Fear of food

Chapter 117 Seeing Sun Xuechao Again

The sudden appearance of the door in the bathroom reminded Chen Qi of the morgue entrance that had appeared at Jingquan Elementary School before.

It appeared without warning, and was equally ambiguous.

The difference is that the morgue door has transparent glass, so you can see inside.

However, the door that appeared in the bathroom was completely dark, and nothing could be seen.

Chen Qi extended a tentacle to push the door, but it met empty air, as if the door was just an untouchable shadow.

He picked up one of the parasites and threw it toward the door.

With a loud bang, the parasite crashed into the door but failed to break it open and fell to the ground.

Chen Qi frowned, noticing the difference.

He couldn't touch the door at all, but the parasite could, only it couldn't break down the door.

He picked up the parasite again and slammed it against the door, attempting to use the parasite's body as a tool to push the door open.

No matter how hard Chen Qi tried, he couldn't even open the door a crack!

"Open the door!" Chen Qi commanded one of the parasites.

The man sneered, "Don't say I can't open it; even if I could, you wouldn't be able to get in."

Although he felt that the parasite was probably telling the truth, Chen Qi still controlled his vine-like tentacles to crush its body, and then commanded the next parasite, "Open the door!"

The parasite remained unmoved upon hearing this. With a thought, Chen Qi sent out tentacles with sharp spikes that pierced into the parasite's body, weaving through its flesh and bones, tearing apart its internal organs...

This instantly triggered the parasite's abnormality; its flesh and blood mutated as it attempted to resist, but it still could not break free from Chen Qi's restraints.

Even though she was tormented to the point of unbearable pain by Chen Qi, she still refused to cooperate and even wanted to commit suicide to seek relief.

Chen Qi had expected the parasites to behave this way; neither coercion nor bribery seemed to have any effect on these monsters.

Chen Qi wasted no more time, and without even asking the last parasite, he pierced their bodies with bone spikes, and in the blink of an eye, he had drained the two parasites into dried corpses.

But as the three parasites died, the portal vanished.

Chen Qi looked thoughtful:

"This portal must have been summoned by the parasite, but not all parasites have this ability; at least only those at the domain level can do it."

This means that the entrance to the delivery room could appear in various locations.

Just as previously speculated, neither the morgue nor the delivery room has a single, fixed entrance in reality; rather, they rely on the summoning of high-level Nightmare Clan members.

As for the specific conditions for this summoning, that remains unknown.

This also meant that Chen Qi couldn't "stake out" outside the entrance, as he didn't know where his mother and Coffee would leave the delivery room after they were revived.

The only way to save them is to enter the delivery room and find them as they are being revived.

Even when the door to the delivery room appeared in front of Chen Qi, he couldn't get in.

“The parasites can touch the portal, but I can’t. Strictly speaking, I’m half a parasite now. The only difference between me and them is that I don’t have the Nightmare Clan in my body!”

Chen Qi suspected that if the Nightmare Eater was still inside him, he might be able to reach that door, but whether he could open it was another matter.

He quickly left Xiangyuan Food Processing Plant to meet up with Peanut and the others.

"How is it?" Peanut asked.

Chen Qi shook his head: "At present, even if we find the entrance to the delivery room, we have no way to get in."

"So what are your next steps? Or will you stick to the original plan?"

In their original plan, after exploring Xiangyuan Food Processing Plant, regardless of whether they found the entrance to the delivery room, as long as there was still time left, their next stop would be Jinghai Medical College.

But there is still plenty of time. It's only just past midnight, and there are still more than ten hours before he and Nightmare Eater swap bodies again.

The main reason was that Chen Qi explored the Xiangyuan Food Processing Plant too quickly; it was a speedrun without taking any damage.

Chen Qi thought about it carefully for a moment, then nodded and said, "Let's go to Jinghai Medical College! Since we still have plenty of time, I'll explore that place thoroughly!"

Whether it's to save his mother or to stop the disaster in Jinghai City, Jinghai Medical College remains an insurmountable obstacle.

Since I'll have to go there sooner or later, I might as well take advantage of my current "invincible" state and go for it without worry.

Given Chen Qi's current state, he can indeed be considered invincible in Jinghai City.

He may not be the strongest, but he is fearless.

pollute?

nonexistent!

He's practically a parasite now, so what's there to be afraid of about contamination?
Besides, this isn't his real body, so it doesn't matter if it's contaminated.

parasitic?

That's even more impossible; he's already "taken" by the Nightmare Eater clan.

Kill him?
If the Nightmare Clan wanted to kill him, they would have done so long ago. Why wait until now?

Moreover, the Nightmare Eaters are now counting on swapping bodies with him to escape the dream, so the Nightmare Eaters in Jinghai City would never do anything to threaten his life.

Chen Qi can now do whatever he wants in Jinghai City.

The only thing to worry about is being imprisoned, but at most he can only be imprisoned for a dozen hours.

Peanut hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Let's go then!"

Although there is still enough time, and Chen Qi can explore a few more polluted areas, it is not very meaningful.

Chen Qi can neither devour the Nightmare Clan nor convert pollutants into wild food. Although he can quickly pass through various low- to medium-level polluted areas without taking damage, he doesn't gain much benefit.

It cannot strengthen itself, nor can it truly weaken the enemy.

So Baozi drove to Jinghai Medical College.

On the way, Baozi reported, "Captain, while you were away these past few days, the pollution in Jinghai City seems to be getting worse."

Peanut asked in confusion, "What happened?"

“Jinghai City is currently engaged in a food delivery war.” Baozi frowned. “The discounts are abnormally large, causing both major food delivery platforms to be overwhelmed with orders, and the delivery riders can’t keep up with the demand.”

Chen Qi pressed further, "The discount you mentioned, is it a platform promotion or a promotion organized by the merchant themselves?"

Peanut had obviously done his research beforehand, and replied, "It's mainly because local businesses are offering discounts, issuing large amounts of red envelopes and vouchers, and it feels like they're all operating at a loss."

"As for the platform, I had someone investigate and found that the headquarters of the food delivery platform did not have any promotional activities. However, the person in charge of the platform in Jinghai City has recently launched a lot of new activities, but they are only for Jinghai City."

"So it's mainly a promotional event organized by local merchants in Jinghai City and regional managers of the platform," Peanut pondered. "That at least shows that there aren't any major problems at the platform headquarters."

Baozi said helplessly, "If it's an event organized by the platform headquarters, we can stop it directly, but it's difficult for us to intervene when merchants voluntarily offer discounts."

They're willing to lose money to do business, and there are so many food delivery businesses in Jinghai City that it's impossible to manage them all.

Chen Qi took out his phone, opened the food delivery platform, and randomly ordered a few things. He was shocked by how cheap the prices were. "A cup of milk tea that used to cost over ten yuan is now only a little over one yuan, and delivery is free?"

"Normally, this beef rice bowl costs over 20 yuan even with coupons, but now it's only a little over 2 yuan and they even give you a free on-time meal?"

"Damn, they even have free purchases!"

Chen Qi tried a few things and found that most of the items cost one or two yuan, and very few cost more than five yuan.

Opening my old classmates' group chat, I found that many people were discussing the recent food delivery business war in Jinghai City.

"I can't eat anymore, I'm too full!"

"I drink milk tea every day, it's cheaper than water, and it's giving me diabetes."

"Damn it! They had to start this business war when I was trying to lose weight!"

"You can lose weight anytime, but once you miss out on a good deal, it's gone forever!"

"Exactly, how can you have the energy to lose weight if you don't eat your fill?"

Chen Qi put down his phone and said, "It seems that the Nightmare Clan in Jinghai City is intentionally speeding up the process. Has the expansion rate of the contaminated area increased recently?"

Baozi said, "We've already arranged for people to observe, and we should have a conclusion in the next couple of days."

As food safety concerns worsen, people in Jinghai City are eating more and more, and their food consumption is increasing.

The more you eat, the deeper the pollution becomes.

The deeper the pollution, the more people eat.

This creates an unsolvable vicious cycle.

This wave of food delivery competition has further accelerated the process, increasing food consumption in Jinghai City.

All of this must be orchestrated by the Nightmare Clan. They must have their reasons for doing this, which is likely because the "territory war" among the various contaminated zones has entered a new phase.
-
Several days later, Chen Qi returned to Jinghai Medical College.

Unlike last time, this time he showed no nervousness and climbed over the wall into the campus all by himself.

"Last time I didn't really explore the school. I just strolled around in front of the girls' dormitory and then entered the illusion of the laboratory."

"I haven't been to many places such as the teaching building, the canteen, and the library."

Chen Qi temporarily avoided the laboratory area and planned to visit other places first.

Based on the various intelligence he has recently gathered, Chen Qi has reason to suspect that what he encountered in the laboratory last time was only a Class A contaminant.

Jinghai Medical College was rated as an S-level contaminated area because when they first explored chili peppers and fried skewers, they encountered a rule-based illusion.

An S-level contaminated zone often contains more than one high-level pollution source.

Therefore, Chen Qi did not discover the true source of S-level pollution last time.

His purpose in coming here was to pinpoint the location of the S-level pollution source and, incidentally, to explore the entire medical school to see if he could find a higher-level pollution source.

Peanuts and his colleagues never confirmed that Jinghai Medical College was the source of pollution in Jinghai City.

Because the entire city of Jinghai, along with Jinghai Medical College, has two other places that have been rated as Class S pollution zones.

These three Class S pollution zones may all harbor sources of pollution.

It's also possible that none of these three polluted areas are the source of the pollution, and the real source has not yet been discovered.

The medical school was quiet in the early morning, with the dim moonlight casting shadows everywhere. However, Chen Qi could no longer find the same tension he felt when he came here last time.

As expected, all fear stemmed from insufficient firepower. Once he possessed the combat power to overwhelm most domain-level parasites, and this "invincible body," he no longer knew what fear was.

Chen Qi chose to explore the library closest to him first.

He hurried to the library entrance, but at this time, the library doors were already locked.

However, this did not stump Chen Qi. His body seemed to melt, turning into a pool of flowing flesh and blood, and he passed through the crack in the door into the library.

He quickly moved through the library, climbing the stairs to the upper floors, but stopped after searching only the second floor.

Because he discovered a high-level source of contamination in the library... but it seemed to be of a very low level, probably only C-grade.

At Jinghai Medical College, located in an S-level contaminated area, this C-level contamination source doesn't even have a guardian parasite.

This also shows that the library is not the pollution center of Jinghai Medical College, and neither the S-level pollution source nor the source of pollution could be hidden here.

Without delay, Chen Qi left the library and headed straight for the school cafeteria.

Jinghai Medical College has two canteens. The one in front of Chen Qi is the first canteen, which is very close to a teaching building.

"The last time they were frying skewers, they got caught in a rule illusion around here, so the S-level pollution source is most likely in the teaching building or the first canteen."

The teaching building was too big, with many floors and classrooms, so Chen Qi decided to explore the first canteen first.

He used the same trick again, transforming into liquid form and entering the cafeteria.

As soon as Chen Qi entered, he noticed that the huge cafeteria on the first floor was empty, and there was no one behind the window. However, when he looked up, he saw several figures hanging from the ceiling like bats.

brush brush...

Before Chen Qi could take shape, those figures leaped down from the ceiling.

Chen Qi didn't waste any words with them. From his body, which had not yet returned to human form, he shot out strands of silk. These were wriggling muscle fibers, like super long worms. As soon as they touched someone, they would burrow into that person's body to absorb nutrients.

The parasites reacted quickly, their arms like knives, swiftly severing muscle fibers.

But the severed muscle fibers did not lose their activity after hitting the ground. Like leeches, they thrashed and pounced on them, drilling bloody holes in their skin and feasting inside.

Countless leeches were wrapped around their bodies and were rapidly devouring them.

Just as these parasites were about to be drained dry by Chen Qi, a blue halo suddenly enveloped them.

"The Blue Realm!"

Chen Qi was startled; those who controlled the visible domain were all top-tier powerhouses among the parasites.

However, this was indeed the first time he had ever seen a blue area.

As third-generation members of the Nightmare Clan, both Monroe and Huang Jihai possess purple domains.

The Nightmare Eater within Chen Qi's body, as a member of the Nightmare Clan, had previously used a red domain.

Could this blue domain be exclusive to the second-generation Nightmare Clan?

Jinghai Medical College is indeed extraordinary; even with Huang Jihai away, there are still strong figures in charge.

Under the blue field, the leeches that Chen Qi had transformed into were pulled by an invisible force and forcibly ripped out of the bodies of the parasites.

A large number of leeches gathered together and quickly coalesced into the shape of Chen Qi. He quickly scanned his surroundings and saw a figure walking down the second floor of the cafeteria at a leisurely pace.

"Chen Qi, it's been a long time."

Chen Qi's gaze sharpened: "Brother Sun!"

(End of this chapter)