Infinite: Dawn Game

The atmosphere inside the room was eerie, with only the old woman talking to herself.

Just as Zhao Xuan was about to pick up some food, Yu Shijiu quickly blocked him with her hand.

"You can only eat."

Yu Shijiu gestured with his chin towards the rice in Zhao Xuan's bowl:

"Isn't just eating enough?"

Zhao Xuan: "..."

Qi and Mu, who had been eating silently nearby without daring to speak, were speechless.

With its chubby head resting on the table, it glanced at Zhao Xuan with its eyelids raised, then opened its mouth and ate a piece of braised pork that Yu Shijiu had picked up for it.

Zhao Xuan, who felt like he was being mocked by a cat, was speechless.

He gritted his teeth, snorted coldly, and shoveled several mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.

The old lady next to them seemed to want to suggest that Zhao Xuan and the others eat, but after glancing at Yu Shijiu, who was happily eating a balanced meal of meat and vegetables, she seemed to be thinking about something and remained silent.

It was obvious that the old lady valued Yu Shijiu more than Zhao Xuan and the other three players who were recruited later.

After the meal, Zhao Xuan looked at the few remaining dishes on the table, glanced at Yu Shijiu who was still happily eating, snorted, and threw his chopsticks on the table.

"let's go."

Qi Tie and Mu Gui immediately stood up and chased after Zhao Xuan's retreating figure.

Mu Gui walked at the very back. He greeted the ever-smiling old lady and was about to leave when she grabbed his wrist.

“Child,” the old woman squinted her greyish-white eyes, her cloudy pupils darting about eerily:

"Those who go to the ancestral hall during the day must also go to the ancestral hall at night, remember?"

Mu Gui felt a chill run down his spine under her gaze, licked his lips, and quickly nodded.

"I know, thank you."

The old lady then released her grip with satisfaction, and even patted Mu Gui's hand, which was completely free of dust, and whispered:

"Our village's deity is very merciful. As long as you children properly burn incense and kneel in reverence during your visit, you will receive the deity's blessing..."

Mu Gui's mind stirred, and he was about to say something when he saw the old lady push him and then close the wooden door.

The shepherd, blocked outside the door: "..."

A deity? Burning incense and kneeling in worship... but the problem is, they didn't see any deity at all when they went in during the day?

Mu Gui didn't think about it carefully. He quickly caught up with Zhao Xuan and Qi Tie and whispered back what the old lady had just said.

Zhao Xuan's already furrowed brows deepened: "God Lord?"

“Yes,” Mu Gui wiped the sweat from his brow, looked up at the blazing sun, and hesitated.

"Brother Zhao, so should we go to the ancestral hall again tonight?"

Before Zhao Xuan could speak, Qi Tie suddenly shouted out:

"No, no! Who knows if that NPC old lady is telling the truth or not? What if she's lying and deliberately trying to trick us into going to our deaths?"

Just thinking about the headless corpse standing at the entrance of the ancestral hall and the countless earthworm larvae that had sprung up... Qi Tie felt a sharp pain in his wrist.

He subconsciously looked at his wrist, which only had bite marks, and felt a pang of panic.

Could that earthworm have really fallen off while it was running away...?

Qi Tie didn't dare to think about it.

The atmosphere among the three was somewhat quiet. By the time Qi Tie realized that his tone had been too disrespectful, Zhao Xuan's hand was already on his shoulder.

“Qi Tie,” Zhao Xuan looked at him with a half-smile, his tone very gentle:

"You seem eager to make the decision for me?"

Qi Tie was so frightened that he shook his head quickly:

"No, no! Brother Zhao, I didn't mean that. I'm just... just a little scared. I absolutely didn't mean to replace you, ah—!"

The hand on his shoulder suddenly tightened, with a force that seemed to crush his shoulder.

With each effort, specks of red seeped from the cloth strip around Zhao Xuan's neck, but he remained oblivious and laughed as he spoke:

"That would be for the best, you seem quite unhappy with me right now."

"No, no," Qi Tie said, cold sweat pouring down his face. He could only lower his head stammeringly, not even daring to resist Zhao Xuan's hand gripping his shoulder.

After Zhao Xuan calmed down, he turned his head and glanced at the dilapidated mud house with its wooden door tightly closed, and scoffed.

If the food he prepared hadn't been frozen by this game instance, he wouldn't have come to eat the food made by the NPCs... Who knows if they added anything else to it?

However, Zhao Xuan could still distinguish between adding ingredients and being so hungry that he couldn't pass the level.

The nausea you feel after learning certain facts is only temporary, but death is a permanent death.

Mu Gui silently handed Zhao Xuan a towel he had bought before, and whispered a reminder:

"Brother Zhao, don't you need to have your chest wound treated?"

In other words, Zhao Xuan's black clothes didn't make it obvious, but if he had worn other colors, the whole outfit would probably look terrible now.

Zhao Xuan didn't care about the small wound on his chest.

Yu Shijiu hadn't used any force at the time; he guessed that Yu Shijiu was just venting her anger. Although Zhao Xuan still couldn't figure out what Yu Shijiu was venting her anger about.

I was the one who didn't get a single bite of food, and I was also the one who got two holes stabbed in the hand. Yu Shijiu was just a lunatic who insisted on grabbing the boomerang with his bare hands and got his hand cut... No matter how you look at it, I should be the one who's angrier.

Zhao Xuan took the towel and casually wiped his chest. His gaze lingered on the bloodstains on the white towel for a few seconds before he looked up at Mu Gui in front of him.

"I remember you're a player from the nun's side."

Mu Gui bowed his head: "Yes, Brother Zhao."

"What benefits did the nun give you?"

Zhao Xuan found Mu Gui quite interesting. Although he seemed relatively weak and a bit of a hothead, he was quite clever at times and bolder than Qi Tie.

Zhao Xuan frowned when he thought of Qi Tie.

When he was massaging Qi Tie's shoulder just now, he had to admit that he was almost startled by the other man's spinelessness at first.

It was just a slightly disgusting corpse, why be so scared?

My bones are so weak they're practically limp—

Zhao Xuan suddenly looked up and coldly stared at Qi Tie, who was wiping cold sweat from his forehead, trying to glean something from the other man's expression.

Aside from fear, there seemed to be nothing unusual.

Zhao Xuan temporarily suppressed his somewhat strange guess and looked up at the sky with narrowed eyes:

"Let's rest at the guesthouse for the afternoon first, and then go to the ancestral hall after dark."

"Yes."

"……Yes."

This time, Qi Tie didn't dare to say anything more.

He simply looked down and wiped away the cold sweat; the wrist that had been bitten seemed to hurt even more.

The shepherd who was nearby glanced at him subconsciously, and his gaze suddenly froze.

Under the direct sunlight, Qi Tie's black, tousled hair appeared slightly yellow, and beneath his neck, it seemed as if countless pink earthworm larvae were overlapping, their coiled bodies resting on his skin—