Surviving the Maze of National Destiny: Hints from the Chinese Characters I Understand

The sound grew closer, and Lin Mo held his breath.

Finally, at a distance of 20 meters from Lin Mo, the light became clear, and the giant worm revealed its true form.

It was a green worm that was 2 meters long and about the diameter of a bucket. It looked very similar to the worms we ate in the north in my previous life.

The only difference is that in the north, insects are eaten by people, while here, people are eaten by insects.

It was indeed very slow, taking more than a minute to go from 50 meters to 20 meters. What am I afraid of? Besides, there was a row of prompts and a red health bar above its head.

[The giant worm that was woken up: It's a bit grumpy when it wakes up, not very fast, but it has a big temper. It has locked onto you. It will spit out silk to entangle its enemies, with a maximum range of 5 meters. The silk isn't too tough, but be careful. Once it accumulates and wraps you up, it will be very difficult to escape. Then you will be torn apart bit by bit by its thousands of sharp little teeth.]

"Hiss..."

The giant worm bared its teeth at Lin Mo from 15 meters away, and the thousands of tiny broken teeth in its mouth made Lin Mo's sanity drop drastically.

These teeth are somewhat like those of a catfish; they aren't long, but they are dense and sharp.

If you get bitten by this, it might hurt a bit.

With a distance of 15 meters, and only 5 meters away from stepping into the animal trap, Lin Mo's excitement grew, and the viewers in the live stream were also holding their breath.

[Chinese netizens: Holy crap, Brother Lin is really planning to kill this bug.]

[A netizen from the Free Nation: What bad luck! Why is it only a level 1 bug?]

[Chinese netizens: It's a sure thing, Brother Lin has a steel knife in hand, this worm should be taken down.]

[A netizen from India: Don't be too happy yet. At the beginning of the game, didn't a player from South Korea underestimate this worm and get made into a meat roll, hung up, and eaten piece by piece?]

[Netizen from the Coldest Country: What's it to you?]

[Chinese netizen: This Indian netizen, you really know how to bring up a sore spot. Be careful they don't register your cow dung as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, then what will you eat when you get sick?]

[Chinese netizens: I'm dying of laughter, 23333! He insulted both sides, his fighting power is quite formidable, bro.]

[A netizen from India: Foolish Chinese, cows are our gods, and their dung is treasure; you just don't know how to appreciate it.]

[Chinese netizens: Thank you, we won't eat it.]

[A netizen from the Great Cold Country: I'll apply for it! We only apply for World Heritage status because we have solid evidence. What's cow dung? We don't care.]

[Chinese netizens: Holy crap, Indian netizens, he's messing with you! He's messing with you!]

[A netizen from India: Korean, who the hell are you cursing? Say it again!]

[Chinese netizens: Stop arguing, it's been stepped on, it's been stepped on, the bug stepped on a bear trap.]

"Squeak squeak squeak..." From Lin Mo's perspective, the giant worm's body was caught in a trap, and its iron teeth pierced through its body, causing green juice to gush out and splatter all over the ground.

The bear trap was fixed to the ground, making it difficult for level 1 creatures to escape. Lin Mo saw the giant worm's health bar decreasing at a considerable rate: 95%...94%...93%.

Five meters away is a safe distance, and Lin Mo plans to provoke the insect to hasten its death.

He gripped a knife in one hand and picked up a rock from the ground with the other, then hurled it wildly from a distance of 5 meters.

Even with poor aim, you'll hit the target eight or nine times out of ten at this distance, and there's no shortage of rocks in the mine.

"Pfft pfft pfft..."

The stones kept hitting the giant worm, and its health bar was like it had diarrhea, flowing out uncontrollably.

The giant worm hissed and spat silk at Lin Mo, hating the human before it: "Tui! Tui! Tui!"

The silk is translucent, similar to the fishing line used by anglers. It is liquid in the insect's mouth, but it solidifies into silk when it comes into contact with air.

Unfortunately, the despicable, terrifying upright ape had already calculated the distance, and the silk threads landed several tens of centimeters in front of Lin Mo, with not a single one able to touch him.

"Huh?" This silk is light and has good toughness. It's a good tool, isn't it?

Lin Mo planned to collect some insect silk after killing the insects, as he would inevitably need it later.

50%! 30%!

The violent struggle caused the wound to ooze green fluid even faster, the impact of the stone aggravated the injury, and with the giant worm still frantically spitting out its venom, it quickly became still under the combined negative effects.

"You disappeared! You still have 10% health left, and you're still playing dead?" Lin Mo wasn't going to fall for it. Although if he went up with his steel knife at this moment, he would have a 99% chance of finishing off the opponent with one strike.

No way! What's the difference between that and going to my death?

Keep smashing!!! Lin Mo remained as steady as an old dog, continuing to pick up stones.

"Squeak squeak squeak!" The giant worm was truly enraged and could no longer pretend.

Amidst the unwilling roars, a game system notification sounded.

[Congratulations on killing the Level 1 Giant Worm. You have obtained a small amount of Life Essence and one Beast Core. (Consuming a Beast Core can increase the proficiency of a specific skill. Use it?)]

"Use it!" Why keep it for the New Year? I only have one skill right now, so I'll upgrade it if I can.

[Successfully used the beast core, your swordsmanship has increased to LV2 (51%).]

A surge of knowledge about the use of a knife entered Lin Mo's mind, as if it were insights he had gained through cultivation, without the slightest sense of incongruity.

Holy crap, using beast cores levels up so fast! Looks like I'll have to keep an eye on this in the future.

Lin Mo casually swung the steel knife in the air a couple of times and clearly felt a difference.

It can even perform a beautiful knife flourish in the air.

Killing the worm also raised his health level to LV1 (22%).

Killing the giant worm grants 20%, starting with 1% at the beginning of the game, and then another 1% is added for the time spent here, totaling 22%, which makes sense.

The infusion of life essence sent a chill down Lin Mo's spine: "Awesome!"

This feeling... is hard to describe, it's like my physical fitness has improved in every aspect.

My strength has increased a little, and I feel sharper and more alert, and my whole body feels comfortable.

It seems that even though the life essence hasn't yet allowed me to reach level 2, it has improved my body. I'm noticeably stronger than before, though not by much.

"Extract the insect silk." Lin Mo continued cleaning up the battlefield.

You have received 5 rolls of insect silk, which have been stored in your personal space.

Looking around, there were no other clues, so it was time to go into the basement.

However, after seeing that his health level was only 82%, Lin Mo decided to rest for ten minutes.

The system message indicated that the loss of health was due to fatigue accumulated from mining and throwing stones, as well as mild hunger and thirst.

Let's not eat the potatoes for now. What if one potato isn't enough to sway the monster below? I'll just have to bear with it, drink some water, and rest a bit. I should be fine.

Lin Mo put away the merit animal trap, took out 50 ml of water, and drank it directly.

Amazingly, water can be drawn from the space without a container; the 50 milliliters of water can float in the air according to one's commands, and can be drunk directly.

Finding a dry spot, Lin Mo lay down for a short rest.

[Hydration has been replenished, and health is slowly recovering.]

You have had a rest, and your health is slowly recovering.

Lin Mo's consistent performance drew enthusiastic applause from the live stream audience.

[Chinese netizens: I'm so upset, he was just too reliable.]

[A Chinese netizen commented: "I have a steel knife but I don't use it. I'm just going to be patient and slowly wear you down."]

[A Chinese netizen commented: "No rush, take a break and drink some water before moving on to the next area. Is this really his first time surviving in a maze? He seems like a pro who's at least on the 20th floor."]

[A netizen from China commented: Having obtained both the beast core and life essence, Brother Lin's life level should have increased slightly. Although it's not enough to raise his level, the improvement in his physical attributes is obvious.]

[A netizen from the Rising Sun Kingdom commented: "Can you stop bragging? Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd reached the 100th floor of a maze. He went through a series of incredible maneuvers, only to find he'd only reached the first floor."]

[A netizen from China: Don't panic... Let things play out for a while. I'm not going anywhere today, I'm just waiting for Brother Lin.]

[A netizen from China: Me too! I'm so curious! What will Brother Lin encounter on the next level? My breakfast tomorrow depends on Brother Lin.]

After a short rest, Lin Mo checked his health level: 91%.

There's no way to continue recovery. It's probably because the body's fatigue can't be completely recovered from with such a short rest, and also because there's been no food intake.

Looking towards the entrance to the basement, Lin Mo took out a potato, picked up a steel knife, and walked straight in.