Jiang Jue toyed with the mushroom for quite a while but ultimately failed to figure out what was unusual about it.
A few bolder Players also put on gloves and went over to poke at it here and examine it there.
Still... nothing happened.
Qi Si stood nearby for a while, then picked up his own bowl and chopsticks and walked over to the sink on the western side of the cafeteria.
The faucet above the sink was old-fashioned, the sort from the seventies or eighties of the last century.
The iron spout was mottled with rust, and the cross-shaped valve was stiff and heavy. Qi Si had to exert considerable effort before he could twist it open.
Cold water gurgled down, piercingly icy against his fingertips. Who knew how such cold water could exist in a tropical climate?
Qi Si looked around but found neither a rag nor dish soap, so he could only make do by scrubbing with his hands.
He had expected the bowl to be difficult to clean, but after rinsing it for only half a minute, its surface gleamed as brightly as new.
Seeing this "NPC," Qi Si, lead by example, the other Players did not dare slack off. They immediately took their bowls and chopsticks and gathered around the sink.
Qi Si mechanically returned to the dining table and put his bowl and chopsticks back where they belonged.
About another half minute later, the Players had also finished washing their bowls and chopsticks and returned to the table.
The sky outside had gone completely dark. Looking out from the doorway, there was not a single glimmer of light in the pitch-black darkness beyond—not a star, not the moon. It was as though an enormous curtain had descended over their heads.
Yet strangely, the lighting