"Ian, run......" Andrew's weak voice rang into Ian's ear.

"Ian, Frynn, I'll get out of the way, follow me!" was Zach. Zach, where are you?

"Zach!" Ian snapped his eyes open, still dreaming.

He found himself lying on the thatched pile of the hut, and the oak stick had somehow been thrown aside.

Ever since he fled the imperial capital, he had nightmares like this almost every night, dreaming of his last reunion with his companions and ...... "separation".

The moment Ian opened his eyes, three pale blue, ethereal humanoid spirits quietly dispersed beside Ian's bedside.

Ian slowly got up, picked up the oak stick on the ground, and cheered himself up.

Today is the day to go "fighting".

Every day since he came to Qingfeng Village, he has relied on the help of Su Mu's mother-in-law and the villagers. Ian knew he had to find a proper livelihood for himself as Granny Sumu's grandson. In Black Hawk City, he can rely on his companions, on Zach. Now that they were gone, the quiet, empty strange room around him reminded him that he was alone.

Begging and stealing, Ian fled all the way here. But in Qingfeng Village, he was accepted as the grandson of Su Mu's mother-in-law, so he needs to be responsible for this identity.

"Tuk tuk. There was a knock at the door, followed by a young girl, "Excuse me—Ian, are you there?"

Ian opened the door, and outside stood a girl about his age, holding a shallow basket with a few toasted buns.

"Hello, my name is Elise, the daughter of Brower the baker, whom we have met," said the girl softly, "this is for you." With that, he gently sent the basket in his hand forward, waiting for Ian to pick it up. Ian hurriedly said, "Thank you, but I ......" and just halfway through the words of refusal, a loud "goo-" sound came out of his stomach.

Perhaps it was the aroma of bread that whetted the appetite, and Ian's words were interrupted by his own stomach.

"I'm ...... today I'm going to make some money today and come back to you. Ian blushed and hurriedly explained.

Elise blinked, smiled and pushed the bread basket into Ian's arms, "Then take care of the accounts first." As soon as he let go of his hand, he turned around and left, and Ian had to quickly reach out and catch the basket.

I touched it with my hand, and the bread was still hot.

After eating the bread, Ian picked up the stick and walked out of the village.

"Come on, feed ......" Sometimes Granny Sumu seems to be able to see everything, which can startle Ian. I don't know if it's because people have spirit when they're full, or if it's Granny Sumu's understatement, Ian began to feel that fighting with the mushroom thieves wouldn't be so terrible, and he should be able to successfully kill a few mushroom thieves today, collect the materials, and then go to the exchange office, and then go to the bakery to pay for the bread.

Thinking of this, Ian shook the wooden stick in his hand and quickened his pace to walk out of the village.

According to Woodcutter Khajit, if you leave the east entrance of the village and walk three or five stars in the direction of the forest to the southeast, you should be able to meet some mushroom thieves "if you are lucky." Ian walked about three stars before leaving the main road and crossing into the meadow towards the forest.

Strangely, all the way to the edge of the forest, I didn't meet half a mushroom thief.

There was only the sound of the wind on the prairie and the rustling of the dead grass in the field. There were occasional bird calls in the distance, but beyond that, Ian couldn't feel anything else.

"It's bad luck," Ian sighed, "it's not going to be as easy as my mother-in-law said." ”

He stood on the edge of the forest, looking around. The forest is so dense and layered that it becomes dim within a few meters, and it is impossible to know what is going on. Unprepared travelers will never enter unprepared. On the other side of the forest, at Ian's feet was a half-man-tall "sea of grass" that covered the rolling slopes.

Ian sighed, looked back at a leafy evergreen tree on the top of a hill not far away, and turned to walk there.

Standing on the top of the hillside, he looked around the trees—the main road was still visible in the distance, but a little closer from the road was covered with yellow weeds. When the wind blew, the withered grass on the entire hillside swayed in the wind, like the golden fluffy hair of a giant beast.

Looking around from the heights, Ian didn't see any signs of mushroom thieves. He kept his guard under the trees, looking out over the quiet and vast grassland, hoping to find something. But it backfired, and Ian's surroundings were like a landscape painting that barely changed.

In the blink of an eye, the sun has climbed to the top of the tree, and the breeze blows with the temperature of the sun, although it is not warm in this season, but it is combined with the rhythmic rolling sound of the grass waves, which makes people sleepy.

After staring for a long time, Ian finally got tired. He propped his stick at his side and sat on the ground with his back to the tree.

Sunlight filtered through the foliage, casting dappled shadows around Ian.

He looked up, and the light loomed between the shadows of the trees. Ian thought, this mushroom thief is easier to feed than fishing, and it all depends on luck first, and if you are lucky enough, you will have a chance to contribute. I don't know if there is a small river near this Qingfeng Village, and at this time, he can't remember if there are fishermen among the villagers introduced by Su Mu's mother-in-law...... Thinking about all this, he fell asleep after a short while.

Just as his breathing became slow and even, if he looked down from the top of the tree, he would see that some of the dead grass under the hillside suddenly became dense and uneven, as if something was underneath and separated the dead grass. One, two, three...... The stuff grew more and more, and then moved through the weeds, quickly but silently approaching where Ian was.

They moved through the dead grass as if they had made several arcs on the hillside, twisting and turning, and finally converging on Ian's side. The latter, however, is still unaware.

In his sleep, Ian came to the familiar grove again, the "secret base" of several of their friends.

Ian ...... Ian, run......" seemed to be Andrew's voice.

"Andrew, where are you? Answer me!"

Ian didn't hear an answer, but felt like it was darkening around him.

He woke up and opened his eyes.

The first thing that caught his eye was a distorted and strange face. Long, thin cheeks, wrinkled skin, burnt black mottled color, forehead and chin covered with longitudinal striped folds. There was no expression on the facial features, and a pair of dull eyes stared at Ian motionless in the dry, sunken eye sockets.

"Zach!" Ian thought he had seen Zack charred, and all the memories of fear awakened in an instant, and became unusually clear and recognizable, like a nightmare invading reality.

Or is life in Breeze Village a dream? Ian kicked his leg to the side, and his body popped off a few steps, subconsciously trying to get himself away from the face, only to find that there were exactly the same faces around him. Pulling away, he spotted the owner of these faces—

Each of them had a fungus umbrella over that dull and terrifying face.

Ian knew immediately that these were the mushroom thieves he was looking for, but he didn't feel the joy of luck at all. He reached out to grab the stick, but found that it was no longer there. One of the mushroom thieves was holding a stick, looking at him steadily.

To make matters worse, his actions gave the mushroom thieves a reaction. They trembled anxiously and strangely, babbling as if they were saying something he didn't understand, not sure if it was a threat or a warning, but it certainly wasn't the content of good intentions.

With his back against the trunk of the tree, Ian turned around sharply and climbed the evergreen tree in two or three clicks. He crouched on a thick branch, his right hand holding the trunk, and he looked down as he adjusted his rapid breathing.

There were about seven or eight mushroom thieves, quietly surrounding the evergreens. When they saw Ian climb the tree, they didn't react, and they didn't even lift their heads. Ian looked down from the tree and could only see seven or eight giant mushroom umbrellas. The gray-white umbrella cap has dark red natural spots, which are really the same as mushrooms in the mountains, but dozens of times larger.

Ian was thinking about how to get out, when he saw these guys suddenly move, as if they were a little shorter. He squinted his eyes and looked closely, only to see that they were all in the dirt, and he didn't know how. In the blink of an eye, the mushroom thief was a little shorter again, leaving only an umbrella cap exposed to the ground.

Ian grew his mouth, he never thought that these guys were actually hidden underground, no wonder he couldn't find them. After waiting for a while, the mushroom thieves did not move again.

Ian looked at the western horizon, the sun was already sinking, and it would do him no good to keep it down. He gently hung down from the trunk of the tree, grasped the thick branch under his feet with both hands, and then swayed his body slightly forward and backward.

When he felt that the swing was large enough, he let go and let himself fly out of the tree, passing the mushroom thief lurking under the tree from the air and falling outside the encirclement. When he landed, Ian rolled outward, and before he could stand firmly, he slammed a few steps in the direction of Light Wind Village, and ran without looking back.

The sound of babbling and stumbling footsteps chased after him, and Ian's scalp tingled when he heard it.