This is a bizarre rule, isn't it? It's supposed to grant me many children and good fortune

Park Tae-rang saw Lin Feng, Evelyn, Wasim, and Mark all eating—

Even snakes, toads, and centipedes were stuffed into their mouths one by one, chewed, and swallowed without hesitation.

His rationality cracked.

But it was immediately brought back by some more primal instinct.

"Brother Feng... Brother Feng is eating... Vassim is eating too..."

"They're definitely not crazy."

"The food is definitely fine, it just looks a bit raw—"

He closed his eyes tightly, dug his nails into his palms, and suddenly grabbed a handful of "rats" and stuffed them into his mouth.

The moment he bit down, he clearly felt the tiny bone snapping against his tongue with a crisp sound, and his furry tail swept across his palate, leaving a ticklish sensation.

But he didn't stop.

One bite, two bites, three bites.

He stuffed all the wriggling little creatures on the plate into his mouth, swallowing them mouthful by mouthful, his neck stiff and his nose snot bulging.

As the last "mouse's" tail slid into his mouth, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his throat and gagged a few times.

But he gritted his teeth and forced back the surging acid, not spitting out a single drop.

When Kina Heiko saw Park Tae-rang wolf down the rat on his plate, she froze in her chair as if struck by lightning.

She lowered her head, her gaze returning to her plate.

The toad had flipped over, its limbs supporting the rice.

Its throat bulged once, then once more, as if it might jump up at any moment.

Kana Kazuko put her fingers in her mouth, biting her knuckles tightly with her teeth, her shoulders shaking like withered leaves in the wind.

Should we make her put this thing in her mouth? Chew it up? Swallow it?

How is that possible!

Park Tae-rang turned to the side and patted her arm:

"Those are all illusions! You'll die if you don't eat!"

"Think of the children in kindergarten—they're still waiting for you to come back."

Kana Kazuko paused for a moment, and the trembling in her shoulders subsided.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she were filling herself with something unseen.

She repeated Park Tae-rang's words in her mind:

The kindergarten children are still waiting for me to come back! They're still waiting for me!

The taut string was ultimately not snapped.

She suddenly opened her eyes, stretched out her slightly trembling hand, and her fingertips touched the toad's slippery, cold back.

The sensation was so real that it sent a shiver down her spine.

She gritted her teeth, pinched the toad's hind leg, lifted it up, closed her eyes tightly, and shoved it into her mouth.

The toad's smooth, cool skin covered her tongue, and she could feel its four slender legs struggle slightly inside her mouth.

She heard a "pop" sound as she took a bite, and the juice burst between her teeth.

She chewed it.

I chewed it again.

Then, with his neck stiffened and his throat forcefully rolled, the whole thing slid down his esophagus.

A chill suddenly rose from the bottom of her stomach, and Kanako abruptly covered her mouth, her cheeks puffed out, and she leaned forward, on the verge of vomiting.

"Don't throw up!" Park Tae-rang grabbed her shoulder. "Think of the kindergarten kids; if you throw up, you've wasted your food!"

Herana Kazuko trembled violently, tears welling in her eyes and drool spilling from the corners of her mouth.

She bit her lower lip hard, almost tearing it, trying to suppress the overwhelming nausea.

Finally, the raging wave receded.

She slumped back in the chair, gasping for breath, her face ashen.

At the other end of the long table.

The boy from Australia had very short, light blonde hair and wore a dark gray tight-fitting T-shirt.

He crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back in his chair, raised his chin slightly, and coldly swept his light blue eyes over the people around him who were wolfing down their food.

"You're all crazy! I'm not going to go crazy with lunatics!"

Further away from the long table, a middle-aged woman from the country of straw hats clasped her hands together, bowed her head, and muttered something under her breath.

She wore a faded, plain-colored cotton and linen robe, her hair tied back with a wooden hairpin, her face gaunt, her eyes sunken, yet she exuded an unusual calmness.

"My sins... my sins..."

"The sin of killing and the desire for food are both karmic fires."

"Amitabha... I would rather give up this physical body than eat the flesh and blood of sentient beings..."

Her lips moved, and the sound of her chanting flowed from her mouth like a gentle stream.

Just then, Leng Meng's cold voice suddenly pierced through the hall:

"Ten minutes, I'll be there."

On the long table, the plates in front of the thirty-four chosen ones all revealed their porcelain white bottoms—

The steak was eaten clean, the pasta rolls were finished, the stew was completely gone, and even the asparagus and carrots that were served as side dishes were chewed up and swallowed.

There were only two exceptions.

The plates of the boy from Maple Leaf Country and the middle-aged woman from Straw Hat Country remained untouched.

The boy seemed to sense something was wrong. He suddenly stood up, his chair sliding backward with a screeching sound, and turned to run towards the exit of the hall.

Leng Meng didn't even turn around.

She simply raised her right index finger and gently turned it.

The boy's body was as if an invisible hand had grabbed his collar, leaving him suspended in mid-air, his limbs flailing futilely.

"Wasting food is shameful," Leng Meng's voice remained calm.

"Although you two are guests, rules are rules. If you don't finish your food, you will be punished."

On the left side of the hall, a dark wooden door that had been tightly closed was pushed open by two servants.

Inside the door was a small, dimly lit room, where several tall, dark figures could be vaguely seen standing against the wall.

The servant went inside, and a moment later, the rattling sound of chains being dragged and the dull echo of metal clashing came from inside the back door.

Immediately afterwards, two iron objects, each about the height of a person, were slowly pushed out from inside the door. The sound of the iron wheels rolling over the stone floor was dull and grating, like the deep growl of some large, ferocious beast.

Lin Feng looked closely and saw that the iron object was in the shape of a human figure, with a mottled rust on its surface.

"This is the Iron Lady, also known as the Iron Maiden."

A calm and refined male voice rang out.

The speaker was a middle-aged man from the Rhineland named August.

He was dressed in a well-fitted, dark gray vintage suit and wore thin-rimmed gold-rimmed glasses; he was a renowned history professor at a university in the Rhineland.

He gazed at the two black iron bodies, a deep sense of apprehension flashing in his eyes:

"This is one of the cruelest instruments of torture in medieval Europe, which originated in Nuremberg and is shaped like a human coffin."

"The interior is filled with iron spikes, but the designer deliberately avoided vital organs, so that the victim would not die immediately after being inserted into it."

"The victim will live in constant, excruciating pain for days or even weeks until he dies from excessive blood loss or infection."

"It is said that some prisoners have endured the ordeal for a full fourteen days."

The hall was deathly silent.

Some people clenched their jaws, their teeth aching; some silently lowered their heads, unable to look any longer; and some raised their hands to wipe the cold sweat from their foreheads.

The relief of escaping death that gripped the thirty-four men was intertwined with the fear brought by the two dark iron objects before them, like a cold vine wrapping around their backs...