Chapter 19: Burning the Paradise

Sleeping on blankets bundled on top of another as a makeshift futon and a sleeping bag wasn't comfortable. When I woke up, I found myself lying sideways on the cold floor of the office. I don't feel that well-rested when I wake up. I'll have to consider making more copies of these blankets around the floor just to make my sleep more comfortable.

Anyway, after I woke up, I cleaned myself in the bathroom just beside this office and then wore a change of clothes, which was just a duplicate of the winter wear I wore awhile ago. The weather is growing colder, though snow still hasn't fallen till this day. It's supposed to be winter this month, but I wonder if the weather in this world also changed? Well, it's also pretty cold, so I am forced to cover most of my body, or I might get sick. I don't have any medicines with me!

After that, I ate some canned peaches. It might be bad for a breakfast, but it was enough to fully wake my drowsy mind. After my mind was working again, I started my prep work for my hunt. Dealing with those plant monsters near the parking spot was important because, even if my assumption of them was correct, having large vines that swayed supernaturally in the air as if they were branches or leaves only made me nervous. I'm glad that these plants haven't extended their reach to this car dealership, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a chance.

That's why I will hunt them!

I already prepared for that yesterday. Now I just have to start spreading them around that park. It would be a long-term plan, but the result would surely be great after I'm done with it.

These monsters were alive. If I hurt them, they might lash out just like that tentacle monster. So I couldn't just throw a molotov and hope that they wouldn't react. A setup was needed before I harvested their mana.

Once I finish that setup, everything will fall into place!

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With that idea in mind, I started dragging the can of car fuel outside after jumping into the Faded World. It was quite heavy, and the distance between the building of this car dealership and the recreational park was several meters away, so it was a bit hard for me, who wasn't that physically attuned. Well, it was a length of both the parking lot that was in front of this car dealership building and the stretch of road. The car park of this car dealership was facing the recreational park on the other side of the road, so quite far in my feeble legs if I'm just walking on it.

It took me at least a few minutes before I finally dragged the can to the other side of the road. The recreational park was quite creepy. There were large amounts of sharp-looking grasses that were twice as tall as an average person, flowers with a disturbingly large eyeball in their buds with thick stems splayed around everywhere like they were forest vines, and some bushes filled with crystalline leaves. I've also seen a figure of a giant tree just beyond the high wall of these tall sharp grasses, and the shade they made that seemed to cover a particular section of the park itself, making one side of them look disturbingly dark while others still have access to sunlight.

I stepped foot just in front of that wall of tall grasses and put the can of car fuel on the road. While I was doing that, I saw one zombie just shambling stiffly in the distance. I just got curious, so I gazed at it for some time. It was so sudden when that zombie suddenly vanished after a blur passed by its figure. I walked back for a bit until I saw what happened. Just above the tall grasses, I could see the figure of one of the thick vines and its tip, which had opened into four separate sections, the bits revealed within its grotesque mouth tip having full, irregularly columned, sharp teeth. The legs of that poor zombie were visible while half of its body was within that plant monster.

Yeah... even if the building I am currently using as my base has a fair distance to these plant monsters, I have to deal with it just for the sake of my mental health. Leaving them alone here just because they kill the zombies would be naive.

So without hesitation anymore, I pointed my palm at the can of car fuel I put on the road.

"Rewrite."

The can of car fuel became part of the real world. Immediately after that, I moved towards it and then put my hand on the colorless figure of the can of car fuel.

"Duplicate."

With my intent, another can of car fuel popped up, overlapping with the image of the jerry can in the real world. I gripped the handle of that can and then put it to the side. After opening the lid on the container, I hefted it up and then unhesitatingly poured it on the ground where the tall grass stood.

"Continuous Rewrite."

Continuous Rewrite. A variation of my technique, Rewrite, which was just a way for me to manifest something continuously in the real world. In this case, it was the fuel. The mana cost was surprisingly light. Each drop only cost a hundredth of what I needed when staying within an empty mirror world. Though it was relatively the same cost as manifesting a whole object with the same size when it came to it.

As to why I am only manifesting the liquid, that was because it was easier for me. I'll walk around the perimeter of this park as I pour the car fuel around it. If I ran out, I'd duplicate another and then continue until either I filled the entire perimeter of the park or I ran out of time.

Well, I won't get it to the point where I drain all of my mana. That will be stupid!

As I poured the gas on the tall grasses, I almost flinched when I saw each grass straighten up suddenly. Though I quickly continued what I'm doing even as the plant monsters on this side grew disturbed. They couldn't see me. Even if they lashed out, I wouldn't be hit by anything. The can of car fuel I manifested in front of them was ignored, so they haven't suspected that someone was deliberately pouring oil on them to kill them. They were simply distressed.

Good! That's what I need!

Whenever I ran out of oil from the can, I just threw the empty can away and then duplicated another. These empty cans wouldn't exist in the real world, as I won't manifest them anyway. I only need the oil within it.

It took sometime until I was done covering the side facing the car park of my base and 3/4 of the left side of this park. All of them were just on the perimeter of the park, and due to how taxing it was, along with having to duplicate and also rewrite another can of car fuel after the first one being too far for me to comfortably carry repeatedly, it only took me this far.

This is fine. I'm not planning to finish this today. This plan will take at least a few days before I start burning them.

I can't wait for that to happen!

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It was sudden. A foul liquid suddenly invaded their small paradise. The only problem was that they were clueless where it came from. The grass that acted as scouts was filled with fear due to this foul liquid, while the flower soldiers were frantic as they tried to locate whoever was pouring this putrid waste on their rich soil.

This park was just one of the neighborhood parks in the Yachiyo district, a large park that was well-known enough that it was named after the station nearest to it. When the apocalypse started, every plant in this park mutated, and within the first two weeks, a bloody battle between every mutated plant life in this park happened. Most of the mutated plant life was either subsumed or destroyed, and in the end, the one that won was a Giant Harmony Tree. It was a tree that evolved to be symbiotic with other mutated plant life, enhancing their capabilities while at the same time enriching the soil so much that no mutated plants would ever leave this patch.

They simply needed sunlight and copious amounts of flesh and blood to feed on the Giant Harmony Tree, and they would continue receiving the benefits from their ruler. This place also doesn't have any high-rise buildings that the flying monsters would covet as their nest, which made them safe from flying predators. As for the insect-type monsters, they hated the outside due to the many predators that also waited for them, so most of them stayed within the dark tunnels or underground areas. Only the flesh monsters from the Flesh Hatcheries and the occasional quadrupedal Dark Prowlers would pass here and cause trouble in their small paradise.

Due to that, this area could be considered their territory. No one could contest them, and even the subterranean worms were hesitant to dig straight to this part, as the Great Harmony Tree could just absorb them and turn them into nutrients for this soil. So they were uncontested in this place, and they thought it would continue for the foreseeable future.

But then an unknown intruder was suddenly pouring liquid that was poisonous to them. They couldn't expel it, and they couldn't adapt around it, as it was so toxic to them that they couldn't even dare touch it in their bodies. So everyone was frantic and was erratically swaying their vines around. They wanted to know who was daring enough to do this and drain the responsible person out of their nutrients for daring to scare them like this.

But it was futile. Throughout day and night, the mysterious being poured this toxic liquid on their soil. Poisoning their young buds and even wilting their brethren. They tried striking the suspected position of where those liquids were being poured on, but they only hit air. It was as if the person attacking them was nonexistent, and these oils just appeared out of nowhere, without any reason to it.

They tried counteracting it. The Great Harmony Tree has control over this land. It hollowed out some parts of the park, creating a canal pathway that would expel this foul liquid outside their domain, though it wasn't enough as the mysterious invader just continued pouring it not just at the edge of their territory but even within them. A few tried adapting, turning their bodies brambly, thorny, and venomous to anyone who touched them, even the ground, just to prevent whoever was stomping on their ground. It wasn't enough. The being just poured more oil in them.

Two days have passed, and they finally processed within their limited intelligence that there was a foreign object always appearing whenever this foul liquid appeared. It was hard for them because their flower soldiers could see through their eyes. Every other plant could only sense life through their supernatural senses. The object that always manifested out of nowhere wasn't a living creature, so they couldn't detect it easily. Now that they became aware of it, they immediately made a sweep of their territory, locating these cans that they assumed to be the source of their invader.

At first they crushed it whenever it appeared, though when that happened, a few hours later, the entity behind these invasions suddenly manifested multiple cans of car fuel in random parts of the park. Crushing them just spilled whatever contents it had to the ground, further poisoning them. They changed their tactics the next day and just threw these cans out of their territory. Despite all of that, the intruder continues their relentless assault. They kept spreading their toxic substance in their land and killing them slowly but surely.

Within five days, they were terrorized by an invisible attacker, and on the sixth day, it suddenly stopped. They were expecting the intruder to continue further poisoning their land and flooding their territory with this foul liquid. It didn't happen today.

They were curious. Why did that mysterious being stop?

And then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a glass shatters on the edge of their territory.

Following that sound, their world was immediately covered in flames!