Prisoner of the Swarm

It took a full ten days to completely leave the Wasteland.

Under normal circumstances the distance shouldn't have taken more than a few days, but those damn randomly popping events kept blocking my path at every turn. Part of the delay also came from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a revenge event where the families of those rat bastards I'd killed earlier ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ambushed me all at once.

Eleven of those little rat bastards hitting me in a coordinated assault nearly killed me for real. Without Auto-Battle, I would have been dead. No, wait — if it hadn't been for that eok-kka where the absolute worst battle outcome triggered during Auto-Battle, it still would have been over quick!

Seeing that the guaranteed event for leaving the tutorial zone was still intact, I stepped out of the Wasteland and into a lush green forest.

For something so close to the Wasteland, the forest brimmed with spiritual energy and vitality — but it was also unnervingly quiet. As I entered, I opened the minimap. The terrain scouting had reset with the region change, so the map was blacked out all over again. I checked the percentage and let out a small breath of relief. At least it didn't look like another stupidly enormous map like the Wasteland.

"Oh, come on — why?!"

I'd just gotten the guaranteed event and another one was already firing? Was this another mod problem too? Before I could even finish complaining, I felt something black and shadowy drop from the trees and come straight at me. I hauled up my spiritual energy.

The alert window announcing a named monster's appearance blocked my vision a beat too late. Murderous intent closed in from every direction like a flash of light, and I spiked the spiritual energy I'd drawn up outward in every direction like a porcupine, detonating it against the killing intent that came crashing in.

At the same moment a dark-red winged ant revealed itself, its foreleg sheared one of my arms clean off — and was immediately skewered through by the crimson spikes of spiritual energy.

"Kiriiririk!!!"

"You're dead! Auto-Battle!"

And of course, the drop from killing a named monster wasn't even equipment — just a rare consumable.

If save/load had been available, I would have saved and reloaded until I got a lucky good result. But thanks to this godawful reality patch, all I could do every time was pray to RNG. Auto-Battle was a mode where win rates were decided by total stat differences — which meant that just as you could luck-snipe a win against an overwhelmingly stronger opponent, you could also get utterly crushed by something weaker than you!

"I really hate that it came up as a close call."

Maybe because I'd lost an arm in the opening ambush, the aftermath of that close-call battle left my body and clothes in tatters. I poured spiritual energy into roughly patching myself up — then suddenly felt one corner of my vision go violently red. I frowned and checked.

On one side of the minimap, countless red dots marking hostile NPCs were rising into view, slowly assembling a encirclement and closing in on me.

"Scout ants… an ant swarm…?"

The moment I recalled that named monster's nickname, the conclusion jumped out at me. I spat a curse under my breath and hauled up crimson spiritual energy without restraint. Instead of restoring the empty arm, I temporarily shaped a dark-red arm of pure spiritual energy — and at the same time:

"There's too many of them?!"

A wave of black ants the size of grown men blanketed every direction in an instant. I charged straight into them to break free.

Unlike the named one that had taken my arm in a single hit, the regular ants were definitely strong — but they couldn't land a proper blow on someone tempered by slaughter energy. The problem was the name stamped on every one of them in my vision: Scout Ant.

Dozens of them at minimum, and they were only part of a scout force. The second I confirmed that, I slaughtered every last scout ant and tried to flee straight back to the Wasteland without a second thought —

The minimap showed nothing, which had me confused — until I spread my spiritual energy and finally picked up the faint killing intent locked onto me.

"…Hah."

At the boundary between the Wasteland and the forest, I blankly lifted my head. Three winged ants were staring down at me from the sky — how long had they even been there?

My only ranged option was chucking spiritual energy, and at a mere Qi Condensation Mid Stage, freely flying through the sky was a tall order. There was no clean way to deal with them.

"Auto-Battle."

"Tch. So that doesn't work either."

Figuring out that the reality-patched Auto-Battle mode required the enemy to be displayed on the minimap was useful — but it didn't change the fact that I was stuck fighting an ant swarm with no region exit. And if I just brawled the swarm right here on the Wasteland–forest border, and Auto-Battle spat out something like Dramatic Defeat! or Pathetic Defeat, I could die with no answer on a field that wasn't even a dungeon.

"…What the hell do I do."

"…Ptooey!"

Two of the winged ants got caught in a bolt from a clear blue sky and came crashing down — and I, of course, spat dry spit from a mouth full of the scorched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reek of that goddamn event that had popped up like a slap to get my head straight. I forced my tingling body to move and started running wildly deeper into the forest.

A dungeon. I had to get into a dungeon. The anthill these things were pouring out of was definitely a dungeon — and if I died in there, I'd naturally respawn, I could still grow, and I could still loot items!

"Stop blocking me and get the hell out of the waaaaay!!!"

Without using Auto-Battle, I just crudely wrapped my body in crimson spiritual energy and smashed head-on through the ants charging at me, tearing them apart as I pushed forward — and forward again. Skin split under their counterattacks, flesh was ripped away, muscle was carved open, and I didn't care. As long as I died inside a dungeon, I could respawn at the entrance as many times as I wanted — and with my spiritual energy, I couldn't properly block their attacks anyway!

Along with the event message, something completely different from the sleek-looking scout ants appeared among the hard, oversized worker ants — a worker ant more than twice their size, its sheen gleaming with a terrifying polish. It planted itself squarely in my path as I mindlessly smashed through ants toward the dungeon.

A named monster with the Legendary prefix — a 0.02% chance tag. On an item, that prefix bumped the grade up one tier and dropped the level requirement one tier, a subtle little effect. On a named monster, of course, it raised the monster's grade one tier and raised the drop grade one tier too — while the experience stayed the same. A garbage prefix, basically, since the drop's level requirement went up right along with it.

"Shit?!"

While I was briefly zoning out, the massive worker ant Trena slowly shifted its body, blasted the smaller nearby workers aside, and charged straight at me. Surrounded by ants on every side with nowhere to run, I flinched hard and reflexively hauled spiritual energy into both hands, swinging at the charging ant.

"Kiiiieeek!"

Even under an attack of massed crimson spiritual energy, the named worker ant Trena didn't stiffen for even a second. It didn't slow down at all. It just slammed into me head-on.

A brief floating sensation like getting hit by a car, and a wave of pain I forced myself to chew through and swallow. I hauled my body up by sheer will, killed the ants rushing me, and instead of absorbing the slaughter energy into my spiritual core as experience, burned it straight into restoring my body — barely managing to keep my wits.

"Minimap!"

I called out to the minimap in the corner of my vision and poured spiritual energy into it, expanding it to pin down the dungeon's location. Confirming the named monster worker ant Trena planted right in front of the dungeon, I clenched my teeth.

My remaining spiritual energy was pitifully low.

The red dots marking monsters on the minimap were still multiplying even now. With almost no real defenses to speak of, I was patching myself up by burning slaughter energy — which was basically experience — into health regeneration. If I kept fighting monsters of this caliber and the consumption of slaughter energy outpaced what I was gaining, I was going to die on the spot. I knew that.

"….Auto-Battle."

I had no choice but to roll the dice.

Forty-three ants identified on the minimap plus the named monster — the total stats Auto-Battle displayed already made the gap feel overwhelmingly hopeless. I blacked out on the spot.

Yeah, well. I figured I'd lose!

Normally, becoming a prisoner meant the horrific result of losing half the items ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in your inventory plus every last coin you were carrying — but right now, aside from my equipment, all I had were consumables of rare grade or lower! And even the equipment I wouldn't lose was basically nothing: one normal-grade exp-boost accessory, and an event-item carapace that couldn't be lost. That was it.

I came to in what was clearly a food chamber of an ant burrow, spotted the dungeon marker on the minimap, and let out a breath of relief. In here, I could die and still respawn. Getting taken prisoner was actually lucky.

I vaguely remembered the odds of being taken prisoner versus being murdered by a hostile NPC on the field were roughly fifty-fifty — probably another related mod I'd installed ages ago.

"Still… it's not certain, so I'm uneasy…"

I'd lost twice so far and been taken prisoner both times, but the sample size was way too small. If I could just figure out which mods were actually applying to me, I'd feel a little better.

Maybe because it was a food chamber, there were quite a few gray dots on the minimap marked as neutral. Looking closer, there were a fair number of NPCs who'd been dragged in by the ants just like me.

"…Help… me…"

One of them was twitching with half their body already gone. I strangled them bare-handed, took the slaughter energy, and forced my wrecked body to recover bit by bit. Once I could move somewhat, I went through every other neutral NPC visible on the minimap in the chamber and snuffed them out one by one. Only when the spiritual energy I'd harvested filled my body to the brim did I finally smile.

"Ah. I'm gonna live."