Fear of food

Chapter 102 The Second Stage of Pollution

"nightmare?"

"What's the difference between this and a Nightmare of Food?"

Peanut shook his head and said, "I have never been to Corning City, nor have I personally experienced the pollution there. My understanding of the place is limited to the meager written descriptions in various internal documents."

"Having experienced the food terror disaster in Jinghai City, you should know that only those who have personally experienced it can truly understand its horror."

"According to the data, the pollution in Corning is targeting people's 'sleep'."

"Sleep?" Chen Qi looked thoughtful. "The pollution in Jinghai City targets 'food,' while in Kangning City it targets 'sleep.' Eating and sleeping are the most basic human needs."

Baozi agreed, "That's right. These two things are the foundation for human survival. No one can escape them, which also means that no one in the contaminated area can truly be spared."

"Either be assimilated and become part of the whole pollution, or gain the ability like us and become an outlier. Resist or be parasitized. There is no other way."

Zhui Feng asked curiously, "How does one pollute sleep?"

Peanut replied, "The information says that dreams are implanted into people during sleep, causing dream pollution, gradually confusing dreams with reality, and thus allowing nightmares to exert dual control over both reality and dreams."

"Dual control of reality and dreams, doesn't that mean controlling everything from the physical body to the consciousness? Although they take different paths, the final result is the same as that in Jinghai City."

With just a few words, Chen Qi could already imagine the disaster that had broken out in Kangning City, the level of terror of which was absolutely no less than that of Jinghai City.

"The results of the organization's investigation show that the average sleep time per person in Kangning City has been increasing over the past month or so. This is obviously the same as the continuous increase in food consumption in Jinghai City, which indicates that the pollution is gradually deepening."

At this point, Peanut paused: "Of course, that was before. Since yesterday, when the pollution in Corning City entered the second stage, the entire city has entered a state of perpetual slumber."

"Eternal sleep? You mean sleeping all day long?" Swill asked in shock.

Baozi corrected, "It means that all people and animals sleep all day long."

"Won't the whole city fall into chaos?"

"That's not necessarily true. Sleeping people aren't incapable of moving. Don't you know the term 'sleepwalking'?"

"So, does a city have to rely on sleepwalking to keep running?"

Chen Qi and the others found it hard to believe.

Peanut interrupted, "Everything only started yesterday, and it's hard to say how things will develop from here."

"I'm telling you this not because I want you to go and support Corning City. Our main force has been wiped out, and all the ability users that the organization has been training with all its might have perished in this battle. It will be very difficult to organize an effective resistance in the short term."

"The only option at present is to use weapons of mass destruction to carry out a comprehensive attack on Corning City."

Zhui Feng asked in shock, "Will it really come to that?"

Peanut shook his head: "I don't know, after all, that's millions of lives."

Baozi analyzed, "I don't think it will work for now. Firstly, it might not be useful. As you all know, those monsters are very difficult to eliminate physically. They can revive after they die. In fact, we haven't really found their resurrection point yet."

"Secondly, it's not just Kangning City that's been contaminated. If Kangning City is destroyed, what about Jinghai City and the other contaminated cities? Should they all be destroyed as well?"

"That involves the lives of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of people! Who has the right to make this decision?"

Speaking of the Nightmare Clan's resurrection point, Chen Qi thought of the delivery room he had seen before.

However, that was only in a fantasy; the actual location of the delivery room in reality remains unknown.

Baozi paused for a moment, then continued, "Of course, the most important point is that after the pollution in Corning City entered the second stage, the scope of the pollution stopped expanding!"

"This gives us some breathing room to observe how things develop before making a decision."

Chen Qi was slightly taken aback; this was somewhat unexpected.

In his mind, after the pollution escalated, the expansion speed should have accelerated, so why did it stop?
Peanuts took a handful of peanuts out of his pocket, peeled off a few, and popped them into his mouth. While chewing, he said:

"The analysis above suggests that the Nightmare Clan is unwilling to allow the pollution to escalate, at least not at the current stage. The escalation of pollution in Corning City was purely forced upon them by us, a helpless move by the Nightmare Clan in the face of crisis."

A thought struck Chen Qi: "They don't want to stop expanding!"

“That’s right.” Peanut nodded in agreement. “For the Nightmare Clan in various cities, the first stage of pollution may just be a process of seizing territory.”

In the first phase, the city maintained its surface-level normal operation, desperately concealing various anomalies and its own existence, while expanding wildly...

In the second stage, the pollution deepened, and the anomalies became more direct and no longer concealed, making the contaminated area even more dangerous, but at the same time, it lost its ability to expand. Chen Qi glanced at his teammates, seeing that they were all still immersed in shock, only Xu An'an remained relatively calm.

He and Xu An'an exchanged a glance and immediately realized that they had thought of the same thing.

Xu An'an asked directly, "So you want us to help you find the source of pollution in Jinghai City?"

“Yes, that’s right.” Peanut nodded. “It’s just that the goal has changed. Before, we wanted to destroy the source, but now we just want to force Jinghai City’s pollution to enter the second stage ahead of schedule in order to stop the pollution from spreading further.”

Chen Qineng understands the official choice.

In the short term, this will worsen the pollution in Jinghai City and may even lead to a complete collapse of order. However, in the long term, preemptively triggering the pollution to protect more areas from contamination is the right choice.

“But we have more important things to do,” Chen Qi refused.

He doesn't have a savior complex; he'd rather save his family than the world, and he doesn't believe he has the power to save the world.

“I know you stayed in Jinghai City to save your families, but that doesn’t conflict with that. As you search for ways to save your loved ones, you will inevitably get closer and closer to the source of the pollution.”

Peanut popped a few more peanuts into his mouth before continuing, "Moreover, your strength is too weak. You are isolated and lack intelligence and growth experience summarized from observing a large number of ability users. Relying on yourselves, your chances of success are slim."

"Haven't you noticed that the harder you work, the more you lose?"

This last sentence hit the nail on the head, leaving Chen Qi and the others speechless.

From Chen Qi's perspective, initially he only wanted to save his mother, but then Sun Xuechao came along, and now coffee is added to the mix, meaning there are more and more people to save.

Peanut finally extended an olive branch: "If you are unwilling to join the official ranks, we can cooperate through a trade. We will provide intelligence, weapons, and help you upgrade your capabilities, and you will assist us in finding the source of pollution in Jinghai City."

Chen Qi coughed and said, "Actually, joining the government isn't a bad idea, as long as we're not transferred out of Jinghai City."

They used to have coffee as a source of funding, but now that their financial backer is gone, they definitely need to find a new patron.

Peanut was silent for a while before saying, "After the Battle of Corning ended yesterday, there have been no new instructions from above. The Nightmare Extermination Organization... may be changing its leader, so there will be a period of turmoil. If you want to join, you should hold off for now and cooperate first."

So you can't make the decision either... Chen Qi thought to himself. But as long as the official support is available, joining or not doesn't make much difference; in fact, it reduces the constraints.

If you encounter something you don't want to do, at least you can just pack up and leave.

After discussing it with his teammates, Chen Qi finally agreed.

After all, it doesn't seem like they need to contribute anything at the moment. They can continue doing what they were doing, and they can also get additional intelligence and weapons support, plus a few more official allies.

“Then it’s settled.” Baozi took out a notebook and pen. “Tell me about each of your abilities and foraging conditions. I’ll formulate a food acquisition plan to help all of you achieve a qualitative leap in your abilities as quickly as possible.”

After Chen Qi and the others completed the record-keeping, Peanut said directly, "Since you have chosen to cooperate with the organization, your subsequent actions cannot be impulsive; you must have a clear plan."

"The long-term goal is definitely to find the source of pollution in Jinghai City. The short-term plan is to improve the strength of all of you, not only by helping you upgrade your abilities, but also by providing other training, including combat skills training and improving your proficiency in using firearms."

"Of course, we don't have that much time to train you into all-around special forces soldiers, so we may make targeted improvements based on your individual talents."

"And for the short term, let's set our goal as saving your partner, Coffee!"

Chen Qi and the others were taken aback, not expecting that Peanut would make saving coffee a team mission.

Peanut explained, "Her abilities are quite powerful, possessing certain strategic value, and she has only been parasitized for less than a day, so there is a good chance she can break free."

That's true, but Chen Qi knew in his heart that Peanut was trying to motivate them.

Saving coffee is the first team task after the cooperation between the two parties, and Chen Qi and his team will do their best and be willing to do so.

This task served as a starting point for both parties to work together, laying a good foundation for future collaborations.

"Coffee should still be in the resurrection period. It will be at least a few days before she is fully resurrected. However, the parasitic process will not be advanced during the resurrection period. Once she is resurrected, feeding her wild food may help her get rid of the pollution and parasites," Zhui Feng said excitedly.

Chen Qi wasn't so optimistic, shaking his head and saying, "She's lost too much of her humanity, so it might not go so smoothly, but we should still give it a try."

Peanut tapped the table and said, "For high-potential parasites that are still in the early stages of parasitism after resurrection, the Nightmare Clan usually chooses to control them and monitor them closely, and only release them after further promoting the parasitism process."

“We want to save her. Even if we can’t find the Nightmare Clan’s resurrection point, we must at least find a place where the Nightmare Clan houses high-potential parasites.”

"But there's no rush. Judging from your condition, you should all get some rest first, especially you..."

Peanut's gaze fell on Chen Qi: "Let's figure out a way to resolve the abnormality in you first."

(End of this chapter)