chapter 86
Chapter 86
Lu Li picked up the card. On the front was a painting of the lonely sea and the Moon.
On the back, words were written:
[Every time, my Adoptive Father would sneak back with red meat skin and force me to eat it. I’ve wanted to leave more than once, but I don’t know where else I could go. I’ve decided to keep the Sea Demon in my heart, never see him again, and let him hate me. I myself have already done something irreparable.]
[My hand injury gradually healed. It turns out my Adoptive Father wanted me to help him wash dishes and cut meat, doing two jobs in the Kitchen while he went to curry favor with the Second-Class Nobles and First-Class Nobles. He’s complained more than once that the Red Coral I brought home was too small-if only it were big enough, he could have become a First-Class Noble.]
[When he was poor, he wanted to be rich. Later, he wanted to be a Noble. Now he wants to be a First-Class Noble. Desire is endless. When will it ever stop?]
[That day, I walked out of the small door behind the Kitchen and followed the path through the Forest, only to find myself at the seaside. I sat down by the sea, and he appeared again! He actually found me!]
[He tried to hold my hand, but suddenly stopped, happily saying he could smell the scent of his kind on me. He was too naïve, thinking it was love that moved the Moon and gave me the Sea Demon’s power, allowing me to freely enter the sea without a wedding. But really, it was because I had eaten the skin of his kin.]
[So my hand, reaching out to hold his, stopped as well.]
[The Sea Demon said: Our wedding can be postponed. It’s my fault for not giving you enough time to wait. This time, I’ll be patient. When the next Full Moon Day comes, let’s get married, okay?]
[From missing our meeting to missing our wedding. No matter how hard I try to resist, we always seem to be just a step apart.]
[I wanted to stroke his hair as before, but this time, I could only push him away harshly. I said: I don’t love you anymore. I don’t want to marry you. I regret it.]
[I turned and left the seaside. He leaned blankly against the rocks at the shore and asked, Is the Red Coral not beautiful enough? Is the Pearl not big enough?]
[I said it wasn’t that. It’s because I changed my mind. Humans are just this hypocritical and fickle.]
[I walked away, crying. I heard the sound of water behind me. Only after I’d walked a long way did I dare to look back-he was already gone.]
[Fortunately, my Adoptive Father didn’t discover him.
A Sea Demon, and the Nobles have eaten for twenty years. I don’t want him to become another twenty years for the Nobles.
Dear, please leave quickly.
The farther away from me, the better.
The farther away from humans, the better.]
–
[These hands of mine are already stained with sin.
I can’t leave anymore.
If only I hadn’t given that Pearl to my Adoptive Father from the start.
All these mistakes began with me.]
The sound of a harmonica came from behind the door Sean had left through.
It blended perfectly with the music from the record, soothing and sorrowful.
Lu Li listened to the entire piece.
He realized the opening was exactly the same as what he’d once heard the Hunter play in the Poor Village.
It was the same song.
When the Hunter played, he was lost in memory, so the melody was intermittent and broken.
The Nobles nearby licked their plates clean and grew restless, their eyes greedily landing on other plates, ready to steal and snatch.
“This is mine, don’t take it!”
“You’re eating so slowly! If you don’t want it, give it to me!”
Lu Li watched this animalistic scramble unfold.
NPCs quarreled with NPCs.
The Noble Gentleman didn’t come out to mediate.
More and more Nobles joined the shouting, scraping their forks against the table, making a harsh noise.
“Too little.”
“It’s all gone again! Too little, not nearly enough! Cut another one!”
“That’s right, let the Head Chef cut another one!”
“I agree!”
“On every Full Moon Day, only one can be cut open. Today’s portion is gone. Where can we find a second?”
The Nobles stood up, their heads creaking as they turned, staring at the five Players, and spoke in chilling tones:
“Aren’t there five guests sitting here?”
“They brought that one’s Red Coral. Maybe they’re Sea Demons disguised as humans who came ashore. Cut open their bodies, eat their organs, and see if we get younger. Then we’ll know if they’re Sea Demons!”
“Three slices per person-fifteen Heart slices in total.”
“Heart?” Luo Jia Bai, who had just won an argument with Feng Shan and had been sitting at ease, was shocked at these words. “The Nobles’ main course is sliced Sea Demon Heart?! No wonder we couldn’t find it!”
The Nobles grabbed Song Changrong’s arm. He reacted fiercely, tightly protecting Feng Shan’s gem, afraid the Nobles would snatch it away. “What are you doing?!”
The Nobles shouted, “We’ve caught one!”
Mirella said, “We can’t stay here any longer. The Nobles are gathering around us.”
“Damn, are these people crazy? They’re going to… eat us?” Luo Jia Bai couldn’t sit still. “Don’t we each still have a bowl of Sea Salt Thick Soup? Let’s see if it does anything…”
Luo Jia Bai held up the Sea Salt Thick Soup and offered it to one of the approaching Nobles, but the Noble knocked the bowl aside without care and gripped Luo Jia Bai’s arm tightly.
Under the Moonlight, wrinkles slowly began to appear on the skin of the Noble’s exposed arm.
The wrinkles spread from the arm up to the Noble’s face, as delicate as a newly hatched egg.
He shook Luo Jia Bai anxiously. “I’ve caught one too!”
Just as Luo Jia Bai was about to be dragged away by the Nobles, Lu Li reached out and gripped his arm firmly.
No matter how many Nobles used all their strength, they could not pull Luo Jia Bai away.
Luo Jia Bai looked at Lu Li’s hand.
He thought, Oh no.
Sure enough, the next second, a pit appeared in the middle of the floor.
His foot twisted, his head hit the table, and he dragged down a whole group of Nobles with him.
The room erupted with noise. Lu Li sat still, thinking rapidly. Unconsciously, he had picked up Bosi’s little mannerism while thinking.
The fingers of his other hand tapped lightly on the tabletop.
The NPC unilaterally got into a dispute with the Player.
No trigger.
That left only one method to trigger [Mediation].
Lu Li stared at the door through which Sean had left. “There’s more than just two kinds of people in the Noble District. Those at the table are First-Class Nobles; the Servants are Second-Class Nobles.”
“And that door leads to the Kitchen, which should have Third-Class Nobles-the Head Chef.”
The clue scope needed to expand, adding another location.
The restaurant’s Kitchen.
Lu Li looked at the Noble Gentleman. “I have something to say.”
The Noble Gentleman pointed at his ear, then gestured, “It’s too noisy, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Clang.
Lu Li threw his knife and fork onto the table.
The noisy voices of the Nobles around quieted.
Lu Li then smashed his plate, stood up, yanked off the tablecloth, and sent a whole row of glass cups crashing down.
Plates, soup, and glass spilled all over the floor.
The Nobles stared at him in shock.
At last, the hall was silent. Lu Li’s voice rang through the whole room, “Can you hear me now?”
“The food tastes terrible. I’m making a complaint.”
There was only one method left to trigger [Mediation].
The Player develops emotion toward the NPC.
A dispute started unilaterally by the Player.
The Noble Gentleman’s expression changed instantly. He immediately stood up to mediate.
“Sir, do you have some dissatisfaction?”
Lu Li said, “I’m complaining. I want to see the Head Chef.”
–
The Horned Evil God delivered documents to the Underworld King’s Palace over a dozen times today.
He knew that although there were many documents, the Underworld King had a cleanliness obsession, was a bit compulsive, always organizing everything meticulously. The Palace was always in perfect order, and you would rarely see anything extra lying around.
But today, there was something on the King’s desk.
With every trip in and out, it moved.
Every time, it moved a bit closer.
It was almost right in his face.
The Horned Evil God was very puzzled.
There was no one else in the Palace. Could it be the King himself moving it?
He entered the Palace again and found the Photo Frame was about to fall off the desk.
He hurriedly caught it and put it back. “King, did you buy a new Photo Frame?”
Bosi paused his writing, took the Photo Frame, turned it so the front faced the Horned Evil God. “Oh, it was given by someone else.”
“A person? Are you sure that’s not a slip of the tongue?” The Horned Evil God widened one eye at Bosi, the other looking down at the front of the Photo Frame.
Bosi nodded coldly. “I don’t really like paintings, and I’ve never collected them. You, on the other hand, love collecting curios. Take a look for me-how’s the painting?”
The Horned Evil God bent down to take a closer look.
It was a picture mounted under shatterproof clear crystal, in a pure silver frame.
It looked rather like a child’s doodle.
But the King’s gaze was so intense.
The Horned Evil God had to lean even closer, half his face frowning.
What on earth… is this drawing?
The Horned Evil God racked his brain. “There are petals growing out of the person’s face. This painting contains, contains…”
After staring at the doodle for ages, he couldn’t find anything to interpret, so he had to praise it from another angle.
“The person who gave you this painting, their skill is incredible! Judging by the treasures I’ve collected over hundreds of years, this one is among the very top tier-the flowers are so vivid! See, I was so mesmerized just now, my face almost hit the crystal before I realized they weren’t real flowers!”
Bosi, expressionless, took the Photo Frame back, as if afraid the Evil God would really bump into it and get it dirty.
“Since you say so, I suppose the painting’s not bad.”
Bosi said, “There are flowers in the Underworld now too.”
–
After finishing his deliveries and leaving the Palace, the Horned Evil God’s messages suddenly buzzed.
He opened it to find a payment notification; the more he looked, the more shocked he was.
“Huh?? I got a raise?!?”
–
The Noble Gentleman led five Players into the Kitchen.
White smoke drifted everywhere.
Luo Jia Bai reached out and caught some of the smoke; water droplets appeared in his hand. “Dry ice, used to keep the ingredients fresh.”
The white smoke slowly dispersed, finally revealing the Kitchen’s full view.
There were more than a dozen densely packed shelves, each one hung with countless Corpses.
Some of the Corpses hanging outside were already unrecognizable, limbs all chopped up, chest ripped open in a long gash, hollow inside, all the organs scooped out.
A sound came from deep in the Kitchen.
Luo Jia Bai felt his scalp tingle. “Are these all Sea Demons? Just how many are there? There’s so many-surely the Nobles didn’t wipe out the entire species!”
Mirella was puzzled. “Aren’t Sea Demons really hard to catch? Nobles can only eat one every twenty years.”
One, two, three… one hundred and one, one hundred and two, one hundred and three…
They counted as they walked further in, the sounds from deep in the Kitchen growing louder.
Thud, thud, thud!
Behind the hanging Sea Demon Corpses came one thud after another-the sound of a cleaver hitting the chopping block.
The Head Chef’s voice boomed out, impatient.
“Who wants to complain about me?”