Chapter 217: Don’t Want to Be Cannon Fodder

Perry Yates was satisfied, but Dylan Adler, standing beside her, was scared stiff. He yanked her up from the ground and roared, "Do you have a death wish?"

Perry Yates was stunned by his roar. Meeting Dylan Adler’s earnest and angry gaze, she lowered her eyes and said seriously, "Sorry. But trust me, I wouldn’t play games with my own life."

Dylan Adler hadn’t expected Perry Yates to apologize so readily, and he certainly hadn’t expected what she said next.

"You..."

Dylan Adler opened his mouth, intending to say something, but he was at a loss for words. He eventually just snapped his mouth shut.

Perry Yates broke free from Dylan Adler’s grip and said, "Don’t worry. The first card I integrated was four-star. It doesn’t have much attack power, but it’s more than enough to suppress these plants."

As soon as she finished speaking, a wave of jade-green Wood Attribute Energy rippled out from beneath her feet. Immediately following it, countless golden Sunflower seedlings burst from the soil. They grew at a visible rate, quickly opening into golden blossoms.

More and more Sunflowers appeared, gradually filling the area around Perry Yates, their stalks weaving between the other plants as they grew.

As the Sunflowers grew, the once-lush native plants began to wither rapidly.

Perry Yates was making a powerful declaration to the flora: she was claiming this territory. If the other plants didn’t want to become fertilizer, they had better retreat.

About an hour later, the area was completely covered in golden Sunflowers. On some of the faster-growing ones, the golden petals had already withered, and the heavy, seed-laden heads were bending the stalks.

Perry Yates reached out and chopped down a mature sunflower head, which was bigger than her torso. She scraped away the dried florets from its surface, revealing rows of plump seeds packed within.

She managed to pry one loose and pop it in her mouth. A satisfied expression spread across her face. ’This tastes completely different from a normal sunflower seed,’ she thought. ’It’s sweet and crisp, almost like eating a piece of fruit. And it has this unique sunny flavor... must be because of the attribute.’

"Want to try one?"

Perry Yates held the seed out to Dylan Adler, offering him a taste.

As a product of a Wood Attribute Skill that had absorbed the energy of numerous other plants, the seeds possessed some healing and stamina-restoring properties. The amount of energy was negligible to a player, but to an ordinary person, they were an incredible boon.

Looking at the sea of brilliant gold Sunflowers, Perry Yates thought, ’This must be the first time I’ve used Twin Sunflowers on such a massive scale since I integrated the card.’

But she couldn’t really be blamed.

After all, even though Twin Sunflowers was a four-star card, its abilities were mostly focused on buffing Perry Yates herself. In terms of pure attack power, it was undoubtedly the weakest of all the cards she had integrated.

Furthermore, after the first game round, Perry Yates had obtained the Dual-color Rose Card as a system reward and had redeemed points for the Thorny Rose Card at the Survival Game Administration, making the Twin Sunflowers card even less essential.

Dylan Adler was still reeling from the shock, unable to process what he had just witnessed.

To be honest, while he had said on the way here that it would be just the two of them on this mission, the truth was that backup was already en route. They were merely the scouts, sent ahead to gather intelligence. Once they reported back, the main force of players would move in for a precision strike.

It was a procedure they knew by heart, one they coordinated with flawless precision.

Normally, scouting duty would never fall to someone of Dylan Adler’s rank. But, perhaps driven by curiosity or some other reason, he had volunteered for the assignment when it was handed out, bringing Perry Yates with him.

Before arriving, Dylan Adler had assumed Perry Yates would use her Cannibal Flower to violently suppress the local flora. As it turned out, it was indeed a violent suppression—just not with the Cannibal Flower.

And he had learned something even more shocking: Perry Yates’s first integrated card was actually a four-star card.

He knew that in all of Drakonia, let alone the entire world of Cerulea, there was only one other person with such a high starting point: Sylas Sawyer, the guy currently working at The Card Tavern.

Sylas Sawyer had been granted that honor not only because of his background but also due to his outstanding record. Drakonia was grooming him to become the "fifth pillar" alongside Dylan Adler, Seth Larkin, Aidan Sinclair, and Candice Sawyer.

"Your file at the Survival Game Administration says the card you integrated was a two-star Sunflower."

Hearing Dylan Adler’s question, Perry Yates rubbed her nose sheepishly. "I was just trying to copy those overpowered Draco Rex-type protagonists from the anime, you know? The whole ’hiding your true power’ trope. Weren’t you shocked by the strength I just displayed?"

Perry Yates’s eyes sparkled, giving her the air of a dramatic, anime-obsessed teenager.

Seeing this, Dylan Adler recalled her file. It did indeed mention that Perry Yates enjoyed anime, with a particular fondness for stories about invincible protagonists, like the Draco Rex and Phoenix King archetypes.

"Then why tell me the truth now?" Dylan Adler asked again.

"I hid it at first because I just wanted to be left alone. When I was on my own, I could do whatever I wanted. I’m telling you now because I’ve joined the Survival Game Administration. I need to demonstrate my value, so I don’t get treated like disposable cannon fodder. And also, to be worthy of the salary you’re paying me."

Dylan Adler hadn’t expected those to be Perry Yates’s reasons.

Just then, the communicator on Dylan Adler’s person beeped, and a deep, middle-aged man’s voice crackled through.

"Captain Adler, what’s your status? Why haven’t you designated the strike zone?"

The voice snapped Dylan Adler back to reality. He spoke into the device, "Mission complete. Cancel the strike mission. Also, send a team over to collect sunflower seeds."

"Collect sunflower seeds?"

The voice on the other end repeated in confusion, but before he could ask anything else, Dylan Adler had already hung up.

He walked over to Perry Yates, unceremoniously snatched half of the giant sunflower head from her arms, and started cracking seeds.

"The folks at the Science Academy should be able to make some useful things with these seeds."

Perry Yates glared at the brazen Dylan Adler, her eyes practically screaming, ’Did you even ask before you took my things? And now you’re making decisions for me?’

"Relax," he said. "We won’t take them for free. The Science Academy will compensate you for their full value."

At his words, Perry Yates’s expression instantly cleared up. ’Getting paid for them? Oh, well in that case, there’s no problem at all.’