I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Even the emotion of despair is hypocritical.

A genuine counterfeit.

Flameheart took two steps back and slumped onto the gravel.

He suddenly burst into wild laughter, as if mocking this twisted world.

His laughter echoed through the ruins at night, and soon began to tremble.

"Hahahaha...haha...ha..."

Flameheart's voice trailed off, and the laughter abruptly stopped.

His expression was blank, numb, and rigid, like a puppet that had given up performing.

Halloween.

Cursing words came from his mouth.

The giant remained silent.

He glanced at Lu Ban, then at his companion.

The fear vanished from his eyes. Giant Arm pulled the energy bar Lu Ban had given him from his chest pocket, tore open the packaging, and took a bite.

"It really is delicious."

The giant chewed and spoke with a sigh.

"Could you please do me a favor?"

Now that things have come to this, even with fabricated memories and a false personality, the giant still wants to put up a little resistance.

"Could you please allow me to die in the form of a human being?"

He tossed the energy bar packaging aside and opened his arms.

Giant Arm's lips twitched, his lips parted as if to make a sound, but he tried to suppress it. He was in pain, and his mouth opened again. This time, he used all his strength, but Giant Arm could not stop the arrival of that instinctive end.

"Ten thousand……"

The pained expression suddenly shifted to numbness, blankness, and sluggishness. The moment the giant wrist lowered its mouth, Sia raised her hand.

bang——

The giant arm's head exploded, and its entire body went limp, its blood seeping into the silver sand, revealing a deep, eerie color.

In Lu Ban's eyes, who had learned the truth, and in the vision of the [True Vision], these three wasteland hunters had long since turned into hideous, ugly, and pitch-black insects.

The power exerted on them had completely vanished. At this moment, Giant Arm, Flame Heart, Old Dream, and the other team, including Iron Fist and Faceless, had completely disappeared from this world.

Only monsters that looked exactly like the other insects remained.

With a wave of her hand, Xia freed the other two as well. She bit her lower lip, seemingly unable to accept the situation.

"Are they people or insects?"

The young mage didn't know whether the Wasteland Hunters like Giant Arm, Flameheart, and Old Dream truly existed, or whether they were all just fabrications by the Queen of Insects.

Did a group of wilderness hunters really wander into this place many years ago, get killed by the Queen of Insects, and have their memories harvested?

Has this nameless city witnessed countless similar tragedies?

Although the queen has been killed and there may not be similar tragedies in the future, there have been hundreds or thousands of people who have suffered from the disaster in the past.

Moreover, these people's cognition has been completely rewritten, and they are unable to perceive all of this. So, has humanity itself also had its cognition rewritten by some more supreme being?

Even he himself, standing here, could hardly prove that he wasn't just a lump of flesh, but merely given false memories and a disguised body.

Sia felt her rationality ignite like burning wood. Her vision blurred, and her brain felt like it was being churned by a red-hot iron rod. The girl couldn't help but squat down to relieve the pain.

She could clearly see that an invisible finger seemed to be writing systematic characters across the irregular gravel on the ground.

You now know a maddening truth.

[Rationality - 2]

She was breathing heavily, her eyes bloodshot.

At this moment, Lu Ban suddenly placed his hand on Xi Ya's shoulder.

Sia turned to look at her companion.

Lu Ban's expression turned serious, indifferent, and lacking in liveliness.

His mouth opened and closed, uttering a word that instantly jolted Xia's spirits.

Halloween.

The young mage suddenly straightened up, the discomfort caused by her decreased rationality vanishing, replaced by extreme tension and a reflexive raising of her hand.

Just as the spell in his palm was about to take shape, Lu Ban suddenly grinned.

"Just kidding."

He grinned mischievously and patted Sia on the shoulder.

"Stop, don't attack! They're on our side. I was just pretending, I was just faking it!"

Lu Ban hurriedly stopped Xi Ya from throwing the Void Burst spell she had just cast at herself.

"How are you feeling now? Are you feeling a little better? Not so sad anymore?"

He also proudly inquired about Sia's condition.

"...Should I thank you?"

Xia raised an eyebrow.

"You're welcome, it's nothing."

Lu Ban replied.

Sia threw out the Void Burst spell from her hand.

An invisible ball of energy swept past Lu Ban's ear and flew into the distance, emitting a sharp, explosive sound.

"..."

Lu Ban felt that he might have just experienced the greatest life crisis since entering the Silent Land.

"The mission is complete, we can go back now."

She lowered her hand; she had never felt so powerless since using magic.

In the past, Sia believed that magic could solve all problems, and if it couldn't, it meant she hadn't learned enough magic.

But now she has discovered that some things really can't be solved with magic.

The shock to her understanding was far more exhausting for Sia than the madness she witnessed.

"...We can keep in touch like this in the Silent Land. If we encounter any missions that we can participate in together in the future, I will let you know."

Lu Ban briefly recounted what Trist had told him to Xia, when suddenly another inspiration struck him.

"You wouldn't happen to know a Chosen One named Du Danping, would you?"

"Who?"

Xia looked puzzled.

"No, it's nothing."

Lu Ban shook his head and then chose to return.

After he and Sia disappeared into the silver desert, everything fell silent.

Suddenly, an antenna emerged from the sand, and then a slightly smaller insect crawled out of the desert. It didn't mutter anything about Halloween; instead, it dragged its slightly swollen abdomen and struggled toward a corner of the city in the rising sun.

Just as dawn always comes.

Life always finds a way.

Chapter 193 The Second Essence

Congratulations on completing the task!

Settlement will now commence.

[Mission Exploration Progress: 80%]

[Task Completion Status: Amazing]

[The nameless city's tombs hold the remains of fallen gods, the memories of a civilization, and insects. You witnessed the city's ruin. When the world is destroyed and order collapses, is the concept of humanity merely empty talk? Between the non-human beings with human will and the humans who have lost their humanity, who is the true imposter?]

[Gained Silence Points: 11000]

[Reward Obtained: Item: Nameless City]

Settlement complete

Those who stick to the old ways and remain unchanged do not deserve success. Try new fields and respond to doubts with diverse creations. The door to a new world is opening for you.

[Choose to complete career development tasks and receive career rewards]

Welcome back to the Silent Land!

"Only a little over ten thousand points?"

Lu Ban never expected that even though he was almost going to sacrifice himself to the Queen of Insects, he only had 80% exploration progress.

In his view, even if the city's past history, the fate of the saint's remains in the coffin, and the origin of the queen insect were all within the scope of the mission's exploration, his completion rate should not be lower than 90%.

"Could it be... that only by having the Queen's offspring can you achieve a perfect victory? Is this the meaning of multiplayer missions?"

Lu Ban thought that if several Chosen Ones participated in the mission, he could let one of his friends try out the Queen of Insects; who knows, they might discover a new continent.

After thinking it over, he could only conclude that this was the case.

Perhaps once the queen is satisfied, she will freely give away the saint's remains and even reveal the true history of this nameless city.

This is also a kind of "the more you know, the more unhappy you become" situation.

Moreover, if Lu Ban chooses to do this, he might be able to obtain a skill related to the Queen Insect, such as mental disguise, light-speed reproduction, or imaginary thoughts.

"Pity."