Since all these rules and superstitions are outdated, what's wrong with me indulging in some me

The old woman stood on the steps at the entrance of the ancestral hall, looking at the crowd, her smile deepening:

"This is a simple meal, we apologize for neglecting our distinguished guests. Please eat well, so you will have the energy to enjoy the scenery of our Luoshan Village."

She deliberately emphasized the words "have strength".

No one touched their chopsticks; everyone was observing.

The villagers had already started eating. They ate quickly and quietly, barely making a sound as they chewed. They simply buried their heads in the porridge in their bowls and the vegetables in their basins, their movements strangely synchronized. Yet, their eyes were fixed on them, as if trying to memorize their every move.

Lu Changsheng picked up the earthenware bowl and brought it close to his nose to smell it. The porridge had a musty smell of stale rice and a faint earthy aroma, but he didn't notice anything unusual.

He nodded almost imperceptibly to Cheng Caijun.

Cheng Caijun breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the bowl, and took small sips of the drink.

The porridge tasted terrible, rough and gritty, with an indescribable musty feeling, but once it entered my stomach, a faint warmth did spread, dispelling the chill of the morning.

Seeing this, the others also began to eat.

Anzhiyu ate slowly, chewing each bite carefully. Mark and Kevin exchanged a glance and also picked up their pancakes. Yamamoto and Park Bo-soo, however, only drank their porridge, ignoring the pickled vegetables and pancakes.

Emily pouted, clearly dissatisfied with the food.

She picked up a dark brown piece of cake and took a big bite.

"Click!"

A crisp sound, unlike the sound one would make when biting into a biscuit, rang out.

Emily paused, her brow furrowing. She took the biscuit away from her mouth and looked down.

She bit a hole in the hard surface of the biscuit. And in the crumbs from that hole, there was a glaring red stain.

She stuck out her tongue, licked her front teeth, and then spat out a small mouthful of bloody saliva with a "pui" sound. In the saliva lay a small, sharp, white object—

Like the broken teeth of some small animal, or... fragments of something worse.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Emily muttered a curse under her breath, picked up the small, bloody fragment with her fingertips, and examined it closely.

Just then, a woman appeared out of nowhere. She suddenly stood up excitedly and ran over to Emily's side.

The woman bent down excitedly, her face almost touching Emily's ear, her voice low and filled with a fervent, chilling anticipation:

"Girl...did you lose your tooth?"

Her eyes were fixed on Emily's bloodstained lips and the white fragment on her fingertip, a greedy glint flashing in her cloudy eyes.

"Did you lose a tooth?"

The air in the cafeteria seemed to freeze instantly.

All the players stopped eating and looked up sharply at Emily and the middle-aged woman.

The villagers, who had been eating with their heads down, stopped and dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at them. Their gazes were no longer simply scrutinizing, but had become something sharper and more naked—curiosity? Excitement?

Emily froze for a moment, but then her cynical smile returned, though her eyes remained icy. She turned her face, almost touching the woman's, and slowly asked:

"My teeth... what's it to you?"

The woman's smile remained unchanged, as if it were welded to her face.

"Losing a tooth is bad luck, it's like being disfigured. Let me see... I've lost a tooth."

Emily scoffed, flicked her finger, and the blood-stained white fragment arced through the air before landing in the dust at her feet.

"Look closely? It's just crumbs, not my tooth. My teeth are perfectly fine."

As she spoke, she deliberately grinned, revealing her neat teeth stained with blood, and made a hideous face at the old woman.

The woman stared at the fragment on the ground that was quickly half-covered by dust, then looked at Emily's teeth. For the first time, a very subtle crack appeared in the stiff smile on her face.

She straightened up, said nothing more, just gave Emily a deep look, then turned and quietly walked back to her original spot.

But after this incident, the atmosphere in front of the cafeteria completely changed.

The faint warmth from the porridge now seemed to have turned into a cold, sticky liquid, coating everyone's stomachs.

He looked at the other players. An Zhiyu had stopped, and the bowl of porridge in front of her was barely touched.

Mark and Kevin looked serious, while Yamamoto and Park Bo-soo had already put down their bowls.

Only the long-haired man seemed completely oblivious to the earlier incident, continuing to slowly and methodically sip the porridge in his bowl, as if it were a rare delicacy.

The dark red scar on the side of his neck seemed to wriggle slightly as he swallowed, under the dim light in front of the cafeteria.

"Clatter".

A drop of dark red liquid, without warning, seeped from the edge of his wound and dripped into the rough earthenware bowl in front of him, spreading a small, glaring red on the grayish-white porridge surface.

The long-haired man stopped what he was doing, looked down at the small amount of crimson in the bowl, his pale face expressionless.

Then, under everyone's astonished and uncertain gaze, he picked up the spoon again, scooped up the porridge mixed with his own blood, and calmly put it into his mouth.

Chewing and swallowing.

It was as if it were just an ordinary seasoning.

No one was in the mood to eat, and after the villagers finished eating, they all stared intently at the players. Under the gaze of so many eyes, no one could enjoy their meal.

"I'm stuffed."

An Zhiyu was the first to stand up, her voice clear and cold, breaking the stagnant atmosphere among the players.

The players followed suit and left without objection. Staying here, facing these strange villagers and the increasingly unsettling environment, would only intensify their anxiety.

"What do we do next?" Mark asked Kevin in a low voice. "That black man..."

"We definitely need to look for them, but we can't do it blindly."

Kevin's sharp gaze swept over the silent houses on either side. "We need to figure out the layout of this village and the true meaning behind those 'rules.' Dividing into groups will be more efficient, but also riskier."

"I agree with the group division."

Emily patted the non-existent crumbs off her hands, as if she had already forgotten the terrifying episode that had just occurred.

"This village is quite large; moving together is too slow. We should form groups of two or three, demarcate areas, and return regularly to exchange information."

Her suggestion is reasonable. In A-level multiplayer dungeons, exploration and information gathering are key to survival.

Although everyone was wary of each other, they were also using each other. This contradictory relationship forced them to make this suggestion.

"I'm in a group with Brother Lu."

Cheng Caijun immediately expressed his opinion.