Chapter 35 Carnivore (Part 7) Goddess

The night was thick as ink. Yang Yundong and Alan walked one after the other, stepping on the dusty dirt road, slowly exploring towards the west side of the village.

The system prompted that the truth was hidden in the villagers’ words. The sooner the truth was found, the fewer people would be harmed later.

The villagers would only come out at night. If one wanted to ask them questions, one had to go out at night.

After dinner, Yang Yundong tried to organize some players to go out and explore, but most of them met him with cold eyes, and Zhu Ling even accused him of disregarding the safety of others.

The players were strangers to each other, so he knew he had no standing to say more and had to leave the house alone to collect clues himself.

Fortunately, Alan was someone who feared nothing, and he followed along happily.

—Two people were better than one; there would be mutual support when working, and it would be easier to call for help if they encountered danger.

In the silence, Alan couldn’t hold back and asked, “Yang, can you tell me what this Eerie Game is all about? I still haven’t figured out how I ended up here…”

“No one knows exactly what it is.” Yang Yundong shook his head and sighed. “It might be a rule, it might be a large-scale supernatural event, or it might be an experiment conducted by a high-dimensional civilization. The result is that some people were accidentally selected and dragged into an instance.”

“Cool!” Alan whistled. “So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? I heard that voice say it could grant any of my wishes…”

“It’s not a good thing.” Yang Yundong stopped and looked back at him. “Most people will die in the game, dying carelessly and without dignity. Even if you are lucky enough to survive, what walks back into reality might not be human anymore…”

“My God, is it that terrible?”

The moon was high in the sky, and in the silence, there wasn’t even the sound of cicadas.

Small houses stood in clusters like grave mounds, crowding around a rather large bungalow. The slogan “Exert effort, strive for the best” on it had long faded, looking more like dirt splashed on it, dripping downwards.

Alan didn’t like the silence, so he started talking just to have something to say: “I’ve never been to the rural areas of Long County, so I’ll just treat this as a free trip. But what that old woman said was really scary. People have starved to death in every room, making me afraid to stay in them… Uh…”

Seemingly in response to his words, a wave of hunger struck with overwhelming force. His stomach convulsed crazily from the cramping pain, and he squatted down, trembling, shoving his fist into his mouth.

Yang Yundong also squatted down, his face ashen, clearly caught off guard by the sudden hunger.

He maintained his composure, trembling as he reached into his pocket and took out two pieces of God Meat, keeping one for himself and handing the other to Alan.

The two of them wolfed down the God Meat, and the hunger finally receded like a tide.

Alan swallowed the last bit of meat, embarrassed, only then smelling the scent of blood and feeling pain.

He lowered his head and saw his right hand covered in tooth marks and dripping with blood—he had actually bitten off a piece of flesh from himself while hungry just moments ago.

If Yang Yundong hadn’t taken out the God Meat in time, he might have eaten himself bite by bite!

Before personally experiencing a death point, no one would believe that danger was so close to them.

Alan realized with a start that this unusual encounter was not like the outdoor adventures and extreme sports he had participated in before. People could really die for no reason, dying without any warning or cause…

His blind optimism was punctured, and there was no longer any relaxed expression on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but Yang Yundong suddenly made a gesture for him to be quiet.

He started, looking forward, only to see ghostly green spots flickering in the darkness, like Ghosts, like will-o’-the-wisps…

…

In the side room, Zhu Dafu lay on the bed, his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.

He was already seventy-eight years old and had farmed his whole life without ever leaving the town. When he was free, he just scrolled through short videos or listened to news and plays.

He had never read books, had never read unlimited-flow novels, and had never played horror games.

Three days ago, he was pulling his cart to the town market when he happened to run into the Security Bureau catching criminals.

That criminal was shot dead on the spot. He happened to be passing by and saw a black metal card fly out of the pool of blood and merge into his body.

Just like that, he was confusedly pulled into the “Eerie Game”.

He stumbled through the first instance. He didn’t understand anything about points, TE, or NE. He only knew that from now on, he had to see Ghosts every three days—all kinds of strange Ghosts.

Being old, he couldn’t sleep once he had something on his mind.

Zhu Dafu recalled the experiences of the past few days, and the more he thought, the more awake he became.

He thought, this time is good. This village, this house, and these people are all styles he is familiar with; unlike last time, which was all about “genes” and “cloning”—he didn’t understand any of that.

He could also understand a lot of what that old woman with the surname Su said.

He came from that era. First his grandfather starved to death, then his little sister starved to death. They prayed to gods and Buddhas too, but why didn’t any kind-hearted god come to save them?

Zhu Dafu turned over and saw his roommate’s young face.

He thought again, everything is good this time, except that the people with him are all too young. There is even a little girl in college, younger than his granddaughter.

He was old, so if he died, he died. Why would those damned Ghosts look for these children?

As he was thinking wildly like this, he heard the sound of a kitchen knife chopping on the bed board not far away.

Something happened outside.

He hurriedly pushed his roommate beside him and whispered, “Young man, wake up! Do you hear what that sound is?”

But his roommate was sleeping extremely deeply, a faint smile on his lips, as if trapped in a sweet dream, unwilling to wake up.

“Something happened, don’t sleep!” Zhu Dafu raised his voice and pushed his roommate’s shoulder.

The roommate turned over stiffly and lay flat. The moonlight shone on the young man’s face through the window lattice, and golden blood vessels spread like leaf veins, squirming under his thin, transparent skin.

Zhu Dafu was shocked and fell off the bed. He suddenly remembered that this roommate had eaten God Meat after dinner…

Could it be that the God Meat couldn’t be eaten, and eating it would make people sleep to death?

The sound of the knife outside was getting closer and closer, accompanied by very light footsteps and the sound of wind. The paper talisman rattled, and a gust of wind blew the door open.

In the darkness, Zhu Dafu couldn’t see anything and could only shrink into the corner.

The sound of “ka ka ka” cutting bone echoed from close by, and a rich, bloody smell exploded suddenly, followed by the “crunch crunch” sound of chewing meat and bones, and the “gurgle gurgle” sound of swallowing.

Zhu Dafu didn’t dare to breathe, buried his head in his knees, and covered his ears with his hands, as if he were an ostrich.

I don’t know how long it took, but all the sounds died down. The dark shadow left satisfied, and the side room became a little brighter.

Under the cold white light, Zhu Dafu only saw a bed of golden-red blood and pale, broken bones.

He opened his mouth wide, and a hoarse cry rolled in his throat: “Oh God… Mother…”

His stomach suddenly began to cramp, and a long-lost hunger arose spontaneously. Every inch of his flesh and skin was clamoring for the desire to eat, and at the same time, it began to emit an alluring meat fragrance…

He seemed to be brought back to that era seventy years ago, shrouded in the shadow of death. After many years, he saw the withered land, the rotten stench, the swollen faces, and the yellow-white pus again…

Past memories and current feelings overlapped. He bit his arm like he was biting a steamed bun, his mouth watering.

…

On the other side, Qi Si felt the hunger that was like a shadow, grabbed a piece of God Meat without any desire to live, shoved it into his mouth, and swallowed it.

A cool sensation spread from his mouth to his stomach, bringing a sticky, slippery touch along the way, but it was like a jelly-like dessert and not disgusting.

The sweet taste exploded on the tip of his tongue, and there was another faint meaty fragrance stirring the tip of his nose, seemingly coming from his body, only to vanish in an instant, like an illusion.

Qi Si looked down at his right hand. For a moment, the outline of his skin appeared as an illusion, and the blood vessels under the skin, thin as a cicada’s wing, showed a bright golden color, dissipating faint black smoke.

The situation was clear: not eating God Meat meant facing the short-term crisis of immediate death; eating God Meat meant facing a long-term crisis with an unknown outcome.

Survival was not easy. Both ends were dangerous, and every choice was a gamble, unless… a new factor was introduced into the game theory model.

Qi Si leaned against the wooden door, listening to the movement outside. The “ka ka” and “crunch” sounds entered his ears; he knew that the so-called 【Carnivore】 had solved its dinner problem.

The night was silent, the moonlight was like water, and the courtyard was as peaceful as a normal rural courtyard.

Qi Si held the Pocket Watch of Fate in his hand, pushed the door open, and walked straight towards the sealed dry well in the courtyard.

Granny Su had knife wounds on her, but she was definitely not hacked to death; judging from the state of her body, her corpse had stayed in a cold, cramped, and damp place for a long time.

She was likely forced into a desperate situation and threw herself into the well to die.

But for some reason, the person who chased her with a knife and wanted to eat her did not immediately take her body out from under the well—it couldn’t be that they were picky eaters and disliked it for not being fresh after soaking in water.

The well was highly likely to be strange.

Qi Si timed it, spent ten seconds walking to the well, and used three seconds to brush the fallen leaves off the well cover.

On the well cover made of mixed brick and cement, four words were engraved—

【There is a God under the well】.

There is a God under the well? Wasn’t the God that the villagers cut meat from falling from the sky? How could it be at the bottom of the well?

Or rather… was there more than one God?

The scene before his eyes changed suddenly, and the sky brightened as if piercing through time.

“Drown her, there are a bunch of children at home, and there’s a war, this one can’t be raised…” Someone was talking.

“Wuwawa…” The baby’s crying was heart-rending.

The hands of the Pocket Watch of Fate stopped moving.

Qi Si saw that the originally sealed well was empty, with rippling water.

A man stood by the well, turning the pulley on the well, lowering the wooden bucket containing the baby into the well.

The moment the bucket was about to soak into the water, it suddenly seemed to be supported by something, stopped falling, and began to rise slowly.

The man was terrified, kept retreating, watching the bucket float back to the ground.

A pair of scarlet eyes opened in the well, and golden chains flickered in the darkness.

A Taoist priest in black with golden eyes happened to pass by the village, and the man took this strange thing to ask for help.

The Taoist said: “She is a child blessed by God, and her soul will eventually belong to God.”

The baby grew up safely and became a carefree young girl. The villagers all said she was a Goddess, and let her preside over the sacrificial rites every year.

During a time of play, the girl accidentally fell into the well.

She didn’t get hurt. Instead, she entered a strange world floating with golden light, seeing the red-clothed God entangled by golden vines.

She didn’t know it was a God at the time, tilted her head, and asked innocently: “Who are you? Why do you look so good, but have to hide in this dark, dry well?”

The God did not answer her question, only smiled and declared: “This is the second time I have seen you. When we meet for the third time, your soul will belong to me.”

The girl remembered the legends about God, felt afraid, and retreated.

The God’s smile deepened: “You don’t have to panic. The time fate has left for you is long. You will grow old, possess a grandson, and will forever guard this village.”

The girl saw the snake biting its tail in the God’s scarlet eyes, and strange feelings were woven into a net. She trembled and muttered to herself: “I want to go home…”

“I will send you back.” The God said, “As a trade, you must come to the well often and keep me company.”

That day, the girl returned to the well, still shaken. Looking down from the well, she could only see a patch of dark water.

In the days that followed, however, she seemed to be possessed. Every seven days, she had to sit by the well for an afternoon and talk to the well…