Strategy game? Then I'll have to control you properly.

Attila bit his lip and gripped the rope tightly. "Hang in there, everyone. The sun has already set, but we can't camp out in the open tonight."

"Chieftain, although we've shaken off our pursuers, we don't even know where we are," a tribesman said, clearly uneasy.

Attila tried to comfort him, saying, "It's just an ordinary grassland."

Attila fully understood the fear of his people; they had just left their homeland for a strange place and were about to face the night before they could even build a decent house.

Beasts, monsters, rival tribes that want to capture them as slaves... for them, who have been reduced to the weak, everything is something to be wary of.

Moreover, the instinctive fear brought by the darkness was descending from all directions.

The grassland, which was peaceful and serene during the day, now appeared eerily shadowy under the bright moonlight.

"Father, please rest. You've worked too hard today."

Just then, someone approached with a worried expression; it was his proud daughter, Lillie.

"Lillie, you're the one who's been working the hardest." Attila shook his head. "Ever since Warrior Chief Kazan died, you've been the tribe's only warrior. From now on... your burden will be very heavy."

Attila looked at his daughter's face, and thinking of the heavy burden on her shoulders, the smile that had just appeared vanished in an instant.

The title of warrior they spoke of was not something that could be earned simply by being skilled at wielding weapons.

Those are true powerhouses who can wield blessings and special abilities called magic, and refine them to the point where they can contend with enemies beyond human comprehension.

People call such beings warriors.

Now, the only warrior remaining in his tribe is his only daughter, Lillie. As the chieftain and father, Attila is tormented by this.

"I'm fine."

Lillie sensed her father's thoughts and gently shook her head. Although she was also suffering, if she showed weakness here, the tribe that was barely holding on would fall apart.

"Please don't worry too much, clan leader. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any monsters around here."

"We can handle even weak monsters."

Attila was comforted by his people. They all understood everything he had done for the tribe, and they were even more aware of the immense trauma he had endured when he finally chose to leave his homeland.

"You're right, now we can only pray that this place is safe." Attila forced himself to remain calm in front of his people.

Looking around, this unknown borderland was the end of their arduous journey.

It is truly perplexing that such a livable and fertile place has remained unclaimed and idle to this day.

However, at that very moment...

Attila felt his body float up without warning.

"what?"

"Ah, Father!"

In Attila's terrified eyes, he saw Lillie, whose eyes were also wide open, reaching out her hand to him.

Attila screamed but failed to grab Lillie's hand.

An extremely powerful force grabbed Attila by the back of the neck and pulled him into the sky, his body being dragged across the void without any resistance.

"What on earth is going on?!"

In a dizzying, disorienting state where even opening his eyes was difficult, Attila could only give up on controlling his body and desperately try to stay conscious.

With his eyes tightly closed, he suddenly collapsed onto the soft grass with a thud.

Contrary to the powerful force that dragged him along, the landing was unusually gentle.

Attila let out a short groan and then hurriedly got up from the ground.

Torches were rapidly approaching from a distance, and the flickering lights further behind were clearly the campfires they had lit earlier.

"How is that possible..."

Attila, who was looking around in a panic, was trembling with shock. In just a few seconds, he had flown such a long distance in one breath.

"Father!"

"I'm fine, let's get back to camp quickly."

Attila, who was hurrying along, soon encountered Lillie, who was running towards him in a panic, carrying a torch.

Although Attila verbally reassured his frightened daughter that he was alright, he himself was equally unsettled at that moment.

That strange phenomenon, whose exact nature was unknown, appeared and disappeared like the wind.

◆◆◆

"Hmm... so I can control it."

Seeing their horrified expressions—especially Lillie's, who witnessed her father being dragged into the air—Lin Miao deeply understood the impact her accidental click had on them.

Fortunately, Attila was neither killed nor injured when he fell from mid-air, indicating that the system has safety measures in place for such accidental touches.

"Why was this feature designed in the first place?"

Lin Miao couldn't help but complain aloud, and only then did she begin to try operating other parts of the computer.

Although people of unknown origin occupied the desktop and a strange program called "system" appeared, making the computer act strangely, other functions could still be used normally.

Browsers, chat software, and computer programs all functioned normally.

Moreover, these operations do not seem to interfere with the lives of the desktop world residents.

As long as Lin Miao doesn't directly move the mouse to interfere, Attila, Lillie, and the other residents can continue doing what they were doing.

"How could such a thing happen..."

Lin Miao searched online for keywords such as "system" and "humans appearing on desktop," and then turned off the screen shortly afterward.

After all, if this bizarre phenomenon, which even he couldn't distinguish between dream and reality, happened to other people, the world would have been in chaos long ago.

In other words, the purpose and reasons for this phenomenon can only be explored by ourselves.

While observing those little people is indeed more interesting than imagined, surely it's not worth creating such a supernatural event just to play tricks on the desktop inhabitants with the mouse.

[Level 1 fault detected]

"What?"

Just as Lin Miao was beginning to have doubts, the system suddenly started up as if it had been waiting for a long time, notifying him of some kind of anomaly on his desktop.

"What is that?"

It's actually quite easy to spot that in the dimly lit desktop world that matches the current time period, something with a red glow at the edges is wriggling and approaching the residents.

It looks like a caterpillar crawling on the ground, but its entire body is covered with a jet-black shell, and multiple sharp-tipped tentacles extend from its back. It looks like it's not a good thing.

[Fault Item LV1]

[Probability of evolving into an invading entity: 15%]

When Lin Miao accidentally dragged the mouse, the monster's information suddenly appeared.

Seeing this monster, Lin Miao could roughly guess what caused the error; the system was definitely the culprit.

[Faulty Entity: A monster that has not yet evolved into an Invader. If it is not hunted or fed in time, it will evolve into an Invader.]

Right-clicking did not bring up a zoomed-in view; instead, more detailed information appeared.

To be honest, even after reading the description, I still don't understand what it is. In short, its appearance and the way it inexplicably approached the residents made me uneasy. Lin Miao tried to grab it by left-clicking.

"No response?"

But the left mouse button had no effect on the monster. In a panic, Lin Miao tried all the mouse operations, but the malfunctioning creature continued to wriggle its body, its spear-like tentacles aimed at the sleeping residents, and rampaged across the grassland.

"Oh no."

Lin Miao, her nerves on edge, bit her lip and anxiously searched for the residents.

Lin Miao didn't know why she was so flustered. She had only known this group of people for less than two hours, so why was she so concerned about them?

Upon closer reflection, they are nothing more than strangers who have appeared on my computer desktop without my permission.

Is it merely out of human empathy? Or out of curiosity or interest in mysterious phenomena? Certainly not.

Looking back, I realized that I had developed a strong interest in them from the moment I accidentally became aware of their existence.

Lin Miao realized that scrolling the mouse wheel could zoom in and out, so she zoomed in on the residential area crowded with tents and found several people who were awake, as if they were on guard duty.

Lillie, who was dozing off, was one of them.

In order to wake her up and warn them, Lin Miao left-clicked on Lillie and lifted her into the air.

"——"

Of course, she was so frightened that her eyes widened.

Hanging in mid-air, held by Lin Miao's mouse pointer, she panicked and kicked wildly, struggling desperately like a drowning person.

Although this appearance is both comical and cute, there's no time to appreciate it now.

Lin Miao quickly moved her to the intersection where the malfunctioning vehicle was crawling towards and put her down.

As soon as she landed, Lillie hurriedly drew a weapon resembling a hornbow and pointed it at the sky, but when she saw the malfunctioning machine approaching her, she trembled with fear.

The reason for choosing her is that, although she appears weak, she is the only person in the tribe with the [Martial Arts] trait.

The tribal chief's daughter, Lillie, identifies the malfunctioning entity as an enemy.

She was furious!

As the system notification identified the monster, she steadily aimed the bow and arrow, which had been pointing at the sky, at the malfunctioning object.

Lillie's rage was palpable even without words; her eyes widened in a ferocious rage, and the arrow she fired with gritted teeth pierced the malfunctioning body with a "thud."

The faulty component has been damaged.

The damage numbers flashed across the void, and the malfunction suddenly convulsed, its countless black tentacles flailing wildly, like a silent roar from an enraged beast.

The next moment, it suddenly accelerated, rushing towards Lillie with a fierce wind that tore through the air.

Arrows flew from behind, but were fiercely lashed away by its waving tentacles, shattering into pieces in mid-air.

Lillie's eyes narrowed, and she stopped dodging, drawing her sword from her waist.

With a sudden stomp of her foot, she created a shallow crater in the hard ground. Her astonishing explosive power propelled her forward more than ten steps, charging head-on towards the wildly flailing tentacles.

His movements were swift and agile, each action so precise it seemed less like real combat and more like a meticulously choreographed action movie—the sword flashed, and several tentacles that had attacked him were severed in response, with blackish-purple fluid splattering everywhere.

Without pausing, she leaped into the air, her sword aimed directly at the malfunctioning body's indistinct head, and slashed down with all her might.

With a single sword strike, the hard outer armor and the bizarre flesh split apart, the malfunctioning device was cleaved in two from head to toe, and its massive body crashed to the ground.

But at the very moment of the slash, the severed tentacle, still carrying momentum, struck Lillie hard in the abdomen.

The next moment, Lillie was slammed to the ground, dust flying everywhere.

But as she slowly stood up, supporting herself with her sword, she saw that the malfunctioning body, which had been split in two, had completely stopped wriggling and was no longer alive.