Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The cafeteria at Pelland Academy was huge, with each serving station offering different dishes at different prices.

The cafeteria was three stories tall.

Generally speaking, the food on the first floor was the cheapest and most affordable, while the dishes on the second floor were fancier and pricier. The third floor had upscale private dining rooms, some even equipped with their own mini-kitchens where students could order dishes or cook for themselves.

However, the third floor wasn't completely open to everyone; only students from Class A could get in by swiping their student cards.

Both Pang Chengyu and Bai Fuling were currently in Class D, so going up there was out of the question for them.

Pang Chengyu held his student card and asked, "What would you like to eat? Let me take you to the second floor to look around. The food there is much better quality."

"No need," Bai Fuling replied. "Let's start from the first floor."

As a player, taste didn't matter to him; he didn't care whether the food was delicious or not. In his eyes, food was just a bunch of data, and he couldn't taste it anyway. Compared to flavor, practicality was more important.

Different foods restored different amounts of HP. Bai Fuling wanted to figure out what affected it. Was it related to the quantity of food, the ingredients, or perhaps the price?

Anyway, if he was going to research this, he had to go through everything from start to finish, sample one of everything, then clean out his bag and try to buy the max of everything!

"Let's start with the first one," Bai Fuling pointed to the first window on the left.

"This is the fast-food window. Do you want a burger?" Pang Chengyu glanced over and walked up.

Although buying someone fast food might seem cheap, when you're treating, the guest picks. If Classmate Bai wanted this, then he would buy it.

"How many do you want?" Pang Chengyu asked.

Bai Fuling: "Let's start with a small amount. How about twenty?"

Twenty? That's a small amount???

Pang Chengyu froze for a second when he heard that. Then he thought maybe the other person intended to pack some to share with friends or something... He didn't mind. After all, he had already agreed to treat him, and besides, he was spending his dad's money anyway.

So, Pang Chengyu asked for a plastic bag at the window, packed twenty burgers, and handed the bag to his companion.

Bai Fuling's HP wasn't fully restored yet, so he decisively took out a burger and clicked [Consume].

Pang Chengyu looked up and saw the transfer student lift the burger to his mouth, opened his mouth, and the burger was gone.

"What the-?!" Pang Chengyu was shocked.

He didn't even see how the transfer student gulped it down whole... That burger was almost half the size of the transfer student's face! And the wrapper wasn't even removed! At least throw away the packaging before eating!

However, before he could fully process it, he saw the person in front of him repeat the action, eating three burgers in one go—none of them had their wrappers removed; they were all swallowed whole with the packaging.

Pang Chengyu stood there, dumbstruck.

While he was still in a daze, Bai Fuling, whose HP had already been fully restored, stopped eating and put the remaining 17 burgers into his inventory.

It was also at this moment that he spotted a small '15' in the bottom right corner of the food icon.

Bai Fuling curiously clicked to check.

[Burger: Fast food, not very nutritious but filling enough (Shelf life: 15 days)]

What! There's actually an expiration date. Bai Fuling frowned, realizing that reality didn't match his expectations.

He originally thought he could hoard unlimited amounts, but there was actually an expiration date setting...! Crap!

In that case, he couldn't just cram stuff into his bag, or they'd just be taking up space until they spoiled. Bai Fuling pondered.

He should stick to the original plan: hit up every counter first to see how much HP each dish restored, then, based on the HP restoration and expiration date, carefully select a few with the best bang for his buck to keep in his inventory.

Although his HP was full now and consuming food wouldn't further increase his HP bar, when he clicked [Consume], green numbers would still pop up above his head, indicating how much HP that food could restore.

"Alright, let's move on to the next one," Bai Fuling said casually, automatically moving to the window next to the fast-food one.

Pang Chengyu's brain was still processing the scene he had just witnessed. He couldn't understand how the transfer student could eat a burger half the size of his face in one bite—without even removing the wrapper.

At this moment, he just followed without thinking, mechanically swiping his card.

Pang Chengyu's gaze fell on Bai Fuling, watching his next move.

Bai Fuling ordered a new dish.

He didn't take any utensils.

He lifted the plate.

He opened his mouth.

He ate the entire meal in the blink of an eye—wait, where's the plate? The plate disappeared too!!

...No, why can he even eat the plate?! Pang Chengyu was dumbfounded. Dude, are you human?! Dude, are you a gluttonous beast?!

At this moment, Pang Chengyu suddenly felt that eating a burger with the wrapper wasn't such a big deal after all.

Well... compared to eating a plate, eating it with the wrapper is actually nothing, pretty reasonable, right?

The staff at the second cafeteria window also witnessed the scene just now, and the next bowl of food in his hand directly "thudded" to the ground.

Bai Fuling paid no attention to the NPCs' reactions; his focus was entirely on the numbers above his head.

After seeing the green numbers pop up, he noted them down, then turned and left without hesitation, moving to the third window.

Pang Chengyu followed behind, holding his student card.

As the saying goes, familiarity breeds ease. After seeing Bai Fuling repeat his previous behavior—eating the dish along with the plate—he had calmed down a lot and wouldn't be as shocked or exclaim like the others around him.

Bai Fuling looked around, not understanding why the NPCs around him were popping exclamation marks above their heads just because he was eating.

Isn't the cafeteria a place to eat? What's wrong with eating right after ordering? Could it be that you have to sit down? Is this also some kind of school rule?

Bai Fuling felt puzzled, but since there was no school rule violation warning on the screen, he didn't dwell on these details.

Whatever, maybe this was just set up to give players a sense of interaction in the cafeteria. Anyway, it didn't affect his cafeteria exploration plan.

Bai Fuling continued testing each window in order, from the first floor to the second floor, leaving a trail of large exclamation marks wherever he went.

After the initial confusion, Bai Fuling was no longer bothered by the exclamation marks. He even amused himself by composing a poem for the scene.

In a way, this scene could be described as "Struggling to cross, struggling to cross, startling a shore full of gulls and herons." Hmm, very poetic.

Pang Chengyu had been following along the whole time.

He went from initially wondering, "How did he eat a whole plate of food in one go?" to "How did he eat the plate too?" and now to "Wait, how many dishes and plates has he already eaten, and he's still going?!"

The transfer student just kept going—he ate his way from the first floor to the second, from one end of the cafeteria to the other, without any pause!

Pang Chengyu wasn't worried about the money, after all, the food couldn't be that expensive. His family was well-off, and even if his meal card wasn't heavily loaded, it was more than enough for Bai Fuling to eat several rounds from the first to the second floor.

Pang Chengyu was just concerned that the transfer student might overeat and harm his health—Fresh Cabbage was the only lively fish in this stagnant school! Pang Chengyu didn't want anything to happen to him.

Pang Chengyu almost couldn't help but say: Classmate Bai, please stop eating, I'm scared.

But before he could speak, Bai Fuling finally finished the last dish from the last window and stopped eating.

By this point, he had sampled every dish on the first and second floors, testing both their stats and shelf life.

The fast-food burger had the longest shelf life, a solid 15 days. Most other dishes only lasted 1 day, with a few exceptions lasting 3 days.

The amount of health restored was related to the price of the dish—the more expensive, the more health restored.

Well, typical game dev move. Bai Fuling thought.

For players, all things considered, the burger still offered the best value for money. Unless there were plans to fight monsters and lose a lot of health later, the 1-day or 3-day shelf life of other dishes was still too short.

Having made up his mind, Bai Fuling decided to stock only burgers in his backpack. He steered his character toward the golden-haired NPC beside him.

Pang Chengyu ventured cautiously, "...Are you full?"

"I'm full." Bai Fuling nodded.

Was it his imagination, or did he see the pixelated golden-haired character on the screen let out a sigh of relief.

Bai Fuling continued typing in the dialogue box, "But I'd like to buy some more to take back, is that okay?"

"Of course, no problem." Pang Chengyu smiled, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he saw the transfer student finally stop his plate-clearing rampage. "What do you want to buy? I'll take you there."

"Burgers," Bai Fuling replied. "I want to take some burgers to eat later."

Pang Chengyu led him downstairs, with people on both sides staring.

Bai Fuling wasn't bothered by it. After all, NPCs automatically locking onto the player was normal—the player was the center of the world.

He walked to the burger window and said, "Hello, I'd like to buy burgers."

When the worker saw him, an exclamation mark popped up above their head.

Strange, is it lagging? Bai Fuling jabbed at the screen a few times, trying to interact with the burger window.

He held his finger down on the screen, making his avatar bounce around in front of the burger window, even getting stuck in the glass barrier at one point, seemingly able to squeeze through.

Bai Fuling enthusiastically tried to exploit the bug and squeeze through for a freebie.

The burger window worker took two steps back and finally a dialogue box popped up: "Okay, okay, classmate, don't get excited! How many do you want? I'll get them for you right now!!"

Oh, there's a reaction. Bai Fuling stopped pressing the screen. It must have been lagging earlier. This game always lags.

"You order," Pang Chengyu said beside him. "It's on me, as many as you want."

As many as I want? Bai Fuling originally intended to press 82, adding to the 17 burgers already in his backpack to make 99. But upon hearing the golden-haired NPC's words, he suddenly wanted to test the shopping limit here.

Besides... what if this was just a newbie benefit and the golden-haired NPC stopped treating him later? Bai Fuling thought. Anyway, it's better to ask for more—if there's too much, he could just set up a stall at the entrance and sell the extras! That would be another unexpected source of income.

His mind made up, Bai Fuling decisively typed:

"Hello, I'd like 9,999 burgers."

Pang Chengyu: ?

Window worker: ?

Haha, the transfer student sure loves to joke... Wait, he's serious!!

Author's Note:

The player's glutton descends upon the world.