[Welcome to 'Desolate World'.]
[The main quest is triggered]
[Mission:
Go to the nearest human settlement.
Rewards:
• 10,000 Exp
• Access to the basic facilities of settlement
• Reputation at the settlement (depending on how far you have been traveling and how high your level when you arrive at the settlement)]
[The system detected that you have a magic map]
[Your current location and the nearest human settlement location have been added to your magic map]
[Progress: 0% 1023 km from the nearest human settlement (can be checked by accessing the quest section in the menu)]
The information that the system provided made Ace's brain freeze.
"What the hell!?" Sampson's loud shout woke Ace up.
Ace then stood up and found out that they were inside a room of a cave. He saw a pedestal with a shining blue crystal floating on top of it.
[Resurrection point]
That's what he got when staring at it for about 3 seconds.
"It is used to resurrect us if we die before we reach a human settlement," Sofia said while walking towards him.
"Truly deserve the hell difficulty, huh! We must go to a place more than 1,000 km away. And if somehow we die midway, we have to restart from zero. We are damned, right?" Ace said in a dejected tone.
"Don't be too negative. Let's see where we are. Maybe, the situation isn't as bad as we think. Let's go, Geo!" Cloud said while holding Geo's small hand.
Geo nodded. Curiosity could be seen from his eyes, as he observed on every corner of the cave room. They then walked towards the passage.
*Sigh*
Ace then shook his head, "We lost to an old lady and a child. Let's go, honey! We get out of here!"
They then walked into the passage, went after Cloud and Geo. When they passed Sampson, Ace frowned.
"Looks like we are better than Mr. Soldier. Brother! Snap out of it!" Ace kicked Sampson's foot who was still frozen in his place.
Sampson woke up, "Did you read that? 1023 km!"
"It means that you have to work hard, Mr. Meat shield. Please protect the weak us," Ace said in a joking tone. He and Sofia then continued to go to the passage.
"Very funny!" Sampson then followed them.
***
After walking along the passage of the cave for about a minute, they saw some bushes in front of the mouth of the cave. The bushes were pretty dense. But there was a small path that could be taken to pass it.
After passing the bushes, they realized that they were on the hill. In the middle of it exactly.
"It's truly a manifestation of hell!" Sampson said after seeing below the hill.
[Granite Ant (minor), Level 3]
There were maybe hundreds of ants, no! Giant ants below their location. Lining up and walking with routes that as if had already been decided.
The ants were about a meter tall and 2 meters long. Their color was black. The fact that made Ace's group cower was that the ants that came to their nest hole usually brought something on their mandibles, either were other giant insects, mammals like rabbits, rats, wolves, or some materials like tree trunks, rocks, etc.
"S-so, what do you think?" Ace asked Cloud who was two meters away in a nervous tone.
Cloud shook her head, "Sorry, I don't know."
"!!!" Everyone was surprised hearing that. Never that they thought Cloud would say 'I don't know'.
"Don't get me wrong, I am not all-knowing. I can answer the topics that you asked back then because I indeed knew them. But I am far from being a dictionary."
Everyone was silent. But Sofia seemed to want to say something.
Ace saw his wife want to say something, so he asked, "Sofia, what did you get?"
"There is some useful information. But with their quantity, I doubt that it would help. Their exoskeleton is very hard, It's an omnivore species, and they only active in the daytime.
And one more thing. It seems they have a caste system. What we are looking, are just minor worker ants. They are the weakest ones. They have duties to transport the dead prey, pick some fruits or materials around their colony. I need to read a book about them for the details, to know more," Sofia said.
Everyone was agape.
"So? How many of them actually? They are not all?" Sampson asked in shock.
"It seemed not," Sofia said in a depressing tone.
"Mommy! If that is the case, why don't we defeat them one by one? They will decrease eventually," Geo said.
"But their quality is the problem. Once we attack one of them, the others will notice and attack us. We will be overwhelmed by their sheer number alone. Moreover, even if we fight with the same numbers, maybe we only have a little advantage. So Geo. We should find another solution," Cloud answered earlier while stroking her grandson's hair.
Geo nodded, but he seemed not fully understood what she had said.
"But, if it was just a game, they were sure having an aggro range right? Just like in console and mobile games," Sampson asked.
Cloud shook her head, "You have had a sparring with Geo and Jumpy, right? So, you should know, monsters have an animal-level instinct and intelligence. The AI of each creature in this game is really developed. Don't treat them as simple data."
Sampson then sighed. He seemed to think hard about how to solve their problem.
Ace was watching at ants below the hill for half an hour. After examining their behavior for some time. He found some interesting facts.
First, no ant was staying in the same area. Like transporters should do, they moved to their nest while carrying something or exited their nest and then followed one of several ants' route to go somewhere.
Second, no ant ever climbed the hill where they stayed. He didn't know on the other side. He speculated that there was something that prevented the ants from climbing the hill.
And the last one, no higher level ants had ever come in and out of the nest. So, Ace guessed that the nest which was underground had many entrances. And the hole that they saw only for transporting their food.
Ace then told his family about his guess.
"That was interesting. So, what do you want us to do?"
" Let's find out what is at this hill that scares them." Ace said.
***
The hill that they climbed was pretty steep. Sofia and Cloud had a little difficulty in climbing some surfaces of it. It took them 15 minutes to get on top of it. Even if its height was only about 500 meters.
"Finally, we arrived. That was amazing. I never imagined I would climb a hill. A real hill. Next time, we will climb a mountain," Sofia said with joy.
"Yeah, it is wrong to treat this like hell, just because we are surrounded by those ants. Look over there!" Ace point at a lust forest in the South of the hill, "That is a forest. Something that impossible to be seen in the real world."
"And that was the sun! We finally could see the sun without going to the Moon or Mars," Sofia said while pointing to East
"Mom is right. And that was a cloud, just like Grandma's name," Geo said.
"No, Geo! My real name is Nicole. Cloud is just my name in this game," Cloud explained to Geo.
"But Grandma! We are in the game right now, right?" Geo said in a puzzled expression.
"..., Yes. You are so smart. You should call me Grandma Cloud in the game," Cloud wanted to cry. It had already been a few times she lost in a debate with Geo in logic.
"But before that, let's find out what made them avoid this hill. There must be something in this hill," Ace said.
Everyone nodded. They then check the top of the hill carefully. The top of the hill was pretty board. Some trees and vegetation were there. However, after checking for some time, they couldn't find anything special on it.
"It's weird. There should be something here. Am I wrong?" Ace started doubting his theory.
Cloud shook her head, "You are not definitely wrong. Maybe, there is something here. We only haven't found it yet."
"Yeah, it is not necessary on the surface of the hill. It could be buried underground," Sofia said.
"Yeah, that is reasonable. By the way, where are Geo and Sampson?" Ace asked.
"They wanted to walk around. They should be not too far away," Cloud said.
"Dad! Look what have we found!" Ace heard Geo's shout.
***