The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 388 A Performance Starting at Zero Frames

"Attention, guests! The performance will begin in five minutes. Please take your seats in an orderly manner and refrain from loud noise..."

As the loudspeaker echoed throughout the theater, the once noisy interior fell silent. Ticket holders settled into their seats, with only the faint aroma of delicious food wafting through the air.

The theme of the Magnolia Food Festival is "food", so there will be no strict requirements regarding bringing food, as long as it does not affect others.

Even Qin Lang and his group brought some food they had gotten from the previous food reception point before entering, planning to eat while watching the performance.

Five minutes passed quickly, and as the theater lights went out in an instant, the entire theater was plunged into darkness, and there were small gasps and subtle commotions in the audience.

Immediately afterwards, a tense melody began to play, like background music from a horror movie, making the tourists in the darkness feel uneasy.

"Now I finally understand why the ticket requirement for this show is 16 years and older," Cao Dongdong muttered to himself in the darkness.

"I guess this is to showcase the power of the evil nightingale," Qin Lang said with a faint smile. Having learned about the legend beforehand, he didn't feel much fear at the moment, but was just very curious about what would happen next.

The next instant, a burst of red light suddenly appeared from the direction of the stage, and in full view of everyone, a huge crimson eye opened from the darkness and glanced indifferently at the audience.

The next instant, Qin Lang felt something suddenly bite his arm, causing him to instinctively shudder.

Suppressing the urge to scream, Qin Lang sensed a familiar feeling from the bite.

Okay, it's spicy.

That's fine.

Almost simultaneously, a soft, round thing suddenly snuggled into its arms, complete with a pair of large ears and a large tail.

This is Egg Baby.

After casually calming the two food spirits, Qin Lang's heart had just begun to ease a little...

"ah!!!"

A scream rang out beside him, and then Qin Lang felt two hands gripping his other arm tightly in the darkness.

"Hiss..." A chill ran down Qin Lang's spine, and he gasped, then said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Zhao Qian, you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Cao Dongdong's wailing voice came from the other end, "Ah?! I'm being entangled by something!"

"It's...it's me, Dongdong!" Zuo Ge's weak voice followed, "Good brother, you have to protect me!"

"Zuo Ge, you should have said something!" Cao Dongdong complained in a low voice. "Do you know how scary it is when something suddenly hugs you when that eye opens?"

"It's my fault..." Zuo Ge apologized with a forced laugh.

"Fatima, Diyou, Sasha, how are you?" Qin Lang asked in a low voice. "Are you all alright?"

"I'm fine." Fatima's voice remained calm, clearly unfazed by the scene.

“Sasha and I have seen this performance before, so we’re prepared,” Di You quickly added. “Don’t worry about us.”

Seeing that everyone was alright, Qin Lang breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Clearly, they weren't the only ones startled; the entire theater erupted into chaos upon the appearance of that crimson eye. The eye was simply too realistic; its indifferent expression and subtle sense of oppression were remarkably lifelike.

Soft sobs and loud shouts rose and fell, and in the darkness, if one person was frightened, it would plunge the other, already startled, audience members into a chain of frights.

Without giving the audience much time to process their emotions, the second crimson eye opened rapidly, followed by the third, the fourth…

More and more crimson eyes almost covered the entire stage, enough to make any person with trypophobia feel terrified, and vaguely outlined the shape of an enormous nightingale.

The image of the evil nightingale has now become deeply ingrained in people's minds.

As these eyes appeared, the increasing sense of oppression intensified the chaos in the theater, with the sounds of seats colliding audible, indicating that some visitors were too frightened to continue watching.

"boom--"

At that moment, a spotlight shone on the edge of the theater, illuminating a handsome young man dressed in ancient attire.

His body was surrounded by shimmering golden light, making him appear as if he were a savior of the world.

At that moment, for the audience who had been terrified in the darkness, his appearance truly seemed like the arrival of a savior.

As the spotlight appeared, the tense background music abruptly stopped, and the theater lights came back on. While not as bright as day, they were enough for the audience members to see each other clearly.

Startled, Zhao Qian took a deep breath and carefully withdrew her hands from Qin Lang's arm. Looking at the clear, light red scratches on Qin Lang's arm, she blushed and smiled apologetically at him.

Qin Lang shook his head slightly to indicate that it was alright, and then curiously looked towards the stage.

It must be said that this zero-frame start performance style is quite bold and not very audience-friendly, but it can truly give the audience an immersive experience of what happened back then.

It truly broadened his horizons.

Just as the audience was gradually calming down, the actor playing the hero of light, Wei Ran, began reciting his lines.

The performance was somewhat similar to a stage play. The actors first introduced themselves to the audience with a few words, and then began to denounce the evil nightingale's crimes in a hateful tone.

The evil nightingale, whose figure filled most of the stage, let out a chilling sound, and then the battle between Wei Ran and the evil nightingale began.

With a burst of white mist, seven food spirits appeared around Wei Ran's body, eliciting excited screams from the audience.

"Seven food spirits? This actor is that strong?" Cao Dongdong couldn't help but widen his eyes and exclaim in a low voice.

The last time he saw a Spirit Chef with seven Food Spirits was the regional champion, Zhong Lingyun!
“It’s unlikely that they are all his food spirits,” Qin Lang speculated. “The sudden appearance of the white mist is a means to conceal the summoning of food spirits.”

“Yes.” Fatima pushed up her glasses, and a glint of light flashed across the lenses. “These seven food spirits are all at the one-star or two-star level.”

"Only one is the actor himself."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked enlightened.

Clearly, there are several other food spirit chefs hiding behind the scenes, directing their food spirits to cooperate with the actor in portraying Wei Ran, who has seven food spirits.

(End of this chapter)