Salted Fish Zombie

Ning Su wiped his face and smelled a strong scent of blood.

He felt his blood vessels trembling, his throat dry, and licked his lips.

Other players gradually realized why the player did this.

Since entering the instance, the man in the gray robe had said that they could only be hit on the lower body, not the upper body.

As “flowers”, their upper bodies were crucial.

Moreover, a “human bookmark” implied the need for a more intact person.

By tearing his own arm off, among people with a similar figure as him, he wouldn’t be chosen.

Compared to being turned into a terrifying “human bookmark”, losing an arm was nothing.

The players looked at him with a mix of admiration in their eyes.

Yes, it was true. Not everyone could have the courage to decisively tear their own arm off like that.

They thought what he did would be enough.

Self-mutilation might be a way to avoid death.

However, the people in the third water prison continued to watch them calmly and numbly, as if this was something they had seen before, a method that was fundamentally useless.

Seeing their expressions, the players felt not only panic but also a sense of annoyance.

“Very well,” the boss stood in front of the water prison, a smile not reaching his eyes. “I want to make sure you all understand how important it is to take good care of your face and body.”

When the boss turned to face the buyer, the cold aura disappeared from him, and he said, “Please wait a moment. I’ll pick an even better one for you.”

He then chose another person from the first water prison, making a total of four people for the buyer to choose from.

Indeed, the one he newly selected was better, and the buyer chose that person without hesitation.

As the person chosen by the buyer was taken to the dark warehouse by the guard, the boss confirmed the time when the buyer could retrieve the ‘human bookmark’, then bid him farewell, and returned to the front of the fourth water prison, looking at the male player who had torn his arm off.

The male player’s name was Lu Dan. With the help of other players, he roughly tied his arms and defiantly glared at the boss.

The players were also looking at the boss, not forgetting the words the other had just said.

He wanted them all to know how important it was to take good care of their bodies and faces.

The boss spoke to the person in white beside him, saying, “With his current state, he can no longer be a human bouquet and human bookmark.”

No one could relax because of his words.

Sure enough, the boss laughed and said, “Then let’s turn him into a Flower God Cake.”

Just hearing the words “Flower God Cake” made the players’ hair stand on end.

Indeed, there was a type of cake called the Fresh Flower Cake.

Compared to a bouquet, the requirements for flowers in the cake were not as high, as only the petals were needed.

After baking, flowers were no longer fresh flowers. The petals had already matured, and who could tell if they were previously whole and beautiful?

When Lu Dan was dragged out, the prison became extremely quiet.

Lu Dan gave up struggling because he knew that if even self-harm was useless, then any struggle would be in vain.

He simply stared in despair, a layer of sweat covering his pale face. Occasionally, he twitched, unsure if it was from the pain in his arms or fear of what was about to happen.

The other players, to varying degrees, also felt despair.

This despair was because despite their numbers, they couldn’t save a companion in this world. They could only watch as he was dragged away and chopped up to be used as filling for the so-called Flower God Cake.

It was the same for him and for future companions, including themselves.

Powerless, with no way to resist.

After Lu Dan was dragged away, the boss said, “During the Festival of the Gods, the highest demand is for Flower God Cakes. My Flower Servants are so good; I disdain doing those myself. But if there are any defective Flower Servants, we shouldn’t let them go to waste, right?”

“Why don’t you take good care of yourselves? Don’t you really know how important your body and face are? Only if you look good will you receive better treatment.”

After the boss finished speaking, he went to receive the new buyer.

The players no longer had thoughts of self-mutilation or disfiguration.

They believed that the boss didn’t deceive them.

Initially, those selected to become human bouquets were relatively good-looking. Comparing it to flower bouquets, it was evident that looks mattered.

Those selected to become human bookmarks were not as good-looking as the human bouquets. Perhaps becoming a human bookmark meant having only one hardened skin, becoming a specimen.

For making flower god cakes, everyone knew that as long as there was flesh and blood, it would do.

In comparison, being a human bouquet was still better.

The idea of self-mutilation was completely abandoned.

Fang Qi’s face turned dark, and he applied a layer of ointment given to him by the boss.

Heart-wrenching screams echoed from the warehouse. Some players with weak psychological endurance covered their ears.

However, while the boss was talking to the new buyer, most players still pricked up their ears, listening to the screams while trying to catch snippets of the boss’ conversation with the new buyer, wanting to know if there were any other kind of human sacrifices they hadn’t thought of.

“Boss Qi, is it still possible to designate an eternal human now?”

The boss laughed and said, “Of course it’s possible.”

Eternal humans corresponded to eternal flowers.

Another player was dragged into the warehouse.

“Boss Qi, we want a durable dry human, regardless of its quality.”

The boss replied, “No problem, rest assured.”

Dry humans corresponded to dried flowers.

Some people think that fresh flowers have a short blooming period and prefer more practical flower arrangements. Buying dried flowers was an affordable choice.

Two more players were dragged into the dark warehouse.

Tomorrow was the start of the welcoming period for the gods. The boss had a particularly good business today and didn’t take a break all morning.

At the same time, players were constantly being pulled into the dark warehouse.

By lunchtime, there were only 90 players left.

The screams from the dark warehouse never ceased, sending shivers down people’s spines.

Looking at that eerie, dark warehouse and hearing the screams over and over again, the feeling of oppression deepened.

Zhao Shuangshuang turned her head and said, “In our first instance, as long as we follow the rules and don’t act recklessly, we can survive for a while. If someone wants to resist in the first instance, those who are capable can survive a few more days. But there’s no way to change anything in this instance.”

No matter how strong someone was, if they were chosen, they would die as soon as they arrived.

Ning Su sighed and said, “This is a world where appearance matters.”

“...”

What he said made sense.

After drinking a bowl of green water during the noon break, Ning Su walked to the wall shared with the third water prison.

The water level had risen, and he couldn’t squat anymore, so he leaned against the wooden pillar and asked the person from last night, “Brother, what happened to the sister who was taken away just now?”

The brother was obviously annoyed with him, but for some reason, he started talking to him when he saw his face.

People came and went in these few prisons, and who knew how many times the people who had been staying here had changed.

No matter how many people came, no matter how long they stayed here, it’s all numbness and despair.

No one struggled, and no one wanted to speak.

When there’s a person who looked extremely pleasing, like a child following behind you and asking questions, it’s a strange feeling.

Like causing a lovely ripple in a stagnant pool that imprisoned them.

“Didn’t you notice how beautiful she is?” the older brother asked irritably.

Ning Su responded, “Ah, I didn’t notice that.”

“...”

The older brother lost his desire to chat with him and told him directly, “She is a flower attendant, but she is a failed flower attendant, so she ended up here.”

Upon hearing the new term, the surrounding players perked up their ears.

They knew last night that they were all flower servants, with the character “servant” clearly indicating their status as a lowly, disposable identity.

And the flower attendants, the term “attendant” sounded like a higher status, still a bit better than “servant”.

Ning Su was the least fond of thinking, so he directly asked like a child, “What is a flower attendant?”

The older brother seemed accustomed to such questions from him. “A flower attendant also serves the flower god. Our country is also called the Shigen Kingdom. Just think about it, can they be the same as us? If she hadn’t become a failure, the boss would still have to bow and lower his head when he sees her.” (T/N: ‘Shigen’ (侍神) can be translated to ‘God’s Attendant’.)

All the players were stunned.

However, they found it somewhat ridiculous.

The status of a flower attendant sounded high, but they were still commodities for sale.

Yesterday, a middle-aged woman took a liking to Ning Su, and many players overheard her saying that she could buy Ning Su as a flower attendant.

But she couldn’t afford the price, so she reluctantly gave up.

This flower attendant, who had pierced the skin with her blood vessels, must have been purchased by the boss.

After being “discarded,” she could be bought and sold just like a flower servant.

Ning Su asked, “Older brother, what’s your name? How did you end up here?”

“I’m called Yang Tai,” he said. “When I was thirteen, my family sold me as a flower servant. There was no choice. If they didn’t sell me, our whole family would starve. Selling me meant they could at least have food to eat.”

His words didn’t make the people in his water prison look at him more. It seemed that his background was not considered tragic among them, just ordinary.

Indeed, how could someone with a good background become a flower servant who could be bought and disposed of at will?

The identity of a flower servant was even more miserable than what they understood.

On the hottest and most tiresome day, the sun hung high in the azure sky.

The lake in the courtyard was gurgling, clear and transparent, with a faint fragrance.

Yet, they felt as if they were in a dark prison.

Yang Tai glanced at Ning Su. “You should also be able to change from a flower servant to a flower attendant, I hope...”

He lowered his head, and his long hair fell to cover his face, making his expression unclear. “I hope you can escape the sea of suffering and meet the Flower God.”

He held his palms upward, clasping them together at his chest in a posture of offering. He wasn’t very skilled at this gesture, but he was devout.

Ning Su responded with a sound, “I will meet Him.”

***

“We can’t go on like this.”

After lunch, Boss Qi and the others hadn’t brought anyone yet. Upon hearing Yang Tai’s words, someone stood up and spoke.

The person who stood up was a man with a cold expression. Ning Su didn’t know him, but Zhu Shuangshuang, who had joined a guild, recognized the other.

She whispered to them, “That’s Jia Chensheng, the president of the Hongyu Guild. The Hongyu Guild is known as the Intelligence Guild in the base.”

They had been to the game hall a few times, so they knew about the Hongyu Guild. It ranked third among the guilds, just behind the Yinhua Guild.

The most formidable player in this game was Ning Changfeng, but Ning Changfeng was a famous loner in the game base, not affiliated with any guild, and he didn’t seem interested in taking charge in this instance.

Therefore, after observing for a day, it was Jia Chensheng who stood up.

“Our main quest is to find a way to encounter the Flower God. It’s impossible to find it here, and we have already lost ten players. How can we continue like this?”

Someone immediately asked him, “But we can’t escape from here at all.”

Who didn’t know that they couldn’t stay here? The key was that they couldn’t leave.

Zhu Shuangshuang also said, “Even if we manage to escape from here, if this is how the dungeon world is set up, we will be sent back or taken away by other bosses.”

It’s like the village where those wicked traffickers sell girls. If a girl managed to escape from one house, she would be captured and brought back by the entire village.