Chapter 44 [Seeking support and collection]

"Then... let's look around and see if we can find any clues."

They wandered around the slaughterhouse for a long time, near and far, until the afternoon when they finally gathered near the location where they had previously discovered the dog hole.

"I'm exhausted, I didn't find anything."

"Yes, it seems there are no clues outside. We still need to go in and look."

"Let's go back first and come back tomorrow. It's getting late today."

"Hurry back and eat, I'm starving."

"Let's eat!"

"We haven't eaten or drunk anything since we entered the instance. Where do you suggest we eat or drink?"

"Isn't there a restaurant across from the hotel?"

Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback. A restaurant? That restaurant seemed to be one of the targets? In other words, there was a good chance that a mini-boss was inside!

So the question is, is the food in this restaurant safe to eat?

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't joke around. If the food at this restaurant is inedible, where are we going to get food? And isn't the hotel one of our targets too? Are the food and water they provide safe to eat and drink?"

"What should I do? I'm so hungry, am I going to starve to death?"

"Hunger is secondary; the most important thing is water. If we have water to drink, we can last for at least a few days. Not having food to eat is not the most important thing."

"Why don't we hurry back and discuss this with the others? I think everyone should have already returned to the vicinity of the hotel by now."

"Let's go. There's no point in staying here any longer. Let's not go inside today."

After Zhou Feng made the decision, he led everyone back to the vicinity of the hotel. Sure enough, everyone gathered on the road between the hotel and the restaurant, some standing and some sitting. They were the last to return.

"You're back. Did you find any clues?"

Zhou Feng shook his head, "Not yet, what about you?"

Everyone looked frustrated. No one had been lost, but there wasn't a single clue.

"Although we could move around freely in the hotel, all the unoccupied rooms were exactly the same, with nothing extra. As for the owner's room... he always stayed in his room, so we never had a chance to go in."

"We went to the school, but we weren't allowed to go in."

"But... even if we don't go inside, we can still see the whole school from the outside. Although there is a wall, it is very low and there are broken parts. Inside, there is only one bungalow, two classrooms, one office, and a very simple dry toilet at the back."

"Each class has about twenty students and only two teachers. After school, the students and teachers leave, and the security guard leaves before we go in. But there's nothing inside, not even a single sign."

The person who went to the church said, "As for the church... we went inside and looked at it. There was only a woman wearing a black dress inside. There were very few things inside, and it looked empty. We talked to the woman in the black dress for a couple of minutes, and wandered around inside a few times, but we didn't find anything."

"Sigh... not to mention the cemetery, there are only mounds and tombstones, and an old man with all his teeth gone watching over there. He can't hear us when we talk to him."

"The old man's resting place was just a makeshift thatched hut that looked like it could be blown away by the wind."

Of course, nothing was found.

"The same goes for the grove of trees. There wasn't a single person in the grove. We found an abandoned cabin, but it was dirty and messy inside, covered in thick dust, and hadn't been lived in for a long time..."

Finally, everyone turned their attention to the restaurant's main entrance.

Zhou Feng: "Where's the team in charge of the restaurant? Have you gone inside to check?"

"I checked, you have to pay to eat inside. Luckily we all have money, but..."

Zhou Feng, "But?"

"But the food inside is so expensive. A small bowl of white rice costs fifty yuan, and a bowl of braised pork costs one hundred and fifty yuan."

Zhou Feng: "The high price isn't the big problem; the problem is, is the food even edible? Have you eaten it?"

"We...we'll eat it."

They ate it, but they didn't know if it was safe to eat; they hadn't even considered that question beforehand.

"What should we do? Can't we eat it? Will we be doomed if we eat it?"

"That meat isn't pork, is it?"

If it's not pork, then what other meat could it be?

"Don't scare me. My family owns a restaurant. That's pork belly. How could I mistake it for something else?"

Zhou Feng pondered, "It should be something edible. We can't go without food or drink while we're on our mission."

"This is a dungeon without a time limit, so there must be food available. This restaurant should be the only place where we can eat."

Some people disagree with this view.

"But isn't this restaurant also one of the mission locations?"

"Hotels are one too, but we still have to stay in hotels, right?"

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent, especially those who had just eaten at the restaurant, who chimed in, "Yes, yes, it's definitely edible. We all ate there and we're fine."

The man in the hat said, "Maybe we just need to pay attention to the time or some rules?"

"What's the meaning?"

"You have to pay for meals at restaurants, etc."

Everyone remained silent. Isn't it obvious that you have to pay for your meal at a restaurant? Is that the rule?

However, people don't have any other choice right now, but they are still worried and hesitant, not knowing what to do.

Seeing everyone like this, the man wearing the hat didn't waste any more time and went into the restaurant first, where he saw the female waitresses inside.

"Welcome! How many of you are there?"

"Me alone."

"Okay, this way please. What would you like to eat?"

"Hmm... a serving of braised pork, a serving of vegetable soup, and a bowl of rice."

"Okay, that'll be two hundred and sixty in total. Please pay the bill first, thank you."

Without hesitation, the man in the hat took out exactly 260 from his pocket and handed it to the waiter.

The waiter took the money and left quickly, returning shortly with the food. "Please enjoy your meal."

The man in the hat carefully examined the food and found that apart from the food looking a little stale, there were no other problems.

He slowly picked up his bowl and chopsticks to eat, which was hard for those outside to bear, as they had all been hungry all day and wanted to eat and drink.

After a while, some people couldn't resist and went inside in twos and threes to order food and eat.

However, a small number of people were unwilling to go in and left the area, seemingly to find something to eat elsewhere.

Zhou Feng approached the man in the hat. "Are you almost finished eating?"

"kindness."

How does it taste?

"It tastes a bit bad, but it's still edible."

Zhou Feng, "It tastes awful..."

There was no other way; no matter how bad the food was, they had to eat, otherwise they would starve to death before completing their mission!