Chapter 302: Begin Culling The Pests

For now, the recon of the rift will continue but Siti and Diana will be waiting for more people to arrive to replace the ones we had… Lost.

Also, they seem to want to involve their own military as well, something about the three countries cooperating together to solidify friendship and other political bullshit.

We weren’t going to let in an entire invasion force of course, just a single assault force or whatever that was supposed to mean.

They would also be supplying several Vanguards who would be participating in the expedition as well, more so that they could claim a larger chunk of the Mana Crystal veins that they might find during the expedition.

It didn’t really matter to us since we fully intended to claim the rest of the rift and start our own mining operations after it had been cleared.

Since this was a relatively new rift, we should have quite a bit of time to exploit it before we need to close it to avoid a Rift Breakout.

The rift on our island was already pretty old so we shouldn’t keep it open for long. Our plans were to close it once the main industries on the island were up and running and we become mostly self-sufficient at the very least.

Well… Self-sufficient-ish since we would lose access to a source of Mana Crystals that we could mine ourselves and would need to resort to importing them after that rift closes.

At least it wouldn’t happen immediately so we still have some time to plan for it.

But as I had told them earlier, I would still join Siti and Diana on the next few recon expeditions, specifically to investigate the other markings on the map we found.

Now we know that these survivors weren’t just enclaves of survivors but a connected network of people that were planning attacks on other survivors and had stockpiles of weapons and equipment… We had to make sure that these people do not pose a threat to us when we start working our way towards the Gatekeeper.

The last thing we needed was for us to start a battle with the Anomalies and then have this third group come in to attack us and ruin everything.

At this point, even I understand the threat that this additional group of survivors pose to us, especially since we were dealing with a rift that had a Commander Class Anomaly.

And like I had decided for myself… If I had to pick between my people and the survivors from another rift… I would pick my side ten times out of ten.

So for this rift… I already knew what I was going to do.

I stepped out of the teleportation door with Siti and Diana, all of us only bringing one Guardian today since we were not doing recon but something else.

We had matched up the symbols on the map to figure out which ones meant there were more survivor enclaves that belonged to this particular group, so we were hitting them all today.

We don’t know if they had been warned ahead of time or if those guys had been part of the group that drilled their way to the town, but we would be clearing each of these sites nevertheless.

Siti looked at her copy of the map, “I’ll take the four markers to the northeast.”

Diana nodded, “I’ll take the three further ones to the west.”

I folded the map and turned to Maylene who was the only one accompanying me today, “And we’ll take the five to the north. We’ll rendezvous again here and keep in touch using the radio sets. Call out if you need help or something.”

The two Mortal Goddesses rolled their eyes at me, clearly showing that they did not think they would need any help here considering who they were.

They then set out towards their assigned locations, with Siti traveling by using roots on the ground that sprouted up to roll across the landscape with her and her Guardian on top of it, while Diana summoned a literal wave of water to surf away with her Guardian.

That left me with Maylene who quickly climbed on top of my shoulders to settle down with her thighs pressed against the side of my cheeks.

“Ehehehe~ Let’s go, Qing!” She giggled, pointing in the direction of where we were assigned to.

Not bothering to complain about her position, I flew us up into the air and sped towards the direction, trusting Maylene to guide me instead.

We flew over a large field that was overgrown with tall grass before we reached a forest that had trees as tall as buildings.

It seemed like the plants here have grown even more aggressively than the others, though I’m not sure if this was because of its native species or because there was a higher concentration of miasma here which might mean we were close to something big.

We didn’t have to fly very far before Maylene pointed up ahead, “According to the map… It should be right around there!”

I slowed down so that we could pay more attention to the ground, since I was fully expecting these people to have set up another underground bunker somewhere.

But Maylene hopped on my shoulders excitedly to point up ahead, “There! Over there, Qing!”

I had been scanning the ground so it took me by surprise when I realised she was actually pointing at something straight ahead, revealing what looked like several tree houses built on the canopies of the trees with bridges in between them.

Huh… Seems like this particular group decided to stay high up in the trees instead of underground to avoid the Anomalies. I wonder how they get back down?

I didn’t get the luxury to figure that out as lasers suddenly flew my way, prompting me to swerve myself to the side to avoid it before summoning my floating arms to project my shield to block the next few shots.

Maylene pouted above me, “Wow… They’re not even going to say anything before they start firing? How rude…”

I said nothing and just gathered lightning in my fist and punched it forward, striking the tree that seemed to be the main pillar holding up the majority of the colony.

The tree shook violently before the forest was filled with the sound of a loud crack, right before the entire tree started to lean precariously at an angle.

Fortunately for these people, the bridges and supports they have built in between the trees have managed to hold the tree up instead of letting it collapse completely, but the walkways and buildings did end up cracking and some of them broke off to plummet towards the forest floor.

Some of my attackers also ended up losing their footing and fell off the walkways, only to be yanked back to bounce in the air, revealing that each of them seemed to have secured themselves to the railings with ropes.

I guess that’s how they prevent themselves from falling to their deaths in an accident.

Still… I wasn’t done here since that strike was meant to buy me time to charge up my next attack.

I threw the fireball towards the central tree, watching it explode into flames before chucking another one at the tree it was connected to.

The place started burning in the fiery embrace of my fire as screams and roars of panic spread throughout the colony.

I did not feel any sympathy here.

There was another tree also acting as a pillar which was not currently on fire so the survivors all started running towards it, trying to move in between the flames as they spread throughout the colony via the bridges and support.

To stop the fire from spreading, they even resorted to cutting those bridges the moment they crossed, not caring that some of the survivors that had fallen off were dangling below those bridges which resulted in them plummeting to their deaths once the bridge had been cut.

Maylene and I watched those guys flail their arms as they fell towards the ground, having been betrayed by their own people in order for them to save themselves.

Not like anything would have changed anyway because I waited until the remaining survivors ran to the last tree where they cut off the bridge suspending between that and the tree that toppled over, prompting it to fully snap off its trunk and crash down onto the forest floor.

Then, I went ahead to casually lift my palm and shot another ball of fire at the last tree, intentionally aiming the fire half way between the bottom of the colony and the ground to let it burn its way up.

Maylene smiled at the sight, “They either stay there to live longer and end up burning or suffocating to death… Or they jump off the side and plummet down to their deaths.”

That’s the plan.

We’re here to cull the pests.

Guardian Maylene:

These people hurt Qing. Hurt our Mortal God… He tried to come to them and offer them a way to save themselves… Like he came to save us. Yet they attacked him. They don’t deserve to live after attacking our saviour…