Chapter 20: The Gu Tribe Fortress, Part 19

The players followed Zhou Shan to the dining area and were immediately stunned.

“Damn… can we even eat this?” they cursed silently.

On each of their tables was a bowl of white rice mixed with black, wriggling insects, accompanied by some colorful, clearly inedible soup.

They truly dared not eat it!

This kind of food would surely cost them half their lives.

“Village chief… I’m not very hungry, maybe I can skip—” one player looked at Zhou Shan hopefully, but the man ignored him and spat out cold words, “No.”

The villagers opened their mouths with sinister grins and stopped eating.

“Why won’t you eat? Do you disdain our hospitality?” one asked, his smile twisted and pale, unnatural for a human.

“We eat the same food. Do you look down on our village?” another said, their faces stiff with dreadful smiles no human could replicate.

“If you don’t want to eat, that’s fine, just leave a part of yourself behind,” the dark pupils gleamed with a strange light, as if insects crawled beneath their clay-like faces. The villagers stared at them unblinkingly.

A chill ran down the players’ spines.

They knew all too well that leaving a part of themselves was never a simple matter.

When monsters in dungeons said that, it usually meant losing an arm or a leg, or worse, their heads.

Without their heads, how could they survive?

“No, no… we’ll eat now…” they said quickly, unwilling to oppose the villagers after all they had been through, and certainly not wanting to lose any part of themselves.

Yet, a few stubborn players who feared nothing, even after suffering the torment of the parasitic insects, refused to learn their lesson.

“What the hell is this?” one shouted.

“Are you guys holding a grudge against us?!” a burly man pointed angrily at the girl beside Zhou Shan.

“Why does she get to eat so well when it’s all the same food for us?”

At the girl’s seat was a clean, fragrant bowl of white rice, accompanied by steaming braised pork ribs that looked utterly appetizing.

[022, this meal smells so good.]
System: [If you like it, eat more.]

Zhou Zhou’s pale hand, tinged with a soft pink, scooped up a spoonful of rice. Her slightly parted lips swallowed slowly, her gaze vacant, eating at a sluggish pace that made one want to cradle her and feed her gently.

So foolish, so pitiful.

A sudden wave of tenderness filled the players’ hearts.

They glanced silently at the defiant few, somewhat speechless.

She’s a fool — how can you compare yourselves to her?

Besides, hadn’t they already noticed how dark the dungeon boss’s face had become?

But if these few had been perceptive, they wouldn’t have picked a fight here.

Among them, a delicate woman reached out, grabbing the burly man.

“I want to eat that too… why does she get to eat and I don’t?”

Normally, this player kept a low profile, clinging to the burly man’s presence and never daring to cause trouble. Yet today, for some inexplicable reason, she acted completely out of character.

“Such a little fool, eating so well… she should be giving that food to me instead…” the woman shouted in her heart, “No! Don’t say that anymore!”

Yet, a golden glow flashed in her eyes as her lips kept moving.

“Why do you treat us guests this way?”

Zhou Shan’s entire body chilled; his deep black pupils darkened ominously.

“Why?” he sneered.

“Who do you think you are?” Zhou Shan’s laugh was cold and merciless.

“If you don’t want to eat, then leave.”

His words left no room for mercy. The burly man, unwilling to lose face in front of his woman, slammed his bowl down.

“If we don’t eat, then we don’t!” he growled.

“I never wanted to stay here anyway! There are so many players,” he shouted viciously, “we don’t need to fear these NPCs! This damned village with its bugs, who does it disgust, huh?!”

The words “players” and “NPC” were muted, but the curse-laden rant caught the attention of Ning Jidong and his two companions crouched in the corner, who exchanged uneasy glances.

They had searched all night for an exit from the bug-infested village but found no trace, and had reluctantly returned.

By coincidence, they encountered this group of captured players and, while Zhou Shan was distracted, followed them here.

Now, looking at the hysterical man, they felt disgusted. Ning Jidong thought, how pathetic—he’s already a prisoner, yet still angry that the weak eat better than him.

He glanced at the girl eating so heartily and felt an inexplicable lightness in his long-suppressed heart.

Ning Jidong looked at the girl; Ning Cheng stole a glance at the girl he found stunningly beautiful at first sight and whispered, “Father, you’ve been staring for a whole minute.”

“Can’t blame me, she’s just too beautiful…” Ning Jidong had yet to reply when Ning Yan blushed and said softly.

“Really beautiful…”

He had never encountered such a soft, lovely, exquisitely beautiful person before.

Ning Cheng said nothing but silently agreed.

In this damned, eerie bug village, there was at least one beautiful little fool.

“Huang Ming, can you shut up?” a player who knew him scolded coldly.

“You’ll get us all killed!”

But the man paid no heed, showing no intention of quieting down.

“You weaklings! After so many worlds, you’re still acting like a bunch of wimps! I’m done with this crappy dungeon!”

Other players stared at him in horror—not because they feared him, but because they feared the dungeon boss might take revenge on them because of his words.

The dungeon had only just begun a few days ago; they weren’t ready to die yet!

The man kept blabbering recklessly, “System, I’m quitting now!”

He tried to use a one-time dungeon exemption he had obtained before.

The system’s cold voice responded, [Beep—Current dungeon is a forbidden dungeon. Players cannot quit. Dungeon exemption has been returned.]

“What? Impossible!”

“No… how could this be…”

He had always been lucky, even fortunate enough to get a dungeon exemption. His arrogance stemmed from knowing he could leave anytime.

But he never imagined that the exemption wouldn’t work in a forbidden dungeon.

Unable to quit the dungeon, the unexpected turn filled him with unease.

Despair overwhelmed him. He was no newbie; he expected no mercy from the dungeon boss. He knew Zhou Shan would kill him.

Fear seized his body and soul; he was drenched in sweat.

Zhou Shan’s expression turned sinister and cold. Gently covering Zhou Zhou’s eyes to spare the girl from fright, he whispered to the man, “So disobedient… why must you insects make me angry?”

Lowering his head, a blood-red parasitic insect crawled from his feet.

“Go.”

Before the man could wonder what was happening, the insect hissed and flew toward him.

His body exploded instantly.

Under a spray of crimson blood, the poor woman beside him trembled in terror as a chunk of flesh fell onto her.

“Y-you…”

She didn’t even have time to beg before the blood-red insect swallowed her, turning her into a fine mist of blood that vanished within seconds.

Silence fell.

Zhou Zhou’s body trembled. Were those two players… dead?

System: [Dead.]

She clenched her fists, sweat dampening her palms. Even with her eyes covered, seeing lives snuffed out before her was terrifying.

The girl clutched her clothes, silently reciting the core socialist values in her heart: [Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony…]

Only then did the fear subside slightly.

[In this escape game, many players die every day,] the system comforted the timid host, [They break the rules and deserve their fate.]

Zhou Zhou knew it was true.

In this survival game, the soft-hearted get devoured by monsters.

Two players had died so easily, leaving the rest too frightened to utter a sound.

“Now,” Zhou Shan’s black eyes gleamed coldly, his voice ruthless, “who still doesn’t want to eat?”