through him. It wasn't just the ten kilograms of salt; the man had also found all sorts of excuses to ruthlessly drive down the price of the ten revolver rifles and two bags of ammo he had brought. Weapons might not be worth much in Boulder City, but no survivor settlement would turn down stockpiling firearms that were so durable, cheap, and easy to maintain. A single rifle was more than enough to trade for three or four mutant hyena carcasses, and any butcher could easily carve sixty to seventy kilograms of meat off them. That was seventy kilograms of meat! Trading for thirty kilograms of air-dried meat wouldn't be unreasonable, would it? Even twenty kilograms wouldn't be a bad deal! Yet that man had only been willing to give him ten kilograms of uncured smoked meat per rifle! No matter how much Sun Shiqi talked until his lips wore thin, the man had only nodded for friendship's sake and let him take an extra kilogram of smoked fish per rifle. Damn gopher! "I don't understand all that, but didn't you still turn a profit?" the gunslinger said casually. "Contentment brings happiness. That's what people always say." "Heh, what would you know? Contentment never made anyone a fortune." Sun Shiqi couldn't be bothered to argue. He waved his pencil impatiently and hurried along with his head down, muttering as he continued doing calculations in his ledger. "...This air-dried meat has to fetch at least sixty kilograms of coarse salt. No, at least eighty kilograms, or this trip wasn't worth the trouble. I need to think carefully about which mine to make this deal with." The gunslinger glanced at him, then looked at the cargo on the two-headed ox, remarking in an easy tone, "Then you should feel devout and grateful." "At least the guy accompanying you on this trip is a contented man." ... One hundred and thirty kilograms of smoked meat plus ten kilograms of smoked fish had secured ten kilograms of coarse salt, ten revolver rifles, two large bags of ammunition, and game coins. Chu Guang was quite satisfied with the outcome of this transaction. Of course, the timing had been just right. With winter closing in, whoever held food was king. Furthermore, since prey would soon hibernate, any game occasionally hunted could simply be preserved in the snow, making salt far less critical for now. Once spring arrived next year, though, the situation would be different. After all, making air-dried meat in spring or summer without using any salt and expecting it to keep until winter was sheer fantasy. Then again, by that time, would the outpost still need to rely on selling food to earn money? Chu Guang had his doubts. In any case, the production cost of one hundred and thirty kilograms of smoked meat and ten kilograms of smoked fish was a mere sixty to eighty silver coins to Chu Guang. Even calculated by the granary's purchasing price, it came to only one hundred and forty silver coins. At present, the players sold their prey directly to the granary without butchering or smoking meat themselves, so calculating by production cost was more appropriate. In reality, it made no difference which price was used. After all, Chu Guang now had five hundred more kilograms of identical game coins. To him as the manager, "money" was truly just a number... ... Dragging the coins into the shelter by himself, Chu Guang stacked them in an empty, unoccupied room. Looking at the glittering money, a gratified smile crept onto his face. If only he could exchange all of them for chips. Forget power armor—it would probably be enough to buy an aircraft, wouldn't it? Assuming anyone was selling... Money that hadn't entered market circulation held no meaning. Chu Guang admired his masterpiece for a brief moment before turning to leave the shelter. Returning to the surface, he began examining the glass jar he had obtained from Merchant Sun. Fist-sized ants were squirming in a cluster inside the glass jar, thrashing their legs and antennae haphazardly in search of an exit. One of the ironback ants facing outward was the most energetic, tapping rhythmically against the inner wall with its pincer-like mandibles. However, the curved inner surface was far too smooth to provide any purchase for biting. No matter how powerful its bite force, it was futile; it could only thrash anxiously against the transparent wall. Chu Guang wasn't interested in insects, but he wanted to know how these little creatures served as the natural bane of mutant leeches. Even young mutant leeches were considerably larger than them. So Chu Guang visited the anglers by the lake, borrowed a mutant leech infant, picked out a sturdy, lively ironback ant, and placed them both into the same jar. Something intriguing happened. The mutant leech didn't attack the prey before it right away; instead, it tentatively reached out its mouthparts. Just as the rim of its mouth was about to brush against the ironback ant, the leech suddenly recoiled as if shocked by an electric fence. Wriggling its plump, rounded body, it slithered to the far side of the jar, looking as though it were hiding from something terrifying. The ant was equally interesting. It seemed to realize there was a massive beast nearby. Yet it didn't panic at all. It neither attacked immediately nor fled. Instead, it circled the inner perimeter of the jar while waving the antennae atop its head. *What is it doing?* *Could it be...* Crouching on the ground to observe, Chu Guang stroked his chin, a look of sudden realization dawning on his face. "I see..." "It must be searching for its colony." He had an inkling of why these ants could counter mutant leeches. Just as Chu Guang prepared to further verify his hypothesis, players nearby were watching him and whispering. "What's the manager doing?" "Dunno, looks like he's playing with ants." "I saw him grab a leech infant from the anglers. Does he want to see an ant fight a leech?" "Damn, who comes up with a weird hobby like that?!" Carrying a basket of mushrooms toward the granary, Yaya happened to overhear the chatter among the nearby players. A cold chill ran down her spine, and she couldn't help shivering. L-leeches? Who would play with such disgusting things?! That was horrifying... ... After several controlled trials, Chu Guang finally verified his theory. First, leeches lacked eyes and relied primarily on smell to hunt prey. Mutant leeches were no different, and because their sense of smell was even sharper, they were extraordinarily sensitive to odors. Upon encountering prey, an ironback ant didn't choose to attack right away. Like other ants, it immediately released pheromones to signal nearby companions—*there's a fat sheep here, everyone pile on!* While a mutant leech's digestive fluid could dissolve most prey, it was almost completely ineffective against ironback ants. Even if swallowed whole, the ant could not be digested and would gnaw at the leech from the inside. Consequently, fear of this natural predator had practically been hardcoded into the mutant leech's genetics. The moment they caught the scent of an ironback ant's pheromones, they fled instinctively without daring to look back. "...Mystery solved." "It really comes down to this stuff." Looking at the thumbnail-sized, translucent gelatinous matter in his hand, Chu Guang squeezed it gently. It felt somewhat like spoiled sago pearls. This was the ironback ant's pheromone gland, located under its abdomen, which came off with little effort. After removing the gland from the large ant, Chu Guang tossed it back into the jar to share the space with the mutant leech once more. This time, the mutant leech acted far braver. After a few tentative prods, it likely sensed that this creature didn't carry the scent of its predator. Steeling its courage, it swallowed the prey in one gulp, its body rippling like waves. About five or six minutes passed. The writhing infant mutant leech suddenly went still. Chu Guang tipped it out of the jar and slit its belly open with a small knife. Inside, the ant had suffocated to death, though its mandibles still clamped onto a chunk of flesh, likely torn from some internal organ of the leech. Such a minor wound wouldn't have been enough to kill the leech; the truly fatal factor had probably been formic acid or some other substance injected into its body. *Killing the leeches in the nest isn't realistic.* *But if someone rubs extracted pheromone gland fluid all over themselves, disguising as the mutant leeches' predator... wouldn't they be able to clear the mutant leech nest without taking a scratch?!* Realizing this, Chu Guang's face lit up with sheer excitement, and the way he looked at the glass jar beside him shifted completely. A goldmine! Twenty kilograms of Blue Parasol mushrooms could fetch two thousand chips. If someone could harvest two hundred kilograms... Of course, two hundred kilograms might be a stretch. Still, bringing back a hundred-odd jin shouldn't be an issue, right? Pity these ironback ants were all worker ants without a queen capable of reproduction. Otherwise, they could fleece the mutant leech nest every single day! "...I need to find a player with high gathering proficiency for this job." Chu Guang's gaze swept across the outpost base, looking for this lucky candidate. Suddenly, his eyes settled on a player standing not far from the granary. Yaya! The moment he spotted this petite player, Chu Guang's eyes brightened. Close call. He had almost forgotten about her! If he recalled correctly, that player named Yaya had the talent "Toxin Intuition," which made Blue Parasol mushrooms glow green in her vision! Other players entering the cavern would have to search with torches, but she practically came with built-in night vision navigation. All she had to do was zero in on whatever glowed green and harvest away. Wouldn't hauling out a hundred-odd jin be a breeze for her? Feeling the manager's gaze, Yaya, who had just turned in her penalty quest, felt an involuntary jolt run through her. Her Perception-type intuition gave her advance warning of impending danger. Yet just as she prepared to grease her soles and slip away, Chu Guang anticipated her anticipation and stepped forward to trigger the dialogue. "How is your penalty quest coming along?" Hearing the voice behind her, Yaya turned around gingerly, trembling as she looked at the manager. "F-finished... I just turned it in. I've delivered the full one hundred kilograms." Chu Guang nodded. "Good that you finished. As of now, your status has been restored to resident. Furthermore, I have a glorious and arduous mission to entrust to you." Normally, Yaya would have accepted with delight, puffing out her chest to pledge loyalty. After all, who didn't love hidden quests? It might even boost an NPC's favorability! Yet ever since moments ago, her right eyelid had been twitching incessantly, warning her that a massive pit was waiting ahead. "I might not be able to pull it off. Maybe you should find someone else—" "Believe in yourself. You can do it. In fact, you're the only one who can!" Giving Yaya no chance to refuse, Chu Guang cut off her quiet murmurs with a stern expression. After a two-second pause, he continued: "I will give you a special powder to smear over your body." "It will guarantee your safe entry into the mutant leech nest. All you need to do is harvest the green-glowing mushrooms inside." Yaya was on the verge of tears. Hearing the words "mutant leech nest" nearly scared her into disconnecting on the spot. "C-c-can I still make it out alive and in one piece?" Chu Guang replied with complete certainty, "Theoretically, yes." Yaya: "???" *Theoretically?!* Giving her no opening to protest, Chu Guang pressed on. "I only say 'theoretically' for the sake of rigor. Don't worry, the success rate is over ninety percent. Even if you fail, you will have died in the line of duty on a special mission, with no penalties beyond the respawn cooldown." *That's still a penalty!* *The respawn cooldown is the worst part, okay?!* Yaya pleaded pitifully, "Can you waive the respawn cooldown too?" Chu Guang paused for two seconds and selectively ignored her plea. "The mission is simple. You will have ten minutes of absolute safety, followed by twenty minutes of relative safety." "Once inside the nest, ignore everything else, steer clear of the leeches, and harvest any blue mushrooms glowing green that you can see." "Gather as many as you can before time runs out." "For every jin of Blue Parasol mushrooms—" "I will credit you four copper coins and five contribution points!"