My veggie truck crushed everything in its path. It climbed mountains and jumped over boulders. It scaled vertical cliffs with its tentacles tougher than steel.  

The monsters that we came across were far less menacing than the ones in the White Dragon Forest. I pointed this out to Chen Wei.

“The monsters in the White Dragon Forest are too powerful,” she responded.

“How come?” I asked.

“The most popular speculation is that it’s because of higher Qi concentration in the forest. Supposedly, it seeps into the animals and makes them stronger. The second most popular speculation is that it’s the food in the forest. Some think it’s both.” she replied.

“Cool, are there other places that have the same problem?” I asked.

“Many, too many to list, though most of them don’t get as bad as the center of the White Dragon Forest,” she said.

I nodded. “Was I at the center of the forest?”

She shivered. “Yes. Only somebody like Grandmaster Jin could survive living in a place like that.”

“Thanks?”

We would’ve had to take many detours to avoid danger zones and unscalable terrain, but we cut through them with my truck. We saw one more village and many mountains before we finally arrived at the city.

Chen Wei told me it was called the Grand Flames City. As I approached the city, it rapidly became obvious the name had not been given for dramatic effect.

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The unbelievably enormous city was visible from hundreds of kilometers away. Only when I saw the city did I realize my failure to comprehend the state of this world’s civilizations.

The place was less a city and more of a mountain range. Civilization seeped into the valleys spilled down the side of every mountain. The center of it all was a gigantic volcano, hopefully dormant. Hundreds of mountains varying in size lie at its feet, but they were all smaller than the central volcano. There were still some parts of the mountains left in their natural states. One particularly odd patch of four mountains were all left untouched.

Previously scattered roads all converged at the Grand Flames City. Chen Wei and I were still far away when I decided to stop. I didn’t want to attract attention, and the wooden truck wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

I looked down at a contraption at my feet. I had been adding to it for the last couple hours while we waited to get to the city. It was a combination of perhaps thirty plants all melded together. Parts of it were cactus, I think there was an apple hidden somewhere behind the sea of fluff and Pluto Flytraps.  It was an abomination, such a thing could never be created by nature.

“Hey, hey, watch this.” I grinned at Chen Wei. I touched a stick hanging off the side of the plant.

The stick hardly moved. At the other side of the plant, a grape exploded. Shortly after, a piece of cactus fell off. Then one of the spikes poked a bit of string.

Each of these motions shouldn't have had any effect on the rest of the plant, but they did anyway. This was the effect of the Program skill. As long as they touched each other, different plants would be able to affect the others, even though it shouldn’t be possible.

For now, they were just a collection of “if-then” statements. If I touched a stick, then the grape explodes. Nothing too complicated. But there were other uses too. For example, I could put a switch on a Glowing Pineapple. If the switch is touched, then the Glowing Pineapple switches on.

Actually, it was completely useless when I was around. Program was a strictly worse version of Control. I wouldn’t even need to touch the pineapple if I was around.

However, the skill was very useful if I wasn’t around. It could be used to create anything from intricate traps to pineapple lights. But I could activate those traps or turn on the lights with control if I was nearby.

Most importantly, it was really fun to play with. I grinned childishly as I watch the contraption slowly unfold. Another cactus part fell off, bumping into a vine. Halfway across the plant, a Pluto Flytrap chomped down. It was supposed to snap a stick but it missed by a millimeter, ending the chain of events.

“Aww,” I whined.

This Chen Wei woman was a terrible influence on me! Even though she was obviously faking it, her maturity was rubbing off on me. I’ve even stopped swearing!

I wished she would return to talking casually, she had been so much more fun back then.