Chapter 10: A Priggish Fool

"I saw two Big Brother Elon's."

  "One lay in bed asleep, and the other stood looking out the window at me."

  One thought of last night, the image of Elon stretching out and trying to eat himself.

  Lvan was on the verge of tears.

  "Two Elons?"

  Those words woke up the others straight away.

  "If the real Elon is sleeping, then what TONY just saw was the fake Elon!"

  "It's possible the scarecrow turned."

  Last night, the Scarecrow blended into their ranks with ease.

  Maybe scarecrows really do have the ability to change.

  "Go inside the room and tell me what just happened." Elon said, taking the lead and walking into the room.

  Ten minutes or so later.

  Elon took one look at TONY's soaked pants and finally figured out what was happening.

  "Now it's on."

  He said slowly, "Whatever you do, don't do it alone."

  "It takes at least three people to go out together."

  "Then, when you see one of your own out there who's fallen behind, don't approach first, but make a point to code."

  "A code word?"

  They all agreed with the previous words.

  But the code word thing ...

  "What's the code word?"

  Elon smiled faintly and said, "Of course it's some code word that they don't understand and can't comprehend."

  "In the future, when you see one of your own who has fallen off the wagon, first say, Odd Change Even Change."

  "If you can't get it right, run for the hills."

  Everyone else in the room was confused when they heard the phrase "Odd changes, even stays the same."

  And the people in the broadcast room could no longer hold back their laughter.

  "What divine code word, odd change even change, symbols look at quadrants, your middle school math teacher knows and is going to come and beat you up."

  "Math teachers used to always say that if you learn math, science and chemistry well, you can go everywhere without fear; I didn't believe it before, but now I do."

  "Never thought that this could be used as a code word, laughed my ass off."

  They all laughed until they went off the deep end.

  have learned.

  The room, too, came back to life after several moments.

  "High."

  TONY couldn't help but say, "It's really high."

  "It's a code word that only us moderns can get right."

  Odd changes and even stays the same. Those cowards don't get it.

  Elon then said to TONY, "Go ahead and change your pants and wash them."

  Then had two more men follow him.

  Then he stood himself up and headed toward the door.

  "Brother Elon, what are you going to do?" Lvan asked in disbelief.

  "I'm going to the rice paddies."

  Elon said, "That rice paddy

  He's going to dig a hole and take a look.

  As soon as they heard talk of going to the rice paddies, the faces of the people went white.

  It just happened that TONY almost got pwned.

  They're all scared to death of that rice paddy now.

  "I'll just go by myself." Elon said.

  lvan gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Elon, I'll accompany you."

  TONY shouted back, "Give me a minute, I'm going too."

  Dropping this sentence, he hurried out.

  Not a moment later, he came running back.

  But the pants were gone, and in their place was a new pair of pants.

  "Just borrowed the neighbor's for a bit, I'll pay him back when mine dries." TONY said in a serious voice.

  "You guys can stay here, there's no need to come with me." Elon said.

  It turned out that TONY was very serious.

  "Now the seven of us are one."

  "The only way to survive is to act together."

  "And there's definitely more power in numbers, so digging a hole is definitely faster."

  Several others nodded in agreement.

  Then TONY brought several shovels made of wood from the wall.

  "I just borrowed this from a neighbor, too."

  Crowd: "..."

  Do you feel like you're prepared?

  For a while, it was hard to know what to say.

  Elon, on the other hand, took a few steps and saw the neighbor's house that TONY was talking about.

  It's only about 10 meters away, no yard, but clothes, farm equipment, etc. are outside.

  So it can be gotten pretty easily.

  Elon walked back, patted TONY's shoulder seriously, and said, "Maybe, you're a genius too."

  TONY is unsure and doesn't hear much.

  "Let's go." Elon grabbed a wooden shovel and strutted toward the outskirts of the village.

  By the time he got out of the village and in front of the rice paddies, the sun had fully emerged from the mountains.

  There were a few other villagers busy in the rice fields.

  Elon scanned them and used the system to read their data, all of them were normal.

  And when Elon and others arrived.

  The villagers, all of them, looked at them.

  All of them were people they hadn't seen before, and the villagers' gazes were filled with alarm.

  Elon doesn't care about them.

  Taking a look at the rice paddies, he finally asked TONY, "Where's the scarecrow that scared you?"

  TONY reached out a trembling hand and pointed to a scarecrow not far in front of several people.

  "Very good."

  Elon walked up to the scarecrow, looked it up and down and around again, not finding much.

  The system can't read much information either.

  It suggests that this is really a scarecrow used to keep sparrows away.

  "Couldn't be playing dead?"

  Elon muttered, reaching down and ripping the scarecrow's right hand off, then watching the scarecrow's expression.

  No change.

  Rip the scarecrow's legs off again.

  Still no change.

  He pulled the scarecrow straight out and casually threw it at TONY's feet.

  TONY jumps in shock and her whole face goes white.

  "What are you hiding for?"

  Elon turned to him and said, "Take this scarecrow down and bring it back to the fire for cooking later."

  TONY gulped, not quite daring to move.

  The image of this scarecrow suddenly appearing in front of him this morning was still fresh in my mind.

  How dare you touch this scarecrow with your hand?

  Elon ignored him, took a shovel to measure the ground, and was ready to get started.

  Turns out a shovel hasn't gone down yet.

  Not far away there were suddenly the voices of the villagers.

  "Stop!"

  Elon stopped and looked up in the direction the voice came from.

  The few people who had just been working in the rice paddies were now running over, all glaring at Elon and the others with angry faces.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Destroying our rice fields?"

  The men were seen approaching angrily with shovels and hoes.

  A couple of the men shrank from the shock.

  Lvan, on the other hand, was quick to explain, "No, you've got it all wrong."

  These guys look pissed.

  If it came to blows, there was a good chance that both would lose.

  There's even the possibility of being kicked out of the village.

  When that happens, it can be a dead end.

  But before lvan could open his mouth to explain, Elon's scolding voice rang out, "You guys, do you know what we are?"

  Suddenly shouted at by such a serious voice.

  Several villagers froze.

  Why does it feel like, Elon is the owner of this farmland?

  "Who are you people?" The villager asked in disbelief.

  "We were sent from outside to help you with your village problems."

  Elon said, "Is there no way for you guys to get out of this village and a couple of people have suddenly disappeared?"

  "Yes, yes."

  These villagers looked at Elon with shocked faces.

  He's absolutely right. Is he really here to rescue them?