Fear of food

Chapter 95 Premium Candied Hawthorn

Zhui Feng picked up Lin Ning and rushed towards Xu An'an.

As Chen Qi threw the last grenade in the direction of the dean of students, he kept a close eye on what was behind Zhui Feng.

He was trying to find the invisible monster!

Chen Qi knew that his cognition had not been distorted, so the monster did not achieve invisibility through cognitive distortion, but rather possessed the ability to become invisible on its own.

Although the lights next to the flagpole were already bright enough, he still turned on his flashlight and shone it behind Zhui Feng.

Suddenly, he noticed some distortion in the light and shadow, and rushed over to fire at that area.

Amidst the hail of bullets, a figure flashed by and then disappeared again.

Chen Qi could barely make out that it seemed to be a monster with a body covered in spiky skin, probably with the ability to blend into its environment like a chameleon.

Under Chen Qi's cover, Zhui Feng successfully brought Lin Ning and Xu An'an together.

But then, Xu An'an's gun stopped firing.

Clearly, Lin Ning took her distorted perceptions with her when she went there.

However, on Chen Qi's side, the distorted perceptions of swill and pancakes had not disappeared; in their eyes, firearms and other weapons were still useless.

"How could this be?"

Lin Ning was able to carry over the cognitive distortion, which means she was indeed the source of the pollution. But since the source of the pollution has left, why are Chen Qi and the others still unable to get rid of the influence?
Before Chen Qi could think about it further, a voice suddenly rang in his mind.

"Stop struggling in vain!"

"You only have two choices: eat that girl, or merge with me."

The Nightmare Eater can now talk to him at will... Chen Qi knew that something had changed during his last trip to Jinghai Medical College.

Previously, the Nightmare Eater was like a prisoner, suppressed so tightly that it couldn't even peek out.

Chen Qi coldly replied in his heart, "What's the difference between these two choices?"

"You went to all this trouble to lure me here, putting pressure on me step by step, just to plunge me into the same despair as Coffee, didn't you?"

"Are you forcing me to cross the line in despair, to resort to cannibalism? Are you trying to make me abandon my humanity?"

Recalling the events of tonight, first, she swiftly killed Chili and the other two to put pressure on him, then she sowed discord among his teammates and captured them, leaving him isolated and helpless, then she staged a scene involving his family, and finally ignited Coffee's inner despair, forcing her to undergo a transformation.

All of this was intended to constantly put pressure on Chen Qi, making him watch his family and friends face difficulties and despair, even die in front of him, while he was powerless to do anything about it.

However, not everything goes according to the Nightmare Clan's plan; there are always some unexpected events.

For example, Chen Qigang had doubts about chili peppers from the beginning; he had previously escaped from school; and Xu An'an had somehow managed to break free of control...

The appearance of Chen Qi's mother did not actually have a significant impact on Chen Qi, so he chose to open fire directly.

The Nightmare Clan is adept at bewitching people, but they are not human after all, so how could they fully understand people's hearts?
Of course, if it weren't for Zhui Feng's final intervention, Chen Qi might have already made a grave mistake.

Even after his scheme was exposed, Nightmare remained calm: "You have no way out. If I wanted to kill you, you would have died long ago. The fact that I have spared you and your companions until now is the greatest show of my sincerity."

The Nightmare Eater was right about this; if the Nightmare Clan simply wanted to kill them, they would have been dead long ago.

Chen Qi thought to himself, "That's why I'm even more curious. What kind of magic do I possess that makes you value me so much? You really aren't afraid of going to all this trouble to control my soul and body."

The Nightmare Eater said in a low voice, "Why don't you try it and see? Eat that girl, and you'll know your power."

“If you are unwilling to cooperate, I can tell you what will happen next. Your companions will all become vessels for my Nightmare Clan. I will make them mutate into monsters in front of you, including that girl.”

"You'll see then that even if you don't eat her, you can't change her fate."

"But by eating her, you can change the fate of yourself and your other companions."

Chen Qi scoffed, "Why are you suddenly talking so much nonsense? This isn't like you."

"I'm just giving you one last chance to choose." Nightmare Eater said no more.

Chen Qi knew that the Nightmare Eater had been hiding, waiting for him to lose his composure and then strike him with a fatal blow. He wouldn't be talking nonsense to him for no reason.

There must be some ulterior motive.

"I had just started thinking about the source of my cognitive distortion when Nightmare suddenly started talking. Is it afraid that I've discovered something?"

As Chen Qi retreated to distance himself from the dean of students and other parasites, he continued his previous thoughts.

"Lin Ning does indeed carry a pollution source that can distort perception. According to the 'Jinghai City Pollution Area Investigation Report,' pollution sources that can distort perception are either Grade B or Grade C."

"Her influence is limited. After she went to Xu An'an's place, Dabing, Ganshui, and the others should have been out of her reach!"

"But that didn't actually happen. What does that mean?"

After a moment's thought, Chen Qi had a guess in his mind: there was another source of pollution!

His thinking has been flawed all along, subconsciously believing that there is only one source of pollution, or rather, only one source of pollution of level C or above.

But it seems there are at least two.

Moreover, another source of pollution is probably on him! Chen Qi recalled that when he escaped from Jingquan School, the effects of cognitive distortion continued to follow him, even influencing the stall owners outside.

"So Lin Ning and I each carry a pollution source of level C or higher, no wonder Zhui Feng and the others are always in a state of distorted cognition..."

Zhui Feng and the others were either with Chen Qi or Lin Ning from beginning to end, so they naturally couldn't escape the influence.

"But if I have a contaminant on me, why can't my food detection ability sense it?"

Chen Qi didn't know the answer, but he also couldn't detect the exact location of the source of the pollution on Lin Ning, so he couldn't rule out that possibility.

So the question is, where exactly is the source of the pollution on him?

"Could it be hidden inside my body too?"

Chen Qi suddenly remembered a detail: when he escaped from the school and was caught, he had all his equipment on him!
His derivative food, the Grimace Cookie, along with other weapons, flashlights, wild food, and other items, were not taken away.

Chen Qi was a little confused at the time, and he still is now confused when he thinks back on it.

If the purpose of the Nightmare Eater is to constantly put pressure on him, shouldn't we try to reduce his combat power as much as possible?
Why leave the ghoul cookies and other weapons to him?

"That means I have something on me that they don't want to take away!"

Chen Qi suddenly realized: something on him at the time was the source of the pollution!
If I only took other things but left something behind, it would definitely arouse his suspicion, so I simply left everything with him.

"It seems the contaminant on my body is likely at level B!"

Chen Qi recalled the description of the Class B contaminated zone in the documents: it can distort some perceptions and has extremely strong concealment capabilities!

It even has the inherent characteristics of being "ignored" and "rationalized," making people disregard its existence.

Chen Qi began to check his equipment.

"Ghost face cookies can be ruled out, and the wild food I brought with me has mostly been used to feed people now, so a cell phone is out of the question..."

After a final screening, only three items remained that were considered suspicious: a flashlight, a large syringe, and a handgun.

"The pistol is indeed a real pistol, and we've already given them coffee, a flashlight, and a large syringe..."

It's obvious that the most suspicious item is the large syringe!
"A flashlight in my hands is at least a real flashlight, but a large syringe might not be!"

Xia Huiyun practically gave him this large syringe back when he was at Jinghai Medical College.

Looking back now, Xia Huiyun's actions at the time were somewhat suspicious.

Moreover, the large syringe was unreliable in his hands, which was very suspicious!
Chen Qi suddenly felt a chill. If there really was a problem with the large syringe, wouldn't that mean that the Nightmares were already planning all of this when he escaped from Jinghai Medical College?

The thought that he might have been carrying a highly sophisticated source of contamination with distorted cognitive abilities the whole time, leaving medical school with his teammates, going home together, and then going together to deal with Dr. Zhao...

Teammates may have been contaminated without even realizing it.

They might even become parasitized without their knowledge.

Especially when they are with high-quality wild food, they can accelerate the parasitism process and increase the level of pollution!
At the time, Sun Xuechao was in the same room as the cream cake, but the cream cake did not have the ability to affect cognition, which means that it was more than one level lower than the pollutant he carried!
The impact of the two on people is certainly not comparable.

Fortunately, they had kept the large syringe in Zhui Feng's rented room for a long time. If they had kept it with them, their teammates would have been affected even more!
"Is that so?"

Chen Qi picked up the large syringe he always carried with him.

His food detection ability couldn't detect anything unusual, and his "garbage-scavenging" ability couldn't convert it into high-grade wild food.

Either he guessed wrong, or his ability level is insufficient to detect and transform pollution sources of this level.

After all, this might be the highest level of pollution he has ever come into close contact with!
But... who cares if it's real or fake, we'll find out by taking a bite!

Chen Qi opened his mouth and bit down on the large syringe in his hand.

Compared to eating a girl, it's definitely much more acceptable to eat a large syringe.

"You are crazy!"

"You can't digest this, stop now!"

The mad roar of the Nightmare Eater immediately echoed in Chen Qi's mind.

"If you want to die, don't take me with you!"

"You're not capable enough; you'll really die if you can't digest it. I'm not kidding you."

"Please, stop!"

Hearing the Nightmare Eater's voice, Chen Qi smiled inwardly and replied, "Looks like I guessed right."

"Stop eating, I'll let you go..." the Nightmare Eater said helplessly, "I don't want to die."

"But I don't believe you."

Without hesitation, Chen Qi took a bite!
The next moment, the large syringe in his hand turned into a string of bright red and tempting candied hawthorns.

(End of this chapter)