Fear of food

Chapter 93 The Loss of Humanity, the Familiar Scent

kill?
Or is it cannibalism?

For Chen Qi, the former was clearly more acceptable.

But Lin Ning is still just a child.

"You guys feed her wild food, I'll buy you some time," Chen Qi ordered, then picked up his gun and started firing wildly at the approaching teachers.

He can only hope now that the high-quality wild food was eaten by Lin Ning.

However, this possibility is extremely slim. At least so far, Chen Qi has not seen another person who can eat wild food, let alone high-grade wild food.

As Chen Qi fired his gun, he distanced himself from his teammates, hoping to lure the parasites away.

But the parasites seemed to ignore Chen Qi. Even after Chen Qi riddled some of them with bullets, they still moved toward their teammates with a clear objective.

Helpless, Chen Qi could only throw another grenade.

boom!
With a loud bang, fragments flew everywhere, and the grenade explosion finally slowed down the parasites' advance.

However, the bald headmaster took the brunt of the grenade's explosion head-on. His body was a bloody mess, with rotten flesh and blood dripping like jam, revealing the bones of his thighs and chest. Yet, he still walked steadily and continued to approach Lin Ning and the others.

"Scatter!" Coffee shouted, directing everyone to scatter and run away.

By this time, they had successfully fed Lin Ning the wild food, and she vomited as well, expelling a large amount of black substance.

Lin Ning looked around in confusion, seeing unfamiliar faces all around her, as well as monsters riddled with bullets and covered in blood, and a look of fear appeared on her face.

Chen Qi had been observing Lin Ning's behavior. When he saw her vomit black substance, he immediately knew that she couldn't have eaten the high-grade wild food.

She vomits even after eating ordinary wild food, so how could she eat high-end wild food?
So there are only two possibilities... Either the high-grade wild food is hidden inside her body, or she is the high-grade wild food!

Zhui Feng, carrying Lin Ning on his back, ran quickly to Chen Qi's side and asked, "What do we do now?"

How to do?
Cut open the belly of the lemon tree to see if there are any high-quality wild foods.

If not, then eat her.

This is the most reasonable approach.

But can Chen Qin do that?

Is it possible?
"We'll retreat first, climb over the wall to the outside, and once we get to a crowded area, I'll use the 'ghost face' cookies to deal with them!" This was the only solution Chen Qineng could think of.

"Retreat! Run over the wall!" Zhui Feng shouted at the top of his lungs.

Their group was already at the location of the plastic track, and the wall was just behind them.

A group of people scattered and ran towards the wall. Chen Qi brought up the rear, continuing to fire at the enemy to cover the others' retreat.

But before they could run a few steps, they saw figures emerging from the shadows of a row of trees behind the wall.

"Holy crap, how did my dad come back to life so quickly!" Big Pancake cursed, staring at one of the middle-aged men who looked somewhat like him.

“Your father’s resurrection was slow. Look at my younger brother, he’s only been dead for a few days and he’s already back to life.” Zhui Feng’s expression was solemn as he looked at a young man who emerged from the shadows.

He was the parasite that was torn apart by the pancake in the market, and also Zhui Feng's younger brother.

It's been less than four days since that day, which means he was resurrected within four days!
This process used to take more than ten days.

Gan Shui shuddered, as if struck by lightning, standing there motionless, his eyes fixed on a slightly plump middle-aged woman who had suddenly appeared.

"Wife, when did you..." His vision blurred instantly, and he choked up, unable to speak.

There were more than a dozen parasites who suddenly appeared, including Chen Qi's relatives and his comrades-in-arms.

Coffee's gaze searched among them, her eyes filled with complex emotions—pain, yet also a hint of lingering expectation…

However, she didn't seem to find the figure she was looking for, and she was slightly lost in thought.

"Damn Nightmare Clan..." Chen Qi sighed inwardly. Sun Xuechao was right. The Nightmare Clan was best at bewitching people's hearts and attacking the most vulnerable and sensitive parts of people's hearts.

Even though we know this is a Nightmare Clan tactic, what can we do?
Chen Qi couldn't help but search for his mother's figure among these suddenly appearing parasites.

When Chen Qi saw that familiar face in the crowd, and that warm smile, his heart clenched.

Then he pointed the gun at his mother.

bang bang bang...

Empty the magazine directly!

He had originally prepared a lot of wild food to feed his mother, but given the current situation, there was definitely no chance.

The family-level parasites were riddled with bullets from top to bottom by rifles, their bodies turned into a bloody mess, and they basically revived on the spot.

Therefore, before Chen Qi's mother could even utter a word, Chen Qi sent her directly back to the respawn point.

"Biscuits, give my dad a whole batch too!" Big Pancake shouted.

"I'm also in trouble with my brother," Zhui Feng sighed.

This wasn't the first time they'd faced threats from their families, and they knew exactly what the right thing to do was.

Sending family members to the afterlife is the best way to deal with them.

It not only protects itself, but also slows down the parasitism process for family members who are not completely parasitized.

After all, the parasitic progress cannot be advanced during the resurrection process.

Chen Qi didn't mind helping them clean house, but at that moment the head of the teaching department suddenly led a group of teachers and rushed over at high speed!
Chen Qi could only retreat while suppressing their firepower. They weren't lacking in equipment, but in people who could use it. Besieged on all sides, Chen Qi was stretched thin.

The parasites that suddenly appeared later were mostly family members; although they weren't particularly powerful, they directly cut off their escape route.

This prevented Chen Qi and his group from successfully carrying out their plan to escape by scaling the wall.

As the parasites closed in from both sides, encircling and shrinking their space, the group had no choice but to engage in the battle, even though they couldn't use their weapons!

One by one, they picked up the weapons they considered worthless and rushed forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the approaching monster.

Chen Qi could only prioritize attacking the closest parasites. Unfortunately, he had not received any shooting training, and his accuracy was indeed lacking. It was difficult to hit vital organs with each bullet he fired.

Even if a domain-level parasite like the headmaster of education is shot in the head, it will only pause for a moment, and after a while, the flesh will wriggle and grow back.

For other family-level parasites, you need to shoot them in several vital areas multiple times before you can send them to resurrection.

"what!"

A scream rang out as the official, Ramen, was grabbed by the neck and lifted up by the headmaster.

Wriggling flesh extended from the head of the teaching department, like tiny, blood-red eels, and burrowed into the ramen's mouth and nose.

Then, as if throwing away trash, he threw the ramen noodles on the ground.

The ramen twisted and rolled on the ground, and vine-like fleshy sprouts kept growing from his body. These sprouts wrapped around him and soon formed a giant cocoon of flesh and blood.

On the other side, Zhui Feng and his companions, who were battling the parasites with their cognitive impairment and wielding useless weapons, were also in grave danger.

Especially since he hadn't recovered from the parasitic treatment of his wife, Jishui was covered in wounds and almost had his own wife cut open.

Looking at these scenes, Chen Qi knew they had reached the brink of despair.

He glanced at Lin Ning, the little girl beside him, and a thought involuntarily popped into his mind:
"How about... taking a bite and trying it?"

"Maybe she's not human at all, but a high-level wild animal that has taken human form. Aren't high-level wild animals supposed to be very good at disguising themselves?"

"Just take a bite, and you'll know if it's true or not, right?"

"Taking a bite won't kill anyone!"

These voices echoed in Chen Qi's mind, like the whispers of demons, constantly trying to lure him into the abyss.

"Damn it!" Chen Qi slapped himself hard. "How could I have such a thought?"

He knew very well that Lin Ning was not some wild food that had come to life; she was a living, breathing person!

The thoughts in his mind were nothing more than an excuse to push his boundaries.

He wanted to save his teammates, turn the tide, and destroy all the parasites and nightmare eaters!
Consuming Lin Ning might grant him this ability.

But doing such a thing crossed his bottom line as a human being. In that case, can he still be considered human? Does he still have any humanity?

"Humanity..." Chen Qi was startled. Was this a sign of his loss of humanity?
In the past, he would never have had such a thought.

"Hold on to the bottom line, hold on to humanity!" Chen Qi kept reminding himself. He began to be vigilant, suspecting that if he lost his humanity, the Nightmare Eater in his body would take advantage of the situation.

But as the situation continues to deteriorate, he will face increasing pressure. Will he be able to hold his ground?

Could he just stand by and watch his teammates fall one by one?
Just then, Coffee, who was not far from Chen Qi, seemed to remember something and took out a sugar cube from his pocket.

After a slight hesitation, she swallowed the sugar cube in one gulp.

The next moment, all emotion vanished from her eyes, her face indifferent like a statue. She pulled out the pistol from her waist and fired a shot that hit a school teacher who was about to bite Zhui Feng.

A single shot to the head splattered blood all over Zhui Feng's face!
Zhui Feng was almost scared to death. If that bullet had been just a few centimeters off, he would have been the one with the head blown off.

boom!
Coffee raised his hand and fired another shot, hitting a parasite dozens of meters away and saving Big Pancake from being chased.

Bang! The shot hit the wife who was eating swill, turning her head into a rotten tomato.

Three shots in a row, each a headshot, and Chen Qi noticed something different.

Coffee's ability to generate food derivatives is far from as weak as she claims; on the contrary, it's very strong!

First, she overcame the effects of cognitive distortion.

Secondly, in this state of absolute rationality and absolute focus, she seems to be able to hit the bullseye with every firearm she uses, hitting exactly where she points.

These enhancements are probably something that coffee itself hasn't even realized.

But that wasn't the most bizarre thing. What truly baffled Chen Qi was that the three parasites hit by the coffee gun fell to the ground and remained motionless.

It should be noted that even if Chen Qi used a more powerful rifle and shot a family-level parasite in the head, he would not be able to kill them instantly.

Often, it takes a follow-up shot to kill them.

However, Coffee can kill with a single shot using a pistol, which means that in the current state, her attacks have an additional damage bonus against the parasites!
"As expected, there's no such thing as a weak ultimate move... Coffee's ultimate move is too strong!"

Seeing that coffee had killed several parasites in succession, the headmaster revealed a strange smile.

Chen Qi suddenly sniffed and smelled a faint fragrance.

"It smells so good... The aroma of the food seems familiar."

Chen Qi frowned, feeling as if he had smelled this fragrance somewhere before.

Suddenly, he remembered—in the coffee truck!
He had smelled the exact same fragrance in that Cayenne.

(End of this chapter)