Chapter 2

It is once again the busiest time of the year; the crops have ripened, and it is the season for harvest.

Ang is working diligently, the sharp sickle in his hand flying as he cuts down the crops row by row, leaving them neatly laid out to one side, as precise as if an invisible hand were placing them there.

This is all experience accumulated from over a thousand years of non-stop labor; the sickle is like a living thing in his hands, cutting wherever he wants and as deep as he wants, creating better conditions for the subsequent sorting.

Working without pause in this manner, the night quietly passes. As the sky begins to brighten, the chirping of birds gradually increases all around, and various small birds of different species land on the field ridges, pecking at the scattered crops.

If they were only pecking at the scattered crops, Ang would not care, but the scattered scraps cannot compare to the abundant and plump ones on the stalks. Many new birds that have not yet been taught a lesson cross the boundary and land on the unharvested crops.

Ang tilts his head, turns around, walks to the edge of the field, takes a straw hat off the head of a scarecrow, and places it on his own head.

With a surge of magic, Ang, wearing the straw hat, transforms into an eagle and flaps his wings as he flies toward the field. The small birds that had landed on the crops are scared out of their wits, scattering in all directions, and for a long time, they dare not return.

The scarecrow hat is a magical item capable of casting illusions. It only requires a tiny bit of magic to trigger and can maintain an illusion for a long time. Unless one possesses a stronger mental power than Ang, it is very difficult to see through, and it is enough to fool small birds.

Once, those scarecrows wearing hats could cast illusions themselves, frightening away the small birds and beasts that came to steal food, but for some reason, these scarecrows gradually stopped moving.

After experiencing several years of large-scale yield reductions, with more and more small birds and beasts appearing—to the point where seeds were dug up and eaten as soon as they were planted—Ang finally realized the role of the scarecrows and slowly practiced triggering the hat's illusion.

By now, he has learned to transform into several different shapes, such as the eagle that the small birds and beasts fear most.

One can see a giant eagle flapping its wings as it flies back and forth over the field; the crops are continuously harvested, and those greedy little birds dare not land for a long time.

The sun rises, and its light shines upon Ang, bringing a trace of scorching heat.

Undead creatures hate sunlight the most, and Ang is no exception. A long, long time ago, if he stayed in the sunlight for even a few minutes, he felt as if his soul were about to explode. At that time, he would use his fastest speed to hide in places where the sunlight could not reach.

But over a thousand years have passed, and although Ang still does not like the sunlight, he no longer feels the same discomfort as he did back then. Especially since there is only a little bit of crop left to harvest, he feels he can endure it for a while longer.

Braving the sunlight, he harvests and packs the last row of crops, then Ang pushes his small cart to transport them to the warehouse where the crops are stored.

While pushing, Ang suddenly feels something is wrong. He looks up toward the outside of the farm and sees an arched gate outside the fence, emitting a faint white light.

Ang has forgotten how many years it has been since such an abnormal situation occurred. For all these years, there has been no sound, no light, only dead silence.

Why is the archway glowing? Have those undying souls returned?

Ang immediately takes a detour, not even storing the grain, and pushes the small cart toward the glowing archway. However, upon arriving at the archway, he does not find any undying souls. Apart from the archway emitting white light, the situation all around is no different from usual.

Ang circles the archway in confusion, and as he circles, he moves into the middle and disappears directly from the center of the archway.

He only feels a blur before his eyes, and the scenery all around changes drastically. It is no longer the desolate silence around the farm, but a gray, desolate wasteland where two stone pillars stand abruptly in the wilderness, emitting a faint white light.

Ang takes a step forward, but it pulls on the white light of the stone pillars, which connects between him and the pillars like a membrane.

Taking another step forward, Ang feels a restraint; the light membrane binds him and the pillars together.

What is this? Ang struggles with force, easily breaking the light membrane, and his feet touch the ground.

The light membrane he broke drifts and shrinks powerlessly, finally shrinking onto his wrist and turning into a leather wristband branded with runes.

A magical accessory? Ang tilts his head.

Just at this moment, a weak voice suddenly comes from behind him: "Eagle... Eagleman? I... I clearly... prayed to the undying souls, why is it an Eagleman who has come?"

Ang turns his head to look and sees a human lying on the ground, bony and emaciated. The wrist he reaches out is withered to the bone, as if a layer of skin is wrapping the bones. One of his fingers points at Ang, and after finishing the last word unwillingly, his head and arm fall limply, and he faints.

Eagleman? Me? Ang tilts his head, feeling somewhat baffled. He is clearly a skeleton, so why does this human point at him and call him an "Eagleman"? What is an Eagleman?

Thinking of this, Ang suddenly touches his head and takes off the scarecrow straw hat.

So that was it; he hadn't taken off his straw hat, and at this moment, it was still transformed into the shape of an eagle, which is why he was misunderstood by this human.

Hanging the hat around his neck, Ang walks to the human's side and pokes him with his finger. There is no movement; he has indeed fainted.

Observing carefully, the human's life force is weakening and is in danger of being extinguished at any moment, which means this human is about to die.

This leaves Ang somewhat bewildered and at a loss. He is just a small skeleton who grows vegetables and has never faced such a situation. What should he do now?

After thinking for a while, Ang suddenly remembers his handcart. The freshly harvested crops were piled on the cart, ready to be transported to the warehouse, but he was attracted by the white light on the way and pushed the cart over. Now he has a cart full of food on hand.

Humans should need food, right? He is so thin, he must be hungry, right? Thinking of this, Ang knows what he should do; in any case, there is not much else he can do.

Turning the human over, he grabs a handful of grain and stuffs it into his mouth, then squats there, hugging his knees and observing.

Why isn't he eating? Ang waits for a long time and finds that the other party has no movement. Ang has an epiphany: those who have fainted do not eat food.

Since that is the case, Ang decides to help him again, grabbing grain and stuffing it hard into the human's mouth. After stuffing a few handfuls, the human is unsurprisingly jolted awake by his tossing.

The weak human spits out the grain that almost choked him to death with difficulty, struggling to indicate that it needs to be husked and cooked before it can be eaten, while also indicating that he is dying of thirst and needs water.

Faced with such a request, Ang becomes troubled. Where is he supposed to find water?

Unable to get water, and with the grain unable to be eaten, the weak human stares at the cart full of food and finally starves to death.