Chapter 6: Vegetables are Original Sin
==============================
The live streaming room was completely blacked out,
and at the resurrection point, there was no sign of Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain. Where on Earth had they gone?
A cloud of mystery hung heavy in the air.
People were scratching their heads.
“d*mn it, what’s going on here!
Strong Brother, Sister Rain, say something already!”
“Hey, hey, this Little Musashi is too scary!
Can she really slice away souls in one swipe?”
“No way! It’s a game, man! If souls are gone, wouldn’t they be dead in real life too?
That’s clearly impossible!”
“It must be a system bug! Players can’t respawn immediately after dying. Quick, report this NPC to the system!”
As the netizens were in a frenzy,
the live streaming room flickered for a moment before returning to normal.
This left everyone completely dumbfounded.
“Phew, you guys are finally okay.”
Little Musashi’s worried voice came through.
Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain jumped in surprise,
astonished to find themselves standing unharmed before Little Musashi, with no signs of bl**d anywhere.
Was that whole thing just a bad dream?
【From Sky Void Academy Strong Brother’s Cold Value +312】
【From Flowerless Palace Cold Little Rain’s Cold Value +299】
“Ahhh… we can move! We can move!”
The feeling of being able to control their bodies again was absolutely glorious.
They never wanted to relive that powerless sensation ever again.
“But Big Shot, what on Earth happened here?
We clearly remember you…”
Strong Brother stammered nervously.
Cold Little Rain was equally shaken.
Netizens who had just been hurling insults at Little Musashi were now left speechless.
Fans of Little Musashi immediately jumped in excitement,
“Open your dog eyes and see for yourselves, is our Little Musashi that kind of person?”
“Ha, a bunch of ignorant and shallow folks, blinded by surface appearances.
Just take a good look at Little Musashi’s sparkling big eyes. A girl with such innocent gaze can’t possibly be sinister!”
…
Little Musashi sheathed her katana and patted her chest, looking a bit shaken,
“Thankfully, I’ve been to the demon realm before and seen these worms that can create illusions.”
She kicked the ground lightly, “Right here.”
Strong Brother took a closer look,
and spotted a half-sliced, palm-sized black beetle.
“This is called a Heart-eating Worm.”
“Looks like these two little bugs were lurking in the grass for a long time and bit you when you least expected it.”
Hearing Little Musashi’s explanation,
both of them quickly lifted their pant legs and found shallow wounds on their calves.
“The scary thing about Heart-eating Worms is that once they touch your bl**d, your soul will be completely transferred to them. The worms then replace your consciousness and become the new masters of your bodies.”
Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain were taken aback.
How could such terrifying bugs exist in this world?
Yet they still couldn’t grasp why they’d clearly seen Little Musashi come at them and… well, you know, chop them up. The pain from that was still fresh in their minds.
“During the replacement process, the Heart-eating Worms create an illusion of a body to make you think nothing happened, hiding their true forms.
Also, since Heart-eating Worms are much smaller than humans, they need a slow adaptation process to switch souls.
So you were temporarily placed in fake bodies.
If I hadn’t noticed something was off,
you two might have gone through the whole soul transition without realizing it. The worms would have taken over your bodies completely,
and you would have become full-fledged bugs, with zero chance of returning.
So, once I detected the anomaly, I had to stop the worms’ conspiracy.
The first task was to k*ll the illusion; only then could the soul transfer process be interrupted.
But this posed a very dangerous problem.
Without a vessel, human souls quickly flow back into the Heart-eating Worms.
If we didn’t deal with it quickly, the influx of energy from the human souls could cause the worms to explode, resulting in a mutual destruction scenario.
Only by swiftly eliminating the Heart-eating Worms could your souls return to your true bodies hidden in the illusion,
and luckily for us, we succeeded.”
Little Musashi wrapped up her explanation in one breath.
Up until now, she seemed even more nervous than Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain, visibly relieved that she had managed to save them.
In fact, Little Musashi didn’t even know how she became so familiar with Heart-eating Worms from the demon realm.
When she noticed the anomaly, her reactions were almost instinctive, as if she had dealt with similar cases before.
It seemed this character card must have some connection to the demon realm.
Otherwise, how else could she explain this whole situation?
…
Everyone listening was utterly baffled.
While the netizens understood Little Musashi was trying to clarify what happened, they found themselves even more confused by the story.
So complicated, so exaggerated!
Is the demon realm really that horrifying?
To think a mere bug could have such a detailed backstory was hard to believe.
But one thing was certain: Little Musashi had made great efforts to save Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain’s lives in just a minute or two.
Otherwise, these two streamers would have turned into hideous bugs, who knows when they’d ever return to their true forms.
They felt immensely ashamed and guilty for misunderstanding Little Musashi.
And Strong Brother finally realized why they had seen Little Musashi “k*ll” them twice.
The first time was an illusion of their bodies, and the second was the Heart-eating Worm occupying their consciousness.
Strong Brother wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, “Uh, Big Shot, I have another question. How did you know we were being controlled by the Heart-eating Worms?”
Little Musashi looked slightly embarrassed.
“It’s quite simple, actually.
The characters created by Heart-eating Worms always have a really obvious goofy hair sticking out from their heads.”
Everyone expected Little Musashi to give another mind-boggling, profound analysis,
but the truth was just so jaw-dropping.
Some enthusiastic fan immediately dug up the previous screen recording.
The live stream had been at a 45-degree aerial view, and if Little Musashi hadn’t pointed it out, they might not have noticed,
but now they could clearly see a stubborn little hair sticking out from both their heads, waving in the wind.
Clearly, Little Musashi was telling the truth.
Cold Little Rain shuddered at the thought that she had been bitten by such gross worms and almost turned into her most despised critters.
Strong Brother looked tense, “Are there any other undiscovered worms around here?
What if all three of us get bitten? Wouldn’t that mean total annihilation?”
“Don’t worry, because Heart-eating Worms only work on creatures weaker than themselves. Obviously, these two bugs aren’t very strong.
Plus, even in the demon realm, Heart-eating Worms are precious and growing them requires a lot of resources. There shouldn’t be more here, so no need to worry.”
Little Musashi reassured them.
After hearing this, Strong Brother felt relieved but then unintentionally received an invisible blow.
Weaker…
They were actually weaker than the worms…
Strong Brother and Cold Little Rain instantly wilted.
The live streaming room erupted in laughter.
“Hahaha, vegetables are original sin, got it!”
“d*mn it, now they’re being bullied by bugs because of their low level. Can’t they spare Strong Brother a little dignity?”
No matter how netizens teased,
their curiosity about Little Musashi was skyrocketing.
This pure-hearted yet slightly clumsy NPC beauty,
who exactly was she?
