The sign at the entrance of the Iita Forest Reserve was covered in moss, but the warning was still legible:
WELCOME TO NATURE. PLEASE DO NOT LITTER.
Underneath, someone (probably a terrified survivor) had scrawled in blood:
THE TREES ARE EATING PEOPLE.
"Charming," Bhy Khay said, stepping over a crushed skeleton wearing a park ranger uniform. "The System really leaned into the 'Angry Mother Nature' trope."
"Why are we here again?" Zayn adjusted his glasses, scanning the dense canopy with his scope. "I have allergies. Pollen count is high. Also, the Death count."
"XP density," Bhy Khay explained, hacking through a vine with his dagger. "Urban zones spawn zombies. They give 10 XP per kill. Boring. Forest zones spawn [Elite Beasts]. They give 100 XP. We need to hit Level 20 by Sunday."
"And if we don't?" Elara asked, shivering despite the humid heat.
"Then the Lagos Server merges fully," Bhy Khay pointed his dagger at the sky. "And The Godfather brings his friends. Trust me, you'd rather fight a tree than a Level 30 Pyromancer."
RUSTLE.
The bushes to their left shook.
"Contact," Zayn whispered. "Small target. Fast."
A cute, fluffy squirrel popped out. It looked at them with large, adorable eyes.
"Aww," Elara lowered her staff. "It's just a—"
[ENEMY: VORPAL SQUIRREL (Lvl 12)]
[ABILITY: JUGULAR BITE]
[SPEED: MACH 1]
The squirrel screeched—a sound like metal grinding on glass—and launched itself at Elara's throat.
TWANG.
Zayn put an arrow through its head mid-air. The squirrel pinned to a tree trunk, twitching.
"Cute," Zayn deadpanned, reloading. "But it has a higher DPS than a goblin. Nature is disgusting."
"Good shot," Bhy Khay looted the corpse. [Item: Squirrel Pelt + Furry Tail]. "Let's keep moving. We need to find the Dungeon Core."
THE GRIND
For the next four hours, "Camping" took on a new meaning.
Bhy Khay treated the forest not as a survival situation, but as an optimization puzzle.
Problem: A pack of [Dire Wolves (Lvl 14)].
Solution: Tomiwa drew a hologram of a larger, female wolf. The pack got distracted. Elara froze them solid. Bhy Khay shattered them.
Problem: A [Swamp Slime (Lvl 15)].
Solution: Bhy Khay tossed a bag of salt (looted from the mess hall) into the water. Osmosis did the rest. The slime shriveled into a puddle of goo.
Problem: Zayn running out of arrows.
Solution: Bhy Khay used [Admin Edit] on the local bamboo.
>> MODIFY: TENSILE STRENGTH.
>> CRAFT: BAMBOO BOLTS.
Zayn now had unlimited ammo, though he complained about the aerodynamics.
"Level up," Bhy Khay announced, wiping slime off his boots.
[LEVEL UP! (10 -> 11)]
[LEVEL UP! (11 -> 12)]
"We're making progress," Bhy Khay checked the map. "But the XP curve is steep. We need a Boss."
They reached a clearing in the center of the reserve. The ground here was barren—no grass, no bushes. Just a massive, ancient Iroko Tree standing alone in the center. Its bark was black, and its leaves were a sickly purple.
Skeleton cages hung from its branches.
[BOSS: THE ELDER IROKO (Lvl 18)]
[TYPE: FLORA GUARDIAN]
[HP: 5000/5000]
"That's a big tree," Tomiwa noted, sketching a chainsaw on her arm. "Do we have enough fuel?"
"No chainsaw," Bhy Khay stopped her. "Look at the roots."
He activated [Sovereign Eyes].
The roots weren't just in the ground. They were vibrating.
[ABILITY: EARTHQUAKE ROOT]
[TRIGGER: VIBRATION DETECTION]
"If we step on that dirt, it spikes us," Bhy Khay analyzed. "And its bark is reinforced with ironwood. Physical attacks will bounce off."
"So we burn it?" Elara asked.
"Too slow. It has [Sap Regeneration]. It heals faster than fire burns."
Bhy Khay looked at his inventory. He had:
* [Mercury Ink]
* [Bamboo Bolts]
* [Salt]
* [Termite Queen Pheromone (Looted from a rotten log earlier)]
Bhy Khay grinned.
"Zayn," Bhy Khay handed him the vial of pheromones. "Can you hit that knot on the trunk? The one that looks like a face?"
"I can hit a fly off a mule's ear at 100 paces," Zayn bragged. "Yes."
"Dip your arrow in this," Bhy Khay ordered. "We aren't fighting the tree. We're inviting guests for dinner."
Zayn coated the bamboo bolt in the pungent, musky liquid.
TWANG.
The arrow flew true. It embedded itself deep into the soft wood of the tree's "mouth."
SCREEEE!
The Iroko tree roared—a deep, wooden groaning sound. Its branches thrashed, trying to pull the arrow out, but it couldn't reach.
"Now we wait," Bhy Khay checked his watch.
"For what?" Elara asked. "It's just an arrow."
"For the neighbors," Bhy Khay pointed to the ground.
The dirt began to churn. Not from the tree roots. From millions of tiny insects.
[EVENT TRIGGERED: TERMITE SWARM]
A cloud of [Giant Termites (Lvl 5)] erupted from the surrounding forest, drawn by the irresistible scent of the Queen Pheromone.
They swarmed the Iroko tree.
"Oh god," Tomiwa gagged. "That's nasty."
The termites didn't attack the players. They ignored them completely. They only wanted the "Queen" inside the tree.
They bit into the ironwood bark. Their acid saliva melted the defenses. They burrowed. They ate.
[BOSS HP: 4900... 4500... 3000...]
The Iroko thrashed wildly, crushing termites by the thousands, but for every one it killed, ten more appeared. It was being eaten from the inside out.
"Biological warfare," Bhy Khay nodded approvingly. "Nature's recycling program."
The tree let out a final, hollow groan. Its trunk snapped under its own weight.
CRACK-BOOM.
The massive Iroko fell, shattering into a pile of sawdust and loot.
[BOSS DEFEATED: ELDER IROKO]
[XP GAINED: +8000 (Split)]
[LEVEL UP! (12 -> 14)]
"That was... effective," Zayn admitted, lowering his bow. "And gross."
Bhy Khay walked over to the wreckage. He pushed aside a pile of termites to reveal the loot.
A glowing green wooden shield.
[ITEM: IRONWOOD SHIELD (Rare)]
[DEFENSE: +50]
[PASSIVE: REGEN (Heals 1 HP/sec)]
And something else.
Embedded in the roots of the tree wasn't loot. It was metal. A hatch.
[OBJECT: BUNKER ENTRANCE]
[MARKING: NIGERIAN ARMY - BLACK SITE]
"A bunker?" Elara frowned. "In a nature reserve?"
"The map said 'Iita Forest'," Bhy Khay dusted off the hatch. "But the code says 'Server Farm'."
He looked at the keypad. It was military grade.
"Dr. Balogun mentioned the Source Code," Bhy Khay typed in a generic override command. [ACCESS DENIED]. "This isn't a dungeon. It's a backdoor."
He turned to the team.
"We hit Level 14. That's good enough for now. Because I think we just found the basement of the apocalypse."
He pulled the handle.
HISS.
The hatch opened, revealing a dark ladder descending into the earth. The air that came up smelled of ozone and old servers.
"Who goes first?" Zayn asked, stepping back. "Not it."
"I'll go," Bhy Khay activated his [Sovereign Eyes]. "I want to see what the System is hiding under the flowers."
[QUEST UPDATED: THE UNDERGROUND.]
[NEW ZONE: IITA BLACK SITE.]
Bhy Khay stepped onto the ladder.
"Don't touch anything glowing," he warned. "And if you see a squirrel... shoot it twice."