Chapter 110

Chapter 110

The first batch of children came out after washing their hands and faces. One of them even washed his neck meticulously. They approached hesitantly, intertwining their fingers, ready to run if there was any unusual movement from Ji Xinghai.

However, Ji Xinghai had no intention of making things difficult. Seeing that they were indeed clean, even their fingernails, he handed over an unopened luxury children's meal, still warm.

The first child to receive the food let out a surprised scream, drawing the attention of the others. Their eyes instinctively glinted with a predatory gleam.

"Want to grab it?" a voice drawled lazily, yet it sounded like thunder among the children. They all averted their gaze from Ji Xinghai, their eyes darting between the bathroom and the food.

As more children received their meals, even the most stubborn ones couldn't resist. They stood up one by one, heading towards the bathroom, occasionally looking back to see if Ji Xinghai was watching or mocking them.

Did Ji Xinghai have time to bother with them?

Feeling both relieved and annoyed, they ran into the bathroom.

By then, the male trainee had swept the floor and collected the dirty toys, putting them in the bathroom’s washing machine, which also had a dryer. The machine would take at least forty minutes to wash and dry everything.

The drum filled with dirty toys began to spin, and detergent slowly flowed into the designated compartment, filling the bathroom with a fresh scent.

The male trainee took a deep breath and picked up the half-empty bucket and mop, resigned to his fate.

The female trainee was in an even worse situation, surrounded by a group of squirming, limb-waving, and entrail-dripping infants. Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

These creatures knew how to bully the weak; they dared not make a sound when facing Ji Xinghai but screamed at the female trainee, demanding her to hurry up. If not for Ji Xinghai's intervention, they might have continued to intimidate her.

"What's all the noise? You'll get your share," Ji Xinghai said to the female trainee. "Don’t be so gentle with them."

She thought to herself, _I’m not being gentle; I’m just scared._

Finally, all the children had their food boxes, each containing a hamburger with stacked beef patties, cheese, fried eggs, lettuce leaves, and tomato slices, along with fries, fish fillets, onion rings, a banana, and a steaming cup of milk.

They ate with great care, picking up every crumb that fell on the ground and licking the juice from the beef patties clean.

The two trainees were exhausted, lying on the ground, not physically but mentally drained.

At this moment, Ji Xinghai's nightmare-inducing figure appeared again, wearing a terrifying smile. "Tired?"

"No!" they jumped up in fright.

Though Ji Xinghai didn’t hit or scold them, his polite demeanor somehow conveyed an unspoken threat of dire consequences.

"There's still another group," he pointed to the plastic fence where non-walking infants and umbilical-cord-toting fetuses lay. Their black, beady eyes stared intently.

"!!!" The two trainees were terrified. They were random trainees without the psychological resilience to handle such situations.

"Ji, these kids don’t even have teeth; they can’t eat solid food. And they seem not to understand what we're saying," the female trainee said.

"I know. Follow me."

They stood up and followed him as he stepped over the one-meter-high fence, like a wolf entering a sheep pen. He looked around and casually picked up a dirty infant, its umbilical cord dangling.

"Get me iodine, cotton swabs, gauze, and clean fine cotton thread."

"Ah? Okay."

The female trainee went back to the medical room and returned with a tray containing the items Ji Xinghai needed. But he had already moved to the shower area.

She entered and found Ji Xinghai frowning while giving the infant a bath, looking impatient but handling it gently.

Soon the infant was clean and dried with a disposable towel. It started crying, and its originally blue-black skin turned slightly lighter.

"Iodine."

The female trainee handed over a cotton ball soaked in iodine. He used forceps to disinfect the infant's belly button.

"Thread."

She handed over the thread.

He tied off the umbilical cord, cut the excess, and wrapped the infant's abdomen with gauze. The crying infant quieted down, staring intently at his movements.

When everything was done, the male trainee arrived with a basin of liquid milk, ranging from stage one to three, suitable for infants from zero to thirty-six months old, all with disposable nipples.

"Where did you get this?" the female trainee asked in surprise.

"From Ji."

Just like the children's meals, Ji Xinghai had bought several boxes of liquid milk and instructed the male trainee to warm them in hot water. Ji Xinghai opened a stage one bottle, tested the temperature, and fed the infant, who instinctively held the bottle and drank while staring at him.

"Do as I do. You bathe them, and you cut the cords."

Though intimidated, they had no objections. Ji Xinghai paid (for the meals and milk), and they provided the labor—fair enough. His presence was reassuring, like an anchor.

Time flew by, and after an hour and a half, the last infant was fed.

"Alright, let's go." They distributed the dried clean toys, cleaned up the trash, and prepared to leave.

"Aaah." A hand grabbed the female trainee's pant leg. She looked down to see the infant holding a toy in its mouth, trying to offer it.

She was puzzled, but Ji Xinghai chuckled. "Take it; it's a gift from it."

The female trainee hesitated, looking at the ugly, eyeless infant. Beyond fear, she felt a strange tenderness.

She accepted it.

"Aaah aaah." Suddenly, more children gathered around, many holding their toys, surrounding them just as they had upon arrival.

A male student looked at Ji Xinghai and saw him nod. He also took a toy that was handed to him.

Ugh, tough guy shedding tears.

"Keep it yourself. You're giving away the only one you have."

The tender moment was ruined by Ji Xinghai, who with his long legs swept everyone away, even tearing off those clinging to him. But those kids were not afraid of him at all; they brushed themselves off, got up, and charged again.

He couldn't take it anymore and quickly retreated, with the other two following him out.

The kids ran up to the line, watching them leave but did not move for a while, all standing there.

In the reception room outside, the old lady remained unperturbed, except for three piles of items on the counter.

"Stamp it yourselves. The reward is beside it. You stayed for an hour and a half, and I'm not greedy." After saying this, she closed her eyes again, neither fully awake nor asleep.

"So many?" Both of their eyes lit up; each pile had at least seventy or eighty.

Actually, it wasn't just seventy or eighty; they counted, and there were ninety game coins in total, something they would usually have to work hard for elsewhere.

"Ji... huh?" Turning back, they realized Ji Xinghai had already stamped his card and left with the game coins. The two hurriedly grabbed the game coins, untied their aprons, stamped their cards, and rushed out.

By then, Ji Xinghai was already on his bicycle.

"Look at the toys they gave us."

Leaving only these words behind, he pedaled out of the intersection. Only then did they remember the toys the children had given them, and their eyes widened upon seeing them.

Proxy Doll: Takes one fatal damage for you, limited to use within this exam.

"Wah—"

The audience outside had been following the live broadcast, never expecting to see such a harmonious interaction between humans and anomalous beings in the Hungry Academy's scenario.

"Because they're young? Brother Hai seemed especially gentle with them."

"Pitying the young is a biological instinct."

Some thought deeper.

If anomalous beings can coexist with humans, why is it always a matter of life and death during anomalous disasters?

Could it be due to orders from the Hungry Academy, or some influence it exerts?

"This is normal. Setting aside factors like resource competition, there's no inherent enmity between humans and anomalous beings that demands one must die."

Speaking was a new member of the Black Tower, a researcher specializing in 'soul energy.' She said in a cold yet objective tone, "For this energy that promotes our evolution, humans, cats, dogs, and ants are all the same. There's no reason they can coexist harmoniously among themselves but turn around and attack humans."

She then looked at the electronic map on the LCD screen, representing soul energy fluctuations across JiuZhou: "In fact, in the third year of the Great Pollution era, we began detecting soul energy in the air."

"And it wasn't until the fourth year that humans began to develop abilities, and mutations also appeared among other creatures. However, these mutations were relatively weak compared to the current abilities and anomalies."

"At the time, everyone thought these were mutations caused by pollution. Until the Hungry Academy descended and opened the instance."

"The world's mutations began to accelerate."

It was clear that this new member belonged to the 'Selection School,' meaning she believed that the Hungry Academy's presence here accelerated the planet's civilization from one level to another.

Their planet was like a laboratory mouse; if they survived, they would grow stronger, but if not, they would perish. The Hungry Academy was the entity conducting this experiment, making selective choices.

There was also the 'Destruction School,' which believed that the Hungry Academy was a conspiracy of advanced civilizations to destroy lower ones, designing the Hunger Games as a form of arrogant play with their prey. It would strike humanity hard when they thought the disaster had passed.

Regardless of which school one belonged to, everyone agreed on one thing—only by clearing the instance with twelve consecutive victories could they stand before the Hungry Academy and communicate with it. Otherwise, they would remain at its mercy.

Wei Lan listened to the conversation but never took her eyes off the screen.

This was a very special instance, unique in that NPCs had gained relative freedom. Each one had distinct personalities, different preferences, and moral alignments.

Even relatively neutral entities like those in the Child Care Center and the Aromatherapy Hall were included.

Logically, such a high-freedom instance wasn't the best choice for the Hungry Academy, yet for some reason, it appeared.

She picked up her notebook, which contained several pages of information about the masters of the halls that Ji Xinghai had encountered, detailing their species, appearance, preferences, and even exact words spoken.

In the future, more names would be added, and perhaps then she could understand what these anomalies were thinking, where their interests lay, whether their goals aligned with those of the Hungry Academy, and if there was any chance of cooperation.

As long as they were intelligent beings, they must have likes and dislikes, and where there are likes and dislikes, there are weaknesses, and where there are weaknesses, there is potential for cooperation.

If cooperation could be achieved, he would be safer inside.

"Isn't this child exceptional?" the minister appeared beside her, "Sometimes I forget he's just an adult, still a young man."

Wei Lan had already closed her notebook, and her gaze softened: "Yes."

The hardships life had given him were all transformed into strength, allowing him to shoulder such a heavy burden.

But... she felt heartache.

"The Black Tower exists for the students, but in reality, we can't help them as they fight alone in the instances. Most of the time, we can only watch silently. Is this different from what you imagined?"

Wei Lan understood what he meant, and she shook her head: "Being here with him is enough."

Even if nothing can be done, at least she can record his existence with her eyes, and that is sufficient.