Chapter 280: Woodworm

Chapter 280: Chapter 280: Woodworm

After a brief, dead silence, the group chat exploded like a drop of water in a pot of boiling oil!

"Fuck! My cabin is made of wood!"

"Me too! What do we do?!"

"Check it now! Forget the furniture, hurry up and see if the walls and floor have been eaten through!"

"I checked! I just checked! The corner! There’s a spot in the corner where the color is off, and the tip of my knife went right through it! It’s been completely hollowed out inside! Something is really chewing on my house!"

"I’m doomed! My door frame has holes and sawdust on it too!"

"So that’s why the sound started off quiet and got louder! That damn thing chewed closer and closer to my bed. I was sleeping right there, how could it not be loud?!"

"No wonder the sound was coming from under my bed! In my whole cabin, only the bed is made of wood! Great. Just great!"

Panic spread like a plague.

Seraphina Sinclair posted a screenshot of the bug’s Insight page. By providing this much information for free, she had already done more than enough.

’As for the rest, their fate is their own.’

Seraphina Sinclair glanced at the bug still hiding in the corner and at her cabin, which was made entirely of stone. A cold smile touched her lips. She yawned, went to the bed in the kitchen, and lay down to continue sleeping.

All was quiet on her end, but elsewhere, it was destined to be a sleepless night.

The group chat had long since devolved into chaos, a scrolling torrent of panic, pleas for help, curses, and cries of despair.

Even with the information provided by Seraphina Sinclair and Chrona’s best efforts to maintain order, most people still couldn’t remain calm in the face of a threat that could cost them their homes and their lives.

"The Black Mist seems to be getting thicker here! It’s seeping in through the eaten-away cracks! What do I do?! What am I supposed to do?!"

"Where are the pros? @Blacktiger Ford, do you have any other ideas? My torch is about to burn out!"

"Stop shouting! The pro is probably sleeping! Figure it out yourself! Check for damage and plug it with something! Stone, mud, clothes, anything works!"

"Right! Plug the holes! Then light everything that can burn! Burn it all! Force the bugs out!"

"I tried plugging them, but some of the holes are inside the walls! I can’t plug them!"

...

The chaos brewed in the darkness of night. It wasn’t until the early morning hours, when everything fell silent, that the people in the group chat finally had the presence of mind to check the Zone channel.

"Why is the Zone channel completely quiet? Are we the only ones who got hit by these bugs?"

[Chrona]: ...I’m afraid so.

[Chrona]: I’ve been keeping an eye on it. The Zone channel discussion is the same as always. Occasionally someone complains about not sleeping well, but nobody has mentioned "bug infestations" or "damage to wooden structures." There hasn’t even been a single mention of "rustling sounds."

[Zane Pierce]: Shit! It’s true! I scrolled through hundreds of messages, and not one of them is about bugs! So this "perk" is just for us elites? System, are you fucking with us?

"I asked a few friends from my previous Zone, and they didn’t run into this either. It really is just targeting us!"

"So what now? I’ve patched up my walls, but who knows if those damn bugs will be back? Does this mean that from now on, after moving all day, we have to fight bugs all night? How is anyone supposed to rest?!"

"If the system wants us dead, it should just say so! Pulling this dirty shit behind our backs, how is that fair?!"

[Artemis]: It’s unlikely that the system is targeting us. And rather than ’elites,’ it would be more accurate to call us ’proactive survivors.’

This was Artemis’s first time speaking tonight, and the other survivors immediately clung to their words like a lifeline.

"Artemis, did you figure something out?!"

"Artemis! What on earth are we supposed to do? Is there any way out of this?"

[Artemis]: There is one method, though it’s hardly a proper solution.

"We’re in this mess, so please, don’t keep us in suspense. Even if it’s not a great solution, just tell us."

"Yeah! Please, just tell us, whatever it is."

[Artemis]: You all should have realized by now that most people in the Zone channel haven’t run into this. However, I just asked a few old friends from a previous Zone, and they *have* encountered this. They are, like us, what you would call proactive survivors.

[Artemis]: The most obvious trait of us proactive survivors is that our mobile cabins travel farther each day than others. You’re all experts, so you surely know this already. To get ahead in this world, no matter what fancy items or methods you use, it all comes down to one thing: move more, and get more resources!

"That’s true, but what’s the point of saying all this?"

"If you don’t get it, just be quiet and listen!"

[Artemis]: There’s a system announcement for entering a new Zone. And from the looks of the Zone channel, it’s clear we all entered this new Zone at the same time.

[Artemis]: Since the bugs didn’t appear because we entered a new Zone, the only other possibility is mileage—the total distance our mobile cabins have traveled. I theorize that once this distance reaches a certain threshold, The Black Mist World increases the difficulty for us by spawning these bugs.

[Artemis]: Also, movement itself is a key condition. The distance traveled only makes these monsters appear. Movement is what allows them to get *inside* the mobile cabins.

The group chat fell dead silent again. But this time, it wasn’t from panic, but from the cold dread that came with thinking.

"So, what Artemis is saying is... as long as we don’t move, the bugs won’t come?"

"In theory. But who can guarantee that? What if the bugs find us by smell or some other means?"

"Then... does that mean if we want to be safe from now on, we can’t just move whenever we want?"

"Are you kidding me?! If we don’t move, how do we find resources? How do we survive? That’s no different from suicide!"

"So that’s your solution, Artemis?"

Even though they didn’t say it, many people were disappointed.

For these people, the idea of not moving was even harder to accept than being eaten by bugs.

But Artemis once again refuted them.

[Artemis]: My solution isn’t to stop moving. It’s...

[Artemis]: To upgrade your mobile cabins!

"???"

"You think I don’t *want* to upgrade?"

"What’s with that attitude? Artemis said from the beginning that it was a less-than-ideal solution!"

"Hmm... you know, they’re right. Upgrading the mobile cabin would solve this problem for good. These things only eat wood, and the upgraded cabins are made of stone."

"Hey! Now that Artemis brought it up, I just realized I can upgrade my cabin tomorrow. All that worrying for nothing."

"Come to think of it... I’m almost ready to upgrade, too."

"Interesting. You don’t think these bugs are just here to push us to upgrade our cabins, do you? Or to put it another way, is this another test? Among us elite survivors, those whose cabins meet the standard get to live, and those who don’t get culled?"

*Hiss...*

That speculation made many people suck in a sharp breath. These quick-witted people immediately realized: "Does that mean... in the future, there will be bugs that eat stone?"