Mu Shan climbed down from the stone toad’s head. Her legs felt a bit weak from squatting too long, and He Yuncong promptly reached out to steady her arm.
“Now, we should have succeeded, right?” Xia Xueqin cautiously poked her head out.
“But why aren’t they moving?” Auntie Wang gripped her cleaver, her whole body tense.
The seven players formed a circle back-to-back, warily watching the locust swarm around them, which seemed paused like a frozen video.
They hovered in midair, buzzing like helicopters with their wings, their massive compound eyes fixed on the humans. Yet they were bound by some rule and made no attacking moves.
The standoff lasted until the last stone ball sank into the ground and the 20-minute game time ended. The locust swarm turned around and flew out of the valley without a hint of reluctance, vanishing beyond the mountains.
【Countdown 0:00】
【Congratulations, players. You successfully cooperated to clear the mini-game: Heart Locust Locust.
Gold coins +50
Strength +2
HP +1
Spirit +3
Defense +1
Agility +2】
【Ordinary Player 537099
You additionally unlocked the achievement: One Ball All Clear
Reward: Toad x1】
The moment the system prompt appeared, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief mixed with groans.
“I’m exhausted.” Xia Xueqin tilted her head back and chugged several gulps of water, then poured the rest over her head. She shook out her damp pink hair. “If there were just a few more players in this instance, we wouldn’t have to slave away like this!”
Zong Rui curled her lip. “But some died and some got killed, and no new players came to replace them.”
“Now I’m seriously suspecting the killer who took out Players 3 and 12 might’ve been sent by the system just to stop us from clearing it.”
Mu Shan took a drink of water too and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “The valley is now in a ‘safe’ state. It might reveal some hidden information. Everyone, split up and search. See if we can find any clues.”
“No problem!”
The seven split into three groups and headed in different directions.
Mu Shan picked up a wooden stick and tapped at the strangely shaped rocks and withered bushes beside the valley wall. With her back to the others, she quickly checked the item she’d gotten from the system reward.
A stone-carved toad about the size of a fist.
【Toad (Auxiliary)
Quality: Fine
Use: Kiss the toad with deep affection
Description: Spits out a stone pearl upon use; the pearl has the highest value
Note: “Lonely—lonely—”】
Mu Shan glanced at the toad’s utterly ugly face and silently stowed it in her backpack.
He Yuncong had been following right behind her. He pulled out a 3L mineral water bucket, held it high with one hand while steadying the rim with the other, and gulped it down with a “glug glug glug.”
The water level dropped visibly, and the clear water leaking from the rim trickled down his lips, chin, and neck, gradually soaking his shirt collar until it turned translucent.
When Mu Shan turned around, she caught He Yuncong guzzling like a water buffalo—an utterly shocking sight.
Seriously, would a normal person drink straight from a 3L bucket??
She stared at his flat belly, wondering if there was some bottomless void connected below his mouth. Where else could a whole bucket of water go?
A few minutes later, He Yuncong set the bucket down. Water droplets glistened on his dark skin, refracting sunlight like crystals.
But Mu Shan noticed a patch of pondweed settled at the bottom of his now-empty bucket.
“You’re drinking river water?!”
“River water has lots of impurities and bacteria. You can’t drink it without filtering and boiling.”
They weren’t in a desert right now, and without dire straits, a player’s sustained combat ability came down to their health.
He Yuncong met Mu Shan’s eyes and answered earnestly, “I’m fine.”
“Any substance that enters the body, no matter what it is, won’t survive alive.”
Mu Shan: “Even with great physical constitution, that’s not…”
He Yuncong’s gaze fixed on her. “No. Not killed, but ‘unable to live.'”
She felt like she understood what he meant, but also like she didn’t quite get it.
Mu Shan wanted to ask for clarification when Xia Xueqin’s shout came from dozens of meters away. “Everyone, I found something! Come quick!”
Everyone gathered there.
It was an ordinary stretch of valley wall surrounded by jagged, grotesquely shaped rocks—some like soaring eagles, others like giant turtles.
Xia Xueqin used her weapon to chip away a sharp corner from one rock. “This stone is weird. At first, I thought it was wind erosion, but then I realized the yellow rocky layer on the surface was deposited later.”
Auntie Wang: “What does that mean?”
Xia Xueqin thought hard. “Like shrimp wrapped in a batter coating.”
Auntie Wang: “Got it.”
“Look inside—it’s hollow.” Xia Xueqin pointed at the cracked opening, where a dark void loomed.
Zong Rui leaned in first to peer into the gap. She narrowed her eyes for a moment, then froze, her expression turning strange. “Inside is a giant insect corpse.”
“What?”
Everyone took turns looking, then shone lights inside. They confirmed the stone encased a calcified giant ant corpse. The flesh had rotted away completely, leaving only the intact posture—which explained the rock’s bizarre shape.
Mu Shan used a hammer to chip open a few more rock edges and examined them carefully. Seeing this, the others came over to help.
Ten minutes later, after inspecting the inside of the last turtle-shaped boulder, Mu Shan finally found what she wanted. “The stones don’t just have corpses—they have insect molts too.”
Xia Xueqin scratched her head. “Is insect molt some key clue?”
“Actually, I’ve been guessing what this Stone Valley really is since early on. The terrain around the valley doesn’t look natural; it seems processed later. The mini-game chaos threw us off, and finding all these insect corpses inside the rocks…”
“So players easily associate it with—corpses left from a battle.”
“But insect molts are from bugs shedding after maturing, unrelated to war. During molting, bugs are extremely vulnerable, so this scene absolutely can’t be a battlefield.”
Mu Shan looked around. “These grotesquely shaped stones fill the whole valley—hundreds at least, all different insect types.”
“This valley is an abandoned insect nest.”
She pointed upward. “Look at those tiered steps along the mountain edge—don’t they look like dorm rooms?”
Xia Xueqin: “Dorm rooms…”
Li Gang nodded. “I did see scrape marks from limbs up there. At first, I thought they were from battle.”
Xia Xueqin raised her hand with a guess. “So, did humans launch a big assault on the insect nest, sparking a human-insect war that forced the giant insects to abandon their hive?”
Auntie Wang glanced at her. “We can barely beat the giant insect monsters. You think those frail NPCs could? If there really was a human-insect war, the side quest wouldn’t exist.”
“We’re just guessing.”
Mu Shan shook her head and gently brushed the stone surface. “The reason for the nest migration is unknowable now. From the petrified traces, it was many, many years ago—unclear if the NPC Village even existed back then.”
Xia Xueqin was speechless. “So… what was the crappy system thinking, sending us here for a ‘mini’ game? To wipe out all the players?”
Mu Shan said, “Which brings us back to the original question—what’s with the dirt road outside the valley? Who built it?”
Li Gang didn’t hesitate. “In this instance, it’s either humans or bugs. Bugs don’t build roads, so it had to be humans.”
Mu Shan nodded. “Then what were the humans doing, building a road to this abandoned insect nest?”
“Uh.” Li Gang paused, then ventured, “Mining?”
Xia Xueqin whispered, “Maybe they came for tourism?”
“…Who vacations in a dangerous place like this—no trees, no water.”
Listening to their haphazard chatter, Mu Shan suddenly had a realization.
“The best motivators for humans are worship or profit. The NPC Village has legends of the ‘Savior,’ which I’ve heard—clearly human-like. The villagers wouldn’t worship bugs, so rule that out.” Mu Shan glanced at He Yuncong, who was looking back at her.
“Then the remaining possibility, no matter how unlikely, is the only correct answer.”
“Humans came here for profit.”
Li Gang paused, raising a brow. “Really risking it all to mine here?”
Mu Shan: “They’re not mining ore—it’s the insect corpses and molts.”
Xia Xueqin was stunned. “No way, this stuff sells for money? The bugs are calcified—useless except as ornaments.”
She chipped at the stone surface and poked the fragments. “See, it’s fossilized… Can you grind it into medicine?”
Zong Rui came over and rubbed the crumbs between her fingers. “Insect molt is indeed a traditional herb. But you forgot—this is a medieval Western setting. No traditional medicine here. They’re probably mining it as curiosities or specimens.”
She pointed at the horizon. “Giant insect monsters are special to the Humid Heat Forest, and the village has a road to the outside. Villagers sell these oddities elsewhere for cash. You haven’t experienced it, but feudal nobles pay big for luxuries—mermaid tails, reindeer heads, Buddha statues…”
“Fair enough. I was already shocked a rundown village in the boonies could afford stone roads, a church, and a school.” Xia Xueqin said casually.
Auntie Wang nodded. “Hearing your analysis, I get it now. So the giant insect monsters attack the village every three days because their ancestors’ graves got illegally mined—for revenge?”
Xia Xueqin gave a thumbs-up. “Spot on, Auntie!”
They chatted animatedly, excited as if the task was as good as done.
Mu Shan touched the fossilized stone beside her, brow furrowed.
He Yuncong asked quietly, “What’s wrong?”
“This makes sense, but I feel like something’s still off.”
The system had to provide plot clues per the rules, guiding players to the insect nest.
But for player selection, it wouldn’t spell things out.
The main god was a bundle of contradictions.
It didn’t care how many died—it was dedicated to player growth and evolution.
Sometimes Mu Shan really couldn’t guess what the system wanted.
“Lu Xun wrote in ‘Hometown’: There was no road in the world originally; when enough people walked it, it became a road.” He Yuncong suddenly spoke up.
Mu Shan didn’t react at first. Subconsciously: “You remember Mr. Lu Xun…”
A spark flashed in her mind. She grabbed his arm. “Wait!”
He Yuncong stayed still, letting her grip him.
Road formation took years of use; villager mining must’ve lasted over a year and a half. So why had nothing happened before? Why did the insects suddenly start attacking without warning?
When they entered the instance, she’d naively thought the bugs and NPC villagers had a simple predator-prey relation set by the system.
Killers and killed.
Now it seemed not so simple…
The three-day attacks downriver were system-mandated, sure, but there had to be plot clues from a year and a half ago.
What had the villagers done?
Before she could voice the theory, a massive rumble echoed from above the valley.
Enormous, like an avalanche of snow rushing down.
He Yuncong’s expression changed instantly. “Danger. Leave now.”
His face was so grave that Mu Shan didn’t even look closely. Her legs moved on instinct, fleeing toward the exit on the other side of the valley. Xia Xueqin and the others followed close behind.
The seven bolted ahead without looking back.
At their former spot, the valley side shuddered violently. Something burst through the hard rock and soil, emerging from below.
Rumble after rumble.
Mu Shan turned her head back while fleeing. She saw that the creature crawling out from the mountain was a Golden Rhinoceros Beetle as big as a truck. Its body was entirely golden and dazzling. The massive horn protruding from its head directly smashed open the mountain wall. It waved its thick, segmented limbs as it charged toward them.
Behind the Golden Rhinoceros Beetle followed some smaller shovel beetles. They opened and closed their sharp, saw-like mandibles with a “ka-cha ka-cha,” severing the trees on both sides at the waist.
Faced with such a colossal beast, everyone’s adrenaline surged wildly, driving their bodies to flee at maximum speed.
If she had guessed correctly, this should be the BOSS of the Humid Heat Forest dungeon—the king bug among the Giant Insect Monsters.
【Players Directly Face Giant Insect Queen
King’s Dignity: All players carry [Fear] debuff
Mental Tremor: Mental skill effects -50%
Challenge Beyond Level: Healing and recovery skill effects -20%】
【Giant Insect Queen Status: Enraged】
【Current Dungeon Survival Time: 2 minutes 35 seconds】
Mu Shan’s pupils constricted. At this moment, she had no time to think about the murderer or any clues. Her mind held only one thought: Run!