Apocalypse Rebirth: Crazy from Day One

This place was indeed a treasure trove, but without the necessary skills or sufficient weaponry, coming here was a death sentence.

Not only would you fail to find food, but you could also become prey for the native inhabitants.

If Professor Lawrence hadn’t gone missing nearby, it was unlikely many people would have been willing to set foot in this place.

Stella Sterling and her team also encountered numerous ferocious beasts on their journey.

However, thanks to Stella Sterling’s keen perception, they avoided some of the dangers well in advance.

For those they couldn’t avoid, they simply raised their weapons and fought.

This time, Stella Sterling had equipped them with plenty of firearms and ammunition.

The large backpacks they carried contained nothing but weapons, aside from food.

Stella Sterling had also told them that safety was the top priority, so they shouldn’t worry about conserving ammunition.

So whenever they encountered danger along the way, they just raised their guns and let loose with a RAT-A-TAT-TAT.

With such intense firepower, unless they ran into a massive, dense horde of beasts...

...no single ferocious animal was a threat. They plowed straight ahead.

They lost track of how long they’d been walking as they ventured deeper and deeper into the Kryllian Mountains.

The area was filled with towering trees that blotted out the sun. Although it was broad daylight, the forest was gloomy, as if dusk had fallen in an instant.

And strangely, it seemed the rain had even stopped here. They no longer felt the drops hitting them.

Looking up, they could only see a dense canopy of leaves, with a few stray beams of light occasionally piercing through.

The ground was also dry.

It had been raining for nearly two years in the outside world, but this place felt like a different world entirely.

The stranger it was, the greater the danger. No one let their guard down; they grew even more cautious, advancing slowly.

No one spoke. Everyone was quiet, focusing intently on their surroundings to avoid being caught off guard by a sudden threat.

SWISH SWISH SWISH—

Just as everyone was focused on the path ahead, cautiously moving forward, the faintest sound reached Stella Sterling’s ears.

Over the past few years, her hearing and vision had improved to an unknown degree. The sound was almost imperceptible, but it couldn’t escape Stella Sterling’s ears.

She discovered that at some point, slender vines had begun burrowing out from underground, slowly closing in on them.

One vine, in particular, shot out rapidly toward Nathan Cheney, who was standing at the front.

"Watch out—"

Stella Sterling shouted a warning, drew a large blade from her back, and flashed to Nathan Cheney’s side, slashing down with it.

The others didn’t understand what was happening, but seeing Sterling’s reaction, they immediately went on high alert and clustered together.

It was then that they noticed something was wrong.

Nathan Cheney also saw the vine Sterling had severed. If not for her speed, he would have already been entangled by it.

He broke out in a cold sweat and shot a grateful look at Stella Sterling.

"Don’t get distracted."

Stella Sterling barked coldly as countless vines began to assault them.

Everyone started firing their guns at the vines. Stella Sterling frowned. "Use your blades!"

At her reminder, the others immediately drew the blades from their backs and began hacking at the vines.

The vines themselves weren’t hard to deal with, breaking with a single slash. The difficulty lay in their sheer number; they were so dense and numerous it was impossible to defend against them all.

In a moment of carelessness, a woman in the group named Paige Bell had her legs snared by the vines, which then began to drag her toward a tree.

Stella Sterling’s reaction was incredibly fast. She took a few steps forward, swung her large blade, and severed the vines wrapped around Paige Bell.

Paige Bell dropped to the ground, quickly regained her footing, and without a moment’s delay, rejoined the fight.

They had no idea how long they’d been chopping before they finally cleared away all the attacking vines.

With the exception of Stella Sterling, everyone else was panting for breath.

But no one dared to sit down and rest. Those things had just emerged from underground; who knew what else might appear.

Stella Sterling glanced at the others and couldn’t help but frown.

’Weak. They’re still too weak.’

’Compared to my past self, these people are far too lacking, let alone compared to who I am now.’

’They’re completely dragging me down. If they weren’t here, I could have dealt with all this in even less time.’

But she couldn’t just solve all their problems for them. If she did, what was the point of even having them around?

She had established a faction because she wanted it to grow strong, both in terms of power and in the capabilities of its members.

Only when they became powerful could she relax and enjoy a peaceful life without having to do everything herself.

So, it was useless for her to be the only strong one. She couldn’t possibly handle every single thing personally forever. If that were the case, there would have been no need for her to establish Caeluna at all.

After all, with her current abilities, there were very, very few people who could even harm her.

Under these circumstances, her reasons for building a base—besides finding the idea of developing alone too boring—were to train a group of people to work for her.

’I’ll have to take it slow.’

She sighed.

Looking up at the large trees, she noticed something she hadn’t before: several white bones were visible on a few of them, and those bones were also entwined with vines.

They were probably the remains of people who had entered this place before and died.

One could only imagine that if any of them had been entangled and couldn’t break free immediately, their fate would have been the same as those skeletons.

Following Stella’s gaze, the others saw it too. Their faces turned pale, a wave of fear washing over them.

Paige Bell felt a growing sense of gratitude toward Stella Sterling. If Sterling hadn’t saved her, she would have lost her life right here. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

She couldn’t help but recall what Sterling had said that day—that she wasn’t their partner, but their master.

’But with a master like this, does it even matter if we aren’t partners?’

The group hadn’t even recovered yet when they heard a familiar sound.

Their expressions changed. The vines they had just cleared away were surging back, and there were even more of them than before.

Their faces grew grim. Their stamina hadn’t recovered yet. ’Are they toying with us?’

"Run! To the front left!"

Just then, they heard Stella Sterling’s voice. As if they had received an imperial edict, they all sprinted in the direction she was pointing.

Stella Sterling had noticed that was the only direction from which no vines were attacking.

She ran behind the group, took out some fuel from her spatial storage, and poured it on the ground as if it were free.

After running a few meters, she pulled out a lighter, lit it, and threw it behind her.

BOOM!

A massive fire erupted behind them, blocking the vines on the other side of the inferno.

Even so, the group ran a long way before finally stopping.

They looked back at the glow of the fire, their faces still dazed.