Chapter 232: The Scarecrow, News
In the CD-ROM game, after you start using the extraordinary ability “Deviation”, the progress of the strategy will gradually increase.

Just like BUGs, they are the natural enemies of programs.

No matter how rigorous the original plan and design are, once deviations or unexpected factors occur, things will always go wrong, causing the originally perfect design to begin to have flaws and even all kinds of funny problems.

Another day passed, and Zhang Tieshu came to him in person after greeting him.

He came to Su Ming’s house, carrying a black backpack.

Su Ming made him a pot of hot tea.

Zhang Tieshu took a sip and exclaimed: “What a special tea! It’s really top-notch! I often drink tea, but I can’t even tell what kind of tea it is.”

Su Ming: “You can’t even tell what kind of tea it is, how can you know it’s good tea?”

This tea was left by his parents and is quite old. He didn’t have the habit of drinking tea before, so he didn’t drink it much.

Now that I think about it, my parents are not ordinary people, maybe this tea is not ordinary stuff? Of course, it is not ruled out that they bought it from a roadside supermarket for a dozen yuan.

He also took a sip. He didn’t know if it was a psychological effect, but the taste of this tea did have a unique charm. After drinking it, a sweet aftertaste emerged in his mouth, and it seemed that his whole mind became clear and his spirit became better.

Zhang Tieshu explained: “The feeling between premium tea and ordinary tea is completely different. For someone like me who drinks tea all year round, it’s easy to tell the difference.”

“Your tea is truly extraordinary. It can definitely rival teas worth the same price as gold.”

Su Ming interrupted him: “Okay, that’s enough. I don’t know much about tea, I’m just drinking it casually. Let’s talk about business.”

“You came here today to give me something?”

Zhang Tieshu was still not satisfied. There were not many people in the Countermeasures Bureau who liked to drink tea. He finally got a chance to chat about tea, but he was interrupted before he even started. He felt a little uncomfortable.

He opened his schoolbag and pulled out a grey iron box with the Countermeasures Bureau logo painted on it and the words “Special box for the General Administration of Countermeasures Bureau” written underneath.

There is a seal on the opening of the box: No unauthorized personnel are allowed to open it without permission, otherwise the consequences will be at your own risk.

Zhang Tieshu introduced: “This is a special transport box used by the Countermeasures Bureau to transport precious props. It is made of special materials and is almost impossible to destroy violently. The cost is quite high.”

He entered the code and opened the box, revealing a straw doll inside.

This straw man was drawn rather sloppily, with the facial features simply outlined with charcoal, exuding a strong sense of dejection and decadence.

The horror game prompt appears.

[Scarecrow (Blood Perfect Grade): There was once an old farmer whose only hobby besides farming was making various straw men. 】

[At first, he used this skill to make scarecrows in the rice fields. Later, he gradually became dissatisfied with this and began to make straw toys for the children in the village and set up a stall to sell scarecrows at the market. His fame became more and more famous, and his life gradually became more prosperous.]

[Unfortunately, a group of bandits targeted him. They found an opportunity to rob the old farmer of his property, cut off his head, and hung it on a newly made straw man in the yard.]

[The old farmer who died tragically came to the underworld. When passing by the Naihe Bridge, he found a lot of withered water grass growing on the edge of the Yellow Spring River. He used these water grasses to make a straw man. After making it, the straw man said: “Human, thank you for stabbing me out. In return, I will die in your place. Please return to the world as soon as possible.”]

[After he finished speaking, the scarecrow’s head fell off, and the old farmer felt dizzy and returned to the world of the living, where he found his chopped-off head back on his neck.]

[The old farmer quickly packed his luggage and left here, moving to another place to continue living. This time he was very low-key, just treating the straw man as a hobby, no longer using it to make money, making many friends, and finally lived a peaceful life, finally dying of old age. ] [If a player holding a scapegoat dies in the dungeon, the scapegoat will die for the player, and the player will leave the dungeon, but will not be able to obtain the dungeon’s rewards. ]

Su Ming didn’t expect that the Countermeasures Bureau would actually take out such a precious prop!

This bloody perfect-level item is a life-saving type. Having it is like having an extra life when clearing a dungeon.

Moreover, the Countermeasures Bureau was so generous as to give such a precious prop to him, an outsider who had not joined the Bureau!
This layout is truly breathtaking.

Su Ming felt that this item was a bit hot. “You are really giving it to me just as a reward? There won’t be any additional conditions, right?”

Zhang Tieshu: “There are no additional conditions. This is a reward allocated by the General Administration based on your contribution in this instance.”

“Well, there is one more thing. Boss, you have to be prepared. According to the intelligence from the Countermeasures Bureau, the End Believers are likely to use some means to attack the players who pass the challenge dungeon in the next dungeon.”

“People like the big guys who not only passed the challenge dungeon but also solved it with high evaluations are the top priority for the other party.”

“This instance is likely to be quite dangerous, which is why the General Administration sent me life-saving items.”

End believers…

When he heard the name, he thought of The End of the World. He had previously obtained information about The End of the World from a CD.

It’s just that he has never deliberately collected information about the end of the world. After all, in his opinion, this thing is still very far away. All he can do is to become as strong as possible.

Now that he had this opportunity, he simply asked, “Who exactly are these believers of the End? I wonder if the Countermeasures Bureau can share some information with me in this regard?”

Zhang Tieshu: “Of course, this is also one of the reasons why I came here.”

“In fact, I just learned about the End Believers a little while ago. Ever since I participated in the challenge dungeon with the boss, the horror game has opened up the permissions in this regard, allowing me to learn about the End Believers.”

“The End Believers are a group of special players who believe in the End. Like normal players, they will also receive invitations to horror games. However, their dungeon missions are different from those of normal players. For them, hunting down normal players and making it impossible for them to complete their missions seems to be very important. This can be their way to clear the dungeon.”

“There are very few followers of the End, and most of them have extraordinary abilities. They are a very troublesome group of guys. In short, once you encounter them in a dungeon, it often means big trouble.”

Su Ming: “Then is there any way to distinguish whether a player is a normal player or a believer of the End?”

Zhang Tieshu: “When they don’t use their abilities, they are no different from ordinary players, and can only be judged by their words and actions. However, when they use their abilities, a black lotus pattern like this will appear between their eyebrows.”

He found several pictures with human faces on them. Between the eyebrows of these people, black lotus flowers appeared, which were very conspicuous. Some had only one petal, while others had nine.

Zhang Tieshu: “This is part of the Countermeasures Bureau boss’s plan to kill the End of the World believers.”

“Generally speaking, the more petals a black lotus has, the higher the status and the stronger the End Cultist is. The one with the nine-petal black lotus was one of the leaders of the End Cult who was killed by the Lawbreaker in the real world some time ago. His name is Shadow.”

Su Ming frowned slightly: “These believers of the End are also active in the real world?”

If that were the case, then he would have to worry about his own safety.

Zhang Tieshu: “Well, as far as I know, the End Believers cannot take the initiative to attack players in the real world. In the real world, it is usually the big guys who take the initiative to hunt down the End Believers…”

(End of this chapter)