Property

The round watermelon actually made a very human-like motion of clearing its throat, and then—

"Aaaaaaaah!" The watermelon's high-pitched, ear-piercing scream sliced through the night sky, like countless thin needles precisely stabbing into Participant No. 22's eardrums.

Participant No. 22 felt his brain explode with a roar, and the calm he had been struggling to maintain shattered instantly.

Terror, like a flood breaking through a dam, surged through his veins to every limb, making the hair on his body stand on end.

An Anomaly! This watermelon was an Anomaly!

"Aaaaaaaah!" Participant No. 22 erupted in a hysterical scream that was not at all inferior to his opponent's.

In his panic, he suddenly remembered the weapon he was clutching. Using every ounce of his strength, he violently hurled the pitchfork in his hand at the watermelon.

Thud! Following the dull impact was the crisp sound of a watermelon bursting.

The ripe pulp, mixed with bright red juice, splattered everywhere, flowing all over the ground.

The sharp screaming stopped abruptly. Participant No. 22 staggered back a few steps, and then his limp legs could no longer support his weight. With a splash, he fell clumsily to the ground.

"Ha... ha..." He gasped for air, his chest heaving violently. It took him a long while to recover from the suffocating fear.

He pushed against the ground, trying to stand up and retrieve his only weapon.

However, he froze in the next moment. The palm of his right hand seemed to be welded to the ground, completely immovable.

He turned his head in horror, his heart suddenly constricting.

Unbeknownst to him, his palm had already been "swallowed" by the Watermelon Patch. The moist soil was frantically creeping up through the gaps between his fingers.

"No! Help me!" He let out an even more shrill scream, but his voice sounded exceptionally small in the vast field.

The sandy ground where the watermelons grew had somehow turned into a viscous black mud swamp. Countless clumps of soil, like twisted arms, reached out from the mud, death-gripping his limbs and dragging him down inch by inch.

"Heehee. Heehee."

In the field, one watermelon after another turned their "heads." They revealed facial features to the terrified Participant, their pairs of pitch-black eyes staring fixedly at him as they let out sharp, piercing mocks.

No. 22's screams gradually weakened until they were barely audible.

His body had been completely submerged by the swamp, leaving only his head exposed, his eyeballs bulging from extreme terror.

Immediately after, his head rapidly rounded and swelled, the skin color turning a sickly deep green. In just a few breaths, he had turned into a watermelon that retained his facial features.

Finally, the frozen terror on his face slowly faded, and his mouth split into a bizarre, brilliant smile identical to the watermelons around him.

"Heehee."

...

No. 22's plot was not far from Ren Yi's, and there were no barriers in the vast field to block the perception of an Anomaly.

Ren Yi silently "watched" the entire process. His watering movements didn't stop for a second, and not a single ripple of emotion appeared on his face.

So, the rule "Servants must not damage any of the Master's property" was aimed at certain Anomalies encountered during work?

If one accidentally damages property that doesn't belong to them, then they become "property" themselves to make up for the Master's loss.

Ren Yi thoughtfully rubbed the edge of the bucket.

The Anomaly here clearly wasn't the "watermelons." If every watermelon were an independent Anomaly, the numbers would be far too vast.

The correct answer should be the "Watermelon Patch."

It was the kind of shapeshifting Anomaly his brother had mentioned before—one that "only needs to conform to human cognition."

"Aaaaaaaah..." Intermittent screams came from beside his feet.

Ren Yi looked down and saw a watermelon straining its throat to scream. However, on the side of the rind facing away from others, its features were twisted quite stiffly, and its eyes flickered from time to time, looking exceptionally guilty.

Ren Yi was speechless for a moment. It was obvious that Auntie Lu Qing had likely had a word with these Anomalies.

Unfortunately, the acting skills of this Watermelon Patch Anomaly were truly nothing to write home about.

Splash. Ren Yi poured a bucket of water right over it.

Taking advantage of the watering, he crouched down, lightly patted the cold rind with his fingertips, and whispered an instruction: "Scream louder. Just be like the others."

He had confirmed with Lu Qing earlier that the livestream camera was fixed at a perspective behind them.

Therefore, as long as no other Participants were around, there was no problem with making some small movements in front.

"Ayaaaaaaaah—" Having received the command, the watermelon immediately adjusted its state and began to howl loudly, exceptionally obedient.

The screams of the surrounding watermelons rose and fell, weaving into a patch of piercing noise.

Ren Yi listened for a moment and somehow managed to hear a bit of an out-of-tune melody in it. He simply started humming along softly.

While things were peaceful on Ren Yi's side, the other Participants were not so lucky.

The scream of a single watermelon was like a needle prick, but now the watermelons in the field were all revealing their features and screaming one after another.

The watermelons' screams were like countless sharp blades, repeatedly scraping against the Participants' brains.

But they had no choice. They could only bite the bullet and work in the field under this mental torture, carrying water and weeding back and forth from the center of the plots.

Many Participants, in their mental daze, accidentally kicked a watermelon or tore a vine. In the next second, they were swallowed by the field that suddenly turned into a swamp, eventually becoming a new "human-faced watermelon."

The livestream chat had already exploded:

"Aaaaah, by the gods, what kind of hellish thing is this! My head hurts just watching through the screen. It's so disgusting!"

"Stop howling, upstairs! The noise in the livestream is already loud enough! It's just some watermelons. They're way weaker than mutant beasts; I could take them out one by one with a knife."

"Wait, are you stupid? It's obvious that only the people who damaged the watermelons died! You want to take them out one by one? Are you worried you won't die fast enough?"

"Holy crap, look at that guy 'Mo Ming' in the other room. How does he still have the heart to hum a song?"

"Is that the point? The point is that the expert's work seems to be almost finished!"

Indeed, from the images in the livestream, one could see that the sun had unknowingly risen from the horizon.

On Ren Yi's side, the entire Watermelon Patch had been irrigated by him, and the weeds had been cut and thrown to the side in bundles.

"Hahaha, this is our Holy City's expert. The expert is awesome! His work is incredibly steady!"

"You call someone an expert just because they can work? I think you guys shouldn't be called the Holy City; just call yourselves Workhorse City."

"Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. Working fast means you can rest earlier. Especially with this kind of mental attack Anomaly, every extra second of rest is a win to deal with the dangers that follow."

"Wait, it doesn't look like the expert plans to rest? He's walking toward the courtyard!"