"It really does look like a swing," Li Ban remarked.
"Only now have we officially entered the Swing Forest. There's a special rule here." Zhu Yao put away her spear and switched to a curved blade. "Try not to touch those swing-like vines, or you might see shadows that shouldn't exist in this world."
She shifted her spear to keep it from brushing against the vines.
Li Ban mirrored Zhu Yao, dodging the vines as he walked.
As he wove through them, he studied the vines but didn't spot anything unusual.
"Is there a toxin on the vines that causes hallucinations?"
"A toxin?" Zhu Yao led them through the densest cluster of vines. "Probably not. Someone once took a Swing Vine out of the forest. Outside the Swing Forest, touching the vine produced no illusions at all, no matter what they tried."
"What kind of illusions are they?"
Zhu Yao stopped and walked back to his side. "If you want to see, you can take a look while it's safe. I'll pull the vine away within a minute."
He slung his bow over his shoulder and reached out to touch a vine.
Zhu Yao and Ed watched from the side.
Speaking from experience, Ed reminded him, "Don't move."
Don't move; everything you see is an illusion.
Illusions couldn't hurt anyone.
The instant Li Ban's fingers touched the vine, the forest before his eyes vanished.
The vine in his grip abruptly turned into a dangling electrical wire.
He was transported from the vast forest into a dim room filled with pipes and wires.
The space was cramped and crowded. Less than a hundred square meters, it was packed with over a dozen large machines and more than twenty people in white coats weaving between them.
Like fish darting through coral.
Warning lights flashed on the machines.
Almost everyone was rushed off their feet.
Yet right in front of Li Ban stood a man who was perfectly still, standing out in stark contrast to the rest of the room.
He had been standing with his arms crossed, watching the bustling crowd. Suddenly, as if sensing something, he tilted his head, turned his body around, and looked directly into Li Ban's eyes.
At first, Li Ban didn't think much of it.
Since it was a hallucination his own mind produced, it was normal for the people in it to interact with him.
But upon seeing Li Ban, the man spoke.
"You got in? But I haven't been overwritten, so are you his alternative choice?"
Li Ban froze. The question was strange.
But just as he opened his mouth to reply, the illusion vanished.
In front of him stood Zhu Yao, who had just flicked the vine away with her curved blade.
Her face was placid, but a faint smile touched her eyes.
"Were you scared? Was everyone packed shoulder to shoulder? Pretty terrifying, right?"
"Shoulder to shoulder?" Li Ban withdrew his hand. "There were quite a few people."
Zhu Yao continued leading the way. "Looks like you've got guts. Once you get used to these illusions, they aren't too scary. But if an enemy shows up, they become a hindrance to our movements."
Li Ban silently followed Zhu Yao, keeping his thoughts to himself.
Even though he'd been told that touching the vines only produced illusions, he still felt an urge to touch them again.
He wanted to hear what the quiet man in the Laboratory had wanted to say.
As well as the man's identity and the meaning behind his words.
All of it weighed on Li Ban's mind.
But he couldn't yet discern the illusion's significance, which kept him from acting on the impulse.
After passing through the first layer of "swings," Zhu Yao finally found the first Cottonwood Vine.
Unlike the hallucination-inducing Swing Vines, the Cottonwood Vine was slightly lighter in color, with white, serrated leaves.
Furthermore, it grew from the soil, carefully clinging to the roots of a large tree. Sharp tendrils pierced into the tree's interior to siphon nutrients.
Rope and cloth were essential daily consumables, so the vines constantly needed to be gathered.
The Cottonwood Vines in the safe zones had long been harvested clean; it was only in dangerous places like the Swing Forest that one could find them relatively easily.
"Don't rush. While I harvest it, you two stand guard nearby."
Zhu Yao crouched in front of her target, stabbed her blade into the soil beside her, and carefully began untangling the Cottonwood Vine from the tree trunk by hand.
Unprocessed Cottonwood Vines snapped easily. If one wanted to gather longer fibers, carefully untangling them like this was the only way.
With all her attention focused on the Cottonwood Vine, she was vulnerable to sneak attacks from monsters.
Previously, Ed had been the only other person in her squad, and Ed had an extra trench in his brain, making him ill-suited for guard duty.
So it wasn't until she became familiar with Li Ban and had worked with him a few times that Zhu Yao brought them here to gather vines.
Ed vaguely knew the reason, but his brain refused to overthink it.
He glanced at Li Ban; the newcomer was guarding the other direction.
"Stand guard," he muttered softly. Then he looked up and suddenly spotted another Cottonwood Vine not far ahead of him.
"Zhu Yao," he said softly, but his voice was too low, and the focused Zhu Yao behind him didn't hear.
Ed took a step forward.
The Cottonwood Vine was extremely long, its highest point already coiled around the canopy. It was the longest one he had ever seen.
Moreover, it was only a step away, as if he could touch it just by reaching out.
"Stand guard," Ed muttered softly once more. He tightened his grip on his axe handle, refusing to reach out and touch that "unexpected joy."
His voice drew Li Ban's attention.
Li Ban shot a quick glance in Ed's direction, and his eyes suddenly narrowed.
He also saw the Cottonwood Vine a meter away from Ed.
But Li Ban felt a wave of malice radiating from it.
"Ed, look out!" he shouted, raising his bow and firing an arrow.
The arrow accurately struck the Cottonwood Vine on the trunk.
The vine, quietly wrapped around the trunk a second ago, suddenly spasmed.
Not from pain, but as a conditioned reflex from being attacked.
Even Zhu Yao paused her harvesting and looked back.
At the same time, a similar long vine unexpectedly dropped down from above her head.
Sharp as a beast's fang, the tip of the vine stabbed toward the back of Zhu Yao's neck.
Zhu Yao didn't turn her head, but she already heard the air tearing behind her.
Without needing to look, she reached back and flawlessly grabbed the curved blade she had stabbed into the ground. With a backhanded flick, she severed the incoming sharp tip of the vine.
Only then did she turn to track the enemy's movements.
However, more vines cascaded from the trees, individually targeting the three of them.
After Li Ban struck the strange Cottonwood Vine, he instantly felt the malice shift from right in front of him to directly above his head.
And there were so many of them!
They swarmed the canopy overhead, blotting out the sky.