No wish in this world comes without a price.
And a corrupted wish, even one as simple as for a toy, is certain to hide an unfathomable danger.
The first wish in this dream’s story left no room for refusal—it was essentially a scripted event. The second and third wishes, however, hid clear inducements with the unique flair of the Star Spirit Race, offering a choice to either accept or refuse.
A beautiful maiden;
Power, wealth...
Had he chosen to accept, then according to the Star Spirit Race’s principle of equivalent exchange and the Colorful Insect’s twisted nature, Shi Ming would have had to pay another price by some inherent law. And regardless of whether he could afford it, Shi Ming never took a loss.
Besides, he had already figured out how to win the war game.
The one-legged tin soldier, its body mottled and faded, was clearly different from the other greenhorns. It was a veteran, seasoned by the battlefield. As the master of these tin soldiers, Shi Ming’s role was "Commander," yet the Commander couldn’t control the miniature battlefield directly. The only way to win was to delegate authority and unleash the initiative of the tin soldiers themselves, allowing the weak to overcome the strong.
And indeed, that’s how it played out.
Now, the warm-up was over.
’It’s time for the real "final boss" to make an appearance...’
At Shi Ming’s exposé, the beautiful Queen, her face a mask of astonishment under her magnificent robes, began to turn ethereal. In contrast, the rainbow-colored robe she wore grew more solid. It gathered together, coalescing into a fist-sized, colorful star. This star possessed a complete consciousness of its own. It blinked, and a childish, milky voice laced with a twisted evil spoke:
"Hee hee hee, you really are clever."
"But you are no match for the ’Banded’!"
"My 718th wish is to make this outsider..."
It only got halfway through its wish before it was forcefully cut off.
A sharp pain shot through its body. It felt as though other insects had burrowed into its very mind, their foreign presence beginning to corrode its thoughts. The Colorful Insect was unlike other living beings. In essence, it was living pollution, immune to most forms of physical attack. But right now, those immunities were completely useless. This Celestial Calamity-level Colorful Insect was experiencing a pain like never before!
Pain!
It hurt so much!
A shower of fine stardust broke away from the Colorful Wishing Star, scattering across the luxurious carpet. The unprecedented agony made its thoughts seize up, and its intention to make a wish was instantly corroded and snuffed out.
Seizing the opportunity, the child-sized Shi Ming summoned the Blade of Chaos. His body moved like a beam of light as he slashed viciously at the flickering Wishing Star!
WHOOSH~
The Blade of Chaos passed right through the Wishing Star.
’Just as I thought, attacks from the physical world have no effect on it!’
Vile tentacles sprouted from Shi Ming’s palm, rapidly climbing over and binding the momentarily paralyzed Wishing Star. From the suckers on the tentacles, a type of pollution utterly different in nature from the ’Banded’ was secreted, seeping into the star’s core! The fundamentally different pollution on the outside and the boring insects on the inside created a two-pronged attack—one from without, one from within.
’The goal is to control this "immortal" Colorful Insect in the shortest time possible!’
’And then squeeze it for all it’s worth!’
Binding, gnawing!
’Good thing it changed back from its human form to a star! Otherwise, seeing these tentacles attacking the body of that beautiful Queen would have been some serious visual pollution!’
HISS!
This Colorful Insect, in its Wishing Star form, clearly lacked combat experience. The moment it met with a setback, it abandoned its attack and switched to defense. Shi Ming also discovered that, just as his intel had suggested, a Celestial Calamity-level Colorful Insect couldn’t be killed. Even after his borers had gnawed on it a dozen times, the star only shed a few fragments. It let out a grating, groaning sound that set one’s teeth on edge, but its body showed no signs of collapsing!
’It’s incredibly tough!’
[The Eye of Destiny has detected that you and the Colorful Insect are engaged in a protracted battle within the Dream Space it has created.]
[While this cannot truly kill the Colorful Insect, it may cause the Banded Dream Realm’s treasure, the ’Wishing Star of All Worlds,’ to shatter. This artifact, already fused with the Colorful Insect, cannot withstand the repeated, exponentially intensifying [Gnaw].]
[If you wish to exploit your prey, you must also give it a chance to breathe.]
[Hold back, Ah Ming.]
???
’I’ll take its advice! The battle can stop, but I’m not leaving without my spoils.’
Shi Ming stopped the [Gnaw] and began searching for another opening.
The colorful star, given a moment’s respite, gave up its resistance. It dissolved into a swirl of ethereal colors and fled, taking Shi Ming’s borers along with it. In the same instant, all the doors and windows of the spacious Prince’s bedchamber sealed shut, transforming the square room into a solid cage.
This wouldn’t hold Shi Ming for long.
But it could buy the Colorful Insect time to escape.
Shi Ming wasn’t worried.
Once the borers use [Gnaw] to create an opening and burrow into a target’s thoughts, they become part of the target itself. Even if the Colorful Insect dissolved into pollution to escape, it would have to take the borers with it.
They would cling to it like maggots to a bone, an inescapable shadow.
A creature with a physical body could perhaps abandon a piece of its flesh, forcefully carving out the infestation. But abstract thoughts are a single, unified whole. Severing a part of one’s own mind is exceptionally difficult.
Right now, Shi Ming could already sense his borers being carried away by the Colorful Insect as it fled, moving farther and farther from his current location.
’It’s fused with the ’Wishing Star of All Worlds’.
’It took my reward.’
’Now I really have no choice but to squeeze it for everything it’s worth.’
Just like in a fairy tale, the passage of time in the bedchamber was completely arbitrary. A few minutes, or even a few seconds, could represent an entire day—it all depended on the will of the protagonist.