Carnivore (7): Casualties

The night was thick as ink. Yang Yundong and Allen walked one after the other along the dusty dirt road, slowly exploring toward the west side of the village.

Venturing out at night undoubtedly meant danger, but some things simply had to be done by someone.

The system prompt stated that the truth was hidden within the villagers' words. The sooner the truth was found, the fewer people would be harmed later on.

The villagers would only emerge at night; if one wanted to question them, one had to go out after dark.

In the profound silence, Allen finally couldn't hold back and asked, "Yang, can you tell me what exactly this Eerie Game is?"

"No one knows what it truly is. Perhaps it's a set of Rules, perhaps a large-scale supernatural event, or perhaps an experiment launched by a high-dimensional civilization." Yang Yundong didn't turn his head, his voice calm and rippleless. "The result is that some people were accidentally selected and dragged into the instance."

"Cool!" Allen shouted excitedly, but the next second he realized it was inappropriate and quickly corrected himself. "So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? I heard that voice say it could grant any of my wishes..."

"It's not a good thing." Yang Yundong stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him. "Most people die in the game. Even if you manage to survive, you might not be human anymore..."

"My God, is it that terrifying?"

The moon hung in the center of the sky. In the stillness, there wasn't even the sound of cicadas; time seemed to have frozen at a certain moment, waiting for death alongside the world.

Low houses stood in clusters like grave mounds, surrounding a fairly large bungalow. The slogan "Exert your full strength, strive for the best" on its wall had long since faded, looking more like filth splashed on at random, currently dripping downward.

Allen didn't like the silence, so he began to make small talk: "I've never been to a rural area in Dragon County; I'll just treat this as a free trip. But what that old woman said was truly scary—that people have starved to death in every room. It makes me afraid to stay inside... uh..."

As if to echo his words, a sense of hunger struck without warning, overwhelming and sudden, instantly drowning him.

The cramping pain in his stomach spread from his chest to his entire body, bringing a powerful sense of weakness. He crouched down, trembling, his limbs uncontrollably digging into the dirt on the ground.

Yang Yundong also crouched down, his expression grim; clearly, he too had been caught off guard by the sudden hunger.

Maintaining his composure, he tremblingly fished two pieces of God Meat from his pocket, kept one for himself, and handed the other to Allen.

The two devoured the God Meat ravenously. Allen wiped his mud- and mucus-stained hands on his clothes in a disheveled manner, his expression no longer carrying its previous ease.

Before personally experiencing the threshold of death, no one would believe that danger was so close to them.

For the first time, Allen realized that this unusual encounter was not like the outdoor adventures or extreme sports he had participated in before...

His blind optimism was shattered. He opened his mouth to say something, but Yang Yundong suddenly made a gesture for him to be silent.

He jolted, lifting his eyes to look ahead, only to see faint, ghostly green spots flickering in the darkness, like spirits, like will-o'-the-wisps...

Zhu Dafu lay on the bed, his eyes wide open as he stared at the ceiling.

He was seventy-eight years old. He had farmed his whole life and never even left the town. When he had free time, he just scrolled through short videos.

He hadn't read many books, had never read infinite-flow novels, and had certainly never played horror games.

Three days ago, he was driving his cart to the town market when he ran into the Public Security Bureau arresting a criminal. The criminal was shot dead on the spot, and as he happened to be passing by, he saw a black metal card fly out of the pool of blood and merge into his body.

Just like that, he had muddled his way into the "Eerie Game."

He had stumbled through the first instance. He didn't understand anything about points, TE, or NE; he only knew that from now on, he would have to face ghosts every three days—all sorts of strange, bizarre ghosts.

Being old, he couldn't sleep once he had something on his mind.

Zhu Dafu recalled the events of the past few days, becoming more clear-headed the more he thought about it.

He thought, this time is good; this village, this house, and these people are all styles he is familiar with. It's not like last time, with all that talk of "genes" and "cloning"—he couldn't understand any of it.

He could also grasp much of what that old woman, Granny Su, was saying. He had lived through that era himself. First his grandfather starved to death, then his little sister. They had prayed to gods and Buddhas, but why hadn't a kind-hearted deity come to save them?

Zhu Dafu turned over and saw the young face of his roommate.

He thought again, everything is fine this time, except that the people with him are all too young. There's even a young girl in college, younger than his own granddaughter.

He was already old; if he died, he died. Why did those god-forsaken ghosts have to target these children?

As he lay there with these scattered thoughts, he watched the moon outside the window rise higher and higher into the sky, its cold, white light passing through the window lattice and shining upon his face.

His stomach suddenly began to cramp. A long-lost hunger welled up, impossible to endure through willpower alone. Every inch of his flesh and skin was screaming with the desire to eat.

It was as if he had been dragged back to that era seventy years ago, shrouded in the shadow of death. After all these years, he saw the withered earth, the stench of rot, the bloated faces, and the yellow-white pus once again...

Past memories and present sensations overlapped, and he began to tremble uncontrollably...

A loud rooster crowed at the edge of the sky, and the east turned white.

Qi Si climbed out of bed, walked quickly to push the door open, and his gaze fell upon the person collapsed in the center of the courtyard.

This unlucky soul was the thin, gaunt man who had shared a room with the tattooed woman. Qi Si remembered his name was "Lu Keliang," a volunteer math teacher.

The man looked as if he had been dead for a long time; he might as well have had "I'm beyond saving" written on his face.

Qi Si used his foot to nudge the man's corpse into a flat position, looking down to see the dirt-caked mouth and nose and the exaggeratedly bloated abdomen of the latter.

One could tell almost at a glance that this person hadn't choked to death; he had been stuffed to death.

It seemed that as long as a player didn't eat the God Meat in time, they would be "Nightmared" and, under the manipulation of the Eerie Game, forced to eat a large amount of things they shouldn't, until they died.

This way of dying was too unsightly. In an instant, Qi Si solidified his resolve to survive this instance.

Subconsciously, he touched the God Meat wrapped in cloth inside his jacket.

It took an entire piece of God Meat to help a person survive one bout of hunger, and yesterday, Granny Su had only given the players eleven pieces in total.

Every extra piece of God Meat taken meant one person would fail to endure the hunger and die a miserable death.

Strictly speaking, everyone who took extra God Meat was a murderer.

Thinking of this, Qi Si casually tucked the cloth bag deeper into his pocket. He felt not a shred of guilt, but he had no desire to be grabbed by the collar, have his actions twisted, or be subjected to moral kidnapping.

A "creak" came from the direction of the courtyard entrance as the wooden gate was pushed open from the outside.

Qi Si quickly pulled his hand from his pocket and adopted a compassionate expression, his eyes filled with the sorrow of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox.

"What happened?" Yang Yundong walked in from outside, his brows knitting together as he saw the corpse on the ground. "What happened last night?"

Allen followed behind him and nearly jumped when he saw the man's body. "Fuck! Someone died on the first night? How exciting is that?"

Qi Si lowered the corners of his mouth and recounted what he had seen and heard in a somber tone, taking care to highlight the role the tattooed woman had played.

After hearing this, Yang Yundong's face darkened. He subconsciously reached into his pocket, but felt nothing.

He let his rough hands hang at his sides and asked, "Is everyone else alright?"

Likely not at all, Qi Si thought to himself, while keeping his eyes lowered and remaining silent.

By now, the other players had begun to wake up, pushing open their doors and stepping into the courtyard.

Zhu Ling and Zhou Yilin were the first to emerge.

The moment she saw the corpse, Zhou Yilin turned deathly pale and nearly let out a scream. Fortunately, Zhu Ling remained calm, shielding her in time and offering soft, comforting words.

Zhang Licai and Zhao Feng followed closely behind. As players who had already cleared one instance, they didn't lose their composure, though their expressions were equally grim.

Zhao Feng clearly hadn't slept well; his eyes were sunken into dark circles, giving him the appearance of a ghost at first glance.

Seeing Yang Yundong, he stepped forward. "Brother Yang, after you left yesterday, I went to find that little ghost. It said it doesn't eat God Meat..."

At this, he gritted his teeth. "Tell me, where am I supposed to find other meat for it?"

Yang Yundong waved a hand, his face etched with the exhaustion of a sleepless night. "We still have a whole day. We'll take things one step at a time."

Zhao Feng looked resentful at these words, but after catching the looks from other players, he shut his mouth with a sullen expression.

Just then, the tattooed woman walked out of her room.

Sensing everyone's gaze upon her, she spat a glob of mucus onto the ground and pointed hatefully at the man's corpse, cursing, "This bastard, he didn't take his own God Meat, so he set his sights on mine. I'm not someone to be trifled with..."

No one intended to speak up for justice, even though many remembered that it was clearly she who had shouted about "bad luck" the previous evening, refusing to touch the God Meat on the table.

The tattooed woman continued to curse for a long time until Yang Yundong barked, "Shut up!" Only then did she stop berating the deceased, crossing her arms and standing to the side with her head held high.

"Wu Heng and Zhu Dafu haven't come out," Yang Yundong said.

He walked straight to the last closed door, struck it twice with his palm, and receiving no response, kicked the door open.

Inside, two figures lay twisted on the floor, signaling the expected outcome.

Wu Heng, the young man with glasses, had been dead for some time; his cracked spectacles hung crookedly on his face, and bits of wood chips were stuck to the corners of his mouth.

Zhu Dafu, with his graying hair, lay sprawled by the threshold, his hands outstretched and his mouth wide open, as if trying to grasp something or leave behind some final words.

In the dead silence, Yang Yundong slowly crouched down and reached out to close Zhu Dafu's eyes, his expression unreadable.

A moment later, he stood up and looked back at the others. "You've all seen it. Three people died on the first day. If we don't decipher the worldview in advance, we still have four full days left here."

With that said, the players naturally understood the stakes.

The minimum death toll was unknown, and no one could be certain they were among the lucky few who would survive. To ensure their own survival, the only path was to actively collect clues and crack the worldview.

"Allen and I went to scout the village last night. The places marked on the map were covered in fog. We tried to walk toward them, but we just ended up back where we started. It seems these places require us to explore them during the day."

As he spoke, Yang Yundong pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket—a map torn from the Travel Guide.

He pointed at the landmarks with his rough fingers and continued slowly, "We wandered around the areas without fog later, mostly the west side of the village. We saw many villagers out working. Most of the time, they acted no different from normal people, but when they saw us, they swarmed us demanding meat. We only escaped by pretending to agree."

At this point, Yang Yundong glanced at Zhao Feng. "Allen, you, and I are facing the same dilemma. There's no way to solve it for now, so we have to set it aside and think of a solution based on further exploration..."

This undoubtedly explained why he had told Zhao Feng earlier to "take things one step at a time."

Zhao Feng was clearly still dissatisfied, muttering under his breath, "I have to find meat for that little ghost today. What if I can't find any? If I really can't think of a way, I'll have to..."

He swept his gaze over the corpse on the ground but didn't finish his sentence. That thought was far too insane in the eyes of outsiders, and he didn't know if it carried other risks.

Yang Yundong's lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but he ultimately remained silent.

He turned and left, with Allen following closely behind him like a puppy. It was unclear what the young white man had experienced, but after only one night, he had become completely obedient and deeply reverent toward him.

Qi Si hid in a corner, squinting as he took in the expressions of all the players, satisfied to see the ruthlessness and hesitation in Zhao Feng's eyes.

Having just been snatched from the orderly reality and thrown into the Eerie Game, few people could complete a shift in their worldview in such a short time, abandoning the habits of conformity cultivated in human society.

Even a natural-born sociopath or a serial killer, upon first arriving at this lawless paradise of sin, would instinctively hide in the shadows due to ingrained mental patterns.

"You don't actually believe in morality, yet you habitually uphold conventional order, binding yourself to the behavioral norms of human society. How are you any different from fools like Yang Yundong?"

Qi Si chuckled to himself, stepped forward to Zhao Feng's side, and whispered in a volume only the two of them could hear: "You must realize, there is no public authority or law here. The only thing you need to fear and obey is the Eerie Rules on the system interface."

"Humans are animals too, aren't they? And human meat is still meat, isn't it?"