Chapter 449 Yogurt for Tomato

There seemed to be some food residues on those dining tables, but if you look closely, those food residues seem to be still wriggling and twisting, like snake meat that had just had its head removed and its skin peeled off, and was still twisting thanks to nerve signals.

There were green fluff floating in some of the soup-like leftovers, and the whole thing was a turbid gray with some black flocs floating on the surface, as if something was rotting inside.

At the food purchase window at the end of the restaurant, the door that had been closed was opened and left ajar.

Through that door, one seems to be able to see more strange scenes, such as the dark green light like the underworld, the dark red sticky liquid flowing on the floor, the twisting and crawling pieces of meat, and the occasional "clang clang clang" sound of iron chains making noises in the wind...

In the thick and sticky darkness, it seemed as if something was struggling desperately to break free.

Lin Yi stood in the middle of the restaurant and could still feel as if countless pairs of eyes were staring at him in the dark. Those units queuing in the shadows were all looking at him, but when he looked around, those units seemed to have never moved and just stood in line stiffly.

A large number of units were queuing in the dark area, and only a small number of people were queuing in the well-lit area. They kept their heads down and said nothing, just blindly following the team to move forward, hoping to get their meals earlier.

There was a sense of fear spreading among these people. Lin Yi knew that these people were the "original" experiencers, the easily consumable material on campus - the university life experiencers.

When he joined the queue, no one lined up behind him. It seemed that his line was blocked. Those students who entered the student cafeteria later all lined up at the "only" meal purchase window - Window No. 4.

He realized this, but did not stop it. He just continued to look around boldly, observing everything in the cafeteria and watching the various changes that were happening.

For him, this student cafeteria really has new changes every time he comes.

He cast his gaze towards the deserted dark area, which was an area that was clearly prohibited from entering according to the "Canteen Rules". It was also the area where he felt a strong sense of suffocation when he observed it last time.

Now that his will and body have been comprehensively improved, he feels that he can try to observe that area again.

Of course, the only problem is that he is alone now, and if he does something wrong, there is no one to cover him.

So no matter how much you watch, you still have to stop when you are ready.

He carefully released his perception, and invisible waves spread out like ripples, extending towards the dark area.

“Howl…”

As soon as the sensing tentacles reached the shadow area, an ethereal and strange whistling sound appeared in his mind...

The next moment, a slight feeling of dizziness came over him.

His steps staggered slightly, but this did not cause him much impact.

His real body was still following the line of people buying food and moving forward silently.

"Lin Yi..."

"Come to me..."

In the darkness, his senses caught intermittent ethereal murmurs. It was hard to tell whether the voice was from a man or a woman. It sounded like both a boy and a girl, or a mixture of calls. It gave him a sense of déjà vu of the Black Mountain Demon's voice in A Chinese Ghost Story.

Even so, this voice still had a strong alluring flavor, like an invisible hand grabbing Lin Yi's perception tentacles, and then dragging his perception into the dark abyss bit by bit...

“Howl…”

The ethereal voice echoed in the darkness, like the wind swirling in the tunnel and the snow drifting in the passage, cold, lingering and unpredictable.

Suddenly, a ray of dim light fell into the dark abyss, and the abyss was suddenly painted with a touch of color.

Lin Yi keenly captured some traces of the abyss.

At that moment, he seemed to see some mottled and ancient green stone bricks, some giant yellow-brown bricks, some damp inner walls covered with moss, the faint sound of flowing water, and some... the sound of waves.

“Wow…”

It is the sound of waves hitting the stone wall.

And...that intermittent calling.

"Lin Yi..."

"Come to me..."

"here……"

“Come here… come…”

Endless whispers emerged from the abyss, circling around his head and lingering in his ears like a devil's sound.

A feeling of weightlessness came over him, as if he was about to fall into the dark abyss.

But Lin Yi is no longer the same person he was before. He held his forehead and shook his head lightly, thus pulling his will out of it and eliminating the shackles brought by the feeling of weightlessness.

Endless darkness was still spreading behind him, like tentacles spreading out from the void trying to grab his body, but he ignored it and left it all behind by simply following the food-buying line.

The darkness receded like the tide and soon no longer entangled Lin Yi, and a thought flashed through Lin Yi's mind.

He seemed to know what the dark area corresponded to...

"That's the well."

Well of the Art Building!
Bricks, moss, waves, calling voices...

Everything seemed to be connected to the well.

But Lin Yi felt that this was just a connection brought to him by some kind of environmental perception, rather than a real connection between the layers.

Otherwise, with Lao Mo's level of layer jump, he could just jump directly from here to that ancient well, right?

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Lin Yi suddenly fell into doubt again.

Maybe... that's not the case?

He shouldn't have rejected the hypothesis out of hand.

What if it's true?

There is indeed a connection between the layers, but the "original apostle" is buried deep in that ancient well. Lao Mo can indeed jump over, but wouldn't that be just sending himself to the door?

It must be safer to make one more jump to the coastline!

That’s true... Lin Yi wiped the cold sweat off his forehead awkwardly.

Besides, Lao Mo might not even know about the well. He only relied on the air waves of the "Sanctuary" and the escort of Night Watcher-02 to spy on the existence of those areas. Lao Mo would definitely not be able to get through without knowing anything about it.

Then again...how could the cafeteria, as the last line of defense on campus, be related to the ancient well in the art building?
Is there really a connection between the layers, or... is it simply because his will was influenced by the Master of Magic and connected to the Art Building, so many areas are directly connected to the Art Building or clues related to the Master of Magic?

He could vaguely sense that the Master was infiltrating his subconscious through the secret pattern. This influence was silent, even overcoming his habits and instincts, always inadvertently setting traps for him and giving him little "surprises".

This wave of perception might be a trap set by the magician.

Thinking of this, he came to his senses and continued to follow the team forward.

But this time, when he was walking forward with his head down, a huge face suddenly appeared in front of him, occupying his entire field of vision.

A face of a chef in a green bib, pale without any blood, with a strange smile, as if he had shone a green light from bottom to top on himself.

Green Bib Chef, late but here we are!
Lin Yi was startled, but immediately calmed down.

The first time he saw the green-bibbed chef, he was startled, and the second time he was also startled, but now, he just said “oh” and it was over.

"Classmate, would you like to try the new set meal... dry noodles with tomato meat sauce?" The chef in the green bib uttered a dry, long and somewhat weird voice.

The students around were all frightened. They tensed up and subconsciously squeezed to the front of the line.

Lin Yi did not pretend to ignore it. He just glanced at it indifferently and then looked away.

The chef in the green bib was not annoyed when he saw this, but continued to pester him like a fly, constantly trying to sell him noodles with tomato and meat sauce.

Soon, it was Lin Yi's turn to get food. He ordered a few dishes at random, and then looked at the cafeteria lady wearing a green bib at the food purchase window, who skillfully prepared a dish with tomato elements for him...

"Chef-0256"... He silently wrote down the name tag of the cafeteria lady, then took the plate without any care and walked silently to the card machine.

He covered the side with his ID with his palm and slowly took out his student ID.

The result was that when he did this, even the few trainees who had already gotten their meals and had not walked far away shuddered, as if they had caught some kind of aura, and turned their heads towards his position.

"Damn...fake classmate?" The actions of those trainees really scared Lin Yi. He just felt that there was something wrong with those people, but he didn't expect that they were so wrong.

The result was that they all gave away their true colors with just such a simple test.

"But these are supposed to be new students... When were they transformed?"

"Could it be that there was abnormal weather at night, and people followed the principle of staying close to the cafeteria to take shelter?"

According to the "Student Code", students should take shelter nearby, so the first choice in the cafeteria area is the cafeteria. However, if the time is not the cafeteria opening time written on the sign in front of the cafeteria, there will be a time conflict.

In that case, just entering the cafeteria would be a violation of the rules.

The correct approach should be what Wei Liang mentioned, “as if entering” – arriving at the door but not going in.

I was hiding under the eaves. You asked me if I was in the cafeteria, and I was. You asked me if I went in, and I didn't.

As in.

Those experience students were probably killed after breaking the "Ru Jin" state.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, they did so, but saw something they shouldn’t have seen, and were killed directly because of the layer drop.

Lin Yi's mind raced as he silently swiped his card under the gazes of countless fiery and greedy eyes. He then put away his student ID and came to the yogurt.

He picked up a box of yogurt and slowly placed it on the plate.

A chef in a green bib appeared beside him at some point, and while he was "not paying attention", replaced the yogurt in his hand with tomatoes before putting it on the plate.

So Lin Yi put a tomato on his plate.

Lin Yi suddenly "noticed" that there was an extra tomato on his plate. He frowned slightly, and then realized that he had not taken the yogurt yet.

So he picked up another box of yogurt and put it on the plate.

The chef in the green bib smiled and secretly replaced him.

Lin Yi said nothing, just kept repeating the action.

The green bib chef just followed silently...

Soon, Lin Yi finished all the yogurt.

Emmmm...to be precise, all the yogurt was turned into the tomato of the green bib chef.

He used one arm to hold a plate of tomatoes in one hand, and he was still invincible... No, he was still calm and composed.

Finally, after Lin Yi had finished mixing all the yogurt, he silently looked at the hand of the chef in the green bib.

The green bib chef's feet are already full of yogurt...

Lin Yi pursed his lips, held the plate with one hand, leaned over to pick up a box of yogurt from the ground, and put it on the plate...

This time, yogurt was placed on the plate.

Lin Yi's movements paused slightly.

He pursed his lips, as if he wanted to pick up the yogurt again, and then see if the chef in the green bib wants to change...

The green bib chef didn't make any moves.

Lin Yi said nothing, but silently looked at the chef in the green bib, as if to say, "Why don't you consider it again? Make another tomato?"

But the chef in the green bib didn't buy it at all and just looked at Lin Yi.

Lin Yi did not move his eyes away and just stared at the chef in the green bib.

The green-bibbed chef's gaze also didn't shift.

Eyes facing each other.

The chef in the green bib was slightly stunned. It seemed to have thought of something, and the few remaining intelligence that overrides the instinctive mechanism began to drive its brain to work slowly.

But soon, Lin Yi seemed to trigger another mechanism of it. It began to reveal a symbolic evil and weird smile and slowly handed out a tomato.

The corners of its mouth did not move, still showing that ear-to-ear grin, but a hoarse and low voice slowly floated out: "Classmate...eat anime..."

Before he could even utter the word "Qima", Lin Yi reached out and took the tomato from its hand.

Lin Yi was overjoyed. Who would have known there was such a mechanism earlier?

Green Bib Chef: “???”

Lin Yi took the tomatoes and put them on the plate, but looking at the mountain of tomatoes on the plate, he couldn't help but frown.

It seems, as if, maybe... I can’t let it go!

(End of this chapter)

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