Fear of food

Chapter 54: Like a Shadow
Chen Qi's words gave Zhui Feng and Gan Shui goosebumps all over.

Feeling uneasy, Chen Qi quickly told his teammates to leave.

But when he turned around, he saw Sun Xuechao still standing there, looking somewhat lost in thought.

"Brother Sun!" Chen Qi called out.

Sun Xuechao suddenly woke up.

"Come with us. What's the point of staying here?" Chen Qi pointed to the zombie-like food protectors. "Are you really willing to become like them?"

Zhui Feng and the others had also heard about Sun Xuechao from Chen Qi, and they advised him, "Brother, let us try to see if we can help you. There is no hope for you if you stay in the hospital; you will only get more and more contaminated."

Sun Xuechao was silent for a moment, then finally nodded: "Okay, I'll go with you."

The corridor leading to the 15th-floor exit was blocked by a dense crowd, so Chen Qi and his group had to detour down the stairs inside the closed ward.

Although the path leading to the stairwell was crowded with over a hundred people, at least it was passable.

The four walked down a corridor filled with vomit. The pungent smell assaulted their senses, making them feel nauseous.

Only Zhui Feng remained unconcerned: "This smell is nothing compared to the fart that swill just released. It's practically the scent of a young girl."

The swill instantly turned red and was about to retaliate, but Chen Qi interrupted it.

He got straight to the point: "When the domain appeared before, I felt that the timing was wrong. Sure enough, the domain was not released by Madam Wu."

Zhui Feng nodded: "I knew that scalpless woman was too weak. We took her down without much effort."

"It seems she's just a 'family-level' parasite, weakened by the swill..."

"But who exactly created this field?"

The swill-drinker cursed, "Damn it, are there more parasites waiting for us later?"

“Anyone capable of creating a domain must be a high-level parasite, but it’s alright,” Chen Qi reassured him. “Now I have derivative food.”

The group chatted as they quickly descended the stairs.

"Let's go to the 14th floor. We probably won't find an elevator on the 13th floor. All the elevators that go through a single floor are definitely occupied."

At Chen Qi's suggestion, they headed straight for the main entrance on the 14th floor.

As he ran, Chen Qi immediately sensed that the range of his food detection ability had expanded!
The radius has been increased from three meters to about five meters.

It may look like it only increased by two meters, but the actual detection range is nearly three times that of before!
Based on experience, consuming high-quality food can lead to certain improvements in physical fitness, though the specific areas of improvement vary from person to person.

Chen Qi mainly focused on improving his strength and stamina.

However, the improvement wasn't significant, and it wasn't very noticeable.

It's possible that there are other improvements he hasn't discovered yet. After upgrading his abilities, he'll still need to explore and familiarize himself with them.

Of course, if you want to greatly improve your abilities, you also need to find a high-quality wild food to bring about a qualitative change in your abilities!
The biggest gain this time was actually obtaining another Ghost Face Cookie, and it also made it possible for high-grade wild food to spawn in other places.

Chen Qi and his group jogged along and used their access cards to open the electronic door on the 14th floor.

Upon opening the door, one finds more than twenty dazed-looking people standing in the elevator lobby outside.

Looking at the stairwell next door, it was completely packed with people!
Chen Qigang was about to press the elevator button when he saw a double-decker elevator come up directly.

Ding!
The elevator stopped on the 14th floor, and Chen Qi and his companions tensed up, gripping their weapons tightly.

But as soon as the elevator doors opened, they immediately relaxed.

"Big Pancake, what brings you up here?"

"I've come to help you guys." Big Pancake glanced at the group. "How did it go? Did you succeed?"

"Let's go down first and talk about it later." The group pushed the flatbread back into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.

In the elevator, Big Pancake talked on and on: "You guys don't know, I was sitting in the car just fine, and suddenly I was enveloped in a field, my phone stopped working, I couldn't contact you, and then I saw a group of people rushing into the hospital building..."

"Wait!" Chen Qi interrupted, "You're saying you're also enveloped by the domain?"

"Yes, the area covered this time is really large, not only the inpatient building, but also the parking lot and the surrounding area, it covers almost half of the hospital!"

Chen Qi and the others felt a chill in their hearts.

Previously, the pork vendor's territory only covered a small wet market.

But now this area, created by who knows who, directly covers almost half of the hospital!
While it's uncertain whether the size of the domain is directly related to the strength of the parasite, it's enough to alarm them.

Just as Chen Qi and the others were feeling uneasy, Sun Xuechao, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up:

"Actually, the wild food you gave me last time was useful to me."

"If it weren't for your wild food, I probably wouldn't be able to stand here and have a normal conversation with you right now."

Chen Qi was taken aback, then overjoyed, as if he had suddenly seen a glimmer of hope to save his mother. He quickly said, "Tell me in detail!"

But Sun Xuechao immediately poured cold water on his idea: "It can only alleviate the pollution, not eradicate it. Because this is not the right way to remove pollution, it's more like fighting poison with poison."

Besides disappointment, Chen Qi also felt a bit strange. How did Sun Xuechao know all this?
But I still followed up with the question: "Then what should the correct method be?"

Just then, the elevator arrived at the first floor.

The entire first floor was deserted; everyone was drawn upstairs by the food-guarding mechanism.

Coffee, Xu An'an, and Dabing's dog were waiting for them at the entrance of the hospital building.

Chen Qi and the others ran over quickly, and Gan Shui asked, "Why didn't you drive?"

Coffee shook his head: "The car's dashboard is all over the place, reporting a fault, and it can't be driven."

Chen Qi decisively said, "Then let's go, let's run out and get out of the domain first!"

Although he had many questions and was very curious about what Sun Xuechao had experienced in the closed ward these past two days, getting him out of danger was the top priority right now.

So everyone ran frantically toward the edge of the territory, but soon they realized something was wrong!

"Is the territory expanding?"

"Why can't we get out?!"

Coffee pointed to the streetlights ahead and said, "I clearly remember this place being outside the territory."

"Something's not right!" Chen Qi turned around and looked back, his face grave. "The domain is following us! Look back!"

The others quickly looked back and saw that people were already lining up and walking out of the hospital building in an orderly fashion.

Clearly, they have broken free from the influence of that domain.

Wherever Chen Qi and his group went, the people around them became confused, and their cell phones were constantly unusable.

This field is ever-present, following them closely!

"How could this be? Where exactly are those parasites in the manufacturing sector hiding?"

"People in the manufacturing field should at least be within the scope of that field, right?"

Chen Qi suddenly thought of something, his heart skipped a beat, and he turned sharply to look at Sun Xuechao beside him.

(End of this chapter)