["Game… beginner phase…"]
At that moment, the scarecrow fell into deep thought. After quite a while, it finally muttered to itself, ["Why… do I feel like a long, long time ago, I also heard something similar?"]
"What do you mean?"
Although the scarecrow was just muttering, Ethan could hear it clearly.
After all, they were communicating through consciousness. Unless one side deliberately blocked the other, they could easily understand each other's thoughts and thinking. This feeling… was like their brains were connected by a data cable. A lot of things didn't need to be said, just a single thought could be received by the other.
["I can't really explain it either,"] The scarecrow blinked, ["For some reason, I just feel like I've heard these things before, like this 'game' stuff! But whenever I try to think about it, my mind turns blank again. It's like the memory is there, but I just can't recall it no matter what."]
"Like memorizing vocabulary? You've clearly seen that word so many times you can recite it, but the moment you try to recall it, it's still blurry, and only the image of the dictionary is clear. Is that it?", Ethan guided it step by step.
The scarecrow's eyes widened immediately, ["Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly the feeling, especially with really long words, it's even more obvious."]
"So you really do know about words and dictionaries."
Ethan used that example just to trigger the scarecrow's memory.
Not long after meeting the scarecrow, Ethan had once suspected that it might be from a previous batch of players. But every time he asked, it couldn't give a clear answer. It always said it was someone born in this world.
Later, during one outing, it encountered the wilderness witch and ended up like this.
But Ethan always felt the scarecrow resembled a modern person.
Especially in the way it spoke, acted, and the little attitudes it showed unconsciously. It all felt very modern. So Ethan strongly suspected its memory had been sealed.
Just like his own residents, because their memories were suppressed, they couldn't remember what had happened before.
But… if he could awaken the scarecrow's memory, then Ethan could find out what had happened to the previous batch of players. That would give him more time, more opportunities to prepare defenses, and he wouldn't have to worry so much about the coming crisis.
["Huh!",] The scarecrow was startled by Ethan's reminder, ["If you hadn't said it, I wouldn't have noticed. But now that you mention it, yeah! How do I even know about dictionaries? And what the heck is memorizing vocabulary?"]
"Because you're probably like me, also a player who accidentally entered this world."
Ethan didn't bother going in circles and said it directly, "You've seen my residents, right? They were all players too. But because they failed the game, or were eliminated, they became residents without independent awareness."
"Maybe 'without independent awareness' isn't the most accurate term, but it's certain that their memories as players were stripped away."
"And your current situation is actually very similar to theirs."
"So…"
"I strongly suspect that you were part of the previous batch of players. The others from your batch are probably already dead, and you survived only because you were taken away by the wilderness witch and spent nine years at her place as a scarecrow."
"That's how you escaped that disaster."
["I…"], The scarecrow turned around, looking at Ethan in disbelief, ["You're saying I used to be a game player too, then for some reason became a resident, and eventually turned into a scarecrow?"]
"Exactly," Ethan nodded, "If I'm not mistaken, the difficulty of this game will only keep increasing until eventually all players die. But I have no way of imagining what will happen next, so I want to see if I can awaken your memory. If I can learn what happened before, maybe I'll have a better chance of surviving longer."
["Let me think… I feel really confused!"]
The scarecrow seemed unable to accept what Ethan said, but there were indeed things it couldn't understand.
Especially the strange fragments it often saw in dreams.
Those fragments made no sense to it.
Clearly… it had never experienced those things in its life, yet they felt so real that it was hard to believe they were just dreams.
"Alright, no rush. Take your time," Ethan nodded, not urging it, deciding to give it some space, "Whenever you remember anything, just tell me. It might help us change our current situation."
"Okay!"
After saying that, the scarecrow directly cut off the mental connection between them.
This was the first time the chatterbox scarecrow had ever taken the initiative to disconnect. It seemed Ethan's words had quite an impact on it!
The rest of the journey passed in silence.
Aside from Nostradamus and Genie Sylas occasionally arguing along the way, everything else was eerily quiet.
If it weren't for the sun worms emitting bright light, illuminating the path ahead and behind them, Ethan might have suspected that a Spirit-Seizing Void creature would suddenly jump out from some corner.
Because the surroundings were just too strange, like all the beasts nearby had died out.
If there was anything in this world that could silently wipe out all these monsters, then it was probably only the Spirit-Seizing Void that could do it.
———
At the manor gates—
"It's the Lord!"
"The Lord is back!"
"I see the sun worms, the Lord really returned safely."
The residents cheered the moment they saw Ethan return.
Because… they all knew the Lord didn't want them to take risks, so he had personally gone out with the sun worms to test the danger himself.
Now that they saw him return, everyone was so moved they almost cried.
"Thank you, everyone. I'm fine!"
Seeing all the residents come out to welcome him, Ethan felt a bit happy as well.
[System Notification: Lord's Command increased to Level 2 (10/500)]
[Lord's Command: Increases the loyalty of your residents. Under your command, your army becomes more courageous and united, and morale is boosted to a certain extent. (Lord's Command Level 2: The lord can cast Blessing on the army. All abilities of the blessed army increase by 20%)]
[PS: When Lord's Command reaches Level 10, you will gain the opportunity to summon a hero.]
[🎉 Shoutout to Vey, Felix and Erik for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.