Tang Erda took a deep breath and stood up with the sack. He started to pick the roses quickly, his movements fast and sharp. He still looked a bit unskilled and clumsy but the number of roses in the sack was growing quickly. At the very least, it was much faster than the speed at which Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi worked together to pick them.
After all, he was a strong man who was good at doing physical work. There was a certain gap between him and a child like Liu Jiayi or a corporate drone like Bai Liu who sat in front of a computer and worked 996 all the time.
Then as Tang Erda’s sack of dry leaf roses was half full, there was sudden commotion in the surrounding flower fields. It was as if there was some animal creeping on the soil of the flower field, quickly moving its limbs and approaching him.
The sound of fine, sticky and dense arthropods being inserted into the soil and pulled out made Tang Erda turn his head vigilantly. A silver revolver appeared out of thin air and he held it tightly.
Tang Erda moved cautiously around the spot where the strange sound was made. His thumb flicked the magazine to load it and he aimed the gun at the trembling rose bush.
The gorgeous and lush flowers kept shaking and trembling. The things hidden in the soil approached Tang Erda little by little through the trembling flowers. There was a strong smell like the decay of rotting leaves.
The trembling continued to approach and finally stopped at a distance of around half a meter from Tang Erda.
Tang Erda moved carefully, his body half crouched as he used the other hand that wasn’t holding a gun to separate the flowers and leaves hiding the creature close to him. Meanwhile, the gun was firmly aimed at the place where the trembling last stopped.
That thing also seemed to know that Tang Erda was aiming a weapon at it and it remained motionless for half a moment. In the end, it was defeated by the aroma of petals in Tang Erda’s sack and a roaring humanoid monster rushed out of the dirt.
Its body was covered with red, soft mud that was still dripping down. Only the outline of a humanoid creature could be faintly seen and the skin and flesh were all opened one by one, like small pieces supported on the outside. The leaves that were about to wither were black and the bones were like the stems of plants. The blackening flesh fell from the bones and the skin was the same yellow as dried leaves.
Every time the monster took a step, the hanging ‘leaves’ on its body trembled. As it moved, the dirt on its face finally dripped off and revealed a rough, real appearance. The eyeballs were sunken and blackened, the flesh on the right side of the face had all withered and there was no flesh, only bones. Yet strangely, there were white, dense and granulation-like bone spurs squirming on its cheekbones like they were about to grow out in the next second.
The monster lifted its eyeballs that were about to fall out. Inside was a pair of roses that had withered to the point of dying. It opened its mouth that had rotted to its nostrils and gums and made an eerie, hoarse sound. “I want perfume! Give me perfume!”
The flesh that squirmed on its bones instantly stretched out, turning into long, flesh-colored tentacles with stomata that stabbed at Tang Erda. The places on its body that hadn’t fallen and had only bones were instantly filled with these thick, squirming tentacles.
Tang Erda was waiting for this monster to attack him first. It was only after the monster attacked him that he could trigger the monster book.
[System tip: Congratulations to player Tang Erda for triggering the monster book.]
[The Rose Factory Monster Book has been refreshed – Dry Leaf Addicts (1/3)]
[Monster Name: Dry Leaf Addict (Homeless)]
[Features: The low level homeless people who gradually withered after being unable to get a low concentration of perfume. Before they completely wither away, these homeless people who can’t get the perfume to alleviate their withering will first fall into the madness of perfume addiction. This makes them fantasize that they can do anything…]
[In order to obtain the last pleasure before the withering death, these daredevil addicts will come to the flower fields that can produce dry leaf roses to steal the roses. Unfortunately, these lowly vagrants have a strong stench and can’t touch the roses in the flower field. They can only steal the roses that the flower pickers have already picked. Dear flower pickers, beware of these rose thieves.]
[Weaknesses: ??? (Unexplored)]
[Attack method: Steal roses (A+), attack the flower pickers with tentacles to steal the fruit of the other person’s labor.]
The monster had long tentacles that swept from all directions, making Tang Erda take several steps back. However, he didn’t make an immediate move.
According to the factory worker who previously brought him over here, there must be more than one monster like this. Tang Erda was ready to induce this monster to attack several times in order to find out its attack methods.
He had a high level of agility and it wasn’t difficult for him to maneuver around a level A+ monster. However, this idea lasted less than a second.
Once again the monster stretched out its tentacles to attack Tang Erda. Tang Erda looked at the tentacles less than two centimeters in front of him. These tentacles were a bit like the rhizomes of some types of plant and there were intermittent scars on the tentacles like something had fallen off.
Soon, Tang Erda understood what the scars were. These scars were the marks of the connecting points left on the bones after the flesh and blood ‘leaves’ dried up. The tentacles that grew out of the bones had these scars.
This trace was exactly the same as the traces left on the rhizome of the dry leaf rose after the leaves had withered and fallen when Tang Erda picked the rose.
Tang Erda took a few steps back with an ugly face. He realized something and immediately pulled out his gun and fired a shot to make the monster in front of him collapse.
The monster hissed and fell to the ground but it was too late. More and more rose bushes shook.
Tang Erda found himself stepping on a piece of land that was soft and fleshy when he stepped back. He looked down and saw countless rhizome-like tentacles twisting and winding around the soles of his feet like a group of pythons. They spread from Tang Erda’s feet to every corner of the shaking flower field.
In the vast rose garden, the shadowy vagrants swayed out of the dirt. Their faces and bodies were covered with tentacles as they moved through the mud. The wriggling tentacles of these vagrants were connected to the roses’ root leaves that looked more beautiful in the moonlight.
These vagrants were parasites of the dry leaf roses and they parasitized the ground of these roses.
They had been hiding in the ground, staring day and night with two rose-stained eyeballs as they salivated and frantically watched from the ground while waiting for the full flowers with withered leaves to be picked by the flower pickers.
In the end, even the bones were parasitized by these rose rhizomes and their bodies were covered with scars after the dried leaves fell.
The flower field had changed from a dark red mud to a swamp of rotting flesh. The slippery red mud on the surface was formed by the accumulation and trampling of the ‘leaves’ dropped by these vagrants. It was just that the smell was covered by the strong smell of roses and it couldn’t be smelled at all.
The vagrants with tentacles on their body, that were growing out of the ground, opened their eyes and fixed their eyes on the roses. They were like puppets in reverse as they approached Tang Erda step by step. Tang Erda’s ankles were also entangled by the tentacles that emerged from the ground.
A human face emerged at Tang Erda’s feet. Nearly two-thirds of the human face was rotten and all tentacles. The tentacles also appeared from its open mouth. The tentacles from the mouth contracted and wrapped around Tang Erda’s ankles, dragging him to the ground.
It muttered with tentacles in its mouth.
“Give me perfume!”
“Give me roses!”
This ghostly sound was like a chorus and came in all directions. The moon shone brightly on the red ground. Tang Erda gritted his teeth and shot at the tentacles around his ankles. The moment the tentacles broke, a second petal appeared on the roses in his eyes.
[System notification: Player Tang Erda’s mental value has dropped to 78. Please use the perfume to restore your mental value as soon as possible to prevent alienation.]
Following the flower fields under the pure white moonlight, at the other end of this flower field that couldn’t be seen, Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi were lying on the edge like salted fish.
The two of them stared at the sky motionlessly. Apart from their chests rising and falling due to intense physical activity, they looked like two corpses that had just been carried there.
“We have been resting for five minutes. We should get up and pick flowers,” Liu Jiayi said.
“Do you think that a five minute break or a ten minute break will have an impact on the fact that we can’t finish our work?” Bai Liu asked calmly.
Liu Jiayi was silent for a moment. “…It seems like there is none.”
After all, they had only collected 6 kg so far. It seemed unlikely that they would complete the task of picking 40 kg of roses before dawn.
Bai Liu said casually, “Then we can rest a bit longer.”
Liu Jiayi, “…….”
What was going on with this fish-like mentality?
“Your mentality of playing this game is very depressed, Bai Liu.” Liu Jiayi sat up and looked at the motionless Bai Liu. She crossed her arms and condescendingly examined a certain salted fish lying next to her. “You usually operate at the limit of the game in order to pass the game. I don’t believe that you don’t have the idea of clearing this game in your head.”
Bai Liu squinted and looked at Liu Jiayi. “I don’t believe you don’t have it in your head either. So the reason why the two of us aren’t acting right now should be the same.”
Liu Jiayi was subtly silent for half a moment.
Bai Liu turned his head to look back at the sky and continued, “First, you and I can’t get 40 kg of roses through conventional labor. If it can’t clear the game, our labor is low cost-effective and will speed up our contamination.”
“After counting the results of our first hour of labor, I can be sure that this method doesn’t work so there is no need to continue this meaningless labor.”
The author has something to say:
My friend: +1 encouraging 6 to cheer up is like a daughter encouraging her laid-off and unemployed father to get back on his feet!
Me: It isn’t impossible if you want to understand it this way…
Proofreader: Purichan
Any support on Patreon will be appreciated and you will also get access to advance chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/rainbowturtle
If you just want to support or buy me a coffee, you can consider Ko-fi:
https://ko-fi.com/rainbowturtle