Pineapple Roasted Chicken

Hungry. So hungry. Extremely hungry.

After seeing this roast chicken, Chen Miemie felt increasingly hungry. His stomach growled, and his mouth involuntarily watered.

Slurp. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

In less than twenty seconds, Chen Miemie couldn't help but step closer to the roast chicken. He tore off a drumstick and was about to stuff it into his mouth.

Slender fingers, textured like blue-and-white porcelain, pressed down on him.

"You can't eat it. If you do, you'll turn into a roast chicken too."

Chen Miemie hadn't lost his mind; his brain was perfectly clear.

But right now, his body was like a man who had been thirsty in the desert for a week suddenly finding a bottle of water. Even knowing it was poisoned, reason could hardly stop the body's craving for water.

Before his reason could continue wrestling with his bodily instincts, the drumstick was snatched away by Qinghua and thrown aside.

"Nooo!" Chen Miemie reacted as if he had just seen someone smash a priceless treasure. His heart ached so much he couldn't breathe.

The roast chicken, now missing a drumstick, continued to release its scent bombs, smelling more and more fragrant.

"Qinghua, why are you hanging out with a human, and how is he completely fine?" the one-legged roast chicken spoke.

Qinghua was concise, hitting the nail on the head in one sentence: "He is Chen Miemie. He has a special ability that allows me to control my own power."

The roast chicken jumped up at once. "What?! A mere human? How is that possible!"

Qinghua ignored the roast chicken's doubts. "You are one of my only two good friends. Do you want to join us?"

"Huh? I can too? I want to join!"

Qinghua turned her head. "Miemie, what do we need to do?"

Chen Miemie was still fighting his appetite. He looked at the roast chicken, his self-control stretched to its absolute limit, on the verge of losing it. His eyes were almost bloodshot.

"Roast chicken, what is your name? The full name."

"My full name is Pineapple Roast Chicken."

"Alright, Pineapple Roast Chicken, are you willing to come to my house and forever become... my food!" By the end of his sentence, Chen Miemie couldn't hold back anymore. He lunged at the roast chicken like a tiger.

Pineapple Roast Chicken looked at the rapidly approaching Chen Miemie, then looked at its good friend Qinghua, who wore an encouraging expression.

"Uh, I am willing."

Chen Miemie's frenzied hands had already touched Pineapple Roast Chicken's body, feeling that wonderful layer of grease on its skin.

With that "I am willing," his appetite vanished instantly.

His stomach was still hungry, and the roast chicken's aroma was still fragrant, but he could now control his body.

He let go of Pineapple Roast Chicken.

[Moon's Invitation] has been completed. Time is up, goodbye.

Oh, goodbye. Also, thank you, Xiaoshuang.

The mist and darkness in the corridor dissipated, giving way to white light.

Today's daytime featured a silver sun.

Pineapple Roast Chicken followed Chen Miemie and Qinghua into Room 1803.

The front door closed.

"I really can control my power now! By the way, Chen Miemie, you are a great guy. I'll allow you to call me Bobo, just like Qinghua does."

"Okay, Bobo. Please stay a little further away from me. It's early in the morning, and even without your special ability, you smell way too good. I still want to eat you."

"That's easy. Qinghua, give me a plate!"

Pineapple Roast Chicken took a massive leap. Its legs seemed very agile, allowing it to jump incredibly high.

Qinghua, being its old friend, shared a deep tacit understanding with it. She immediately tossed out a square towel she had on hand.

The fabric turned into porcelain in mid-air, forming a simple porcelain plate that landed on the dining table, and Pineapple Roast Chicken landed perfectly from mid-air right onto the plate.

Chen Miemie looked at the two anomalies in confusion.

"Come on, Chen Miemie. I've already plated myself up. Come and eat me."

Chen Miemie shook his head. "I'm not eating. I don't want to turn into a roast chicken."

"Don't worry. Right now, not only can I control my appetizing temptation over people, but I've also turned off my ability to turn people into roast chickens."

"That still won't work. If I eat you, wouldn't you become disabled..."

Before Chen Miemie could finish his sentence, he noticed that the drumstick he had torn off Pineapple Roast Chicken earlier had already grown back.

"Hehe, you noticed, right? I'm super amazing. I can infinitely produce Pineapple Roast Chicken. You couldn't finish eating me in a lifetime."

Qinghua silently chimed in, "No need to be polite. It really enjoys being eaten."

"Well then, I won't hold back."

In the living room.

At the dining table.

The atmosphere was both harmonious and bizarre.

Chen Miemie tore off another drumstick and stuffed it into his mouth along with a piece of sweet pineapple.

The crispiness of the roast chicken and the juiciness of the pineapple made for a flavor that could only be described with one word: absolutely divine.

"Bobo, as the head of the household, I represent our organization in welcoming you to our warm and cozy family."

Bobo, who was actively being eaten, twisted its crispy roasted neck. "Thank you. From now on, whatever flavor you want to eat, just tell me. Sour, sweet, salty, spicy, I can mix it all up for you."

After Chen Miemie finished eating Bobo, the spit-out broken bones on the table stood up on their own and merged back into Bobo's body.

In the blink of an eye, a bare chicken carcass was restored into a complete Pineapple Roast Chicken.

"Very good. Thirteen minutes, just in time to recover." Qinghua picked up the porcelain plate holding Bobo.

The porcelain plate turned back into a towel, and the grease stains on the plate were automatically absorbed by the towel.

"I have an important class today, so I need to go to school. You guys be good at home and don't tear the house down."

"Got it."

"Who would tear the house down? I am already a mature Pineapple Roast Chicken. Hmph, mere Chen Miemie. I, Bobo, am going to sleep."

For its bed, Bobo, the roast chicken with pineapple, chose the large iron wok in the kitchen.

Chen Miemie walked out of the apartment and into the dim stairwell.

After going up and down the stairs every day these past few days, he had gotten used to it and wasn't as resistant to it as he was in the beginning.

Today was the second day of the week.

The seventh day was the [Day of No Tomorrow] for the graduation exam. Any class held at this time was definitely extremely important.

Rumor had it that this was the very last class.

If yesterday's off-campus tutoring didn't count, it would also be the first class Chen Miemie ever attended.

Downstairs, he passed by Old Li's Fruit Stand.

In this world, shops closed early and opened early.

A fruit stand was actually open for business by seven-thirty in the morning.

"Morning, Uncle Li."

"Ah, it's Chen Miemie. I heard you're about to take the graduation exam?"

"Yeah, right on this [Day of No Tomorrow]."

"Here, these two Youyou fruits are for you. Do well on your exam, and make sure you come support my business next week."

"Thanks, Uncle Li." Chen Miemie didn't stand on ceremony and directly accepted the two fruits.

This was no small gift. The two Gougou fruits weighed almost half a kilo, and these imported fruits cost 10 hours per half kilo.

Come next week. The only ones who could come next week were those who passed the exam.

Arriving at the school, he found Room 606 where the class was held. It was eight-twenty.

Room 606 was a very large classroom. For a class at nine o'clock, it was already half full, with an estimated hundred people.

This was the first time Chen Miemie had seen so many classmates.

Bizarre clothing, multicolored hair and eyes, some people actually brought weapons to class.

"Chen Miemie, over here," Liu Bo called out. There was an empty seat to his left, seemingly saved for Chen Miemie.

"Liu Bo, are there this many graduates?"

"Our class has over 30 people, and there are 6 graduating classes. There should be around 200 people in total."

"That's the data from before," chimed in the tall guy sitting to Liu Bo's right. "From what I know, over 400 people are taking the exam this year."

Liu Bo became interested. "Where did an extra 200 people come from out of thin air? I didn't know about this. By the way, Chen Miemie, this is Aotian. He's my neighbor and friend, not from our class."

Aotian? Such an arrogant-sounding name?

"Hello, Aotian. Is that your real name?"

"Hello. Yes, my surname is Ao, given name Tian."

"My apologies, my apologies."

"Alright, Aotian, hurry up and explain, what's this about 400 people?" Liu Bo steered the conversation back.

"Your family's poultry business is so big, with such wide connections, and you haven't heard the news?

What else could it be? New Era is feeling the pressure.

They've been going to all those who avoided the exam and chose to graduate early—influential families, one after another—persuading them, promising benefits, even applying some pressure, coaxing and tricking them into coming."

"Is the situation that serious? Is our Sixiang City so weak that we need to go this far?"

"If only we knew who's strong and who's weak. There's no ranking among the Hundred Cities. Everyone plays with [Mystery]. Without a fight, no one knows who's stronger."

"Ah, regardless, it's never wrong to be more prepared. Besides, if we don't do this, other cities will. In special times, those in power have to make some moves."

"That might be for the best. With 200 more people, at a 5% rate, we'll have at least 10 more [Mystics] this year."

"Why don't you say we'll have 180 more deaths?"

"Forget it, it's not up to us. We don't even know if we'll make it back ourselves. Why worry so much?"

Chen Miemie listened for a long while, waiting for a pause in their conversation before he could interject:

"What does 'play with [Mystery]' mean?"

Aotian gave him a strange look.

"Don't look at him like that. Chen Miemie lost his memory. Let me explain.

Chen Miemie, everyone's abilities are different. [Mystery] is the scale that quantifies our power.

The entry threshold for our school is reaching a [Mystery] of 0.5.

First-year students have [Mystery] 0.5, second-years 0.6, third-years 0.7, and so on, up to 0.9 for sixth-years.

Usually, it's just one decimal place. Our graduating class is special; we've been accumulating at 0.9 for a long time, a special [Mystery] 0.99, meaning we're just one step away from a breakthrough.

Every whole number in Mystery is a major threshold. Fighting across whole numbers involves tier suppression. The higher tier is enhanced twofold, the lower tier is weakened twofold. Combined, that's a fourfold difference."

Chen Miemie frowned slightly. The information was a bit overwhelming all at once; he needed to memorize and understand it piece by piece.

Liu Bo paused for a moment:

"Let me give you an example.

The difference between someone with Mystery 1.99 and someone with 1.9 or 1.8 is minimal; it just means the former has started attempting a breakthrough.

The gap between someone with Mystery 2 and someone with 1.99 isn't 0.1, nor 0.01, but at least fourfold from the start.

And if you cross two major stages, say 1.99 and 3, the tier suppression becomes a terrifying 1010, meaning a hundredfold difference."

With the example, Chen Miemie understood immediately.

"What about crossing three major stages?"

"Three stages? Then it's not a matter of numerical multiples anymore. The lower tier's abilities might simply fail to work."

"I see." Chen Miemie suddenly thought of something. "Wait, that doesn't seem right. Why do I feel like going from 0.99 to 1 didn't make me four times stronger?"

Liu Bo shot him a look of exasperation:

"Feel, my foot. Below 1, everyone's abilities are just embryonic. You know what your ability is, but you can't use its complete form, only a small part of it.

The process from 0.99 to 1 isn't a fourfold increase; it's a qualitative change, from nothing to something, from ordinary to supernatural.

Only after completing the graduation exam can our [Mystery] break through to 1."

Chen Miemie wasn't convinced. "Why must we complete the graduation exam to break through? Maybe I'm exceptionally talented."

Aotian, who had been listening on the side, couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Sorry, sorry, couldn't help it. It's like this: the method to go from [Mystery] 0.99 to 1 is simple and unique. It doesn't rely on study or training."

"What method?"

"To come face-to-face with an anomaly, alone, survive, and not go insane."