Fear of food

Chapter 106 Using one’s body as bait
"Five minutes? Five minutes for two people? You're way too fast!"

"Hey, don't insult my innocence!" the mirror protested. "That Yan Xue didn't fancy me."

"Even in the animal kingdom, females are selective about their partners, unlike males, who are basically open to any female, and sometimes even males."

Chen Qi suddenly realized: "So it's Bian Zihan who has taken a liking to you?"

Mirror was quite frank: "A little, but I'm pretty strict about gender... Besides, now that you've eaten the Nightmare Clan inside them, they're just two ordinary people who have lost their humanity. If I can't even handle them in a dream, what right do I have to call myself a Dream Thief?"

Chen Qi didn't know much about the Dream Thief's abilities, and he didn't ask about the process, only caring about the result: "Did you get any valuable information?"

As Jingzi drove, he nodded and said, "Of course! You probably can't imagine that Yan Xue and Bian Zihan were once a couple in school."

Chen Qi's heart skipped a beat: "So, because Bian Zihan is a pagan, Yan Xue was parasitized to influence Bian Zihan?"

"That's right, and Bian Zihan is also a ruthless person. After discovering the abnormality in Yan Xue, he directly tried to kill her, but in the end he still couldn't escape being controlled. After all, that's Jinghai Medical College."

Chen Qi had already grasped the key point: "So Yan Xue was killed once and has experience with resurrection? Does she know where the resurrection point is?"

"She said she had a vague memory of being resurrected in a place called 'delivery room,' but she couldn't say exactly where the delivery room was."

Chen Qi frowned and said, "You must remember where she appeared after she was resurrected, right?"

"They said it's in a food processing plant, Xiangyuan Food Processing Plant, do you know it?"

Chen Qi recalled for a moment and nodded, saying, "I remember it. It should be a relatively large factory in Jinghai City, and it's quite well-known."

Mirror said, "From what we understand so far, that food processing plant is definitely in a contaminated area, with a contamination level of around C or B. However, this processing plant may not be the key issue."

“I learned some other information from Bian Zihan. Although he did not have the experience of resurrection, he was a domain-level parasite before. The Nightmare Eater that parasitized him was of a higher level and knew more.”

He said the delivery room is a place that is somewhere between reality and illusion, without a specific location.

"Between reality and illusion?" Chen Qi frowned slightly, immediately thinking of the morgue.

The morgue has appeared in both the illusion of Jinghai Medical College and the playground of Jingquan Elementary School, meaning it exists in both the illusion and reality.

Moreover, the two locations were quite far apart.

If the "delivery room" is like this, then it's troublesome; there's simply no way to find it.

"The only way to get into the delivery room and morgue is through the illusion, which is to enter from the real environment of a Class A or even Class S contaminated zone," Chen Qi thought to himself. "But since it is somewhere between reality and illusion, there should be entrances in both reality and illusion."

Couldn't the morgue entrance that appeared on the playground of Jingquan Elementary School be seen as the real entrance to the morgue?
Then the delivery room must also have an entrance in reality!
However, the entrance may not be fixed, and finding it is a big problem.
-
Jingzi drove Chen Qi to several places specifically to collect wild food.

Compared to the previous period, Chen Qineng clearly felt that wild food had become more abundant.

"It seems the pollution has gotten even worse!"

Chen Qi worked until dark, collecting seventy or eighty portions of wild food, filling the trunk of his car, before returning to the temporary base in the village with Jingzi.

After helping Chen Qi unload the wild food, Jingzi waved goodbye: "I have to go out of town to have dinner. See you tomorrow morning. Please report all of today's discoveries to Captain Peanut for me."

“No problem.” Chen Qi agreed and walked into the temporary base carrying two large bags of wild food.

Their temporary base was rather shabby, just a self-built farmhouse with a large round table in the living room, which they used as a meeting room.

As soon as Chen Qi walked in, he was surprised to see a large group of people gathered around the round table.

Dabing, Zhuifeng, Ganshui, and Xu An'an were all there. Except for Dabing, the others all looked exhausted, having worked very hard today.

Since Big Pancake has already completed its first qualitative leap in ability, it doesn't need to farm for high-level food anymore. Today, it's spending its time walking the dog and playing with the birds.

Peanut and Baozi each occupied one of the two rocking chairs next to the round table, lying on them and swaying gently and contentedly.

Zhui Feng and Da Bing were each holding a glass of iced soda, taking a big gulp and letting out a satisfied burp.

"It feels so refreshing to have a cold drink on this day!"

Their boasting immediately drew disapproving glances from those around them.

The pleasures they used to enjoy easily now require them to travel to other places.

In the room, only Zhui Feng and Da Bing could easily conjure up drinks; the others could only watch helplessly.

Chen Qi piled two large bags of wild food in the corner. Storing wild food is so worry-free; you don't have to worry about it spoiling, or even about snakes, insects, or rodents stealing it. You can just throw it anywhere and no one will steal it.

Chen Qi said to Baozi, "I've found all the wild foods with fillings and wild nuts you asked me to find, although there are only two or three items. As for other wild foods, you can arrange them. Our organization is so powerful, there must be many talented people here, so please arrange some more powerful skills for me."

Baozi gave an OK sign.

Peanut, who was standing nearby, asked, "Did you get anything out of working with the mirror today?"

Chen Qi nodded: "Yes, Captain Peanut. I was just about to report to you."

Peanut's face stiffened, and he slowly sat up, emphasizing seriously, "You can call me Peanut, or you can call me Captain. But don't call me Captain Peanut, it makes me sound like a cartoon character from a children's animation."

So it turns out that the mirror didn't make that up... Hearing these familiar words, Chen Qi nodded casually and began to recount his experiences that afternoon.

He also included his own guesses and reasoning.

Everyone quieted down and listened attentively until Chen Qi finished speaking before they began to speak. Zhui Feng said, "If we want to save Coffee, we must find the entrance to the delivery room in reality. The entrance in the illusion... not to mention whether it's dangerous or not, the key point is that it's useless."

Chen Qi nodded, "That's right."

Even if he finds Coffee, who is about to be resurrected, in the delivery room through the illusion, he can't do anything except kill Coffee.

After all, he couldn't bring wild food into the illusion, nor could he devour the Nightmare inside Coffee's body in the delivery room without affecting Coffee's resurrection.

The ideal method is still to wait until Coffee is revived, then find her, feed her wild food, and let Chen Qi eat the Nightmare inside her.

The swill and the flatbread also expressed their opinions, and the group started discussing it animatedly.

Some say they're going to take action against Xiangyuan Food Factory, others say they're going to kill a few more parasites and observe where they respawn...

Peanut, who had been listening in silence, finally spoke up, interrupting, "None of it is reliable. There's still too little information. We need to find a way to get more information."

Chen Qi asked, "Captain, what are your plans?"

Peanut pondered for a moment and said, "Bian Zihan doesn't know much because the Nightmare that parasitized him before didn't have a high status in the Nightmare Clan. To obtain more information, we need to target parasites of higher levels."

"We can take the initiative and hunt down higher-level parasites!"

Chen Qi was slightly taken aback, but considering their current strength and equipment, they might still have a chance!
He only needs to consume the Nightmare Eater within the parasites, turning them into inhuman, mentally ill patients. Then, he will naturally have plenty of ways to extract information from them.

Baozi stood up, pushed a whiteboard out of the next room, and wrote on it: "The lowest level of the Nightmare Clan, they generally only parasitize ordinary people."

Zhui Feng added, "It's a 'family-level' Nightmare Clan."

Baozi rolled her eyes at him: "This is your own private rating system; it's not used by the official authorities."

"We don't know the exact level of the Nightmare Eater in Bian Zihan's body, so we'll temporarily rank it second to last."

"Our next target is a parasite of a higher level than Bian Zihan. Who are your candidates?"

Chen Qi thought for a moment, then stood up, took the pen from Baozi's hand, and began writing on the whiteboard while explaining:

"I think Xia Huiyun, the Dean of Students, and Dr. Zhao are all at least one level higher than Bian Zihan. However, two of these three are suspected to be dead. Dr. Zhao can be considered as a tentative target."

Chen Qi's conclusion was based on the strength of these individuals. He had fought against all of them, and their actual combat strength was clearly superior to Bian Zihan's.

"As for those above, the only one I can confirm is Professor Huang Jihai of Jinghai Medical College. His strength is obvious to the naked eye; he is much stronger than any of the other parasites we have encountered."

"The one that is higher than Huang Jihai is the Nightmare Eater inside Sun Xuechao."

Previously, Sun Xuechao threatened Huang Jihai with the Nightmare Clan inside his body, claiming that the Nightmare Clan inside him was Huang Jihai's "master".

Sun Xuechao's strength at the time was not strong enough, probably because his fusion with the Nightmare Eater inside him was not yet complete.

"Speaking of Nightmare Clan members who are at a higher level than Sun Xuechao..." Chen Qi pointed to himself and said no more.

Peanut nodded slightly: "So the three targets we have identified so far are Dr. Zhao, Huang Jihai, and Sun Xuechao."

The higher the level, the more difficult it is to deal with, and the greater the risk, but the corresponding rewards will also be greater.

Just then, the phones of Zhuifeng, Ganshui, and Dabing all rang at the same time.

After the three of them took out their phones and glanced at them, their expressions changed slightly.

“It’s broad beans,” said Zhui Feng. “He said he was being hunted by parasites outside!”

"They said they escaped disaster only because they sought protection from officials."

"Luckily, Zhouhe City, where he is now, is not a polluted area, otherwise it would be dangerous..."

Peanut reminded them, "Although Zhouhe City is not a polluted area, Qinyun City next door is a dream pollution area. Tell your friends to be careful to avoid it."

Swill gritted his teeth: "They've run so far already, why are you still chasing them? This is completely denying them any chance of survival!"

Baozi said calmly, "The number of ability users in each contaminated area is limited. Once precious resources escape, there will naturally be parasites responsible for recycling them."

Chen Qi had an idea: "Then could we use these parasites that go out as hunting targets?"

The others' eyes lit up immediately: "That's right! Once we leave the contaminated zone, the parasites lose their home-field advantage and instead enter our home turf. Wouldn't it be much easier to deal with them?"

Zhui Feng said, "Why don't we check the strength of this parasite that's chasing the broad beans? If that doesn't work, let's make him our target!"

Peanut shook his head and said, "These parasites sent out are basically parasites of the lowest level of the Nightmare Clan; there isn't a single one at the Domain level."

Baozi also said, "We killed a lot of these roaming parasites outside before. They were just cannon fodder sent by the Nightmare Clan. We don't feel bad about them dying outside."

Chen Qi's eyes flickered slightly, and he suddenly said, "What if I run away?"

Peanut met Chen Qi's gaze and nodded in agreement, saying, "Great idea!"

Chen Qi's importance to the Nightmare Clan is self-evident, and he is also very strong. Once he escapes the contaminated area, the Nightmare Clan will not send only the lowest-level parasites to capture him; that would be tantamount to sending him to their doom.

Even someone like Bian Zihan poses no threat to Chen Qi.

Therefore, they will definitely send out higher-level parasites!
(End of this chapter)