This Seat Hates Echoes the Most!

Under the stunned gazes of Yu Xiaogang and the red-haired man, dozens of palm-sized, pitch-black quadcopter drones with flickering blue signal lights surged out of the spatial ripples from the ring like a swarm of bees leaving their hive!

"Buzzzzzzz—"

The massive whir of rotors instantly shattered the forest's silence.

These little things hovered in midair for a second, then rapidly ascended and scattered in all directions, red laser scanning nets blanketing the forest in an instant.

"What... what kind of spirit is this?! Or is it a Soul Tool?!"

Yu Xiaogang's eyes nearly popped out as he stared at those metallic creations flying away, feeling his worldview crumbling.

Su Yun leaned against a rock, the inside of his sunglasses flooded with countless infrared thermal imaging feeds and spatial radar waveforms scrolling frantically.

Just thirty seconds passed.

"Beep!"

A red lock-on frame popped up.

A smirk tugged at Su Yun's lips. He pointed in the southwest direction—completely opposite to Yu Xiaogang's judgment—and said calmly:

"Found it. Southwest, fifteen hundred meters away, inside a dead banyan tree hollow."

"How is that possible?!"

Yu Xiaogang blurted out, his face turning red.

"That's the shady side! Void Shadow Rats love sunlight—that's common sense..."

"Grandmaster."

Su Yun cut him off, his tone pitying.

"Maybe this rat's just socially anxious and doesn't like sunbathing, alright?"

"001, do you copy?"

Lei Zhan's voice came through the earpiece quickly.

"The target is very alert, and this rat seems to have decent intelligence. We just analyzed the frequency its body emits—it matches yours closely. We can mimic that frequency. Recommend a trapping plan."

Su Yun raised an eyebrow. "Trapping? No problem."

He waved his hand again.

This time, what leaped out of the ring was a small, dog-sized tactical robot dog, its entire body forged from silver-gray metal.

After landing, the little thing shook itself flexibly, letting out a series of mechanical grinding sounds.

"Go on, Wangcai." Su Yun patted the robot dog's head.

Fifteen hundred meters away, inside the dead banyan tree hollow.

The four-hundred-year-old Void Shadow Rat was lounging comfortably on a pile of dry grass, holding a purple berry in its paws, munching away contentedly.

It thought it was clever—deliberately leaving that spiked pile of droppings to mislead the trackers, while it went the opposite way.

Those stupid hunters were probably eating dust in the east by now.

Just then.

Whoosh—

A strange wave, without warning, pierced through the tree trunk.

It wasn't sound, nor was it aggressive.

But that wave made the berry the Void Shadow Rat had just brought to its mouth drop with a "plop" to the ground.

Every hair on its body stood on end, every nerve trembling.

Because the frequency of that wave...

Was exactly the same as its own!

The feeling was like being home alone, looking in the mirror, and suddenly realizing that the you in the mirror was standing outside the door.

Through the door panel, breathing and heartbeat perfectly synchronized with yours.

The Void Shadow Rat's small eyes were filled with terror and confusion.

It was clearly still inside the cave, yet its instincts were screaming in alarm.

There was another itself outside the door!

"Squeak...? (Did I... leave my body?)"

The Void Shadow Rat looked down at its own paws, then felt that intense, familiar presence outside.

A fear rooted deep in its soul instantly shattered the rat's mental defenses.

It curled up, trembling, tail tightly tucked between its legs.

Scared the poop out of this rat!

Could it be that last dump was so intense it yanked its soul right out?

In the depths of extreme terror and self-doubt, the Void Shadow Rat finally couldn't take it anymore.

It had to confirm—what the hell was that thing outside?

Plucking up its courage, it crept toward the cave entrance and let out an extremely faint, trembling squeak:

"Squeak...? (Are you... a ghost?)"

The moment its voice fell silent.

Outside the cave, the mechanical dog that had been keeping perfectly still immediately activated its real-time voice mimicry system.

"Squeak...? (Are you... a ghost?)"

Boom!

The Void Shadow Rat's brain buzzed.

This voice...

This timbre... even that slightly cracked tone from fear—it was exactly the same as its own!

There really was an invisible version of itself outside!

At this moment, terror reached its peak, and then, as extremes reverse, it flipped into frenzied rage.

Even if it were a ghost, you don't scare a rat like this!

And if that thing outside was also itself, then wasn't it coming to steal its territory, its berries, its females?!

This life-or-death crisis instantly crushed the fear.

"Squeak squeak!! Squeak squeak squeak!! (Stop playing tricks! If you've got the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one!)"

The Void Shadow Rat screamed hysterically, trying to bolster its own courage.

The next second, that doppelgänger outside spoke again, its tone exactly the same, even that hysterical edge perfectly mimicked:

"Squeak squeak!! Squeak squeak squeak!! (Stop playing tricks! If you've got the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one!)"

This time, the Void Shadow Rat completely broke down.

Was this haunting?

No, this was blatant provocation!

It was identity theft to its face, and then rubbing it in!

"Squeak—!!!"

The Void Shadow Rat let out an ear-piercing shriek, its reason evaporating entirely.

Its form flickered, turning into a purple-black afterimage as it activated its innate skill, Shadow Leap!

It would tear apart this arrogant copycat!

But when it burst out of the tree hollow, filled with fury, ready to fight the doppelgänger to the death, it froze.

In front of it, there was no terrifying ghost, no other version of itself.

Only a silver-gray, metal-headed thing still wobbling its head, repeating the scream it had just made...

A hunk of iron?

"Squeak? (That's it?)"

The Void Shadow Rat felt its intelligence had been insulted like never before.

Without a moment's hesitation, the red light in its eyes flared, and its claws—sharp enough to split rock—swept through the air with a cold gleam, slashing viciously at the machine dog's neck.

Die! Freak!

Clang!!

A deafening crash of metal on metal.

Sparks flew everywhere!

The Void Shadow Rat felt as if its claws had struck a piece of ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, the shock rattling its bones to the point of breaking, and even two of its nails snapped clean off.

But that hunk of iron didn't even have a scratch on it. It just tilted its head and mocked back with the same furious squeak:

"Squeak? (That's it?)"

The Void Shadow Rat was dumbfounded.

While it was still midair, questioning its own existence, Su Yun, coldly hidden behind a distant tree, pressed the remote in his hand.

"Realizing it now? Too late."

"Wangcai, show it a big surprise."

The cover plate on the machine dog's back suddenly popped open, and two round, black objects shot out, landing right in front of the Void Shadow Rat's stunned face.

Boom—!!!