The end of the world is approaching, I'm handing myself over to the country.

I've been waiting for a response but haven't received one.

The last trace of color drained from the forest's face, and the fear stemming from its primal instinct for survival was replaced by a deeper, more complete despair.

"Brother, why?"

"Why...why won't you help me...?"

"You... are right here..."

"Hmm..."

A meaningless syllable rolled out of her throat, her outstretched hand fell limply to her sides, and her whole body lost its support, slowly tilting forward.

The forest never understood, not even in its death.

Why would her most trusted and beloved older brother stand by and watch her die when she needed help the most?

The moment it fell, the forest's aged body rapidly weathered and disintegrated, turning into a cloud of black dust that filled the sky, leaving not a trace.

With her complete demise, the roaring, charging withered giants and countless smaller tree spirits on the battlefield suddenly froze.

The next second, a terrifying change occurred!

"Snap—Snap—!!"

The hard bark on those tree spirits burst open layer by layer, and what emerged from the cracks were no longer branches, but ferocious limbs covered with carapace, slippery and wriggling tentacles, and strange heads covered with compound eyes!

This is what they really look like!

These are not tree spirits at all, but a group of strange monsters that have transformed into plants!

"hiss--!!!"

"roar--!!!"

Without the unified constraint of the forest's consciousness, these monsters emitted various sharp and piercing screams, no longer attacking the players, but instead fleeing frantically in all directions, desperately heading deeper into the forest.

In an instant, the entire battlefield transformed into a torrent of fleeing monsters, and the scene became extremely chaotic.

However, amidst this chaos, an information panel popped up in front of all the players present at the same time.

Congratulations! You have successfully participated in the defeat of the King-level life form 'Forest'!

Settlement will be based on your overall contribution...

You have earned 7580 points!

A player who had just dodged a charge from a crab-like monster stared blankly at the panel in front of him.

"Holy crap! Seven thousand... seven thousand five hundred points?!"

He shouted with ecstasy.

"I'm rich! I'm struck gold!"

"Holy crap! I have 12,000! Is it because I withstood a giant's attack before? Hahaha! Worth dying for! So worth it!"

"I have six thousand too! Awesome!!"

The fear of surviving the ordeal was instantly dispelled by the ecstatic joy of this windfall.

The entire battlefield was filled with the excited screams of players.

Just then, a quick-thinking player suddenly turned his gaze to the spot where the forest clone had disappeared, and slapped his thigh in frustration.

"Damn it! Where's the corpse?! That was the corpse of a King-level BOSS!"

One sentence woke everyone up.

Yeah! King-level materials! How much are they worth? How many top-tier equipment could you exchange for them?!

Countless greedy eyes instantly focused on it, only to see a handful of black dust being blown away by the evening breeze and completely merging into the soil.

Not only did the human clones of the forest disappear, but also the enormous trees.

Not a single hair was left.

"Damn it, we've lost a fortune!"

Many people were devastated, feeling like they had missed out on a fortune.

......

The chaos on the battlefield is slowly subsiding.

Having lost the unified will of the "forest," the monsters that had mutated into monstrous forms were left only with the instinct to flee. They rushed madly into the depths of the dark forest and soon disappeared without a trace.

After experiencing the ecstasy of being struck by unexpected wealth, the players who survived the ordeal began to leave in twos and threes.

This lakeshore, ravaged by a king-level life form, was filthy and reeked of a nauseating stench; it was hardly a place to linger.

But there are always some people who refuse to give up.

"Look again! Be more careful!"

"A King-level BOSS! How could it be completely wiped out? I don't believe it!"

Dozens of players, each with their own light source, circled the murky lake, using their weapons to shovel through the mud and search every inch of suspicious land, trying to find even the slightest bit of valuable relic from this mess.

No one noticed that behind them, among the distorted shadows cast by the light, one patch of shadow suddenly began to wriggle and converge.

The darkness thickened, as if it had taken on a tangible form.

A blurry male silhouette emerged from the shadows of the trees, standing silently where the forest clone had finally vanished.

He has no physical form, only a shadow made of pure shadow, yet his gaze is incredibly real, filled with complex and incomprehensible emotions.

"younger sister......"

A low sigh, almost blending into the night wind, rang out.

"That lord said that in order to open the passage to Earth, there must be sacrifices."

"You know we can't just sit here and wait to die any longer."

"If those lunatics from Yuanzu Heaven really beat us to it, we really... won't have a chance to survive."

The outline of the shadow rippled slightly, as if it were suppressing something.

"But don't worry, little sister."

"Your beloved brother will live on in your place."

As soon as he finished speaking, the condensed shadow suddenly dispersed and merged back into the millions of ordinary tree shadows on the ground, without any further abnormality.

A cold wind blew by, stirring up a handful of the last black dust on the ground.

......

On the other side, a grocery store.

Under the warm light, Lin Mo was holding out his hand, carefully examining something.

It was a fist-sized object, its entire body a crystal-clear emerald green, with countless points of light seemingly flowing slowly inside, exuding a powerful and boundless life force.

It's like a gem formed from the purest life energy; just holding it in your hand, you can feel a warm current flowing down your arm and into your entire body.

"This is... a King-level life core?"

Lin Mo's breathing became softer.

The forest corpse did not actually weather away; Lin Mo had secretly and undetectedly recycled it, along with the massive tree trunk, into the system space through the system.

The life core before us is the entire essence extracted from that enormous corpse.

A sparrow appeared out of nowhere, landed on Lin Mo's shoulder, and peeked out.

[That's right, this is indeed a complete King-level core, of very high quality, containing extremely pure life essence.]

The sparrow's voice carried a hint of smugness.

Lin Mo chuckled, his joy almost overflowing.

With this King-level core, once the Weaver of Fate recovers her original form, wouldn't his general store be able to undergo another upgrade?