"Heh! Aren't you just asking me to be your messenger?", Ethan refused, "Not happening!"
["Just one hour!"], The Scarecrow begged again and again, ["Please! Just one hour. As long as you agree, I promise I'll behave one hundred percent after this!"]
"Forget it. I can't be bothered arguing with you. You can't win anyway."
Ethan thought about it. The Scarecrow had no chance of winning.
So what if he agreed? Didn't matter.
["Hehe! Deal."]
✧.(ˊωˋ) ✧*.
While the Scarecrow was all excited, Ethan had already set off.
Since the first trap had already been triggered by the Scarecrow and was now disabled, he didn't need to worry. He just walked straight over it.
[Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart: Once you step on this tile, you will be pierced through the heart by ten thousand poisoned arrows. (Disabled)]
'Heh! What ten thousand arrows? There were clearly only ninety-eight.'
Ethan glanced at the prompt with disdain.
This thing wasn't even accurate.
But when it came to important prompts, he still trusted it. So when he saw the words "Disabled," he just gave it a quick look and stepped right over it.
Naturally, there was no danger at all.
The next trap.
It was the third brick in front of Ethan, and the three tiles connected horizontally were all dangerous.
[Rain of Blades from the Sky: Once you step on these three tiles, blades will fall from above and slice you into pieces.]
'That's it?'
Ethan glanced at it and jumped straight over the three tiles.
The distance was a bit far, about two meters, but with one big stride, he cleared it easily.
["Huh?"]
The Scarecrow, watching from behind, was stunned, ["How did you know there was a trap there? Aren't you afraid you'll jump over it and then realize there's another trap on the other side?"]
"I told you, I can see the traps."
As Ethan spoke, he casually avoided a trap labeled [Ground Spikes]. As long as he didn't step on the tiles with red exclamation marks, that was enough.
Even though the traps here were packed pretty tightly, the designer clearly didn't actually intend to kill people.
So around each trap, there was still a small but clear path left open.
All Ethan had to do was eliminate every tile he couldn't step on, and then walk along the safe path.
["Tch! Fine, don't tell the truth then."]
The Scarecrow still didn't believe him.
But what happened next completely left it dumbfounded.
Because every single time, Ethan accurately avoided the tiles with traps.
It just stood near the stone door, watching helplessly, as Ethan spun, jumped, and even walked past the trapped tiles with his eyes closed.
He was about to reach that golden teapot.
The Scarecrow couldn't be completely sure, but no matter how it looked at it, that thing looked like the reward for clearing the stage. So the closer Ethan got to that spot, the more uneasy the Scarecrow became. This was the chance it had finally managed to secure to spend time with the Attendant Lady.
How could it just watch this perfect opportunity slip away right in front of it?
'No! I absolutely can not accept that!'
So, the Scarecrow decided to use its ultimate move.
Cheating!
["Hehe!"]
The Scarecrow let out a wicked laugh.
Then it took out a chunk of water ghost fat from its backpack. Ethan had told it to carry that as strategic supplies.
There was no way Ethan would expect the Scarecrow to use it against him right now.
Of course, the Scarecrow didn't plan to hurt Ethan.
It planned to wait until Ethan jumped over a trap, then throw the fat onto it to trigger the trap.
That way, it could shamelessly claim that Ethan had triggered it.
And then its goal would be achieved.
However, when it took out the water ghost fat and tried to throw it onto a trap to make it look like Ethan had triggered it, the Scarecrow suddenly realized it had no hands.
And no feet either?
Right now, it was just a head.
'Damn it!'
The moment it took out the water ghost fat, it just dropped straight to the ground. There was no way to throw it.
["Damn!"]
The Scarecrow cursed under its breath, watching as Ethan was about to clear the stage.
Its brain started spinning rapidly.
Sure enough, in the end, it came up with a solution.
Even though, it had no hands and no feet, it could still jump.
["Hehe!"]
["I really am the smartest guy in the universe."]
The Scarecrow was excited immediately.
It immediately took out another chunk of fat and let it fall freely toward the ground.
Just as the fat was about to hit the ground, it locked onto the position.
Then it leaped up in an instant.
Smack!
Just like hitting a baseball.
It swung and struck the water ghost fat.
And that chunk of fat flew, flew~
Plop!
The fat landed squarely on the stone tile that Ethan had just jumped over.
At that very moment, Ethan had just reached the end.
Just as he was about to show off to the Scarecrow—
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Ethan suddenly heard the sound of stone tiles shattering behind him.
He turned his head in disbelief.
Thud!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The stone tiles on the ground started falling one after another into the sea of fire below.
The flames below quickly began to boil, looking like water at a full boil.
Gurgle gurgle, bubbles rising nonstop.
"Uh…", Ethan stood there completely dumbfounded, "How is that possible? I clearly didn't touch the trap!"
["Hehehe, Ethan, you lost!"], The Scarecrow immediately sent him a voice transmission, ["You finally lost! Don't try to weasel out of it. I saw you trigger the trap! I'm telling you, no cheating!"]
"That's impossible. I definitely didn't touch it!"
Ethan still couldn't accept it.
But he couldn't find any evidence either. After all, the tiles had already fallen into the sea of fire.
What, was he supposed to jump into the flames to look for proof?
["A bet's a bet!"]
The Scarecrow's eyes rolled around.
Ethan narrowed one eye and stared at the Scarecrow, feeling more and more that this guy had something to do with it.
(〇_ｏ)
"You did something, didn't you?"
["Don't talk nonsense. I'm just a head right now. Even if I wanted to mess with you, what could I possibly do?"]
"That's true."
Looking at the Scarecrow that now looked like a giant lollipop, Ethan had to admit it made sense.
But whatever. The Scarecrow had already promised that win or lose, it would help bring the stone man back. As for whether this was really an accident or some trap the Scarecrow had set up on purpose, none of that mattered anymore.
Right now, for Ethan, the only thing that mattered was getting Aladdin's Lamp.
He hurried to the reward platform, double-checked that there were no traps, then quickly picked up Aladdin's Lamp and started rubbing it wildly with his sleeve.
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