Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 182: Chapter 172: As Witty as Her

The crocodile certainly lived up to the name Tang Mo had given it: Big Dumb Croc. After a moment’s hesitation, it couldn’t resist the temptation of revenge and lumbered toward her.

Tang Mo watched the crocodile from the corner of her eye, her focus remaining on climbing down the rope.

She was seven or eight meters off the ground and descended with deliberate slowness, almost as if she were waiting for that Big Dumb Croc to approach.

Even if the crocodile had just developed a sliver of sapience, its brain was nowhere near as complex as a human’s. It couldn’t possibly grasp the meaning behind her actions.

It quickly scrambled to the spot beneath the rope. The crocodile opened its massive jaws and snapped upward with all its might.

The crocodile’s jaws gaped wide. It tilted its enormous head back, its teeth barely more than a meter from Tang Mo’s calves.

This was due to its biological limitations; crocodiles weren’t great jumpers. If it could have leaped just a little higher, it would have swallowed Tang Mo whole.

’Now!’

Seeing the crocodile open its mouth just as she had predicted, Tang Mo instantly scrambled a little higher up the rope. Then, the Wind Blades she had been gathering shot into the crocodile’s gaping maw at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Tang Mo had spent a long time training to achieve this kind of speed with her Wind Blades.

In combat, speed is everything.

The power of her Wind Blades was almost entirely dependent on her spiritual power attribute value.

But by increasing their speed, she could make them even more potent.

Tang Mo enjoyed figuring these things out. Often, just a bit of clever thinking allowed her to achieve twice the results with half the effort in her training.

The range was too short and the Wind Blades were too fast. By the time the crocodile realized something was coming and snapped its mouth shut, it had already swallowed every last one of them.

Generally, mutant beasts are highly alert to approaching danger.

That was precisely why Tang Mo had used herself as bait to devise this plan.

She had been on the run for so long that the crocodile never imagined the prey it had been chasing still had the strength to fight back.

Whether human or mutant beast, underestimating an enemy always leads to mistakes.

And some mistakes are fatal—the kind you only get to make once.

The Wind Blades were composed of Tang Mo’s spiritual power, so even after being swallowed, they remained entirely under her control.

The crocodile’s hide may have been incredibly tough, but that didn’t mean its insides were made of reinforced steel.

Ultimately, it was still a creature of flesh and blood.

While Tang Mo’s Wind Blades would have had a hard time piercing the crocodile’s armored hide, the current situation transformed them into deadly weapons.

The Wind Blades rampaged inside the crocodile’s body, shredding its internal organs, flesh, and sinew...

The colossal crocodile thrashed on the ground in agony. Its sheer size caused the ground to tremble slightly with its movements.

But now, it was like a fish on the chopping block, utterly powerless to resist Tang Mo.

Tang Mo recalled the rope into her Space, then sat on a branch, swinging her legs.

Her expression was placid as she watched the once-ferocious crocodile that had been hunting her, now writhing in pain on the ground as its life slowly faded away.

’This must be the law of the jungle.’

After the crocodile fell completely still, Tang Mo observed it for another moment before leaping down from the tree. She delivered a vicious roundhouse kick straight to its head.

The kick sent the crocodile’s massive head twisting to the side.

CRACK. The sound of its skull fracturing.

’That kick was for the owner of the severed hand.’

Tang Mo drew Wind Breaker and stabbed at the vital points on the crocodile’s lower jaw several times.

Once she was certain the crocodile was well and truly dead, Tang Mo stored its massive carcass in her Space.

The open area in her Space was vast. Crystal Stones were piled up near the warehouse, and she had designated a spot at the far edge just for storing the corpses of mutant beasts.

These were Advanced Mutant Beasts, after all. Tang Mo couldn’t be bothered to go through the trouble of extracting their High-level Crystal Cores at the moment.

But their bodies were treasure troves of high-quality materials, perfect for crafting equipment and weapons. Since she had the storage capacity, she couldn’t let it go to waste.

After taking care of everything, Tang Mo gazed toward the fruit grove.

That was where the signal had been lost. She knew some immense danger must lie within.

But there was also a high probability that Qin Ling and his group were in there.

’Since I’ve already decided to come alone, I have to press on, even if it’s through hell and high water. There’s no sense in turning back now.’

Wiping the blood from Wind Breaker, Tang Mo gripped it tightly and stepped into the fruit grove.

It was like a world apart from the surrounding jungle.

Towering, ancient trees, so tall their tops were out of sight, grew sparsely in a ring around the perimeter. In the center, low-lying fruit trees grew in a dense cluster.

Tang Mo cautiously approached to inspect the fruit.

They were a type of large, yellow, thin-skinned fruit, each one nearly the size of two adult fists combined.

They looked succulent and sweet, enough to make one’s mouth water.

She picked a bunch and stored them in her Space, planning to let Jingjing, that little glutton, test them for poison before she ate any.

It was far too dangerous here; she wouldn’t dare eat anything unfamiliar. She couldn’t afford any mishaps.

Just as Tang Mo was happily gathering fruit, she suddenly felt a tug on her pant leg.

Instinctively wary in the unfamiliar environment, Tang Mo leaped three meters away, still clutching the fruit she hadn’t yet managed to store in her Space.

When she looked back, Tang Mo jumped in surprise.

Where Tang Mo had just been standing, a small, black-furred chimpanzee stood, glaring at her furiously.

It was a baby chimpanzee.

Tang Mo panicked.

A baby chimp wasn’t scary. What was scary was its mom, its dad, its brothers and sisters, and its entire extended family.

In this post-apocalyptic world, the attack power of a full-grown chimpanzee was almost unimaginable...

’This place is far more dangerous than I imagined,’ was Tang Mo’s first thought. ’The best option is to get out of here now.’

But clearly, that optimal choice was not one she was willing to consider.

Tang Mo steadied her nerves and observed the little chimpanzee carefully.

It barely came up to her knees and was wearing a small wreath of flowers on its head.

”You want this?” Tang Mo pointed to the yellow fruit in her hand.

’Making an enemy of this little chimp right now is not a good idea.’

”Put down. Mine.”

The voice was childish and halting, like that of a toddler just learning to speak.

Tang Mo never imagined she would one day hear human speech come from a chimpanzee’s mouth.

’This world is just too bizarre.’

’Looks like that crocodile from earlier was still wet behind the ears,’ she thought. ’If it had been a bit more advanced, it might have understood me cursing it out.’

”Yours?”

Understanding the little chimpanzee’s meaning, Tang Mo bent down and gently placed the yellow fruit on the ground.

She had already stored plenty in her Space; there was no need to anger this little terror over a single piece of fruit.

Seeing how cooperative the human was, the little chimpanzee’s expression softened, its anger subsiding.