"I was afraid."
Li Ban's frankness surprised Zhu Yao.
"I thought you'd be like the others—no matter how terrified you were inside, you'd never admit it."
Li Ban recalled the few times he had seen silhouettes he suspected were ghosts. Back then, he had been much weaker, and he had felt genuine terror.
"I was afraid because the ghosts in my mind were an unstoppable force. But not every enemy deserves to be called a ghost."
Zhu Yao shook her head. "It seems my joke was poorly timed. Let's go. There are some bizarre illusions in Swing Forest, but they can't hurt anyone. What we need to watch out for are the monsters hiding within them, and people with ill intentions."
The people trailing behind Li Ban and Zhu Yao soon parted ways with them.
Judging by their direction, however, they might be heading to the Building Graveyard that Li Ban's group had visited previously.
That was what Zhu Yao called the place.
Still, out in the wild, it was normal to keep a close eye on your surroundings.
He just couldn't relax his guard.
After all, he wasn't exactly comrades with the people in this camp, and he had rejected their vice-captain's invitation just yesterday.
Li Ban had heard the saying "those not of our kin will surely have different hearts" plenty of times.
"They might be following us, or they might be investigating what we're up to," Zhu Yao said softly, noticing Li Ban checking behind them again. "Most newcomers to the camp get watched. The camp veterans all know this. We aren't doing anything else anyway, so there's no harm in letting them look."
Li Ban nodded. "True, there's nothing to fear from them watching."
Without powerful spells or miraculous element abilities, they wouldn't be able to spot a thing even if Li Ban did something secretive right in front of them.
Swing Forest was a bit farther away than the Building Graveyard.
Ed rode his Tricycle faster than Zhu Yao because he wasn't trying to conserve his stamina.
Even so, it took them over an hour to reach the edge of the forest.
"This forest... is really huge."
Li Ban hopped off the Tricycle and looked around.
Swing Forest was not an imposing name, but it blanketed the entire depression between the two massive mountains east of the camp.
A portion of it even climbed halfway up the mountainsides before finally stopping, as if it had run out of strength.
And this was only the visible width of Swing Forest.
Its depth was immeasurable.
Rumor had it that after some powerful monsters left the Northern Continent Spatial Rift, they hid here, occasionally emerging to ambush people seeking high-quality timber or foraging for water and wheat seeds.
Zhu Yao had Ed park the Tricycle on the outskirts of the forest where the trees were sparse. They bound it with an iron chain and camouflaged it with branches.
"We might have to go deep inside, and people from other camps come here too. It isn't safe to leave Ed alone out here."
"Aren't there any camps established nearby to act as transit stations?" Li Ban asked.
"There used to be. Like a merchant guild, they provided adventure supplies, purchased whatever people found in the forest, and offered storage for goods. But later, monsters surged out from deep within the forest and shattered the camp's defenses. The temporary residents turned on them during the chaos, snatching most of the supplies before fleeing. Since then, no camp has ever stationed itself here."
"Things are pretty chaotic, then." Li Ban tucked his axe behind his back, along with a few other weapons he had traded for over the past few days.
Ed raised his axe with both hands, looking as though he were facing a mortal enemy. "The apocalypse is upon us!"
"Things are only getting more chaotic." Zhu Yao kept a firm grip on her spear, a scimitar hanging at her waist. "Perhaps the apocalypse will really arrive the day order completely collapses."
But as a Recycling Station for deleted progress, the apocalypse merely signaled the arrival of the next batch of abandoned people.
"The next batch... will be us," Li Ban murmured in a voice too soft for the others to hear.
Other than the Great Wizard, no one could leave this place.
The group made their way through the sparse woodland.
The plants in Swing Forest were the same as everywhere else; the tree trunks and leaves were all a dark gray that bordered on black.
There was no vibrant green to represent life, only a lifeless, deathly black.
The monsters, meanwhile, were a mix of flesh-tones and black. When they moved between the trees and the soil, they had natural camouflage.
A monster that had been lurking in the canopy suddenly lunged at Ed, who was bringing up the rear.
Ed, whose brain usually seemed a bit short-circuited, reacted instantly. He dodged backward while swinging his axe.
The monster wasn't large, and Ed's chop sent it flying.
Zhu Yao, who had also noticed the commotion, had already hurled her wooden spear.
Simultaneously, one of Li Ban's wooden arrows pierced the monster in midair.
The creature was then pinned to a tree by Zhu Yao's spear.
Since its head hadn't been destroyed, it struggled to break free, but a second wooden arrow quickly pierced its skull.
Only then did the monster fall completely still.
Li Ban walked over and searched the corpse, but he found nothing of value, nor did he find any waste elements.
He had acquired a total of three waste elements so far; he had already absorbed one, and the other two he was setting aside temporarily for other uses.
One of those other two had come from a monster just like this.
Because of this, Li Ban always made sure to do a thorough search whenever the situation allowed.
Unfortunately, in this Recycling Station that gathered the deleted data of all the minor worlds, those who possessed elements were still in the minority.
Even if the camp's residents knew about elements, they didn't go out of their way to collect them, nor did they know their exact locations.
Li Ban checked his Cubic Space. He still had room for waste elements.
Although he wanted to hoard the waste elements to boost his strength as a Spirit Practitioner once he got out, if a battle broke out in the Recycling Station, he would absorb them as necessary.
Leaving this place was his absolute top priority.
Returning to the team, Zhu Yao handed him a drawing sketched with plant juice for ink.
"This is our main objective in Swing Forest: the Cottonwood Vine. The fibers inside can be woven into clothes and ropes."
Li Ban took a look. To be honest, it was a bit abstract.
It was understandable, however, as the drawing magnified the plant's unique details.
"I've memorized it."
Li Ban offered the drawing back, but Zhu Yao turned her head, not taking it.
"Just keep it. I'm extremely familiar with the Cottonwood Vine, so I don't need a reference."
Li Ban glanced at Ed, but Ed showed zero interest in joining the discussion, so he tucked the abstract drawing away.
They advanced another hundred meters into the forest, stepping with extreme caution. They encountered two more monsters, dispatching them just as easily.
Unfortunately, Li Ban found no waste elements on them.
The frequency of monster encounters still wasn't as high as in the Building Graveyard.
After pressing forward another hundred meters or so, the forest abruptly grew much denser.
The trunks and branches were gnarled, the boughs of different trees tangling tightly together.
The pale sky was blotted out by the thick canopy, leaving only scattered patches where sunlight pierced through.
The most striking feature was the countless vines—thick and thin, long and short—draped over the horizontal branches.
These vines weren't just wrapped around the wood; large sections hung straight down, forming one swing after another.