Players only need to charge in recklessly and then respawn, but Lord Murphy has a lot more to consider

"Mm, the desert!"

Little Potato, in her big-potato form, kicked the corpse of a bug she'd knocked down. Then, in the rough desert wind, she lifted her head and let it billow the sari she'd bought from Madam Water. She tried to imagine herself as a little princess of a nomadic tribe, but like so many girls' fantasies, it came to an abrupt end when she saw her wings.

After all, no vampire clan would come to the desert to play at being a nomadic tribe.

But this endless desert before her was honestly quite vast. It reminded her of the battles she'd fought in the Thousand-Year Sea of Sand. Still, even though she'd only just arrived and wasn't a geography expert, Little Ashina could tell that this gray desert and the distant Thousand-Year Sea of Sand were completely different kinds of terrain.

The Sanghaian lands might have had a larger desert, but it was dotted with oases of all sizes. The Sea of Sand also had a complete ecosystem: though there weren't many creatures, they formed a functioning food chain. Sandstorm bugs, little bosses that spawned randomly, could even provide the occasional surprise. And you could find the ruins of ancient cities beneath the sands just by wandering around.

Exploring a desert like that wasn't boring.

But the Gray Desert was the complete opposite.

This was a true land of death!

Even before Hive Zero came into being, the Gray Desert had been the harshest environment on the continent. Now, though the appearance of bugs had made this desolate place "livelier," it brought no comfort. If anything, it only made this godforsaken place seem worse.

This was definitely not a place where anyone could feel comfortable.

"Bugs that never run out! I wonder which there are more of, you