Chapter 1049: Flattening the Desire Forest
“Now, I will take you to seek revenge.”
I grabbed Lo Nafu by the back of her collar, giving Mengnafu little time to react; she only felt a blur before the luxurious guest room suddenly changed its appearance.
Amidst her confusion, Lo Nafu’s heightened sense of smell suddenly detected a familiar stench that made her instinctively tremble…
This was the territory!
She thought she would never return to this place in her life!
And here was the shop of that merchant from before.
At that moment, the merchant was idly playing some handheld game. The economy of the Verdant Forest game world was a bit sluggish, and it wasn’t always that customers would come to visit.
Just a few days ago, he had made quite a profit since reopening, so naturally, he wasn’t as worried as his peers.
The merchant, focused on his game, didn’t notice the two suddenly appearing figures. When he finally did, he mistakenly thought customers had arrived some time ago and hurriedly got up.
“Oh dear! Customers! Is there something you need?” The merchant, of course, didn’t recognize me.
After all, the last time I was there, I was just a player and had activated the mosaic disturbance mode, so
he not only didn’t recognize me, but he also failed to recognize the nearby Mengnafu. After all… the difference was too great, and she bore no scars, but her expression of fear was unmistakable; she was not a player.
The poor sprite merchant might not have realized what he was about to face next.
“Need? Hahaha…”
Looking at the somewhat effeminate merchant in front of me, I didn’t think he was all that innocent. Instead, I reached out, grabbing his neck and then performed a sealing technique that completely sealed him.
Even though his power came from the All Worlds Terminal, extraordinary powers could be severed from their source. To a certain extent, my understanding of the All Worlds Terminal, which I had partial control over, had reached a level incomprehensible to ordinary people.
“Your life is my need.” I grunted, giving him no chance to explain.
Even though I knew that killing him would only cause him to lose a character account, leaving him with no other losses.
However, what I wanted was something else.
I yanked the merchant, forcing him to kneel like a dog, and the direction he fell was towards Mengnafu.
“Come, kill him with your own hands. Consider it… saying goodbye to the past.” I lazily summoned a short dagger and handed it over.
Lo Nafu stared at the kneeling merchant, then blankly looked at the short dagger I handed over,
and finally looked at me.
“If you don’t want to kill him with a dagger, I could give him the knife instead. Guess what he would do to you?” Seeing Lo Nafu’s hesitation, I didn’t slow down my persuasion.
Having never taken a life before, Lo Nafu’s first time in controlling the life of another would be a “person.”
There lay a vast chasm between “thinking” and “doing,” and once crossed,
one would become enthralled.
This was a new test I had set for Lo Nafu; if she failed… then her life would remain this way.
As for being forced into witch transformation by the magic source?
Not a big deal; she hadn’t graduated to being an extraordinary witch, and no witch would acknowledge her existence.
Just as I was eagerly awaiting Lo Nafu’s decision, she trembled at my words but suddenly exploded with a fierce determination!
She snatched the dagger and swung it at the demon who had tormented her for countless days and nights.
The dagger danced wildly, her emotions venting furiously. Lo Nafu gripped the hilt tightly, and the sharp blade tore through the merchant’s luxurious clothing.
Through the rips, it became visible that beneath the fabric, the merchant had merely broken the surface of his skin.
This was not Lo Nafu’s mercy; it was just… Lo Nafu couldn’t bring herself to kill.
At that moment, an alarm blared through the shop!
The merchant player, realizing he could not resist, ultimately resorted to the shop’s insurance.
After all, opening a shop in the “Player Main City” required some measures to deal with thieving players.
This alarm would summon NPCs maintaining the main city or patrolling players to help him out.
While useful, it came at a cost.
Clearly, such means were useless against me.
Yet the sudden noise startled Lo Nafu.
With a flick of my hand, I destroyed the alarm system with a fireball, but I suspected that the emergency task must have already popped up among the players and NPCs by now.
The reason I destroyed it was primarily that it was too loud.
“You cannot kill him like that. Aim the point of the knife into the area slightly left of his chest or cut his throat directly. The most straightforward way is to stab through his mouth or eyes; that will kill him.” I said.
The sudden explosion silenced the blaring alarm, and my voice pulled her back to reality.
But at first, she didn’t follow what I said.
“Xiao… Sister Xiao Han… outside… outside…”
“You don’t need to worry about the outside. I will take action; you just need to kill him with your own hands. This is the task I give you.” I glanced toward the shop entrance and spoke.
Outside, many people had gathered. It seemed to be the first time these players had witnessed a robbery, let alone the brutal murder of the merchant, and they were all watching the spectacle.
As for helping?
The fire hadn’t burned them yet; they were just eager for entertainment!
Moreover, there were a large number of people here commenting, waiting for the main city players and NPCs to come and deal with “me, this player.”
After my lecture,
Lo Nafu gripped the short dagger tightly. Her gaze was fixed on the merchant, and the hatred in her eyes was unmasked as she hesitated but then plunged it toward the player’s heart.
The merchant, whose hair I was yanking, felt a piercing pain, and then the player-controlled character forced a sensory barrier mode to activate.
And the character’s life visibly diminished.
He was just a merchant player good at combat; even equipped with combat gear, he had nowhere to utilize it under the sealing technique.
At that moment, he was like a lamb awaiting slaughter, losing the most prosperous character in the game brutally.
Lo Nafu, too, was in a bad state. Watching a “life” fade before her eyes, it was reminiscent of the sisters she had seen dragged away; was this death?
“Take a good feel; controlling another’s life and death is built upon absolute power.”
I released my grip, letting the corpse drop to the ground, the sprite who no longer knew how dead she was, finally rested on the ground.
And next…
“Who dares to disturb the Desire Forest!? Do you not want to live!?”
A voice of cursing rang from afar, mixed with urgency, behind him followed by identifiable “NPC” characters rushing over.
The onlookers consciously stepped aside for these people and continued to watch the show.
“Sister Xiao Han… those people…” Lo Nafu looked at me worriedly, admitting that after killing the person before her, she only felt a sense of unreality, this feeling diluted the joy of vengeance, ultimately crushed by the approaching “main city enforcers.”
“I’ll show you what… catastrophe is!”
I continued holding Lo Nafu by the back of her collar, then with a flick of a finger.
Wooosh!
An invisible whirlwind instantly toppled the building of the shop I was in.
In an instant, the room, lit by artificial light, turned to outdoor natural light.
The ceiling above me and the upper floor were ripped apart and smashed down in the violent whirlwind.
Not only that, but the bystanders—including merchants and players watching—suffered as well.
Before they could grasp the situation, they were crushed by the collapsing structure, which was far less resilient than the building itself.
In the area centered around Lo Nafu and me, she felt a gust of wind pass by, tousling her hair, and in the next moment, all the buildings on the street vanished as if they were cut away, leaving behind only the foundations and some less than a third of broken walls.
“This is much more spacious.” I tightened my grip on Lo Nafu and directly flew her up into the clouds.
Above the Desire Forest, the clouds were thin and scattered, and as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but forest.
Lo Nafu was dumbfounded; this was the most complete view of the land she had seen in her life. She stared at the gradually blurring horizon, mesmerized for a moment, without realizing
she was already thousands of meters high.
From here, everything appeared minuscule.
Even the Desire Forest, which had once trapped her life, seemed merely palm-sized.
“Ah!? So… so high! Here… here…”
“Don’t worry; you won’t fall.” I comforted Mengnafu and then cast a protective spell of an elemental sprite.
Immediately, an invisible wind gently cradled Mengnafu’s petite body, and I simply let go of my hand.
“Hey! Wait! Don’t let go! Nooooo…!”
Mengnafu felt the collar that supported her weight slacken and instantly realized something was wrong!
This action scared Mengnafu half to death and even made her scream. After releasing her pent-up fear, she instinctively turned her head and discovered she wasn’t falling; she was level with the older sister right in front of her.
At that moment, she realized that a gentle wind was supporting her. A spiritual shadow appeared behind her, the outstretched hands cradling Mengnafu like a mother protecting her child.
“This is the protection of the wind elemental spirit; it will guard you from attacks and also help you fly here. Take your time to adjust; we… hmm?”
Before I could finish my sentence, I felt several figures coming up slowly from below, precisely the players I had pushed away, but who were still alive.
Such a massive incident happening in the Desire Forest during their patrol was something he couldn’t possibly be irresponsibly accountable for.
Thus, at this moment, he was filled with unrestrained rage!
But when he finally spotted me in the air, what awaited him was a searing ray racing faster than his vision could grasp!
Although it was called a ray, when it penetrated him, it had already covered his entire body.
After the ray passed, the merchant’s figure had completely vanished.
At this moment, Lo Nafu gazed at the ray, subconsciously swallowing hard. One ray could erase a person in an instant?
But to me, it was akin to using a laser cannon on a mosquito.
“Did you see that? I destroyed the buildings in the Desire Forest; the fault is mine. The others come after me without the power to even show their face because they’re unworthy of reasoning with me.”
I casually lectured Lo Nafu, not caring how much impact my actions had on her young mind.
“I even believe the Desire Forest shouldn’t exist. The filthy deeds they’ve been doing, I could wipe this place clean in no time.”
“Do you believe it?” I looked at Mengnafu.
“…Huh…ah?” Caught in a daze, Mengnafu clearly just reacted; she looked at me, then at the vast area of the Desire Forest below, wondering how one could wipe out such a large territory.
After all, perception determines perspective, and she had never considered what a strong person should be like or to what extent they could achieve.
Mengnafu’s worldview shattered utterly, but amidst this shattering, a brand new world unfolded before her.
Because I had intervened.
“Have you ever seen a meteor shower? The kind of beauty when stars streak across the night sky, which, when they hit the ground, is equally beautiful.”
As I spoke, Mengnafu felt an overwhelming oppressive force descending from the horizon, nearly stealing her breath away!
It was as if the heavens were tilting, gathering in the air.
The flames of meteor fire illuminated the sky, dying the daylight a fiery red.
The term “catastrophe” materialized in the depths of Mengnafu’s heart.
And the center of it all was the Catastrophe Witch standing before her!
Beneath the protection of the elemental sprite, Mengnafu still felt a pressure like a brick wall pushing down on her.
Flaming meteors fell from the sky, their lengthy tails trailing down like rain.
One of the meteoric flames brushed past her, and if not for the elemental sprite’s protection, she feared she couldn’t withstand even the pressure caused by the meteor’s swirling air.
And this attack was in the hundreds and thousands.
As the meteor fire rained down, Mengnafu recalled the countless thunderstorm sounds she had heard, but none were as formidable as the impact of this firestorm upon hitting the ground!
The sounds of crashing, explosions, mixed with the cries like ants rose and fell.
The meteor fire seemed to flatten the entire forest.
There was nothing left below. Her shocking emotions hadn’t settled, and the Desire Forest had completely vanished without a trace under this great being’s hand.
The flames spread at a terrifying speed, igniting countless trees, and amidst the large forest emerged a patch of scorched earth.
Under the coverage of my realm of calm and the extension of my five senses, within the Desire Forest, not a single living creature could escape.
Players should meet their end this way, finding peace in the earth. As for the sprites… life is short; it’s not worth much. Rather than suffering, they might as well enter the cycle of earth essence ahead of time.
With my intervention, the game world could no longer harvest the soul material of this world. They might as well embrace the soil’s warm embrace, for eventually,
they would become people of the main world and wouldn’t have to endure such suffering.
Now I truly understood how that perspective of regarding life as mere weeds could be rationalized.
I could only sigh… life is not worth it.
