Chapter 33: The Carnivore V: Meat |
The poem's four lines were cryptic, seeming at once a description of suffering and a curse dripping with malice.
Qi Si scanned the room, spotting a broom and two rags in a corner.
The rags were brand new, practically spotless compared to the dust-caked room.
He picked one up and wiped down the table. Only when most of the dust was gone did he gingerly pinch the pages of the travel brochure between his fingers and turn to the next one.
The back of the page featured a map of the village, marking three locations: the “Ancestral Hall,” the “Village History Museum,” and the “Village Chief’s House.” The players’ current location, Su Po’s residence, was circled in red, making it clear and simple at a glance.
What struck Qi Si as odd was that the left side of the map clearly showed a road, yet there were no markers. It was as if there were no buildings there at all, just a barren stretch of land.
Villages on the plains were usually laid out compactly. Could there really be such a large empty plot?
Leaving it intentionally blank was a dead giveaway, practically screaming that something important was hidden there.
Qi Si stroked his chin, thinking he could prioritize tricking someone into checking out the west side of the village later.
All things considered, it was better to diligently gather clues and decipher the world’s lore.
“Dinner’s ready! Come and eat!” A raspy call came from outside the door. It was Su Po’s voice.
Qi Si put down the brochure and pushed the door open.
The round table in the courtyard was already laden with dishes. Except for a mass of white, gelatinous substance in an iron basin at the center, the surrounding plates held ordinary vegetarian country fare.
There were thirteen chairs in total, each with a set of bowls and chopsticks placed before it.
The players gathered and sat around the table. Qi Si discreetly glanced at everyone’s hands but saw no one wearing a ring or anything similar.
Yang Yundong was the first to describe the clue from the travel brochure. The other players chimed in, basically confirming that it was a public clue and everyone had received more or less the same information.
Meanwhile, Su Po led A’Xi to the last two empty seats, sitting down next to Qi Si and Zhu Ling.
Zhu Ling offered some pleasantries. “You’ve given us a place to stay and cooked such a large meal for us. We’re really troubling you too much.”
Su Po smiled. “It’s what I should do. You’re our guests, here for a tour.”
Zhu Ling nodded lightly, choosing her words carefully. “We just arrived, and the map is a bit confusing on its own. Would you be willing to be our guide and show us around tomorrow morning?”
“Your village must still worship that deity, right? Several of us are believers. If it’s convenient, could you take us to pay our respects?”
She had clearly noticed the blank space on the map and was hoping to probe for important clues through her questions.
But Su Po’s expression instantly soured. “We agreed before. You’re just here to stay for a bit and taste the ‘divine flesh.’ Anything more than that, this old woman doesn’t have time to entertain you!”
Rebuffed, Zhu Ling felt a bit awkward. Zhang Licai, sitting beside her, patted his plump face and muttered under his breath, “Well, isn’t that just great. Pay for a five-day tour just to sit around...”
Nearby, Zhou Yilin timidly whispered, “But... I don’t think we paid any money.”
Zhang Licai was speechless.
Qi Si mulled it over for a moment before cautiously asking, “Su Po, are we allowed to walk around the village on our own?”
“Wander if you want,” Su Po said. “But don’t run around after dark. If something happens, this old woman won’t be responsible.”
The meaning was clear: nighttime posed a danger to the players.
She had also mentioned earlier that the villagers only came out at night. This was practically a direct announcement that the villagers were a problem.
A system notification chimed at the perfect moment, its text appearing on the system interface.
[Rules have been updated.]
[2. Su Po is not fond of outsiders. Tourists who wish to explore should learn to use the map and plan their own routes. Please remember, the night is dangerous. Return to Su Po’s residence before dark whenever possible.]
The players exchanged glances, each making their own calculations.
As long as they could investigate freely, it shouldn’t be a problem. With eleven of them, how could they fail to search every corner of this tiny, rundown village?
No one asked any more questions. Su Po produced a knife from somewhere and reached into the iron basin in the center of the table.
The white gel in the basin quivered as if alive, trembling the moment the knife touched it. Perhaps it was fear of pain, or perhaps just a simple reflex.
The air grew thicker. An invisible presence seemed to suck at the onlookers’ minds as a faint, illusory wail echoed in the depths of their consciousness before receding like the tide.
For a split second, Qi Si thought he saw distorted red patterns emerge on the gel’s surface, but they vanished in an instant. The entire mass pulsed rhythmically, as if it were breathing.
It was painfully obvious what the thing in the basin was. Yang Yundong, sitting farther away, pointed at it and asked the obvious question, “Su Po, what is this?”
“It’s the flesh of a god. Isn’t this what you came to our village to eat?” Su Po answered, her eyes narrowed in an expression of near-fanatical reverence.
As she spoke, her hands never stopped moving. The cold glint of the blade sliced through the white surface, and a few drops of golden liquid seeped from the cut, like beads of blood, or tears.
A rich, meaty aroma filled the air, seeping through every crack and into the pores of every living being. Qi Si heard the sound of loud gulps, one after another, coming from nearly everyone. They were sounds of greed and hunger.
A god in red descended from the heavens, every inch of their flesh as if sculpted from pure beauty. The intoxicating fragrance stirred the appetite, and the villagers’ reverence quickly turned to craving. They surrounded the god, staring intently, until they could no longer bear it. They pushed and shoved, lunging forward to tear, cut, and gnaw...
The scene flashed before his eyes. Qi Si blinked, a phantom sensation of pain prickling his own skin.
[You have seen the shadow of an evil god.]
[The evil god has glanced at you.]
Two new notifications appeared.
Qi Si stared at the softly glowing [Humanoid Evil] identity card in the top right of his vision and thought with a sense of dead resignation, *So this is what it means to ‘establish a connection’...*
Su Po cut the flesh into eleven pieces and placed one in front of each player, urging them with a broad smile, “Go on, eat. It’s delicious. Once you taste it, you’ll never forget...”
Allen, sitting next to Yang Yundong, swallowed hard and asked suspiciously, “Old woman, if it’s so good, how come you aren’t eating any?”
Su Po replied, “We who serve the god now eat only vegetarian food to repay the grace He showed us when He first bestowed His flesh upon us.”
She paused for a moment before adding, “Our village was originally called ‘Su Jia Cun’—the Su Family Village. Later, we changed it to ‘Su Shi Cun’—the Su Clan Village. When you say it, it sounds like ‘Su Shi Cun’—Vegetarian Village. We all eat only vegetarian food.”
The players stared at each other, thoroughly embarrassed by the lame pun.
Qi Si, who had been studying his identity card, raised an eyebrow at Su Po’s explanation.
He clearly remembered the couplet pasted on the residence gate:
[Yearly, we burn incense to erase our karmic debts.]
[Yearly, we eat vegetarian to dissolve our sins.]
Was eating vegetarian really an act of gratitude? He doubted it.
The couplet had stated it plainly: eating vegetarian was for atonement.
If, as Su Po claimed, the god had gifted its flesh to the Su Clan Village and the village worshipped the god in return, a perfectly legitimate exchange, what sins were there to atone for?
In the vision just now, the red-robed god had seemed to be in great pain and had never explicitly permitted the villagers to carve it up and eat it.
A theory began to form in Qi Si’s mind. A cold smile touched his lips, and his gaze toward Su Po became more probing.
Su Po and A’Xi seemed oblivious, picking up their chopsticks and helping themselves to the vegetables.
The fragrant aroma of the food, combined with the sight of the two NPCs savoring their meal with relish, caused a wave of hunger to spread among the players.
This hunger was no ordinary physiological response; it felt more like a mechanic of the instance. Everyone felt a sharp, cramping pain in their stomach, a desperate need to fill the void.
But most veteran players were cautious, and none dared to touch their chopsticks. The two newcomers followed their lead, sitting ramrod straight.
Only after Su Po had finished her meal and led A’Xi from the table did the players finally begin to eat, picking at the same vegetable dishes Su Po and A’Xi had eaten to barely sate their hunger.
Throughout the meal, no one dared to touch a single fiber of the translucent “divine flesh” before them. After all, everything about it, from its lore to its appearance, screamed of strangeness and danger.
A few players who ate quickly put down their bowls within minutes and left the table as if fleeing a viper.
Zhao Feng, who had earlier provoked A’Xi, stared at the divine flesh on the table, a flicker of temptation in his eyes.
He had promised A’Xi he would get him meat, and he only had one day to find it. Aside from the divine flesh, it was highly unlikely he would find any other meat in Su Po’s house. He had no other choice!
Zhao Feng looked to Yang Yundong for help. “Do you think that ghost child will eat this divine flesh if I give it to him?”
“I don’t know.” Yang Yundong seemed distracted, lost in his own thoughts. “You can give it a try. Just remember not to do it in front of Su Po.”
Su Po didn't eat meat, yet A’Xi was searching for it everywhere, like a naughty child sneaking around behind his parents’ backs. Of course, the parents couldn’t know about the meat.
Understanding the logic, Zhao Feng snatched the portion of divine flesh from his plate, stuffed it into his pocket, and left the table. He moved to a corner of the courtyard to watch A’Xi from a distance, looking for an opportunity.
Besides Zhao Feng, several other players also took their portion of meat, saying it was for backup.
One player earnestly tried to persuade them, “Taking the divine flesh will taint you with ‘sin.’ It would be better if none of us took it. Even if this instance requires us to eat it, there’s safety in numbers. With ‘that mechanic,’ we’ll all be fine.”
He was referring to the “minimum death count” mechanic. A player who heard him sneered, “You make it sound so noble. If you’re so confident, why don’t you take some divine flesh with us? Trying to trick us into not taking it... who knows what you’re really planning!”
Everyone had their own opinion on the matter, and no one could be swayed.
Qi Si searched his pockets but found nothing to carry the meat in. He resorted to tearing off a piece of his sleeve and wrapping his portion in it.
The player who had been sitting next to him had already left, leaving their portion of meat behind.
So, Qi Si conveniently scooped that piece into his cloth bundle as well.
Feeling that still wasn’t enough insurance, he scanned the rest of the table, but to his disappointment, there was no leftover divine flesh to be seen.
There were many clever people among the players, more than happy to seal off an opponent’s escape route after they had made a wrong decision.
The rules of death and the method of dying in this instance were still unknown. A few people would have to die to test the waters.
And in the Weird Game, if you misjudged the situation, you deserved to die.