The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 556 Getting anxious?

Wu Chang held back the three restless Jian Xing and his companions, observing the food truck owner's appetite from top to bottom.

The food truck owner's domain effect was stronger than the supermarket monster's, but he was using it outdoors, making it easy for Wu Chang to see through its core.

At the heart of the food scene are the large vats of stewed meat sauce on the food cart.

Its size is similar to the stainless steel soup bucket used in a cafeteria, but the interior space seems endless. When the food truck owner stirs the meat sauce, you can see at least four or five different human heads churning inside.

The heads still held traces of extraordinary power; they must have been the player exploration team that had just disappeared.

The expressions frozen on their faces at the end showed no fear, resentment, or unwillingness, only enjoyment and pleasure. It was clear that until their deaths, they were still immersed in something wonderful.

Their joyful deaths left them with no resentment, until, amidst the churning flesh, a head filled with rage emerged.

On that head, he finally saw a faint red resentment.

The pale red resentment dissipated, staining the meat sauce blood red, adding a hint of bloodiness to its aroma. Guided by the scent, he felt a momentary daze and entered the resentment of the dead.

The master of the resentment was a blond middle-aged man nearing forty. He wore leather armor, a metal shoulder guard on his right shoulder, and a round shield on his back. Judging from his equipment, he should be a defensive warrior.

His situation was similar to Wu Chang's; their default identity upon entering the instance was that of a member of an investigation team selected by the Federation.

Their squad consisted of eight people, three of whom had queued up for the dungeon with the Lord of Resentment. They knew each other well, and these players referred to the Lord of Resentment as "Guardians".

The squad to which the guard belonged was not composed of agents from the military or certain security agencies, but rather bounty hunters hired by the FBI.

They set off two days earlier, without military transport escorts, driving to Jacques.

When they entered the instance, their convoy was already close to Jacques City, so they entered Jacques City about an hour and a half earlier than Wu Chang and the others.

The squad to which the guard belonged was clearly weaker than Wu Chang's squad.

The average level of the eight players is 43. Only two players possess the power of the source, with the Guardian being the strongest and becoming the temporary leader of the team.

They were clearly unprepared to enter a Gamma-level, near-out-of-control instance, and were in a more dire state than Jianxing and the others. From the beginning, their goal was survival: to hide in Yake City for sixty days and then compete for evacuation slots.

So the first thing they did upon entering the instance was to find a sturdy and safe shelter, enough to sustain them for the next eighty days.

After the Light of Collapse appeared, although Jacques City fell into chaos, it was not to the extent of Ein City. At least 90% of the buildings in the city remained intact and did not appear to have any obvious hidden dangers.

The Guardian squad, who had just entered Yak City, thought finding shelter would be easy. They were Abyss game players who were not picky about their environment and could make do with any building for sixty days.

Even with higher requirements, it would simply mean finding a good location so that they can quickly reach the designated evacuation point when the evacuation time arrives.

However, once they began their exploration, they quickly discovered that finding a suitable shelter was not easy.

There are many buildings in the city, but whether it is an apartment building or a detached house, you can find dead bodies after entering and inspecting them.

In the chaotic city of Jacques, seeing dead people should have been the most normal thing, but the dead people they saw were different.

The deaths of these victims were bizarre; their bodies were covered in white tentacles that had taken root in the walls, with most of their bodies merging with the walls, making them look like reliefs on the walls at first glance.

Some of them appeared in the building lobby, while others appeared inside a room, their condition teetering between life and death.

They said they were still alive, and when you tried to communicate with them, they wouldn't respond.

They were said to be dead, yet they could still move, and the white tentacles on their bodies remained highly active.

The guards called them monsters in the house.

When the guards first discovered such a monster in the house, they thought about killing it or peeling it off the walls.

However, these monsters inside the buildings are not only incredibly resilient, but they are also integrated with the buildings they are fused with. The damage they inflict on the monsters inside the buildings is transmitted to the entire building.

The first building they entered was a typical six-story building in Jacques City, where they found five monsters inside.

As they killed the last monster in the house, the entire six-story building collapsed.

Left with no other choice, they had to change locations.

This time they chose a detached villa. Once they opened the door and walked through the corridor, they found three identical monsters stuck to the ceiling of the hall.

This time they were smarter; instead of attacking the monster, they simply sealed it away, intending to pretend it didn't exist.

But in the short time it took them to look down, when they looked up again, they found that the monster sealed in the house had disappeared and appeared on the wall of the hall.

After several attempts, they determined that these monsters had become one with the building and could appear anywhere inside it; ordinary sealing and binding methods were completely ineffective in restricting their movement.

Seeing that the monster in the room did not show any obvious intention to attack, the guards and others decided to leave it alone and coexist peacefully with it.

But as darkness fell, the monsters inside the quiet house began to stir and attack the lone members of the squad.

The entire building is its body; it can control the opening and closing of any door, enter any space, and attack players with its white tentacles.

The monster inside the house was at the Origin level, posing no threat to Wu Chang and his group, but it could cause considerable trouble for the Guardian Squad players who lacked Origin power.

Despite taking precautions, one player still died at the hands of the monster inside the house.

Unable to be sealed, with damage shared, and possessing high mobility that allows them to move freely, the monster inside the house was extremely difficult to kill. The guards had to destroy the entire detached villa before they could finally kill the monster inside.

Although the monster inside the house was dead, their newly found dwelling was also destroyed, so they had to continue moving.

Next, they entered four more houses according to the extent of their damage, but each house contained a similar monster.

There are as few as three or five, but when there are many, the dense biological network is like a real spider web, covering the entire interior of the building. At a glance, there are at least dozens of monsters in the house.

Fighting the monsters inside the house, regardless of victory or defeat, meant they could not remain inside. The high risk and zero reward deterred the guard squad from attempting to fight the monsters inside the house.

After all that trouble, they not only failed to find shelter, but the fighting and the intense tension also left them exhausted and hungry.

One of the guards said he was very hungry and suggested that they go find some food and drinking water. As soon as he finished speaking, they saw a mobile food truck driving towards them.

The food truck stopped in front of them, and the enthusiastic owner lifted the lid of the large pot of stewed meat sauce. The aroma wafted out, and the members of the Guards Squad, like Tank and others, were instantly captivated, trapped in the realm of appetite.

Even the guards were no exception.

The boss didn't start eating right away. He first asked everyone what they wanted to eat. Stimulated by their appetites, the guards and others ordered three of each of the seven types of hot dogs on the menu.

The crowd gathered around the food cart. As soon as the owner finished cooking, they eagerly scrambled to grab the food, stuffing it into their mouths without regard for the heat, and chewing it heartily.

In their minds, they were holding hot dogs and chewing on delicious meat sauce.

But in Wu Chang's eyes, the meat sauce added to those hot dogs was clearly a ball made of clusters of white tentacles.

The players devoured the food, their mouths greasy with oil. Seeing their creations so appreciated, the food truck owner was very pleased, his face beaming with smiles.

No matter how much the players want to eat, the owner provides an unlimited supply, without worrying that they won't be able to pay the bill.

Everyone ate until their bellies were bulging, each with a stomach the size of a glutton, but the food truck owner showed no sign of stopping and continued making hot dogs.

The player in the team who was only level 41 was the first to give up. His stomach ruptured, and he spat out a lot of blood. But under the control of his appetite, he continued to eat. With a violent tremor, he collapsed to the ground and stopped breathing.

While their companions were eating to the point of bursting, the guards and others acted as if they didn't see it and continued eating on their own.

The food truck owner then got out of the truck, grabbed the player's ankle (who was stuffed), and dragged the player into the truck.

As he dismembered the players' corpses, processed them, and threw them into a stew pot, he ladled out fresh meat sauce to make hot dogs for everyone.

Players fell one by one, until only three remained in front of the food truck: the Guardian, his female companion who had entered the dungeon with him, and another player with the power of Origin. The only remaining female player was able to survive this far not because she was the third strongest, but because she was the mage in the team, possessing high damage output but being exceptionally fragile.

To protect the glass cannon, the guard used his job advancement skill on the female mage. When he was around her, he could increase her health and stamina based on his own attributes, grant her 20% damage reduction, and transfer 35% of the damage she received to the guard.

The guard's skill was very powerful, managing to keep her alive until the end. However, even the guard could hardly protect herself when facing the food truck owner's domain, let alone the female mage.

The female mage finally collapsed and died.

Upon death, the second effect of the Guardian's job advancement skill is activated. If the protected companion dies, the damage reduced by the skill for the companion will be converted into a healing skill to restore the Guardian's health and put him into the Resolute and Vengeful states.

With the power of perseverance and vengeance, the guard broke free from the control of the appetite domain and regained his senses.

He stared at the dismembered remains of his companions in the food truck and the churning heads in the stew pot, and went berserk, unleashing his ultimate ability.

A green light shot into the sky, and the guard's body grew to five meters tall. His flesh transformed from blood and blood into a shimmering emerald. He raised his shield, ready to charge at the food truck owner.

Unfortunately, it was all too late. The food truck owner simply increased the force of chopping the meat, slamming the cleaver down on the cutting board. Countless thick white tentacles then spewed out from the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths of the guard and another Root-level player.

The seemingly indestructible emerald proved exceptionally fragile when attacked from within the body. The emerald shattered instantly, and the guard died with resentment. The Root-level player who fell beside him refused to put down his hot dog before dying.

The scene of resentment ended there. Wu Chang's gaze flickered, and his consciousness left the guard's resentment.

He recalled the experiences of the Guardian Squad, who had entered Yak City before them and helped him complete many of his explorations, answering some questions while also bringing some new ones.

First, there's the existence of monsters inside the house. For players in small teams, these monsters aren't particularly strong. However, the problem is that unless the monsters are separated from the house at their source, they remain an unsolvable problem.

No wonder the city of Jacques is full of empty buildings, yet the survivors prefer to crowd into certain settlements rather than move into more spacious areas.

The behavior of the monsters in the room of resentment can also reflect the activity habits of flesh-and-blood monsters to some extent.

Before it got completely dark, the monsters inside the house were in a "sleep" state and did not show much aggression. However, as darkness fell, the monsters inside the house became active and began to actively hunt the players.

Dylan told him not to leave the building at night, probably because of the flesh monsters' nocturnal habits.

However, the actions of the guards and others also brought about a corresponding problem: were there too many modifiers in Jacques City?

During their journey to open blind boxes inside the building, the Guardian Squad encountered various types of fleshy monsters, some of which were very weak, even weaker than the average level of newly promoted Realm players.

These flesh-and-blood monsters were weak and did not have an unusually strong bio-network. They were probably influenced by the abilities of other flesh-and-blood monsters or were ordinary people who had turned into monsters while they were asleep.

However, each of the monsters in the room possessed an extremely advanced biological awareness network, and their bodies also showed obvious signs of biological awareness network modification surgery, clearly indicating that they were all modifiers.

Wu Chang had some expectations about the number of modified individuals, but this number still exceeded his estimate.

The biggest difference between the Realm of Reason and the Realm of Desolation lies in the extent to which extraordinary beings are rampant.

In the Desolate Realm, even in the final world instance, extraordinary power is controlled by a few and has not spread or become rampant.

Only those with talent can sense the existence of extraordinary power and then master it.

For ordinary people, their opportunities to come into contact with extraordinary powers are very limited. In some remote areas, people may even believe that extraordinary powers only exist in stories and legends.

99% or more of people will never have any connection with the supernatural in their lifetime, or they will not know that they have any connection with the supernatural.

The Realm of Reason is different. Although truly powerful supernatural abilities are still in the hands of a few, and supernatural beings need talent and opportunities to reach the end, supernatural abilities have become extremely widespread in the Realm of Reason, just like technology, and have truly entered the lives of ordinary people.

For example, in the sleepless world, almost everyone knows about the existence of bio-network technology. As long as you have money or meet certain standards, you can complete the modification surgery.

The modders not only use the bio-network as a combat capability, but also regard it as a productive force and use it to serve ordinary people.

For example, many pilots and subway drivers are converted workers.

The Desolate Realm desires those mortal pillar planes that were almost upgraded, not only because they contain powerful beings, but also because they are undergoing the popularization of extraordinary abilities.

The widespread adoption of the extraordinary in the Realm of Reason is inevitable, but the Bio-Net technology has only been around for thirty-five years since its invention. During that time, it was used for military purposes, and the time it was deployed to the civilian sector was at most twenty years.

The conversion surgery is not cheap; it's not much cheaper than attending a federal university.

Even a graduate student like Sean, who graduated from the University of Wales, is unable to afford such exorbitant fees until he has paid off his student loans.

Even in the metropolis, the population of the transmuters is only 1%.

The metropolis is the economic center of the Federation. If the Federation were a person, the metropolis would be the heart, while Jacques City would probably be nothing more than an insignificant, even slightly curly, hair.

But how can such a city attract so many transformers?
The daughter of a supermarket owner, the owner of a mobile food truck—in other cities, these kinds of people would never be considered reformers.

If it's just one or two, then it's possible they participated in some kind of experiment and risked their lives to gain the status of cyborgs.

But what about those monsters huddled inside buildings, in groups?
The strangeness of Jacques City isn't just about the Light of Collapse and Professor Eugene; the entire city has big problems.

His gaze fell on the mobile food truck owner. He wanted to see how a small vendor selling hot dogs from a mobile food truck could become a modifier.

Having failed to capture the supermarket monster alive before, he was extra cautious this time. He mentally summoned a raven to help him analyze the food truck owner's weaknesses.

While Wu Chang was examining the guards' resentment, the tank, whose brain was controlled by the stomach, had already arrived in front of the dining car.

The food truck owner put on a warm smile, pointed to the menu behind him, and asked:
"What would you like to order, sir?"

Smelling the aroma of the meat sauce in the pot, Tank swallowed hard and said:
"Give me one of everything on the menu!"

The food truck owner's smile became even more welcoming, and he said excitedly:

"no problem!"

The boss's movements were fluid and graceful. He combined the freshly baked bread with the sizzling sausage, pressed down on the guard's head with a spoon, and scooped out a spoonful of meat sauce to pour over it.

"This is our family's prized possession. Please try it first."

Just as the tank opened its mouth to take a bite, a hand as big as its head slammed down on its face, stopping it from eating.

Tank tried to struggle, but found that no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't break free from the large hand on its face.

Wu Chang pressed Tank's face down with one hand, snatched the hot dog from his hand, took a deep sniff under his nose, and then showed a look of disgust on his face.

"It smells so greasy, is this even edible?"

Upon hearing this, the food truck owner stopped making hot dogs, his smile freezing on his face.

"What did you say?"

Wu Chang seemed oblivious to the food truck owner's expression and continued:

“I told you your cooking skills are not very good, especially the meat sauce. It has no aroma at all. It’s like you’ve added something unnecessary. It doesn’t look appetizing.”

The food truck owner's face was ashen, veins bulging on his face, and white tentacles could be vaguely seen emerging from the meat sauce in the stew pot.

Wu Chang continued to add insult to injury, saying:
"I'd rather eat at a masochistic restaurant than eat this stuff."

These words completely ignited the food truck owner. The veins on his face throbbed like earthworms. He raised the cleaver in his hand toward Wu Chang, and the entire food truck began to writhe, extending dozens of thick white tentacles.

Feeling the food truck owner's murderous gaze, Wu Chang first threw the hot dog into the stew pot, then put on a pair of sunglasses, shook his head slightly, and uttered two words that were enough to open the food truck owner's heart.

"Anxious?"

(End of this chapter)