Chapter 42 Carnivore (XIV) Sunlight

The scene before his eyes was veiled in a faint, pale red; colors were overturned into filthy clumps, overflowing into a lake upon the murky backdrop.

Beautiful young men and women, clad in various ornately carved robes, sat in a row along an endless bronze table. They toasted one another; meat was on their plates, and blood was in their cups.

In a certain instant, blazing sunlight poured down from the sky. Everything froze like statues; flesh steamed and vaporized, and translucent skeletons screamed in unison, refracting the iridescent light of glazed glass.

Qi Si felt as if he had been split in two. Half of him was persuasive, whispering for him to give up resistance and sink into oblivion; the other half rose above his head like an out-of-body soul, freezing high in the sky and looking down upon his physical body from above.

‘At this moment, you are within a nightmare hallucination. The fragrance of meat you smell is transformed from putrefaction; the broth you are obsessed with is the pus of corpses.’

The elevated version of himself spoke to him thus, his tone mysterious and profound, like a deity handing down a decree.

The 【humanoid evil spirit】 Identity Card hung high, as red and black phantoms intertwined and poured back into his spiritual form.

In an instant, Qi Si locked eyes with a pair of crimson pupils across the layers of demons and monsters, and his memories returned like a tide.

A distant voice announced with solemnity, “You are the fruit watered by the greatest malice in the world, burdened with the thickest sin bestowed by fate…”

“Beneath the gods, sin remains forever. You shall keep winning until you die upon the stage where the finale is played…”

The voice drifted away by his ear, and the crimson in the distance shattered with a boom like glass struck by a heavy blow, turning into a rain of blood that splashed down.

Qi Si remembered; he had been immune to all kinds of hypnosis and hallucinations for a long time, and he could always remain conscious in his dreams.

He had once built palaces and towers in his dreams and sketched the silhouettes of deceased acquaintances, but he knew clearly that they were all false, always able to dissect his own psychology from the side with coldness and mockery… 【The hidden effect of the Identity Card ‘Lucid Dream’ has been triggered; it cannot be activated again in this instance.】

【Note: Evil spirits do not dream. You are not human; how can you use human methods to escape pain?】

The chaotic darkness deep in the ocean of consciousness seemed to be split open by a beam of bloody light, and reason once again took the dominant position. The hallucinations vanished like smoke, and his soul fell from the gods’ feast back to the mortal world.

Qi Si hunched over and let out a low laugh. “If I really put that thing in my mouth, I’m afraid I’d be so disgusted I’d commit suicide on the spot… By comparison, I still think being alive is better.”

A pungent, fishy stench hit him in the face; this was the original smell of the mucus covering the ground.

Qi Si was glad he had woken up in time and hadn’t actually taken a bite of the sarcoma that the Village Chief had turned into.

The Identity Card in the upper right corner of his vision had faded significantly, its originally bright colors turning dull. His consciousness gradually cleared under multiple stimuli, and the chaotic images slowly settled.

Qi Si leaned against the doorframe, using the wooden structure to support his body as he took in the situation of the other players.

Yang Yundong, Zhao Feng, and Zhu Ling were slumped over in various states, but fortunately, they remained conscious. Although saliva from appetite hung from the corners of their mouths, they had not actually eaten the mucus.

Zhou Yilin and the Skinny Man were lying like corpses on the ground, while the Tattooed Woman and Zhang Licai couldn’t help but reach out to grab the mucus around them to put into their mouths. Their hands pushed and pulled in extreme anxiety, seemingly struggling with their willpower.

Alan’s abdomen was completely flat against the ground, his tongue extended long as he greedily licked the mucus flowing on the surface.

He gulped down large mouthfuls of the mucus, his throat bobbing as he swallowed it whole.

Qi Si saw flesh-colored pus beginning to ooze from his body, no different from the surface of the sarcoma in the main house.

His limbs shriveled as if melting, gradually losing their original shape and merging with the mucus on the ground.

Soon, only his upper body and a head remained prostrate on the ground, his mouth still devouring the food in a trance.

Sensing Qi Si looking at him, he looked up, his gaze filled with confusion. “Why aren’t you eating? Aren’t you hungry?”

The head flowed slowly toward Qi Si, the flesh below the neck falling away and melting during the process.

“I’m not hungry. If you are, just go ahead and eat quietly.” Qi Si took a step back and made an ill-timed joke. “Though, given your cultural background, your parents probably never taught you ‘don’t talk while eating, don’t speak while sleeping’.”

It was unclear how much Alan understood, but he continued to persist in his persuasion. “Such a good thing should be eaten together…”

Qi Si pretended not to hear and continued to search the surroundings with his eyes. “Haven’t you noticed anything wrong?”

Alan’s head let out a giggling laugh. “What’s wrong? It’s clearly delicious…”

He buried his head again to feast on the mucus on the ground.

At the same time, seemingly realizing that Qi Si was unaffected, clusters of flesh-colored mucus gathered and surged toward the main house, climbing up Qi Si’s heels.

The courtyard gate in the distance had closed at some point, its cracks also blocked by semi-solid mucus.

Everywhere he looked, the ground was covered with a thin, flesh-colored membrane that surged flexibly, blocking all conceivable paths of retreat.

“Hungry… so hungry…” someone was murmuring.

“Eat together… let’s eat together…” Dark shadows flitted by, and the mucus condensed into slender arms reaching toward Qi Si, like believers praying for a god’s blessing.

Qi Si maintained a calmness bordering on indifference, silently looking around as fragmented images and scenes flashed before his eyes like photographic silhouettes.

—The canopy shielding the sunlight, the main house with its windows pasted over, the sarcoma curled up on the bed… —The villagers only appeared at night… Clue after clue fell into an orderly arrangement. Qi Si noticed a huge window on the south side of the main house, pasted airtight with paper, but it could be easily broken if force was applied to the center.

And the south side faced the sun.

Hands made of mucus tightened around the young man’s legs, muscles knotting and blood vessels bonding, as if to crush his bones and suffocate his skin until they merged as one.

Qi Si leaned back, snatched the broadsword from Yang Yundong’s hand with a backhand grip, his waist and arms turning into a bowstring as the pitch-black blade slashed toward the window lattice behind the sarcoma.

The dark shadow pulled out a long, smooth ribbon, a loud bang exploded, and the “clatter” of shattering glass came from the hole in the window.

Pale sunlight poured down over them. Though it was as pale and weak as if filtered through smog, it ultimately represented a sliver of light.

The originally dark and cold main house was illuminated; the sun’s heatless rays shone impartially on every part of the room—the murky, the smooth, the mottled, the pure—all bathed in the soft sunlight.

A shrill scream rose high, its tail end weakening at a speed perceptible to the human ear, finally turning into a powerless groan.

The sarcoma-like Village Chief slumped like a ball with all its air sucked out. The flesh-colored surface rapidly became transparent, and the half-melted face twisted into various hideous expressions, resembling anger and fear.

The Village Chief’s mouth had almost merged with his body, yet it still diligently opened and closed, muttering something.

Qi Si leaned in, seemingly listening patiently, and heard only a short sentence: “God cursed us…”

He wanted to hear more of the last words, but the Village Chief’s sarcoma had already melted into a pool of translucent fluid, crystal clear in the sunlight and appearing as a white gel in the shadows, looking exactly like the bowl of God Meat Granny Su had brought out last night.

Qi Si seemed to have thought of a novel joke, the corners of his lips curling up irrepressibly.

He took a step forward, pulled the stuck broadsword from the south-facing window, and casually made a cut on the gel the Village Chief had turned into.

Golden liquid overflowed from the gash, diffusing a fresh, sweet meat fragrance and emitting intermittent, trembling wails.

At this point, it was certain that the Village Chief had completely turned into the God Meat the players needed—hazard-free, pollution-free, and edible.

With a smile, Qi Si carried the broadsword back to the entrance of the main house and saw Yang Yundong still slumped on the ground.

The moment the sunlight shone into the courtyard, the confusion caused by the sarcoma and mucus to their thoughts ceased abruptly. The players’ minds began to recover slowly, but to fully regain their mobility, they would likely need to rest for a while longer.

In the vast courtyard, Qi Si was the only one who could stand upright.

In other words, he now held the power of life and death over these players.

Qi Si looked down at the broadsword in his right hand, his left hand resting on his thigh, tapping it rhythmically.

He began to think with mock seriousness.

If he just killed everyone before him, it would undoubtedly trigger the minimum death count mechanism and allow him to clear the game smoothly.

But this was based on the premise that no one had any trump cards, and it would be equivalent to directly giving up on the instance’s completion rate and worldview.

After all, after becoming the sole survivor, many death points containing clues would not be triggered.

The Eerie Game would lead players to muddle through to an NE ending and then hurriedly send them out.

There were still four days before the instance ended, and many mechanisms needed human lives to verify. Killing them all here would be a waste.

Furthermore, as veteran players entering an instance for the third time, their strength likely wouldn’t be too weak. If he forced them into a desperate struggle, the losses would outweigh the gains.

It took only a second to think through all the details. Qi Si half-closed his eyes to hide the malice brewing within and casually threw the broadsword back to Yang Yundong’s side.

Under the sunlight, his previous gloominess vanished, and his smile was bright. “Thanks for the loan, Yang-ge. The blade was very useful.”

Yang Yundong caught the broadsword and let out a heavy breath, his back already soaked with cold sweat.

He found that he understood this young man less and less. He clearly had no morals, yet he put on an innocent and harmless front, so sincere it didn’t seem like a facade. Just now, malice had clearly arisen, yet for some reason, he had abandoned it, as if he were just playing around… Qi Si saw Yang Yundong’s wariness but only smiled indifferently, continuing to bury his head in studying the pile of God Meat the Village Chief had become.

As a member of Kyushu, Yang Yundong would certainly not take the initiative to attack an innocent person, no matter how heterodox the other party appeared.

In fact, he had saved people, had not yet killed anyone in the instance, and had left no evidence of killing in reality—how could he not be considered an innocent person?

Besides, isn’t there a saying, “Put down the butcher’s knife and become a Buddha”? Being a villain was much easier than being a good person.

While calculating, Qi Si poked the God Meat with his finger, watching the gel-like object tremble as if it were ticklish, which was quite interesting.

Yang Yundong looked up at the black-haired youth’s profile. A sincere smile slowly blossomed on the latter’s lips, revealing a kind of innocence that bordered on cruelty.

He was secretly alarmed and remained silent for a long time, but finally said seriously, “Thank you for saving us.”