The cannon fodder female supporting role in the misplaced life

As if cursed, the man was trapped in an endless cycle. He would chop down trees, chase the clothes stolen by the crow, then chop down trees again... and on and on, ad infinitum. And before this, Xu Yingying had never encountered him. So, how long had he been trapped in this cycle?

Xu Yingying sat quietly under the tree, feeling increasingly depressed. She didn't know how to leave this strange place, nor could she find the answer. At this moment, the only thing she could do was wait for the man to come back and ask him why he did this.

As time ticked by, Xu Yingying felt filled with doubt and unease. She began to wonder if there was a deeper meaning behind this mysterious man's actions. Perhaps all this was fate, and they had no control over it. However, whatever the reason, Xu Yingying was determined to get to the bottom of it. Only then could she find a way out of this strange forest.

After an unknown amount of time, the man came back. Xu Yingying immediately stepped forward and asked, "How long have you been doing this?"

The man looked at Xu Yingying who was speaking and replied, "I don't remember."

"You don't even remember how long you've been here?" Xu Yingying asked.

"Yes!" The man was about to pick up the axe to continue chopping the tree. Xu Yingying took a look and saw that the laurel tree had recovered to its original state without a single cut.

Looking at the scene before her, Xu Yingying felt dizzy, as if the whole world had become blurry. She couldn't help but wonder if she had misunderstood something or was trapped in an unsolvable mystery. She felt like she was trapped in an airtight room, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find the exit.

This feeling filled her with fear, and she began to ponder how to escape. Suddenly, a possibility struck her: perhaps the axe-wielding man and the crows circling in the sky weren't real, but rather symbols or allusions. If this scene were likened to an escape room game, then the man could very well be a non-player character (NPC). She, the player, must search for clues and solve puzzles to escape.

When this thought came to her mind, Xu Yingying felt a glimmer of hope. So, she decided not to follow the NPC's lead and instead try to understand the situation from a different perspective. Perhaps, only by breaking with convention and thinking creatively could she find a true solution.

Xu Yingying then began to carefully observe her surroundings, searching for any possible clues. She noticed that the wounds on the laurel tree were healing rapidly, suggesting it possessed a powerful self-repairing ability. This seemed relevant to solving the puzzle, but how could she use it specifically?

Xu Yingying fell into deep thought, trying to find an answer from various possibilities. She realized that if she could find a way to control the laurel tree's self-healing ability, perhaps she could open a way out of here. However, achieving this goal would not be easy and would require more time and thought.

At this time, Xu Yingying suddenly remembered that she still had Xiaowu, a cheating tool.

"Xiao Wu!"

"Host, what's wrong?" At this time, Xiao Wu looked at Xu Yingying lying in the school infirmary and knew that the host was dreaming again.

"I'm in a forest now, but I can't get out. I saw a man who was chopping down a laurel tree that heals itself. There was also a group of crows that would steal clothes." Xu Yingying described the scenes she saw in her dream to Xiaowu one by one.

"Host, are you dreaming? Aren't you lying in the school infirmary now?" After listening to Xu Yingying's description, Xiao Wu told Xu Yingying that she was dreaming.

"I know I'm dreaming, but I can't wake up directly from this dream. It's like entering an escape room game. What I just described are the scenes here. It's because I feel like I'm missing something that I can't leave this scene." Xu Yingying told Xiaowu her guess, hoping that Xiaowu could help her.

"Then I will search the scene you just mentioned to see if there is any similar situation." Xiao Wu then went to search. If he hadn't searched, he wouldn't have known that the scene described by Xu Yingying had a corresponding mythological story.

"Host, I've searched for relevant information about the scene you just described. It's an ancient myth. Legend has it that Wu Gang, obsessed with the path of immortality and neglecting his studies, angered the Emperor of Heaven, who sent him to the Moon Palace to chop down a laurel tree five hundred feet tall. This laurel tree possessed a magical ability, rapidly healing itself after each cut. Therefore, despite Wu Gang's tireless efforts, the tree could never be chopped down. This endless labor became a form of punishment for Wu Gang."

"So this man is Wu Gang from the Moon Palace? So I am in the Moon Palace now? But how come there is a forest in the Moon Palace?" Xu Yingying looked at the scenery on both sides of her again.

"Host, this is just your dream, not where you are now. Are you confused?" Xiao Wu reminded.

Xu Yingying came back to her senses. Yes! How could she have forgotten that she was in a dream and this was not the real world? Did she dream of Wu Gang in the Moon Palace?

But why did she dream of characters from ancient myths for no apparent reason? Xu Yingying, having arrived in the mission world, expanded her imagination.

She had no recollection of having read this myth before, as to what it was about. She only vaguely remembered that this character, like Chang'e, was in the distant Moon Palace.

After hearing Xiao Wu's description of Wu Gang being punished to chop down laurel trees in the Moon Palace, Xu Yingying was reminded of a similar story she had read in Western mythology.

The legend of Sisyphus, a figure in Greek mythology who, like the even more tragic Oedipus Rex, was the founder and king of Corinth, even kidnapped the god of death, thus eliminating death from the world.

Finally, Sisyphus offended the gods, and to punish him, the gods required him to push a huge rock to the top of a mountain. However, because the rock was too heavy, it would roll back down the mountain every time it reached the top, wasting all his previous efforts. So Sisyphus had to repeat this task endlessly. The gods believed that there was no more severe punishment than this kind of useless and hopeless labor. Sisyphus' life was slowly consumed by this useless and hopeless labor.