System stared at the light from the fires burning in the distant Lilt Mountains and fell deep into thought...

  Soon, one of the volcanoes in the Lilt Mountains erupted. The powerful explosion, like fireworks, illuminated the night sky above Lilt Forest as if it were day.

  However, after only a short while, thick bck smoke obscured the white light, leaving only occasional glimpses of firelight visible in the distance.

  Hidden behind the billowing bck smoke, the volcano ejected pyrocstic rocks in all directions. The scattered rocks seemed to form a meteor shower, endlessly raining down from the sky.

  The energy of the volcanic eruption was extremely powerful, and these scattered rock fragments carried strong kinetic energy. System even saw a glowing red rock fragment nd very close to him after being bsted into the sky from more than a thousand kilometers away.

  He also seemed to hear a few vague dragon roars coming from the Lilt Mountains, but the bck smoke from the volcanic eruption was too thick, so he couldn't see what was happening over there.

  'Is that the Lord of Gciers? With his power, he could completely stop all of this. What happened?'

  System's mind was full of questions. He had no idea what was going on. Looking at the pyrocstic rocks that fell from the sky from time to time, System didn't wait any longer. He decisively ordered his ant subjects to return to the underground nest.

  Although staying in the nest would be dangerous if there was another earthquake, the rocks falling from the sky were undoubtedly a greater threat.

  ...

  After returning with his ant subjects to the underground nest, System and the little meatball flew into the sky above the forest. He first observed the giant frost goblin vilge, as they were also members of the Winter Legion.

  However, after searching for a long time from a height of hundreds of meters, System hadn't found even the shadow of a goblin.

  Because of the strong earthquake, the fallen trees and uneven ground were a mess, so System couldn't find any tracks on the forest's snowy ground.

  Except for some caterpilrs crawling on the moss in nearby trees, System only found a squirrel sitting on a branch, curiously looking at the distant fire and bck smoke.

  "Father, fire."

  Compared to System's worries, Meatball's thoughts were much simpler. He still didn't understand what had happened, and only thought that System was keeping his promise to take him outside to fly around and py.

  System ignored the little meatball's words. As he watched the bck smoke rising from the Lilt Mountains gradually spread out, he used the [Tools Menu] to run some calcutions.

  If the smoke spread at its current speed, System estimated that his location would be covered by the smoke from the volcanic eruption in seven or eight hours.

  Suddenly, System stretched out his tentacles, grabbed Meatball who was flying next to him, and dashed sideways in the air.

  A few seconds ter, a fiery red rock with a diameter of nearly one meter tore through the sky right where System and the little meatball had just been.

  System's [Intuition] was as accurate as ever, and had successfully allowed the two of them to avoid a fatal crisis.

  However, no matter how accurate his [Intuition] was, it couldn't change System's current situation.

  After patrolling in the air for a while longer, System and Meatball returned to the nest. All he could do right now was hide in the nest with his ant subjects. He needed to wait until the volcanic eruption crisis was over before considering anything else.

  Although there were still occasional aftershocks, they were already extremely minor, so System and his ant subjects began repairing the underground nest.

  The parts of the nest within two meters of the surface hadn't suffered much damage from the earthquake. The temperature under the half-meter-deep snow was still around minus twenty degrees Celsius, and the top yer of soil was completely frozen. None of the chambers close to the surface had colpsed.

  However, after reaching a depth of two meters, the temperature was warmer. The soil was much looser, which had led to most of the lower chambers colpsing. Some of the chambers used for storing food had also been buried.

  What System had to do now was try to get the ants to excavate the lower chambers again so that there would be enough space for them all to rest.

  As for the rge number of chambers in the top two meters, although they could still be lived in, they weren't safe due to the pyrocstic rocks falling from the sky.

  However, when System had just started directing the ants to work, he suddenly felt an inexplicable dizziness, and he became extremely sleepy.

  He looked over and saw that Shava had already fallen to the ground unconscious at some point.

  However, except for Shava and him, none of the other ants or the little meatball felt dizzy.

  Enduring the sleepiness in his brain, System handed the remaining tasks to the most intelligent ant, Bck, and asked the ten worker ant knights to obey Bck's commands.

  Then System fell asleep.

  ...

  When System woke up, the time dispyed in his [Tools Menu] showed that more than thirty hours had passed. He'd been unconscious for a full day and a half.

  Except for the sounds of ants going about their work, the entire nest was very quiet. The aftershocks caused by the volcanic eruption and the sound of rocks falling from the sky seemed to have completely stopped.

  System's antennae detected the unpleasant stink of smoke. It seemed that after a day and a half, the bck smoke produced by the volcanic eruption had indeed reached his nest.

  He just didn't know how much damage this bck smoke had caused to his ant subjects.

  After stretching out his tentacles to check his body, System looked over at Shava who was still sleeping beside him. He tried to think of what could have caused both him and Shava to have suddenly fallen asleep.

  In recent days, the two of them hadn't eaten any unusual foods, nor had they done anything strange. It was really odd that both of them had passed out at the same time.

  But soon System noticed something unusual. He looked down at his thorax and at the exoskeleton on Shava's left shoulder.

  'They're gone...,' System thought to himself. At the same time, he opened [My Information] in the [Tools Menu] to check his situation.

  ...

  Title: [Exotic Insect].

  ...

  His [Winter Legion] title had disappeared along with the diamond pattern on his thorax.

  It seemed that he and Shava had both fallen unconscious because they'd suddenly left the Winter Legion.

  System used his tentacles to perform a simple check on the unconscious Shava and found that she'd probably be asleep for another day or two before waking up.

  The reason he could wake up so quickly was because of his [Digital Code] talent that had partially digitized his body. The disappearance of the title didn't have much of an impact on him.

  According to Aura's character, he'd never take back the [Winter Legion] title from System and Shava at the same time.

  Recalling the faint dragon roar that he'd heard during the sudden eruption in the Lilt Mountains, System guessed that the Lord of Gciers had either gone missing again like he had three hundred years earlier or had died.

  'Abyss demons, old druids, the Winter Legion, erupting volcanoes...'

  As he recalled his uneasy feelings from the past few months, System realized that there must be some sort of hidden secret in this forest, and he didn't want himself or his ant subjects to get involved with it.

  No matter how things turned out, it wasn't a wise move to continue staying in Lilt Forest. System wanted to take his ant subjects and leave.