Chapter 1198: 565: Blowing Up the Kitchen (Part 2)
Chapter 1198: Chapter 565: Blowing Up the Kitchen (Part 2)
Sensing the commotion behind him, Lin Yi instinctively shrank his neck. He turned to glance back and found the No. 10 food purchase window in complete disarray.
In the midst of the smoke and dust, the dismembered limbs of the chef in the green apron and some sculpture-like fragments were faintly visible.
The chefs in green aprons who originally intended to pursue them faced the brunt of the matrix explosion up close and perished on the spot, leaving hardly any rubble behind.
Not until he had left the student cafeteria did Lin Yi curiously ask, “Wei Sang, did you and Kuai Kuai set them up?”
“Did you really think we were going to join them?” Kuai Hongji sinisterly leaned in, “Old Lin, I think you’re really hungry.”
With Kuai Hongji’s remark, Lin Yi’s expression became somewhat awkward. “I’m not hungry, but what was your plan?”
“A spur-of-the-moment idea, no plan needed,” Kuai Hongji said. “Just wanted to give them a little surprise.”
Wei Shan chuckled and nodded, “Yin Bi may not be a good thing, but he does his job well.”
Kuai Hongji flashed an evil smile. “I’ll take that as a compliment, fatty.”
“Get lost!” Wei Shan cursed directly.
Kuai Hongji chuckled but said nothing further.
Lin Yi pressed on, “Kuai Kuai, what’s really going on here?”
Kuai Hongji explained slowly, “Originally, the few secret marks on the bowl weren’t enough to cause such an explosion, but when they broke the bowl, the secret marks I carved initiated a different mutation, absorbing the contamination inside the No. 10 food purchase window. It accelerated and collided with each other…”
Kuai Hongji explained the mechanism leisurely, making Lin Yi somewhat understand yet feel confused: “Wait, Kuai Kuai, what I mean is, what’s really going on here? Did you discover something and then act on a whim?”
Tian Bufan explained, “The part of the cafeteria we can see on the surface, not a single chef in a blue apron was spotted, added with Old Mo’s appearance… I suspect the cafeteria is currently in a half-collapsed state, only capable of barely operating on the brink of collapse.”
“The abnormal chefs in green aprons we saw at the regular food purchase windows are likely not fully transformed… and this is evident since we’re still able to order food.”
“You ordered tomato noodles, they didn’t stop you; Wei Liang the Celestial and I ordered congee with oil sticks, and they didn’t do much to interfere. This shows their state is unstable, carrying both the sense of responsibility of chefs in blue aprons and the collapse feel of chefs in green aprons.”
“They are a reflection of the cafeteria’s state, teetering on the edge of collapse.”
“Thus, we could easily deduce the current state of the cafeteria. Kuai Kuai’s approach is like testing the waters, exploding a pit to see their reaction.”
“Furthermore, we need not worry about the cafeteria facing any real trouble. Firstly, the convenience store owner is still around; if it truly collapses, he will not sit idly by. Secondly, Old Mo appeared, and I reckon this is the fundamental reason the cafeteria hasn’t collapsed. After all, Old Mo is the cafeteria’s last lifeline. If he’s still there, the cafeteria won’t experience major changes.”
“And the chef statues we saw along the way likely included chefs wearing all three colors of aprons, but the most numerous ones should be the chefs in blue aprons…”
Tian Bufan went on with eloquent conjecture, inspiring Lin Yi’s speculation: “Young Master Tian, it suddenly dawned on me. Do you think the chefs in the blue aprons are transforming into those with black aprons?”
“Good guess,” Tian Bufan replied, “but I have no definitive answer. Perhaps… chefs in black aprons have different responsibilities compared to those in blue, and some tasks may require chefs in black aprons. However, I feel not every chef in a blue apron can become one with a black apron… There might be a deeper truth we aren’t aware of.”
“Don’t overthink it; our itinerary doesn’t include anything about the cafeteria today.” Tian Bufan concluded decisively but suddenly added, “But this version of Old Mo might be exactly what the convenience store owner needs most…”
Lin Yi’s heart suddenly skipped a beat: “What do you mean?”
He could tell there was more to Tian Bufan’s words.
Tian Bufan gave a faint, mysterious smile, “Would you want your steward to be a well-behaved person or someone who occasionally goes astray?”
Lin Yi’s pupils slightly contracted: “Are you implying Old Mo was manipulated by the convenience store owner?”
“I didn’t say that; it’s your supposition.” Tian Bufan left it at that, leaving Lin Yi deep in thought.
The convenience store owner… one of the most mysterious entities in this campus, incomparable even to the Night Watchman. It’s reassuring to consider him human-aligned.
But what if the convenience store owner isn’t aligned with humans?
Perhaps it is just because his general trajectory or direction seems similar, making people think he is a human-aligned entity?
Especially when Lin Yi woke up today and matched the scenes in the dream boundary with the convenience store owner’s formal appearance.
“Do you think the convenience store owner…”
“Speak cautiously, Old Lin,” Tian Bufan interrupted him with a stern warning, “In this place where cognition shapes the world, never recklessly rewrite your own cognition.”
“Rewriting your own cognition is one thing, but if your cognitive anchor inadvertently affects others, your actions could create enemies out of thin air.”
“But why me…” Lin Yi timidly muttered before immediately shutting up under Tian Bufan’s gaze.
Nevertheless, he knew Tian Bufan fully understood his meaning.
The group then entered the student passage.
As soon as they left, Su Yao and her group rushed out of the student cafeteria right behind them, watching Lin Yi and the others’ backs with guarded expressions.
“Captain… should we follow them?” Chen Yu asked.
“Follow for what?” the captain retorted, giving him a displeased look, “We’re just heading back to the Teaching Building together.”
Despite his words, the captain looked at Lin Yi and his group with intense wariness.
He couldn’t comprehend what Lin Yi and the others were up to, but he knew the explosion at the No. 10 food purchase window was undeniably related to them.
Su Yao pursed her lips and hesitantly said, “Captain… I feel those ‘God’s Domain’ people are very suspicious. They ate tomatoes without any side effects!”
Han Xuan fell silent for a moment: “If they had no reactions to eating tomatoes, there are only two possibilities, but based on this morning’s situation, they can’t be polluters, leaving only one possibility—that the contamination of their tomatoes hardly affects them.”
The captain pondered, “I am starting to doubt, could it be that we mistook them… they’re not from ‘God’s Domain,’ but ‘sports students’ within the campus.”
Sports students can return to the dormitory to sleep, but during a Grey Mist Invasion, sports students almost never leave the gymnasium.
It’s widely accepted that art students can consume tomatoes, but it’s often overlooked that sports students can also eat them.
“People within the campus…” Su Yao muttered, deep in thought.
The captain adjusted his demeanor seriously, “In any case, everyone should be a bit more vigilant during this period; anyone who can remain active now is no ordinary person.”
“Agreed.” Everyone nodded before entering the student passage.
Just as their figures disappeared, Old Mo’s silhouette appeared faintly at the end of the student passage. His somewhat dim eyes slowly moved, eventually falling on Su Yao.
“Ashes…”