Chapter 731: Chapter 486 Personally Taking Action_2
Seeing the chaotic, lively livestock, the remaining pursuers actually showed a relieved smile on their faces.
In fact, they were very clear that if they couldn’t find a substitute, it might be their turn to step in because, in this place, only they had less utility and influence.
It was like a cold joke they had seen before the natural disaster:
The Empire, due to the war, began to increase its troops, and many young people started signing up enthusiastically.
When the interviewer met with a student, he would generally start by asking about their field of study.
Upon hearing that the student was studying communications engineering at a well-known university, he would say to the student, "Young scientist, the battlefield is no place for playing house.
Once you’re on the battlefield, if you’re unlucky, you can easily get hit by a stray bullet, and for students like you who study advanced subjects, the battlefield is not suitable for you, only a laboratory is the most appropriate battlefield for you."
After saying this, the interviewer would reject the student’s application.
Then the interviewer met with many talented students, and upon hearing their majors, he would smile and reject their applications.
However, when he heard the professions of some later pursuers—journalism, history, and some other fields—the interviewer immediately stood up, put his hands on the applicants’ shoulders, and with a slightly exaggerated and excited expression, told them that once they joined the army, they would definitely become kings of soldiers.
Anyone clever could discern the practicality of their professions from the interviewer’s attitude.
This was just a cold joke, but even from this joke, one could see that in critical times, everyone’s importance in the eyes of others was not equal.
At this moment, those pursuers who were of relatively low strength and without any particular skills actually wanted to leave this place long ago.
Only when they saw that some pursuers brought over animals from the manor to test whether the kitchen’s ingredients were still poisonous or edible after being refreshed did they stay.
Since there were no carnivorous animals among the newly arrived ones, they could only use leafy greens for the trial.
However, they hadn’t expected that whether it was the original ingredients in the kitchen or the refreshed ones, none of the animals showed any abnormalities after eating—apparently, the greens hadn’t been poisoned by the hiders.
Although it had been confirmed by the animals that the greens were not poisoned and could be eaten normally, the pursuers remaining in the kitchen were still hesitant at this moment, and no one wanted to be the first tester.
When everyone was hesitating, unsure of how to speak up and let someone else try first, a very robust young man stepped forward.
"Everyone, since you don’t wish to try, let me be the first, but here I’d also like to propose a small condition.
If I get poisoned after eating, blame me for not being lucky, and let bygones be bygones.
But if I’m fine after eating, I need to take all the ingredients from the first three refreshes—do you agree? If so, then I’ll be the tester."
The others, after hearing his condition, only hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement directly.
Although they didn’t know whether the kitchen ingredients would refresh indefinitely, the man was indeed risking his life, so why not let him reap three times over.
Once everyone’s thoughts were aligned, he picked a cucumber out of the basket and ate it without even washing it, gulping it down in a couple of bites.
After finishing the cucumber, his Essence, Qi, Spirit began to decline steadily, and before long, the man appeared utterly listless, eventually collapsing on the ground like boneless.
Seeing the state of that person at this time, everyone suddenly realized that it seemed the hider had not poisoned the surface of the food but had created a restriction similar to a rule.
Actually, thinking about it made it quite clear. If there were plenty of good food and drinks available, which seeker would be willing to capture the hiders? It would be much nicer to just lie around here leisurely.
But it was different for the hiders. They wished for the competition to be as short as possible because, as long as they weren’t caught before the end of the competition, they could obtain the final victory.
At this moment, the majority of seekers in the competition venue, upon discovering the abundance of ingredients in the kitchen, initially weren’t very enthusiastic about securing victory in the competition.
After all, the outside world had already been submerged by floodwaters, and the living conditions for most people had significantly deteriorated, even though everyone knew this was just one of the competition venues in the Mysterious Realm.
But the living conditions here were much better than in the outside world. If the food in the kitchen was non-toxic and could satisfy everyone’s daily needs,
even though this was just an illusory scene in the Mysterious Realm, Dong Tianyu believed that many seekers would just give up and sink into this illusory world.
Perhaps it was because the hiders, once transformed, could no longer possess human senses, so acting on the sentiment ’If I can’t eat it, I won’t let you enjoy it,’ they used some method to turn all the food in the kitchen into poison.
After confirming once more that all the food in the kitchen was inedible, the others didn’t want to stay in that heartbreaking place any longer and, turning their sorrow into strength, they began to seriously and carefully search for the hiders’ figures.
It is often said that the bigger, the more plausible, but that is only in games. In real life, the situation might be different from the games. When hiding in reality, one tends to choose spots that are less noticeable.
Some seekers, who used to play games and whose adolescent fantasies still hadn’t been cured, looked up at the start, hoping to find those ’kindred spirits’ who believed the bigger, the more plausible.
But when they saw the many giant monsters in the sky above the manor, they were not scared. Moreover, in their youthful folly, they drew their weapons and directly challenged them.
What they didn’t expect, though, was that these monsters, although seemingly terrifying, were merely illusory images,
Those giant images were as feeble as a house of cards; a slight strike was enough to make the illusion disappear abruptly.
Those lucky few who had opened fire never expected that merely mustering the courage to shoot a few times would actually injure those giant monsters, and not only injure them but also be on the verge of killing them.
They were, aside from Dong Tianyu, the ones most involved in the pursuit.
After confirming that the food in the kitchen was no longer edible, Dong Tianyu didn’t plan to stay there any longer and began his next move.
By this time, the majority of the seekers had already learned that whether it was the main mansion’s kitchen or the two supply workers’ cafeterias, the food, although abundant, was inedible and contained deadly poison.
Knowing they had no way out, the seekers instantly became spirited. After all, the conditions that had been corroding their morale were gone. Now, all they could do was to capture the remaining hiders and obtain the final victory of the competition.
As the seekers conducted their thorough search, gradually some hiders were discovered by them. In fact, if things continued on this trajectory, there might be some twists and turns, but in the end, they were sure to achieve victory.
However, at such moments, there would always be a few ’smart alecks’ who had to create some kind of trouble.
Having had the experience of a previous capture, everyone followed the previous approach, turning every place they passed into a wasteland.
Actually, for such a situation, Dong Tianyu didn’t have a better solution. After all, this approach was the most suitable. Although slow, this systematic search would definitely miss no suspicious item.
Unfortunately, the destruction they caused would soon be restored to normal. In reality, these conditions were not friendly to the seekers.
