CH 18.1

The harsh sound was particularly loud in the quiet dining hall.

The player, who was already a little nervous, immediately fell on his butt when he realized that the sound was his own, and he fearfully looked up at the Bloods, who were staring at him intently.

He gripped the back of his chair with one hand and braced himself on the ground with the other, his face so terrified that his fingertips turned white with fear.

The other players stopped moving at the same time. After a night’s rest, they had become more accustomed to the game, and the fear they felt when they first entered was gradually replaced by sanity.

They were all waiting to see what would happen to them if they made a sound.

Three pairs of bloody pupils heard the sound and looked over, their scarlet eyes gradually becoming sharp and malicious.

As the player stared in horror, the three guards slowly averted their eyes, not making a move.

The player froze for a few seconds before standing up in a daze, not forgetting to give the player who had bumped into him a hard look.

That player smiled apologetically at him as he folded his arms.

See, there was no problem, right?

The other players were also a little surprised.

Did the Bloods let the player go, or did pulling the chair not count as “making noise”? Could it be that making noise while eating was the only violation deemed punishable?

However, no one dared to play with their lives. They carefully pulled the chairs back, trying not to make any noise.

It took them a few minutes to sit at the table, which would normally have taken them a few seconds.

The plates were silver, while the knives and forks were metal, so the slightest touch made a sound.

The steak and mashed potatoes on the plate were only medium rare, and a quick glance at the meat showed traces of blood oozing from the slightly fried surface.

A few daring players pressed the steak with their forks, and red blood immediately spilled out of it. The smell of blood was so unmistakable.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

It had been half a day since they came here, and they could still deal with the cold water, but if they didn’t eat, they would lose their strength rapidly.

By that time, not to mention finding the answer to the clear task, they wouldn’t even manage to cope with the Bloods’ need to feed on blood.

But this steak was not something that made people want to open their mouths.

The bright red steak reminded them of last night’s scene of blood where eyeballs and flesh were flying all over the place. Several of them covered their mouths in disgust but swallowed the disgust hard, not daring to make a sound.

To eat the steak, one needed to cut it, and if not careful, the steel knife would cut into this plate and make a sound very easily.

The air was silent.

Thoughts were tugging at their brains as to whether it was important to eat to keep their strength up, or not to eat to save their lives.

Just as they hesitated, a man picked up his knife and fork.

Bai Lixin was sitting in the very middle of the long table, and he was very conspicuous. He sat with his back straight, gently cutting into the steak with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, unconcerned by the blood seeping out.

He carefully cut the steak into chunks of meat before putting the knife down, picking up his fork and putting a small piece in his mouth, closing it and chewing.

The blood did not stain the corners of his mouth, and he moved with the grace and ease of the most polite of nobles.

For a moment, watching Bai Lixin eat was a thing of beauty, the steak in front of them didn’t feel disgusting.

Infected by Bai Lixin’s calmness, people started picking up their forks one by one. Although they were not as calm as Bai Lixin, everyone was cutting carefully and cautiously.

After eating two or three more steaks, Bai Lixin put down his fork, turned his head and took a spoon to scoop a few bites of mashed potatoes into his mouth, finally finishing with a sip of milk from his glass.

He looked around the table. Although they were still scared, everyone was starting to eat.

Having lived so long, he no longer had the worldly fears that these ordinary people still had.

They were vulnerable, but everyone was fighting tooth and nail to survive.

Like Li Cancan, whom he encountered during the trial copy, she tried hard to survive, even if she was scared. No matter what desperate situation one is in, this is the most eye-catching shining point of humanity.

He didn’t have to eat, but someone had to eat first to lower everyone’s fears.

Why shouldn’t he be the one to lower everyone’s fear?

There was fear at first, but as the steel forks lifted and fell, the fear and stress in the players’ minds dwindled.

Never before had any of their meals been so serious and graceful as now, and everyone kept their mouths shut and restrained from making any noise.

Suddenly, the piercing sound of a steel fork hitting a silver plate rang out.

The Bloods’ eyes immediately rolled back.

One player sat frozen in his seat in disbelief, knife and fork still in hand.

A few daring players turned back to watch the Bloods’ movements; the three Blood guards simply gave the player a quiet look and averted their eyes once again without saying a word.

The player’s tense shoulders immediately sagged, and the other players were pleased.

There was no punishment, and the guards didn’t drag those two players away like they had dragged the crying player away last night.

So there would be no punishment even if the cutlery made a sound?

Then there was no need to panic!

For a while, the pressure on the players’ hearts was lifted, and even their shoulders sagged a lot.

One by one, three or four more players accidentally made a sound because of the slackness.

The guards all just looked at them but did not show any intention of doing anything.

After a few minutes, the players put down their knives and forks one by one.

They were looking at each other and debating whether they should leave the place when one of the three guards, who was most likely the leader, spoke up, “All right, finish eating. The nobles are to eat at 9 p.m. All of you are to clean yourselves up and assemble in your rooms before then.”

“Anyone not in the room at 9pm will be a toy for the nobles to hunt.”

It was now 10 am, a dozen hours before 9 pm.

One player asked, “Will we have food in those ten hours or so?”

Blood, “No, the nobles don’t like food with too much fat.”

Crowd: “…..”

Just thinking about it made them want to eat more.

The Blood continued to say, “You guys come with me.”

The crowd was unsure but followed behind this Blood.

The daytime Bloods seemed much more docile than the nighttime ones. Although the pale faces of these three Bloods were expressionless, the murderous intent was curtailed and the look of madness in their eyes was much lighter.

One Blood walked in the lead as the other two followed behind. They walked around the corridor to the inside of a garden.

The Blood, “the nobles like their food fresh and young. Having enough sleep, sunlight, and exercise makes the blood smell good.”

The garden was filled with roses, and this seemed to be the back garden Bai Lixin had seen earlier from Lady Rose’s room.

It only took a moment to look up and see the window that had been boarded up securely last night.

The Blood, “From now on, your task is to loosen the soil for these roses. This was Lady Rose’s favorite rose garden when she was alive, so watch your steps and don’t damage any of the roses. The consequences of damaging the roses are not enough for you to bear.”

The Bloods carried two large and one small bamboo baskets with them.The large one contained many small shovels, and the smaller one contained bags of seeds.

“These are rose seeds,” said the three Bloods as they stood in the shade and pointed to the seeds in the small baskets. “After loosening the soil, you are to plant seeds among the roses.”

This was considered a task issued by the NPCs, and the players obediently took a small shovel and a bag of seeds each and began to loosen the soil for the roses according to their groups. The three Blood NPCs did not leave either, hiding themselves in the long corridor where the sun did not shine as they silently watched over the players.

Bai Lixin also picked up a small shovel, and instead of hastily crouching down, he observed the dirt on the ground and his surroundings.

This was where the bandaged figure landed last night. It disappeared after several jumps in the rose garden.

The bandaged man disappeared from here last night. He jumped a few times in the rose garden and disappeared.

It’s a long distance from the outer wall of the castle, but he didn’t see the bandaged man jumping up again. It looked like he had just disappeared into the rose garden and into thin air.

Bai Lixin carefully crossed rose after rose and finally stopped at the spot where the Bandaged Man had disappeared last night.

He had been somewhat shocked at how big this rose garden was yesterday when he looked at it from Lady Rose’s room, and standing in it today, he found it even bigger.

Players with teams basically gathered with those in their own team, while those without teams crouched sporadically to one side.

These players, in turn, were scattered radially, with Wen Ziqing at the center.

Bai Lixin was deep in the rose garden, and there wasn’t much of a crowd here.

Just as Bai Lixin was investigating the ground, a player suddenly let out a cry of alarm, “Bones, there’s a human bone!”

“I—I have it here too! I dug it up too!”

“Fuck, I’ve found one here as well.”

The Blood’s cold voice came from the distance, “What’s all the shouting about? Corpses are the best nourishment. It would be a waste not to bury leftover food in the earth to nourish roses! What’s all the fuss about? Get to work!”

Bai Lixin squatted down and plowed with a shovel as well.

After two or three plows, his shovel was blocked by a hard object. After digging around the hard object, a rotten hand was exposed.

The flesh had fallen off in chunks. The exposed bones were caked with wet, soft dirt.

Dijia, who had been hiding in Bai Lixin’s pocket, poked his head out, “This rose garden is filled with the smell of death.”