Chapter 607 - 597: Sound Source Pollution 49

Her annoyance peaked when she heard the others shamelessly boasting that this mission was easy and offered no challenge at all.

Moira Lynch sat in the passenger seat, gazing out the window. She yawned and said impassively, "I’m going to get a good rest tonight."

In fact, she wouldn’t have to wait until nightfall.

Without Moira Lynch’s spiritual power ensuring their safe passage, the two vehicles ahead of them began acting strangely around noon.

The two vehicles in the lead began to swerve from side to side. Faintly, the sound of cheerful singing could be heard coming from within.

’Someone’s singing?’

Just then, a subtle noise came from overhead. It sounded as if something had landed on the roof of the car.

The sound immediately drew the attention of Moira Lynch and her companions.

In the next second, the scene before their eyes began to change.

The flat highway transformed into a winding path. Where there had been nothing, the roadsides were now lined with trees, beneath which bloomed masses of unfamiliar flowers.

Butterflies and bees danced among the blossoms, and the faint scent of flowers tickled their noses.

’Something’s wrong!’

Moira Lynch quickly broke free from the unreal illusion. The moment she snapped out of it, she was confronted with a terrifying sight.

A small, green-skinned girl was plastered to the front windshield. Her hair stood on end, her mouth was split wide to her ears like a clown’s, and her eyes were bulging. She stared intently at Moira, a chilling laugh rumbling in her throat.

Seeing Moira awaken, the little girl’s eyes immediately locked onto her.

Its sharp hands morphed into claws and scraped across the windshield, producing a shrill, piercing noise.

Moira thought it was about to attack and prepared to retaliate, but it made no move to do so.

The creature simply continued to drag its fingers across the windshield, emitting that grating sound.

At this, an idea suddenly occurred to Moira. She wanted to see if she could communicate with the small, girl-shaped monster.

"Hello."

Moira sent a friendly overture toward the creature with her spiritual power.

However, the little girl, which had shown no signs of aggression, changed instantly upon contact with Moira’s spiritual power.

Its once clear eyes instantly became bloodshot, and its placid expression twisted into a ferocious snarl.

It opened its mouth, revealing a red maw filled with sharp teeth.

Moira was all too familiar with that gesture.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Moira teleported a rock directly into the monster’s mouth, temporarily silencing it.

She then glanced at Hugh Finch beside her and Kai York behind her. Their eyes were vacant; they were still lost in the illusion.

Seeing this, Moira sent a jolt of spiritual power into their minds to snap them out of it.

She then got out of the passenger seat herself.

It was only then that Moira noticed there wasn’t just one monster. No, these were the infected, and there was more than one.

Without exception, all of these infected had green skin and petite frames, like girls of eleven or twelve.

’Another new type?’

The creatures were crawling all over the three vehicles, especially the roofs. At a rough estimate, there were more than twenty of these identical infected.

With no time for further thought, Moira summoned her White Feather Bow and a Flying Wheel, attacking as she put distance between herself and the monsters.

Seemingly sensing the danger, the infected all turned to look at Moira. Then, their figures vanished right where they stood.

Moira watched in shock. She certainly didn’t believe the infected had fled because they thought they couldn’t defeat her.

’Invisibility?’

Since she herself often used Invisibility to evade notice, Moira quickly figured it out.

So-called Invisibility doesn’t make you truly disappear; it just prevents others from seeing you. Therefore...

Moira expanded her spiritual power and quickly located the hidden infected.

Now that she had found them, the rest would be much easier.

A few minutes later, the vehicles were back on the proper road.

The people in the vehicles up front had no idea what had just happened. They simply assumed the illusion they’d seen was a trick of the mind.

Back in the car, Moira Lynch now held a handful of cyan, irregularly shaped Crystal Stones.

There were more than twenty Crystal Stones, matching the number of the infected.

"You’re saying these Crystal Stones dropped from those monsters?" Kai York asked, surprised.

Moira nodded. "I’ve already checked them. These Crystal Stones contain the purest energy, and it can be absorbed directly."

"But my Attributes aren’t compatible with the energy inside these Crystal Stones. If I forced myself to absorb it, it would only serve to restore my own energy, much like drinking a recovery potion."

With that, Moira handed one of the Crystal Stones to Kai York, indicating that he should give it a try.

Kai York took the Crystal Stone and immediately found that the energy within it felt deeply compatible with his own.

He didn’t even have to consciously try to absorb it; the energy flowed into his body on its own.

A few minutes later, the cyan Crystal Stone in Kai York’s hand had crumbled into a pile of white powder that vanished with a gust of wind.

"I can feel that my energy has increased, but not by much."

A single Crystal Stone only contained so much energy. Combined with Kai York’s high level, the increase was naturally not very noticeable.

It was like a single drop of water falling into a lake—it might create a faint ripple, but nothing more.

Still, even a faint ripple was a pleasant surprise, considering that this "drop of water" was the result of only a few minutes’ effort.

Ever hear the saying "constant dripping wears away the stone"?

Hearing this, Moira’s expression showed that she had expected as much.

"These Crystal Stones are probably just like the Crystal Cores from the novels I used to read."

"In that case, why haven’t we found any before?" Hugh Finch asked.

"We must have missed out on a fortune by now," Kai York said.

"There are two possibilities. One, we simply failed to notice. Two, not every infected drops a Crystal Stone upon death."

Moira gave the rest of the Crystal Stones to Kai York, then activated her wrist-mounted screen.

"I just did a search on the dark web. It turns out these Crystal Stones aren’t an isolated case. People started finding them days ago. Different types of infected drop different kinds of stones."

Moira showed the two of them a photo of a different Crystal Stone.

"Actually, someone mentioned this on the forums before, but the thread was deleted within minutes. Obviously, some people don’t want this secret getting out."

Kai York clicked his tongue. "Tsk. Even in times like these, people are still focused on stuff like that. How petty."