Chapter 26: Can't Stop Eating the Deliciousness~

Despite the cat's seductive form and its blatant favoritism, Chen Qiang resisted the temptation and decided to work hard towards his goal.

He reminded himself that pies falling from the sky, unless explicitly stated by him, were definitely not good pies.

Such a flamboyant cat might also be the kind of lecherous feline that secretly enjoys watching hunky men dance.

He wouldn’t fall for such a trap a second time.

Of course, the main reason was that he had two more days left to complete the survival task, and he was curious to see how this Gourmet City gradually drained one's life and strength, keeping them in this world.

Knowing this would also increase his chances of defeating the big eater.

Indeed, Chen Qiang had no intention of sparing the Devourer that swallowed him.

The coexistence of humans and Devourers through mutual consumption is impossible; eliminating one Devourer beast means saving many lives.

If this continues, there will eventually come a day when humanity turns the tide.

Thus, he must complete the survival task to get the opportunity to offer tributes to the Big Eater, allowing for a close encounter with it.

Otherwise, that creature is indeed hard to find—

It's unclear if it's because the Devourer of Gourmet City has been watching Omniscient Eye live streams, but he meticulously observed the energy distribution in the areas visible to him on his way to the supermarket.

Based on the situation in the City of Mobiles, where the core is located in the area with the highest energy concentration, the energy distribution in Gourmet City is quite even, revealing no particular area with excessive energy.

This makes it impossible to pinpoint the core directly.

In this aspect, the Devourer of Gourmet City seems to be even more cunning and astute than its counterpart in the City of Mobiles.

Faced with the seductively laid-out Cat, Chen Qiang merely swept his gaze over it from head to toe, particularly noting its plump and round "bells."

As the black cat quickly tucked its tail over its "bells" feeling a chill, Chen Qiang diverted his gaze and earnestly said with his innocent face, “I’d rather complete the task fairly and justly along with everyone else.”

"Although I really like cats, I'm not without principles."

"Meow-wow!"

The black cat, highly displeased, rolled its eyes dramatically. Such a statement is hardly believable, even to a dog, let alone a cat.

But other exiles secretly breathed a sigh of relief or were happy, some even ridiculed in their hearts that this youngster was too naive, not understanding the fundamental principle of life to seize every opportunity quickly.

But this was good news for them, so let the kid continue to be foolish. Just don't switch to chasing after fantasies!

After this little interlude, everyone's thoughts returned to the delicacies in front of them, and then they collectively fell silent again.

Their first attempt at cooking was a complete failure; even though five people scored a 6, a 6 is not an 8, and thus it's still a failing grade.

Besides, the highest scores were for Jin Chen and Fish Brother's raw sliced salmon at 5 points, followed by Taoist Luo Bo, the cautious lady's raw marinated crab and the young man's braised pork ribs, and four others with 4 points.

Their commonality was that their food was relatively the freshest. Apart from them, the rest scored 3 points, 2 points, or even a complete rot of 0 points.

If 5 points were the full score, this evaluation would indeed be fair and reasonable.

But the full score for these dishes is 10 points.

"So, does it mean that dishes made from ordinary fresh ingredients, without the addition of blood, can only score up to 5 points?"

Chen Qiang glanced around the variety of dishes on the long table before raising his gaze to directly ask the question to the tailcoat chef.

Amidst the stares of surprise or anger from everyone, the tailcoat chef slightly bowed, "Please refrain from using such an inelegant term as 'adding blood.'"

"It's merely that dishes made from ordinary ingredients lack the infusion of everyone's passion for cuisine."

"How can a dish be considered gourmet if it lacks love?"

Chen Qiang inwardly scoffed.

So, it basically requires human blood.

No, perhaps not just blood, but human flesh, bones, and even... human skin might do.

The uncle who loves fried chicken, now glistening with grease, sports a horrifying eyelid-less left eye.

His eyeball carries a strange sense of imminent danger, as if it could fall out at any moment. Yet, he seems blissfully unaware of this, standing there savoring the taste of the fried chicken leg enriched with his own flesh.

"Well, today's cooking session has concluded. You may choose to rest or continue studying in the restaurant."

"Of course, I recommend that everyone gets ample rest to rejuvenate both spirit and body, laying a solid foundation for tomorrow's cooking."

[The text "薁餏" appears to be gibberish or an error, not applicable in this context.]

"Ah, and please make sure to eat your fill before resting. How can the people of the City of Gourmet go to bed hungry?"

After saying this, the tuxedo-clad chef left very elegantly.

His words left the exiles in the restaurant with less than pleased expressions.

"What did he mean by his words? Eat to be full before resting, but how can we eat what's in front of us? It might cause diarrhea if we eat it."

"Yeah, my dish turned bad directly, I can't swallow a bite. And he made it worse by mentioning it, now I feel especially hungry and really want to eat something."

"But there seems to be no food for sale around here..." A meticulous girl with glasses spoke up, her expression worried: "Even the Guide's Shop in the Guide Marketplace has its food section shut down."

Her words immediately sparked anxiety among everyone in the hall. Contacting their respective guides, they indeed found all edible items in the Guide's Shop turned grey.

"Damn, are they forcing us to eat our own trash? How is that even edible?"

"Maybe we should look outside, how can such a huge Culinary City not have restaurants or food stalls selling food?"

Saying so, about a dozen people quickly left the Royal Restaurant in groups.

Fish Brother Zhou and the little Taoist, pulling Tangyuan along, came to Chen Shijin's side.

"Xiaomo, what should we do? Should we also look for food outside?"

Chen Qiang glanced at Tangyuan, still lost in the deliciousness of her dish, and shook his head: "Let's make something with the leftover salmon on the table."

"Fish head for soup, fish back grilled, fish tail crispy baked, fish bones and skin deep-fried. Together, these should be enough for two meals. The taste might not be great, but at least it's edible."

In fact, the fish flesh must also be fresh and delicious; it's just that their taste might have been particularly affected in the City of Gourmet.

Fish Brother nodded and rolled up his sleeves: "Leave it to me! I'm good at dealing with fish and cooking them too! I'll make sure everyone's full!"

While Fish Brother was preparing a fish six ways, Luo Bo waved his hand in front of Tangyuan, hoping to snap her out of it.

But Tangyuan completely ignored him.

What worried Luo Bo and Fish Brother more was that after Fish Brother had finished preparing the fish six ways, presenting the fragrant dish, Chen Qiang and the others still found the fish tasty and ate it.

Tangyuan, however, turned her nose up at what was actually decent food.

"Girl, aren't you hungry? You need to eat well to have energy for tasks," Fish Brother carefully offered a plate of golden, crispy fried fish skin: "Try the crispy fish skin I made; one bite and you'll want another!"

However, Tangyuan glanced at the golden fish skin dismissively: "This trash is edible?"

"Don't joke. I won't eat such things. I only eat real gourmet food!"

Fish Brother's mouth twitched: "But now you don't have ingredients to make real gourmet food, right? Even if you were full at noon, what about the meal in the afternoon? Won't you have to eat?"

Tangyuan gave him a look, the implicit and subtle meaning in her eyes causing Fish Brother's scalp to tingle uncontrollably.

He couldn't utter another word after that.

As they were about to head to the rest area on the second floor of the restaurant, the dozen or so people who had gone out in search of food returned, their faces ashen.

"Nothing! It's bizarre! We walked through most of the city and couldn't find a single supermarket or small shop selling food!

And all the restaurants only take orders from residents of the City of Gourmet. We outsiders, not recognized by the City of Gourmet, can only cook for ourselves or have others taste-test our cooking!

What's more outrageous is that the only places selling food in the entire City of Gourmet are those few ingredient supermarkets! And these supermarkets only open from seven to nine in the morning!"

"A supermarket that only works two hours a day is really too generous to its employees! On our way back, we even saw that office worker brooding at the supermarket entrance, looking as if he was searching for a job notice!"

Chen Qiang's lips twitched slightly.

For office workers, of course, nothing is more tempting than a job that only requires two hours of work a day.

Unfortunately, only in a devoured world could such utterly unrealistic jobs exist.

This bad news cast a gloom over the faces of all the exiles in the restaurant.

Perhaps it was the psychological effect of not finding food, but the less available it was, the more unbearable the hunger seemed.

The more hungry they became, the more they lowered their standards and choices.

Until they were so hungry that they wanted to eat anything they saw.

"Damn it, I can't stand it anymore! If I don't eat something soon, I'll starve to death! Although my meat is a bit dry, like ribs that have been frozen for too long, it can still fill the stomach."

The young man who had prepared the braised ribs started devouring his dish voraciously, perhaps driven by sheer hunger. What initially tasted mediocre now seemed considerably more delicious.

In no time, he had finished all his ribs.

Surprised at the empty plate before him, he exclaimed, "Wow, I actually finished it. I didn’t even pause. But at last, I’m full!"

The absence of that unsettling hunger is truly a relief.

Encouraged by his example, other exiles in the restaurant who found their food barely edible began to eat their meals decisively.

Though the taste was not as good as expected, as long as the food wasn’t spoiled, it was enough to satiate their hunger.

However, there were fourteen people who couldn’t bring themselves to eat their food—

Their dishes were rated at 1 and 0 points, nearing or outright rotting and emitting foul smells; far from being considered food, these were essentially kitchen waste.

With no place in the City of Gourmet to buy food, and the guide’s marketplace unavailable for transactions.

Where else could they find food, if not from what’s in front of them?

“Ugh... Blargh! Blargh!!”

“Woo... I can’t! I really can’t eat this. It’s rotten and stinks, how can anyone eat this?” a girl with twin braids tried to eat a bite of her blackened, foul-smelling crystal shrimp dumplings, only to spit it out immediately.

“I can’t eat it! I just can’t, woo!” She turned her tear-streaked face towards the young man with half of his ribs left:

“Brother, I really can’t stomach this rotten food, please could you share some ribs with me? Just a third would be enough! I don’t eat much, a few bites will fill me. Can you?”

The rib-eating young man instantly hugged his plate tighter, his portion of ribs wasn’t much, at most about two pounds left, just enough for dinner.

But the thought of saving a life by giving away a third made him hesitate.

“Brother! Can I trade you with energy points? I’m really desperate, I can’t eat this stuff, and I’m afraid of the consequences if I do. Can we trade for some energy points? Please.”

The girl with twin braids cried pitifully, and after a moment of struggle, the young man sighed, put down his ribs, and cut off a third for her.

"Thank you, brother! Thank you so much! I'll make sure to pick fresh ingredients tomorrow, get extra, and pay you back," the girl with twin braids was very grateful.

The rib-eating young man waved his hand dismissively: "Focus on securing fresh ingredients for yourself tomorrow."

Given today's scenario, tomorrow's scramble for food is bound to be even more fierce.

The exchange between the girl and the rib-eating young man prompted the other thirteen people, who also faced inedible, rotten food, to cast hopeful glances towards those with leftover dishes.

Fish Guy and the Daoist youth immediately tensed up and glanced at Chen’s little finger, relieved to see the silver ring still there.

Fortunately, Chen had a spatial ring and had already stored the food inside. Otherwise, they would fear being overwhelmed by others' pleas, or worse, their desperation after being refused.

Chen also glanced at the ring on his little finger and touched it thoughtfully. With his current energy level of a million, it was possible to create a personal space equipped with a spirit spring and time-stopping capabilities.

However, that would likely deplete all his energy points at once, which seemed rather risky and excessive.

Moreover, for Chen, such a personal space wasn’t of much utility.

He wasn’t short of food, didn’t need to farm post-apocalypse, could ask directly for gourmet food or for food not to spoil. With the ability to request anything directly, there was no need to exhaust all his energy points for such a space.

"I'm pretty strapped for energy points right now; they need to be spent wisely."

Thus, Chen settled for a relatively modest personal space. The ring, silver with subtle engravings, conceals a space of about 100 square meters with a height of five meters. Its features include time suspension within and, if necessary, it can serve as a hiding place for people.

This personal space ring cost him 100,000 energy points, a significant investment but acceptable.

Hence, the food stored there wouldn’t spoil by dinner time; it would remain fresh and warm.

Chen climbed to the second floor in a good mood, appreciating the convenience of his new personal space.

"Ah, this recliner is quite nice." Lying on the recliner, Chen mused, "I should have one of these in my space too~"

And so, his personal space gained a comfortable, high-quality recliner for rest.

Perfect.

However, this comfortable interlude lasted only a few hours.

Around five in the afternoon, close to dinner time, Chen, Fish Guy, and the Daoist youth, who were resting, were startled by successive screams.

These were accompanied by the sounds of clashing swords, explosive energies, and the roars of someone in a frenzy. Chen sprang up from the recliner and rushed downstairs to investigate.

At the top of the stairs, he already saw the gruesome scene on the first floor—

The one screaming was the girl with twin braids, in front of her lay the young man who had shared his ribs with her at noon, his body drenched in blood, both arms severed.

By then, the young man was almost breathless, his eyes wide open, and the ribs he had clutched tightly were now in the hands of a man and woman together.

The ribs were stained with fresh blood.

"How could you do this! Ah, how could you do this!! You robbed him of his food, but why did you have to kill him? And even sever his arms!" The girl with twin braids trembled all over, clenching her fists tightly as large tears continuously fell from her eyes.

"We're all exiles! We're all humans! Why resort to such ruthless actions!"

The man and woman who ambushed him disregarded the girl's accusations with disdain: "You might have begged him and received food, but he didn’t share any with us."

"Without food, we would starve to death. Should we just wait to die if we don't rob?"

"Shut up, you brat, or I’ll kill you too! We're all in the belly of the beast now, what's the point of being naive? Pah!"

“……”

This was sheer fallacy. The girl with twin braids could only press her lips tightly together, knowing nothing she said would make a difference. She turned around to solemnly memorize the young man’s face and knelt down to close his eyes, which couldn’t shut on their own.

She wanted to avenge him, but with only a special ability to sing, even self-protection was difficult.

The girl softly began to sing, her voice carrying a strong soothing quality, as if trying to grant rest to a soul filled with unresolved bitterness.

The youth's eyes gradually closed, and Chen Sijin noticed the blood spilled around him silently vanishing into the ground.

At this moment, a figure suddenly appeared next to the youth and the girl. She bent down and picked up one of the young man's severed arms.

It was Tangyuan.

The singing girl gasped in shock, "What are you doing?! Put his arm down!"

But Tangyuan, with eyes reddened, completely ignored her, clutching the severed arm like a treasured prize and running towards the kitchen.

The singer seemed to realize what she intended to do, her eyes widening in horror as her whole body trembled.

Her voice became weak and shrill: "Stop! Give his arm back! You can't eat his arm, ah, ah!"

But before the girl could stop Tangyuan, several others, their eyes bloodshot, snatched the youth's other arm, and even his entire body.

"Ahhh! What are you doing! What are you doing! Have you all gone mad? Stop, give him back to me! How can you eat him, ahhh—"

The girl covered her face, screaming frantically, but no one paid her any attention, even telling her to shut up because her screams were annoying.

Everyone, tense, rushed towards the kitchen, and Chen Sijin walked over expressionlessly.

He saw Tangyuan, seemingly driven mad by hunger, devoutly washing the young man's arm as if it were a fresh pig's foreleg.

The chubby young man who had cut his finger to eat the braised pork trotters was washing the other arm, even going so far as to lick it twice.

A wave of nausea surged through the heart.

The most horrifying sight was the three people driven mad by hunger, led by the uncle who fried chicken legs. They placed the young man's dead body on a stainless steel table, each holding a knife, their faces filled with eager anticipation as they measured where to make the most satisfying cut.

"Have they gone mad?!"

"My God, this is dreadful."

"Is this the consequence of eating food stained with blood?!"

"Damn, are we really going to watch them do this?"

"What else can we do? They've clearly lost their minds. Can you fight over things with lunatics?!"

Everyone standing in the kitchen wore expressions of tension and disgust, yet no one stepped forward to intervene.

At that moment, the singing girl rushed over, trembling all over at the sight of the young man about to be dismembered, her teeth clenched, ready to charge.

It wasn't that she was too naive or kind-hearted; she had been in the exile for several months.

She knew what kind of world this was and what kind of people there were in it. She wasn't exceptionally kind-hearted either.

But this time, just this once, she encountered a rare act of kindness amidst so much numbness and coldness, so she felt compelled to make an effort for this kindness.

Just as the singing girl decided to risk injury to retrieve the young man's body, a slender hand blocked her path.

She saw the ring with dark patterns shimmering on that hand and the tall, steady, and reliable figure standing in front of her.

"If someone becomes hopelessly addicted to eating forbidden substances."

"Then slap them away with a single blow."

Slap! N-6

"Ah!"

Slap slap! N-6-6

"Ahhhh!"

Slap slap slap slap slap! N-6-6-6-6-6

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Under the shockingly astonished gazes of everyone, this innocent-looking young man with puppy dog eyes, transformed into a Godzilla-like figure, slapping away those five hungry exiles who were red-eyed with the desire to consume human flesh, one by one.

"This should bring them back to their senses." N-999

"The departed can now rest in peace." N-1000

The young man, facing the stunned crowd, suddenly became bashful and lowered his head: "Don't, don't look at me like that."

"I, I just have a high affinity and maybe a little bit more strength."

Everyone: ...

The black cat that followed to watch the commotion: ...

"Meow-wow-wow-wow!"

That's just a tiny bit of strength, right?!