Half past three in the afternoon, at the edge of the wasteland.
The sun blazed overhead. This was the hottest time of day in the Barbaric Realm.
Outside the car, Wang Meng and Liu Yuqing trudged around the nearby barren land beneath the blazing sun, drenched in sweat.
They were trying to find the vanished Wheat Field.
"This is weird..."
Wang Meng wiped the sweat from his face and plopped down on a scorching-hot rock.
"When we were driving over, we could clearly see that this whole area was golden."
"How come we floored it and drove right up here, only for it to turn into barren land?"
"Did the Wheat Field grow legs and run off?"
Liu Yuqing was exhausted too. She pushed up her glasses. "It shouldn't have."
"That Broken Branch Old Tree Shishi mentioned is right over there. The landmark hasn't changed; the environment has."
"Could it be time? But that doesn't make sense either. It was daytime when we came, and we could see the Wheat Field!"
Wang Meng scratched his head.
Just as the two of them were completely stumped,
the RV's door slid open with a hiss.
Yu Shishi was sitting by the door, staring blankly at the Monitor Screen. Suddenly sensing someone behind her, she nearly jumped out of her chair in fright.
She turned around and saw Jiangnan, fully dressed.
"B-Big Boss! You're awake!"
Yu Shishi hurriedly stood up, rubbing her hands together nervously.
Jiangnan nodded without a word and walked straight off the vehicle.
A wave of heat hit him in the face.
Seeing Jiangnan get out, Wang Meng and Liu Yuqing hurried over, their faces full of guilt.
"Big Boss... sorry. We were too stupid."
"We've been searching forever, but still haven't found the entrance to the Wheat Field."
"There's nothing here but dirt and grass."
Jiangnan waved a hand to show that it was fine.
He walked over to the dead old tree, rubbed his chin, and surveyed the Empty Wasteland...
As well as the glaring sun overhead.
Something felt off.
A few kilometers away, he really had seen the Wheat Field.
So why had it disappeared when they got close?
Did the Wheat Field have a mind of its own, sense the danger posed by him, a Hacker, and hide?
Or...
Jiangnan glanced at the few crows circling in the distance.
Had these feathered pests tipped off the Scarecrows inside and shut the door?
"No."
Jiangnan shook his head, immediately ruling out the idea.
The Mutated Crows were clever, but they were chaotic evil creatures.
If they really could tip off the Scarecrows, they wouldn't have let them hide.
Quite the opposite. They would want to lure a powerful enemy like Jiangnan inside.
Then he and the Scarecrows could destroy each other, while the crows sat back and reaped the benefits.
Since this wasn't a case of "treating people differently depending on their status,"
there could only be one answer.
Jiangnan raised his head and squinted at the sun, which hung slightly out of place in the sky.
It was time.
The Time Flow here—or rather, the Space Rules—were different from those outside.
Only at a specific Time Node would the two spaces overlap and the entrance open.
Jiangnan had figured it out.
But the question now was, what time could they enter?
Why could they see it from far away but not up close?
He couldn't work out those details by guessing.
He needed to ask a "local."
So Jiangnan began to look around, seemingly without much interest.
But his peripheral vision had already locked onto a Mutated Crow that had landed behind them, poking its head out to spy.
Since it was daytime, this crow wasn't as violently aggressive as it had been last night.
It looked more or less like an ordinary bird. It even seemed a little dim-witted.
The corner of Jiangnan's mouth curled up.
You'll do.
He spun around and made a Zero Frame Start!
His right hand shot up, thumb raised, index finger extended, aimed straight at the spying crow!
He didn't activate Word Spirit. He simply made that Execution Gesture.
"Caw?!"
The instant the crow saw the gesture, its bead-like eyes nearly bulged out of its head!
It was a terror carved into its genes!
The Demon Mark of the slaughter of hundreds of its kind last night!
"Crap! He spotted me! I'm done for!"
Overcome by terror, the crow even forgot to run. Its Body Instantly Stiff.
Its legs kicked out and its tongue lolled as it dropped stiffly from the bushes.
Splat.
It hit the ground and instinctively played dead.
But after two seconds...
Huh?
That didn't hurt?
Its head hadn't exploded?
The crow secretly opened one eye, just about to flap its wings and take off.
A large hand clamped around its neck like iron pincers and hoisted it up!
"Caw! Caw-caw!!"
Let go of me, you demon!
The crow struggled wildly, but in Jiangnan's hand, it was no more than a helpless chick.
Just as Jiangnan had thought, the thing was clever, but not clever enough. Its smarts would be its undoing.
Holding the crow without a change in expression, Jiangnan took out his Memo Pad and drew a simple picture:
a Wheat Field, a Scarecrow, and then a moon.
He shoved the drawing in front of the crow, pointed at the picture, then pointed at the sky.
The meaning was obvious: Could they only enter at night?
The crow froze for a moment, its eyes flashing with humanlike surprise as it stared at the picture.
Was this demon asking for directions?
Its eyes rolled, then it nodded frantically.
"Caw-caw!"
That's right! At night!
Jiangnan nodded and drew a person on the paper, then pointed at the Wheat Field.
Next, he drew the person beside the Wheat Field, then pointed toward the wasteland.
He spread his hands, making a "Then what's going on right now?" expression.
Why did the Wheat Field disappear when people got close?
The crow struggled a bit, gesturing for Jiangnan to put it down so it could lead the way.
Jiangnan sneered and gave Wang Meng a look.
Wang Meng immediately found a rope and tied the crow's wings securely, leading it along like a dog.
Led by the Crow, they arrived at a Behind an Inconspicuous Stone at the border between the woods and the wasteland.
There, stuck in the ground, was a tattered Small Scarecrow only Palm-sized.
The crow picked up the Small Scarecrow in its beak and handed it to Jiangnan, its eyes full of cunning and amusement.
"Take it! You stupid humans!"
"The moment you touch it, the big guys inside will lock onto you! You're dead meat tonight!"
However,
it hadn't counted on there being an appraiser in the group.
"Wait! Don't touch it!"
Liu Yuqing shouted, pushed up her glasses, and swept a beam of blue light over the Small Scarecrow.
A few seconds later, Liu Yuqing's expression changed.
"Big Boss! It's a trap!"
Pointing at the little thing, she read out the appraisal details at top speed.
[Item]: Guardian Scarecrow
[Type]: Weird Thing
[Information]: An Evil Medium capable of creating a Wheat Field Illusion Node, designed specifically to invite unlucky fools to their deaths.
Anyone who touches it will instantly be afflicted with the highest level of [Scarecrow's Gaze].
Once they enter the Wheat Field, the Terrifying Scarecrow will mark them as its primary target and hunt them to the death!
After hearing that, Wang Meng and Liu Yuqing's faces turned green.
The crow had rubbed against their legs a few times when it brought the thing over!
Which meant... they'd all been marked!
"Damn it! That feathered bastard set us up!"
Liu Yuqing trembled with rage. Without a second thought, she raised her foot and stomped hard on the crow, which was still gloating to itself.
"Caw?!"
The crow was dumbfounded.
Before it could react, Wang Meng's size-48 shoe kicked over too.
"Picking on people! I'll stomp you flat!"
The two of them tag-teamed the poor crow, stomping it into a puddle of gore in no time.
After letting off steam, they looked at Jiangnan in alarm.
"Big Boss... what do we do? We've got that whatever-it's-called Gaze on us. If we go in tonight, won't the BOSS chase us down and kill us?"
Jiangnan looked at the Small Scarecrow on the ground, but showed no sign of panic.
On the contrary, he almost felt like laughing.
It made no difference to him whether he had that mark or not.
He was going to tear this Scarecrow apart and use it as coating anyway.
If the mark made that BOSS come looking for him and offer itself up to die, that would save him the trouble of searching for it.
Just what I wanted.
Jiangnan picked up the Small Scarecrow, casually hung it from his waist, then wrote on the memo pad.
[Back to the vehicle to rest.]
[Conserve your strength and wait until midnight.]
Meanwhile,
inside the Wheat Field, all was dead silent.
Yang Wei and Guo Shuai slumped on the ground, their eyes bloodshot and their minds nearly broken.
They kept walking and walking.
But no matter how far they went, all around them were those damn stalks of wheat!
What was most despairing was...
They had clearly survived the night and held out until the sun rose.
But!
The System Announcement in their minds still hadn't sounded!
There was no Awakening Fruit! Nothing at all!
It was as if the entire world had forgotten them!
"Why... why can't we get out..."
Yang Wei clutched his hair, his voice hoarse. "Are we already dead? Is this place hell?"
Guo Shuai said nothing.
He stared fixedly at the Mechanical Stopwatch on his wrist. It had been with him ever since he came to this world.
The watch face showed 15:33.
Three thirty in the afternoon.
Guo Shuai's mind raced as he rearranged every Time Node from the past day and night.
Suddenly.
He burst out laughing like a madman, his whole body trembling.
"Hahahaha! Old Yang! I've figured it out! I've figured it out!"
"Guo Shuai? Have you gone crazy?" Yang Wei jumped.
Guo Shuai grabbed Yang Wei by the shoulders.
"Time! It's time!"
"Old Yang, do you remember? Yesterday, at ten thirty in the morning, the sun set here!"
"And now, my watch says it's three thirty in the afternoon—15:30. But what about here?"
Guo Shuai pointed at the sun, which had only just risen.
"It's barely dawn here! Probably a little after seven in the morning!"
"What does that tell us?"
"It tells us the Time Flow here is chaotic! It's probably twice as fast as the outside world, or else completely out of sync!"
Yang Wei's head started to ache from listening.
"So what? Didn't you say this around ten o'clock?"
"Is that monster going to let us out? We haven't even seen its face!"
"No! You haven't understood what I mean!"
Guo Shuai excitedly picked up a branch and frantically drew a timeline in the dirt.
"The night we came in, it was around midnight."
"My theory is that was exactly when the Real World and the Wheat Field World were aligned!"
"Only at that specific point in time would the barrier between the two worlds open!"
"We only stumbled in that night because we got stupidly lucky!"
"And if we want to get out..."
Guo Shuai stared fixedly at the diagram in the dirt.
[Mechanical Watch time: 6:00, 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 24:00, 6:00.]
[Wheat Field time: 12:00, 18:00, 24:00, 6:00, 12:00, 24:00, 12:00.]
"We have to wait for the next time they align!"
"It's a two-day cycle! That means midnight in the Real World!"
"Tonight at midnight is our only Path to Survival!"
After hearing the explanation, even Yang Wei, slow as he was, finally understood.
This Wheat Field wasn't really part of the Barbaric Realm; it was a separate little instance!
The gate would only open when the times aligned!
"So... we can get out tonight?!"
The despair in Yang Wei's eyes gave way in an instant to a fierce will to survive.
"Most likely!"
Guo Shuai nodded firmly, but then his expression darkened.
"But... I have a feeling that monster won't let us leave so easily."
"When the gate opens tonight, that'll be its last chance to hunt us."
Yang Wei gritted his teeth, his eyes hard.
"Damn it! We'll fight!"
He dumped all the food and water left in his backpack onto the ground.
"Eat! Eat it all!"
"Don't save anything! We need to be full to run!"
"Tonight, we make our last stand!"
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