Ahead, countless unknown grasses towered over them many times over. Farther away, masses of enormous objects blurred into indistinct shapes.
Looking right from the mouth of the burrow, they saw a giant head—human or ape, they could not tell—staring at them even in death. Its lifeless eyes still held the terror of its final moments.
"Don't tell me... when we were turned into insects, we shrank too?" Zhu Chixia said, coming to his senses. His face looked grim.
Nameless shook his head. "No. We entered this world first, then were turned into insect people. But our surroundings didn't shrink when we changed. That means we were already small when we entered this world, and Gu Yue turned us into insect people afterward."
"This is too hard. Ma Lie, is there really no option to give up?" Zhu Chixia asked with a miserable look.
"Sorry. I'm afraid not," Ma Lie said, looking ashamed. "Maybe... death is the only penalty."
He had wondered why the mission listed an objective but no reward or penalty. Now he understood: they would have to seek out the reward themselves while carrying out the mission, and the penalty for failure was probably death.
"All right. Let's test our strength first," Nameless said to the other two.
He had not sensed any rule suppressing his power, but he had been made small without noticing. It was worth testing now, before a crisis left them scrambling in panic.
He conjured an Imaginary Flower. At a thought, it became a sharp blade and slashed at a blade of grass in the distance.
The grass split in two, but the Imaginary Flower lost its momentum there and went no farther.
"..."
Ma Lie and Zhu Chixia stared in disbelief.
Ma Lie drew his blade and struck a nearby stone. It