Ye Shu longed for nothing more than to curl up in her shallow sandpit and drift off to sleep.
Yet just as she settled into the pit, another rustling reached her ears from not far away.
Ye Shu scrambled to her feet… and her gaze collided with the writhing mass of gigantic worms in the distance—dozens of death worms. Help! The death worms were overrunning the desert; apparently, the one before had just been the appetizer. Goosebumps prickled along her arms as she gripped her sword and charged forward again.
A chorus of low, eerie cries—almost like a baby's weeping—echoed from the creatures as they coiled and slithered in her direction.
"Oh, shut up already!" Ye Shu spat in irritation, drawing her peachwood sword and hacking down at the massive, fleshy worm.
The cry of a single strange worm was unnerving enough in the barren desert.
But dozens—now, that was simply maddening.
Her eardrums pounded beneath the assault. Her eyes stung with a thousand points of distress.
She watched, helpless, as an endless legion of worms squirmed and twisted their way across the sand, their membranous sheaths brushing against the grit with a sinister hissing, their secretions slowly corroding away the very grains.
More mournful cries rang out from the worm horde as they advanced upon Ye Shu.
Especially disturbing were the twitching tendrils at the corners of their mouths, which, upon sensing the death of their companion on the ground, began to writhe even more unnaturally.
Then, inexplicably, the worms did something truly monstrous.
They began to eat the corpse of their own fallen comrade.
Within moments, the horde had stripped the slain worm bare, not leaving a trace—almost as if it never existed.
"Worms eating worms?"
The scene turned absurdly gruesome.
"Splat—"
Her peachwood sword proved up to the task: each swing felled another monstrous worm.
Ye Shu strode nimbly among the writhing mass, sidestepping venom spatters, leaping atop the largest of the brood. With practiced precision, she drove her sword down into the worm now squirming with corrosive slime underfoot. The secretions were so potent that even the soles of her shoes had thinned to almost nothing.
Another wave of those mournful cries reverberated.
Sensing agony rippling through its thick body, the worm beneath her went berserk, thrashing wildly in an attempt to throw her off.
Caught off guard, Ye Shu, sword and all, went flying tens of meters through the air.
"Cough—ptooey—ugh!"
She landed face-first in a dune, her mouth gritty with sand.
Before she could fully recover, that very same gargantuan worm lunged at her, jaws gaping. Ye Shu somersaulted away just in time, but not before a glob of corrosive slime dripped onto her arm, eating away a patch of flesh.
Several more worms bore down on her. Ignoring the pain, she cut them down with swift blows from her sword.
The largest worm was tracking her by scent. Thinking quickly, Ye Shu dove back into her sandpit, rummaging in her storage space for a bottle of perfume. She sprayed lavishly, masking the telltale scent of a human survivor.
The monstrous worm howled at the empty air, raging in impotent fury.
The perfume must have worked!
Ye Shu curled up in the hollow, taking a moment to catch her breath. Gritting her teeth, she took out a knife and began slicing away the rotting flesh from her wounded arm.
The worms’ body slime, while not as toxic as their venom, was still potent enough to leave her feeling weak and dizzy even just sitting there. If she didn't remove every trace quickly, she might not live to see the next sunrise.
Her lips pressed into a thin, quivering line as she carved away at the blackened flesh until vibrant red blood finally flowed in its place.
She grabbed the healing solution she’d bought from the store, applying it liberally to the wound.
Worth every one of the 200 points spent—within three seconds, the gash had nearly closed, leaving only a fresh, pink scar.
The injury was healing, true.
But the scent of blood drew the worms anew.
Ye Shu raised her sword. The carnage began afresh.
Two hours later, Ye Shu—her tally well into the teens—finally drove back the insatiable worms that had been eyeing her as prey.
"It's finally over!"
Exhausted, Ye Shu reclined in her sandy refuge. The fight had sapped her strength; her last piece of jerky was devoured in moments for a quick boost.
Beyond the meat, she polished off two large segments of cactus fruit and a hefty chunk of ice.
Watching the sandy windstorm in the distance, Ye Shu couldn't help but sigh. It was only the second day of the game, and it felt as if she were undergoing some grand trial by ordeal. Weren’t the first seven days supposed to be easy?
But no:
Sandstorms, mirages, swarms of death worms—
One after another, offering her not a moment’s rest.
She realized, grimly, that the game seemed to have its sights set on her—specifically, maybe even maliciously so.
She tilted her head back and gazed upwards, into a sky where two moons hung overhead.
……
In the darkness of the system space.
Countless screens flashed in real-time; Ye Shu's live feed was front and center.
In the void, the system and the screen locked eyes, a wave of unease washing through the black sockets.
Could that player... somehow sense its presence?
Impossible!
The Survival System argued with itself. She was just a player from a low-tier planet. How could she possibly perceive it, even if she'd met Executors before? And those, in the game, were just NPCs.
He had noticed her from the first time she entered the game. There was something about her—a presence, a thing that shouldn't exist in the game, yet unmistakably followed in her wake.
Originally, it had intended to retrieve the card she carried. But no matter how it scanned, it couldn't detect it…
As the system, it should hold absolute dominion over all players: monitoring, life and death in its hands, the ability to erase any of them at the press of a button. Any of them—except for Ye Shu.
Out in the desert.
Ye Shu cast a suspicious glance at the empty air.
Just now, she could have sworn someone was watching her.
Her instincts were never wrong.
Maybe it was Lin Qingyue, that bastard.
Just thinking about the last round—how, for some reason, he’d let her live—deepened the frown on her face.
Didn’t kill her? Could he be interested in her?
That was worse than killing her outright…
Day Three of the game.
The weather was stifling and scorching.
Ye Shu wrapped her headscarf tighter, hugging her lump of ice as she trekked through the dunes.
She was heading in the right direction now: here and there, the sand revealed small animal skulls—signs she’d never seen in the heart of the Black Desert before.
Each gust of blistering wind slapped her face, sweat running slick and sticky down her body.
Her shoe soles had all but worn away; her feet, blistered and burned, only got relief when she popped the blisters and slathered on healing solution, pressing on regardless.
At 15:12 that afternoon, she finally found it: a forest of cacti.
Yes, a veritable forest.
On Planet R, the cacti grew enormous—with the smallest easily three to five meters tall, and the biggest soaring above even that.
Ruby-red fruit clustered on the prickly arms.
Ripe fruit lured all manner of creatures: lizards, black ants, beetles.
Ye Shu sliced off a few cactus chunks and fruit, stashing them in her storage.
Cactus had little water, but was filling, with a crisp vegetal scent, reminiscent of cucumber.
She ate several pieces—enough to feel sated at last.
Night drew in, shadows crawling across the sand.
Pang Pangzi messaged her in private.
He'd located a tiny outpost—the locals even kept camels and sold food, water, anything you could pay for with gold beans.