Curse

Night fell.

Misato Farm

All the farm residents rushed home before sunset, without exception... and the farm became silent.

Bob, the convenience store owner who was in charge of receiving Han Dong and his group today, walked home with extremely happy little steps, humming a little tune.

Bob is a bachelor in his forties with an elderly mother at home.

Today, he received several big customers from out of town and made a lot of money, so he planned to leave tonight with his mother and leave the farm that disgusted him.

"Mom, some rich college students came to the store today! I made my last $100 by borrowing Old John's house! Also, one of the girls in this group of college students is really pretty."

Bob may look to be in his forties, but his mental age is probably in his twenties.

Creak!

When the Wooden Gate is pushed open.

The floor of the house was covered with straw, and there wasn't much room to step on.

Bob was used to this kind of situation and went straight to his mother's bedroom.

Lying on the bed was a 'scarecrow', covered in straw so thick that almost no flesh was visible... Only by parting the layers of straw at the head could one vaguely see two Blood Filaments eyes.

"There seem to be a few more than yesterday."

Bob took out a simple weeder and used it to remove the straw from his mother's body.

It took two whole hours to shave the straw off her body... However, the mother herself was already in a state of 'human culture medium', with her pores stretched to the thickness of her little finger and filled with straw remnants.

It will grow back soon.

The body was shriveled and bloodless, as if all the nutrients had been squeezed out by the straw.

The mother opened her mouth as if to say something, but found that her mouth was full of straw and she couldn't speak at all.

"Mom, you don't have to Affliction anymore. I've raised enough money today! Let's leave here now, and your 'illness' will gradually disappear as you leave the farm."

Bob placed his mother in a homemade wheelchair and secured her body with straps to prevent her from falling during the push.

He quickly pushed his mother downstairs and left.

A small pickup truck with a full tank of gas was parked downstairs.

Just as Bob was trying to move his mother to the passenger seat.

Perhaps stimulated by the darkness, the straw in the mother's pores began to grow rapidly again, and some of the sharp straws pierced directly into Bob's back.

Wow...

It only punctured a small part of the skin; it wasn't serious.

But because the straw on his mother was growing at a visible rate, Bob found it difficult to carry her onto the passenger seat.

Left with no other choice.

They had no choice but to push their mother into the open cargo box at the back... They secured the wheelchair with several ropes and transported her away from the farm as a cargo.

When you return to the driver's seat and turn the car key to start the ignition...

Bob was surprised to see that straw had also grown on the back of his own hand... it seemed he had caught it from his mother.

His obsession with leaving the farm grew stronger.

He stepped on the gas and drove along the road he knew best.

It only takes half an hour to completely leave the farm.

During the drive, Bob would occasionally check the backpack on the passenger seat to make sure it was 'bulging'.

It was filled with banknotes.

Part of it was money he earned from living people, and part was money Bob collected from the dead by visiting missing families.

He simply wanted to get away from the farm and live anywhere else in Maine.

Due to the mass disappearances currently occurring in Maine, housing prices are incredibly low... This amount of money is enough for him to survive.

When they were about halfway there, Bob looked into the back of the car through the rearview mirror and was surprised to find that his mother was gone.

Squeak squeak squeak~~

Slam on the brakes.

Bob immediately got out of the car to check the situation, only to find that his mother, covered in straw, was still tied to the back of the truck and seemed fine.

"Strange... why couldn't I see it in the rearview mirror just now?"

Bob returned to the driver's seat.

But they found an extra 'guest' in the passenger seat: a child wearing a straw hood and a red cloth outfit, who was only six years old.

The child was also holding a corn lollipop in his hand.

Strange.

Bob has experienced far too many strange things during his time living on the farm... He has been preparing for a long time for tonight's escape plan.

He pulled out a homemade, modified, shortened shotgun from under the steering wheel and fired it at the child!

Snap!

The impact of the shotgun blast ejected the child from the car, and the small steel pellets all entered the strange child's body.

"Go to hell, Scarecrow!"

After cursing, Bob stepped on the gas and continued driving.

With only ten minutes left before leaving the farm, a terrifying scarecrow he had never seen before stood a hundred meters away on the road illuminated by his headlights.

Normal height.

But beneath the straw exterior lay a rusty metal frame.

Its hook-like curved feet plunged into the ground, allowing it to stand upright...

In his right hand, wrapped in a straw bag, he clutched a sinister and terrifying rusty iron sickle.

The other deformed arm, obtained through stitching, was dragging on the ground.

However, sitting on the shoulder of this terrifying scarecrow is the little boy who was just attacked by Bob, still licking the corn cob lollipop in his hand.

"I'll run you over."

Bob was quite confident in his new pickup truck. No matter how terrifying the scarecrow blocking the way was, it was only the size of an ordinary person.

I floored the accelerator and accelerated to 80 km/h.

It was about to crash into the scarecrow.

A sharp object sliced through the car, severing it in the middle... Bob's mother in the back was also cut in half, and straw flew everywhere.

The pickup truck split apart and crashed into the cornfields on either side.

Bob, who flew out of the driver's seat, was caught in mid-air by the Scarecrow with its stitched arms (mechanical, pork, bird eyes, and straw fabric)... His neck was tightly stuck and his mouth was wide open.

The scarecrow also had its mouth wide open.

Straws covered in black engine oil were used to dock with Bob.

It completely drained him in a short time... not just his vitality, but also Bob's recent memories.

In this memory, the scarecrow also captured a very interesting group of people, a group of young people who were able to resist the Curse Power to a great extent, who came to its territory.

Crunch, crunch...

The scarecrow moved its rusty iron body and slowly walked back to the center of the farm.

The child sitting on it was still licking the lollipop—the child was wearing a straw mask, and thin, thread-like tongues darted out from the gaps in the mask, licking the surface of the lollipop.

"The Hidden Resident —Sam—and its shell have arrived!"