Fear of food

Chapter 58 Chat Log
On the way back, Chen Qi gradually composed himself. With his mother's experience as an example, he was more able to cope with similar situations.

Dwelling on sadness won't help; we must keep looking forward.

"Whether it's to save my mom and brother Sun, or to resolve the nightmare threat within me, I have no way out but to move forward!"

"The next step is to recover my lost memories..."

To regain his memories, he must consume the high-grade wild food that influenced him.

Not only will his memories be restored, but his abilities will also be strengthened again, resulting in a qualitative change!
It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Based on the clues we have so far, it can be confirmed that Dr. Zhao visited Jinghai Medical College on the morning of August 30th.

Therefore, that high-quality wild food is very likely in the medical school.

"If that's the case, then did the high-grade wild food already exist, or did it only appear because of my arrival?"

"If a high-level wild food item was found in the medical school, why were Jianbing Guozi and Cream Cake found later?"

"Isn't it impossible for a person to find two high-quality foods at the same time?"

"Could it be that Big Pancake's guess is wrong?"

After pondering for a moment, Chen Qi quickly came up with a relatively reasonable guess.

Whether it's high-end wild food or ordinary wild food, it is certainly an objective source of pollution; it doesn't appear because of its existence.

However, these pollutants may not have originally existed as wild food. It was only after Chen Qi got close that these pollutants were transformed into wild food by his "garbage-collecting" ability.

This also explains why there is more wild food in heavily polluted places like hospitals, because there are more sources of pollution there!

"If that's the case, then I'm pretty much the same as other Xenophars; we all use our abilities to create our own unique food."

"It's just that I transform the source of pollution, while they transform bizarre food."

"Moreover, they were actively converting, while I was passively converting."

"As for not being able to find two high-grade foods at the same time... that's a very idealistic rule, and can be explained entirely by Momo's idealism."

He had no memory of that period and was completely unaware of the existence of that high-class food, so of course it didn't affect him.

Idealism—that's something I don't know about, and therefore it doesn't exist.

"Hmm, just like Momo said, it's hard to say whether this idealism is right or wrong, but it's very useful," Chen Qi thought to himself.

Just then, the car came to a secluded path with groves of trees on both sides.

Chen Qi looked out the window, then paused slightly, and quickly patted the driver's seat: "Stop the car!"

The coffee shop braked suddenly, startling everyone in the car, who all looked at Chen Qi with confusion.

Chen Qi opened the car door and went into the grove of trees by the roadside.

A short while later, he came out carrying a bowl of plain porridge.

Just now, his food detection ability, which had expanded to a radius of five meters, suddenly detected this wild food.

Chen Qi hadn't paid any attention at first, but his gaze swept over the area casually. Suddenly, he realized that his eyes could penetrate the obstruction of the tree branches and leaves, and precisely lock onto the bowl of white porridge even as the car was moving at high speed!

He instantly realized that this was another ability upgrade he had gained after eating the cream cake, allowing him to quickly locate wild food within his detection range and identify the types of wild food.

Then he suddenly remembered something and immediately stopped the car.

Looking at the bowl of foul-smelling, white, putrid liquid in Chen Qi's hand, Coffee frowned and asked, "High-grade wild food?"

Chen Qi shook his head: "It's just ordinary wild food."

"Then why..."

"Let's go back first."

A hint of anticipation appeared on Chen Qi's face.

This plain white porridge is ordinary, but it is a very rare liquid wild food.

This means that the coffee can be processed further!
-
A moment later, Chen Qi and the others gathered at the coffee shop. After what had just happened, everyone was in a somewhat heavy mood.

"Alright, everyone, stop being so downcast and cheer up." Coffee stood up and said, "Although this operation was full of twists and turns, at least we achieved our goal and also unexpectedly gained some very valuable information."

Coffee picked up her phone, taking notes and summarizing as she spoke:
"From Sun Xuechao's words, we can glean a lot of useful information, such as the nature of our foraging ability. I have already made some rough guesses about it."

Seeing that he had attracted everyone's attention, Coffee continued, "Sun Xuechao mentioned a term, 'terror energy,' which we can tentatively understand as a kind of energy with polluting properties. Food phobia may be caused by this kind of energy."

"All bizarre foods contain terrifying energy, which is pollution to us, but nourishment to Nightmare Eaters."

"Therefore, the person being parasitized must continuously consume bizarre foods in order for the Nightmare Eater inside the body to grow rapidly."

Zhui Feng asked in confusion, "Then why aren't we contaminated when we eat the special food transformed from strange food?"

“Because we transformed that terrifying energy,” Coffee said. “Our foraging ability may essentially be the ability to transform energy, turning the terrifying energy that pollutes us into harmless energy.”

"Not only are they harmless, but the high-grade food containing terrifying high-level energy can also enhance our abilities!"

Zhui Feng said thoughtfully, "Therefore, the bodies of those who eat other things have a stronger ability to adapt to and withstand terrifying energy, which is why we become the primary targets of Nightmare Eaters."

Coffee nodded: "According to Sun Xuechao, even if an ordinary person is parasitized by Nightmare Eater, their potential is very low, and they will never be able to master the domain."

Chen Qi summarized: "Ordinary people who are parasitized are 'family-level' parasites. Our family members, as well as Madam Wu, belong to this type."

"And all the domain-level parasites—the butcher, Brother Sun, that old man at the hospital—were originally pagans… Oh, and Dr. Zhao too!"

Chen Qi took out Mrs. Wu's phone, opened the chat history between her and Dr. Zhao, and circulated it among everyone.

Everyone crowded around and looked through the chat history from the beginning. The earliest chat history started on August 10th, just a few days after the outbreak of food phobia.

[8 month 10 day]

Mrs. Wu: You've used up all your annual leave. How are you going to work in this condition?
Dr. Zhao: I plan to receive psychological treatment; this can't go on.

Mrs. Wu: Have you thought this through? This will ruin your entire career!
Mrs. Wu: If a psychiatrist himself has a mental illness, who would want to see him?

[8 month 11 day]

Mrs. Wu: Let's give it a try, husband.
Mrs. Wu: Don't you always say that the best way to eliminate fear is to face it?
Mrs. Wu: Just try it once, and maybe you won't be afraid anymore.
Dr. Zhao: Let me think about it some more. I took sick leave today.
[8 month 12 day]

Mrs. Wu: Did you get another glucose injection today?
Mrs. Wu: Try eating something. Look how much weight you've lost. Everyone will notice in time.

[8 month 13 day]

Mrs. Wu: Please, eat something. It really hurts me to see you like this.

Mrs. Wu: I'll make you your favorite abalone sauce rice. Would you like to try some?

……

[8 month 17 day]

Dr. Zhao: Honey, I'm all better!

Dr. Zhao: I was so hungry I couldn't stand it anymore, so I ate some snacks, and suddenly I realized that all the hallucinations had disappeared!

Dr. Zhao: I'll go to work tomorrow.

Mrs. Wu: That's wonderful! My husband is the best!
Mrs. Wu: From now on, I will make sure you eat on time every day.
[8 month 18 day]

Dr. Zhao: I met a patient whose symptoms were exactly the same as mine!
Mrs. Wu: Then you should cure him using the same method.
[8 month 19 day]

Mrs. Wu: Did you have lunch on time?

[8 month 20 day]

Mrs. Wu: Remember to eat lunch on time.
[8 month 21 day]

Mrs. Wu: I'll bring you lunch.
……

As Coffee and the others watched, they found that the hairs on their bodies stood on end without them even realizing it.

(End of this chapter)