Fear of food

Chapter 98 I like to savor every bite

Chen Qi didn't notice the change behind him; he only saw the hand on his left shoulder.

Even if he could see it, he wouldn't regret eating.

As a person, you should eat when you're hungry. The most important thing is to eat heartily and enjoy fresh food.

"If it weren't for me, you would have exploded and died long ago!" The Nightmare Eater's angry voice rang in Chen Qi's mind again. "I only took less than 20% of your humanity, how could you go crazy like this?"

"Didn't you force this? Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"

The Nightmare Clan put constant pressure on him from all sides, and it would be a lie to say that it had no impact on Chen Qi.

After eating his fill, he released a lot of the pent-up frustration in his heart.

However, at this moment, bulges the size of fingers began to swell up all over Chen Qi's body, and then quickly burst open, bursting out a series of blood mists.

"I told you long ago that you couldn't digest that string of candied hawthorns. If you hadn't eaten them all, you might still have had a chance, but now you have no way out," the Nightmare Eater said coldly.

Although he couldn't see the changes in his back, Chen Qi felt something was clearly wrong after eating the last bite of the candied hawthorn.

That throbbing sensation returned, accompanied by an indescribable craving.

In addition, he noticed that his flesh and blood were becoming somewhat out of control, and seemed to be getting softer and softer.

He was already thin, and logically, his flesh should have been tightly attached to his bones.

But now, when he flicks his arm lightly, ripples like water wash over his skin.

It was as if he was about to melt away.

Moreover, the derivative foods that should have appeared after eating high-grade wild foods were nowhere to be seen this time.

He opened his palm several times, but no new grimace cookies appeared.

"It's probably because the body can't digest candied hawthorn, which is why no derivative products have appeared."

Nightmare Eater was right; it was still too much for him to digest a Grade B contaminant.

Blood mist continuously burst from his body, and his flesh dripped off like melting candle wax.

Chen Qi gradually felt that his thinking was becoming sluggish.

The Nightmare's voice rang out again: "Merge with me, it's your only option to survive!"

"Otherwise you will be assimilated, become a moving source of pollution, and forever lose your own consciousness."

Chen Qi replied, "You'd die anyway, wouldn't you? At least you can exchange yourself before you die, so it's not a bad deal."

"So you'd rather die than merge with me?"

Instead of directly answering the Nightmare Eater's question, Chen Qi countered, "Last time in the morgue, you deliberately came out to spout nonsense and stall for time, didn't you?"

Nightmare Eater remains silent.

Chen Qi continued, "Although I don't know what your purpose is, it seems you've succeeded."

Even when Chen Qi's consciousness possessed a dog, the Nightmare Eater couldn't even make a peek out.

He only managed to escape when Chen Qi's consciousness entered the morgue.

Now, the Nightmare Eater can talk to him directly and even claims to have taken away less than 20% of his humanity.

Although it's unclear whether it's true or not, it's at least obvious that the Nightmare Eater is becoming increasingly free within his body, which is not a good sign.

All the changes clearly began the last time he entered the morgue.

However, the Nightmare Eater's ultimate goal was clearly not achieved, otherwise why would it have designed this series of follow-ups?
At this moment, Zhui Feng ran up quickly and asked tentatively, "Biscuit, are you alright?"

Chen Qi nodded slightly: "It's alright."

"Are you sure?" Zhui Feng asked, pointing behind Chen Qi.

Chen Qi turned his head and glanced at his back. Seeing the torso that was taking shape, he immediately fell silent.

It does look like it's not going to work out.

However, he reassured her, "It's okay, I'm still fully conscious."

After saying that, he glanced at the invisible monster not far away.

Suddenly, that inexplicable craving surged up again in his heart, just like wanting to drink water after eating something salty; he really wanted to eat something strange.

Chen Qi darted out with a whoosh, heading straight for the invisible monster.

At this moment, the invisible monster was injured in many places. Although they were only superficial wounds, the wounds had lost their ability to blend into the environment, which was equivalent to losing its invisibility ability. Chen Qi finally saw the monster's full appearance.

This is also a parasite, but it looks rather strange. It has deviated from human form and looks more like a humanoid centipede with lizard skin.

He has eight legs and two exceptionally long arms.

His eight legs wore different shoes, and when he walked, they moved together as if the footsteps of four people were sounding at the same time.

With his upper body upright, and his two exceptionally long arms raised, he could easily reach over three meters high.

That's why it's so easy to lift someone up.

His lizard skin, like a chameleon, can mimic the colors of the surrounding environment, creating an effect similar to invisibility.

However, in Chen Qi's eyes, no matter what you look like, you're just a delicious buffet.

He lunged forward and began wrestling with the monster. Zhui Feng, standing nearby, sighed, his face filled with worry: "And yet, he claims to be sober."

Xu An'an relaxed: "At least they didn't come to eat us."

After taking a bite, Chen Qi immediately felt his melting flesh begin to slow down.

There was no more blood mist erupting from his body, and even the wounds he had left behind were healing.

"As expected, monsters are perfect accompaniments to high-grade wild foods!"

"No wonder you couldn't stop eating just now..."

Chen Qi discovered that these monsters seemed to aid digestion. When he was about to burst from the candied hawthorns, absorbing the energy transformed from the monsters effectively relieved his physical discomfort.

But the price is... the abnormality on his back is gradually growing!

The more he ate, the more obvious the abnormality on his back became. The flesh and blood on his back twisted and turned, clearly forming the outline of a torso. The protrusion on his right shoulder was broken through, and a piece of bone emerged again. It looked like he was about to grow a fourth arm.

Why do I feel like someone is growing out of my body?

Chen Qi had two choices: stop devouring the parasites, or his body would continue to swell, and his flesh and skin would begin to melt, potentially becoming a mobile source of pollution, just as the Nightmare Eater had said.

Continuing to devour the parasite can stop this trend, but the abnormalities in his body will become more and more severe, making him more and more like a monster.

Chen Qi gritted his teeth and chose the latter.

Keep eating!
Becoming a source of pollution means you're truly dead; becoming a monster at least means you're still alive.

Just then, a soft sigh escaped his lips.

That was the voice of the Nightmare Eater, but this time he only sighed and said nothing.

The next moment, the arm on Chen Qi's left shoulder suddenly moved!

Although arms and a torso have grown from his back, Chen Qi has no feeling for these organs and cannot control them.

But then, the arm moved suddenly out of his control and grabbed the invisible monster's head.

The skeletal arm's five fingers dug into the invisible monster's head, as if it had grabbed something, and suddenly lifted it upwards.

A phantom shadow was suddenly pulled out!
It seemed to be a small, invisible phantom, also with a human body and eight legs, covered in lizard skin, and with long, slender hands like the claws of a prawn.

Chen Qi tilted his head back and swallowed the illusory figure in one gulp, instantly feeling an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

Fun!

This feeling is like eating shrimp with the shell on before, with a bunch of impurities in your mouth when you bite into it. Now someone has peeled the shrimp meat for him, and he can swallow it whole in one bite. It's so satisfying!
After consuming it, not only did the rate at which the body melted slow down, but the mind also became active again, and the abnormality behind it only grew slightly.

The invisible monster lay motionless on the ground, as if its soul had been ripped out.

"I saved you again," Nightmare's voice rang out once more.

"Should I save myself or save myself?"

Chen Qi did not accept his kindness; instead, he became wary and began to ponder.

It appears that all of Nightmare's actions are for his own benefit.

Chen Qi realized that the other body that was about to grow on his back was controlled by the Nightmare Eater.

It seems that Nightmare Eater can directly extract the Nightmare Clan's true form from other parasites!
This allows Chen Qi to skip attacking the parasite's physical body and directly devour the Nightmare Clan's main body, greatly increasing efficiency!
But why would Nightmare Eater do that?
Chen Qi could prevent his body from melting by directly consuming the parasite, but the abnormality on his back would grow even faster.

While the Nightmare Eater's actions may seem like a helpful gesture, the only change it makes is that it slows down the abnormal growth behind Chen Qi.

Chen Qi instantly understood the key point: He didn't want the body behind me to grow out!

"That abnormal body is controlled by the Nightmare Eater. If it fully matures, will it break free from my body?"

"Wouldn't the Nightmare Eater also be able to escape?"

"So he took the initiative to help me remove the Nightmare Clan from the parasite's body in order to prevent it from separating from my body!"

To confirm his guess, Chen Qi turned and pounced on Xia Huiyun and the others.

At this point, the effect of the grimace cookie ends.

The crowd had broken free from the control of the Ghost Face Cookie, but they were still under the influence of the domain, wandering around like zombies.

Looking at the parasites, all the ordinary "family-level" parasites had been killed, leaving only a few skeletons!
However, a few domain-level parasites still stubbornly survive, even though they too are physically mutilated.

This included Xia Huiyun, the head of the teaching department, and acquaintances such as Bian Zihan.

Chen Qi lunged forward to tear at Xia Huiyun, who was now only half a torso, but the skeletal arm on his back beat him to it once again, pulling the Nightmare Clan's true form out of Xia Huiyun's body.

However, at this time, the Nightmare Clan's main body inside Xia Huiyun's body was also damaged. It wasn't that it was bitten by the surrounding food-guarding team. Every wound on the Nightmare Clan's main body came from Chen Qi's previous gnawing.

This time, Chen Qi did not cooperate in devouring the Nightmare Clan's main body that had been pulled out by the skeletal arm. Instead, he continued to bite at Xia Huiyun, leaving only two rows of teeth marks.

Clearly, his ability is to devour Nightmares. Without Nightmares in Xia Huiyun's body, his teeth no longer possess the destructive power to overwhelm everything.

Chen Qi could only open his mouth and swallow Xia Huiyun's incomplete Nightmare Clan body.

He lunged at the head of the teaching department again, and this time the skeletal arm attacked once more, but Chen Qi was prepared and grabbed it, preventing it from drawing the Nightmare Clan from the head of the teaching department's body again.

"What are you doing?" Nightmare asked in shock and anger.

"I don't need your help, I like to eat slowly and carefully."

(End of this chapter)