Don't Attack, I'm One of You

Halloween.

The sound of Old Dream is like a cold desert, chilling everyone's hearts to the bone.

Flame Heart looked at her companion in disbelief.

He clearly remembered how he met Old Dream. It was a few years ago, when they had just left the city-state and stepped into this wasteland. The two had a fierce argument and almost came to blows. It was Giant Arm who beat them both up and calmed things down.

He clearly remembered the memories of the three of them forming a team, hunting, harvesting, and fighting in the wilderness, those nights with campfires and starry skies, those laughter and joy, and those bloody battles.

How could someone like that be an insect in disguise?

Have these insects become so capable of mimicking humans?

The more Flame Heart thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed.

He broke out in a cold sweat, his face Pale, and stared blankly at his Old Dream, feeling momentarily dazed.

"Calm down, calm down. It's possible that Old Dream is being controlled by some mysterious force. As long as we leave this ruin, as long as we leave this ruin, he will get better."

Flame Heart explained that it wasn't just for the sake of Old Dream, but also for her own sake.

Now, even if Flame Heart doesn't admit it, she already knows everything in her heart.

He is not human.

Instead, like those Wasteland Hunter, they believed themselves to be insects of humans.

The Queen of the Nameless City possesses the power to manipulate people's hearts, and naturally, she also has the power to manipulate the Heart of the Swarm. In order to deceive those who come to the Nameless City, the Queen manipulates the minds of some of the insects she has spawned, making them believe that they are humans and Wasteland Hunter. These insects roam the nearby wasteland, luring other Wasteland Hunter into the city to explore, and becoming the Queen's prey.

The appearance of this body, these memories, this personality, and even the fear it feels now, were all bestowed upon it by the Queen Insect.

Even feelings of despair are hypocritical.

A genuine counterfeit.

Flame Heart took two steps back and slumped onto the gravel.

He suddenly burst into wild laughter, as if mocking this twisted world.

His laughter echoed through the ruins at night, and soon began to tremble.

"Hahahaha. Hahaha."

Flame Heart's voice trailed off, and the laughter abruptly stopped.

His expression was blank, numb, and rigid, like a puppet that had given up performing.

Halloween.

Cursing words came from his mouth.

The Giant Arm remained silent.

He glanced at Lu Ban, then at his companion.

The fear vanished from his eyes. Giant Arm pulled the energy bar Lu Ban had given him from his chest pocket, tore open the packaging, and took a bite.

"It really is delicious."

The Giant Arm chewed and spoke with a sigh.

"Could you please do me a favor?"

Now that things have come to this, even with fabricated memories and a false personality, the Giant Arm still wants to put up a little resistance.

"Could you please allow me to die in the form of a human being?"

He tossed the energy bar packaging aside and opened his arms.

Giant Arm's lips twitched, his lips parted as if to make a sound, but he tried to suppress it. He was in Affliction, and his mouth opened again. This time, he used all his strength, but Giant Arm could not stop the arrival of that instinctive end.

"Ten thousand"

The Affliction expression suddenly shifted to numbness, blankness, and sluggishness. The moment the Giant Arm lowered its mouth, Xiya raised her hand.

Thud—

The Giant Arm's head exploded, and its entire body went limp, its blood seeping into the silver sand, revealing a deep, eerie color.

In Lu Ban's eyes, who had learned the truth, and in the vision of the [True Sight], these three Wasteland Hunter had long since turned into hideous, ugly, and pitch-black insects.

The power exerted on them had completely vanished. At this moment, Giant Arm, Flame Heart, Old Dream, and the other team, including Iron Fist and Faceless, had completely disappeared from this world.

Only monsters that looked exactly like the other insects remained.

With a wave of her hand, Xiya freed the other two as well. She bit her lower lip, seemingly unable to accept the situation.

"Are they people or insects?"

The young mage didn't know whether the Wasteland Hunter like Giant Arm, Flame Heart, and Old Dream truly existed, or whether they were all just fabrications by the Queen of Insects.

Did a group of Wasteland Hunter really wander into this place many years ago, get killed by the Queen of Insects, and have their memories harvested?

Has this Nameless City witnessed countless similar tragedies?

Although the queen has been killed and there may not be similar tragedies in the future, there have been hundreds or thousands of people who have suffered from the disaster in the past.

Moreover, these people's cognition has been completely rewritten, and they are unable to perceive all of this. So, has humanity itself also had its cognition rewritten by some more supreme being?

Even he himself, standing here, could hardly prove that he wasn't just a lump of Mass of Flesh, but merely given false memories and a disguised body.

Xiya felt her rationality burning like scorched wood. Her vision blurred, and her brain felt like it was being churned up by a red-hot iron rod. The girl couldn't help but squat down to relieve the Affliction.

She could clearly see that an invisible finger seemed to be writing systematic characters across the irregular gravel on the ground.

You now know a maddening truth.

[Rationality - 2]

She was breathing heavily, her eyes bloodshot.

At this moment, Lu Ban suddenly placed his hand on Xiya's shoulder.

Xiya turned to look at her companion.

Lu Ban's expression turned serious, indifferent, and lacking in liveliness.

His mouth opened and closed, uttering a word that instantly jolted Xiya's spirits.

Halloween.

The young mage suddenly straightened up, the discomfort caused by her decreased rationality vanishing, replaced by extreme tension and a reflexive raising of her hand.

Just as the spell in his palm was about to take shape, Lu Ban suddenly grinned.

"Just kidding."

He grinned with a mischievous grin and patted Xiya on the shoulder.

"Stop, don't attack! They're on our side. I was just pretending, I was just faking it!"

Lu Ban hurriedly stopped Xiya from throwing the Void Burst Technique she had just cast at herself.

"How are you feeling now? Are you feeling a little better? Not so sad anymore?"

He also proudly inquired about Xiya's condition.

"Should I thank you instead?"

Xiya raised an eyebrow.

"You're welcome, it's nothing."

Lu Ban replied.

Xiya threw out the Void Burst Technique from her hand.

An invisible ball of energy swept past Lu Ban's ear and flew into the distance, emitting a sharp, explosive sound.

"."

Lu Ban felt that he might have just experienced the greatest life crisis since entering the Silent Land.

"The mission is complete, we can go back now."

Xiya lowered her hand; she had never felt so powerless since using magic.

In the past, Xiya believed that magic could solve all problems, and if it couldn't, it meant she hadn't learned enough magic.

But now she has discovered that some things really can't be solved with magic.

The shock to her understanding was far more exhausting for Xiya than the madness she witnessed.

"We can contact each other like this in the Silent Land. If we encounter any missions that we can participate in together in the future, I will let you know."

Lu Ban briefly recounted what Trist had told him to Xiya, when suddenly another inspiration struck him.

"You wouldn't happen to know a Chosen of the Gods named Du Danping, would you?"

"Who?"

Xiya looked puzzled.

"No, it's nothing."

Lu Ban shook his head and then chose to return.

After he and Xiya disappeared into the silver desert, everything fell silent.

Suddenly, an antenna emerged from the sand, and then a slightly smaller insect crawled out of the desert. It didn't mutter anything about Halloween; instead, it dragged its slightly swollen abdomen and struggled toward a corner of the city in the rising sun.

Just as dawn always comes.

Life always finds a way.

*

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