Days passed.
Wen Nannan and Zhang Yuan stood in the hole, not going anywhere.
In those last few days of the game, time seemed to slow down, making every minute and second excruciatingly long.
Zhang Yuan paced back and forth in the hole, anxious, but afraid to make any sound for fear of attracting the locusts or those "survivors".
Wen Nannan, however, changed from her previous listlessness. Besides recovering from her injuries, she spent every day exercising.
Her body was her ticket to survival.
Luckily, the hole was really hidden. If they could just stay there peacefully until the end of the game, it wouldn't be a bad way to go.
Day 25 of the game. Passed peacefully.
Day 26 of the game. Passed peacefully.
Day 27 of the game.
There were no longer any sounds outside the hole. Wen Nannan's intuition told her that there weren't many living creatures left on the back of the mountain.
The only thing that reassured Wen Nannan was that her injuries had almost healed.
Day 28 of the game.
The final wave of crisis arrived.
Wen Nannan was awakened by the buzzing sound of locusts. Startled awake, she quickly ran to the other side of the hole and woke Zhang Yuan.
The locusts were there.
A vast number of locusts surrounded the entire mountainside. The buzzing sound was so loud it almost made Wen Nannan's ears hurt.
Wen Nannan looked towards the summit, but she realized that there was no summit anymore!
The hole, which was originally located on the mountainside, is now the highest point at the back of the mountain.
The entire back of the mountain had mysteriously disappeared!
The locusts continued to buzz, making Wen Nannan increasingly agitated. It seemed louder than before.
Wen Nannan looked at them and suddenly had a bold guess.
Besides eating plants and living creatures, the locusts had eaten part of the back of the mountain!
And their attack was still spreading downwards.
Wen Nannan looked at Zhang Yuan and, with a glance, the two of them simultaneously ran down the mountain.
Every so often, they would see bare bones and recently decayed corpses along the way.
Perhaps they had been lying there too long in the scorching heat of the dog days of summer. The corpses had rotted into a puddle of goo, but black liquid was still oozing out.
But there were no flies above the corpses.
Wen Nannan felt like throwing up, but she didn't dare slow down. She knew that if she slowed down, she would end up like those corpses.
"Nannan, those locusts are eating faster and faster. What do we do?"
The training she had done over the past few days had definitely been effective, but limited. Zhang Yuan ran for a long time and still had the energy to talk to Wen Nannan.
Wen Nannan lowered her eyes and didn't speak.
There was only a day and a half left in the game, but they couldn't run for a day and a half.
At the locusts' current speed, they would eat the entire back of the mountain, including the already emptied Fuguo Town, in half a day at most.
...
At the foot of the mountain.
The locusts were still eating.
Wen Nannan looked at the locusts which were steadily approaching them, and fell silent.
"Save me, save me!"
A hoarse male voice interrupted Wen Nannan's thoughts. The source of the voice was a gaunt man.
He seemed to be a town person from Fuguo Town who hadn't eaten enough food in a long time.
The moment he finished speaking, he was swarmed by the locusts nearby. He didn't even have the strength to struggle.
When Wen Nannan saw the man being slowly devoured, she no longer felt the complex emotions she had felt initially.
She had witnessed so much death and separation in these past few days.
"We're going to die here today."
Zhang Yuan shook his head sadly. He didn't expect that, after so much effort, he would still die there.
Wen Nannan opened her mouth, about to speak, but another voice was faster.
"These locusts are afraid of fire. Do you have any fuel?"
Following the sound, they saw Xu Fang, covered in dirt and hiding in the crevice of some rocks, equally emaciated and unrecognizable.
After she finished speaking, seeing that Wen Nannan stood there motionless, and seeing her empty hands, Xu Fang sighed.
It seemed that they wouldn't be able to pass this round of the game.
The sun gradually rose to its zenith. There was one day left until the end of this round of the game.
Everything around had been eaten by the locusts-plants, soil, even rocks.
And now, they were approaching the three remaining survivors in this round.
The surrounding environment was like a shrinking poison circle, and the safe distance around Wen Nannan was getting smaller and smaller.
Xu Fang closed her eyes in despair, giving up the struggle.
But a minute passed, ten minutes passed, and the locusts' imagined bite never came.
When she opened her eyes, she saw a fire burning with firewood in front of her. The locusts, wary of the light, were agitated but didn't dare to approach.
Wen Nannan's expression was calm. Next to the fire were logs she had retrieved from her space.
"Fuel is the one thing I never lack."
The situation reversed in an instant.