Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 99: Chapter 91: Jingjing’s Role

Tang Mo scoured the forest for any mutant beasts she could find. As long as she didn’t run into a Mutant Beast Group, her skill level meant she wouldn’t have any major problems.

The majority of mutant beasts were still Basic-level, but considering their rapid evolution, Tang Mo felt that humanity would soon face an even more dire situation.

The forest was full of mutant beasts, but Tang Mo found that hunting them down one by one was too slow.

Her goal in coming to the forest wasn’t to collect Crystal Cores; she still had plenty left in her Space. She was more interested in honing her combat skills.

Tang Mo had learned many techniques from the instructors at the training camp, but those skills were useless if she couldn’t apply them. They were just theory without practice.

To truly grow stronger, she needed to test her abilities in real combat, one steady step at a time.

Real combat was the ultimate test.

An idea came to Tang Mo, and she plucked Jingjing from her shoulder, where it had been perched looking all around.

”All you do is eat. It’s time you did some work.”

Jingjing was still a cub, so Tang Mo didn’t expect much from it in a fight. But surely it could help her attract a few mutant beasts?

It would be a waste not to put that cleverness to use.

”Go wander around for a bit. If a mutant beast attacks you, lead it back here. If nothing attacks you, go provoke something. Bring them all back to me. Got it?”

Tang Mo laid out the instructions for Jingjing, word by word.

Jingjing looked small and weak, and mutant beasts had a habit of picking on the easy targets. It was the perfect lure.

”Mew?”

Jingjing stared innocently at Tang Mo with its round eyes, tilting its head with an expression that said, ’What are you talking about? I really don’t understand.’

”Don’t play dumb. Go on, get going.” Tang Mo knew Jingjing understood her.

She gave its forehead a light flick.

”Mew! Mew mew?”

Wincing, Jingjing rubbed its head with its two little paws before continuing to tilt its head and gaze innocently at Tang Mo.

That innocent gaze reminded Tang Mo of Qin Ling, who was a master of acting cute to get his way with her. She had long since become immune to that kind of look, thanks to him.

”You’ll be in charge of luring the mutant beasts, and all the Crystal Cores inside them will be yours. How about it?”

Tang Mo stated her terms.

Jingjing’s little eyes darted around for a few seconds before it nodded and shot off with a WHOOSH.

Tang Mo currently only gave Jingjing one Basic Crystal Core per day and wouldn’t give it more, no matter how much it begged. Thus, the allure of Crystal Cores remained immense for Jingjing.

Tang Mo lay on the grass, leaning leisurely against a tree stump as she waited for Jingjing to return.

The first mutant beast Jingjing lured back was a wild boar.

Jingjing leaped nimbly through the trees, a massive wild boar in hot pursuit, panting heavily.

The boar’s target was crystal clear; it ran right past Tang Mo without so much as a glance, never even breaking its stride.

Seeing that Tang Mo hadn’t intercepted the boar, Jingjing wheeled around and led it back, whimpering to urge Tang Mo into action.

Tang Mo was dumbfounded. ’Is it really going this far? It’s putting in so much effort just to chase a little fox? The bit of meat on Jingjing isn’t even worth the calories that boar is burning.’

However, when she saw the rear end of the boar as it turned back around, she suddenly understood the creature completely.

Apparently, the boar had just been happily strolling along, paying no mind to the little thing flitting about in front of it.

There wasn’t much meat on a fox, and it tasted bad anyway; it was too much effort for too little reward.

And so, with no other choice, Jingjing had to use all its might to take a huge bite out of the boar’s rump, which was how it had finally managed to attract it.

Tang Mo understood now. This wasn’t a chase for a meal; it was a chase for revenge.

She quickly snapped out of her stupor. If she waited any longer, the furious boar was going to swallow Jingjing whole.

With Wind Breaker in hand, Tang Mo kicked off a nearby stump and launched herself onto the boar’s back.

Recalling the techniques her instructors had taught her at the training camp, she twisted her wrist, driving Wind Breaker into the underside of the boar’s neck at a cunning angle.

Tang Mo put her weight into it, driving Wind Breaker completely into the boar’s body. It was only now that she could fully feel the changes in her own strength compared to before.

Now, she could easily pierce the boar’s tough bristles and hide without even needing to augment her strength with spiritual power.

Once Wind Breaker was almost completely buried in the boar, Tang Mo wrenched the hilt upward, carving a foot-long gash straight up the boar’s neck.

The entire sequence of moves happened in a flash. In just over ten seconds, the boar collapsed into a pool of blood, completely still.

Tang Mo pulled her blade free and stood to one side. She cut into the boar’s head, pried out the Crystal Core, rinsed it with water, and tossed it to Jingjing, who was waiting nearby.

She was a woman of her word, after all; she wouldn’t be late with a payment.

Jingjing still hadn’t snapped out of its daze, even as it hugged the still-warm Crystal Core.

’That boar chased me for so long, and she finished it in a single blow?’

In disbelief, Jingjing jumped over to the boar’s side and gave it a kick.

Still motionless.

A trace of awe entered Jingjing’s eyes as it looked at Tang Mo. It subconsciously took three steps back.

This was the first time Jingjing had truly seen Tang Mo in combat mode. ’This woman is absolutely terrifying.’

After that, with a newfound understanding of Tang Mo’s power, Jingjing began to work with her in perfect sync.

Jingjing could see now that a single mutant beast wasn’t enough to satisfy Tang Mo’s needs.

So, the second time, Jingjing lured back three mutant beasts with the heads of deer and the tails of lions.

The fight was over in under five minutes.

The third time, Jingjing lured back five mutant beasts.

That battle ended in eight minutes.

By the fourth time, after witnessing several battles, Jingjing had come to understand just how monstrously powerful Tang Mo was.

It went ahead and lured over a small wolf pack of a dozen or so, clearly treating Tang Mo as a Crystal-Core-generating machine.

This time, things weren’t so easy for Tang Mo. Although the pack lacked an Intermediate-level alpha, their coordinated battle tactics were strong.

Facing a pack of wolves by herself, she felt overwhelmed, unable to defend against attacks from all sides, despite her superior power.

In the end, she had to pull out her pistol and use three bullets to finally deal with the pack.

Knowing what the little schemer was up to, Tang Mo grabbed Jingjing and gave it a thorough, playful roughing-up.

Her intention wasn’t to end the fights quickly, but to slowly hone her techniques in combat.

’What’s the point of training if I have to pull out my pistol? Besides, bullets are expensive. The Crystal Cores from these wolves won’t even cover the cost of the ammunition. I really took a loss this time.’

’That little spendthrift, Jingjing!’

After a thorough roughing-up, Jingjing, its fur now a total mess, finally learned its lesson and stopped pushing Tang Mo’s limits.

Instead, it obediently started luring back around five mutant beasts each time. This number was just right—enough for Tang Mo to handle completely, even giving her enough breathing room to focus on her tactics and strategy.

Eventually, Tang Mo simply tossed her poisoned dagger to Jingjing, assigning it the task of collecting the Crystal Cores from the beasts’ corpses.