Chapter 164
Chapter 164: The Tangled Scarecrow
8 AM.
On the drill ground of the Central Base, a circular mobile fortress sat docked.
This was the latest mobile shelter developed by the Huaxia Think Tank.
Not only was its armor formidably thick, it could also achieve safe movement across hostile environments.
The Fortress.
At this moment, the newly reorganized Blade Squad was seated in full around the circular conference table inside the fortress.
For this mission to Eerie Island, Zhao Yan had temporarily withdrawn from Huaxia's Second Base.
He had bonded with this mobile fortress and officially become the Shelter's master and leader.
"Ahem..."
Zhao Yan held a tablet in his hands and cleared his throat.
His gaze kept drifting toward Elder Yue Tian, seated directly across from him.
"So... Commander, shall I begin?"
Zhao Yan was cursing furiously in his head.
‘Exactly which damned Think Tank member had made this decision?’
‘If they were going to send an elder-level heavyweight down from the heavens, why not just have Commander Yue Tian serve as squad captain?!’
Asking him—some grizzled old soldier—to give orders to a Central Base elder was more nerve-wracking than facing a Special-Grade Cursed Creature!
He wasn't the only one. Xin An and Shadow, seated beside him, were equally on edge, as though sitting on needles.
The feeling was exactly like being in the middle of an online gaming session with your squad, everyone trash-talking freely on voice chat—
—and then suddenly, a highly respected elder dragged a chair over and sat down right there in your internet café booth.
The pressure was absolutely suffocating.
Especially Liu Ruyan. Normally she feared neither heaven nor earth, yet faced with this living legend of a man—a towering ceiling of seniority—she was sitting meek as a quail, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
Shadow shot her a sideways glance and couldn't resist leaning in to mock her under her breath.
"Weren't you pretty bold when you were mouthing off at the Dragon God? 'A woman destined to become a god'—you actually said that out loud. What happened now?"
"Obviously!" Liu Ruyan shot her a glare and hissed back without a shred of remorse.
"The Dragon God's background was a complete unknown. And it wasn't even certain he was on our side! If he was an enemy and killed me after I ran my mouth, at least I'd have gotten a few good lines off. I could brag about it in the underworld."
"But Commander Yue is my direct superior. If I offend him, how am I supposed to survive in the military going forward? I'd be throwing everything away for nothing!"
Shadow's mouth twitched. "That's... actually sound reasoning. I can't argue with it."
‘This woman's cost-benefit calculations are truly something else.’
Yue Tian took in all 3 of their small antics without missing a beat.
"Comrades, there's no need to be on edge."
"On the battlefield, only orders matter—not seniority. You'll get used to it once we spend some time together."
"The reason I'm not serving as captain is simply because I have a separate classified mission."
"Squad Captain Zhao, please continue."
With the Commander having spoken, Zhao Yan finally exhaled and stepped into the matter at hand.
"Today's meeting is to discuss 3 critical issues."
"First: the Trial Reward—the privilege of returning to Blue Star."
Zhao Yan swiped his tablet.
"At present, portals to Blue Star have spontaneously materialized in the core zones of Huaxia's First and Second Bases."
"However, because of the Global Teleportation, we have absolutely no idea what Blue Star looks like now."
"As a precaution, the upper echelons have decided against acting rashly."
"An elite scouting unit is currently being organized to return to Blue Star for preliminary reconnaissance."
"The teleportation is projected to officially begin the day after tomorrow."
"Does anyone have anything to add?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The decision was sound. After a Global Teleportation, there was no telling what might have taken over the homeland—scouting ahead was standard procedure.
"Good. Then I'll move on to the 2nd matter."
Zhao Yan's expression turned grave.
"That is..."
"The current situation at Eagle Nation's 8th Base—the base to which the Black Shark Squad belongs."
"See for yourselves."
He cast his tablet screen to the holographic projector at the center of the fortress.
The moment the image lit up, every person's pupils contracted sharply!
Eagle Nation's 8th Base—once a skyline of towering high-rises—had been reduced to an ocean of fire!
Rubble and ruin stretched in every direction. Surveillance footage was filled with screams and wails!
Shadow shot to her feet, finger leveled at the crimson-black flames rampaging across the screen.
"That—that's the Black Flames! The Watchful Scarecrow has returned and descended upon the Savage Realm!"
Xin An closed her eyes, pressed her palms together, and prayed in silence.
"May the good people be safe."
Liu Ruyan merely tilted her chin up with disdain and sneered.
"It's nothing but a rampaging sore loser. Once this lady gets her hands on those 2 new S-Grade pieces of equipment, it won't win next time we meet!"
Yue Tian, however, had caught something the others missed. He pointed at the upper portion of the footage.
"Pay attention—there's no Blood Moon in the Savage Realm's sky."
"Which means the Watchful Scarecrow airdropped by the Sky Screen has only its true body and a 500-meter-radius domain."
"And yet it managed to completely annihilate Eagle Nation's 8th Base's armed forces in such a short time."
"Shall we say it's impressive?"
"Or shall we say... the one it imitated—No Words Needed—is the truly impressive one?"
At that, all 4 responded in unison: "Obviously No Words Needed is the impressive one!"
Recalling the scenes from the Trial, Shadow felt a lingering chill.
"We were all completely fooled at the start by that impersonation of Tribulation Flame. We couldn't find the right counter strategy. We fought with our hands tied, terrified of touching it even slightly."
"And so we let the Scarecrow snowball its way through the early game. By the late stage, there was no fighting it."
Zhao Yan nodded and continued playing the footage.
On screen, the Watchful Scarecrow was in a state of savage, unrestrained violence.
It had no trace of rational thought—nothing but a pure killing machine.
Everywhere it passed, Eagle Nation's Extraordinary Ones who had risen to resist were slaughtered with ease.
Then swiftly converted into Scarecrow Split Forms!
Everyone watching this couldn't suppress a sharp intake of breath.
An S-Grade Boss killing purely on instinct with no strategy was an utterly unreasonable disaster!
The footage continued.
Soon, the blood-soaked Watchful Scarecrow led its massive army of Split Forms.
It arrived before an enormous underground shelter warehouse.
It carved the doors open with ease.
Revealed inside were over a thousand unarmed civilians—clustered together, trembling in terror.
The Watchful Scarecrow tilted its featureless head to one side. A wisp of Black Flames kindled at its fingertips, aimed directly at the crowd—
Witnessing this hellscape of a scene, Xin An turned her head away, unable to watch.
Shadow clenched her fists until her knuckles went white.
Even the normally heartless Liu Ruyan couldn't help baring her teeth and spitting out, "Animals."
Only Zhao Yan and Yue Tian remained expressionless.
As veterans who had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood—
This kind of scene, where ordinary people were slaughtered like weeds before high-level Cursed Creatures—
They had seen it too many times. They had been helpless too many times.
But then!
Just when everyone had concluded that a massacre was about to unfold—
At the precise moment the Watchful Scarecrow raised its arm to hurl the Black Flames—
Its motion froze mid-air!
The surveillance feed clearly captured the murderous light in its eyes beginning to shift!
First, confusion...
Then, fury...
And finally—despair!
The entire Blade Squad stared in stunned silence.
"Wait?! What's happening? Did it hit a bug?"
Xin An's eyes went wide.
In that instant, a flash of insight struck Shadow's mind. She slapped the table.
"I remember now!"
"It was airdropped by the Sky Screen—and the Sky Screen stated,"
"'Berserk Bosses will synchronize memories from the Trial!'"
Liu Ruyan's face lit up with sudden realization. "Right, it did say that. So its reaction right now... could it be..."
The 2 women looked at each other, and each saw the shock mirrored in the other's eyes.
On screen at this moment, the Watchful Scarecrow had begun staggering backward uncontrollably!
Both hands clamped over its own head as it let out a shrieking howl!
It remembered.
It remembered everything.
The Watchful Scarecrow had never imagined that here—in this vast Savage Realm—
It would end up being the only monster that knew that man's true identity!
That man—
No. That god.
That man who had, with the barest flick of his hand, flayed and defleshed it—the man called Despair—
Was the supreme Dragon God!!
Staring down at its own reflection shimmering in the blood pooled on the ground—that face belonging to No Words Needed—
The Watchful Scarecrow felt as though its very soul was cracking apart from terror!
"What am I doing?!"
"I actually dared to wear a god's face and swagger around everywhere?!"
"No! He'll kill me for this!"
"If he finds out I've been bullying the weak while wearing his face—"
"He'll definitely kill me!"
"I don't want to die! I worked so hard to come back to life in the mortal world—I want to LIVE!"
"What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?!"
The Watchful Scarecrow was in such turmoil it looked ready to tear its own head off.
Then suddenly, across its featureless face—a flash of profound, all-encompassing enlightenment!
‘Since I can't beat him...’
‘What if I fully embrace his identity—even go further than him in upholding it?’
‘What if I became the most law-abiding, peace-loving entity in existence?!’