Meat-Eater (6): Night Feast

"An entire tour with no guide, and the food's terrible to boot. I really don't know who'd come to this hellhole besides the few of us unlucky bastards..."

After leaving the table, Zhang Licai muttered under his breath, voicing his displeasure.

Qi Si leaned over with a smile. "Maybe this tour wasn't meant for the living in the first place. The dead aren't picky eaters."

His voice was soft and gentle, yet sounded sinister.

Zhang Licai shuddered and shouted, "Don't scare me like that! I'm a coward. If I get scared, I'll piss my pants."

Qi Si indulged his mischievous streak, lowering his eyes innocently. "Sorry, Brother Zhang. I was just saying..."

"I just had a chat with Granny Su. Whenever she brought up West Village, she got all evasive. My father's a geographer, and he enjoys studying feng shui in his spare time. I picked up a thing or two from him. If I'm not mistaken, there might be something valuable in West Village. If we could take it out..."

He blatantly lied, letting just the right amount of eagerness show.

Zhang Licai patted his shoulder, puzzled. "You're overthinking it, kid. Stuff from the game can't be taken out, even if it can grant wishes."

"If it could be taken out, there was a mine in the mountains in my last instance. Do you think I'd still be this broke?"

Qi Si's gaze sharpened.

If things from the game couldn't be brought into reality, then why had he managed to bring the Rose Heart out?

Under Zhang Licai's strange gaze, he smiled sheepishly. "Brother Zhang, I really didn't know. I was scared out of my mind in my first instance, so I didn't think about any of this. It was only later, once I'd gotten my bearings, that I started wondering about all sorts of things."

"Kid, then let me tell you a thing or two..." Zhang Licai didn't suspect a thing and launched into a long-winded explanation of what he knew about the Eerie Game's mechanics.

Qi Si put on a grateful expression and listened with a stomachache as the other man droned on about the same old things.

By then, he'd completely given up on turning Zhang Licai into a useful pawn.

He already had a "friend" in real life whom he had to keep around because the man was useful, and that was annoying enough. If he had to put up with another one in an instance... He just wanted the fat bastard to drop dead right then and there.

Only after all the players had left the table did Granny Su put on an apron, pick up a bucket and rag, and return to clear away the pots, bowls, and dishes.

Qi Si finally managed to fend off Zhang Licai and walked over to the table, which was covered in leftovers. "Granny Su, let me help you clean up. You've already worked so hard making such a big meal. Why don't you go rest for a bit?"

His voice carried just the right amount of concern, and his gaze looked utterly sincere.

It was hard to turn down a smiling face. Granny Su's expression softened a little. She picked up a plate with her right hand, turned, and grinned. "You're so polite, child. I can manage on my own."

"How could I let you do that?" Qi Si made as if to snatch the plate from her hand.

His fingertips touched the disgusting grease, and he instinctively flinched, but still kept a firm grip on the rim.

Granny Su was weaker than he'd expected. Qi Si only had to tug once to take the plate from her.

Then, as if he'd lost his grip, he let go. The plate fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

He apologized repeatedly and bent down to pick up the shards, but his foot slipped at just the wrong moment, pitching his upper body forward.

He used the momentum to grab Granny Su's left hand.

It was cold and lacked elasticity, with a hint of decay. Its owner had clearly been dead for a long time.

"I'm so sorry. How much were those plates? I'll pay you back." Qi Si's acting was superb; his voice and expression brimmed with embarrassment and remorse.

Still holding Granny Su's left hand, he straightened up and discreetly lifted her sleeve.

Her arm was covered in extensive livor mortis and bruises, clearly injuries from a fall. Judging by their color, her body had been left in a cold place for years.

As Granny Su cleaned up the mess on the floor, she politely said, "You're a guest. How could I let you pay for them?"

Qi Si had already gotten the information he wanted. He nodded in agreement. "All right, then I won't pay."

Granny Su: ...6.

Night fell quickly in the countryside. In no time, darkness had descended.

By the cold moon's faint glow, he could make out little more than the outlines of the houses. Clumps of trees swayed gently in the silvery-gray light, looking from afar like ghosts unwilling to rest.

Qi Si went to the washbasin in the corner of the courtyard and rinsed the grease from his hands with warm water. His gaze lingered for a moment on the sealed Ancient Well beside it before moving away.

He returned to his room, slid the bolt into place, and set the bundle of cloth wrapped around the God Meat on the table. Then he wiped the dust from the bamboo mat with a clean rag, finally settling in.

Lying on the bed, he took out his Pocket Watch and set the hands to nine o'clock to mark nightfall.

Sleepiness came over him quickly. His consciousness sank uncontrollably into darkness, but his sleep was restless.

In the latter half of the night, Qi Si opened his eyes. He heard his heart pounding and, for no apparent reason, realized he was afraid.

A long-forgotten emotion had appeared out of nowhere and been forced into the depths of his heart, spreading through his limbs and body...

Like a beast in the forest encountering its natural enemy, every cell trembled. Fear etched into his genes stirred his instincts, screaming at him to "run" and "get away"...

He had no memory of the dream. Qi Si slid a hand beneath his neck and felt cold sweat, then let his unfocused gaze drift to the system interface.

His Identity Card flashed wildly. Tentacles and gray fog surged and churned like the tide.

Blood-red writing flashed across the panel. It was as if a frozen interface had suddenly started running again, belatedly displaying line after line of notifications:

[Warning! God-level NPC (data deleted) has appeared. The instance's course has undergone unknown changes... Data error...]

[God-level NPCs have authority second only to The Rules. They can appear in multiple instances simultaneously and share memories. Players are advised to proceed with caution and choose carefully!]

[The last player to look directly at its true form has fallen into madness. Killing yourself before encountering it would be a good choice... No, you're already insane...]

God-level NPC? "Already insane"?

Qi Si stared at the broken sentences that could only be described as the "Dream Ruins." After a long while, he said, "What the hell?"

The moon had risen higher in the sky, and from the bed he could see only half of it through the window lattice. In the moonlight spilling through the window, Qi Si glanced at his Pocket Watch.

The hour hand pointed precisely to twelve. At most, he'd slept for three hours.

A hunger that seemed to come from nowhere swept through his stomach. He was hungry, so hungry, and he desperately wanted something to eat...

The sweet aroma of meat wafted through the air, stirring a hidden craving in his heart. Qi Si's gaze fell on the white cloth bundle on the table.

He knew it held the two pieces of God Meat he'd taken from the dining table. Even through the thick fabric, this unusual food was still terribly tempting.

Still, the stuff was so soft and squishy. It felt disgusting, like snot...

Qi Si tapped his upper palate with his index finger, lost in thought. Then he heard a commotion from a distant room, as if people were arguing.

He got up and went to the window, listening closely.

Shouting and the sound of things breaking rang out in quick succession, all blending into a noisy din. It sounded like a fight had broken out after a verbal dispute.

Judging by the distance, the room belonged to the Tattooed Woman and the skinny man she'd forced to share with her.

The other players had most likely woken up hungry in the middle of the night too, but not everyone had brought God Meat with them.

When their lives were on the line, people could do anything to survive.

"So something really did happen?"

Qi Si was glad he hadn't followed the crowd and impulsively found a roommate. At the same time, he was curious about how this sudden fiasco would end.

In less than half a minute, the arguing and fighting grew quieter. The winner had probably been decided.

With a loud bang, a figure stumbled out of the door and fell. He couldn't make out the person's features, but could imagine how wretched he looked.

Through the window lattice plastered with talismans, Qi Si watched by the cold white moonlight and saw that it was a man.

Blood poured from the man's forehead. He knelt on the ground like a beast, letting out pained cries. Qi Si could only make out words like "hungry" through his slurred speech.

After moaning for a long time, the man suddenly started clawing frantically at the ground. He scooped up handful after handful of dirt and stuffed it into his mouth.

Qi Si watched for a while, then lowered his eyes to the Travel Guide on the table.

The poem on the title page seemed especially sinister at that moment:

[With the granaries emptied of grain, how can hunger be appeased?]

[For a hundred miles, all eat soil; wood and stone pierce the belly, and they die.]

It seemed hunger could kill, and the only way to overcome it was to eat God Meat.

"Let's just pretend it's jelly." Qi Si reached for the white cloth bundle with a look of utter resignation and peeled back the covering.

The pale, translucent chunks of gel-like meat glittered in the moonlight, like cold dew in late autumn. But the blood-red veins flickering within them gave him the creeps. Perhaps "amber" was a better comparison.

Feeling the hunger cling to him, Qi Si grimaced, grabbed a piece of God Meat, stuffed it into his mouth, and swallowed.

A chill spread from his mouth to his stomach, leaving a sticky, slippery sensation in its wake, like a soft-bodied creature slowly crawling along.

Qi Si raised a hand to touch his Adam's apple. The muscles beneath his fingertips twitched and wriggled. He could feel the piece of meat struggling inside him, as if he'd swallowed a live loach whole.

A faint stench stirred at the tip of his nose, seemingly coming from his own body, then vanished in an instant, like an illusion.

Qi Si looked down at his right hand. For a split second, the outline of his skin blurred and seemed to waver, as if some kind of mucus were moving beneath it, while wisps of black smoke drifted around him.

The situation was clear: if he didn't eat God Meat, he faced the short-term threat of dying immediately. If he did, he faced a long-term threat whose consequences were unknown.

Survival wasn't easy. Both paths were perilous, and every choice was a gamble.

Unless some new factor entered the game, or one side of the game stepped outside the original framework.

Once again, Qi Si's gaze fell on the red writing on the system interface, its meaning impossible to make out.

What had happened in the dream? It was impossible not to wonder...