Gao Wu: After holding back for eighteen years, my words are divine.

The twelve survivors collapsed on the ridge of the field, panting heavily.

Once it was confirmed that the terrifying crows dared not cross the boundary of the woods, the tension eased, and the pent-up tensions instantly erupted.

"Who pushed me just now?!"

Yu Shishi had disheveled hair and her knees were still bleeding. With red eyes, she pointed at the white lotus flower that was drinking water.

"You white lotus! You were the one who pushed over that log, weren't you?! You're trying to use me as bait!"

The white lotus flower, who was enjoying her narrow escape, twitched her eyelids, but quickly put on a pitiful expression.

"Shishi, what are you saying... It was so dark, everyone was running, and I almost fell too. How could I possibly hurt you?"

"But you, you were slow and almost dragged everyone down, and now you're trying to frame me... Waaah..."

As she spoke, she leaned against Yang Wei beside her, looking as if she had suffered a great injustice.

The three boys next to her who were originally pursuing Shishi were the so-called "simp group".

At this moment, in order to gain a foothold in the team, they all spoke up.

"Yes, Shishi, it was too chaotic just now, you must have seen it wrong."

"Bai is so frail, how could she possibly have the strength to push the log?"

"Everyone was terrified, don't take it to heart."

Seeing her former friend betray her and her suitor turn against her, Yu Shishi trembled with rage: "You...you all..."

"Enough!!"

An angry roar interrupted the argument.

Yang Wei abruptly threw down the empty water bottle in his hand and stood up with a fierce expression.

He shoved Yu Shishi on the shoulder, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Yu Shishi! Haven't you caused enough trouble?!"

Yang Wei pointed at her condescendingly, spitting as he spoke.

"In that situation, no one could help you! Everyone just wanted to live!"

"This isn't Earth! This isn't school! And you're not that little princess who's spoiled rotten by everyone at home!"

"If you want to live, shut your mouth and follow orders! Nobody wants to pay for your spoiled brat attitude!"

Yang Wei's words were like knives, ruthlessly tearing apart Yu Shishi's last shred of dignity.

With tears in her eyes, she looked around, only to find that none of the remaining dozen or so people were willing to stand up and say a word for her.

Everyone chose to remain silent or stand by and watch coldly.

Only Guo Shuai pretended to step forward and stop Yang Wei.

"Hey Lao Yang, calm down, don't ruin our relationship. We just escaped."

After saying that, he turned to Yu Shishi on the ground and spoke.

"Shishi, really, just apologize to everyone and let this matter go."

"Apologize?!"

Yu Shishi stared incredulously at the hypocritical face, her stubbornness rising within her.

"Why should I apologize?! She's the one who ruined me! You're all bad people! A bunch of bad people!"

"I don't want to stay with you guys anymore! I want to go back! I want to find Yuqing! Waaah..."

After saying that, she got up from the ground, wiped away her tears, and rushed into the dark edge of the woods without looking back.

They ran towards the direction of the bus.

"Hey! No..."

Wang Jinsheng, a substitute on the basketball team and one of the previous sycophants, instinctively tried to stop them.

But Yang Wei's cold gaze scared him away.

"let her go!"

Yang Wei snorted coldly: "This ungrateful burden is better off gone, saving us some food!"

"We don't know if we'll really be safe after sunrise tomorrow; we already don't have enough supplies!"

Wang Jinsheng shrank back, not daring to speak again.

At this moment, Yu Shishi ran into the darkness, panicking and running blindly.

In the darkness, Yu Shishi ran frantically, not knowing where to go.

Anger and resentment filled her mind, causing her to completely lose her temper.

"Thump!"

Suddenly, she tripped over something and fell hard to the ground again, even losing one of her shoes.

By the dim moonlight, she saw that what had tripped her was a scarecrow.

It stood quietly in the weeds at the edge of the wheat field, holding a lantern in its hand, its head bowed towards her.

Normally, Yu Shishi would have fainted from fright.

But at this moment, having just been humiliated by Yang Wei and betrayed by her best friend, the anger that had been building up in her heart had completely overwhelmed her reason.

"Even you're bullying me?!"

"You dare bully me, you wretched haystack?!"

Yu Shishi screamed, grabbed the shoe that had fallen to the side, and slammed it hard against the scarecrow's head!

"Snapped!"

The scarecrow's head, which was only connected by a few strings, was knocked to a 90-degree angle.

It looked ridiculous and laughable as it was hanging diagonally around his neck.

"Get out of the way! A good dog doesn't block the way!"

After venting her anger, covered in straw and filthy, Yu Shishi haphazardly put on her shoes.

He got up from the ground and limped towards the dark, twisted forest ahead.

Until her figure completely disappeared into the night.

The little scarecrow with its head tilted suddenly moved.

"Crunch... crunch..."

With a scraping sound, its head, which had been knocked askew, slowly and little by little turned back, revealing its incredibly ferocious face!

Two blinding red lights suddenly appeared where the eyes were originally drawn with charcoal!

The red light instantly locked onto the direction where Yu Shishi had left, and the mouth opened and closed.

However...

Just when it seemed it was about to do something...

Ahead, Yu Shishi's figure crossed an invisible boundary and plunged headfirst into the jungle of twisted trees.

Nourishing.

The blinding red light in the scarecrow's eyes suddenly went out the moment it came into contact with the scent of the forest.

It froze in place, staring blankly at the woods for two seconds.

The corners of his mouth, which had been contorted in a menacing grin, slowly turned down, seemingly...

Wronged?

Then it retreated back into the shadows and resumed its guard duty.

But the difference is...

It slowly opened its straw mouth and spoke in a hoarse, intermittent voice.

"You...bullied...me."

"You bullied me."

"You're bullying me."

The voice gradually changed from hoarse to clear and smooth.

The scarecrow was imitating Yu Shishi's words and voice...

...

Over here in the wheat field.

After eliminating the destabilizing factors, Yang Wei began arranging the night watch.

"Guo Shuai was in Class 1, Wang Jinsheng was in Class 2, Wu Hao was in Class 3... and Lianhua and I were in Class 4 and 5 respectively."

Bai Lianhua successfully landed the easiest job by using sweet talk and attentive service.

Late at night.

Apart from the night watchmen, the other students quickly fell into a deep sleep, overcome with fear and exhaustion.

In the latter half of the night, it was Wang Jinsheng's turn to keep watch.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the rustling sound of the wheat fields being blown by the wind.

Sudden.

"Waaaaah... Help..."

A faint sobbing sound came from the depths of the wheat field not far away.

Wang Jinsheng, who was dozing off, was suddenly jolted awake.

That voice... it sounds so familiar!

It's Yu Shishi!

"Shishi? You're back?"

Wang Jinsheng was overjoyed.

He's always harbored feelings for Shishi, and although he didn't dare say anything just now, now...

If I could rescue her alone, wouldn't I be able to take advantage of her vulnerability?

When lust takes hold, intelligence drops to zero.

He even forgot to wake the others and crept over furtively following the sound.

"Shishi? Is that you? Don't be afraid, it's your brother from the provincial capital..."

He pushed aside the towering wheat stalks and saw a petite figure standing with her back to him.

Wearing the same clothes as Yu Shishi, she was shaking her shoulders, seemingly crying.

"Hehe, Shishi, I knew you wouldn't want to leave us."

Wang Jinsheng swallowed hard and reached out to pat the shoulder of the person with his back turned.

however.

Just as his hand was about to touch it.

The figure suddenly stopped crying.

His head turned 180 degrees at an angle that no human could possibly do!

That's not Yu Shishi's face at all!

It was actually a piece of rag sewn together!

It was filled with hideous faces of rotting grass!

It has no facial features, only a blood-red slit that splits down to the base of its ear.

"surprise!"

The thing emitted a sharp, piercing imitation sound.

"ah!!!"

Wang Jinsheng was so terrified that he let out a scream.

But the next second, the scarecrow suddenly grew three arms and locked him tightly!

The gaping mouth suddenly opened wide and swallowed Wang Jinsheng's head whole!

Countless withered yellow straws instantly pierced his body, replacing his flesh and even bones in an instant!

……

"What was that sound?!"

"Ah! Someone screamed!"

Yang Wei, Guo Shuai, and the others were instantly awakened. As if facing a formidable enemy, they grabbed window breaker hammers and wooden sticks and rushed towards the direction of the shouts.

"Over there! That idiot Wang Jinsheng!"

The group rushed through the wheat fields and arrived at the scene of the incident.

But they found Wang Jinsheng lying on the ground, clutching his head, looking pained.

There were no monsters around.

"Entering the province? What's going on? What were you yelling about just now?!"

Guo Shuai asked nervously, shining a flashlight on his face.

The "Wang Jinsheng" on the ground slowly raised his head, a simple and honest smile on his face, and waved his hand.

"It's okay, it's okay... I'm sorry everyone."

"It was too dark just now, I tripped over a straw and hit my head. It hurt so much that I couldn't help but cry out."

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, followed by a chorus of complaints.

"Holy crap! That scared the hell out of me!"

"Are you crazy?! You scream like a pig being slaughtered just because you tripped and fell!"

"That's enough, let's go back to sleep."

Yang Wei cursed as he put away his weapon and turned to walk back.

Guo Shuai walked at the back, glancing at Wang Jinsheng with some suspicion, and asked with concern:

"Are you really alright? Did you hurt your head?"

"It's okay, it's really okay."

Wang Jinsheng stood up, his movements slightly stiff, but his tone was normal.

"Okay, then be careful not to fall again."

Guo Shuai smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

There was a strange stinging sensation when I touched it.

By the moonlight, he noticed that there were a few withered yellow straws hanging on Wang Jinsheng's shoulder.

"That was so careless, he's covered in grass."

Guo Shuai didn't pay any attention, casually brushed off the straw, and turned back.

And just as he turned around...

Wang Jinsheng, standing in the darkness, instantly lost his honest expression.

A wicked smile slowly spread across his lips.

Beneath his skin on his neck, one could vaguely see the movement of straw...

……

Meanwhile, outside the bus.

Compared to the eerie and terrifying scene in the wheat field, the bus presented a completely different picture.

Jiangnan sat like a contemplative figure atop a mountain of corpses piled high with crows.

Below, Chen Tong, Wang Meng, and Liu Yuqing were looking at him with an almost fanatical adoration.

"Amazing! Absolutely amazing!"

Wang Meng was still lamenting, "Hundreds of mutated crows! Wiped out just like that!"

"I peeked through the crack just now, and all the remaining crows flew away; they didn't dare come any closer!"

"Jiangnan is amazing..." Liu Yuqing couldn't help but exclaim.

However, this was in contrast to their high spirits.

Sitting atop the mountain of corpses, Jiangnan was extremely depressed and even felt like crying.

Losing big!

Huge loss!

To show off and to save his life, he burned over three hundred words in one go!

That was a whole year's savings!

and…

Jiangnan looked up at the roof of the car.

Because of that indiscriminate barrage from the "human Gatling gun," although it wiped out the crows...

But the already overburdened roof was riddled with holes by his air bullets.

It was teetering on the brink of collapse, with cold winds howling inside, and even its last defensive attributes were almost gone.

"well……"

Jiangnan sighed inwardly.

Just then, a buzzing sound rang in his mind.

He subconsciously glanced at the time in the lower right corner of his field of vision.

【00:00:00】

A new day has begun.

[Ding! Daily settlement completed.]

[Word limit refreshed: +1 (Current balance: 6341)]

Current location: Twisted Treeline

[Check-in successful!]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained the B-rank Word of Power 'Silence'!]

Upon hearing this notification sound, Jiangnan, who had been feeling sorry for Jiangnan, instantly perked up and straightened his back.

I've learned a new skill again!

A detailed stream of information flooded my mind.

【Words of Power: Silence (Level B)】

Function: Apply a powerful silencing force field centered on itself.

Within this force field, everything except the host will be stripped of its ability to speak and forcibly rendered mute.

Features: Lasts for one hour. Mandatory rule, no exemptions allowed.

Range: 30 meters in radius.

Consumption: 1 characters.

How to activate: Place your index finger in front of your lips and whisper the activation word: "Shh".

Jiangnan's eyes lit up as he read the description of the new skill.

Although it didn't cause any damage, it was simply an amazing skill!

I've been mute for so many years!

Finally, others can taste what it's like!

I simply don't believe that a normal person can become mute!

She can argue with him even though he's been mute for eighteen years!