Waste is the most shameful thing?

Yeah, how could she forget the name of this side plot?

I originally thought that this was just a summary of the side quests, but I didn't expect that not only the player camps involved, but even the ghost NPCs in the side quests had to abide by this rule.

The hunchbacked security guard opposite also stopped swinging his axe, and Lu Cai finally got a clear look at his facial features.

He had a rectangular face, broad at the bottom and tapering at the top, with thick eyebrows, small eyes, a large, flat nose, thick lips, and a wide mouth. If it weren't for the overpowering gloom in his eyes, he would have had a somewhat simple and unpretentious temperament.

Lu Cai curled her lips and reached for the soup bowl on the table. The figure opposite her stiffened. Her fingertips touched the rim of the bowl, and with a slight pressure, the bowl moved an inch, causing the stinking liquid to slosh.

One of the mummies grunted, completely unaware that he had broken his fingers in his nervousness.

"Chef Lu! They are all players!" Yue Xiaoyan was holding the frame of her glasses in the distance, with a soft white light on the frame.

Lu Cai's scalp tingled. What? Players?

Yue Xiaoyan continued, "These mummies are all players who were trapped to death in the side story!" She was holding glutinous rice flour in her arms and a ring in her hand.

This is a badge ring given as a reward to players in the community area. It's not very useful, but it's sturdy and good-looking, similar to the commemorative dagger that was given out recently.

Just now, a dried corpse was rotting in front of her eyes and turned into rotten meat, and this ring fell at Yue Xiaoyan's feet.

Seeing the ring, she was only a little skeptical. She quickly put the "See the Essence Through the Surface" one-time blessing card she got as a reward for clearing the level last time on her glasses, and then she saw the "Player Killed" words faintly visible on them.

After listening to Yue Xiaoyan's words, Lu Cai went to look at the mummies again, not caring about being hungry, and analyzed their digital information.

There was no trace of any players, they had completely integrated into this dungeon and become ghosts in the side quests.

"There are only two local ghosts in this branch—" Yue Xiaoyan said solemnly, "the chef in the kitchen, and the hunchbacked security guard in front of us."

Lu Cai's eyes fell on the hunchbacked security guard: "So, I just need to kill him?"

The analytical wave lines on the lenses snapped and vanished. Yue Xiaoyan loosened her glasses, and a white card fluttered down, turning to ash in mid-air and scattering among the rotting flesh on the ground.

"Logically speaking, this is the case." Yue Xiaoyan lacked confidence. After all, the existence of the KB game world was unreasonable.

"Then let's test it..." Lu Cai held the dagger in reverse and stood firm.

The ghost over there seemed to have seen her intention. The mummy muttered a few times and pounced towards Lu Cai.

Lu Cai stared intently at the hunchbacked security guard at the back. The mummies were right in front of him. The light red barrier opened, keeping the mummies outside the barrier.

Every step she took felt a sticky, indistinguishable sensation. She followed the narrow path torn through the barrier and sprinted towards her goal.

Seeing that this group of mummies had been stopped, the hunchbacked security guard roared in anger. He grabbed the axe and smashed it hard in the direction of Lu Cai!

Lu Cai blocked with his dagger as usual. The blade hit the axe blade, and a strong shock of air spread out in all directions. All the soup bowls on the table turned over, and the foul-smelling soup splashed everywhere.

She was forced to stop by the axe blade, and her wrist was sore and painful from supporting the weight of the axe blade.

During the stalemate, Lu Cai met the gloomy eyes of the hunchback security guard. A sticky and cold feeling spread to her scalp, as if a big snake as thick as an arm was crawling up from her ankle, over the back of her thigh, brushing against her neck, and finally coiling around her head.

This sticky feeling made her very uncomfortable, but Lu Cai sensed a hint of crazy joy in the other party.

Among the “three people” in the small record, there is this hunchbacked security guard!

Almost in an instant, Lu Cai confirmed the identity of the man in front of him. He was the Axe Ghost, the guard, and even the direct perpetrator of the violation and harm of the innocent girl.

That sticky look was when he was sizing up Lu Cai's body, that disgusting look that couldn't be suppressed and wanted to possess him.

Lu Cai's face was cold. If he died and turned into a demon, she could cut off one of his hands or even turn him into ashes and disappear. Why would she be afraid of this cowardly scum who could only use mummies as the vanguard?

A red light flashed, and a thin crack appeared on the axe blade where it met the knife blade.

The other party didn't even have time to change his expression before a crack appeared and the axe instantly shattered into powder.

The hunchbacked security guard swayed, a trace of black and yellow mucus oozing from the corner of his eye. He raised his hand to wipe it, looked at the mucus on his palm, and roared angrily.

Before the roar had even subsided, a kick landed on his face, black, rotting flesh clinging to his forehead. He staggered back a few steps, barely stabilizing himself. A flash of cold light flashed, and his chest felt a dull pain as the dagger sank into his flesh.

With his eyes wide open and his face filled with rage, he raised his hand to grab the thin girl in front of him.

Lu Cai didn't dodge either. She pulled out her dagger, slicing out the blackened, rotting flesh. She swung it to the right, the sharp blade piercing the opponent's wrist. Then, with her other hand, she grasped the arm that swung from the left and twisted it hard. The sound of the bones breaking was extremely harsh.

Loosening her wrist and pulling out the dagger, she kicked him in the chest, and the tall and strong figure slowly fell backwards.

The mummies that were still arguing and moving forward stopped, their eyes empty as they squatted in place.

Lu Cai's vision went dark for a moment, he stumbled, and the red barrier suddenly disappeared.

Steady yourself, be wary of these stunned mummies. Even if they were players in life, now they're just ghostly NPCs in this side story, completely integrated into the game's dungeon world. Who knows what they'll do at this moment?

The moment the red barrier disappeared, the crowded mummies rushed forward two steps, but soon stopped.

Yue Xiaoyan squeezed into the crowd and stood in front of Lu Cai holding glutinous rice flour.

When the mummies saw the glutinous rice flour, they showed expressions of fear again and scattered in all directions.

"They...are gone?" Yue Xiaoyan was also puzzled.

"Let's go sit for a while—" Lu Cai covered his stomach, feeling a pain in his stomach.

Yue Xiaoyan looked back at Lu Cai, who was sweating profusely on his forehead. She couldn't help but worry. She held him tightly and asked, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Lu Cai's face turned pale with pain: "I'm so hungry that my stomach hurts—"

Yue Xiaoyan panicked a little and quickly helped Lu Cai sit back down. She thought her low blood sugar was bad enough, so how could Lu Cai be in such pain just because he was hungry?

This is how much we don't pay attention to protecting our stomach health.

Yue Xiaoyan was busy for a while, and the bowl of glutinous rice flour paste on the table was stained by dirty water. She ran to the boiling water area to get a new bowl, and then mixed hot water with glutinous rice flour to make a big bowl of paste and pushed it in front of Lu Cai.

Lu Cai held the spoon tremblingly and took a sip carefully. It was warm, but his stomach still hurt.

Damn, she didn't die at the hands of a ghost, but died of stomachache! Ridiculous——

As he was cursing, the stainless steel door of the kitchen was pushed open with a crackling sound, and a tall and thin figure stumbled out.

Shi Rukui leaned against the wall, his white coat stained with black and yellow mucus and rotten meat, and even more conspicuous were the smudged, bright red marks.

That's all blood.

Lu Cai suddenly felt that his stomach pain was not so severe anymore.

Yue Xiaoyan hurried over and supported Shi Rukui back.

"Why is it so badly injured?"

Shi Rukui's face turned pale. He shook his head and said, "My injuries are all healed. I'm just too hungry and can't stand steadily..."

Yue Xiaoyan was busy again.

The three mummies who were originally sitting opposite them sat down again tremblingly. They muttered to themselves, then picked up the leftovers in the soup bowl and continued eating.

Looking at the mummy in front of him, Lu Cai remained silent.

After becoming side quest ghosts, are these players considered dead or alive?

They are just lonely ghosts.

Shi Rukui held the bowl and said, "After I killed the boss just now, I saw some flashbacks..."

The two girls turned their heads to look at him.

"I saw the cook put drugs in the tea, and I also saw him arguing with a man in a suit..." Shi Rukui recalled with a frown, "Then the scene was very chaotic, and it seemed that the cook was buried in a pit..."

A murderer was punished.

Cai Lu scooped a spoonful of the paste. "The background plot of this dungeon is that a group of scumbags kidnapped innocent girls for their own amusement." She paused. "The man in the suit is probably the main culprit, the manager and the security guard are accomplices, and there's also Miss Yan who is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of the girls. The cook is probably an accomplice who helps control the girls."

Shi Rukui swallowed the porridge and said, "What I saw was that the cook and the man in the suit had an argument, and then the cook was silenced."

Yue Xiaoyan listened to their discussion and glanced at the room full of rotting flesh and black water. "Shouldn't we discuss why this side storyline hasn't concluded yet?"

"Our mission is to 'solve the midnight snack'." Shi Rukui smiled, "I saw two泔水袋 in the kitchen. We will go to 'solve the midnight snack' later."

Yue Xiaoyan was stunned for a few seconds before she understood what he meant: "Can it be 'solved' this way?"

"It would be strange if you didn't throw away the rotten food and instead ate it—" Shi Rukui picked up the porcelain bowl.

The player is in a hungry state when entering the side story, and the mission content says that the player is going to find a midnight snack, so the player is deceived by the game from the beginning.

Solve the midnight snack and don’t waste food.

For players, the midnight snacks on the table cannot be considered "food".

Lu Cai ate the porridge and looked at the mess. He lowered his eyes and scooped a spoonful of porridge fiercely. Food cannot be wasted.

......

[Ding Dong——]

When Lu Cai took the plate and poured the last pile of rotten meat into the泔水袋, two overlapping system prompt sounds rang in his ears.

The scene in front of me became blurry, and my feet swayed. The dim light of the restaurant was cast on the worn tables and chairs, and the mottled walls. Finally, everything became an orange light.

After the orange light faded, Lu Cai stood in the corridor again.

"Ugh——" A figure next to him leaned against the wall and retched.

"What's wrong with you?" Chen Yina's voice rang out. She walked to the wall and gently stroked Yue Xiaoyan's back.

Lu Cai touched his stomach and the feeling of hunger finally disappeared.

"Let's go back to the room first." She looked at the cold eyes and finally breathed a sigh of relief.