"Prepare!" Tan Jie raised his left hand, about to give the order.

"Wait a moment." Bai Ye suddenly spoke up to stop him.

Tan Jie grew even more furious, thinking Bai Ye was trying to seize command from him. He glared angrily, only to find Bai Ye wasn't looking at him but was frowning at the Hyena Pack.

"Put your guns away." Bai Ye put away the Breath of Bones and said calmly to everyone.

Everyone was taken aback, not understanding what was happening.

Tan Jie angrily questioned, "Deputy Commander Bai, what exactly do you want..."

"Our enemy isn't the hyenas; there's no need to waste bullets." Bai Ye's gaze passed over the Hyena Pack, staring intently at the endless yellow sand behind them.

Not the Hyena Pack?

Tan Jie thought Bai Ye was acting crazy again and was about to explode when one of his underlings suddenly shouted.

"The hyenas are turning!"

"What!?"

Tan Jie quickly looked over and saw the aggressive Hyena Pack changing direction, avoiding Graysoil Town and running off into the distance.

"Why are the hyenas running away?"

"Could it be they were scared off by us last time?"

Many of the town's defenders exclaimed in delight; they were not eager to fight the Hyena Pack.

Unlike their simple thoughts, Wang She and Tan Jie felt something was off.

"Deputy Commander Bai, what's going on?" Wang She asked seriously, knowing Bai Ye was a Wasteland Hunter, though just an ordinary person, with rich survival experience in the wild.

"The hyenas aren't attacking the town; they're fleeing." Bai Ye said calmly.

At these words, everyone's faces changed dramatically. Fleeing? Could it be something even more terrifying was coming?

The fierce Hyena Pack had already put Graysoil Town on high alert, but now these hyenas were fleeing like stray dogs. What kind of powerful creature could be chasing them?

Panic and unease quickly spread through the crowd, and they all looked to their leaders, seeking reassurance.

However, the leaders they relied on were also panicking. Tan Jie and Wang She exchanged a frantic glance, unsure of what to do.

Tan Jie forced a laugh, "Could it be the army from Dawn City nearby, scaring the hyenas off?"

"Army? I'd rather it be a Mutant Beast." Wang She said darkly.

"Quiet, it's coming." Bai Ye suddenly looked up at the distant sky.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!!

A faint buzzing sound came from the horizon, with a high frequency that seemed to pierce the eardrums and reach the soul, causing an inexplicable unease.

"What is that sound!?" someone asked in panic.

The buzzing grew louder.

"It sounds a bit like electricity..."

"No, it's birds! Look!"

Everyone looked up in shock, seeing a dense swarm of black dots suddenly appear on the distant horizon. The black dots mingled with the white clouds, making the cloud sea look riddled with holes.

They were getting closer, a dark mass, with the sound of birds and flapping wings becoming deafening!

"It's Gray Sparrows!!"

"Mutant Beast Gray Sparrows! So many... they're all... run! Graysoil Town can't hold them!"

The crowd erupted in screams like a signal flare, and the pale-faced people snapped out of their daze, turning to flee, ignoring their leaders' orders.

Bai Ye squinted his eyes, watching the rapidly approaching Gray Sparrows. They were also a type of Mutant Beast, originally the most common sparrows, preferring to appear in flocks.

This flock of Gray Sparrows seemed to number in the thousands. Hearing about a thousand sparrows might not sound like much, just intimidating, but in reality, it was far from that.

The mutated Gray Sparrows had gray skin, lifeless pale eyes, and bodies as large as eagles, with claws sharp as steel.

A thousand eagles flying over the town could block out the sky, casting countless shadows that sliced through the sunlight.

"This is trouble." Bai Ye's face darkened. In terms of individual combat power, Gray Sparrows were no match for hyenas, but their numbers were overwhelming, and they were highly mobile.

He could stop time, but he couldn't fly. If the Gray Sparrows were all on the ground, he could unleash a massacre with time stop, but they were in the sky, out of reach.

He had considered using a gun, but his marksmanship was poor. Trying to aim and shoot one by one would likely exhaust his time stop without killing all the Gray Sparrows.

He could only retreat into a building and take it one step at a time.

Bai Ye jumped off the city wall, sprinting rapidly. His enhanced physical abilities allowed him to quickly overtake the first group of fleeing people, though some were still ahead of him.

It was Wang She and Tan Jie!

These two had fled at the first sight of the Gray Sparrows, knowing the town walls couldn't withstand an attack from the sky.

However, no matter how fast humans ran, they couldn't outrun birds, especially mutated ones.

"Ah!!" A piercing scream rang out from the crowd.

A Gray Sparrow swooped down, its metallic beak piercing through a person's skull like an arrow, greedily sucking blood and brain matter.

More and more Gray Sparrows descended from the sky, hunting like they were preying on insects, ruthless and swift!

Bang bang bang...

Chaotic gunfire erupted as some fought back desperately.

"I'll fight you all! Aaaah!!"

Some people frantically hid inside buildings, "Get inside!"

The pedestrians on the street cried and ran, scrambling madly for their homes.

However, how could the wooden shacks withstand the Gray Sparrows? Even brick houses might barely hold, but what about the windows?

It's important to know that the mutation affected not just the beasts' bodies but their minds as well.

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Chaos! Utter chaos!

The entire Graysoil Town descended into extreme chaos. Bai Ye accelerated through the chaotic crowd. Unlike Tan Jie and Wang She, he didn't immediately hide in a building but headed straight for the Tire Tavern.

That was Tan Jie's base, where they stored water, food, and ammunition!

Bullets were Bai Ye's target. The Breath of Bones drained the user's qi and blood, so Tan Jie hadn't given him many bullets, thinking he wouldn't need that many.

Whoosh!

A sound like an arrow tearing through the air rapidly approached above Bai Ye's head.

A fierce light flashed in the young man's eyes. He knew he had been targeted by a Gray Sparrow. After all, the number of residents on the street was dwindling, either dead or hiding in buildings. He was the only one still running, so it was only a matter of time before he was targeted.

He didn't choose to dodge, but instead...

Time Stop!