(3/3)
Yuying University
Chapter 460: It’s unfair!
To leave this place, they had to pass through the back kitchen, right under the noses of the three chefs, and enter the cafeteria. Hugo’s talent was indispensable.
And all Wen Jianyan needed was to make a small stop during this process, get into the cabinet, and retrieve the item.
So simple.
“How about it?”
Wen Jianyan stared at Hugo, his eyes full of anticipation.
Hugo: “…I’m injured.”
“Oh,” Wen Jianyan’s face filled with genuine sorrow. “What a shame.”
The next second, his expression switched back to one of fervent eagerness:
“How about it?”
“…”
Hugo stared at Wen Jianyan, silent for a long moment.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Ahhh, Wen Jianyan, could you be any more inhuman!]
[Have some consideration for the injured, will you!]
[Hahahaha, I’m dying. The cool guy is speechless.]
Hugo pressed his side, as if weighing his options. After a long while, he took a slow, deep breath, his voice seemingly squeezed from between his teeth:
“…One minute.”
Wen Jianyan knew when to quit while he was ahead.
He immediately nodded, readily agreeing, “No problem! One minute is more than enough!”
“I knew it. A small injury like this wouldn’t hinder your performance.”
The young man sighed with a look of sincere admiration:
“It’s astounding. Such a difficult challenge, and while injured, no less… As expected of one of Nightmare’s top-five powerhouses. In this entire instance, no one but you could have done it.”
Hugo: “…”
He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt a headache starting to come on.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…Wait a minute, why does that line sound so familiar?]
[I feel like I’ve heard it before too.]
[DAMN!!! Isn’t that what he said when he tricked Orange Candy into completing a mission with him and gave her the most dangerous job?!]
[It’s not ‘isn’t that’! It’s exactly what he said!! He didn’t even change the phrasing!!]
[…Every time I think the anchor can’t get any more shameless, he always manages to surprise me in new ways.]
[Shameless!]
Watching Hugo prop himself up against the wall, Wen Jianyan sidled over:
“Allow me?”
Compared to just a moment ago, his attitude had done a complete 180-degree turn. He was unbelievably warm and gentle.
Hugo: “…No, thank you.”
It wasn’t his imagination.
Screech—
With a faint, almost imperceptible scrape of metal, the iron door was pushed open a crack.
Then, a plume of smoke, invisible to the naked eye, drifted in from the darkness.
The iron door closed once more.
The back kitchen was vast, its walls caked with grease and its stovetops piled with countless utensils. Everything was a mess.
Compared to Wen Jianyan’s memory, this place was much more dilapidated and filthy.
Thump, thump, thump!
A dull, blunt sound came from not far away. Three chefs stood with their backs to them, busy with something at the stove.
The two figures were enveloped in smoke. Although they were clearly standing in the back kitchen, the three chefs seemed completely unaware of their presence.
“Which way?”
The ember of a cigarette glowed and faded in the smoke, illuminating Hugo’s face, which was growing paler from blood loss. His gaze shifted over the chefs, as if maintaining constant vigilance.
Wen Jianyan lowered his voice, “Five meters to the left, then three meters forward, and a right turn.”
Although the back kitchen had changed drastically from his memory, its layout remained the same. Wen Jianyan already had a good memory—and having been chased for miles by a monster in this very place, he had long since etched every detail into his mind.
However…
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the chefs with their backs to them not far away.
His heart began to beat a little faster.
As luck would have it, the chefs were blocking their only path.
No matter how unwilling Wen Jianyan was, if he wanted to get to his destination, he had to pass behind them.
Hugo gave a slight nod.
He didn’t seem too worried about it.
Shrouded in smoke, the two began to move, walking forward cautiously.
Thump, thump!
As they got closer, the dull thudding grew louder.
Wen Jianyan stared at the cold, obese backs of the chefs ahead and held his breath.
Closer, and closer still.
Soon, they were right behind the chefs.
The three chefs were enormous. Standing in front of the stove, they took up nearly half of the narrow passageway, leaving only a small space behind them for anyone to pass.
To get by, Wen Jianyan and Hugo had to turn sideways, press themselves against the stove behind them, and inch forward step by step.
Their movements were light and slow, making not a single sound.
Ahead, the three chefs continued their “work,” completely oblivious.
Wen Jianyan caught their scent.
It was like a thick mixture of blood and grease fumes emanating from their massive bodies—heavy, rank, and pungent.
Just as the two of them reached the spot directly behind the chefs, one of the chefs in front suddenly seemed to sense something and stopped moving.
“…”
Wen Jianyan held his breath, his nerves stretched to the absolute limit.
The chef tilted its head back, as if sniffing the air.
The lights flickered overhead. By their faint glow, Wen Jianyan saw the chef’s profile—a featureless, flat face nestled in folds of bloated fat.
Although there were no obvious non-human traits, it was inexplicably bizarre and grotesque, sending a chill down his spine.
Wen Jianyan froze.
There was another NPC in this instance that had left a similar impression on him.
—The owner of that small supermarket.
The same flat, pale, featureless, and hastily-made face. It was almost as if he and this chef were cast from the same mold.
The chef slowly turned. Its body was fat and strong, and its movements were accompanied by heavy, thudding footsteps. Wen Jianyan felt his heart leap into his throat and his nerves tighten.
Although Hugo was also pressed sideways against the stove with him, he remained remarkably calm.
As his cigarette glowed, he soundlessly and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. In an instant, the smoke shrouding them, concealing their presence and figures, thickened. The two stood within the haze, so much so that even the view from the livestream became less clear.
The chef stopped in its tracks.
It stopped sniffing the air and stood still, seemingly puzzled.
It seemed these “chefs” had a much keener sense of smell than the average NPC, even able, to some extent, to bypass Hugo’s talent—of course, if the intensity of the talent was increased, they could still be fooled.
Wen Jianyan let out a small sigh of relief.
It was only then that he noticed that as the chef turned, the stove it had been completely blocking was now half-exposed.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze passed the chef’s body and fell upon the stovetop in front of it.
The stovetop was equally filthy, with a grimy cutting board lying askew. Beside it, a basin was filled with a viscous, dark-red liquid that gave off a heavy stench of blood.
A very familiar cloth sack lay slumped next to the basin. It was half-open, and he could vaguely see the familiar clumps of dirt inside.
“…”
In that instant, a sense of foreboding washed over Wen Jianyan.
He turned his head and looked through the gap to the side.
The other two chefs hadn’t stopped their work for a moment.
With their cyanotic, calloused, terrifying hands, they grabbed handfuls of dirt from the sacks beside them, placed them on the cutting board, and then poured the viscous, dark-red blood from the basin, mixing it with the dirt.
Thump, thump.
The dark soil, mixed with blood, was kneaded into a heavy lump and slammed onto the cutting board again and again. Under the pressure of those cyanotic palms, it gradually took on the texture and shape of dough.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s face turned green.
No wonder the cafeteria only sold f*cking flour-based foods!!!
They had been worried about the filling in the buns before. Now it seemed it didn’t matter what was inside the buns… the real key was the dough on the outside!
Whether it was steamed buns, filled buns, or noodles, “flour” and “water” were essential ingredients.
And in this instance…
The “flour” was grave soil, and the “water” was fresh blood.
No wonder the anchors’ SAN values dropped after eating the cafeteria’s food.
It would be a goddamn miracle if they didn’t!
Wen Jianyan felt his stomach churn.
The last time he had felt this sick was when he discovered the “syrup” they had been drinking was made from frogs.
Beside him, Hugo’s expression was not much better.
His face, already pale from blood loss, now had a faint greenish tint. His expression was taut, his eyes filled with a murderous rage, as if he was about to slam the three chefs who had made their “food” back onto the stove in the next second.
Wen Jianyan gave his arm a timely tug.
Hugo took a forceful, deep breath, as if suppressing his anger.
They both knew this was not the time for a direct confrontation with the instance’s NPCs.
The top priority was to leave as quickly as possible.
The chef in front of them turned back to the stove, and the heavy, monotonous “thumping” sound resumed.
Behind them, Wen Jianyan and Hugo started moving again.
Soon, they reached the spot Wen Jianyan had pointed out earlier without any further incident.
The narrow cabinet was shut tight, covered in brownish-black handprints. It was impossible to tell if they were grease stains or dried blood.
Hugo looked at Wen Jianyan and said in a low voice:
“One minute.”
Wen Jianyan nodded. “Understood.”
He squatted down, pulled the cabinet door open very gently, then ducked down and slipped nimbly inside. He made no sound at all, disappearing like a shadow in the blink of an eye.
Hugo stood in front of the cabinet, a half-burnt cigarette between his lips, his eyes as sharp as a hawk’s, vigilantly watching their surroundings, waiting in silence.
The one-minute countdown began.
Inside the cabinet.
It was just as narrow as the last time Wen Jianyan had been here, but for some reason, the air had become even fouler. A rotten, coppery stench echoed in the enclosed space. Wen Jianyan was so overwhelmed he could barely breathe.
He crawled forward on his elbows and knees.
It should be… right here…
Wen Jianyan reached out, feeling his way toward the location in his memory, groping blindly in the darkness.
Suddenly, his fingertips seemed to touch something wet, soft, and viscous.
Wen Jianyan: “…”
…I have a bad feeling about this.
He squeezed his eyes shut, his fingertips trembling slightly. He turned on his flashlight and looked in that direction—
By the faint, wavering light, he saw something dark and lumpy.
Like…
A corpse.
Its flesh was highly decomposed, and a foul-smelling, bloody fluid pooled around it. The corpse’s neck was empty.
It…
had no head.
Wen Jianyan felt his stomach spasm.
He didn’t have much time left.
He gritted his teeth, suppressed the strong urge to vomit, and reached out, fumbling in the direction he remembered—this should be it.
His fingers touched something hard.
It was the corpse’s tightly clenched, stiff fingers.
His face pale, Wen Jianyan fought back his fear and disgust and forcibly pried the corpse’s fingers open—
The moment he touched the object in the corpse’s palm, the familiar system notification sounded in his ear:
[Ding! Congratulations, Anchor, for obtaining a hidden item from the instance (Difficulty: Hard)!]
[Collection Progress 2/10]
Got it!!
Wen Jianyan’s spirits lifted.
He clenched his fingers, not even having time to see what the object in his palm was, and immediately started to back out of the cabinet.
At this moment, there were twenty seconds left of the minute he had agreed upon with Hugo.
Plenty of time.
Suddenly—
Without any warning, the system’s mechanical voice sounded in his ear again:
[Ding!]
Wen Jianyan: “?”
Wait, didn’t I already get the item? Why is the system dinging again?
Hold on, could it be…
As if to confirm his suspicion, the emotionless voice sounded once more:
[Conditions met. Hidden side quest now activating—]
The next second, the headless corpse, which had been motionless until now, suddenly shot out a hand, its stiff, rotting fingers gripping Wen Jianyan’s wrist tightly. An intimate, icy cold sensation spread from the point of contact.
Wen Jianyan’s vision went black.
[Congratulations, Anchor, for triggering scene: ???]
[Scene countdown: ???]
With a dizzying spin, the scene before him changed rapidly.
By the time Wen Jianyan came to his senses, he was standing in the crowded cafeteria.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[I… you…]
[This…]
[Hahahaha, I have to say, I’m not surprised at all.]
Wen Jianyan looked down at his palm.
He opened his hand. It was a dead person’s eyeball.
The grayish-white eyeball was wrapped in a slimy mucus, its pupil empty.
…A second eyeball.
Wen Jianyan blinked slowly.
He remembered getting an eyeball in the swimming pool before.
So… did these two eyeballs make a pair?
“So, where is this?”
Just then, a familiar, flat voice came from beside him.
Wen Jianyan froze and turned his head.
The next second, he met the gaze of a stoic, emotionless Hugo.
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He gave a dry laugh. “Haha, you’re here too.”
Hugo: “…Does this have something to do with you?”
Wen Jianyan: “I’ve been framed!”
He held up both hands. “I have no idea what’s going on either!”
Just then, a voice spoke up:
“Um… excuse me?”
Wen Jianyan paused and turned to look.
It was a young man who looked like a college student. He glanced at Wen Jianyan, then quickly looked away, seeming a bit embarrassed. “Um… can I get your contact info?”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Huh?
Wait a minute, isn’t this the same college student who hit on him in the movie, “A Day in the Life of Wang Ni”?
“It really is you.”
Hugo’s gaze shifted between the two of them as he spoke slowly.
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Damn it.
The evidence was irrefutable. There was absolutely no way to argue.
