The phone call ended.
The teenager’s index finger traced the receiver, a playful smirk crossing his face.
“Oh, interesting.”
He stared at the game settlement screen on the computer monitor in front of him.
“My Head Chef hasn’t received that [Changed Menu] yet, but it should be arriving soon.”
“If both menus are the same…”
“Did it come from the [Hunter], or from the print shop?”
The teenager sighed: “Ah, I hope it was the [Hunter].”
The Doppelganger tilted its head blankly: “Why?”
The teenager stood up from his chair.
He swung his leg in a sweeping kick, and with a dull thud of bone hitting hard rubber, the Doppelganger’s head caved in like a deflated ball.
“Stupid thing.”
The teen said contemptuously, his expression shifting completely.
“…Of course, because I’ve sealed off the [Kitchen].”
“If he doesn’t walk in and rot inside there, then who the hell am I sealing it off for?”
The Doppelganger’s head slowly inflated back, a tear in the skin at its temple revealing a translucent substance beneath.
“I understand what you mean, Boss. The [Hunter] will definitely be in the [Kitchen].”
The teen sneered and picked up the receiver again.
“He’ll definitely [rot] inside the Kitchen,” he emphasized. “Rot.”
“Do you think the Head Chef is free to take my call right now?”
...
“No?” Zhu Yan quietly asked the Tuxedo Cat.
On his retina, Yang Zhanbai had sent a video thumbnail along with a large block of text below it. The blood-red font carried a faint sense of dread, filling most of his field of vision.
Right now.
He was crouched on a patch of spotless white tiles, flanked by clean white walls.
Only a few scattered doors broke the white walls, with bright yellow “15” embedded conspicuously in the empty spaces between them.
This was Corridor 15.
Zhu Yan was crouched in front of a room at the end of the corridor.
It was an iron door about two meters high, with no window to reveal what was inside. A red bell was mounted beside it.
Hearing Zhu Yan’s question, the mist around his waist quickly formed into the shape of a cat head, shaking at him.
That meant the door had no gaps and couldn’t be entered.
Zhu Yan understood.
He stood up, glanced briefly at the red bell, and turned back without hesitation.
As it turned out, coordinating with Yang Zhanbai earlier was the right move.
The other side had told him everything that happened at [The Lazy Man’s Craft Shop], including the Dragonfly’s phone conversation.
Clearly, that “Boss” had already picked up on something and had started investigating.
And while the Dragonfly’s words had helped cover up the lie he told Yang Zhanbai, they were essentially deflecting blame.
This Dragonfly obviously didn’t want to take on some kind of responsibility or consequence, so it made up all that nonsense.
But if that was the case, that Boss was bound to become suspicious.
“Zeyu, from what the Dragonfly implied, the horror creature in the kitchen seems to be investigating the [Hunter].”
“If conditions allow, keep an eye out.”
The crimson text pulsed constantly on Zhu Yan’s retina.
“If you can take advantage and drag the [Hunter]’s corpse back to the dorm, that works too.”
...Works too, my ass.
Zhu Yan was speechless.
You really can’t reason with someone like Yang Zhanbai.
Was he supposed to drag his own corpse back to the dorm?
Earlier, he had wanted to see if he could send the Tuxedo Cat in its mist form through the gap under the door and into the kitchen.
That would have been the fastest way to get intel.
But no dice—
It seemed the only way into the Kitchen was through the conveyor belt.
The Tuxedo Cat formed a soft cat head and rubbed against Zhu Yan’s hand.
“Meow?” the Tuxedo Cat asked.
Zhu Yan understood—it was asking why he didn’t ring the bell.
“Can’t ring it,” Zhu Yan explained quietly. “That Boss already guessed I’m here. If I ring the bell to deliver the [Changed Menu] now, they’ll definitely get suspicious.”
They’d suspect who delivered the [Changed Menu] and start checking for flaws from that crack.
Once these horror creatures’ guard went up, Zhu Yan’s room to maneuver would shrink.
“…That won’t work.”
Zhu Yan muttered, hurrying back through the grimy corridor he had come from.
The conveyor belt should be inside some kind of workroom.
“Let’s check it out,” Zhu Yan said quietly to the Tuxedo Cat, pointing at the doors on either side. “Which one has the conveyor belt inside?”
...
Upstairs.
The teenager leaned against the table, waiting, picking absently at the stitches on his neck.
Blood soon stained his fingernails, but the teen seemed numb to it, listening distractedly to the sounds from the phone.
“Boss.”
The ringing stopped, replaced by a refined voice.
“What are your orders?”
The teen scratched his face: “Did you receive the [Changed Menu]?”
“Changed Menu?”
The Head Chef paused his work and looked toward the iron door.
No—
From earlier until now, from when it started preparing these delicious sauces and accompaniments, the area outside the door had been completely quiet.
The ingredients coming down the conveyor belt were also perfectly normal.
“No,” the Head Chef said. “No horror creature has rung the bell to notify me. Everything else is normal.”
“What’s wrong, Boss?”
...
Downstairs, around Zhu Yan’s waist, thin streams of vapor formed into a tiny arrow, pointing at one of the doors.
“That one?”
“Woof,” the Tuxedo Cat head said.
Zhu Yan lightly patted the furry head.
He decisively activated [Roleplay], feeling his body disperse lightly and fill the entire corridor.
Zhu Yan tried to gather himself back together, slowly squeezing through the gap in the door.
A thick, sour-and-foul blood stench instantly filled every pore.
Zhu Yan suppressed a wave of intense nausea, spreading his body thinner and wider.
He floated near the ceiling, looking down.
...
Upstairs.
The teenager’s face grew cold.
“No movement? Are you sure there’s no movement?”
“If the [Hunter] entered the Kitchen, how could there be no movement?”
A contemplative expression crossed his face.
“Did he not come in, or…”
The Head Chef’s other hand froze on the knife.
“What did you say?” it asked. “The [Hunter] is inside?”
There was no answer on the other end, but the Head Chef scanned the room with extreme sharpness.
“No,” it said firmly. “Nothing here.”
“Rest assured, Boss.”
The Head Chef let out a cold laugh: “The only way for the [Hunter] to get in would be to turn himself into pieces and come through the ingredient conveyor belt.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
