Chapter 5

LV1-1: Binging Stage – once all the cells in the body are transformed and becomes activated, it will start to frantically produce special energy. Since various nutrients in the body will be used to produce special energy, the organism will feel extremely hungry and require large amounts of food. At this stage, the organism will go around looking for food, eating everything and entering the binging stage.

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“Woolf!” Bai Yi easily found Woolf standing at one side eating while instructing the employees.

“Bai Yi, what are you doing here?”

Bai Yi looked at the food stock and found that there was still more than half left, however at the rate that they were selling the food it would not last much longer. Bai Yi originally only wanted to stock up on ingredients and eat his fill, but now seeing the intense state that the food market was in he felt that he should plan ahead. Motioning for Woolf to put down the things in his hands, the two of them went to a small isolated room.

“Woolf, do you feel that something is abnormal?” Bai Yi jumped straight into the topic.

“What’s abnormal?”

“Don’t you feel very hungry? Like no matter how much you eat you would not become full?”

“I didn’t notice much but I do get hungry faster.”

“Listen to me Woolf, I spent the entire afternoon cooking today and ate everything that I cooked. However, my stomach just could not be filled. At first, I thought that it was just something wrong with me and my daughter but now I can see that that’s obviously not the case. Don’t you find that the current situation in the food market is too strange? Everyone is unimaginably hungry right now.” Bai Yi explained.

“What are you thinking of?”

“Stop selling the food. The situation now is too strange, judging by the level of hunger and appetite, the food stock in the market is going to rapidly run out.”

“Hahahaha, Bai Yi you worry too much, Vorster Food Market is huge! Anyway, it doesn’t matter even if I sell out, I can just go to the next food market nearby to restock.” Woolf laughed loudly, thinking that Bai Yi was over worrying.

“What if the food market nearby is also in the same situation, or even the entire Hamilton, the entire New Zealand?” Bai Yi did not laugh but said seriously. Woolf was still smiling but upon seeing Bai Yi’s expression, his smile gradually stopped. It can’t be?

“I’ll make a phone call and ask.” Woolf said.

Bai Yi nodded his head. Though Woolf’s business wasn’t considered big, he was still in the food trade so he could get information easily. Very quickly, Woolf found out from other places that it was not just Vorster Food Market, not even just Hamilton but practically the whole of New Zealand was in the same situation.

Damn it, Bai Yi’s guess was actually right!

Bai Yi could tell from Woolf’s expression that he was right.

“I’ll immediately tell the store assistant to stop selling.”

“Wait!” Bai Yi stopped Woolf. “If you abruptly stop selling like this, you will definitely come into conflict with the customers. Continue raising the price and reduce the amount of food brought out to be sold. Create the illusion that food supply is short and then tell the customers that you are all sold out.” Bai Yi said to Woolf.

“Bai Yi, you are a really cunning fellow!” Woolf gave Bai Yi a thumbs up after hearing what he said.

“I’m sorry but business has been too good and my shop has already run out of food to sell. If you wish to buy more food, please go to other shops.” Very quickly, they acted as how Bai Yi told them to do so. The customers were unhappy but since they said that they were out of stock, there was no point in continuing to stand there so everyone left gradually.

“Bai Yi, do you know what’s going on?” Woolf asked.

“It would be strange if I knew, I only came here to buy more ingredients since I was still hungry but found myself in this situation. Enough of this for now, where’s the kitchen? I am starving.” Bai Yi said to Woolf. Woolf knew that Bai Yi wanted to fill his stomach here, the relationship between the two was quite good and in addition to Bai Yi’s help just now, using the kitchen was just a small matter.

……

This time, the cooking lasted until past midnight. In this period, nobody was actually full, or rather even if they were full, it only took one or two hours before their stomachs would start growling again. During this period, the atmosphere in the food market changed from lively to uneasiness. Everyone felt frightened by this mysterious hunger and appetite that suddenly appeared.

A normal family’s stock of food ranges from a week to a month. With this crazy hunger and appetite, this stock of food can be finished within a day. What would humans who have finished their food stock eat? More importantly, it seems that it was not just humans that became hungry but also animals…yes, animals!

Animals and humans are different, they might have a bit of food stored but it definitely was not much. When their food is gone, what do these animals eat?

Though there was a lot of discussion on this abnormal hunger on the internet, there was not a clear answer to be found. Other than a few select people, ordinary people were completely in the dark. Now on Woolf’s computer flashed a news broadcast. It seemed to be about how a big group of people started looting food due to being overly hungry, causing great casualties in the process. Other than humans, animals also played a big part in this. A group of rats that became red-eyed from hunger came from nowhere and started climbing on humans and eating them.

Bai Yi and Woolf looked at each other in dismay while watching the news broadcast. At the end, a few people got flooded by a mass of rats and screamed in pain while flailing on the ground. The sight of this caused the two of them to shiver inside.

“Ah, save me! Save me!” Right at this moment, a cry came from outside.

Woolf immediately rushed outside while Bai Yi took a chopper that was used to chop bones. With things at this stage, Bai Yi felt more and more uneasy in his heart. Even the four-year-old Momo could feel that the atmosphere was different from before.

When Bai Yi came out he immediately saw two big dogs from nowhere pinning down an employee to the floor, crazily biting and tearing at him. To the side, there was an overturned pot with fried fritters and pieces of meat on the floor.

A dog’s nose is extremely sensitive, these two dogs were obviously starving and came here after smelling the food. However, the employee did not intend to feed the dogs and wanted to chase them away. He never thought that the dogs who were known for being loyal would actually bite humans! No, it was not just biting but Bai Yi could clearly see one of the dogs tearing off a chunk of flesh from the employee’s thigh and swallowing it down.

It was eating people!

“Sharpei, protect Momo!” Bai Yi immediately said to Sharpei.

Woolf immediately became scared upon seeing the two dogs bite his worker. If this continues then he could really die! Picking up a random stick from the side, Woolf fiercely smashed down with it but the dog suddenly jumped and dodged the strike, letting out a low growl. All of a sudden, the dog viciously pounced towards Woolf, flesh still stuck to its teeth.

Woolf couldn’t change his mindset from his previous common sense and was stunned. This ferociousness, how is it still a dog? It’s even fiercer than wolves! Bai Yi looked at Woolf standing there in shock, If he got bitten by the dog then he was pretty much dead because judging from the dog’s height of jump it was aiming for his neck.

Without time to think, Bai Yi dashed into Woolf from the side and knocked him away, raising the chopper in his hand.

The dog and Bai Yi crossed each other, nobody could clearly see what had happened but the two front legs of the dog were chopped off. At the same time, a deep cut could be seen on its neck as fresh blood splashed on both Bai Yi and Woolf. This sudden event caused the people and animal inside the courtyard to be shocked and after a while, the other dog released the employee he was biting with his mouth. It then turned to Bai Yi and gave a low growl towards him.

“Grrrr!” All of a sudden, the remaining dog pounced towards Bai Yi and tried to bite him.

Bai Yi became extremely calm at that moment, the chopper held steadily in his hand. The dog that was pouncing towards him was nothing but an ingredient waiting to be prepared in Bai Yi’s heart. Three lines of light cut through the air and the dog followed in its partner’s footsteps and fell on the floor.

Woolf was so frightened that he fell on the floor, shaking non-stop.

Without waiting for him to calm down, they heard another fierce bark from a dog. Woolf instantly shivered and when he turned his head, he found the dog called Sharpei that Bai Yi brought pouncing out towards a rat that was almost 20cm in size and smacked it against the floor. In the shadows, there were quite a few red-eyed rats seemingly lured by the flesh and blood here.

Sharpei lowered his body slightly, guarding Momo by her side. It showed its sharp teeth and let out a fierce growl.

The Sharpei now didn’t have a trace of its usual silliness and looked extremely ferocious. Looking at Sharpei, Woolf instantly got a scare. This was also a dog, although this dog was brought by Bai Yi but what if it ends up like those two dogs from before? The rats in the shadows got pressured by Sharpei’s presence and withdrew, quickly disappearing without a trace. This is a food market, there are plenty of places with food so there was no need to risk their lives here.

After the rats ran away, the people in the courtyard finally reacted as to what just happened.

The courtyard originally had three employees, however now all of them were injured. Moreover, the one who first got pinned on the floor by the two dogs had stopped breathing.

“Somebody died…!” Woolf was in shock.

“Do you guys want to die? Don’t worry about that and bandage our wounds first! Do you have rabies vaccine here?” Bai Yi saw Woolf in that state and immediately reminded him. After hearing Bai Yi’s words, Woolf and the other two employees then realised that the wounds on their bodies were hurting.

“Right right, bandage our wounds first, we will explain when the police arrive, anyway this matter was not caused by us.” Woolf held the bloody wound on his shoulder and said. The two employees went to the room inside to find materials for bandaging. When walking past Sharpei, they were both extremely cautious. It seems like they were frightened really badly by the two dogs from earlier on.

“Bai Yi, I didn’t think that you were so awesome, was that Chinese Kungfu?” Woolf wasn’t a thoughtless fellow, after calming down he recalled the scene where Bai Yi killed the dog.

“No! It wasn’t Chinese Kung Fu, just that I prepared a large amount of ingredients in the past, so I know the skeletal structure of dogs and their weaknesses. I just treated those two dogs like ingredients to be handled.” Bai Yi explained. However, this kind of explanation only made Woolf more confused.