Fear of food

Chapter 86 The Midnight School Bell
After hanging up the phone, Coffee sent the little girl's photo to Chili.

This photo was taken from surveillance footage. It shows not only the little girl, but also Dr. Zhao and Chen Qi's mother.

While Coffee and Chili were on the phone, Ganshui and the others had already thrown all the wild food that Dr. Zhao had left over in the living room downstairs.

With Dr. Zhao, the feeder, and the wild food gone, the food protectors gathered at the door naturally dispersed.

Chen Qi and the others successfully went downstairs and got into the car.

As Coffee started the car, he said, "This operation is somewhat dangerous. You can think about whether you can play a role before deciding whether to participate."

"I was originally planning to wait outside, but this time I have a gun. I've practiced shooting before, so I should be able to contribute in combat."

Coffee spoke subtly, but everyone understood her meaning: if you can't help, don't meddle, or you might become a burden.

After all, without derivative food, they are mostly just ordinary people in terms of combat strength.

Zhui Feng said, "Biscuit, can I borrow this syringe? I feel like it's a good fit for me, and I might be able to do something useful with it."

He's fast; he rushes up, pricks the needle, and runs away, making good use of the syringe.

Chen Qi naturally had no objection to this. Although the syringe was powerful, it couldn't actually unleash his strength advantage.

Big Pancake said, "I can possess the dog to scout ahead, as long as I don't encounter the illusion like before, it'll be fine."

Swill gritted his teeth and said, "I'm strong too. If you really push me, I can bite!"

Now it seems that Xu An'an is the only one without any skills. Coffee comforted her, "Bread, why don't you just wait for us outside? It's okay."

Xu An'an shook her head: "Give me a gun."

Coffee looked slightly surprised: "Are you sure? Have you ever practiced shooting?"

"I guess so," Xu An'an said. "I practiced target shooting during military training, and they said I was pretty accurate."
-
Chen Qi and his group arrived at the agreed-upon location with Chili.

The chili peppers were already waiting here.

Besides the chili peppers, there was also a lean, middle-aged man in camouflage.

Chili explained, "He's a gummy candy."

It's a bit odd for a grown man to be called "Gummy," but it must be a name based on his favorite food.

Seeing that only two officials had come, Chen Qi felt that things were being taken somewhat lightly.

If that little girl's ability is used without much limitation, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a strategic-level ability.

Coffee said discontentedly, "Didn't you say you'd call someone, and you only called one person?"

Chili sighed helplessly, "We're already short-staffed, and you're in such a hurry. Everyone else has temporary assignments, so it's already good enough that we were able to bring in one more person."

After a brief introduction, Chili unloaded a box from the car: "Here's the equipment you wanted. Take it."

Chen Qi leaned closer to take a look, frowned, and said, "Is that all?"

"We're in a rush and have a lot to do, and we only have a limited amount of equipment. Just make do with what you have for now, and we'll get you more later," Chili said.

Chen Qi couldn't help but question, "Are you really from the government? You're short-handed and have limited equipment? What do you actually have?"

Chili smiled apologetically: "It's a special time, please understand."

Coffee took a pistol out of the box, loaded it, tested its feel in his hand, and then turned around and asked:
"This pistol is lightweight and feels good in the hand. Bread, why don't you give it a try?"

Xu An'an shook her head, her gaze falling on the rifle in Ruantang's hand, and said, "I want a rifle. This is the kind used for target practice during military training. I've never used a pistol before."

After hearing Xu An'an's words, it was hard not to question her shooting skills, but since the other members of the team didn't have much shooting experience either, they eventually gave Xu An'an the only rifle in the box.

Next, Chili began to share information with Chen Qi and the others: "The girl's identity has been confirmed. Her name is Lin Ning, a third-grade student at Jingquan School. She is a left-behind child, as her parents work in other places and she lives with her grandparents."

“We just sent someone to Lin Ning’s house to confirm, and she is not home. Her family said that she has been going to her teacher’s house for tutoring these past few days and does not come home to sleep at night.”

"And the teacher who tutored her was Zhang Qin, the Chinese teacher you mentioned."

"Based on your intelligence, we suspect that Lin Ning, like my two teammates, was also being held captive at Jingquan School and subjected to deep contamination to accelerate the parasitic process."

Coffee frowned and said, "You mean Lin Ning has also been parasitized? If so, will she still be able to use her abilities?"

Chili shook her head: "There has never been any evidence that a pica eater loses its original abilities after being parasitized."

Chen Qi was puzzled: "But since she has been parasitized, it means she has been contaminated by the fear of food. She should not be able to see the abnormality of food anymore. Even if you rescue her, you will not be able to remove the contamination from her body, right?"

The gummy bear behind Chili stepped forward and said, "Recent experiments on our teammates in other regions have preliminarily confirmed that once humans are parasitized, there is a golden period for rescue. For pica sufferers, it is seven days, and for ordinary people, it is about three days."

"Once the Nightmare Eater enters their bodies, it will absorb the pollutants in their bodies as nutrients. As long as the parasitic process is interrupted within the golden rescue period, not only can the Nightmare Eater be killed, but the pollution can also be basically eliminated."

"This is also the only method we currently know that can completely kill the Nightmare Eater."

Chen Qi and his teammates exchanged glances. The useful new information they had obtained eased their dissatisfaction with the authorities.

"Now we can only hope that Lin Ning has been parasitized for no more than seven days and is still within the golden period for rescue." Chili repeatedly instructed everyone: "The primary goal of this operation is to rescue Lin Ning, and the secondary goal is to rescue my two teammates. I hope you can cooperate with us to complete the mission."

Chen Qi nodded casually, but in his heart, no matter how important Lin Ning was, she could never be more important than his mother.

His primary target this time was still his mother, and he brought a lot of wild food, which he would feed to her if he had the chance.

In addition, he had another purpose for going to Jingquan School this time, which was to find high-quality wild food!
In such severely polluted areas, there is usually at least one high-quality wild food available.

The high-grade wild food from Jinghai Medical College is too difficult to obtain. If we can't break the illusion, we have no chance at all. It would be better to find a way to eat the high-grade wild food from Jingquan School and complete the qualitative change in our abilities first.
-
Chen Qi and his group drove to the vicinity of Jingquan School.

They parked their car close to the wall and used it as a step to easily climb over it.

The campus was pitch black and excessively quiet at night, to the point that it was somewhat frightening.

At first glance, it seemed that only the guardhouse had its lights on in the entire school.

ding ding ding...

A clear bell suddenly rang out in the quiet campus.

The bell rang clearly and melodiously. After ringing for a while, a female student's voice came from the school's public address system:
"Students, it's time for class. Please return to your classrooms immediately to prepare for class."

Chen Qi and the others were all a little uneasy at the sudden ringing of the bell.

"Why is the school bell ringing so late at night?"

Gummy snorted: "Playing tricks! No matter who played the bell, at this hour, the only people still in school besides the security guards are the parasites."

Chili pepper directed, "Let's go into the teaching building first."

Jingquan School is not large, and the layout of the entire school is clear at a glance. They are currently standing on the circular plastic track, next to the basketball court, and in front of them are the playground and the flagpole.

Therefore, the view is flat and empty, and there is not a single person in sight. The only place where people might be hiding is the teaching building behind the flagpole.

Chen Qi and his group quickly moved towards the teaching building.

They crossed the flagpole and finally arrived at the lobby on the first floor of the teaching building.

Chili turned on her flashlight, shone it around to make sure no one was there, and was about to continue when Chen Qi called out to her.

He took Chili's flashlight and aimed the beam at the "Wall of Glory" on the first floor.

The "Outstanding Teachers" section features photos of several teachers, along with their names below.

Chen Qi's mother, Zhang Qin, was among them!
Chen Qi knows his mother best. He knows that his mother doesn't have much ambition and is generally a rather laid-back person. She only does her job well and doesn't work hard or try to please her superiors.

It's quite strange that she was able to be rated as an outstanding teacher.

Of course, this was not the reason he called out to his teammates.

He moved the flashlight beam to the right, landing it on the "Outstanding Student" column.

This section only has three photos.

The first one is a little girl, with her name "Lin Ning" written below.

The second and third people were a fair-skinned, strong young man and a dark-skinned young man, respectively...

The two looked to be at least in their mid-twenties; they certainly didn't look like elementary school students!

Chili and Gummy Bear both showed obvious shock when they saw the photos of the two.

These two were their missing teammates, and also the two officials that Chen Qi had encountered in the illusion at Jinghai Medical College!

Now it wasn't just them; everyone realized something was wrong.

Just then, the lights above their heads suddenly turned on.

The dim lighting seemed insufficient to illuminate the entire hall, with the corners remaining completely dark.

Chen Qi and his group looked around warily, then suddenly turned around and found a person standing at the entrance of the hall behind them.

It was a bald man who looked to be in his forties. His photo was also in the "Outstanding Teacher" section; he was the school's dean of students.

His image also fits Chen Qi's stereotype of a "dean of students".

He scolded, "Which class are you in? The bell has rung and you're not in class yet!"

"Go to hell!" Soft Candy picked up his rifle, ready to teach the headmaster a lesson, but after pulling the trigger for a long time, nothing happened. When he looked down, he realized that the rifle in his hand had somehow turned into a broom.

"What did you say?" The bald man's expression changed, his eyes burning with anger. He stepped forward, grabbed the gummy bear, and lifted him up.

It was as if the gummy bear wasn't a grown man, but a seven or eight-year-old child.

At the same time, a sharp pen appeared in his hand, which he stabbed directly into the candy's eye...

(End of this chapter)