“Hehehe, well… from what I understand, good things are meant to be shared, right?” Under Yurizumi’s insistent urging, Shirley’s cold sweat began to trickle even more profusely. “Oh, right! Ji Bingyao, Xia Hua, Eileen, Alice, you all should come and eat too!”
“Uh… I don’t think I’m very hungry right now. Don’t forget, thanks to my long-term athletic training, I can endure hunger quite well!” Ji Bingyao stated immediately.
“Yes, I… I feel a pang of conscience thinking about our other classmates whose fates are unknown. I’ve completely lost my appetite!” Eileen, too, began to feign wiping away tears.
“My… my period, and its entire entourage, have arrived, so I can only drink juice now! No rich or strong-flavored foods for me!” Alice quickly declared.
“Can we preserve it as a research subject for occult studies?” Xia Hua inquired.
“Eh? How can it be that after I’ve prepared such a wonderfully aromatic, flavorful, and visually appealing feast, none of you want to eat it?” Yurizumi asked, a look of profound bewilderment on her face. “I meticulously cooked it with salt, pepper, MSG, sugar, cumin, parsley, rosemary, vinegar, soy sauce, wasabi, yellow mustard, and Tabasco sauce—in short, every single seasoning available in the kitchen! Whatever flavor you prefer, it’s definitely in there! Oh, and I also added plenty of onions and lemons to ensure a rich supply of Vitamin C, guaranteeing health and wellness! Don’t be shy, everyone, dig in!”
“Th-thank you, Chūnibyō—ah, no, Yurizumi,” Shirley took a deep breath, forcing herself to pick up a spoon. Amidst a grotesque mess of mixed seasonings, the pitiful hairtail fish lay smothered under a pile of onions and lemon slices, its silvery skin fried to a pulp, a cherry tomato stuffed into its mouth, and its murky white eyes glaring at her with an expression of unresigned death. “Then I… I’ll start eating.”
The taste of the first piece of fish entering her mouth was akin to someone dropping a super-powerful bunker-buster bomb, specifically designed to assault taste buds, onto her tongue.
The bizarre amalgamation of flavors savagely shattered her psychological defenses with merciless force.
For a fleeting moment, Shirley felt as though she might lose consciousness from the sheer horror of the attack. Fortunately, a strange power suddenly surged from within her, forcibly suppressing her senses and eradicating the dreadful taste. Yet, even with that intervention, the psychological impact of the assault lingered for quite some time, leaving Shirley breathless and needing a moment to recover.
“I… I’ll try some too!” Seeing Shirley take the first bite, Alice gritted her teeth, resolving to eat a piece herself, eager to prove her resolve to Shirley… and, quite predictably, disaster struck. Just three seconds after the fish entered her mouth, Alice’s eyes widened dramatically before she collapsed face-first—thankfully, the ample cushioning of her chest effectively broke her fall, preventing any serious injury.
“Whoa there! Alice, Alice, are you alright?”
“I-I’m fine,” Alice smiled faintly after Shirley, Eileen, and Ji Bingyao helped her back to her feet. “I… I think I just saw heaven.”
“Eh? Really?”
“But then, I suddenly remembered that if I went to heaven, I’d have to part with Shirley… ah, no, with everyone, so I quickly rushed back.”
“Um… hehehe, I’m sorry, this really does seem to be my fault…” At this point, Yurizumi finally ran out of excuses. “I haven’t actually fully mastered my family’s Páodīng Dào; I’ve only… uh… only learned the knife skills. The other parts, I… well… I haven’t learned yet.”
“Then why didn’t you say so sooner?!”
“Because the essence of the Shijō-ryū Páodīng Dào is knife skills!” Yurizumi said, her face flushing as she fiddled with her fingers, her previous arrogant chūnibyō aura completely vanished. “So, if you round it up, mastering knife skills pretty much means mastering our family’s Páodīng Dào,” She looked exactly like a Miyoshi family chef caught before the Sixth Heavenly Demon King. “Believe me, I truly didn’t mean to deceive anyone… Please, give me another chance… If I fail again, I’m willing to atone with my life…”
“Never mind, I think there are still instant noodles and frozen burgers in the pantry. Let’s just eat those.” Shirley and the others, naturally, wouldn’t give her another chance to poison everyone, and they swiftly made the correct decision. As for the plate of hairtail, it was, of course, sealed up with utmost speed and discarded into the trash can, as if it were highly dangerous biological weaponry.
Although instant noodles and pre-made burgers weren’t exactly gourmet fare, after nearly a day of hunger and a narrow escape from Shijō Yurizumi’s truly deadly cooking, Shirley and her companions ate with immense relish. Afterward, they took turns washing themselves in the washroom located next to the kitchen, typically used by staff for routine cleaning before shifts—thankfully, the water tank there still held a good supply of hot water.
“So, what do you all plan to do next?” Once everyone had recovered their strength, Shirley instinctively assumed the role of leader, gathering her companions in the kitchen’s staff lounge to begin their deliberations. “It’s now almost certain that those who departed with Miss Huang are likely in grave danger, if not already lost. However, there should still be many students, and even faculty members, alive within the school, who haven’t yet fallen prey to those parasites. If possible, I hope we can find a way to rescue them.”
“Wife—ah, no, Shirley, you’ve spoken very well!” Ji Bingyao was the first to voice her agreement. “The situation is perfectly clear now. This is simply not our original world, and there’s no hope of waiting for police or any other rescue teams. However, if what that girl who presumptuously called Shirley ‘Mom’ said is true, then this world at least possesses human civilization. If we can safely escape this area and reach a human-inhabited city-state, we’ll be safe.”
“Indeed.” Shirley sighed. Reaching a human city-state? That was far easier said than done. Not only did they have no idea where any cities in this world might be, but simply traversing tens, or even hundreds, of kilometers through a perilous wilderness without any means of transportation would be an incredibly arduous task.
However, she also understood that this was virtually their only option at the moment: her “good daughter” had just personally confessed to using something called an “enemy-luring device” to attract the dangerous parasites, along with their controlled hosts and hybrids. Remaining here might allow them to survive for a few days, but their ultimate fate would be to be utterly devoured by the ceaseless tide of monsters.
If it were merely a matter of being eaten alive, that might be bearable. But after witnessing the “hybrids” and hearing their threats, they had truly fallen into a profound state of terror: Even being devoured would be preferable to becoming that wretched “Great Mother”!
“Then, for now, let’s establish ‘escaping the school before more bugs arrive’ as our primary objective,” Eileen stated. “Before that, we must first gather necessary weapons, or anything that can serve as a weapon, along with food and water. Therefore, I suggest that we should avoid consuming long-storage items like packaged biscuits, freeze-dried fruit slices, and vacuum-sealed chocolates; instead, prioritize fresh food stored in the cold room, followed by items like instant noodles and oatmeal that require hot water. Unless absolutely necessary, we should definitely not eat high-calorie foods that can be consumed directly.”
“Agreed.” Everyone present nodded in assent. While Eileen was considered rather inconspicuous among the students of St. Lian Academy, possessing no particularly outstanding abilities or talents, her meticulous mind and knack for planning proved quite valuable in their current predicament.
“Additionally, if there’s any protective gear available, I suggest we put it on—” It’s a shame our all-girls academy has neither a Kendo club nor a rugby club. “Kendo armor and rugby helmets would be incredibly useful right now,” Eileen mused, her hands tightly clasped. “However, we do have a mountain biking enthusiast club. I recall there are some bicycle helmets in the gymnasium’s storage room.”
“But those don’t offer face protection. Oh, right, the baseball club’s catcher’s helmets could!” Xia Hua shrugged from the side. The thought of their plump dorm supervisor’s horrific “forced kiss” by a giant insect earlier made her involuntarily shiver. “Let’s wear those, then. I certainly don’t want to give my first kiss to a disgusting bug.”
“Well, thank goodness, at least my first kiss was already given away yesterday,” Yurizumi, standing nearby, suddenly reverted to her chūnibyō foolishness. “Compared to being forcefully violated by a bug, at least Shirley’s ‘daughter’s’ lips and tongue were certainly soft and delicious… And if she truly is Shirley’s daughter, then kissing her would be practically equivalent to indirectly kissing Shirley…”
“Mmm, indirectly kissing Shirley… *Hoo… hah*…” Alice’s breathing suddenly became heavy. Ji Bingyao had to promptly deliver a swift rap on the heads of both flushed-faced girls, stopping them from further inappropriate fantasies.
“As for weapons, we currently have a few: Yurizumi found three sports bows from the archery club and thirty arrows. The only problem is that among us, only she has actually practiced archery; the rest of us would have a very low chance of hitting a target even with a bow,” Eileen continued her inventory. “After all, bows and arrows require extensive training to use proficiently.”
“This shotgun I got isn’t bad,” Ji Bingyao said, weighing the double-barreled shotgun she had just acquired in exchange for one of the “hybrid’s” lives. “Unfortunately, there are only ten 12-gauge shells, which isn’t enough for prolonged combat, and Shirley’s pistol only has one bullet left. Unless we go and take a few more lives…”
“That won’t be easy…” Shirley bit her lip. They absolutely couldn’t bring themselves to harm innocent classmates, even those controlled by parasites. As for the “hybrids,” whose physiological structure and thought patterns were vastly different from normal humans, she felt no psychological burden in acting against them. But judging by Dianna’s combat performance, dealing with such creatures would be far from simple.
At this moment, Shirley suddenly found herself envying a certain golden-clad big shot who had been constipated on a toilet for ten thousand years, holding a vast amount of currency called “life.”
“We also have some equipment left by the shooting team, including three airsoft pistols and a box of sixty lead pellets. Air canisters and inflation devices are also available,” Eileen continued. “There are also quite a few kitchen knives in the kitchen, Chūnibyō… Yurizumi assured me that they are very effective. Especially those used for cutting steaks and tuna; I recommend everyone carry one for self-defense. In short, that’s all our usable armaments.”
“If distributed evenly, each of us could get at least two weapons, including ranged weapons and knives for self-defense. By the standards of the horror movies I’ve watched, this already counts as a well-equipped battle,” Xia Hua remarked. “Now, typically, when all team members are fully armed, it means the great counterattack has arrived in horror movies. It’s our turn next! Let us show time!”
“Show time, my foot!” Ji Bingyao, just as she had struck Yurizumi and Alice, sharply rapped the forehead of the “occult researcher” as well. “I don’t think our weapons and equipment are sufficient at all.”
“Huh?”
“Are you forgetting that there are other surviving classmates in the school?” Ji Bingyao asked. “We can’t just abandon them and escape on our own.”