Chapter 487: Chapter 486: Infinite Stream Cannon Fodder: Five Days of Class 4

"This isn’t the Food Village anymore, so it should be fine to throw away some of this, right?" Bai Qiaoqian looked at the inedible food before her, genuinely unable to eat any more, not even wanting a single bite.

She glanced around and saw that the faces of her fellow adventurers in the same class were all scrunched up like orange peels, and she didn’t seek anyone’s help to eat the food.

Ma Qin didn’t notice what Bai Qiaoqian was thinking. Seeing her looking around at others, she thought Bai intended to use her old tricks again and couldn’t help but say, "This is an elimination instance. Don’t think others will help, just put away your tactics. It’s just a bad meal, not actual shit. Can’t you just close your eyes and swallow it?"

After saying this, she ate the food with an expression as if her parents had died—clearly showing how terrible today’s meal from the window tasted.

Why is it so disgusting?

Could it be on purpose?

From the Food Village instance, she had gathered quite a bit of information and knew these NPCs were quite flexible, even suggesting they were possibly human at one time.

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the NPCs intentionally made the food so bad just to torment the adventurers. Don’t forget, this is an elimination instance; they absolutely wouldn’t allow everyone to pass. But the greatest danger occurs at night—eight monsters, eight adventurers dying every night, making 40 over five days, reducing the count and leaving 25 people. For a world instance like this, a clear rate of 25 people is too high.

Besides, if the adventurers had the ability, possibly they could keep the monsters starving.

So it’s necessary to eliminate a certain number through other means.

Like those who were eliminated today, who didn’t listen to the teacher and were taken away by their parents.

Today, if she didn’t finish the food, she might get into trouble.

Thinking about these, Ma Qin quickened her eating pace, glancing at the empty windows, planning to come earlier at dinner.

Bai Qiaoqian sighed mournfully, "Ma Qin, have you ever eaten it?"

Pardon?

Ma Qin, busy with the terrible food, didn’t react at first. But she soon recalled the implied meaning, looking displeased, "You’re the one who’s eaten it!"

"Otherwise, how do you know so well, saying it’s so bad? If you think it’s easy, help me eat some, Sister Ma Qin, could you?"

Ma Qin, hearing the whiny voice, nearly regurgitated the food she had just eaten, "Don’t disgust me, go away."

"Sister Ma Qin, help me, please. I really can’t eat it." Bai Qiaoqian looked at Ma Qin pitifully. If it weren’t for the unique circumstances, Ma Qin would certainly have taken her tray to a secluded place to eat.

Seeing Ma Qin ignore her, Bai Qiaoqian sighed, scanned around but couldn’t easily find someone to trick, and didn’t waste much effort doing anything. In this peculiar world, an elimination instance, in the end, everyone was a competitor. Who would be so kind? Besides, interacting with strangers of unknown backgrounds could mean getting marked by a monster without even realizing it.

It’s safer here.

Damn, this food is really disgusting here.

Bai Qiaoqian raised her head, looked at Ah Chen, but didn’t approach him like she did Ma Qin. She wasn’t an idiot—knew whom to provoke and whom not to. Although Ma Qin seemed indifferent, her words weren’t pleasant; her heart wasn’t soft, yet she didn’t intend to harm, generally wouldn’t retaliate just over words.

As for Li Chen, it was different. Her natural keen perception told her it was best not to provoke.

Ah Chen, seeing Bai Qiaoqian’s particularly friendly smile, returned it with a smile of his own.

At this moment, the broadcast blared.

"Announcement: Li Liang, Chen Junyu, and Liu Jia from class 2, grade 11, have excessively wasted food. From today on, the school canteen will no longer provide them with food. Grain is hard to come by; please cherish it, and we hope nothing similar occurs again."

The broadcast repeated itself three times, causing some adventurers with plans to discard their food into the trash to abandon the thought immediately.

Not allowed to eat in the canteen, if you have coins, you can still make purchases from the mall. However, the mall’s food is exceedingly expensive, and coins are critical for survival, so using them for food seems wasteful.

Though they’re not in their real bodies, the sensation is nearly identical. One couldn’t survive without eating.

Over five days, spending a lot of coins.

It isn’t cost-effective, better to bite the bullet and eat the food—even bad, shove it down rather than go hungry.

"Luckily, I didn’t throw it away." Bai Qiaoqian looked relieved, took a deep breath, and set to tackling the food.

Ah Chen finished his food in a few bites; to him, this was no big deal.

Earlier, he had not specifically selected a tastier window. After all, as long as you don’t care, the difference isn’t significant.

After surviving the dreadful lunchtime, everyone regrouped and headed back to the classroom, complaining all the way about how awful the canteen food was.

"Yuck—haven’t eaten something this disgusting in a long time, it’s making my eyes roll back."

"I was thinking of eating just a bit and tossing the rest, but after that announcement, I had no choice but to stuff it down."

"I just knew the crowded windows had better food, rushed over and got the good stuff, hehe."

"Seeing the window with few people, I didn’t think much back then, now I realize the mistake."

Through conversation, everyone found out which windows had decent food.

After lunch, feeling drowsy, everyone tacitly returned to the class.

Recalling how earlier some had been called to the office, they couldn’t help but eye those few.

"Zhang Fangfang, did anything happen when you went to the office earlier?" Liu Mingming asked, remembering Zhang Fangfang due to a similar name and her memorable performance.

Zhang Fangfang shook her head, "Nothing happened at all."

"That could be a monster, secretly marked. Besides, the monster wouldn’t want to be discovered while marking, prompting a preparation reaction, right? There wouldn’t be any disturbance," someone chimed in.

"Since everyone seems fine, why don’t we guess who among us might be a monster?" Xu Zhou suggested, "Having a suspect would at least make us more cautious."

This suggestion received unanimous approval, and the first step was, naturally, self-introductions, each briefly sharing their situation.

No one really expected results, just nothing else to do.

However, as expected, through introductions, none revealed any flaws.

"You three seem to know each other?" Li Qiang’s gaze fell on Ah Chen and his two companions, "Earlier, after class, I noticed you guys seemed familiar with each other."

They were seated closely; it was noticeable as he looked up, and the three didn’t bother to hide.

"Does that mean they could be excluded?" an adventurer asked, leading to many looking at him as if he were a fool.

Seeing the confusion, Ma Qin couldn’t hold back, saying, "What if we are monsters? Monsters could know each other too."