“What?!! You lost it?!!” Xiao Qing asked me with mouth wide open with disbelief, her brows locked tight. She looked even more annoyed with me than before now.

“…… Yes… I can’t find it on me anywhere!”

I started to rummage into my pouch to see whether I'd accidentally put it in there and forgot.

XQ: “Seriously? You’re in a Dungeon, you cannot store mana and you lost your weapon??! Are you just plain stupid or what? I’m not sarcastic, I’m just saying things as it is!”

However much I hate to admit, I can’t help but know deep down, I’m screwed. I’m in deep **** and I’m probably never going to make it alive in here. I’m ready to cry, except deep down I know crying doesn’t help.

“I think I must have lost it in the forest just now~~”

XQ: “Now what? The headquarters of this dungeon are way over there, opposite the jungle! This is the only clearing with no trees! Boss, you owe me big! How am I supposed to bring you over there?”

Think, think, think… No matter how hard I think, I cannot find a better solution.

“I am going to find my weapon first. I’m going back…”

XQ: “You can’t go back…! There’s no way you can make it fast enough without those infected worms catch you! What’s more, there will be more of them!”

“…… I know that… But I can’t stay here and do nothing… That’s my weapon, I’m going to find it…”

I started to keep my things back into the pouch, close it tightly and put it on my back.

XQ: “No plan? Just go down and wing it?”

“I’ll be careful. The first time it happened, it took me by surprise. It won’t happen again…”

I started to climb down towards the floor. I can hear the voice of XQ saying things to try to make me change my mind, but I did not look back. It’s do or die from now on!

I saw that there are no worms nearby, thus I carefully walk down the path I came from, trying to recall the way back to the ambush happened.

Whenever I see a worm from afar, I’ll try to circle around it to prevent the parasite from detecting me. I noticed that the worms do not like places with strong sunlight.

Strangely enough, I could not find the knife I dropped.

Suddenly I heard a large “thud” from the right and I saw a large silvery white worm had fallen onto the forest ground not far from me.

Did it fall from the tree by accident? Or could it be a trap?

Out of instinct from fear of possible danger, I quickly ran behind some bushes to keep myself hidden. I kept an eye around me, especially on the fallen worm.

I saw it struggle for a moment and went onto its feet. As if unaffected by the fall, it tried to crawl back its way back to the tree. Observing it for about half a minute now, here are no weird movements whatsoever.

The worm is already halfway up the tree. I saw that it has begun to make progress. Then I saw something that make me watch in disbelief.

The worms that are in the trees look very agitated by the arrival of the one that is climbing up… They watched it finally about to reach the lowest branch, then a few of them went to it and started flailing their heads and start to strike the poor thing that had just climbed its way up, trying to knock it off…

I think I understand how scared they are off the dangers of it bringing the parasites up to them… However, watching this poor thing being forced off its home make my blood run cold and boil at the same time. I never thought I’ll see the day of worms acting like humans in an apocalypse, thinking about themselves.

I start to think for a moment about all those days back I’ve been bullied or turned down in one way or other in my own life. Humans also cannot easily accept those who are different than them. They like to choose friends by judging on their family background, their financial background, their looks, their performance in academics, their charisma, their social updates, etc.

Then, there are those who are poor in one or more of those areas. They are not really at fault for most of it… But then when their bad points are slightly more obvious than their good, they get neglected or turned down. Sometimes, all they need is a helping hand in times of need, a listening ear or a smile to show that they’re cared, but how many of those can we find?

I don’t say I hate the people who had intentionally or unintentionally hurt me before that much anymore. I can only try not to think about them. The world is like a jungle, survival of the fittest after all. However, I am somewhat disappointed at myself for not being as capable as others. I’m just an average person, a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. The things I love, I’m not the best. Things that I don’t care seemed to important to others and they can do those well and get a lot of friends. There are a lot of things that I cannot do, understand or do well yet. Sometime I’m just like a worm… No, I’m worse than that… I’m a lazy bum who doesn’t care about anything...

I see the worm that got me all empathetic about trying to withstand all the attacks. I am now almost in tears. Then, the final strike forced the worm to topple off the branch again.

I can’t let it fall again, not this time… I rushed out of the bushes and ran as fast as I could towards it. I saw it falling in a straight path halfway back onto the forest floor.

And in the nick of time, I reached the spot below it just in time to catch it in my arms. It was quite an impact since the worm is as tall as I am and I felt a tug onto my open arms that drove me onto my knees.

I felt the softness and coolness of the skin of the creature. To my surprise, the creature is not as heavy as I imagined. I remember the ones that I’ve pulled off my body and I must say I don’t really dislike touching them if they are not attacking me. I quickly looked at the silvery-white bolster like creature.

The silkworm turned back its head and looked back at me. Then I heard a voice speak directly into my head!

[Who are you? …… Why did you catch me?]

I don’t know whether I’ve misheard or I’m hallucinating. I looked at the creature in disbelief.

A few moments later, I replied, “Hi… I don’t know who I am… I can’t let you fall onto the ground a second time.”

A moment of silence… No response… I must be really tired, my brain is playing tricks on me…

Then it spoke again.

[Thank you. But I’ll be fine. Put me down. I need to climb up again, back to my family.]

I looked at it with disbelief… It was the silkworm speaking.

“You don’t know that they are afraid of you bringing up the parasite? Those on the ground that I’ve met have all been infected and acted violently.”

[I know. That’s why I need to go back up there quickly. I need to show them I’m nothing like those violent ones.]

“Not yet, but you may start to act like that soon. I don’t know how the parasites spread, but I think that those who have fallen are doomed.”

[Then let them judge for themselves. I’m nothing like those who are infected. I’ll climb up as many times as I need until they accept me.]

I was shocked, I should say that I’m amazed by the attitude the silkworm in my arms showed. I was almost moved to tears… …… Fine I shed tears alright… I can’t believe a worm is so much stronger than I am.

[Is it raining? I really should get back up there soon.]

“Nope… hahaha… I’m proud of you. I’ll put you back onto the tree. All the best to you!”

I started to walk across, then I suddenly felt the slight movement around me…

Oh no… Not again… I’m surrounded by the infected worms again… This time, there are more of them than the last time.

What do I do? I’m going to die for sure this time.

Then I saw the silkworm in my arms. Obviously it was really scared too, it started to struggle to try to get away.

There’s no way it can reach the tree on its own. I’ll have to save it.

“I’m going to run. When we reach the tree, climb as fast as you can up the tree, understand?”

The silkworm seemed to understand and stopped flailing. A moment of silence… Then the race with death began.

I jolted towards the tree as fast as I could, holding tight the worm I’m saving. I saw an infected worm blocking my path and rushing towards me…

Oh boy… Please work…

I was just about to jump when I’m about to clash with the worm… The worm seemed to have reared its body up… I don’t think I can jump above it…

At that instant, I decide to duck to the right instead…

Clear! I ran past the worm which had made a noise as its body slapped onto the ground in front of it.

I took a run towards the tree with at least 7 worms chasing behind me… Luckily they are about 20 steps behind from where I am now…

At the foot of the tree, I changed the silkworm in my arms to face the tree, holding slightly below the head. Quickly, I bent my knees ready to jump.

“Hold on!” I told the worm.

Then I jumped as high as I could. At the submit of the jump I place the silkworm onto the tree trunk. When I let go and landed, the silkworm was holding onto the tree trunk.

“Yes!”

I quickly turned around and saw the infected beasts approaching me fast. I decided to run left of the tree I’m facing… I ran as fast as I could.

I ran for a long while and then decided to look back to see if there are any chasing worms. Luckily they soon gave up and started to slow down… Apparently they cannot go full speed for a long time.

This is the last time I want to be chased by worms that can run almost as fast as I can.

I looked out for any more worms that might be surrounding me… And there were none, yeah!

I looked on the tree trunk and saw the silkworm on the tree trunk making progress…

I could have shouted for joy that the mission was accomplished… I decided to look for my lost knife next.

Looking around for the spot where I fell was difficult… I didn’t think that it will be that easy to find, but my patience is running low and my anxiety is building…

Then I saw XQ not far from where I was standing, waving towards me… She must have followed me… She’s not near any infected worms, good…

I waved back and smiled. I can survive here no problem…

And then, I looked back towards the tree where the silkworm I saved was…

It has already reached the lowest branch… But here comes the hard part… The other family members are merciless against him… around 3 heads could be see taking turn slapping on him…

Then it happened. I see the poor silkworm lose its footing up to the 4th pair of legs… Any more and it will fall…

I looked downwards and my jaw dropped as fear tapped on me like a mean neighbor. Oh my God, the infected worms are near the tree!! There’s no way he’ll fall and not be infected by them!

I looked towards XQ who saw what I was looking and her face turned pale as she realized what I was about to do… And she was right! I’m going back to save it!

XQ: “NO~~!!! You’ll die too!”

“… I’m sorry!”

I turned and I ran, ignoring the pleas of XQ, just in time to see the silkworm withstand the last few strikes… Then, I saw it free-fall towards certain death.

The infected worms sensed my presence approaching and turned their heads towards my direction… Then, they started running towards me like hungry wolves…

I closed my eyes to eliminate my sight of these vicious creatures which were my worst fear since I came here…

Oh God… I think this is it huh… There’s no way I can save it… But at least I can die trying…

At least this time, I will face my fears and save myself, somehow I believed.

For the first time in a long time, I prayed out loud, "God, help me!"

Suddenly I feel the ground around me shake violently. I slightly opened my eyes and the next thing I saw was a cloud of earth and dust came flying into my face, making me close my eyes. This made me hold a hand to cover my eyes but I kept on running.

Then I felt my chest collided with something firm and bouncy, causing me to lose balance and fall backwards onto the ground.

My eyes was open for one second and I all I saw was the view of trees quickly followed by the sky through the leaves. And then I hit my head on the ground, sending pain and tremors to my head, followed by the sense of consciousness quickly fading.

Just before I blacked out, I heard a series of sick sounds, like that of sandbags were hit…

*thud* *thud thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *THUUDD!!!*