Chapter 61

“Did you sleep well last night? Although it was short notice, we prepared the best rooms in the Village for you.” The man was extremely enthusiastic, his eyes darting up and down as he looked at their pockets.

He licked his lips, his hands restless, as if he was itching to reach into everyone’s pockets.

“I heard you have fresh fish. All the villagers have come this morning for the Welcome Ceremony, and we’ve prepared a grand feast! They’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

“Did you bring your fish?”

When the players took out the fish, the man couldn’t help but drool at the corners of his mouth, his smile twisting. “Please, follow me. Everyone has been waiting for a long time.”

He led the players to an open space in front of the Village.

A long dining table was set up outdoors in the clearing.

Over a hundred villagers sat around the table, plates lined up from one end to the other-a sea of empty white plates.

Unlike the plain plates, there were eight with beautiful, eerie patterns along their rims. These, too, were empty.

The food had not yet been served.

The man continued to guide them, inviting them to sit at the center of one side of the table.

“Your seats are here.”

Feng Shan hurried forward to take the central seat.

After sitting down, he even glanced back at Lu Li.

Lu Li didn’t care and chose a spot at the edge.

His gaze fell on the villagers.

The villagers’ hands – slapping the table excitedly – were as rough as their clothes, their fingertips hardened from years of labor, deep wrinkles etched into their faces from a lifetime of wind and sun.

“Feng Shan is as petty as a needle,” Luo Jia Bai observed, watching Feng Shan’s childish rush for the seat.

He leaned close to Lu Li and whispered, “Everything looks normal for now, but who knows what this grand feast will be. Look at their tattered clothes and those houses that look ready to collapse in the wind-what kind of good food could they possibly have?”

Lu Li said, “It’s probably something unexpected.”

The villagers along the long table began to stir, craning their heads, and those farther away even stood up for a better look:

“They brought the fish-they’re honored guests. Whoever stole the Pearl, it certainly wasn’t them.”

“It’s fish! Haha, real fish! Right in their hands. Damn, who put the guests in the Prison last night? Luckily, the guests are kind-hearted and willing to forgive us. Today they’re even willing to share their fish.”

“It was… that Hunter. He tricked us and almost got us in trouble with the guests!”

“Hahaha, this is the first time this year I’ve seen a whole fish. I was starting to forget what fish tastes like.”

The discussions among the surrounding NPCs grew louder, and when the eight players took their seats, the applause was thunderous, laughter rolling around the table.

The players were surrounded as they sat, the atmosphere peaceful and harmonious.

The man said, “Please place the fish in the eight narrow plates in the center row.”

The eight fish flopped into the plates; the water on their scales evaporated instantly as it splashed.

The patterns on the plates glowed.

The fish stopped moving.

Wiping the drool from his mouth, the man announced, “The fish are in place-our sumptuous breakfast officially begins!”

As soon as he finished speaking, food appeared on all the other plates, large and small, along the table.

A strong briny scent wafted over, and when the players saw the dishes on the table, many of their expressions changed.

“This is… the grand feast?”

“Who’s supposed to eat this? Are they giving it to us?!”

A female player covered her mouth, turned away, and started to retch. “Ugh-I can’t take it! This smell is awful…”

“After seeing the water they gave us yesterday, I should’ve realized what ‘grand feast’ really meant!” Luo Jia Bai muttered, holding his nose. “This isn’t a feast-it’s a garbage convention.”

The once spotless plates were now so thoroughly polluted by the so-called dishes that not a trace of their original color could be seen.
The table was densely packed with rotting seaweed, tightly closed little shells, starfish full of black, filthy water, and, most of all, Fish Bones of all sizes.

Each Fish Bone had only a bite or two of rotten flesh stuck to it.

The villagers each held a Fish Bone, impatiently putting it in their mouths to taste.

It was impossible to tell whether they were just beginning to eat, or already finished and licking the bones clean.

Black, turbid liquid trickled from the plates onto the table.

The color and consistency looked a bit like the water the villagers had given them yesterday.

This was a lavish feast of garbage.

After vomiting, the Female Player sat back down, her face pale. Her throat moved as she forced down a second wave of nausea.

But her reaction was too obvious, and the man who had led them here noticed.

“Honored guest, are you dissatisfied with the Welcome Ceremony we prepared for you?” The man spoke with a Fish Bone in his mouth, his lips wriggling as he talked, still spitting out fish spines.

The smile vanished from his face, and he started to breathe angrily, reaching out to slap the Female Player hard on the shoulder. “Do you look down on us? Are you disgusted by us?”

The Female Player hurried to speak, her voice trembling. “No… I, I…”

The stench from the NPC grew stronger, making her want to vomit again.

“Of course she’s satisfied. She’s just too happy.”

Feng Shan stepped in to smooth things over. The anger faded from the man’s face. He withdrew his hand and nodded with a smile. “Haha, that’s good.”

The Female Player let out a breath, her eyes welling with tears as she looked gratefully at Feng Shan.

The man moving closer to the Players also meant getting closer to the eight plates of fresh fish.

His gaze slid past Feng Shan, hungrily glued to the fish.

He nodded more and more vigorously.

Soon, his shoulders, neck, and head began to tremble.

“Thud! Thud!”

Amid unstoppable laughter, his head fell onto the table.

From the open mouth on his head, a tongue stretched out,

struggling toward the plate of fish.

–

Luo Jia Bai sat with Lu Li on his right, and a middle-aged female villager with freckles on his left.

The female villager greeted them, “Haha, welcome, and thank you for your fish.”

She turned her head stiffly, and with both hands stuffed the garbage from the table into her mouth, a chilling laughter bubbling from her throat.

Her movements grew faster and faster, as if she had been starving for a long time, caring nothing for whether her mouth could keep up with the chewing.

Amid the excited laughter,

the female villager’s head fell off, bumping into Luo Jia Bai’s shoulder.

Luo Jia Bai had thought the female villager was patting him. Turning his head, he came face to face with a bloody neck.

Looking down, he saw the head that had bumped him.

The eyes on the head winked playfully at him.

It rolled under the table.

“Ah!” Luo Jia Bai gasped out a short cry.

The female villager’s hands stuffed food even faster, shoving it directly into her neck.

Hearing the cry, the neck turned toward him.

Luo Jia Bai forcibly stifled the rest of his shout. “Ah… haha, you go on eating!”

The neck turned back.

More and more villagers lost their heads, but it did not slow their eating in the slightest.

The food being “eaten” into the necks piled up, making sticky noises.

From these severed necks, Tentacles covered in mud grew out.

The tips of the Tentacles opened, revealing mouths.

They pressed directly onto the plates, devouring the food in a frenzy.

Tentacles waved around them.

A breeze from a Tentacle blew across Luo Jia Bai’s face.

He trembled as he leaned against the still-calm Lu Li, and shouted in a voice only the two of them could hear: “All their heads have rolled under the table!! Isn’t anyone going to pick them up?!”