We Are In A Birdcage

Zhao Yijiu bought a serving of mashed potatoes. He originally went there expecting it to be free of meat, but when the dish was served, there were still some small pieces of minced meat mixed in with it.

He took it expressionlessly, glanced at the chef's bright red lips, and noticed a suspicious red fingerprint on the plate of mashed potatoes.

"..." Staring silently at the mashed potatoes, Zhao Yijiu felt a surge of urge to punch someone, like the woman smiling at him from behind the partition. Why couldn't he just rush in and chop her head off?

"Let's go over there and grab a seat." Yu Xing's arrival interrupted Zhao Yijiu's dangerous thoughts, and she took his arm and walked towards a seat in the corner.

Since the cafeteria was quite empty at this time, they could be easily spotted even in the corner. Others who had already bought their food didn't need to look for it; they could just go straight there. This was the best spot with the best view that Yu Xing had observed.

They walked over and sat down. Zhao Yijiu picked up the spoon that had been brought over with the plate, her brows furrowed slightly, and she looked disgusted.

Yu Xing said, "Mashed potatoes!"

"What the hell?" Zhao Yijiu sighed. "The minced meat inside... we don't even know what kind of meat it is."

"It's better than mine, right?" Yu Xing opened the top slice of bread of the sandwich a little, letting Zhao Yijiu see the severed finger inside. "The chef probably thought I was too good-looking, so she gave me her own finger to eat. I'm so touched."

Wen Qinghuai happened to be carrying a plate, walked over. "..." I didn't dare to move.

As they were talking, Qu Xuanqing and Zhao Mou also came over. The table was big enough to seat six people. They took their seats one after another, and each person had different food on their plate. Zhao Mou also bought a glass of sweet water.

Since there was meat in the food, he first took a sip of the sweet water, and his eyes flickered slightly under the gaze of others. "It has a faint fishy smell."

Blood had been mixed into the sweet water.

If drinks are treated like this, then the ingredients added to food are even more blatant. Aren't they being extremely careful precisely because they're afraid the food in the dungeon might be related to "human flesh"? Since ancient times, ghosts using strange ingredients to disguise themselves as normal food is something every strategist could have predicted.

"Through history and political textbooks, I learned that in this world, even people with the same genes are divided into humans and discarded trash based on their behavior in their youth. Those humans don't treat trash as human and will buy and sell it." Yu Xing took a bite of her sandwich with a calm expression, sensing the contents. "If it can be bought and sold, that means it can be killed. The ingredients in the cafeteria..."

He didn't say it explicitly, but everyone knew what he meant: Would St. Johnis Middle School treat the students who were beyond saving as resources for exploitation?

"The taste is alright," Yu Xing commented.

Wen Qinghuai's eyes showed a hint of horror, after all, he had seen the severed human finger in Yu Xing's sandwich with his own eyes.

Qu Xuanqing: "... Is that so?"

She bought a meal with a green side dish that looked like broccoli. Others looked into her bowl but couldn't find any trace of meat.

"Don't be too happy, my meat is in the rice." Qu Xuanqing knew what the others were thinking. She used her chopsticks to pick up a corner of the rice, and as the rice grains rolled around, the cooked meat cubes were revealed.

"But yours is much better than ours. This is cooked meat. No matter what the ingredients are, the taste won't be too different once they're cooked. But we have to feel..." Yu Xing still picked out the severed finger from the sandwich. He wasn't going to actually eat it. Only God knew what the consequences would be. The chef was obviously playing a trick on him with impunity, taking advantage of the school rules and deliberately putting the severed finger in in front of him, betting that he wouldn't dare to break the rules.

"This dish is called 'Fallen Bird,'" Zhao Mou explained, referring to the dish Qu Xuanqing was eating. "We bought ours from the same window; hers was rice, and I ordered noodles. Both clearly stated that they contained fallen bird meat."

"Fallen bird?" Zhao Yijiu glanced at his older brother, feeling that the word seemed somewhat familiar.

"School rules," Yu Xing reminded him.

The last page of the school rules handbook displayed in the common area of their dormitory contained a quote from the Principal of St. Johnis Middle School.

The Principal seemed to have high expectations and enthusiasm for his students, and was full of confidence in his educational career. So he said, "These birds haven't learned to fly yet. They are lazy or stupid. What I have to do is take them to the edge of the cliff, push them off one by one, and watch them either successfully take flight or crash to their deaths."

St. Johnis Middle School is not only a school, but also a dumping ground, and has a more fitting name: Birdcage.

Successfully spread its wings.

Or they might fall to their death.

The birds that fall to their deaths are naturally those that die from the fall.

So what exactly is the meat of the drunken bird? It goes without saying. The difference is that the "drunken bird meat" sold at this window is cooked, while at other windows, raw meat is usually added to the dishes.

"The fingers of a ghost, the minced flesh of an unknown creature..." Yu Xing smiled. "These things are far more dangerous than the so-called fallen bird meat. Currently, choosing food from the fallen bird window seems to be the safest option."

"But that's..." Zhao Yijiu paused for a moment. Ghosts and humans—it suddenly seemed like a difficult choice to make between them.

"This is a copy, not the real one," Yu Xing reminded him. "Brother Jiu, even in a place like Dead Silent Island, we might doubt and hesitate about whether it's a real world. But the copy that the buildings on the island represent is clearly a special copy of what happened there or was distorted. Everything in the copy is illusory."

"Rather than calling the students here human, it's more accurate to say they're NPCs, plague beings, what we call ghosts. The only difference is that these ghosts don't have the awareness of being ghosts in this instance; they're just background figures serving the instance's plot, given the title of 'human' in this instance." He spoke slowly and deliberately. "They're not companions, but rather usable resources that give us a chance to pass the level. For example, if eating ghost food would kill you, but eating the flesh of a fallen bird would save you, would you hesitate to choose these plague beings who only look like us?"

Zhao Yijiu was speechless. He vaguely felt that such thoughts were dangerous, just as Yu Xing was unknowingly running wildly Fallen Path. But upon closer examination, he felt that the logic was correct. All the creatures on the Dead Silent Island were either plague creatures or contaminated creatures. The only difference was that they might be neutral NPCs or definitely enemy ghosts.

Everything he's going through now is just a setup by the game developers to instill fear in them.

"Yu Xing is right. With this experience, next time we can just buy food from the Fallen Bird window. At least we'll know what it is." Zhao Mou agreed, but he also pointed out the flaw in Yu Xing's statement, "However, you can't judge the danger of food based on the premise that the dungeon is full of Plague and Contaminated creatures. That would render the dungeon's faction divisions for these things meaningless. Yu Xing, I suspect your way of thinking has been influenced to some extent and you haven't adjusted back yet."

Zhao Yijiu looked up instantly. What Zhao Mou said was exactly the same as what he had sensed before, which meant that this was not his illusion, but a real event.

Yu Xing tilted his head and looked at the sandwich in his hand. Apart from the unappetizing finger and the small amount of blood flowing from it, the sandwich was indeed very delicious, and the ingredients were clean. He felt that he didn't mind at all.

He even ate the Water Ghost Shiwei.

It wasn't that he couldn't adjust after being influenced, but rather that his past experiences gave him the audacity to be indifferent. Even if forced by circumstances to eat meat that shouldn't be consumed by his own kind, what did it matter? He had long since broken that taboo; he wasn't a purely human being to begin with.

Etc!

Yu Xing's pupils contracted, and the sudden awakening sent a chill down his spine.

How could he think like that? He hadn't had such radical thoughts in a long, long time. He clearly wanted to become normal, to live a complete life like a human being. How could he possibly allow himself to revert to his old way of thinking...?

"I was indeed influenced," Yu Xing admitted, his expression unusually somber. "But since arriving on the island, I haven't experienced anything that could change my thinking. Ha, I had some doubts about something before, and I was on high alert because of it, but I still got influenced without realizing it. It's really... terrifying."

"What's going on?" Wen Qinghuai asked, sharp but somewhat puzzled. "If it's something internal to your team, I won't press further, but if it concerns all the strategists, I'd like to know more."

"It might be related, it might not. I need to confirm it again." Yu Xing didn't tell Wen Qinghuai directly, but instead gave Zhao Mou a wink. The latter immediately understood. The thing that their team had been puzzled about from the beginning was probably related to the information from the experience tester.

Why were they chosen Dead Silent Island? Was it due to the unique nature of this event instance, or did the experience tester team from another timeline have some information they wanted to convey, or was it a conspiracy?

After arriving on the Dead Silent Island, they were constantly receiving new information and settings, but this one question remained a point of doubt from the very beginning.

After receiving a look from Yu Xing, Zhao Mou realized that Yu Xing probably already had a guess about this issue, and this guess could not be known to outsiders, so he needed to interrupt the topic.

Zhao Mou rephrased Yu Xing's earlier conclusion. "For now, let's decide on this regarding food: everyone will compete for lunch at the Fallen Bird window. In this instance's setting, Fallen Bird meat is indeed a stable, edible resource. They aren't considered part of the human race, while those who have passed the learning test only see this meat as an edible resource. According to the instance's setting, this is something we can eat."

With things said to this point, no one objected.

Zhao Yijiu, Yu Xing, and Wen Qinghuai only need to dispose of the strange ingredients they've already received by noon today. As for the method...

Yu Xing wiped the piece of finger he had just picked out clean with the paper on the table and put it in his pants pocket.

"Is it not okay to waste things?" Zhao Yijiu's eyes lit up slightly as she looked at this action.

"Shh, if you don't say anything and I don't say anything, who can prove I wasted food? Nobody saw me." Yu Xing winked at everyone. "Just like Director Gene's implication, whether it's cheating or whatever, as long as it's not discovered, then it's not cheating. As long as I hide food and it's not discovered, then I didn't hide it, and I ate it all up."

As they were talking, a commotion suddenly arose outside the cafeteria, as if a large group of people were talking and approaching.

Yu Xing continued, "I guess because it's the first day, they gave us a chance to try and fail. We arrived early, so even if we tampered with food, no one could report us. The partitions at the food stalls were lowered so the cooks inside couldn't see us at all. Later, we'll be entering the cafeteria with the other students. If we don't eat and are discovered by the other students, there's a risk of being caught by the teachers. After all, no matter how oppressive the environment is, there will always be those who break away from the group and gain privileges at the cost of betrayal."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Yijiu immediately lowered his head and began carefully picking through the strange black bits of meat. He could already hear the students approaching the cafeteria. He had to pick out all the meat before the students entered the cafeteria, wrap it up, and hide it. Once he could complete this step and bring the wrapped item into his dormitory, there would be countless ways to destroy the evidence.

Wen Qinghuai had already anticipated this when Yu Xing made the move to hide something, and acted swiftly. Qu Xuanqing and Zhao Mou, on the other hand, didn't need to go through all that trouble. Both of them were experienced people who had weathered many storms, and they didn't show any unusual reaction when they put the rice and noodles into their mouths. After all, it was cooked food, so the taste wouldn't be too bad.

Almost as soon as the group finished their little trick, a large wave of students poured in from the cafeteria entrance. They were all wearing the same school uniforms and at first glance, they had no individual characteristics. Each of them had a strange expression mixed with numbness, fatigue, and a little bit of eagerness and competition.

With a clear goal in mind, the students in the lead rushed towards the bird-dropping window. Just as Yu Xing and the others had predicted, these students seemed to know what was edible and what was not. In the blink of an eye, a long queue had formed in front of the bird-dropping window.

Those who fell behind, seeing the long queue, all looked disappointed and fearful, resignedly moving to the side. If you looked closely, you could even see that many students were trembling slightly.

Zhao Yijiu was puzzled by this. "Why not just stick to one line?"

"Not enough time, or not enough food." This time, it was Wen Qinghuai who answered him. "Lunch break is only two hours. If they line up too far back, they might not have time to eat, then there's no point in them coming to the cafeteria; they'll just go hungry. It's also possible that each window has a limited supply of food each day, and experienced students can tell whether they still have a chance to get a meal just by looking at the length of the line."

The students were so busy grabbing for food that no one noticed the five unfamiliar faces sitting in the corner, allowing them to openly observe everyone.

Soon, students had finished getting their meals at each window and found places to sit. The whole cafeteria was noisy, but the students queuing at the window were very calm. Some of them were acquaintances and chatted with each other.

Meanwhile, the students at the other windows, though nervous, seemed to have gotten used to it. They quickly put on a pained expression, stuffing food into their mouths with their eyes closed while secretly glancing around.

Finally, someone spotted the new classmate in the corner.

At the table next to Yu Xing's table sat six girls who seemed to get along well. They all had long brown hair and their faces were predominantly Western. They noticed the corner and, before they could even start discussing anything, their expressions changed as they looked towards the cafeteria entrance.

Yu Xing followed suit and looked over.

A group of students wearing red armbands strode in, and the noisy chatter in the cafeteria that had been going on for just a second fell silent for a moment because of their arrival.

Yu Xing thought, "So that's how it is."

He just mentioned traitors, and here they are!