Chapter 144: Butterfly Village
The next morning, Li Zhi woke up with her entire body aching. The high fever overnight seemed to have evaporated all the moisture in her body, leaving her parched. She gulped down several glasses of water.
Xu Yan, disturbed by the noise, jolted awake, gripping her baseball bat. Seeing daylight filtering through the curtains, she relaxed slightly.
Noticing the dark circles under Xu Yan’s eyes, Li Zhi realized she’d stayed up all night caring for her. "Sorry for troubling you last night," she said apologetically.
Xu Yan waved it off. "A butterfly monster appeared outside the window last night." Li Zhi paused mid-sip as Xu Yan continued, "It was human-sized—half-human, half-butterfly. I couldn’t see it clearly through the curtains, but it watched us for a while before flying away."
Li Zhi murmured, "Maybe it was checking on its eggs inside me."
Xu Yan covered her face. "Please stop talking. How do you feel now?"
Li Zhi assessed herself. "Better. No fever." After finishing the water, she added, "Don’t share my theory with the others yet. Without concrete clues or solutions, it’ll only cause panic."
Xu Yan nodded. "Understood."
After freshening up, they headed downstairs for breakfast. Several tourists were already in the dining area, all seemingly well-rested. The players trickled in one by one, and Li Zhi counted—all ten were present. A peaceful night, it seemed.
"Good morning, everyone~" Yin Fu glided in gracefully, staff trailing behind with breakfast.
Those who’d skipped dinner last night were ravenous. Seeing their companions unharmed confirmed the food was safe, and they dug in eagerly.
"ZhiZhi, are you okay?" Yao Lang slid onto the bench beside Li Zhi, concern etched on his face. "You look even paler today. Are you sick, or just didn’t sleep well?"
Not to be outdone, Nie Miao immediately claimed the seat on Li Zhi’s other side. "Sister ZhiZhi, doesn’t the village have a clinic? Let me take you to see a doctor later!"
For the first time, Li Zhi experienced the downside of being too popular—she felt like a golden trophy everyone wanted a piece of.
Jiao Shen suddenly spoke up. "Are two people missing?"
Everyone glanced around. Nie Miao said, "No? All ten of us are here."
Xu Yan scanned the room. "Two tourists are gone."
The tour guide had scheduled a 9 AM gathering outside the inn. At this hour, all tourists should’ve been downstairs. These NPCs had come specifically for the trip—unlikely to oversleep.
Li Zhi instantly recalled the humanoid butterfly Xu Yan had described. If the players were unharmed, had the tourists been targeted instead?
Exchanging glances, Li Zhi stood. "Yin Fu."
Yin Fu swayed over. "Need something else?"
"Two of our companions haven’t come down. Do you have spare keys? We’re worried something happened to them."
Yin Fu’s expression shifted. After a quick "Wait here," she hurried to the front desk for a master key. Notably, she didn’t ask which rooms the missing tourists had occupied—likely to avoid alarming others. The tourists, strangers to each other, hadn’t noticed the absence.
Li Zhi and the others followed Yin Fu as she checked room after room. At Room 306, she cracked the door open, then paused, turning back with an apologetic smile. "Could you wait downstairs?"
Li Zhi smiled back. "If something really happened, do you think you could hide it from us?"
Yin Fu’s face cycled through several emotions before she finally pushed the door open.
Light spilled into the identical twin room, illuminating two enormous cocoons lying on the beds.
"Cocoon" wasn’t quite accurate—these resembled butterfly pupae more. Translucent brown membranes encased what looked like giant larvae, as if awaiting metamorphosis.
A bug-phobic player behind them retched violently.
Yin Fu shot him a disgusted look before stepping inside. Li Zhi approached the beds. Through the mucus-covered membranes, she saw the desiccated corpses inside—reduced to skin clinging to bone, their sunken eyes wide open.
Yin Fu paled, steadying herself before saying, "D-Don’t touch anything. I’ll call for help!"
She rushed out.
Left alone, Xu Yan recounted last night’s butterfly sighting. Horror dawned on everyone’s faces. Jiao Shen grabbed a toothbrush from the bathroom and poked at one of the pupae.
The silk strands were incredibly adhesive—even yanking hard couldn’t tear them.
One player muttered, "The butterfly monster didn’t attack us, only tourists. Did the system finally show mercy?"
No one answered. Xu Yan, however, gave Li Zhi a meaningful look.
If Li Zhi’s theory held—that players were already "chosen"—then killing them would be counterproductive. Protecting these hosts made more sense.
Soon, hurried footsteps approached. Yin Fu returned with several villagers led by a tall, imposing man in his fifties wearing a traditional headdress—clearly the village chief.
Yin Fu introduced, "This is our chief."
The chief surveyed the players solemnly. "Our deepest apologies for this unfortunate incident. We’ll investigate thoroughly. To prevent panic, please keep this to yourselves. We’ll remove the bodies now."
Two burly men behind him produced large bags, efficiently bundling the cocooned corpses inside.
Li Zhi asked, "Does this happen often here?"
The chief stiffened. "Of course not! This is unprecedented! Rest assured, nothing like this will happen again!"
Li Zhi arched a brow but stayed silent.
Yin Fu wrung her hands. "We truly appreciate your discretion. Spreading rumors helps no one. As our honored guests, please don’t hesitate to make any requests. Once we resolve this, we’ll provide a full explanation."
The players exchanged glances and agreed.
As the chief’s group carried the bodies away, other tourists finally noticed the commotion. "What happened? Is everything okay?"
Yin Fu said mournfully, "These guests succumbed to sudden illnesses. We couldn’t save them."
Though skeptical, with the bodies gone, the tourists had little choice but to accept this. A few quietly questioned the players, receiving identical answers before dropping the matter.
The incident delayed their departure until 10 AM. Unsure whether skipping the tour would trigger death conditions, the players had no choice but to follow along.
Walking at the group’s rear, Xu Yan whispered, "I don’t think they did this, but they definitely know more than they’re saying."
Yin Fu and the chief’s shock had seemed genuine, yet their practiced handling of the situation suggested prior experience.
Han Wenlin mused, "Maybe some monsters slipped their control? Like, normally they’d feed people to the butterflies in designated areas to keep them hidden. But now the butterflies are hunting on their own, so they’re panicking too. After being fed for so long, the creatures’ appetites have outgrown their offerings."
Li Zhi neither confirmed nor denied this.
Yao Lang suddenly said, "Come to think of it, everyone in this village is exceptionally good-looking. Even the chief—he’s in his fifties but still handsome."
Others realized it too—since entering the village yesterday, they hadn’t seen a single unattractive local.
Take Yin Fu—even in celebrity circles, her beauty would stand out.
Nie Miao shuddered. "So they really did get their youth and looks from those immortal butterflies!"
As they speculated, the tour guide halted before a modern building, announcing through her megaphone: "Our first stop—the Butterfly Specimen Museum! Housing over ten thousand specimens, including the thousand-plus species native to Butterfly Village. No photography allowed. Please observe quietly in an orderly manner."
The museum’s contemporary architecture starkly contrasted with the village’s traditional bamboo stilts—understandable, given specimens’ strict humidity, temperature and light requirements.
Li Zhi froze. "Something’s wrong."
Others turned. "What?"
"If they worshipped immortal butterflies, they wouldn’t have a specimen museum," Li Zhi said. "Among animal-worshipping tribes, have you ever heard of people dissecting their sacred beings into specimens?"
The players gaped. "So our sacrificial theory was completely wrong? There’s no butterfly deity? Then what was that monster last night?"
Pondering this, Li Zhi hurried ahead to ask the guide, "When do we visit the immortal butterfly’s golden statue?"
The guide blinked. "What golden statue?"
"Yesterday you said villagers built a golden statue to honor the immortal butterfly," Li Zhi pressed. "Doesn’t the village have a dedicated worship site?"
The guide looked at her like she was stupid. "Girl, what era are you living in? That’s just folklore! Even if they once worshipped butterflies, any shrines would’ve been destroyed decades ago! Besides, people worship fox spirits or yellow immortals—but butterflies? Give me a break!"
The tourists burst into laughter.
Outside the museum, Li Zhi rejoined the players, all having heard the exchange.
"So there really is no deity," someone said, though this revelation brought no relief. "Then what’s really going on here?"