"Food"

"Hahaha, now's not the time to argue. Let's share what we've found first."

Yuigahama hurriedly tried to smooth things over. Yamauchi Haruki's gaze made her uncomfortable too, but Tuanzi, who wanted to keep the group together, magnanimously didn't seem to mind.

"Did you find anything?"

Bai Yuze asked Yukino. In response, Yukino handed him a can.

The can looked rather old, and the production date and expiration date printed on it confirmed that it was expired.

"An expired can?"

"There are also some cans of food that are close to expiring. They're just sitting in the house. Is this the house the note was talking about?"

"Probably, but the rules I found warned us to be careful about distinguishing whether food was normal."

"Does that mean we can't eat expired food? Or that we can only eat expired food?"

Yukino offered her guess, but Bai Yuze didn't respond. Instead, he asked Tuanzi:

"Tuanzi, what day of the week is it?"

"Huh? Let me check. It's Tuesday!"

"Just as I thought..."

Bai Yuze's expression grew heavy. He'd wondered from the beginning why Yamauchi Haruki had ended up in this instance. Now it all made sense.

"You two, come with me. There's something I need to tell you."

Bai Yuze walked out of room 106 and beckoned to the two girls.

Though they were a little confused, they followed him.

Seeing this, Yamauchi Haruki tried to follow, but Bai Yuze spoke up.

"Yamauchi, you don't need to come. You still need to familiarize yourself with the rules here, or you'll be in danger."

With that, Bai Yuze handed Yamauchi Haruki the note. After taking it, Yamauchi Haruki sat down on the edge of the bed and began to read.

After all, he had to stay alive to carry out the plan he had in mind. He didn't want his big ambitions to come to an abrupt end before he'd even begun.

Having shaken off Yamauchi Haruki, Bai Yuze brought the two girls back to room 102. Once he'd made sure Yamauchi Haruki hadn't followed them, he let out a relieved breath.

Seeing Bai Yuze act so strangely, Yukino couldn't help asking:

"Is something wrong? You seem really nervous."

"Yeah, Xiao Ze, I've never seen you this flustered before."

Tuanzi stared at him with wide eyes, her head full of questions.

"I'm just afraid he'll find out what we're discussing and do something crazy."

Yamauchi Haruki wasn't very strong, but Bai Yuze was worried he might fight recklessly, not caring whether he lived or died. Even if Bai Yuze could protect himself, Yukino and Tuanzi would be in trouble.

Right now, it would only make things more complicated if anyone got hurt, so he'd deliberately called the two girls over to talk in private.

"Tuanzi, stand by the door for a while and keep him from coming over. I'll try to keep my voice low enough that only you two can hear me."

"Remember, don't be surprised. There's nothing worth being surprised about here! Nod if you understand."

After both girls nodded, Bai Yuze began to explain.

When Bai Yuze finished, both girls wore somewhat grave expressions.

"So you're saying... that horny ape came into this instance as 'food'?"

"That's right. Supplies refresh every day, but human flesh counts as a supply too... especially when it's a living person. That proves the food is fresh, and it fits with the canned food being close to expiration or already expired."

"Ugh!"

Tuanzi felt sick and couldn't help retching. She couldn't accept the idea of treating people as food—not at all!

"Shouldn't he have come into this instance as a newcomer, just like the three of us?"

Yukino voiced her doubts, but Bai Yuze quickly refuted them.

"Newcomers arrive at the start of a new week, but today's Tuesday. There's no way a newcomer would show up now."

"What will happen to him, then?"

Tuanzi couldn't help asking, but Bai Yuze shook his head.

"I don't know. Maybe he'll survive, or maybe he'll be collected... Wait! Which rooms did you find those cans in? Are they in every room?"

Bai Yuze suddenly thought of something terrifying and hurriedly asked.

"Um, we found the cans in rooms 103 and 104. We checked 101 and 102 on purpose, and even went to 107 and 105. Of course, we only opened the doors to 105 and 107 a crack, but we didn't find any cans in those rooms."

Hearing Tuanzi's answer, Bai Yuze's face paled.

"What's wrong? Are the cans dangerous?"

Yukino looked puzzled. Could some cans really be life-threatening?

"The cans aren't dangerous. The danger is the 'people' behind them!"

"People? What do you mean?"

Yukino was even more confused. What did cans have to do with people?

"Think about it. What do the rooms with cans and the rooms without cans have?"

"What do the rooms without cans have... You mean 'people'? More precisely, 'people' who need to eat?!"

Yukino quickly understood what Bai Yuze was getting at. If the rooms without cans had no 'people' who needed to eat, then where had the 'people' who needed to eat in rooms 103 and 106 gone?

"What? What are you talking about? Room 102 doesn't have any food cans either!"

Tuanzi looked baffled. If the food in room 106 was Yamauchi Haruki, she could understand why he wasn't being counted as someone who needed to eat. But room 102 was where she lived, and she hadn't seen any food anywhere!

"No, Tuanzi. Actually, your food has been there all along... It's just that Minzhai judged you hadn't eaten and didn't give you any new supplies..."

As he spoke, Bai Yuze pointed to the Male Corpse lying on the broken bed. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call him room 102's feast...

At this point, even Tuanzi couldn't fail to understand what Bai Yuze meant. She clutched her throat and kept retching. She was incredibly grateful that her stomach was empty; otherwise, she would've had a truly miserable time.

"So now, on top of hiding the secret from the ape, we also have to watch out for the real owners of rooms 103 and 106?"

"That's right. Until we know more about them, we can't assume they're friendly. We can't even be sure they're human."

"Then what should we do with this corpse? Are we supposed to eat it?"

After Yukino said that, both of them looked at Tuanzi in unison.

"Huh? Why are you looking at me? I absolutely refuse to eat people!"

"Uh, it's just a corpse. Strictly speaking, it's not a person anymore."

Bai Yuze analyzed the situation with a perfectly serious expression.

"That's not the point! Stop putting on that solemn, analytical face when we're talking about this!"

Tuanzi flushed with anger. Bai Yuze's behavior was clearly him gloating and teasing her for his own amusement—and that was exactly what he was doing.

"All right, I'll stop messing with you. The corpse will come in handy. Even if you wanted to eat it, I wouldn't let you!"

"Hmph! Who'd want to eat it? Even if you let me, I wouldn't!"

Tuanzi turned away angrily, puffing out her cheeks like an angry pufferfish.

"You said it'll come in handy?"

Unlike Tuanzi, who was busy being angry, Yukino focused on the use Bai Yuze had mentioned.

"That's right. The creature that knocked on the door last night was afraid of this corpse. It might also have been afraid of this Scalpel. So as long as we have the corpse and the Scalpel, we should be safe for a little while."

Bai Yuze could only guarantee that they'd be safe in the short term. After all, no one could predict what would happen next. Right now, they were like people carrying a little lantern and feeling their way forward one step at a time. As for when they'd reach the end...

That depended on them.