Chapter 14
Chapter 14: The Terror Scarecrow
Night fell without warning.
The "Bridal Chamber" area Wu Hao had deliberately sectioned off was located in a low-lying hollow 100 meters from the camp.
The towering wheat stalks around it had been pressed flat, with a layer of clothing spread out to serve as bedding.
Red moonlight poured down, casting the entire area in an ambiguous and eerie filter.
"Jinsheng-gege…go easy on me later, okay? Don't hurt me."
Bai Lianhua sat on that pile of clothing, pretending to shyly undo her buttons while rolling her eyes on the inside.
This wretched place was full of wheat stubble, stabbing her backside raw.
And Wang Jinsheng—ever since arriving just now—had been standing there in a daze the entire time.
His back was to the light, making his expression impossible to read. All she could hear was that heavy breathing.
"Heh heh…"
Wang Jinsheng let out a slow, vacant laugh and drew closer.
Bai Lianhua forced down her revulsion and proactively hooked her arms around Wang Jinsheng's neck, her breath warm against his face.
"You big dummy, what are you just standing there for? Didn't you say…you wanted me?"
"Come on. As long as you listen to me from now on, it's not like I can't make it worth your while…"
However, before she could finish her words—
Those two large hands that should have wrapped around her waist instead clamped around her throat with crushing force!
"Cough! You—"
Bai Lianhua's eyes flew open in terror. She was just about to curse when the red moonlight let her see Wang Jinsheng's face clearly.
That face, which had always looked honest and simple, was now splitting apart down the middle!
Not his mouth opening—but his entire facial skin, like an ill-fitting garment, tearing apart from the bridge of the nose!
Beneath that split flesh and skin, there were no bones, no muscle.
Only clumps of dry, yellowed straw soaked in dark-red blood!
"That's right…I want…your body."
Wang Jinsheng's voice had changed.
No longer the plain, simple voice of a man—instead it sounded like 2 pieces of rotted wood grinding together, piercing and hollow.
"This skin…too tight…need a new one…"
"Ahhhh! Mon—mmph mmph!"
Bai Lianhua finally registered what was happening and let out a shriek of pure terror.
But that scream had barely left her mouth before countless coarse stalks of straw drilling out from Wang Jinsheng's mouth stuffed it brutally back down her throat!
"Mmph!! Mmph mmph!!"
Bai Lianhua thrashed wildly, her nails raking and clawing at Wang Jinsheng's body—but all she tore away were fistfuls of rotting straw.
Squelch!
Wang Jinsheng's hand—now fully transformed into straw—plunged violently into Bai Lianhua's abdominal cavity!
Like someone stuffing cotton into a rag doll.
He crammed straw into Bai Lianhua's body with frantic speed!
First her belly, then her chest cavity, then her limbs.
And to fit in even more, he savagely tore open the corners of her mouth, the corners of her eyes.
In the blood-red moonlight, 2 silhouettes overlapped and thrashed violently together.
The sound of cracking bones and dull, heavy impacts filled the air.
……
"Heh heh……listen to that, listen to that."
Back at the camp, several boys on watch duty elbowed each other with knowing grins plastered across their faces.
"Wang Jinsheng always seemed so straightforward and dull—didn't think he had it in him!"
"That noise, though—being a sports student really does something for your stamina!"
"That plastic surgery face of Bai Lianhua's—bet she's having the time of her life right now."
The group erupted in a round of knowing laughter.
Yet Wu Hao, sitting by the campfire, wore an expression that was anything but at ease.
He held half a compressed cracker in his hand, brow tightly furrowed.
Not because Bai Lianhua had been "claimed"—but because he could sense something deeply, fundamentally wrong.
"Too fast……"
Wu Hao glanced at the luminous dial of his wristwatch. It was only 2 in the afternoon, yet the sky had already gone pitch black.
This kind of time flow that defied all natural law made the unease gnawing at his chest grow stronger and stronger.
"Wu Hao, the supplies are running low."
Liang Rui finished taking stock of the packs and walked over with a grim expression.
"Even if everyone rations carefully, what we have left will last 2 days at most."
"Don't panic."
Wu Hao drew a deep breath. A flash of ruthlessness passed through his eyes as he pointed up at the sky.
"Remember that leaderboard?"
"Since the No. 1 ranked 'No Words Needed' was able to farm points, it means the monsters can be hunted!"
"If I'm right, this thing resets every day."
The arc of lightning dancing in Wu Hao's hand lit up his face—a face full of ambition.
"As long as we start hunting those crows tomorrow, we'll earn points and rewards!"
"With me, a Grade B Lightning Mastery awakener, everything's a walk in the park."
"The longer we survive, the richer the rewards!"
Liang Rui nodded, her eyes full of admiration.
"Alright. I'll fight alongside you."
"As long as we work together, we'll definitely rule this whole area."
Then she cast a glance in the direction of the wheat field, still producing its sounds, and sneered.
"Should we…call Wang Jinsheng back?"
"No need."
Wu Hao let out a cold scoff. "Let him have his fun for the day."
"Keep that Bai Lianhua woman well-satisfied, and that pair of dogs will be even more loyal attack dogs for me."
Liang Rui couldn't have asked for anything better.
As long as Wang Jinsheng was locked down with Bai Lianhua, no one would compete with her for Wu Hao.
……
However, not everyone was this well-behaved.
"Come on, let's go crash the Bridal Chamber!"
3 bolder boys, their curiosity stoked beyond bearing by the sounds from earlier, exchanged glances and broke into wicked grins.
"Heh heh, we'll just take a quick peek—let's see what that Bai Lianhua looks like in private, after all that holier-than-thou posturing she puts on!"
The 3 of them crouched low and, using the cover of the wheat stalks, quietly crept toward the direction the sounds were coming from.
Before long, they spotted a trampled clearing ahead.
In the blood-red moonlight, a pale white figure was kneeling with its back to them, completely motionless.
"Holy crap…she's so pale?"
All 3 of them went wide-eyed and swallowed hard, trading a silent signal between them.
Three, two, one!
"Ha! Surprise—"
The 3 of them burst out from the wheat field to give the pair a fright.
But the moment they saw what lay before them, the leering smiles on their faces instantly froze and curdled into abject horror.
"Uh…ah…"
The figure kneeling on the ground was indeed Bai Lianhua.
But the skin all over her body had been torn to shreds.
Her mouth gaped wide open. Her eye sockets were hollow and empty. Her nostrils had been forced apart. Her ears had been ripped open.
And in every single one of those openings…
Stuffed full of dry, yellowed straw stained with blood!
Her belly had been split open, her internal organs gone without a trace, replaced by tightly-packed bundles of straw!
This was no Bridal Chamber tryst.
This was a freshly finished, still-dripping "Human Skin Scarecrow"!
"Ahhhhh!!!"
The 3 of them were scared half out of their wits. Before the screams could even fully escape their mouths—
"Surp~rise~"
A grinding, hollow voice sounded softly at their backs.
The 3 of them froze and turned around stiffly.
Where there had been nothing at all before, a towering Scarecrow now loomed.
It held a battered old lantern in its hand.
"Ahhhh! Monster!"
All 3 screamed at once.
The next second.
Crack!
The handle of the lantern instantly elongated, transforming into a massive scythe—rust-spotted but razor-sharp!
A cold flash of steel!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
3 heads shot skyward, blood from their severed necks spraying across the wheat stalks.
The Scarecrow did not stop.
It reached out its other 2 hands, seized the headless corpses, and the straw coursing through it surged wildly, drilling into the hollow of each severed neck.
It was making new companions.
……
"Ahhhhh! Murder! Someone's been killed!!"
Not far away, a boy who had been slow to follow and was still hanging back watching let out a shrill scream. He had seen everything with his own eyes. He wet himself on the spot, turned, and ran!
"Help! Wu Hao, help! There's a monster!!"
That single scream shattered the dead silence of the night.
The Scarecrow in the middle of working on the corpses paused.
Crack crack crack…
Its head rotated 180 degrees. Those eyes blazing with red light locked onto the fleeing boy.
"Roaaaar!!"
This time, it no longer mimicked a human voice.
Instead, it let out a howl like a wild beast!
Its previously rigid body instantly dropped into a prone stance, and a 3rd arm—gnarled like dead wood—erupted from its back!
All 3 arms working in tandem, it moved like a massive, deformed spider, scuttling madly across the wheat field at a speed that left trailing afterimages!
……
"What was that?!"
Back at camp, Wu Hao and Liang Rui shot to their feet.
"Over there! It's that idiot who went to crash the Bridal Chamber!"
The remaining boys all pointed in that direction.
"Ahhhhh! Stay back!! Don't—"
The agonized plea cut off sharply, followed immediately by the sound of shattering bones.
"The hell! You dare touch my people?!"
Wu Hao's eyes blazed with fury—along with the confidence that came from being a Grade B awakener.
"Liang Rui! With me! Everyone else—grab a weapon and follow!"
"Yes!"
The 3 of them charged furiously into the depths of the wheat field.
Yet when they arrived at the scene, all they found was a ground carpeted with mangled flesh—and those fresh "new Scarecrows" impaled upright on wooden stakes.
"What…what the hell is this thing…?"
One of the boys vomited on the spot.
"Who?! Come out!!"
Lightning surged in Wu Hao's hands, lighting up everything around them.
Whoosh~
A cold wind swept through.
The wheat rippled in waves.
A massive black shadow dropped from directly above their heads!
"Watch out!"
Liang Rui let out a shriek, hurling a fireball from her hand.
Boom!
The flames struck the Scarecrow—but scorched only a few stalks of straw before snuffing out entirely.
"No damage?! How is that possible?!"
Wu Hao discovered in horror that his lightning, striking the creature's body, had been stopped cold by one of those dead-wood arms!
This was no ordinary monster!
This was a Boss! This was an Overlord!
"Run! Everyone run!!"
Wu Hao finally grasped the gap in power between them and spun around to flee.
But it was too late.
The Scarecrow swung its scythe. In this wheat field, it was a god.
"Ahhhhh!!"
"My leg!!"
This was a one-sided slaughter.
Against this terrifying creature, the 3 of them were lambs awaiting the blade.
The scythe swept. Heads fell.
In barely 3 minutes.
The lightning went dark. The flames dissolved.
"Ugh…ugh ugh, Liang Rui…s-save…save me!"
Wu Hao had been cut clean in half at the waist by the scythe. His lower half was still running, but his upper half was already being packed with straw.
The arrogance that had blazed in him moments before was gone entirely, replaced by desperate, pathetic pleas for help…
And the Scarecrow's transformation.
……
5 minutes later.
The wheat field returned to dead silence.
Only the thick, cloying smell of blood drifted through the air.
In a furrow between the wheat rows, beside a heap of corpses.
Liang Rui was curled into a ball, clamping both hands over her mouth, tears streaming freely down her face—but not daring to make a single sound.
She had seen it.
She had been hiding in the darkness just now and watched with her own eyes as the creature killed Wu Hao—then suddenly stopped.
It was listening.
Wherever a scream came from, the scythe flew.
‘Sound…it hunts by sound!’
A surge of wild joy rose in Liang Rui's chest. She had found the way to survive!
‘As long as I don't make a sound…as long as I stay completely, absolutely silent…it can't find me!’
She held her breath, forcibly suppressed even the pounding of her own heartbeat, and lay flat against the muddy ground—still as a stone.
Sure enough.
The terrifying Scarecrow turned 2 slow circles in place, seeming to have lost its target. It waved a hand, picked up its lantern, and turned to leave.
‘I survived…I actually survived…’
A flood of joy at having cheated death surged through Liang Rui's chest.
However.
At the very moment the Scarecrow was about to turn and walk away—
Whoosh~
A night breeze swept across the wheat field.
Shhhh……
The tall wheat stalks swayed with the wind.
One stalk of wheat brushed against the sleeve of Liang Rui's windbreaker.
Pat.
The sound was very soft.
Soft as a needle dropping onto the floor.
But to Liang Rui's ears, that sound was Death knocking at her door.
She looked up in terror.
And met the gaze of the Scarecrow—which had snapped its head back around at that exact moment.
That mouth, split wide open all the way to its ears, curved into a smile aimed directly at her.
"Shh."
The Scarecrow raised a finger—gnarled as a dead branch—to its lips in a silencing gesture.
The next second.
The scythe fell.
Blood stained the wheat field red.