I Found Food

[Intel: Under the third brick beneath the cardboard box on the left side of the storage room, there is a key that can open the door beside the storage room.]

Lin Yang's eyes lit up. "A key? Could it get me out of here?"

He headed straight for the spot indicated by the intel. He was already in the storage room, so he quickly found the dusty cardboard box. When he moved it aside, several cockroaches scurried away, exposing the water-stained bricks underneath.

The brick did look loose, as though it would be easy to lift.

Lin Yang found a wooden stick nearby and wedged it into the gap. He pried the brick up two centimeters, then picked it up by hand and tossed it aside.

The next moment, he saw a small cloth pouch underneath!

It looked like a little drawstring pouch. Lin Yang picked it up, loosened its tightly bound opening, and tipped the contents into his palm.

It was indeed a key! It was just a little rusty.

Without thinking, Lin Yang looked around the storage room!

He searched carefully for quite a while before finally finding the door mentioned in the intel!

The door was well hidden, almost the same color as the wall, with only a narrow seam to give it away!

Even the keyhole was concealed behind a wooden crate.

There had to be something good in there!

He quickly inserted the key into the keyhole.

Click!

Lin Yang turned the key.

The door opened! The seam that had been shut tight creaked apart, revealing a gray cross section.

Then Lin Yang felt a chill coming from inside.

He gritted his teeth and pulled it open in one go!

But what was inside made him pause. "Is this a refrigerator?"

Behind the door was no secret passage, but a glowing refrigerator!

The moment he pulled the refrigerator door all the way open, bright light spilled out.

Lin Yang instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes. Once they adjusted, he saw what was inside and froze.

Bread. Milk. Eggs. Bottled water. There were even a few packs of vacuum-sealed ham sausages.

"Whew... It's not an escape route. But this is pretty good too."

"I've been hungry all day. I really should eat something."

Lin Yang stood in silence for two seconds, then reached in and took a bag of sliced bread and a bottle of milk.

Cold air from the refrigerator brushed his face, carrying an unreal, cool fragrance that seemed completely out of place in the foul-smelling storage room.

He turned the bread over and examined the packaging. There was no production date, or even any printed text. It was plain white.

The milk bottle was bare too, without so much as a label.

He hesitated for a second.

He opened the bag and put it in his mouth.

The bread tasted ordinary, though it was even fresh and soft.

The milk was icy as it slid down his throat, making his stomach, empty all day, clench.

He opened another bag, sat down on the cardboard box, and wolfed it down with the milk.

When he was hungry, bread rivaled any delicacy.

But a clamor came from the classroom outside the door.

"...Aren't you the seer? Tell us how to get out! I'm starving to death."

"I... I've used up my checks for today."

"Fuck! I'm not playing anymore!!"

"I want out! I'm so hungry..."

They shouted and pounded on the classroom door, but the only response was an endless echo.

Lin Yang put the remaining food back in the refrigerator.

He didn't know how long he would be here, so he had to ration the supplies in the refrigerator.

If this place was already cut off from human society, a lack of food would be deadly.

If those thirty-odd people outside went hungry for two days, they would be capable of anything.

He went back to looking through the peephole.

There were no lights in the classroom. Moonlight slanted through the windows, laying a blanket of cold white light on the floor.

The people outside were already weak and dazed with hunger.

Some sat in the corners with their knees drawn up, their lips dry and peeling.

Most huddled in the front half of the classroom. Some leaned against the walls, while others lay across desks, trying to sleep in awkward positions.

It was difficult, however.

Zhang Lei was surrounded by a group of people, but he was sleeping soundly. The fat man sat beside him, cradling a leg taken from a desk, as though acting as the "seer's" bodyguard.

The girls who had crowded around to flatter him during the day were also leaning nearby, evidently feeling safer closer to the seer.

Lin Yang watched expressionlessly. "So the seer gets special treatment."

He shifted his gaze to the corner of the classroom.

There was a figure there that struck him as very strange.

With more than thirty people trapped in one classroom, fear should have made them restless.

Turning over, sighing, grinding their teeth-there should have been some movement.

But the person in the corner hadn't moved once since nightfall.

He remained in the same position, sitting there like a statue.

The person stood in the corner, where the light couldn't reach him.

Even stranger, the shadow's arm was growing longer little by little, silently stretching toward the crowd in the middle of the classroom!

A shadow couldn't just grow longer for no reason!

There was only one possibility!

That guy's arm was growing longer!