Carnivorous (5) Meat

The four lines of poetry were ambiguous in meaning; they appeared to be a description of suffering, yet they also felt like a curse brimming with malice.

Qi Si looked around the room and spotted a broom and two rags in the corner.

The rags were brand new, appearing quite clean compared to the dust-covered room.

He picked up a rag to wipe the tabletop, and only after clearing away most of the dust did he use his fingers to pinch the pages of the travel brochure and flip through them.

On the back of the page was a map of the village, marking three locations: "Ancestral Hall," "Village History Museum," and "Village Chief's House." The residence of Granny Su, where the players were staying, was marked with a red circle, making it clear and concise at a glance.

What Qi Si found strange was that while there was clearly a road on the left side of the map, there were no markings at all, as if there were no buildings there, just a stretch of desolation.

Village layouts on the plains were typically compact; could there really be such a large patch of empty space?

To leave it blank on purpose was practically like saying, "There is no silver buried here."

Qi Si rubbed his chin, thinking that when the time came, he could prioritize tricking someone into checking out the west side of the village.

A perfect clear not only granted more points but also item rewards. Although he was tempted to trigger the minimum death count mechanism to end the instance early, the thought of his settlement screen potentially displaying a rating lower than "S" made him feel physically uncomfortable.

After weighing his options, he decided it was better to put his heart and soul into gathering clues and deciphering the world-building.

"Dinner is ready, come and eat!" A hoarse shout came from outside the door; it was the voice of Granny Su.

Qi Si set down the paper in his hand and pushed the door open to step out.

The round table in the courtyard was already laden with food. Aside from a lump of white, gelatinous substance sitting in an iron basin in the center, the surrounding dishes were all ordinary farm-style vegetarian fare.

There were thirteen chairs in total, each with a set of bowls and chopsticks placed in front of it.

The players sat in a circle around the table. Qi Si took the opportunity to glance at everyone's hands, but he didn't see anyone wearing anything like a ring.

Yang Yundong was the first to recount the clues from the travel brochure. The other players chimed in one after another, basically confirming that this was a public clue and that every player had received roughly the same information.

During this time, Granny Su pulled A-Xi over to take the final seats, positioning themselves next to Qi Si and Zhu Ling respectively.

Zhu Ling exchanged pleasantries, saying, "It's truly a great trouble to you that you've cleared out space for us to stay and prepared such a large table of food to host us."

Granny Su smiled and said, "It's only right, only right. You are guests who have come to travel, after all."

Zhu Ling nodded gently and asked cautiously, "We just arrived, and we can't make heads or tails of the map. Could you act as our tour guide and take us around to see the sights tomorrow morning?"

"Your village must still be worshipping that deity, right? We all believe in gods; if it's convenient for you, could you take us to pay our respects to Him?"

She had clearly noticed the blank space on the map and wanted to use her questioning to probe for important clues.

Unexpectedly, Granny Su's expression turned ugly in an instant: "It was agreed upon beforehand that you are just here to stay and taste the 'God Meat.' As for anything more, this old woman has no time to accompany you!"

Zhu Ling hit a wall and felt somewhat awkward. Zhang Licai, sitting beside her, patted his own chubby face and muttered under his breath, "That's just great, spending money to travel just to stay for five days..."

Zhou Yilin, sitting to the side, stammered timidly, "But... I don't think we spent any money."

Zhang Licai: "..."

Qi Si pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Granny Su, can we walk around the village on our own?"

"Walk around if you want," Granny Su said. "But don't go wandering blindly once it gets dark. If something happens, this old woman won't be responsible."

The implication was clear: nighttime meant danger for the players.

Earlier, she had also mentioned that the villagers would come out at night, which was practically telling the players outright that the villagers were problematic.

The system notification sound rang out right on cue, and the corresponding text appeared on the system interface.

[Rules have been refreshed]

[2. Granny Su does not like outsiders. Travelers who wish to sightsee should learn to use the map and plan their own routes. Please remember that nighttime is dangerous; please return to Granny Su's residence before dark.]

The players exchanged glances, each having their own considerations.

As long as they could explore, that was fine. There were eleven of them, after all—surely they could finish searching this little backwater village?

No one asked any more questions. Granny Su produced a knife from somewhere and reached into the iron basin in the center to scrape at it.

The white gel in the basin trembled the moment the knife touched it, as if it had a life of its own, perhaps out of fear of pain, or perhaps just a pure reflex reaction.

The surrounding air grew a bit thicker. Something invisible seemed to be sucking at the brains of those watching; waves of mournful wails echoed at the base of their consciousness like hallucinations, only to scatter like a receding tide.

For a split second, Qi Si felt as if he saw twisted red patterns emerging on the surface of the gel, but they dimmed in an instant. The entire mass heaved and pulsed, twitching like a heartbeat.

It was obvious what the thing in the basin was. Yang Yundong, who was sitting further away, pointed at the basin and asked a question he already knew the answer to: "Granny Su, what is this?"

"It is the meat of the deity. You came to our village, isn't this what you wanted to eat?" Granny Su replied, her eyes narrowed in a near-obsessive manner.

As she spoke, her hand never stopped moving. The cold-glinting blade sliced open the white skin, and a few drops of golden liquid seeped from the cut, like beads of blood, like tears.

A rich, meaty aroma permeated the air, seeping through every crack and into the pores of the living beings nearby. Qi Si heard the sound of people gulping down saliva, one after another, coming from almost everyone, all of it reeking of greed and hunger.

The deity in red descended from the heavens, every inch of skin and flesh appearing as if cast from beauty. The lush fragrance ignited their appetites, and the villagers' awe quickly turned into desire.

They surrounded Him, staring fixedly at Him, until they could no longer endure it. Pushing and shoving one another, they rushed forward, pouncing, tearing, slicing, and gnawing...

A scene flashed before his eyes. Qi Si blinked, and for a fleeting moment, he felt a sympathetic pain in his own skin and flesh.

[You have seen the shadow of the Evil God]

[The Evil God has glanced at you]

Two lines of notifications refreshed.

Qi Si looked at the [Humanoid Evil Spirit] identity tag flickering in the upper right corner of his vision, thinking with a sense of existential despair: So, this is how "establishing a connection" works?

Granny Su cut the meat into eleven portions, placed them one by one in front of each player, and urged them with a beaming smile: "Eat up, everyone. It's delicious. Once you've had a taste, you'll never forget it..."

Allen, sitting next to Yang Yundong, swallowed hard and asked suspiciously, "Old woman, if it's really that good, why aren't you eating any yourself?"

Granny Su replied, "We who serve the gods have all become vegetarians to repay the grace of the meat He bestowed upon us in the past."

She paused for a moment and added, "We were originally called 'Su Family Village', but later changed it to 'Su Clan Village'. If you read it aloud, it actually sounds like 'Vegetarian Village'. We only eat vegetables now."

The players looked at each other, truly embarrassed by this pun.

Qi Si was still studying his identity tag when he heard Granny Su's explanation, and his eyebrows arched slightly.

He clearly remembered the couplet pasted on the gate of the residence:

[Year after year, burn incense to dispel karmic obstacles]

[Year after year, eat vegetarian to wash away sins]

Is eating vegetarian really for the sake of gratitude? That is highly unlikely.

The couplet stated it quite clearly: eating vegetarian is for the purpose of atonement.

If it were truly as Granny Su claimed—that the god bestowed meat upon Su Clan Village and the village served the god in a legitimate and compliant manner—what sins would there be to atone for?

In the vision from earlier, that god in red seemed to fear pain and had never explicitly permitted the villagers to carve Him up and eat Him.

Qi Si had his suspicions; a cold smile bloomed at the corner of his mouth as he looked at Granny Su with a gaze full of scrutiny.

Granny Su and A-Xi seemed oblivious, busy using their chopsticks to pick vegetables into their bowls.

The aroma of the food wafted through the air, and accompanied by the two NPCs' expressions of blissful indulgence, a sense of hunger began to spread among the players.

This hunger was by no means a normal physiological reaction; it felt more like a mechanism of the instance. Everyone felt their stomachs cramping, as if they desperately needed something to fill the void.

However, most of the veteran players were cautious, and no one dared to touch their chopsticks; the two newcomers followed suit, sitting stiffly in their seats.

It was only after Granny Su finished her meal and led A-Xi away from the table that the players finally began to eat, picking at the vegetable dishes Granny Su and A-Xi had already touched to barely satisfy their hunger.

Throughout the meal, no one dared to touch a single hair of the crystal-clear "God Meat" in front of them. After all, whether judging by the legends or its appearance, the thing was reeking of eeriness and danger.

The players who ate quickly put down their bowls within minutes and left the table as if fleeing from vipers and scorpions.

Zhao Feng, who had previously courted death by provoking A-Xi, stared at the God Meat on the table, feeling restless.

He had promised A-Xi that he would get him meat to eat, and he only had one day to find it. Since it was highly unlikely that anything other than God Meat could be found in Granny Su's house, he had no other choice!

Zhao Feng looked at Yang Yundong for help: "Do you think if I give this God Meat to that ghost child, he'll eat it?"

"I don't know." Yang Yundong seemed to be thinking about something else and replied distractedly, "You can try, but remember not to do it in front of Granny Su."

Granny Su didn't eat meat, but A-Xi went around looking for it, much like a bratty child sneaking around behind his parents' backs. Giving him the meat was certainly something the "parent" couldn't know about.

Having figured out the logic, Zhao Feng grabbed the portion of God Meat in front of him, stuffed it into his pocket, and left the table to stand in a corner of the courtyard, watching A-Xi from afar and waiting for an opportunity.

Besides Zhao Feng, quite a few other players took the meat, claiming they wanted it as a backup.

One player stepped forward, earnestly trying to persuade them: "Taking the God Meat will stain us with 'sin'. It would be better if none of us took it. Even if this instance really requires us to eat the God Meat, the law won't punish the masses. With 'that mechanism' in place, we'll all be fine."

He was referring to the "minimum death toll" mechanism. A player who heard him sneered: "You talk a good game, but if you're so confident, why don't you join us in taking the meat? Trying to trick us into not taking it—who knows what your real intentions are!"

Everyone had their own opinions on the matter, and no one could convince the other.

Qi Si searched his entire body and couldn't find anything to store items in, so he had no choice but to tear off a piece of his sleeve to wrap up his portion of the meat.

The player who had been sitting next to him had already left without taking his own portion.

Consequently, Qi Si casually collected that piece of meat into his cloth bundle as well.

Not feeling that was safe enough, he scanned the entire table with his eyes, but regretfully, there was no more God Meat to be found.

There were plenty of clever people among the players, and they were more than happy to seal off the escape routes of others after seeing them make the wrong decisions.

The death rules and methods of this instance were still unknown, and a few people would inevitably have to die to verify them.

And in the Eerie Game, if you misjudge the situation, you deserve whatever fate befalls you, even if it means death.