Floor 101 opened into autumn.

The team appeared on a hill overlooking a small valley world. Golden leaves fell endlessly from enormous trees. A river wound through farms and villages. Smoke rose from chimneys. Children ran along dirt roads. Elderly villagers gathered leaves into baskets.

It looked peaceful.

That made Qin Yuheng cautious.

The mission panel appeared.

[Floor 101: Little World of Falling Leaves]

[Duration:

7 Tower days]

[Main Mission]

Protect Leaffall Valley through the final autumn cycle.

[Sub-Missions]

1. Prevent village population loss above 20%.

2. Identify cause of endless falling leaves.

3. Protect harvest stores.

4. Resolve conflict between villagers and forest spirits.

5. Accept that some leaves must fall.

[Warning]

Not every world is saved by stopping change.]

Qin Mo read the final sub-mission.

"Accept that some leaves must fall. I dislike poetic mission conditions."

Qin Lian looked at the valley.

"People live here."

Qin Yuchen nodded. "Long mission. We need roles."

Qin Yuheng assigned them.

Qin Yuchen would coordinate village defense.

Qin Lian would scout forest spirits.

Qin Mo would inspect seasonal formations and harvest storage.

Qin Yuheng would meet village elders and establish trust.

They entered Leaffall Village.

The villagers were wary but not hostile. Their elder, an old woman named Granny Su, explained the problem.

"The leaves have fallen for three years without winter. Crops weaken. Forest spirits blame us. We blame them. Something drinks the season."

A seasonal imbalance.

Not false sun.

Not Blood Sun.

At least not immediately.

The team spent the first day learning.

The valley depended on three ancient trees: Dawn Maple, River Ash, and Silent Elm. Their leaves regulated seasonal energy. But all three were shedding endlessly.

Forest spirits believed villagers overharvested leaf essence.

Villagers believed spirits cursed the fields.

Both were partly wrong.

On day two, Qin Lian met the forest spirit leader, a stag made of leaves and bark.

It said, "Humans steal autumn."

Granny Su said, "Spirits hoard spring."

Qin Mo inspected root channels and discovered a third force: underground decay worms draining seasonal energy from both farms and forest roots.

But why?

Day three brought the first attack. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Leafless beasts emerged at night, hollow animals with dry branch bones. They attacked grain stores.

Qin Yuchen defended villagers. Qin Lian tracked beasts. Qin Mo found worm tunnels beneath storage cellars.

Qin Yuheng realized the conflict between villagers and spirits was being amplified by scarcity.

Not enemy manipulation this time.

Natural imbalance worsened by distrust.

They organized joint defense.

Villagers guarded fields.

Forest spirits guarded root channels.

Qin Mo created shared storage seals that required both human and spirit marks to open.

Trust rose slowly.

On day four, they found the decay worm nest beneath the Silent Elm.

The boss was not evil in the usual sense.

[Autumn Devouring Root Worm]

[Level Equivalent: 60]

[Type:

Seasonal imbalance beast]

[Status:

Overgrown due stagnant autumn cycle]

It had grown because autumn never transitioned to winter.

The mission warning returned.

Not every world is saved by stopping change.

The villagers wanted endless harvest.

The spirits wanted endless leaf essence.

Both had resisted winter.

Their ancestors had created a formation to prolong autumn during famine. It worked once. Then became permanent.

The valley was starving because it refused seasonal death.

Qin Yuheng gathered villagers and spirits.

"You do not need to defeat autumn," he said. "You need to let it end."

Granny Su wept.

"We feared winter."

The stag spirit lowered its head.

"So did we."

The final battle involved weakening the Root Worm while Qin Mo dismantled the old autumn-prolonging formation. Qin Yuchen protected villagers. Qin Lian guided spirits through root tunnels. Qin Yuheng fought the worm without destroying the Silent Elm.

When the formation broke, the first snowflake fell.

The Root Worm shrank.

It became a normal root spirit and burrowed away.

Leaffall Valley changed.

Leaves stopped falling endlessly.

Winter began.

Some old leaves died.

But the valley breathed.

[Final autumn cycle resolved.]

[Villager-spirit conflict reconciled.]

[Seasonal transition restored.]

[Final Evaluation greatly increased.]

On the seventh day, Granny Su gave Qin Yuheng a basket of golden leaves.

"Some endings feed beginnings," she said.

Floor 101 was complete.