There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

"Ah... Marcus... what are you doing here?" Gotz quickly put his hand down and stammered.

I said, "I couldn't sleep, so I came here for a walk. What a coincidence, you're here too?"

"Oh, what a coincidence."

The two remained silent for a moment, carefully examining each other's attire.

“I thought you would call Gray,” Gotz said meaningfully.

I said with a mysterious expression, "I thought you would call Harris."

Gotz nodded solemnly, seemingly trying to project the cold, aloof demeanor of someone about to engage in a decisive battle at the Forbidden City, and uttered professional lines like "You shouldn't have come" or "But I'm already here." But after a long pause, he couldn't help but ask, "You... heard everything just now?"

I glanced at him sideways and said, "No."

Gots breathed a long sigh of relief: "Good that you didn't hear anything. I suspected the mastermind might appear, so I came to check..."

I then said, "...I not only heard it, but I also saw it all."

Gotz: "(。?ω?。)"

"Trying to be cute won't work. We've already lost everyone anyway, so let's hurry inside and check."

Gotz followed me dejectedly, and together we lit torches and went into the long-abandoned mine.

But after taking only two steps, a strange noise came from behind them, causing them to exchange a glance. They instantly extinguished their torches and skillfully disappeared into the darkness.

…………

A dark figure moved swiftly, suddenly scaling down from the top of the cliff and landing on the roof of the hot spring house. After becoming a dim shadow, it leaped down again, landing steadily in front of the abandoned mine.

Under the moonlight, the shadows were stretched and distorted, extending from the open space to the entrance of the mine, resembling a gigantic, humanoid beast standing silently outside the mine, exuding an evil and mysterious aura...

"Marcus, the suspect has appeared!"

Gotz lowered his voice and spoke to me with a combination of gestures and lip reading, grabbing his axe and trying to rush out to subdue the suspicious creature, but I stopped him by reaching out from the side.

I covered my face helplessly: "That's not a criminal... Do you believe he'll say something even more childish than you?"

As soon as I finished speaking, we heard the enormous creature outside speak in a deliberately lowered voice: "I am justice, I am fear, I am Mineral Town..."

"You ghost! Scaring people in the middle of the night! Do you want me to beat you to death?!"

Without any hesitation, I rushed over Gotz and out of the cave, slapping him on the head.

"Grey, you've been missing for the past two days, were you planning to come here and play tricks?"

Gray, whom I grabbed, was terrified. I saw his face under his hat was distorted with fear, and he was so shocked that he almost fainted.

His cloak was specially tailored and sewn, fitting vertically to his body without appearing bulky. The dark-colored hat matched the pure black coat and cloak perfectly, and two pointed ears that stood up and had an ambiguous meaning could be vaguely seen...

"Boss! You... what are you doing here too!" Gray took off his knock-off Batman hat and looked at me and Gotz as we walked out of the cave, trembling.

This unlucky kid must have been hiding at home, spending a lot of time and effort making a Batman costume according to my description, only to be caught red-handed by us as soon as he came out to show off...

Gotz, looking speechless, said, "Grey, what are you doing in this dangerous place?"

"Come clean up the insect nest..."

"...Then what's with your outfit and lines?"

"This is a symbol of invincibility... Ugh, so embarrassing... Forget about it!!!"

Looking at Gray, who was wailing and clutching his head, I now regret teaching him all this useless knowledge. Others solve problems by making bold assumptions and conducting careful investigations, while he relies on a righteous spirit and a head full of outrageous ideas.

I was just about to teach him a lesson when I heard footsteps approaching again in the distance...

Good heavens, in just a short while, almost a whole mahjong table has been set up in the deep mountains in the middle of the night. Let's see which idiot will sign up this time to fill the gap.

This person was even more arrogant, spouting strange lines as he walked, and shamelessly revealing his identity at will.

"You damn bug! Confess to me, sheriff! I am Harris, the Galactic Ranger! Bang bang bang!"

As soon as he turned the corner, the fourth person who approached discovered three equally fully armed men standing in the moonlit open space, watching him with a half-smile...

"Aaaaaaah! What are you all doing here?!"

…………

Harris, unable to get up again, was squatting on the ground, and Gray kindly went up to comfort him: "It's okay, Harris. We all thought there was no one here, so it's normal to do something a little out of line, right?"

Harris instinctively replied, "Thank you, Gray, you're such a good... umm!!! What's with this stupid outfit of yours!!!"

Then it was Gray who collapsed and couldn't move. If I hadn't held him back, he probably would have run back in a flash.

Okay, here's the situation.

When we discovered that this cave was full of insects, I suggested that to prevent the presence of poisonous insects, we should descend the mountain and reconsider our options.

My actual thought was that there were too many strange phenomena in this cave, and I didn't want too many people to enter at the same time. As it turns out, more people don't necessarily solve the problem; in fact, they can exacerbate it—like the meme proliferation problem in Mineral Town.

Therefore, I planned to go in late at night to find out what was going on before making a new plan.

I just didn't expect that Gotz, who nodded in agreement at the time, had the same idea as me, and that the timing would so awkwardly coincide with my own.

"Grey, how did you know about this place?"

I asked Gray.

Logically, only the three of us and Boss Dart should know the situation. Could it be that Boss Dart betrayed us?

Gray awkwardly tugged at his clothes and said, "Ah... Grandpa overheard it after he'd had his drink... It sounded like Cliff was asking him to forge some equipment..."

Oops!

In an attempt to delay Cliff, I brought up a bunch of strange adventure gadgets from my memories and asked him to procure and build them. But he sold out our plans right away.

“Harris, how did you find out?” I asked.

Harris touched his red nose and said, "Cliff asked me to borrow equipment, and that's how I found out your plans."

Good heavens, this is practically a self-destructive truck! You're sure to be trending on Weibo tomorrow!

I sighed. "Luckily, none of us who came here are outsiders. Everyone, check the bushes and crevices in the rocks to see if any other residents are hiding. Harris, look, is there something hanging from that tree?"

Harris turned around with a chill running down his spine, only to find that there wasn't a single tree nearby (I'd pulled them all out last time I fought the Deep Ones). He then turned back and complained, "Don't spread such terrifying rumors, Marcus!"

I sneered, "If you can't even handle this level, you shouldn't make decisions on your own. How could there be ghosts in this world? I've lived in this mountain for two hundred years and I've never seen a ghost!"

Even Gray complained, "The environment here is so terrifying, boss, please stop talking..."

Gotz, who has extensive experience patrolling the mountains, supported my suggestion this time. "Actually, Marcus is right. The environment inside the mine is only more gloomy and terrifying than outside. It's not about courage, but about how different people adapt to the dark. If you are easily influenced by the environment, you will probably feel even more uncomfortable inside and won't be able to help much."

After being persuaded by Gotz and me, Gray and Harris gave up their plan to go into the mine with us. Reluctantly, they waited outside, promising to respond if they heard our call.

Gotz and I teamed up to enter the mine in the dead of night and explore it.

"Keep it up! Just shout for us if you need anything!"

Harris cheered us on from behind, while Gotz and I relit our torches and stepped into the dark cave.

Unlike our last visit, this abandoned mine was now teeming with strange, unfamiliar insects. At the slightest light, they would flutter their wings and swarm toward us, attracted by the light. Gotz and I tried our best to wave our weapons, but we couldn't completely drive them away. Instead, they blocked our view, forcing us to stop.

"What do we do, Marcus!"

Gots's Deep One bloodline allowed him to see in the dark, but he couldn't deal with the overwhelming swarm of insects, so he had to ask me.

I futilely swung the sickle twice, then decisively retreated from the cave with him.

Faced with Gray and Harris's curious gazes, I shamelessly lured the pursuing flying insects toward them, letting them experience the fear of a giant flying cockroach!

"Hmph, not bad at all. I never thought that I, Chen Yulou, the leader of the Mountain Moving Clan, would be stopped here..."

Finally, it was only after the two of them put out the torches that they were able to drive away the flying insects. Gray said with a headache, "Boss, these bugs just won't stop. How are you going to get in?"

I pushed up glasses that weren't even there. "Don't panic, we, the Unloading Ridge Warriors, have our own ingenious methods!"

After saying that, I ran down the mountain as fast as I could, but soon I was back in front of the mine.

"You insects, prepare to die! I've brought the Angry Sun Chicken with me this time, and I'll teach them a lesson they won't forget!"

After I finished speaking, I threw out two little white chicks with their short legs and wings flapping.

The two Alpha chickens, still half asleep, that I dragged out of their coop looked like a badminton shuttlecock, disappearing into the shadows of the mine with a bewildered expression...

"Boss, these two chickens are going to die! You have to save them!"

Gray, who had been through thick and thin with them, immediately warned them and was about to chase them into the mine when a loud crowing of chickens echoed through the valley.

After a flurry of activity in the mine, a whirlwind escaped from the mine, and the stale air and dust in the cave rose up, as if the mine was filled with five-speed electric fans blowing incessantly.

Numerous flying insects with different patterns brushed against Gray's nose, vying to fly away, their hurried and frantic movements a stark contrast to their earlier frantic attempt to extinguish the fire.

I proudly declared, arms crossed, "The Phoenix Crying Rooster is said to have the blood of the phoenix within it, making it the nemesis of the five poisons and capable of dispelling demonic energy and poisonous mirages. How could such a small insect possibly harm them!"

In other words, AlphaChicken is the fighter jet among chickens. It can fight as well as an eagle and accelerate from 100 meters to 100 meters in just three seconds. This kind of superior dominance cannot be reversed by just having bigger or more of these insects!

Having eaten and drunk its fill, the Alpha Chickens were clearly sobered up. They strutted back to my shoulder, puffing out their chests and bellies, and stood on either side of me, looking down on the whole place.

"Alright, let's go inside."

With a wave of my hand amidst the blank stares of Gray and Harris, I led Gotz back into the mine.

But a dozen minutes later, Gotz and I came out again, looking troubled.

"Why did you back out again?" Harris asked eagerly.

I denied it, saying, "It's not a retreat, it's a retreat."

Gotz scratched his head: "But there's no way out... We searched everywhere and found that the mine walls were all rock, and we couldn't find any trace of the insect nest..."

Gotz couldn't tell, but according to the data displayed by the system, the outer wall of the mine was not a stone wall, but a large circle of incredibly hard ancient ceramic steel wall. Due to long-term burial, its surface was pitted and uneven, indistinguishable from rock.

Digging a hole in such a place is no easy task, but insects will inevitably escape into it. If insects can get through, then we should be able to too.

The only possibility is that some passable road has been filled and blocked by some unknown insect...

The room fell silent again. This time, I broke the silence once more, "Don't panic, I, Partridge Whistle, the leader of the Mountain Moving Clan, have my own ingenious methods..."

Gray asked, "Boss, didn't you just mention the Unloading Ridge Tower?"

"...Don't worry about the details. Someone, go and fetch my Mountain-Dividing Digging Armor!"

Gray asked疑惑地问道, "...What's that?"

My face darkened. I walked to the pool of water nearby, pulled out a small, dark, unidentified creature, and threw it back into the mine.

"Kappa, dig for me!"