Plant Tamer Chapter 30: Departure

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Maine looked at Long Teng, and reminded him, “Don’t forget what you promised.”

Long Teng pouted, his fleshy cheeks puffing up. “I know, I’ll hit whoever you say, okay? You’re not going to let anyone bully you, are you?”

Maine’s eyes flashed. “Of course not.”

The five large shuttles docked on the playground opened their front and back doors at the same time. Many of the participants ran toward the doors, some were arguing over the order of the front and back.

Bai Jiao reminded them. “Get on the shuttle first,” he said with a light smile on his lips. In a softer tone he said, “I’m actually looking forward to someone getting in our way.”

Xie Sen was still a little worried, but after he saw Long Teng’s excited expression, then Maine and Bai Jiao’s calm faces, he suddenly felt relieved. He followed his teammates towards the shuttle, and asked Bai Jiao as he walked, “What are you looking forward to?”

Bai Jiao’s eyebrows raised slightly. His index finger casually hooked a tuft of long hair and twirled it, as he gave a light smile. “I have made a lot of finished drugs, but haven’t found a suitable test subject. If someone takes the initiative to test the effect, it would be great.”

His eyebrows were like a painting. When he smiled, he was extraordinarily beautiful, yet Xie Sen inexplicably felt a cold chill behind him. His only female teammate was a little scary, ah!

The four people got on the shuttle. The shuttle had rows of ten seats, five to the left, five to the right and the middle was the aisle. The four people sat together on the right side, and left the aisle seat. Xie Sen sat in the window seat, and curiously looked around. He soon found that the students who were passing their seats would subconsciously speed up, as if encountering a flood of beasts.

At eight fifty-five, an announcement sounded, “The league shuttles will take off in five minutes. There are still empty seats in shuttle two and shuttle three. Please go to these two shuttles as soon as possible if you have not yet boarded.”

Not long after, four panting students got on the No. 2 shuttle where Xie Sen and his team were. After they checked the available seats at the seat display panel next to the door, they immediately headed for the empty seats.

The one in front of them put down his backpack in a panic, and was about to sit down when his teammate pulled him back. “Let’s go to number three.”

“Why…” The man was about to ask a question when he saw those with Xie Sen behind the seats. He immediately shut up, grabbed his backpack, and turned to run to the door.

Xie Sen was speechless. Were they that scary?

By the time the shuttle took off, the seats in front of them and to the left were all still empty. As for the remaining seat in the same row, no one dared to sit there.

Long Teng raised a big smile. “There’s an empty seat. I’m going over there to lie down for a while.” He happily ran to the empty seat on the left, and comfortably occupied all the seats by himself.

Bai Jiao glanced at him. The corners of his mouth raised slightly. The feeling of teaming up was quite good.

Maine said to Xie Sen, “The journey is about half an hour. You can rest first. The island will be very tiring.”

Xie Sen nodded, leaned back and closed his eyes to rest.

At 9:30, the shuttle landed on time at the parking lot at the south end of Yu Chu Island. It was a man-made parking lot the size of an international airport. After everyone got off the shuttle, the shuttle immediately took off and left. The whole parking lot was full of people, except at the edge where the two green shuttles docked.

As instructed by the lead teacher, everyone swiped their personal bracelets on the participant counters, followed by a brief pre-race meeting.

“Hello students, I’m Qi Shao. The security advisor for this tournament.” A two-meter high platform rose up at the front, and a dark green uniformed man jumped on it. “Please remember the rule of our competition. Friendly competition.” He smiled. “If your life is in danger, remember to send a distress signal. Your life is more important than the competition. If you don’t care about your life, I will personally teach you how to cherish your life. In three minutes, the northern fence of the parking lot will descend, and in ten minutes it will rise again. All students pay attention to the time. I will wait for you in the north.” He finished and jumped off the high platform.

Xie Sen thought to himself, So Qi Shao was a military man. His temperament fit the identity.

After Qi Shao’s words, the participants all crowded towards the middle of the fence on the north side of the parking lot. The island was circular and the middle diameter was obviously the closest route to the destination.

Maine didn’t move and said, “We’ll take the far left later.”

Xie Sen echoed, “The route with too many people is not a good one.”

Bai Jiao nodded, “Exactly what I think. According to common sense, the middle is often the most dangerous.”

“Why don’t you move? Are you afraid, and want to withdraw from the race?” Julos walked over with three boys in black power suits. His tone was mocking.

Maine frowned and looked at him with a clear, cold brow. Xie Sen was about to open his mouth to dislike him back, when he was interrupted by Long Teng’s excited voice.

“I remember you,” Long Teng didn’t give Julos a single look, but pointed at the burly boy to his right. “You are the flying rhinoceros beast master of Xinghao University, and also an S class!” he said and reflexively rolled up his sleeves. “Fight with me!”

Julos’ face instantly became extremely ugly. It was the first time he had been so ignored, all because of his little brother.

Xie Sen’s mouth held a smile. Maine raised his hand and slapped the back of Long Teng’s head. Long Teng covered the back of his head and stared at him, thought of what he had promised, dropped his hand, pouted and stood to the side, as his shoulders drooped.

“Are you guys in over your heads for being teammates with him?” Julos wrapped his arms around his chest, and said disdainfully, “I’ve investigated you all, and you’re all pathetic ghosts without friends. You guys quit the team now. I’ll let someone play with you later. I’ll do it with just a word.” He raised his chin triumphantly. “And you don’t have to enter the tournament. I’ll just give you the prize of the championship.”

Maine’s palms clenched into fists, his cherry-colored lips pursed tightly.

Xie Sen averted his eyes. This person simply couldn’t see. This person was sixteen years old, not six years old, right? Was he spoiled into a fool because of his family history?

Bai Jiao smiled lightly and shook his head gently. He said nothing, but gave a very speaking look.

Long Teng blinked his eyes, turned his head to look at his teammates and laughed. “He’s so stupid!”

“Pfft.” Xie Sen finally couldn’t hold back his laughter.

Maine looked over at him, and Xie Sen grabbed his arm. “Let’s go. It’s almost time.”

Maine’s tightly pursed lips relaxed and lifted slightly. His face eased up.

They weren’t the same.

This seemingly foolish behavior of Julos was actually very effective. He’d had friends once, only they were all unable to resist the great temptations Julos gave.

Anger rose on Julos’ face and he said viciously, “You guys wait and see! You want to win the championship, I’ll make sure you can’t even finish the mission!” He said, then led the men towards the wall. The two men behind him walked quickly in front of him to part the way for him. The rest of the participants who were grabbing positions saw him and hurriedly gave way, many of them with pleased faces.

“Looks like we have to move a little faster,” Bai Jiao said.

Maine nodded, and took the lead to the left side of the wall. Besides them, there were also many people who took this side. After all, there were so many people, and being crowded in the middle was too much competition.

The countdown sounded. The wall began to descend. With the last second of the countdown, the entire wall plunged into the ground, and everyone’s line of sight was surrounded by green. The air smelled like grass, and the sound of birds chirping and the roar of beasts in the distance rang in the ears.

“Oh, shit!” Participants scrambled inside. Some tripped over branches that sprang up before they could take a few steps, and others accidentally stepped into deep pits covered by dead leaves.

Maine went in and headed to the far left, while the rest followed him. There were very few people like him who entered and then took a detour, so after ten minutes, there were very few participants around.

“Whoa! What the heck!” Long Teng was walking at the back when he suddenly shouted out.

Xie Sen turned around, and saw he was frantically flinging his right hand with a black object on the back of it.

“Don’t move.” Bai Jiao lightly walked to him, held his right wrist, and a white bottle suddenly appeared in his hand. He squeezed out a drop of transparent liquid on his hand.

Xie Sen looked at the soft black creature on Long Teng’s hand. His scalp tingled, and he rubbed his arm. “What is that?”

“A bloodsucker.” The soft bottle in Bai Jiao’s hand disappeared, and a green piece of paper appeared shortly afterwards.

Long Teng, after being suddenly scared, now wasn’t scared at all but was full of curiosity, “Amazing, how did you get it? I just couldn’t shake it off.”

“The more you move, the faster the blood flows, and the tighter it sucks. The medicine I just used stimulated it to pull out the suction cup, so it was easy to take off.” Bai Jiao explained. Three boxes of flat green ointment suddenly appeared in his hand, and he handed out one box to each of them. “Apply it to the exposed skin on your body. It will block these little things.”

Xie Sen hurriedly took it and applied it to his body. He couldn’t stand those soft creatures. If they accidentally got on him, he would have screamed! As he applied it, he said thankfully, “I’m glad you’re here. You’re great!”

Long Teng smiled brightly. “I feel great too!”

Xie Sen finished painting, and looked curiously at Bai Jiao’s hand. “Where did you get all that stuff?”

Bai Jiao pulled the sleeve of his left hand slightly upward, and revealed a jade white transparent bracelet. “Storage space.”

Xie Sen was stunned and looked at Maine. “You have one too?”

Maine nodded and pointed to his left foot. “I bought an anklet because I thought the jewelry was in the way.”

Xie Sen silently patted his backpack. “I should have known. I wouldn’t have carried a backpack.”

“Cooked food is easy to spoil in space,” Maine said. “You put spicy jerky there, right?”

No wonder Maine didn’t remind him. Xie Sen nodded. “It’s for the jerky.”

Long Teng jumped on his backpack. “Grandpa really didn’t lie to me. There’s really good food! I want to eat it!”

Xie Sen covered his backpack. “We’ll talk about lunch. Let’s hurry up and get going!”

Maine ripped Long Teng away. As he twisted to the side, he stretched out the palm of his hand. Three metal bamboo dragonflies suddenly appeared on his palm. The wings on each had  soybean grain-sized, blue electronic eyes. He opened his bracelet. His fingers quickly operated a few times, and the three dragonflies flew off in the front, left, and right directions, respectively.

“So cool! What is this?” Long Teng was like a curious baby. Xie Sen also had a curious face.

Bai Jiao laughed, “As expected of an information student. That’s an information detector, right?”

Maine nodded, and said to Long Teng, “You take the back.” To Xie Sen, “Stay close to me.” Then he took the lead and walked forward.