Shen Yu instinctively felt that something was wrong.

He knew better than anyone what the price of refusing Yang Jin’s orders would be.

His arm trembled slightly. For a moment, he hesitated, unable to bring himself to accept the three wriggling fingers she held out before him.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Meanwhile, the others at the table had already received their breakfasts from the strange nurses.

Xiao Kungfu glanced over and burst into laughter.

"Haha! Doesn’t this guy love getting close to the weird ones? Look at him now. He got too close and ended up in trouble."

His eyes gleamed with malicious satisfaction.

"What’s wrong? Not going to eat the breakfast the head nurse personally prepared for you? Looks like you finally played with fire and got burned."

The resentment he had been carrying all this time seemed to pour out in a single moment.

Across the table, Yuan Ji folded his arms.

"So you’ve reached your limit after all."

His tone carried no surprise.

To him, this outcome was only natural.

No one stood up to help Shen Yu.

Everyone simply watched.

Yang Jin’s icy voice suddenly rang out.

"What?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"You don’t want to eat the breakfast I prepared for you?"

The three bloody fingers twitched in her hand.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

They moved closer to Shen Yu’s face.

At that exact moment, the exchange student from Bear Country stuffed a chicken leg beneath the gap of his restraint headband.

Above his head, the contamination value instantly changed.

-5

-20

Then, in the blink of an eye—

0

The value reset completely.

The foreigner froze.

Then his eyes drifted toward the fingers in Yang Jin’s hand.

For the first time, Shen Yu saw something unexpected there.

Envy.

His pupils contracted.

Wait.

The foreigner already had a contamination value of -5 before eating.

After eating the chicken leg, it jumped to -20.

That meant there was something wrong with the cafeteria food.

Even more importantly—

The value only returned to zero afterward.

A realization flashed through Shen Yu’s mind like lightning.

The food isn’t what it appears to be.

If everyone’s contamination value had already dropped to negative numbers, then perhaps what they were seeing wasn’t reality at all.

The chicken leg might not be a chicken leg.

The watermelon might not be a watermelon.

And these fingers...

Might not actually be fingers.

His gaze swept across everyone’s headbands.

Every single one displayed negative contamination.

A slow smile curled onto Shen Yu’s lips.

Yang Jin frowned.

"Eat."

Her patience was running out.

Without warning, she shoved two of the fingers directly into the empty eye sockets of his restraint headband.

The bloody fingers squirmed grotesquely.

The scene was horrifying.

Yet Shen Yu suddenly reached out.

Slap.

He grabbed Yang Jin’s wrist.

The cafeteria fell silent.

Yang Jin’s expression immediately turned cold.

"You dare refuse me?"

Shen Yu shook his head.

"No."

His voice was calm.

"I’m not refusing."

"Anything you give me..."

His gaze met hers.

"Even if it’s poison, I’ll eat it."

A brief pause.

"However, I want you to feed me personally."

"..."

For the first time, Yang Jin was completely stunned.

Before she could react, Shen Yu gently pulled her closer.

The next moment, she lost her balance and fell directly into his lap.

Her body stiffened instantly.

The cold and terrifying head nurse froze like a statue.

Her long white-stockinged legs unconsciously brushed against his.

The entire cafeteria seemed to stop breathing.

Shen Yu smiled faintly.

"Anything you give me, I won’t refuse."

Crunch.

The first finger disappeared into the opening of his restraint headband.

The surrounding players stared in horror.

"Crazy."

"He’s completely insane."

"Is he trying to flirt with death itself?"

Xiao Kungfu was dumbfounded.

Even Fujia and Yin Bing sat frozen with their mouths hanging open.

Only Yuan Ji and the foreign exchange student exchanged a silent glance.

Both seemed to have realized something.

Crunch.

Crunch.

As Shen Yu continued chewing, his expression gradually changed.

There was no blood.

No flesh.

No disgusting taste.

Instead—

Softness.

Warmth.

Sweetness.

It tasted exactly like freshly baked milk bread.

His eyes widened.

The second "finger" was no finger at all.

It was bread molded into the shape of a finger.

The third one was the same.

A burst of excitement surged through him.

So that’s it.

The contamination affects perception.

What everyone sees isn’t reality.

Looking down at Yang Jin in his arms, Shen Yu suddenly understood.

This wasn’t punishment.

This was special treatment.

At that moment, a familiar notification echoed in his mind. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Ding!

Yang Jin’s Favorability +10

Current Favorability: 25

Favorability Milestone Reached.

Special Memory CG Unlocked.

View Now?

[Yes / No]

Shen Yu’s eyes lit up.

Before he could choose, Yang Jin abruptly stood up.

The tips of her ears had turned crimson.

"A-at least you’re smart."

Her voice remained cold.

But anyone could hear the faint trace of embarrassment hidden underneath.

Without another word, she turned and walked away.

Her heels clicked sharply against the cafeteria floor.

The moment she disappeared, the entire table exploded.

Xiao Kungfu pointed at Shen Yu as if looking at a monster.

"I thought you were just lucky."

"Turns out you’re not lucky at all."

"You’re completely insane."

"You actually ate that thing!"

"You really aren’t afraid of dying."

The others looked at Shen Yu with similarly strange expressions.

Yet Shen Yu ignored them.

Instead, he looked toward their trays.

His eyes filled with pity.

Chicken leg?

Watermelon?

Eggplant?

No.

What he saw now was entirely different.

On every tray sat tangled masses of gray hair.

Rotting black meat.

And writhing, unidentified flesh that squirmed endlessly across the plates.

__ __ __ __ __ __

The vast cafeteria buzzed with the sounds of chewing.

Not a single patient seemed to notice the horror on their plates.

They continued shoveling the black meat paste into their mouths as if it were a gourmet feast.

As Shen Yu observed them, his expression slowly darkened.

Bloated sores had appeared across many of the patients’ bodies. The swollen pustules bulged beneath their skin, forming distorted characters that seemed to writhe whenever he looked directly at them.

A chill ran down his spine.

So this is what a normal person sees.

If Yang Jin hadn’t secretly helped him, he would never have realized so quickly that he had already been contaminated.

His gaze shifted toward the foreign student from Bear Country.

The man was eating quietly, his expression calm.

Shen Yu narrowed his eyes.

He discovered the problem before everyone else.

Yet he never warned his teammates.

Is he afraid others will learn about his ability?

The thought lingered in Shen Yu’s mind.

Then he silently dismissed it.

That was normal.

This was a horror dungeon.

Trust was more dangerous than monsters.

If someone showed kindness here, there was always a reason behind it.

Eat.

Eat.

Hurry up and eat.

The eerie voices suddenly echoed through the cafeteria.

Several cursed nurses had already removed their veils.

Their faces were horrifying.

Rotting flesh.

Twisted scars.

Exposed gums.

Blackened eye sockets.

They leaned over the shoulders of the remaining participants like vultures waiting for a corpse to die.

"Why are you staring?"

"Eat."

"Eat it."

"Don’t waste food."

Their voices overlapped until it became impossible to tell who was speaking.

The pressure was overwhelming.

Finally, Xiao Kungfu broke first.

Sweat covered his forehead as he grabbed the chicken leg from his tray.

"If Shen Yu can eat fingers, then normal food should be fine..."

He forced a smile.

Then bit down.

Crunch.

The cafeteria fell silent.

At first, nothing happened.

Then Xiao Kungfu’s expression changed.

His chewing slowed.

His eyes widened.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

The texture inside his mouth wasn’t meat.

It was thick.

Rubbery.

Sticky.

Like a wad of filthy cloth stuffed onto his tongue.

An indescribable stench exploded inside his mouth.

"Ugh—!"

His body convulsed.

Instinctively, he wanted to spit it out.

But the nurses were still watching.

The rule was clear.

No wasting food.

No rejecting food.

Trembling violently, he forced himself to swallow.

Gulp.

The moment the lump slid down his throat—

The world changed.

Rumble.

The greasy cafeteria floor cracked open.

Beneath the tiles wasn’t concrete.

It was flesh.

Living flesh.

Massive walls of meat stretched endlessly beneath the building, pulsating with every heartbeat.

Dark-red blood oozed from countless cracks.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Blood rained from above.

Xiao Kungfu slowly lifted his head.

His face instantly lost all color.

The cafeteria ceiling had disappeared.

In its place hung thousands upon thousands of blood-filled blisters.

Each one bulged grotesquely.

Each one carried a single word etched across its surface.

SCUM.

TRASH.

FAILURE.

USELESS.

The words covered every inch of the ceiling.

A sea of condemnation.

A prison built from endless hatred.

"No..."

Xiao Kungfu stumbled backward.

His breathing became ragged.

Then—

POP.

One blister burst.

Dark blood splashed across the floor.

POP.

Another exploded.

Then another.

And another.

Within seconds, thousands of blisters ruptured simultaneously.

Blood flooded the cafeteria.

The crimson liquid gathered together.

Twisting.

Squirming.

Growing.

Until a massive human face slowly emerged from the sea of flesh.

It was enormous.

Large enough to fill half the room.

Its features were distorted beyond recognition.

Yet somehow Xiao Kungfu felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity.

The giant face opened its eyes.

Its gaze locked onto him.

Then it smiled.

A smile filled with disgust.

A smile that looked as though it wanted him dead.

The flesh beneath Xiao Kungfu’s feet began to move.

The blood-red giant spoke.

Its voice sounded like countless people screaming at once.

"Trash."

The word exploded through the cafeteria.

Xiao Kungfu froze.

His contamination value plummeted.

-10

-20

-35

The numbers above his restraint headband flashed wildly.

Around him, nobody else seemed to notice.

The patients continued eating.

The nurses continued serving food.

Only Shen Yu watched quietly from his seat.

His eyes narrowed.

The contamination wasn’t simply lowering sanity.

It was dragging people into another layer of reality.

A deeper world hidden beneath the surface.

And now...

Xiao Kungfu had fallen into it.