Chapter 539: Island of Devil’s Maw (44)
Translator: Lonelytree
After leaping down from the Leaf of Terror, the players had been heading north (Actually for the players, going which direction was all the same, only the creatures from the main universe would be able to tell accurately the direction on the island). The further they went from the lair of the Silkworm Mother, the wider the crystalline paths became and there were less and less split in the roads. The four trekked for half an hour before they came to a relatively spacious area. At that moment, they stopped moving and officially started to rest…
“Ah….” Atobe lied down again, “This time I am not going to an inch even if you force me, let me rest for at least 2 hours first.”
“I agree completely.” Pegasus concurred as he laid down on the ground as well. On the other hand, Ambitionist leaned against the wall and sat down. He said, “My feel like my feet has blistered… But since I can’t remove my shoes, I can’t really tell. Things like this won’t appear in the status tab either.”
“Hah… then what else can you do but to be patient about it.” Feng Bujue said with a smile.
Ambitionist sighed, “Hmm… but this does remind me, next time I go for a fashion purchase, I better choose sneakers (he was currently wearing cloth shoes).”
“By the way…” After Pegasus sucked in a few breathes, he followed it up with. “Are you guys hungry yet? I feel like munching on something again…”
“Ah, I am feeling about the same.” Feng Bujue added with his finger scratching his chin. “Compared to the last time we ate anything, that was three hours ago, theoretically speaking… the feeling of hunger should not be that obvious. Looks like the effect of hunger in this scenario is much faster than compared to real life…”
“Perhaps it is because we have been exhausting ourselves along the way.” Atobe countered. “And… we have not really eaten our fill during our previous meal…”
“Impossible.” Feng Bujue instantly tossed that possibility out. “Unlike the rest of you, who was unable to truly enjoy the meal due to mental resistance…” he said rather proudly, “I have only stopped after I was 90 percent full.”
“What are you trying to prove with that….” Atobe narrowed his eyes to say, “That you are a psychopath cannibal that rival Hannibal Lecter?”
…
“No, I believe what Brother Feng is trying to explain is the problem related to the volume of the food we ingested and the time of digestion…” Ambitionist intervened. Feng Bujue snapped his finger and continued. “Bingo, as you can see, myself who was 90 percent full and you guys who only ate 60 to 70 percent full… reach the next pang of hunger at about the same time.” As he explained, he took out something from his inventory. Once his teammates saw what it was, their expressions all changed.
“Hey, hey! That won’t be necessary anymore, right?” Atobe was the first to shout. “Don’t we have mutton already? Why are you taking out Walker’s carcass again?”
“First, this is not a carcass but a spare food source that I have cooked and preserved.” Feng Bujue answered evenly. “Secondly, don’t you worry… I am not taking this out to eat it, even if I want to, I will do it alone, I won’t force the rest of you to eat it with me.” He raised the meat piece and placed it in the middle of his left palm. “I am just taking out this piece of meat to help with my explanation.”
“Fine then…” Atobe replied weakly. He knew very well that even if he argued for the man to stop, he would not be able to put a stop to the action of this mad man before him…
“This was cut down from the back of Walker so you can see it as a part of a rib.” Feng Bujue continued in the tone of a chef. “based on how much it weighs down on my hand…” he even used his hand to pinch the meat before concluding, “it weighs between 540 grams and 570 grams.”
“Can you please get to the point… and stop what you are doing…” Even Pegasus held his forehead and persuaded Feng Bujue.
“Stop what exactly?” Brother Jue shrugged and asked.
“Stop doing these horrible and disgusting things like it is like an everyday habit…” Ambitionist answered. “Perhaps for you, it is really nothing but you have to think about the feeling of us normal people. You are holding a piece of meat cut off from basically a human and is describing it, in terms of its weigh and cutting in the tone of a butcher, do you know how scary that is…”
“Fine~ Fine~” Feng Bujue accepted the criticism from his audience but as we all know, his action was not going to change. “For our current purpose, we will assume this piece of meat is 550 grams.” He used his finger to gesture at the meat and said, “at the altar, the portion that I ate was about 500 grams and the rest of you ate less than 350 grams.” He paused for the information to sink in. “But now, we have felt the pang of hunger at almost the same time…” At this point, Feng Bujue raised his eyes to look at his teammates. “Now do you realize where the problem lies?”
“Your appetite is about 30 percent larger than the rest of us?” Pegasus used an arithmetic skill of a primary school student to answer his question. It was like this was a quiz show for kids. His answer was so out there that even Feng Bujue was too lazy to give it any comment.
“I get it know…” Naturally it was Ambitionist who came to the conclusion, “it is essentially the same no matter you ate to 90 percent or 60 percent full…”
“Bingo,” Feng Bujue nodded in agreement. “We should have known that sooner… There is no setting of related to excretion in this game so our process of food digestion… definitely cannot be fully simulated as in real life.” He continued. “Obviously, in this scenario, the so-called ‘consumption of food’ is merely a method of neutralizing the feeling of hunger, it has zero relation to ‘absorbing nutrients and aiding body metabolism’.” He put the piece of meat in his hand away. “In a way… we are no different from common zombies, we are eating because we are hungry.”
“So… it does not really matter how much food we consume?” Atobe asked.
“Now, that might not be entirely true either.” Feng Bujue answered. “I believe… to wish to temporarily resolve the negative effect brought on by hunger, we at least to be 50 percent full… at the stage, the feeling of hunger should disappear already, if you push on further, that will only present you with the feeling of ‘overeating’.” He scratched his chin and said, “Therefore, I suggest… from now on, every time we sit down to eat, all of us should only eat until we are half full.”
“I agree.” Ambitionist reacted swiftly, “In that case, under the premise that the food storage will not spoil, it will last longer.”
“It does not matter, 50 percent full is better than nothing, it is time for a mutton barbeque party!” Pegasus cheered as he gathered strength in his waist and sat up from the ground.
“Sure…” As Feng Bujue replied, he already took out the branch of the mocking trees and readied to start a fire. “I do not think you people will be willing to feast on the flesh of Walker now that you have a better choice, right…”
…
At the same time, on the top of the Leaf of Terror.
“Do I roll it up like that?” Bill stood above the leaf and shouted at Billy below. Without knowing it, there were many dead bodies that littered the paths that lead to the Leaf of Terror. Most of them were beasts that hurried over from other areas, some were attracted by the scent of blood, others were attracted by the scent of death, while some… were planning to come over to take over the throne previously occupied by the Silkworm Mother. But without any exception, they had all been killed by Bill. After all, these creatures were merely the habitants of ‘reverse isle’. Even the strongest among them, the Silkworm Mother was still a distance away from the ‘inmates’ locked on the island…
Even the NPC that the players first encountered, Leideson, his power was almost as powerful as the Silkworm Mother, much less a hidden boss like that Lotus Soul. Even under her cursed state… The Lotus Soul could have easily dragged the Silkworm Mother and drown her inside the pool of shit….
“Why would you even consider rolling it up?” Billy asked from below. “Do you think you are making sushi? If you do it that way, the pieces of the body will leak out from the two open sides.”
“Then what should I do then?” Bill countered back.
“Wrap it up like how you would wrap up a rice dumpling.” Billy answered.
“Erm…” Bill thought for a few seconds, the monitor that was his face showed a confused expression. “But I do not see a twice that I can use to wrap up a dumpling anywhere?”
“Couldn’t you have used that vine monster that you have just killed earlier?” Billy answered.
“Eh? That’s right.” An XD emoji appeared on Bill’s face. “Ha ha! I guess this is what they call local sourcing!”
“Aiz…” billy shook his head. “He is still unreliable as well and that is because he does not like to use his brain…” He mumbled under his breath. “Hopefully he will see some growth after spending some time with the Count of Script…”
Bill who was up there did not hear his elder brother’s complaint. At that moment, he was using his finger to cut the leaf of the Leaf of Terror. The Leaf of Terror was naturally more than just a large piece of green leaf or else the Silkworm Mother would not have chosen this place to use as her lair. In terms of tensile strength, the Leaf of Terror was indeed not as hardy as the crystals around it but its ‘durability’ was impossibly strong. No matter how it was damaged, the Leaf of Terror would repair itself within a short period of time… For the Silkworm Mother, on the day when she failed to capture any prey, this leaf would be her breakfast, lunch and dinner… and it was a food source that would always replenish. And currently, Bill was planning to use this special property of the Leaf of Terror. He was cutting out and yanking off a part of the leaf and later used it to wrap up the Silkworm Mother’s carcass and carry it away.
Tsk tsk tsk tsk—Following the sound of metal cutting against leather, the sawing had begun. Bill’s fingers could be transformed within a certain limit, as long as he was willing, his five fingers could separately be changed into five small saws (the size here was relative, Bill’s one finger would be as wide as the palm of an adult human) or five hammers, five screwdrivers and so on… Bill had more tricks up his sleeves.
As he saw around the leaf, he lifted it up… he slowly worked his way around the carcass of the Silkworm Mother. When the Leaf of Terror was sawn through, it had started to regenerate on its own. The surface layer of the leaf was torn open, the new layer of plant fiber had started to grow on the wound, so there was no worry that one would fall through the leaf. It did not take long for Bill to be done with his job. He used the layer of leaf that he cut open to start to wrap around the carcass… With some folds here and there, he managed to wrap all of the Silkworm Mother’s carcass inside a triangular-shaped dumpling.
Billy who was watching below used his telekinetic power to help since he saw his little brother’s both hands were preoccupied. He waved his finger and the remains of the vine monster was pulled taut into a string and automatically flew upwards to the Leaf of Terror and knotted itself around the ‘dumpling’.
“Ok, done.” Bill stood next to the large ‘carcass dumpling’ and slapped the thing next to him with a sense of accomplishment…
“Carry that thing and follow me.” Billy then said.
“Ah?” Bill was befuddled. “We are still not leaving this godforsaken island yet?”
“Yes.” Billy again lowered his head to check his watch. “I still need to pay a visit to someone… and then I promise you we will leave this place…”
…
“I say… does this count as night time?” Pegasus looked at the crystals around them that had slowly dimmed in brightness and opened his mouth to ask. By then the players had finished their food and had been resting for one and a half hour already. In the first 10 minutes, they were quite worried that the system might suddenly decide to deem them as being afk. But… half an hour passed and nothing happened. So the group sighed in relief, so it appeared like in this scenario, the system approved as ‘resting’ as an action.
“Who knows…” Feng Bujue replied, “There is no celestial entities like sun or moon in the sky…” Suddenly an inspiration struck him. “Perhaps the concept of ‘sky’ does not even apply to this place, who knows what is that thing that we see above us? And who can tell how time works at this place? Perhaps the night time here will last for 30 plus hours; perhaps the reflection on the sky is the real Island of Devil’s Maw and this island that we are on is merely a mirror image; or perhaps… the creatures here will transform into another form at night…”
“We are truly helpless considering we can’t even tell the most basic four nautical directions…” Ambitionist sighed.
“Hmm… It’s not so bad, right…” Pegasus crossed his arms behind him and said, “Even if the crystals have all stopped glowing, we still have the bonfire and we have other lighting equipment.”
“But the problem in that case will become…” Feng Bujue’s gaze changed slightly and he continued, “Is it really wise for us to stay close to a source of light when the whole crystalline maze is sunken into darkness…”
“You’re right… We will attract the attention of the monsters.” Atobe followed Brother Jue’s train of thought. Ambitionist added, “Yes… if this place really does have the so-called ‘night time’, then it will definitely have the presence of nocturnal creatures. In that case… it is indeed not a good idea for us to stay around such an obvious light source.”
“Then… how has everyone’s Stamina Points recovered?” Feng Bujue asked.
“It is going better than I thought, mine has recovered back to 60 percent.” Ambitionist responded.
“Same here.” Atobe followed up.
Pegasus finished it up with. “Almost the same.”
“Okay then, let us be prepared to move on then.” Feng Bujue said as he stood up and patted away the crystalline dust that stuck to his clothes.
“Hah?” Atobe gasped in shock. “Hey… but the surroundings are getting darker and darker.”
“That is why we need to get moving…” Feng Bujue explained. “our human eyes are not evolved to see in the darkness, no matter what, we need light source to see the things around us. In either case of us staying at a fixed point or keep moving, neither of these conditions would allow us to keep a light source going on and off… So in that case, might as well pick up our flashlights and start exploring.”
“Hmm.” Pegasus also stood up and worked his muscles. “We have stayed here long enough already, it is time for us to move to another place.”
“To stay here or to leave… which one is more dangerous…” Ambitionist thought loudly to himself. “I choose to sustain from making a choice…” He turned to look at Atobe. “Atobe, what do you think?”
Atobe was stunned. This time he was pushed to become the decision maker, that did not happen very often.
“I…” After some time of hesitation, Atobe ultimately came out with, “I still think… we better get a move on… after all, we still need to complete our quest.” Actually he did not put much thought behind this, he just instinctually leaned towards Feng Bujue’s decision. At that moment, instead of following his feeling, might as well follow Brother Jue’s plan…
Therefore, under the principle of majority wins, Ambitionist had accepted the notion of moving on. Thus the four resumed their journey. What they did not know was… the most dangerous threat that they would come to face in this whole scenario was silently heading their way…