2: Chapter 2 Bloodstained Scarecrow

The Monster Collector had been activated, yet not fully activated, because Wang Ting had not truly seen a monster yet.

At this time, he pinned his hopes on the low-level anomalous entity mentioned by Yang Qi—the Scarecrow.

This was the only monster he had a possibility of encountering, and it was highly likely to be tonight.

At the same time, this was also an extremely dangerous moment, because his weak body was like a hollow wheat straw, with weakness and discomfort permeating every part of his body.

If he was not careful, he might become the monster's rations, or even lose the qualification to become rations, starving to death inside this granary.

"What are the collection criteria?"

Wang Ting asked in his heart, not knowing whether the [Monster Collector] inside his body would answer, but he had to ask this question; the method of collection depended on his subsequent life and death.

At a moment when his heart was pounding anxiously, the prompt information appeared before his eyes.

[Discover monsters, explore monsters, understand monsters; reach 100% information collection to complete the collection]

Subconsciously, he let out a long sigh of relief; at least it wasn't capturing monsters.

If it were capturing monsters, then he could prepare himself for a restart, or find a way to run back up to the Gobi Desert; the zombies and Sand Scorpions in the Gobi Desert might actually be a bit easier to capture than the Scarecrow.

The long wait plunged the granary into a dull silence. Everyone was resting, and the smell of straw mixed with the body odor and sour stench of dozens of people, making one dizzy.

About two hours later, the Guard Team opened the granary and distributed today's rations—a pitch-black energy block and a bottle of water mixed with a little silt—to the survivors inside the granary.

The energy block had a nice name, but it was only the size of a palm. It was a semi-hard, paste-like lump formed from unknown grains and protein mixed together, carrying a fishy, foul stench. Taking a bite of it was even harder to swallow than soap.

The energy block could supplement quite a bit of nutrition. Although it tasted terrible, as long as one could endure it, at least they wouldn't starve to death so quickly.

A valueless vagrant is not as good as an energy block.

This was a proverb circulating between all Shelters and vagrants, and in fact, it was just like that.

Even in a Shelter, if a vagrant had no work, they would definitely not be issued an energy block.

"What a damned world."

Wang Ting cursed in his heart. Perhaps having eaten something, or perhaps out of worry about the night, the survivors inside the granary began to whisper, talking about the special rules of this Floor World.

He had transmigrated to this world for three days. From the fleeing vagrants and the fragmentary words of these survivors now, he had roughly pieced together the tip of the iceberg of this world.

The building he was in was called the Infinite Building in the wasteland.

Its appearance location was random, the number of floors inside was random, and the space size, environmental types, and so on were all random. Some survivors said that some floors might be floating islands, endless oceans, swarms of zombies, or erupting volcanoes, rampaging monsters...

No one knew the origin of the Infinite Building; they only knew that the building brought resources and monsters, bringing prosperity and a more thorough destruction to the overpopulated old human civilization.

Many Shelters in the wasteland were established by relying on habitable Floor Worlds or resource Floor Worlds, just like the Scarecrow Town where they were currently located.

"Creak—"

The granary door was pushed open. Who knew how long had passed, but the outside already revealed a dim hue.

"Hurry up, time to work."

There were a total of six barns, and outside each barn, three or four armed guard members were standing at this moment.

Wang Ting followed the survivors of his barn to the fields, but his heart skipped a beat—his plan had fallen through.

The farmland allocated to each barn was fixed, and the people of his barn were allocated a piece of farmland close to the barbed wire fence.

The watchtowers at both ends were about seventy or eighty meters away from his position. This sounded like a distance that wasn't far, but if danger occurred, it was enough to put him in a perilous situation.

This Floor World had no sun; in the sky of the open floor, only a pale full moon hung, twice as large as the real world outside, and with a touch of illusion.

Moonlight spilled over the earth, its cold radiance preventing the wheat fields from plunging completely into darkness.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

The sound of sickles cutting wheat stalks resounded in the silent night. The environment of the Scarecrow Farm was particularly quiet, with no insect chirping, yet it made people feel a trace of unease in their hearts.

Wang Ting cut with great difficulty; the wheat stalks here were unusually prickly and tough, like untearable cowhide.

He had never done such farm work before, and his movements were already awkward. While harvesting, he also had to concentrate fully on the movements around him.

His heart was pounding anxiously; he both hoped the Scarecrow would appear and feared that such a monster would suddenly launch an attack beside him.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle."

Suddenly, a hurried and large-scale friction sound of bushes came over. Wang Ting immediately stopped his movements and abruptly looked towards the direction the sound came from.

A black shadow quickly flashed past the bushes, breaking a large number of branches and making crackling sounds.

A sharp sound emanated from the black shadow, giving one goosebumps down the spine.

Bang!

A heavy muffled sound came from the barbed wire fence wall. The sturdy barbed wire fence wall surged up and down like waves as it was impacted.

Bullets let out a sonic boom, and muzzle flashes lit up in the night, instantly shooting toward the black shadow.

At this moment, Wang Ting finally managed to use the cold moonlight to clearly see the ferocious appearance of that shadow monster.

It was a humanoid monster taller than a person, its whole body composed of bundled straw, wearing a tattered piece of clothing. Beneath the clothes, however, was a tattered layer of human skin tissue, with granulation buds and straw intertwined, and slender claws constantly scratching at the barbed wire trying to bypass the wall.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bullets landed on the Scarecrow's body, and straw fragments scattered along with shredded meat. A bullet accurately pierced the Scarecrow's heart, blood flowed out, and then the Scarecrow fell to the ground.

Wang Ting's pupils constricted, faintly seeing that the Scarecrow's chest cavity was not entirely filled with straw; there were also undulating internal organs.

"Continue harvesting!"

Fan Da's steady voice came over. Holding a rifle, his eyes closely stared at the black shadows appearing from time to time in the dark night.

Scarecrows emerged from the shadows from time to time. Their appearance frequency was not high, but the sharp sounds and crazy postures constantly gave rise to fear in people's hearts.

The wall had not been breached, and the guards began to shout to continue working.

Only then did the survivors successively continue harvesting. Under the gleaming gun barrels, since they had taken the benefits, they had to work.

The movements in everyone's hands became faster, but they were also more careful.

[Scarecrow collection progress 20%]

"Discover monsters, observe monsters, understand monsters... So this is how monsters are collected. As long as the time of contact and observation is enough, it can slowly increase."

Like beasts, dark figures of Scarecrows pounced from the wilderness.

The sharp, cackling weird cries made all the survivors' spines chill. However, for Wang Ting, the collection progress before his eyes was slowly increasing.

As long as the Scarecrow was within a certain range around him and under his observation, the collection progress could be increased.

This allowed him to relax a bit.

However, at this moment, the wheat fell over extensively, and the weird cry actually sounded right beside him.

He abruptly looked towards the wheat field position less than seven meters away. The ground bulged, and a ferocious Scarecrow suddenly emerged from the ground, blocks of soil rolling off its body.

It grabbed the survivor closest to it. The claws formed by the interweaving of flesh and blood and straw plunged into that person's flesh, skin and meat peeled open, and blood flowed freely.

The sudden slaughter frightened these survivors who had little combat power to begin with, and they immediately scattered in all directions like birds and beasts.

The people of the Guard Team hurried over, completely ignoring the actions of the survivors, raising their guns to attack the Scarecrow.

Bullets grazed past the survivors' bodies, as if they would hit them the next moment.

Straw debris on the Scarecrow's body flew about along with flesh and blood, and the piercing sound seemed to pierce people's eardrums.

The gunshot wounds on its body made it even crazier. It tore the survivor in its hands to pieces with one grab, and then fiercely pounced on the nearest survivor.

"Crossfire, don't let it impact the watchtower, the randomly appearing Scarecrows won't be too many!"

Zhao Hu, the squad leader specifically keeping an eye on the wheat field, took small, quick steps with his gun lowered, rapidly approaching with a nimble physique like a hunting tiger.

Their movements carried sharpness amidst agility, and the seven-man squad quickly blocked off, closing in slowly like a giant net.

Soon, a Scarecrow was shot down to the ground, its blood mixed with the blood of the survivor nearby, merging into the ground.

"Ah!"

A miserable scream suddenly sounded, and two black shadows appeared in the wheat field at the same time.

Following the sound, Wang Ting glanced with his peripheral vision, his heart stopping abruptly, and his breathing stagnating at this moment.

The position where the second Scarecrow appeared was actually less than three meters away from him; the distance was too close.

Under the cold moonlight, the writhing flesh attached with blackened straw of the Scarecrow was clearly visible, and that unique fishy stench mixed with the smell of straw was right at his breath.

Yang Qi was the closest, but he had already quickly pulled the young man beside him to block in front of himself.

The scream just now was made by that thin man, who had already been disemboweled by the Scarecrow at this moment.

Yang Qi fled for his life, and the direction of his escape was actually heading toward Wang Ting.

The wheat had not yet been harvested, forming a barrier that was difficult to cross, and given the distance between him and the Scarecrow now, even with a scapegoat, he probably could hardly escape.

He still needed a second scapegoat to successfully escape, and the ferocity and malice on his face were no longer concealed at all.

"Damn you!"

Wang Ting saw through Yang Qi's intention, and without thinking, his hand groped toward his waist, taking out the bottle of water he had saved.

He fiercely smashed the water bottle toward Yang Qi, using almost all his strength.

Bang!

In the night, Yang Qi only saw a blurry thing smashing toward him. Before he could react, there was a pain on his face, his whole nose collapsed, and nosebleeds gushed out continuously.

After smashing the person, Wang Ting turned around and fled further away. Delayed by this, Yang Qi behind him had the blood smell on his body and the screams he made immediately attract the Scarecrow's attention, which pounced and pinned him underneath, tearing at him continuously.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

Before Wang Ting could even heave a sigh of relief, suddenly another black shadow had already jumped in front of him.

"Roar!"

Crimson eyes met his squarely, that brutal appearance as if it would tear him to pieces the next moment.

"It's over!"

Like a basin of cold water poured from head to toe, Wang Ting instantly felt his whole body ice cold.

The Scarecrow's brutality was vivid in his mind; relying solely on the sickle in his hand and his currently weak body, how could he possibly be an opponent?

"Even if I die, I'll tear a layer of skin off it!"

Resentment surged into his heart. Under this extreme dangerous situation, Wang Ting's mind became extremely calm.

All the anger of transmigrating to the wasteland doomsday, struggling to survive, and the desire for survival had surged up at this moment.

Death is just death; whether it's a monster or the King of Heaven himself, he's going to make the other party lose a chunk of meat.

Gripping the sickle, he pounced forward to meet it.

Bang, bang!

Suddenly, two bullets passed through the wheat field, shooting into the Scarecrow's body. The rifle's power instantly pierced through its arm, and straw debris flew everywhere.

Wang Ting's eyes were red, instantly capturing this opportunity.

He crashed directly into the Scarecrow, and the tip of the sickle fiercely plunged into the Scarecrow's heart position.

The heart, it was the heart! Just the previous Scarecrow had its heart pierced to death!

Just holding the hilt of the curved sickle made it difficult to exert force. In order to pierce its heart, Wang Ting couldn't care about potential injuries either. With one hand holding the hilt and the other pressing down on the sickle, he fiercely exerted force and stabbed down into the Scarecrow's chest.

One, two, three times.

Blood flowed from his hands, and wounds were slashed on his body by the Scarecrow's struggle, but he didn't stop until the Scarecrow completely lost all breath.

"This guy actually has a bit of ruthlessness."

Fan Da noticed the situation here. He was the one who fired the gun earlier, but the angle was not good, and there was no way to hit the heart in one strike.

Now seeing Wang Ting stained with blood all over, with that calm yet extremely crazy performance, he couldn't help but look sideways a couple more times.

In this wasteland, there was no lack of desire for survival and numbness to staying alive, but those who could live a little longer often possessed this trait.

Hoo.

The stinging pain in his hand awakened Wang Ting. The Scarecrow beneath him was motionless. He pulled out the sickle, blood dripping down, and a piece of bright red flesh fell to the ground—it was the heart's flesh, looking like a bloody jade.

"Good luck, the Scarecrow's heart meat. Boss Fan told you to go get a portion of injury medicine, bandage up, and come back over."

Zhao Hu led people to quickly close in; the other Scarecrow had already been resolved by them.

"Thank you."

His chest rose and fell continuously. At this time, a sense of weakness emanated from within his body, just like the exhaustion after a long-distance run.

Disregarding the complex gazes of other survivors, the virtual information before Wang Ting's eyes had new changes at this moment.

[Scarecrow collection complete, obtained 100 monster points]