What Are They Saying? There Are Bugs?!

"Kafka, are you sure anyone could live in this godforsaken place?"

Bai Sheng and Silver Wolf were currently standing in an endless desert. Looking around at this place without even a single tumbleweed, they found it rather hard to understand.

Silver Wolf contacted Kafka through her communicator, but Kafka said:

"Keep looking. According to what Acheron said, Bai Sheng will encounter the first soul Pandora can absorb here. Your primary objective is to find the Stellaron on this planet. Secondly, find a sword—the soul Bai Sheng needs is inside it."

Bai Sheng was wearing nothing but shorts and a white tank top. He was about to die from the heat, feeling like he was about to be roasted into a dried peanut. It was so damn hot! Why look for some soul? Before he found it, he would probably turn into a soul himself from the sun!

So he simply flopped onto the ground and wriggled like a maggot. Screw it! He was done!

Seeing him like this, Silver Wolf kicked him in the butt, sending him off the dune and leaving him with a mouthful of sand.

"What the hell, Silver Wolf?! What are you doing?!"

"You're giving up already? Where's that energy you had when you were killing bugs on the battlefield?"

"There aren't any bugs here! Besides, people change, okay?"

Bai Sheng retorted. It was over fifty degrees Celsius. Even when he had fought bugs on Scorched Earth, it had only been in the forties. That extra ten degrees was honestly too much for him.

Silver Wolf rolled her eyes, removed Prometheus from her arm, and turned it into a skateboard before riding it down the dune.

"According to the company's records, this barren planet is called Tislayne. It suffered a Stellaron disaster, but so much time has passed that the company's aid had little effect, so they simply classified it as a wasteland planet. Still, we should be able to find natives. Move it. Once night falls, the temperature will drop below zero, and I didn't bring any thick clothes. Let's try to clear this in one life!"

With that, Silver Wolf marked three locations that might be inhabited and began surfing across the sand.

Leaving Bai Sheng to chase after her miserably.

Bai Sheng looked at Prometheus beneath Silver Wolf's feet, then at Pandora, but Pandora immediately warned him:

"Fuck off. You want to ride me? You got a death wish?"

Seeing there was no hope, Bai Sheng could only say pitifully:

"Wasn't I just worried you'd get sunburned, sis? Stick your head out and let me block the sunlight for you."

Pandora had nothing to say to that. Instead, she asked Bai Sheng:

"Want to get there faster?"

Bai Sheng's eyes lit up. "Sis, you're letting me ride you?"

"Fuck off. Keep talking like that, and you can run on your own!"

"Sis, you're my real big sister. Go ahead, I'll be waiting."

Bai Sheng said nothing more and quietly waited for Pandora.

"There are sandworms underground. Keep yourself in check later, brat. Don't go trying to chop every bug you see to death. I'll establish a soul connection with one, and you can ride it. That'll also keep the little girl traveling with you from getting killed by a sandworm."

As soon as Pandora finished speaking, Bai Sheng felt the ground begin to shake. Sure enough, the instant he stepped back, a massive beige sandworm burst through the sand from directly beneath where he had been standing.

Looking at the sandworm, with only half its body exposed and already over a hundred meters long, Bai Sheng could not help but exclaim:

"Holy shit! That's huge!"

It definitely could not compare to a Stingworm, but this was still Bai Sheng's first time seeing a large creature other than a Stingworm.

He carefully examined the sandworm. Its belly was lined with tiny abdominal legs, all wrapped in hard carapace. Inside its enormous maw were spiral-shaped teeth. Bai Sheng was still searching carefully for the sandworm's eyes.

Until Pandora smacked him with the shaft of her scythe.

"Quit playing around. That little girl's already out of sight. Hurry up and catch her. Let's see what you do if you get lost!"

"Right, right! Big guy, let's go!"

Bai Sheng stopped fooling around and climbed on—no, not onto a horse, onto a worm—and headed toward Silver Wolf.

Meanwhile, Silver Wolf was already tearing through the desert amid the flying yellow sand. Sure enough, giving Prometheus a transformation function had been the right choice.

Suddenly, Silver Wolf felt the sand behind her constantly trembling. She turned around in confusion and saw a massive beige sandworm, startling her.

"Damn! Ran into a boss while farming!"

Silver Wolf was just about to have Prometheus enter combat mode when she noticed a figure standing atop the sandworm's head.

As it got closer, she took a careful look. Well, if it wasn't Bai Sheng.

Just as she was about to call out to him, she heard Bai Sheng howl from atop the sandworm:

"Silver Wolf! Don't attack! It's one of ours!"

When he reached Silver Wolf, Bai Sheng pulled her onto the sandworm, and together they headed for their destination.

Sitting on the sandworm, Silver Wolf asked Bai Sheng curiously:

"Been apart for a moment, and you already got yourself such a flashy mount?"

Bai Sheng grinned. "Pandora set it up. Cool, right?"

"Not bad. That ability is really convenient! I thought you and bugs were irreconcilable enemies, like Firefly."

"I'm fine, as long as it's not a Stingworm. The universe is so vast—I can't possibly wipe out every disaster left behind by the Path of Propagation."

"As long as you're happy. But don't tell Firefly when we get back. She kills every bug she sees. Don't let her blow up this planet before we even find our target."

"Don't worry, don't worry. My lips are sealed."

Bai Sheng spread his hands, then pulled out a game console and asked:

"Offline multiplayer. Want to compete?"

At the mention of games, Silver Wolf immediately perked up. She pulled out a purple-and-green game console from Prometheus and said excitedly:

"Sure. What are we playing?"

"How about Origami Bird? It was released over on Penacony, and I happened to download it a few days ago."

"What a coincidence. I was a beta tester—just wait to get crushed!"

"Who's crushing whom? Bring it on!"

And so, the two began playing games atop the sandworm.

Little did they know that Bai Sheng, who was supposedly "reliable at getting things done," had forgotten to turn off his communicator. Their entire conversation had been overheard by Kafka on the spaceship, along with Firefly, who had happened to bring Kafka her freshly pressed coat.

"Kafka, what did they just say? Bugs?!"

Flames flared from Sam's breastplate.

"Firefly, calm down."

"I will. I'll only kill those of the [Path of Propagation]!"

"Calm down, Firefly. Maybe what they encountered was just..."

As Kafka spoke, she took the coat from Firefly's hands and smiled with narrowed eyes.

She couldn't let the flames burn her coat.

Then she turned around.

Huh? Where had Firefly gone?

Kafka looked around, but Firefly had already vanished without a trace.

Kafka merely shook her head and murmured:

"It seems Wolfie and little Bai Sheng's first rookie mission will be far more interesting than expected."

Why was Kafka so unconcerned about Firefly going to that planet to kill bugs? Because Acheron's script hadn't written it!

And if it hadn't been written, then it wasn't important.

With that thought, Kafka glanced at her coat again and once more marveled at how convenient Sam was for pressing clothes.