Mu Shan did not clean up the vines and branches that had fallen on the sunroom. She only gave the zombie worker an order to “guard the surroundings” before entering the safe house.
Wilderness trekking really drained her energy too much. As soon as Mu Shan returned to her familiar snail shell of a home, the taut string in her mind suddenly relaxed.
Fatigue, pain, and hunger came roaring back.
She tossed her dirty clothes and shoes haphazardly on the ground and walked naked into the bathroom.
Hot water poured down from the showerhead above her head. Her pores expanded under the steaming heat, and Mu Shan let out a long sigh. She brushed back the hair on her forehead, patted her face, and felt like she had come back to life.
In the tropical rainforest, she had been sweating nonstop. Her clothes got wet, dried, then wet again. From head to toe, she reeked of an ‘intoxicating’ odor. Dirt, dust, and sweat mixed together, making her skin feel like it was caked with a layer of mud.
Mu Shan cleaned herself thoroughly in the bathroom. Afterward, she sat cross-legged on the bed, opened the emergency medical kit, and began applying medicine.
The scrapes and abrasions looked scary, but they were just minor skin wounds that would heal quickly.
Back in the safe house, the heavy stone weighing on her heart finally dropped. Everything fell into orderly place.
Mu Shan had never expected that one day, this 25-square-meter basement would become the foundation of her survival, her very confidence.
She soaked the dirty clothes in a basin to wash later that night. Then she scooped out a cup of rice and took out some vacuum-packed sauced duck, planning to treat herself to a good meal.
She put the rice and some mixed grains into the rice cooker, with water covering the rice by about one knuckle. She broke apart the sauced duck, tore off a duck leg and some duck meat to stew with the rice, and diced some potatoes. Once the oil and rice grains fully blended, she had a pot of fragrant duck rice.
She also soaked a bowl of seaweed and dried shrimp soup. It was top-tier food in the apocalypse.
Mu Shan ate heartily, stuffing herself. In the final days of the last instance, floods had completely submerged the safe house. With no danger but also no way to obtain resources, she had conserved food by drinking only porridge.
When there was porridge, she drank porridge. When there was rice, she ate rice.
While quickly shoveling rice with a spoon, Mu Shan opened the system mall. Rows of purchasable items scrolled across the virtual display screen before her eyes.
The tropical rainforest was nothing like C City Park. There were too many uncertain factors around. The walls could block zombies, but they were powerless against other interferences.
【Do you confirm the purchase of the ground defense fortifications upgrade project?】
【This will cost 230 gold.】
After clicking confirm, clanging and banging sounds soon came from the sunroom overhead, along with the zombie worker’s “grrr haha” roars.
Mu Shan added a fully enclosing protective barbed wire mesh above the stone walls, covering the entire sunroom below.
About five minutes later, the noise stopped, and Mu Shan had finished her meal. She went out to check the results.
The system’s construction quality was always excellent. The barbed wire was installed seamlessly, without a trace of human workmanship.
The mesh size only allowed a child’s fist to probe through. The cross intersections had sharp barbs. With this, it could at least fend off larger birds and beasts, and prevent other players from climbing into the yard.
Mu Shan looked left and right, but still felt the shape was too much like a cage.
So she took out her machete and fetched some broad banana leaves from nearby trees, covering the area above the walls and leaving only the glass roof exposed.
Mu Shan gazed at the uglily hideous safe house before her and nodded in satisfaction.
This way, if some fool tried climbing up, they would definitely pay the price with barbed stabs in their hands.
With no time to rest, she sorted her carry-on luggage a bit and immediately began inspecting the surroundings of the safe house nonstop.
The side by the river was a wide, flat gravel shoal. If she had a boat, she could launch into the water, but unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten a boat even after the last instance ended—only a bathtub that could barely float.
Mu Shan carried her machete and circled the safe house area, successively killing a few scorpions and spiders. She needed to confirm there were no wasp nests, venomous snakes, or other threats nearby that might crawl into the sunroom unexpectedly.
There were also many fungi in the jungle, growing in strange shapes, densely packed in dark, damp corners. They probably weren’t edible.
An unexpected delight was discovering a wild passionfruit tree. Purple-red ripe fruits hung heavily from the branches, making Mu Shan’s eyes light up.
She hadn’t eaten fresh fruit in a long time. The navel orange tree in the yard was her treasure, carefully tended every day in anticipation of the oranges ripening.
But the tropical rainforest had no shortage of fruit. Mu Shan quickly hacked off several large tree leaves and spread them flat on the ground.
She climbed the trunk herself and reached to snap off branches laden with fruit.
Though not filling, passionfruit could make drinks and perhaps had some medicinal value for moistening lungs and resolving phlegm.
The fruits fell one by one onto the leaves, soon piling into a small heap.
Mu Shan’s mind was filled with visions of berry pies, passionfruit sparkling water, fruit tarts…
Lost in the joy of the harvest, she suddenly heard a hoarse, shrill roar from afar, intermittent and inhuman.
“Ah ao ao—grr ha—”
She froze for a moment, then realized it was the zombie worker’s alert!
Mu Shan jumped down from the tree and bolted toward the safe house.
From afar, she saw the ragged zombie worker flailing in the woods. As she approached, it waved its arms wildly, baring its teeth, looking even more agitated.
There were no enemies around the safe house at that moment.
But Mu Shan had already heard the sound of enemies approaching rapidly.
“Rumble—”
“Crackle crackle
crackle—”
The sound came from upstream along the riverbank, like countless feet rapidly scrabbling on the gravel.
Mu Shan raised her binoculars and peered carefully from behind a bush.
In the magnified view, she first saw dust clouds blotting out the sky, flying gravel and pebbles, then… a group of fast-crawling insects.
Giant insect monsters was more apt, as each one was the size of a refrigerator.
These insect monsters were all brown, with long filamentous antennae on their heads, flat backs, long segmented bodies, six pairs of legs covered in dense spines.
Their chest and back plates were large, like carrying shields. They had wings but didn’t fly; the leathery wings folded fan-like.
The instant she clearly saw the enlarged limbs and antennae, Mu Shan shuddered all over, goosebumps rising.
It was a swarm of giant cockroaches!!!
The giant insect monsters crawled at tremendous speed and were upon the safe house shoal in the blink of an eye.
Mu Shan’s first reaction was that she was done for.
But she quickly noticed that the giant cockroaches seemed to follow a fixed route. Even with abundant food in the shore forest, they didn’t deviate from the riverbed—their willpower was astonishingly strong.
System design? Mu Shan was delighted. As long as she fled deep into the forest, she could dodge the insect monster attack!
Just as the thought formed, a virtual dialog box appeared before her eyes.
【Player 537099, you have triggered the [Humid Heat Forest] side quest.
Quest 1: Every three days, insect monsters will come down from upstream, type random. Their target is the NPC village. Please protect the downstream village from insect monster attacks.
Quest success: Receive rewards.
Quest failure: Deduct 3000 gold. If insufficient gold, deduct from player’s other items.】
Mu Shan couldn’t help cursing aloud: “Fuck!”
An attack every three days, and today was only the second day of the main quest—that meant at least six or seven more of these giant bug assaults?!
Mu Shan’s vision went black. Her entire net worth was just over 2500 gold. Failing this side quest 1 would mean she was done for.
In those two seconds, the swarm had crawled near her safe house.
Burning with rage, the woman feared nothing. She charged out from behind the tree, machete in one hand and peashooter in the other.
“Pew pew.” Two peas accurately hit the lead cockroach’s body, but unfortunately, they didn’t even pierce the shell, leaving only shallow marks.
The enraged, madly advancing cockroach swiftly changed direction toward the forest. Mu Shan turned and climbed the thickest nearby tree.
She ordered the shrieking zombie worker to retreat. Against these hard-shelled giant insect monsters, a zombie that only gnawed with teeth would just be sending itself to die!
She had just climbed the tree when the speedy insect monsters arrived in succession.
“Buzz buzz buzz.” They circled the tree she perched on, sharp limbs digging soil and bark, antennae whipping the trunk like lashes.
Birds and small animals in the woods fled in panic.
Mu Shan was forced to observe the cockroaches up close, her scalp numbing—it was more physiologically repulsive than zombies.
They wanted to climb the tree, but their bodies were too massive. The straight trunk was narrower than their carapaces. They squeezed against each other, but none could climb up.
“Buzz buzz buzz—”
Mu Shan seized the chance and swung fiercely, severing one insect monster’s antenna.
“Hiss hiss!”
Instantly, foul bodily fluid sprayed, and the insect monster emitted a shriek-like wail. Its barbed limbs flailed wildly, scraping bark like paper.
Mu Shan dodged the antenna attack and kept firing peas, but until she emptied all ammo, aside from that one insect monster, she caused no real damage.
She was shocked to discover these bugs’ strength far exceeded hers. It was a grossly mismatched battle.
She couldn’t defeat these giant cockroaches alone.
Side quest 1 was utterly impossible!
“Hiss hiss!”
The antenna-severed insect monster flew into a frenzy, its eyes turning blood-red. It emitted a high-pitched screech unlike the others, ignoring its fellows and climbing over their bodies.
‘Human! Human! Devour that human!’
The tree below Mu Shan had many branches shaved off by its sharp limbs, leaving it bald. Without leaf cover, her figure was exposed to the bugs’ eyes. Several times, the limb barbs nearly touched her.
The peashooter was in cooldown. Mu Shan could only swing her machete to fend them off.
“Clang—” A heavy impact shook her wrist violently. The machete struck a cockroach limb and curled and chipped.
The blade was ruined just like that.
Mu Shan knew it was bad. She scrambled higher up the trunk with hands and feet, evading the insect monster’s attack range.
Did bugs have mental power?
Could they play nine linked rings?
Mu Shan bit her lip, racking her brains for a countermeasure.
Her gaze shifted, and she suddenly sensed something off in the forest.
At some point, aside from these disgusting giant bugs, there were no bird calls or frog croaks—like they had vanished.
Some fungi at tree roots and in dark spots that had been fine suddenly grew rapidly, their caps emitting purple fluorescence, flashing like breathing.
Mu Shan eyed the purple fungi warily. Suddenly, a soft “puff—” and countless fine purple powders burst from under the caps, drifting outward with the wind.
Mu Shan realized the danger and instinctively covered her mouth and nose with her elbow.
Thinking of something, she quickly donned her gas mask.
Through the glass visor, she clearly saw the purple fluorescent powder dispersing, rapidly filling the surroundings.
The zombie worker stood blankly by the safe house. The powder drifted onto its head, rooting in its eyes and mouth/nose, spreading web-like veins.
Spores.
Mu Shan watched the zombie worker closely, but fortunately, as an undead, it had no vitality. The dense fungal growth sprouted briefly then withered.
Seemed like it needed a living host…
Mu Shan confirmed her gas mask was secure with no gaps before relaxing slightly.
The mask was a system reward from the end of the last instance. The main god had previewed it: players completing the main quest would receive gas masks to prevent wipeout by the first wave of fungal spores.
The fungal spores were useless against the insect monsters.
Weaponless, Mu Shan crouched high up, observing their reactions.
About ten minutes later, the other six giant cockroaches entered a “disengage” state. Seeing no continued attacks, they turned back to the shoal and resumed their journey.
In their cognition, the instruction to “go to the NPC village downstream” had very high priority, at least higher than “eat things.”
Only the bug whose tentacles Mu Shan had severed did not leave.
However, she discovered that these cockroaches all had scorch marks from flames on their carapaces, more or less charred black.
Flames were the thing forest creatures feared most; it was absolutely impossible for them to have jumped into a fire themselves.
The most likely guess was that there was not just herself around as a player—someone else had also inflicted damage on them!
The remaining cockroach gnawed intently at the tree bark and had already chewed out a hole the size of a basketball. The large tree tilted precariously, on the verge of snapping.
The bug’s thinking ability was limited. It wanted to gnaw through the trunk entirely so it could eat the human on the tree.
Suddenly, something fell behind it. The giant bug’s tentacles trembled as it realized the human who had been hiding on the tree had somehow gotten behind it.
“Hiss hiss.” It swung its antennae and charged, but its segmented limbs stepped on something on the ground. Its massive body suddenly lost balance and slid down hard.
【Banana Peel (Auxiliary Item)
Description: Has a chance to cause a slipping effect upon use.】
The giant cockroach fell flat on its back, its six limbs flailing upward as it struggled to flip over. Mu Shan would not give it that chance. She dashed forward, and the hefty Viking Battle Axe chopped down viciously.
The axe scraped against the bug’s hard shell with a piercing friction sound. Mu Shan endured the intense pain in her palms, bit down on a Cinnabar Yellow Talisman, and tore it with her head turned.
【Gained 30 minutes of strength enhancement effect.】
“Ah!!” She roared loudly, planted her foot on the back of the axe, and pressed down with all her strength. The axe finally cut bit by bit into the gap in the giant bug’s head shell, breaking through part of its body as blue blood flowed out.
The bug monster felt the pain and thrashed its limbs even more frantically. Mu Shan stayed in its blind spot and pulled out the large machete from before, which had dulled and been discarded.
【Player used skill: Renew Old with New】
【Today’s Renew Old with New: Large machete x1
Original: Worn machete, Current: Brand new machete】
Mu Shan was delighted.
She had only been trying her luck, but she had guessed the skill activation mechanism correctly.
In the instant the blade regained its sharpness, she pressed the knife edge against the gap pried open by the axe and slashed inward with force.
The bug monster let out a shrill screech, and foul-smelling blood sprayed out like a fountain. Mu Shan tensed her whole body without relaxing.
Hot sweat dripped down her forehead drop by drop. Just as she was about to receive the kill notification, Mu Shan keenly sensed a scorching heat wave surging from behind her.
Someone!
She only managed to roll to the side a few times, narrowly dodging the tongue of fire.
That sudden burst of flame ignited the dry branches all over the ground, roasting the dying bug monster until it screeched wildly.
Mu Shan scrambled to her feet and whipped her head back to look. In the shadowy forest, someone wearing a gas mask just like hers hid behind a tree.