A rustling sound came from behind, and soil kept falling away around the cave. Xiang Wan knew something was chasing her. In a place like this, there was nothing but lizards.

"There's a crack on the left ahead, hide inside!"

Hearing the sounds behind her growing closer, she dared not be careless and leaped forward with all her might. Sure enough, she found a crevice in the ground beside her, just big enough for one person to hide in. She squeezed in with all her might, her backpack completely covering her. Just as she was hidden, she heard a huge creature approaching not far from her. Its heavy panting made Xiang Wan's heart pound. Before she could react, she found herself floating in the air.

"Xiao Qi, what happened? Did I die?"

Xiang Wan spoke before she thought, and only after calming down and observing carefully did she realize that she had simply had her soul extracted by the system. Oh my god, that scared me to death!

"Be content. If it weren't for the system's cleverness, we would both be finished."

"It's as if a system didn't bring me in here."

System: ...I'm so tired, I feel like I'll never love again.

Knowing that the lizard wouldn't find her, Xiang Wan'an relaxed and even had the leisure to observe the enormous creature that had been chasing her.

The cross-section filled the entire cave, its body covered in hard, fleshy spikes, and a large, bright red fleshy ball in its mouth that twitched occasionally. Its two eyeballs bulged from their sockets, the vertical pupils bloodshot, with a very, very narrow pupil in the center that would sometimes widen and sometimes shrink when it looked at something, giving it a very ferocious appearance. Most terrifying of all was its enormous mouth, splitting open to its neck on both sides, revealing sharp, gleaming teeth, and drool dripping onto the ground.

The lizard lingered in place for a long time, as if waiting for its prey to appear. Xiang Wan secretly rejoiced; if her physical body hadn't been in a state of suspended animation, the lizard, with its keen senses, would have been able to detect her heartbeat.

The only sounds in the cave were the lizard's wheezing and the occasional falling dirt. The lizard would sometimes mistake the falling dirt for food, swiftly striking with its tongue, then withdrawing it, and then quickly spitting it out.

Waiting for it to leave was a long process, and Xiang Wan couldn't help but want to ask the system about the movements of those two people.

"Don't worry, they're not as fast as you. They're currently tied up with something else and won't be here for a while."

"Are there other large creatures?"

"Otherwise what? The Pharaoh's tomb isn't so easy to break into."

"Do you think they had the protagonist's halo, which is why they were able to make it to the end?"

"It's hard to say. Some people are just incredibly lucky, like Liu Zijue and Zhou Ziqi, while others are destined to be cannon fodder, like Zhang Junjie and Yao Jiang."

"Is there any way to ruin their luck?"

"To put it this way, the world operates on a certain trajectory, and some people just happen to be on that trajectory, so they will never be in danger. It's like a machine whose operating method is predetermined. As long as you grasp the pattern, there will be no problem. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if a key component is damaged or replaced, the entire machine will malfunction, the operating process will change, and naturally the previous trajectory will become invalid."

"Am I the one who got replaced?"

"Good to know!"

It felt like she was a cog temporarily reassigned to change the workings of the world machine, moved wherever she was needed.

"Be content. You're not affected by the world's trajectory, so why don't you think of yourself as a bug and fix whatever's wrong?"

Well, thinking about it that way, I do feel much better.

The lizard, whether asleep or something else, just sat there motionless.

Why isn't it leaving yet?

"How do you expect it to move?"

The system's curt reply, however, did give Xiang Wan a wake-up call. How was such a large body supposed to turn around? It had squeezed its way in, and now that its body was congested with blood, trying to back out was just asking for trouble.

As the creature pondered, a series of clucking sounds came from outside the cave, growing louder and more frequent. Upon hearing this, the large lizard let out a low growl and began to retreat little by little.

A lot of soil was scraped off the cave floor, falling down in a rustling sound. The lizard struggled for a long time, but didn't seem to retreat much. Then, a series of low growls came from outside, and the lizard suddenly retreated with great force, scraping many of its fleshy barbs so badly they almost grew backward, but it didn't seem to care. Xiang Wan felt sorry for it; what could have happened to make this big guy so eager to go back?

"You're really carefree, even concerned about monsters."

"Little Seven, how about I take pity on you and show you some concern?"

"Thank you so much. Completing the task as soon as possible is the greatest care you can give to this system."

How boring. I was hoping to improve my relationship with them so I could find out what happened next.

In the blink of an eye, Xiang Wan returned to her body, only to find that her arms and legs were completely useless. The commotion outside the cave was quite loud, but she didn't have the time to care what the lizard was doing; making a quick getaway was the priority.

She slowly crawled out of the crevice, rubbed her arms and legs, and after catching her breath, tried to keep her footsteps low as she walked deeper into the cave.

This time, nothing followed. She walked about a hundred meters further in and saw a stone wall on the side of a cave with scratch marks.

"Xiao Qi, is this the place you're talking about? I can't see any entrance."

"look up!"

Xiang Wan looked up and, good heavens, there was a small hole the size of a fist pointing directly at her face; it would be difficult to even stick a hand in.

"You want to turn me into a snake and crawl inside? Come on!"

Xiang Wan closed her eyes and stood there waiting for the system's miraculous operation, which made the system tremble with anger.

"Can't you use your brain for once? If this system could change your body shape at will, would it need you?"

"Then how are we supposed to get in? Or should we call that big lizard to dig a hole?"

"...Heavens above, how could this system have to run into you? Poor, this system is so wise and powerful, if this continues, I'll be driven to my death by anger, literally driven to my death by anger!"

"Alright, Xiao Qi, I was just kidding. You actually took it seriously?"

Xiang Wan smiled; this was the system she knew.

Without further ado, Xiang Wan took out her climbing axe, pointed the handle upwards, and reached it into the cave above. She bumped into something, gave it a push, and heard a "clang." It sounded like a small section of stone from the side wall had extended outwards. She walked over, gripped both sides, and pulled hard to her side, creating a square opening just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Xiang Wan threw a glow stick inside, estimating it to be a tall, secret room. She crawled in, lay down, thought for a moment, then leaned out and lifted a stone brick. Just as she was about to block the gap in the stone wall, she suddenly shouted loudly outside.

"What are you doing?" the system asked curiously.

"It's nothing," Xiang Wan said as she put the bricks back in, "It's just to give those lizards something to do, so they won't go into heat for no reason."

System: ...Can it say that the host's idea is a bit too wicked? But it really likes it!