Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

……

As time passed and the bamboo forest rapidly changed, while Bell slept, the outside world continued to churn without pause.

First, there was Cangxing City, the closest city to the bamboo forest. A large number of adventurers fled from the bamboo forest and reported the changes in the bamboo forest back to Cangxing City.

This did not dampen the adventurers' enthusiasm for exploring the bamboo forest; on the contrary, it aroused the interest of many adventurers, who prepared to head to the ever-changing bamboo forest to find out what was going on.

This group's mentality was: no matter how this dangerous place changes, can it really be flown into the sky? The reason you people failed in your exploration is because you're incompetent. Who am I? The chosen one!

Then, when they scrambled back to Cangxing City in a sorry state, their bravado vanished instantly.

At this stage, the bamboo forest is filled with all sorts of strange and bizarre magical plants, as well as iron golems walking among them. Occasionally, you'll also encounter skeletons that hunt them in reverse.

The magical plant is adept at concealing itself, often launching a swift attack when no one is paying attention, dragging away the unlucky member of a team.

Iron golems, as ecological guardians, are normally neutral entities, indifferent to the human adventurers who enter their territory. However, these human adventurers want to...

When the magical beasts, magical plants, and precious medicines here are used, the iron golems will enter an attack state, chasing after human adventurers and striking them. One punch from them will either kill or seriously injure them.

The Skeleton Clan is even more formidable. They need a large number of corpses to build bone structures and use the death energy sedimentation pool. Since the bamboo forest is in a period of ecological restoration, they cannot indiscriminately hunt various magical beasts and wild animals within it.

However, when facing adventurers from outside, the Skeleton Clan has no such restrictions, fearing that if they are too slow, these adventurers will escape from the bamboo forest.

Cangxing City is an area where the average level is around ten or so, and adventurers at level twenty are considered experts. There are level fifteen iron golems and skeletons at an average level of twenty-seven or twenty-eight. How can adventurers possibly withstand these creatures roaming the bamboo forest?

As the adventurers deepened their exploration of the bamboo forest, they discovered that those who repeatedly entered the bamboo forest were experiencing abnormal physical conditions.

Among the adventurers who ventured into the bamboo forest multiple times, several fell into a deep, unconscious state, while others aged rapidly. Many middle-aged adventurers appeared to have lived more than a decade in just a few weeks, their skin wrinkling and their hair turning noticeably white.

This anomaly also deterred adventurers in Cangxing City from approaching the bamboo forest area, which was known as a cursed land where those who approached would suffer misfortune.

Although these adventurers didn't know what the strange activity in the bamboo forest meant, everyone who went there had failed, so anyone who wasn't a fool wouldn't jump in.

Outside the world of ordinary adventurers, a different kind of verbal battle has broken out between various professional guilds.

The verbal battle was directed at the Agricultural Guild, because many adventurers had suffered losses in the Bamboo Forest, and the information they sent back allowed the guild's leaders to discover that the various plants that had appeared in the Bamboo Forest were highly related to the recent market changes in Cangxing City.

A mysterious man named Ning acquired a large number of various plant seeds and living plants, which have now been transformed into magical plants and precious medicines in the bamboo sea area.

Compared to the various plant seeds and live plants acquired in high-end markets, the quantity of seeds provided by the agricultural association was astonishing, with the entire quantity measured in tons.

Against this backdrop, Ning's identity was deduced. These high-ranking officials learned that the plant seeds Ning acquired were highly related to the revival of the bamboo forest, and directly accused the Agricultural Guild of aiding the enemy and betraying Cangxing City by selling them.

A serious accusation was leveled against them as they questioned the Agricultural Guild. On one hand, they wanted to uncover the true identity of Ning, this mysterious man, and on the other hand, they wanted the Agricultural Guild to pay compensation for their losses in the bamboo forest, since those who ventured into the bamboo forest after its closure had all met with bad ends.

However, the Agricultural Guild was also completely unaware of the situation. They were also very curious about Ning's true identity. They had previously planned to slowly learn about Ning's background, since Ning's every transaction would cause a sensation within the Agricultural Guild. He was a top-tier VIP and someone they absolutely could not afford to offend.

Now look what's happened, Ning has simply vanished, who knows what kind of existence he really was.

Even so, the Agricultural Guild couldn't bring themselves to hate Ning. After all, he always brought a large amount of high-grade bone meal with him. Many of the Agricultural Guild's advanced professionals had become addicted to high-grade bone meal after using it and were eagerly anticipating the next opportunity to try it.

Within the Agricultural Guild, some even suggested that if Ning, this mysterious figure, were to reappear, they would have to find a way to secretly protect this distinguished guest. Even if they couldn't protect him, they would have to obtain the method for making high-grade bone meal from him, since the Agricultural Guild has yet to be able to replicate this special fertilizer.

As for the other professional guilds' request for the Agricultural Guild to pay compensation, the Agricultural Guild refused them all. After using high-grade bone powder, they gained a large number of high-level professionals and are now acting very aggressively.

Even when faced with pressure from so many professional guilds, they remained completely unfazed.

Chapter 196 Time Sequence Research Association

Besides the adventurers and the chaotic professional guilds, there's another troublesome character in Azure Star City.

The old vampire, who is now the mayor of Cangxing City, is completely numb.

Putting aside the issue of his son's death, he had many offspring, and although Amat was one of the very few outstanding ones, it was only the death of a promising talent, which was not unacceptable.

Compared to losing his son, the death of his old friend, the secret assassin, was a loss the old vampire could hardly bear.

Although their adventure group disbanded many years ago due to internal conflicts, some old friends in the group still keep in touch and are willing to lend a helping hand to their friends in critical moments.

The death of an old friend is now considered an earthquake-level event in their disbanded adventure group. In the three hundred years since they drank from the Fountain of Youth, they have only lost one teammate. That guy was a complete adventure maniac who died in an unexplored, extremely dangerous high-altitude area, so his death was not unjust.

But now this old friend has died in his territory, a dangerous place they once conquered.

"Something's not right. If it were a normal command and control operation, the royal tomb, with only a bunch of skeletons left, shouldn't have been able to keep that guy here. Could it be that something went wrong with the royal tomb, and those skeletons were able to escape? Or is there some other reason..."

Although the old vampire didn't know what had happened in the bamboo forest, it was a foregone conclusion that the situation was dangerously out of control, which was not a good thing.

The old vampire's most important identity is that of the mayor of Azure Star City. He began preparing for this identity when he was an adventurer and spent over a hundred years to obtain it.

From the perspective of the old vampire, Cangxing City is not just a gathering place for human adventurers. In the relatively resource-scarce southwest of the continent, Cangxing City is surrounded by one medium-level dangerous area and four low-level dangerous areas, making it a city with relatively abundant resources.

As the old vampire who is the mayor of Cangxing City, he can share a portion of Cangxing City's resource output. Although the output of high-level resources here is extremely small, the overall resource output of the city is still quite astonishing.

If the old vampire were still an adventurer, with his individual strength, he could still be active in coastal areas or the southern part of the continent. The value of the high-level resources he would have gained during his adventures would be about the same as what he had gained as mayor over the years.

But compared to dangerous adventures, being the mayor of Azure Star City is far safer, giving the old vampire plenty of free time to study demonology.

However, becoming the mayor of Cangxing City not only means gaining free time and resources, but also having the responsibilities of a mayor of Cangxing City.

The old vampire wasn't bothered by the quality of life of the residents of Cangxing City, or by the dangers of the Bamboo Forest affecting their safety. After all, Cangxing City was just a tool for him to collect resources, and he wouldn't empathize with his means of production.

His current headache is that if the situation gets out of control, he will have to report it, which will attract the attention of the inspection teams from other cities, and those guys are not easy to deal with.

Cangxing City is not an independent city, or rather, a city of this caliber does not have the right to be independent.

Azure Star City and

Together with the other sixteen cities in the southwest of the continent, they formed the Seventeen Cities Alliance, which can be considered the representative of human power in the southwest region.

However, while it is publicly known as the 'Seventeen Cities Alliance,' those who understand the power dynamics in the southwest region know that the weaker cities within this alliance are simply cash cows.

In name only, the powerful "Upper Four Cities" would provide protection for other cities, ensuring that weaker cities like Cangxing City would not be invaded by external forces.

However, what is said and what is done are often not consistent and coordinated, and the oath of the Seventeen Cities Alliance is quite loose.

In practice, the four major cities are just short of using a leash to restrain the weaker cities. After all, the seventeen-city alliance in the southwest region is the largest force, and the protection contract has hardly ever been triggered.

Each of the four upper cities takes 5% of Cangxing City's annual resource output. So, one-fifth of the resources are taken by these guys for free.

Maintaining the normal operation of Cangxing City every year requires consuming 60% of its resource output, and the remaining resources are the reserves that Cangxing City uses for its own development.

This is because there are five dangerous areas around Cangxing City, and the resource output is relatively good compared to other cities, leaving a considerable profit.

Some cities were exploited by the four surrounding cities for years, resulting in extremely poor public security and living standards for the people. They were on the verge of famine.

Of course, the mayors and other decision-makers in those cities said that as long as they didn't alarm the four upper cities and it didn't affect their own resource collection, people starving to death was a minor issue, and their own resource acquisition was the most important thing.

In a world where there is a huge gap in individual strength, the strong naturally retain the right to oppress the weak. The Azure Star City under the old vampire's jurisdiction is relatively mild. In some more extreme areas, the city lord is like a god. The city lord's individual level is level 40, while the average level of the adventurers in the city is only level 10 or so. In this situation, there is no way to resist.

“Once the inspection team from the four upper cities arrives in Cangxing City, I can forget about living a peaceful life for the next few years. If my research is exposed, I might even lose my life here.”

The old vampire's main profession was a demonologist, a career transitioned from a historian. Demons were taboo in this world, and in the prevailing ideology of the society, nothing related to demons was to be touched.

Just as the old vampire was feeling anxious and worried, news from the Seventeen Cities Alliance reached him.

A crystal shattered, and a beam of light was projected from the magical communication device, informing the old vampire of the decision made by the Upper Four Cities.

The content of the decision made the old vampire gasp in shock.

"The inspection team has already set off for Cangxing City, but they are only accompanying personnel. The main investigator of this dangerous situation going out of control is actually a member of the [Chronology Research Association]?!"

The Upper Four Cities instructed the old vampire to prepare for the reception, since the investigators who came this time were of high caliber and not locals from the Southwest region.

The old vampire, who had been adventuring for many years, had heard of the infamous "Chronology Research Society," a unique force created by a group of mad mages who would stop at nothing to study magic related to time.

This organization doesn't have many members, at most a few hundred people, and many of them are just nominally there, rarely seen.

But no one dared to question the organization's influence, after all, these crazy mages were individually extremely powerful, and each member was a super-large war weapon.

Chapter 197 The Underworld Overlord is Activated at 4%

"A warm welcome to Mr. Appachach Dordal. I have arranged accommodations for you. Please feel free to ask me if you need anything..."

As dusk fell on the new day, the inspection team from the four upper cities arrived in Cangxing City. However, the inspection team, which the city lords and mayors of the various cities used to avoid, was now just an accompanying staff member.

They arrived in Cangxing City aboard a high-speed airship. The old vampire, who was the mayor, was extremely worried about the welcoming ceremony, fearing that he might have done something wrong and angered these old men.

"Stop with all that nonsense, head to the area with the time anomaly immediately."

The mad mage from the Time Sequence Research Society didn't have any other thoughts. Right now, he just wanted to appear at the place where time was abnormal as soon as possible. For someone like him, research was more important than anything else.

Moreover, there wasn't much in this barren western region that he found appealing.

As the most prominent figure in Cangxing City, whatever this mad mage said went, and the group arrived at the edge of the bamboo forest at an astonishing speed.

"That's right, that's right, the abnormal area detected by the monitoring tower is right here..."

Upon arriving at the Bamboo Sea, the mad mage immediately entered a state of madness, completely ignoring the inspection team and the old vampire around him. In fact, his journey to the Bamboo Sea was much more difficult than the group of people accompanying him had imagined.

The Time Sequence Research Society possesses a wonder that monitors the flow of time on this continent. Through this wonder, members of the Time Sequence Research Society can clearly understand the anomalous nature of time on this continent and conduct research on it.

There are several dangerous areas with abnormal time flow rates, which are the focus of the Time Series Research Association's research.

After the emergence of this new time anomaly zone, the bamboo forest, they also sent people to investigate.

After Bell's ultra-wide magic circle closed, the Time Sequence Research Society detected the anomaly here and quickly made a decision to investigate.

The mad mage in front of me set off at that time, taking a teleportation array from a developed city in the east, jumping back and forth through space several times, and then taking an airship, which took a long time to finally arrive at Cangxing City.

After all, it spans half a continent, so even if he moves at top speed, he can't get to the scene immediately.

"Very good. The time anomaly here is that the flow of time is accelerated. Specifically, it is estimated that eight hundred years will pass here in the next twenty years..."

The mad mage rummaged through his storage equipment and pulled out a whole bunch of devices to check the current time in the bamboo forest.