There seemed to be food scraps left on those tables, but on closer inspection, the scraps appeared to be writhing and twisting, like snake meat still twitching from nerve signals after its head had been cut off and its skin stripped away.
Green fuzz floated in some of the soupy leftovers. They were a murky gray overall, with black, cottony clumps floating on the surface, as though something were rotting inside.
At the Meal Windows at the far end of the dining hall, the door that had always been tightly shut was now open, standing ajar.
Through that door, he seemed to glimpse even stranger sights: ghostly green light like that of the underworld, dark red, viscous liquid flowing over the floor, scraps of flesh writhing and crawling, and the occasional clang, clang, clang of iron chains rattling in the wind...
Within the thick, sticky darkness, something seemed to be struggling desperately, trying to break free.
Standing in the middle of the dining hall, Lin Yi could also feel what seemed like countless pairs of eyes watching him from the darkness. Every entity lined up in the shadows was looking at him, yet when he scanned his surroundings, they stood stiffly in line as though they had never moved.
A great many entities queued in the unlit areas, while only a few people stood where there was light. Their heads lowered, they said nothing, merely shuffling forward with the line, hoping to get their food a little sooner.
Fear emanated from these people. Lin Yi knew they were the "genuine" Experience Students, expendable material within the Campus-living college students (experiencers).
After he joined the line, no one lined up behind him. His line seemed to have been cut off, and all the students who subsequently entered the Student Dining Hall