From the moment Qi Xu mentioned wanting food and lodging, Master Chef knew his boss was about to trick him.

Since following the boss, I haven't done anything frustrating. I usually settle scores on the spot. Even if I use a roundabout strategy, it's only to trick people into traps and kill them.

By the time Mayor Pighead rushed back, Qi Xu had already burned almost everything that needed to be burned.

Now that this has been done, there's no going back.

When Qi Xu arrived at the mayor's office, the scene before him startled him. It almost triggered his trypophobia. Countless tiny balls, each the size of a fingernail, filled the entire space, floating in mid-air and slowly rotating, refracting a soft, warm light.

Qi Xu tried randomly touching one, and the moment his fingertip touched the ball of light, a warm sensation surged up.

That was a fragment of a player's memory of spending summer vacation at his grandmother's house in the countryside. On a noisy afternoon, the shade of an old locust tree covered half the yard. The bamboo rattan chair swayed back and forth. The watermelon that his grandmother handed him was so sweet it was almost cloying. Even the wind was filled with the fragrance of grass and fruit.

What's amazing is that you can truly feel the joy and happiness of the players in this memory fragment, which also makes Qi Xu feel much better. This feeling is really addictive.

Another sphere of light was a clip of a player practicing weapon whip techniques. Qi Xu only felt it for a moment, but he vaguely felt that he could also wield a whip quite well. He even felt some of the power and arc that should be present when whipping a whip.

These orbs of light are no ordinary fragments of memory; they are clearly containers used by the pig-headed mayor to harvest players' potential!

Those tempting delicacies are not bombs, but hooks, luring players to indulge in the enjoyment before them, willingly surrendering their memories, talents, and even future possibilities for this heartless mayor to refine and hoard.

Qi Xu's fingertips were still suspended in mid-air, the lingering warmth of the sweet joy from before still present, when she suddenly noticed a very subtle tremor.

It's the ball of light that's shaking.

It wasn't a gentle sway after being touched; it was a faint, almost imperceptible sound, pleading, like a child with their mouth covered, stammering and mumbling, full of despair.

Qi Xu tried to release all the light orbs, but they seemed to be locked in this space forever and could not leave at all.

It turns out that these stripped memories and potentials still retained a trace of the player's consciousness. Trapped in this tiny sphere of light, they watched themselves being hoarded by the town mayor as nourishment, day after day, year after year, with even dissipation a distant dream.

Qi Xu tried various methods, but he couldn't break the restrictions on the mayor's office, nor could he get the orbs of light to leave.

Setting it on fire won't work; the flames will only burn the outer perimeter.

Qi Xu was struggling with this when he suddenly realized that these restrictions were actually protecting these memory orbs. At least the flames couldn't burn through them.

Qi Xu took out a lighter he had taken from the staff canteen and a bucket of cooking oil he had just brought from the cooking competition, and evenly sprinkled it all over the town mayor's office building.

This place is made of wood, so it should be easy to start a fire!

Oil splattered on the floor, spreading out in circles of translucent stains, even the cobwebs in the corner were stained with oil.

Qi Xu carried the empty oil drum and walked around the office one last time, his gaze sweeping over the light orbs that were still trembling slightly in mid-air.

They were "not afraid," but rather excited and began to float violently.

With a "bang," sparks flew.