Fear of food

Chapter 26 Food Horror

"You're saying you can just find food anywhere outside?" Zhui Feng exclaimed in shock. "How come I never get such a good deal!"

He suddenly felt that the strawberries in his hand no longer tasted good.

"It's not that simple. It still takes time to search. I've only found two wild foods along the way," Chen Qi said.

Zhui Feng's eyes reddened with envy: "Don't be so envious! Look at me, I have to work full-time as a food delivery driver just to make a living. And every day I have to find excuses to get customers to refuse my deliveries. Do you know how many bad reviews I've received, how many scoldings I've endured, and how much money I've lost because of this?!"

Chen Qi simply looked at the half-eaten strawberry in Zhui Feng's hand and asked, "Aren't you in danger while eating?"

Zhui Feng was taken aback: "What danger?"

Chen Qi seemed thoughtful and asked, "Will the other members of our group be in danger while eating?"

"No, what danger could there be in eating?"

"For example, would someone rush over and stop you at all costs, pry open your mouth and take the food out? Does that happen?"

"Are you kidding me! We're already miserable enough, and you're adding this on top of that? Are you trying to kill us?"

However, Zhui Feng immediately realized something, his expression changing slightly: "You mean..."

“That’s right.” Chen Qi nodded. “I’ve been through all of that. Every time I eat, it’s like going to war.”

"The worst time was when at least several hundred people in one building came to deal with me. I felt like they could tear me apart on the spot."

Do you still envy me now?

Zhui Feng coughed and said, "Actually, delivering food is pretty good. You can make money and get some exercise at the same time."

However, he asked with some doubt, "Are you serious? You're not joking, are you?"

After all, Chen Qi's words were too absurd to him.

Chen Qi smiled and said, "I'll demonstrate it to you when I have the chance."

Chen Qi finally realized one thing: the food protection mechanism might be unique to wild foods.

Whether it's Zhui Feng or the others in the "Jinghai Foraging Group," their exclusive food seems to be similar to Xu An'an's dried bread, and they don't have a food-guarding mechanism.

While eating strawberries, Zhui Feng said, "Getting back to the point, Momo said you have a lot of things you want to know, so she asked me to give you a training session."

“I don’t know your specific situation, nor how much you already know, so let me start from the beginning.”

"Let me clarify beforehand that what I'm about to tell you comes from internal communication materials within our 'Jinghai Foraging Group' and is for learning and exchange purposes only. It has not been officially certified and may not be entirely accurate."

"But it's still very helpful for you to understand this messed-up world."

Chen Qi nodded: "Please begin."

Zhui Feng cleared his throat: "It all started on August 6, 2024. You should remember what day that was, right?"

"I can't forget it, I probably won't forget it for the rest of my life." Chen Qi let out a long sigh.

“The nightmare all started that day,” Zhui Feng sighed. “It was the day of the food anomaly outbreak. Overnight, all the food looked different to us.”

"This was a disaster for us. In our group chat, we gave this disaster a name: 'Food Horror'!"

"You can also call it food phobia."

“We are survivors of this disaster, so we feel that we should have the right to name it.”

Chen Qi naturally had no objection to this; he had heard Momo mention it before. Zhui Feng continued, "Food terror is said to be a disaster, but in reality, it only targets a very small group like us. Only we, the alien eaters, can see the mutations in the food."

"Attention! 'Pica' is also a name we came up with in our group, referring to those of us who can see abnormalities in food."

Chen Qi muttered under his breath, "The term 'phalloid' sounds like we're sick."

Zhui Feng chuckled and said, "To be honest, when we chose this name, most people in the group thought we were crazy. Didn't you ever doubt yourself?"

Chen Qi was speechless. Just a few days ago, he thought he was sick, but even now, he couldn't be sure if he wasn't.

We can only be certain that something is wrong with this world, but that doesn't mean these "phantom eaters" are normal people.

Maybe the "Jinghai Foraging Group" is actually a "medical condition exchange group".

"In the eyes of others, we are indeed a group of pica eaters, eating foods that only we ourselves can accept."

"From our own perspective, we're also a group of pica eaters. I eat other people's takeout every day, you eat garbage every day, and there are even people in our group who rummage through swill buckets and eat leftovers every day..."

The more I talked about chasing the wind, the more exhausted I felt.

"Alright, alright, albeit an albeit one, let's not talk about scavenging anymore." Chen Qi was convinced; "albeit an albeit one" sounded better than "scavenger."

Zhui Feng organized his thoughts and continued, "At the beginning of the 'Fear of Eating' outbreak, the number of alien eaters was small, but it wasn't as rare as it is now."

"However, the vast majority of pica sufferers cannot endure it and, under various pressures, consume abnormal foods, causing them to revert from pica sufferers back to ordinary people."

“There are very few stubborn people like us who have been able to persevere until now.”

"We were able to persevere not only because we were stubborn, but also because we were lucky, as we discovered a foraging method that suited us earlier."

Chen Qi naturally thought of Sun Xuechao, who had no choice but to eat strange food because he couldn't get normal food.

According to Zhui Feng, each pica eater has their own unique method of obtaining food.

Zhui Feng steals takeout, Xu An'an makes bread, and Chen Qi picks up trash.

Those pica eaters who have survived to this day have all mastered their own methods of foraging for food; otherwise, they would have starved to death long ago.

"Then..." Chen Qi frowned and asked, "Is there no reaction from the outside world to this disaster?"

Zhui Feng shook his head: "As I just said, this is only a disaster for a very small number of us. For most people, the world has not changed at all, and everything is the same as before."

"The number of us pica eaters is negligible compared to 'normal people,' and it is continuing to decrease."

“Minority groups cannot speak out, and some of the abnormal behaviors we exhibit can be explained simply by saying ‘mental illness’.”

"Think about it, who would not believe the plausible world they see with their own eyes, but instead believe someone else's unbelievable description?"

Chen Qi questioned, "Is everything really normal?"

Zhui Feng stroked his chin and said, "That 'food protection mechanism' you mentioned is indeed very abnormal, but it only happens to you. Even to us other alien eaters, apart from the strange food, the world is still functioning normally overall."

"However, today is only September 8th. It has only been a little over a month since August 6th. Perhaps because the time is too short, some abnormalities are not yet obvious."

"We cannot rule out the possibility that more anomalies will appear in the future."

Chen Qi asked, "But what about those monsters? How do you explain that?"

(End of this chapter)