After leaving the courtyard, Bo Yi looked up at the sky.
It was nearly noon, and he planned to find Bo Yu first. Given their camaraderie from a previous instance, and the fact that Bo Yu herself was fairly reliable, Bo Yi intended to share his theory with her.
At least he would have another person to help him when night came.
But Bo Yi came up empty-Bo Yu was not in the house next door.
Or, more precisely, both rooms next door where the players were staying were empty.
Not only that, he did not see a single player on the road outside, either.
"Strange..." Bo Yi walked alone down the deserted street, his brows tightly furrowed. Normally, unless it was nighttime, when unknown dangers abounded, there would always be players wandering the streets in search of clues.
But now, every last one of them had vanished.
They probably hadn't run into danger... He analyzed the situation calmly. Even a high-level instance could not make so many veteran players disappear without a sound all at once. Yet even during his confrontation with the homeowner, Bo Yi had heard nothing from outside. It looked as though-
The players had left of their own accord.
But what could happen at this time of day-wait! Bo Yi suddenly realized something.
There really was one thing that happened at this hour!
It was just that, deep down, Bo Yi refused to believe the others would still be willing to do it after what had happened yesterday... He hurried to the village chief's house.
Sure enough, everyone he had failed to find in the house next door or on the street was at the large round table in the village chief's courtyard.
Excluding the burly player who had died last night and the three unlucky players killed by the pitchfork today, all seven players besides Bo Yi were already seated around the large round table.
But once he saw the scene in the courtyard clearly, the foot he had been about to step inside with stopped in midair.
The players were eating fish balls.
They were ravenously devouring fish balls-
Each of them wielded their chopsticks, snatching up fish balls with rough, impatient movements and stuffing them into their mouths. Some seemed unable to wait and simply grabbed them with their hands. Their mouths chewed rapidly, their faces filled with satisfied, blissful smiles, as though they were tasting the finest delicacy in the world. Without even waiting to chew their food properly, they swallowed eagerly, their throats bobbing.
Broth they had not managed to swallow clung to the corners of their mouths and dripped down their chins, spreading pale yellow rings across their collars. Broth splashed everywhere, and the table was a mess, but no one cared. All they cared about was the large steel basin in the middle of the table.
There were no longer enough people to fill the round table, and the steel basin held just as many white balls as yesterday, yet they acted as though there would not be enough to go around. Their eyes kept darting toward the other players, as if guarding against someone stealing their food, or competing to eat faster. Only when their gazes passed over the steel basin did a glimmer of longing appear in their eyes.
Yesterday at this very hour, they had been desperately making themselves vomit in a corner after learning that something foul was hidden inside the fish balls.
Among the ravenous players, Bo Yi spotted Bo Yu eating with her head down.
He walked up behind her.
"What are you doing?!" With her chopsticks taken away, Bo Yu sprang to her feet and screamed at Bo Yi. Her cry was shrill and piercing, as though he had committed some unforgivable atrocity against her.
It was the first time Bo Yi had seen this normally calm, composed female player so agitated and furious. After giving her a couple more curious looks, he became even more determined not to return her chopsticks.
"You can't eat any more of this. Come with me."
"Why not?!" Bo Yu slapped away Bo Yi's outstretched hand and reached to snatch the chopsticks from him. "What right do you have to stop me from eating?!"
"Give me back my chopsticks!"
Bo Yi did not hold the hard slap to his hand against her. He had eyes; clearly, something was very wrong with Bo Yu's current state. He simply used the chopsticks as bait to lure her into chasing him.
A clearheaded Bo Yu would never have fallen for such a simple trick. Fortunately, her abnormal state seemed to have affected her intelligence, too-she never even considered going back to the kitchen for another pair of chopsticks, or simply grabbing the food with her hands like the other players. She took Bo Yi's bait outright.
"Give them back!" She chased after Bo Yi.
Bo Yi led her all the way to the courtyard gate, then yanked her out of the village chief's house the instant she reached him.
Throughout it all, the other players remained seated, utterly indifferent, continuing to swallow their food as though that dish of fish balls was the only thing they could see.
"Let go of me, let go! What are you doing?! I haven't finished eating! Hurry up and let me go!" Bo Yu struggled with all her might.
After leaving the village chief's house, Bo Yi picked a direction at random and dragged her along. As the distance grew, Bo Yu's struggles seemed to weaken little by little.
"Back to your senses?" Bo Yi lowered his head.
Bo Yu nodded feebly. Her face was flushed bright red; apparently, she still remembered that humiliating episode.
Bo Yi released her. He found a wall to lean against and leisurely folded his arms. "Then tell me what happened..."
Bo Yu swallowed and cast a lingering, fearful glance toward the village chief's house. "Here's what happened..."
Just as Bo Yi had initially thought, after yesterday's lesson, the players had intended to make an excuse or simply hide to avoid the village chief's lunch invitation today.
What they had not expected was that the village chief would not send anyone to call them to lunch this time.
"It was the smell." Bo Yu let out a long breath. "As soon as noon came, we smelled something unbelievably enticing." That fragrance had traveled through the air and seeped into their lungs, awakening their deepest appetites.
"At that point, there was only one thought left in my mind-"
"Eat it."
"I have to eat all of it."
"What about now?" Bo Yi produced a notebook from somewhere and began writing in it with the precision of someone recording experimental data. "How do you feel now?"
Bo Yu was left speechless for a few seconds by Bo Yi's interview-like manner, but she still carefully assessed how she felt before answering, "Itchy."
"There's this terrible itch inside me."
"Even now, I still really want to eat it."
But perhaps because they were farther away and the fragrance of the food had been diluted by the air, the itch was still manageable.
Bo Yi nodded. Having gathered his data, he was about to put away his notebook when Bo Yu added hesitantly, "I don't know if I'm imagining it..."
She looked up in a certain direction. "It feels like the farther I go that way, the less it itches."
Hmm?
Bo Yi followed the direction she indicated, then raised his brows slightly.
If he remembered correctly, at the end of that direction stood-
The Lady's Temple.
Before you continue