Weiren Jiangnan, Five-Way Split Classmate

In the dark, twisted jungle, a beam of light flickered erratically.

This was the escape team led by Yang Wei.

They stepped into the rotten fallen leaves, their surroundings deathly silent, save for the sound of their breathing and the crisp snap of broken dead twigs underfoot.

Yang Wei walked at the forefront, tightly gripping the high-power flashlight he had picked up from Wang Shifu's corpse.

In his other hand, he held a window breaking hammer, his nerves taut.

"Old Yang..."

A deliberately lowered voice came from beside him.

It was Guo Shuai, a guard on the school basketball team and Yang Wei's closest buddy.

He glanced back cautiously in the direction of the bus, then leaned close to Yang Wei's ear.

"Actually... you saw it too, right?"

"That Bai Lianhua woman, though gossipy, said something right just now..."

"That crow died too weirdly, and Jiangnan's gesture..."

Yang Wei's hand holding the flashlight trembled violently, the beam of light tracing an afterimage on the tree trunk.

He was silent for two seconds, then gritted his teeth and nodded.

"I saw it."

Yang Wei's voice was grim.

"That's why I'm leading you guys away."

"Guo Shuai, think about it. If that was a supernatural ability, or a system... why does only he have it?"

Fear flickered in Yang Wei's eyes.

"There was no server-wide announcement, no mobile phone notification. Everyone else is an ordinary person!"

"Why can he, Jiangnan, look at us like we're dead people? And kill from a distance?"

"And did you notice his expression?"

Yang Wei recalled Jiangnan's coldness when he used Li Xin as a meat shield, and the look in his eyes when he made a gun-pointing gesture at his own glabella.

That was not the look of a human at all.

No anger, no hesitation, not even a ripple of emotion.

It was like looking at a pile of walking meat blocks.

"That kind of expression... I've only ever seen it on one kind of thing."

Yang Wei swallowed. "Remember that horror game we played all night at the internet cafe a few days ago?"

Guo Shuai was stunned for a moment, then his pupils constricted, as if he had thought of something extremely terrifying.

"You mean... a Weiren?!"

"That's right."

Yang Wei narrowed his eyes.

"I have reason to suspect that the real Jiangnan..."

"Died the moment he transmigrated, or even earlier."

"What's occupying that body now is a 'thing' that was replaced by the monsters of this world!"

Guo Shuai felt a chill rush from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

"Yeah... why does only he have a special ability, and why is he hiding it and not speaking..."

"If it were some transmigration benefit, or Spiritual Energy Revival, there's no reason why only he would awaken! Unless..."

"Unless that wasn't awakening at all."

Yang Wei let out a cold laugh. "That's the monster's instinct."

"And think about it, why is he so insistent on not getting off the bus?"

"Why must he stay in that place full of dead bodies and the bloody smell?"

"Perhaps... that's his nest, or some rule restricts him from leaving the vehicle!"

Although this inference was far-fetched, under extreme fear, it seemed exceptionally "reasonable."

Guo Shuai wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, feeling a sense of lingering fear.

"Holy crap... Old Yang, you've got a fast brain!"

"If that's the case, then Teacher Chen Tong, Liu Yuqing, and Wang Meng... are probably finished too."

"Staying with a Weiren, they'll be eaten alive sooner or later, or even assimilated!"

Yang Wei patted Guo Shuai's shoulder. "Don't think about it. We're buddies, how could I not save you?"

"Let's get out of here quickly, as far away from that monster as possible!"

The two reached a consensus, and their footsteps quickened.

The group continued to march in silence for another hour.

By this time, the sky had completely darkened, with the Blood Moon hanging high.

"Look quickly! Up ahead!"

Suddenly, Bai Lianhua, walking in the middle, exclaimed in surprise.

Everyone followed the Light Beam with their eyes.

About two hundred meters ahead, the twisted Purple Woods abruptly ended.

In its place was an endless Wheat Field, rippling in the Night Wind!

No trees!

It really was an Open Area!

"Great! We're finally out of this cursed forest!"

"Brother Yang Wei was right! No trees means no Crows!"

The group, who had been feeling repressed all along, erupted in cheers of Surviving a Calamity.

Bai Lianhua even quickened her pace to Yang Wei's side, fawningly offering him an unopened bottle of Mineral Water.

"Brother Yang Wei, you've worked hard, have some water!"

"You really have foresight, unlike that Dead Mute, waiting by that broken car to die."

Yang Wei didn't stand on ceremony. He took the water bottle and tilted his head back, taking a large gulp. The thrill of escaping danger made him feel a little lightheaded.

"Everyone, keep pushing! Once we cross this Wheat Field, we'll rest by its edge tonight!"

Yang Wei wiped the water from his mouth and loudly encouraged them.

The Boys high-fived each other in celebration, and the Female Students also showed long-lost smiles.

It was as if as long as they reached that Wheat Field, all danger would vanish.

However.

Just as they were less than fifty meters from the edge of the Wheat Field.

"Caw!!!"

A roar suddenly exploded above everyone's heads!

That was the trumpet of death.

Before anyone could react, countless pairs of scarlet eyes suddenly lit up in the dark tree canopy.

It was the Crow Flock that had been suppressed by Jiangnan's firepower and scattered earlier!

They had been ambushing here all along!

Or rather, Yang Wei and the others had stumbled right into the arms of these ravenous Predators!

"Ah!!!"

Two screams rang out almost simultaneously.

Two female students on the outer edge of the group didn't even have time to cry for help!

They were simultaneously grabbed by the shoulders and hair by four or five massive Mutated Crows.

"Help me! Help me!!"

One of the female students desperately reached out, trying to grab something.

But the next second, more crows pounced.

They were like well-coordinated Butchers.

A few grabbed their heads, a few grabbed their feet, and a few grabbed their hands.

"Caw!!"

Accompanied by a uniform Flapping Sound, the two female students were forcibly lifted into mid-air!

"Tear!"

The Sound of Flesh Tearing echoed through the night sky.

Torn into five pieces.

Under the immense pulling force, the two female students instantly turned into a Blood Rain in the air.

Organs and severed limbs rained down, splattering on everyone's faces.

"Ugh!"

"Run! Run quickly!!"

The boys who had been high-fiving moments ago instantly collapsed.

"Ah! My leg! My third leg!"

Two more boys behind them were knocked to the ground, instantly submerged by black wings.

Only a few short screams were heard before silence fell.

In the blink of an eye, four people were dead!

"Go to the wheat field! Quickly, to the wheat field!"

Yang Wei was so scared he lost his soul, holding his flashlight and rushing madly towards the wheat field.

The team was in complete disarray.

Everyone wished their parents had given them two more legs.

Yu Shishi ran at the very back.

She was wearing ill-fitting small leather shoes, stumbling on the ground full of tree roots.

"Wait for me! Wait for me!"

She cried out, looking ahead.

The three boys who usually swore to be her Flower Protectors were now running faster than rabbits.

Not a single one looked back at her.

"Help... Bai Lianhua! Pull me up!"

Yu Shishi saw her best friend not far away.

However, Bai Lianhua glanced back at the pursuing Crow Flock behind her, a vicious glint flashing in her eyes.

Not only did she not reach out, but she deliberately pushed over a dead branch in the direction Yu Shishi was running!

"Don't come near me! Don't attract them!"

Bai Lianhua shrieked, using this opening to accelerate towards the group of boys ahead.

"Crack!"

Yu Shishi tripped over the dead branch and fell heavily on the ground.

Despair.

At this moment, Liu Yuqing's closing window expression flashed in her mind.

I was wrong...

I was really wrong...

"Caw!"

A crow swooped down, its sharp claws about to tear into her back.

Her will to live fueled Yu Shishi, unleashing astonishing strength as she tumbled and scrambled forward!

Barely dodging the fatal strike, she ignored the pain and scrambled towards the golden wheat waves.

That was the only path to survival!

Twelve people, like a pack of startled wild dogs, burst out of the woods and plunged into the golden wheat field!

They ran dozens of meters in before their lungs burned like fire.

"Stop... stop!"

Guo Shuai suddenly grabbed Yang Wei, who was still fleeing, his voice trembling as he pointed behind them.

"They... they didn't chase us!"

The group stopped, their souls still shaken, and looked back.

They witnessed a terrifying sight.

Hundreds, thousands of mutated crows, stopped neatly at the boundary line between the woods and the wheat field.

They circled, they shrieked, they feasted on the four corpses.

But not a single crow dared to cross that line!

Not even by a meter.

"Ha... haha... we survived..."

Yang Wei collapsed onto the ground, watching the flock of crows that dared not step beyond the boundary, and laughed.

"See? I was right!"

"No trees... they won't dare to come! We're safe!"

The other surviving students also slumped to the ground, gasping for air, relieved they had chosen the right path.

Only Yu Shishi, who had crawled in last, clutched her bleeding knee and shivered in a corner.

She watched the flock of crows hovering at the "boundary line" in the distance.

In their scarlet eyes, there seemed to be more than just greed.

There was also a... deep fear.

As if this seemingly peaceful and serene golden wheat field hid something a hundred times more terrifying than them...