Chapter 118.

Chapter 118.

The next day, after a night's rest, the participants decided to regroup briefly in the meditation hall before starting their hunt for the day.

To their surprise, as they approached the entrance of the meditation hall, a rich and sweet aroma wafted out. It smelled unmistakably like... milk tea?

But how could there be milk tea in such a place?

Everyone assumed they must have mistaken the scent. Yet, upon entering the meditation hall, they found it wasn't a mistake. Liu Buhua was seated cross-legged on a cushion, stirring a milky-brown liquid in a tall cup with a long spoon.

The first to step inside, Mengni, asked him, "What are you doing?"

"Making milk tea," he replied.

Liu Buhua then slightly turned, scooped up the boiled tapioca pearls from a pot with a strainer and added them to his cup.

Mengni's eyes briefly darted to a suitcase next to the cushion — the one Liu Buhua and Xie Yinxue brought with them into this dimension. It was wide open, revealing its contents.

Following her by a few steps, Zhuo Changdong also got a clear look at the contents of the suitcase. In disbelief, he remarked, "There's so much milk tea! Did you two only bring milk tea into this dimension?"

"No," Liu Buhua answered earnestly, "We also brought the tools to make it."

The group was at a loss for words.

As Liu Buhua handed the first cup of milk tea to Xie Yinxue and began making a second, he offered, "Would anyone else like a cup?"

Xiao Xingxi nodded and shyly said, "Yes, thank you. That's very kind of you."

No one could resist the allure of bubble milk tea.

Dang Dang, enticed by the aroma, began, "I'd also like..."

"You won't be able to drink it," interrupted Mu Yuji, her brow furrowed, "When I woke up this morning, I realized we seem to be unable to consume any food."

Cui Haocheng, puzzled, asked, "Really? Have you tried eating?"

In the "Life-locking" dimension, most realms provide daily sustenance for participants. Only a few require participants to meet specific conditions to access food. In such realms, the food participants bring with them serves only to whet their appetite without filling them up — virtually useless. Hence, participants typically don't bother bringing food.

In their current realm, while there was no food provided the previous day, they felt satiated after injecting the "antibody vaccine." Only after a good night's sleep did hunger return. This hunger was partly why they returned to the meditation hall instead of immediately departing the starship for the hunt — to see if the realm would provide sustenance. After all, hunting the Pusopocha would be even harder on an empty stomach.

Still, some participants, always cautious, would carry some dry food with them just in case. Mu Yuji was one of them.

She confessed to Choi Haosung, "Indeed, I have a habit of eating breakfast, and I'm particularly fond of snacks. That's why I always bring some food with me whenever I enter a dungeon. However, this morning, I found that I couldn't consume anything. Even if I managed to swallow, my throat felt as if I were swallowing needles."

Mu Yuk Ji said, handing Choi Haosung a blue vacuum-sealed pack of cookies, "I have these compressed cookies here. You can give them a try."

Upon hearing this, Choi Haosung skeptically tore open the packaging of the compressed cookie.

"I'd suggest you take a smaller bite..."

Before Mu Yuk Ji could finish her advice, Choi Haosung had already shoved the entire cookie into his mouth.

The next moment, everyone watched in horror as Choi Haosung's face turned pale, clutching his throat and collapsing on the ground, screaming in agony. He didn’t stop until he had thrown up all the crumbled cookie. Yet, the chewed-up bits of cookie on the ground, soaked in saliva, looked no different from mushed paste. Even if swallowed whole, it shouldn't feel like choking.

Catching his breath, Choi Haosung questioned her, "What kind of cookie is this? It's harder than a damn rock; utterly unswallowable!"

Mu Yuk Ji responded with a hint of exasperation, "I told you, it's not about the cookie..."

Choi Haosung pointed towards Xie Yin Xue, who was sipping on a milk tea, "Then why can she drink milk tea?"

"She's not wrong."

As the words fell, Xie Yin Xue set down her cup, spitting out several black sugar pearls and softly added, "I can drink the milk tea, but can't swallow the pearls."

Xie Ah Qiao frowned, "What do you mean?"

Isn’t it only starving ghosts that experience such piercing pain in their throats, making it hard to eat?

Yuan Si Ning, looking around at everyone, pondered, "Could it be... are we all starving ghosts?"

Zheng Shu, arms crossed and with a playful smirk, retorted, "It's not necessarily 'all of us'. Didn't Kurt mention there's a Gama among the participants? Gama is a type of starving ghost, after all."

This insinuated that those who couldn’t consume normal food, like Mu Yuk Ji, Xie Yin Xue, and Choi Haosung, might be the lurking Gamas amongst the participants.

"Then try eating this compressed cookie," Mu Yuk Ji, unfazed by his insinuations, smirked as she handed another cookie to Zheng Shu. "If you can eat it, then it proves you're not a Gama."

Zheng Shu, raising an eyebrow, accepted the cookie, tore open its packaging, and bit off a piece the size of a thumb.

Two seconds later, everyone witnessed him mimicking Choi Haosung's earlier reaction – the only difference being he ate less, so he didn't seem as discomforted.

"So, you're a Gama too," Xie Ah Qiao chuckled, greeting him with a fist and palm salute, "My apologies for the oversight."

"I have plenty more cookies here," Mu Yuk Ji turned to the other participants who hadn't yet tried the cookie, "If you don't believe me, feel free to have a taste."

Seeing the embarrassment of Choi Haosung and the face-slapping moment of Zheng Shu, the others, clearly having no intention to torture themselves the same way, all declined Mu Yujie's cookies.

"Damn it," Feng Jingshan exclaimed, slapping his thigh and cursing, "I felt something was off when Kulture said yesterday that without the antibody vaccine we'd turn into Kusawapo Cha. In the movies, people become zombies usually after getting infected, right? We're perfectly fine and haven't been injured, so why would we turn into Kusawapo Cha? It feels like..."

The sentence he had left hanging in the elevator the day before, Feng Jingshan paused a bit today, but eventually continued, "... it feels like we are Kusawapo Cha, just not mutated because of the vaccine."

At his words, Xie Yinxue glanced sideways, thinking to herself that Feng Jingshan, though appearing carefree, was surprisingly meticulous. He had noticed hints as early as yesterday. No wonder they were the first team to extract vaccines from participants' corpses.

"Whether we are Kusawapo Cha now or not, we surely will be without the vaccine." Choi Haosung, having recovered, hoisted his machine gun and urged Feng Jingshan and Zuo Changdong, "We should focus on hunting a Kusawapo Cha to secure today's vaccine."

"Alright, let's go," Zuo Changdong said, picking up the bait glass bottle and following the two out of the meditation room.

Just as the three of them reached the door, they ran into Kulture, who was pushing the door open.

Pan Ruoxi and Yuan Sining immediately approached Kulture, seemingly with something urgent to discuss. "Commander Kulture—"

Kulture smiled and asked, "What can I do for you?"

Yuan Sining inquired, "Our bait got accidentally destroyed during yesterday's hunt. Could we possibly request another one?"

"I'm afraid not," Kulture replied with a shake of his head, "The bait is very precious, each team can only receive it once."

Unable to get another bait?

Yuan Sining was taken aback.

But then it made sense; after all, the bait itself is a piece of flesh, usable for vaccine production. If they could get it repeatedly, wouldn't participants simply use the bait as raw material for vaccines instead of hunting Kusawapo Cha?

Pan Ruoxi, in a hurry, asked, "Then, without bait, how are we supposed to hunt Kusawapo Cha?"

Kulture, still smiling, answered, "You have bait."

Pan Ruoxi and Yuan Sining both froze and then slowly turned their heads to look at each other.

...Yes, they still had bait.

They themselves were living bait.

But using living humans as bait was extremely dangerous.

Ye Zhou from yesterday died without even being a bait. If they took on that role, the odds would likely be stacked against them.

After a moment of contemplation, Yuan Sining cautiously suggested to Pan Ruoxi, "Ruoxi, perhaps... could you consider cutting off one of your arms to use as bait?"

"Why should it be my arm?" Pan Ruoxi replied coldly with a smirk, "You can cut yours too."

Yuan Sining retorted, "How am I supposed to kill the Kusawapo Cha with a machine gun in just one hand?"

"Even with two hands, you didn’t manage to kill a single Kusawapo Cha yesterday," Pan Ruoxi responded, her gaze drifting downwards, "If not the arm, then a leg. Just shoot its head when it's drawn to the bait."

Yuan Sining took a deep breath, laying out the pros and cons, "Ruoxi, between the two of us, I am the primary force in hunting Kusawapo Cha. If I get injured, our success rate will drop. I'm sorry, but it seems we might have to rely on you."

"In that case, let’s not hunt Kusawapo Cha today. We can continue to buy surplus antibody drugs from others. If no one has extras, then we can cut our arms and legs for the vaccine."

Pan Ruoxi still disagreed, likely due to Yuan Sining's poor marksmanship, believing that sacrificing her limb would be a futile gesture.

Zheng Shu, the "Vaccine Trader", fanned the flames from the side, clapping and saying, "I think it's a good idea."

"Actually, you don’t need to worry about all this," Kulture interjected, "The starship offers mechanical prosthetics for injured soldiers, and they function just as well as the original limbs."

Everyone was taken aback at this revelation, even Xie Yinxue was surprised.

Is this instance being overly generous?

Given the brutality of other instances, the norm would be for participants to struggle in hunting Kusawapo Cha due to their physical limitations.

But this does explain why participants, even with just a head left, can still survive—they can use mechanical prosthetics.

"Did you hear that? You can replace lost limbs with mechanical ones. Your concerns are unwarranted," Pan Ruoxi said, nodding toward Yuan Sining, "It’s your turn to sacrifice today. If we lose the bait again, I'll step up tomorrow."

Yuan Sining remained silent.