Chapter 74: Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Each Showing Their Divine Powers

Yan Jing arrived at the Employee Cafeteria.

The place was already crowded.

The inner world residents who got off work early had staked out spots at the food windows, waiting for service to start so they could get the first hot bites.

Drool dripped from their mouths, pooling into a long, wet trail at their feet.

Yan Jing stepped over the puddle. He didn't line up, nor did he head toward the Gluttonous Weird meals. Instead, he walked to the Restroom.

Locking the door behind him, he ran an Anomalous Energy Detection sweep and immediately switched to his Cameraman avatar in the single standard room. Then, he made his way up to the fifth floor, heading for the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet.

At the large round tables, the Gluttonous Weirds were waking from their slumber, drooling as they stared hungrily at the center of each table.

For most Gluttonous Weirds, their daily lives practically never took them away from these tables.

Unless ordered to leave, they simply collapsed onto the tables to sleep once full, then woke up and waited to eat again.

Yan Jing blended into the crowd. With a casual stroll, he arrived at the kitchen doors of the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet he had scouted yesterday.

Right now, six inner world resident waiters stood by the door.

Each carried a massive platter piled high with worm-like inner world creatures drenched in a red sauce.

There were seven round tables, which meant there should have been seven waiters.

But one waiter seemed to have gone off to do something else, leaving a lone platter resting on a nearby table.

"Hello, is the Restroom this way?" Yan Jing approached one of the inner world resident waiters, stopping right next to the table with the abandoned platter.

"No, sir. The Restroom is over there."

Assuming Yan Jing was a lost guest, the waiter helpfully added that this entire floor was the Employee Cafeteria.

"Thank you," Yan Jing nodded. "I appreciate your patience, sir." He then turned and left.

It was a minor interruption, and the waiters thought nothing of it. Right now, they just wanted to finish serving so they could eat their own dinners.

A short while later, the substitute waiter rushed over, apologizing profusely.

"Sorry, so sorry! I'm late."

No one paid him any mind.

Serving the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet delayed a worker's own meal, so it was handled through rotating shifts. They rarely interacted with one another.

Seeing no response, Tiger didn't feel embarrassed. He picked up the platter left on the table.

Yan Jing had given him two very simple tasks. The first was to place the platter on the table and leave for fifteen minutes.

He didn't need to worry about anything else.

As for the waiter originally scheduled for this shift, rumor had it he had mysteriously fainted near the stairwell last night and tumbled down the steps, forcing him to take a few days off.

Having volunteered, Tiger easily secured the job.

He looked toward the third round table where the Gluttonous Weirds sat and straightened his collar.

Honestly, doing this kind of shady work for the first time was a little exciting.

...

...

Yan Jing hurried into the stall next to where his original body waited in the Restroom, locked the door, and switched back.

He quickened his pace, swiftly returning to the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet and taking a seat directly at table three.

"Hungry, hungry..."

The Gluttonous Weirds ignored the human squeezing in among them. They simply scooted aside, unwilling to get too close to the halo of light surrounding Yan Jing.

At the neighboring tables, the other players also began taking their seats.

Seven teams (Mu Rao, Mo Nagu, Chen Dalang, the two pre-formed groups, the Fat Man, and the Scar-faced Man) naturally corresponded to the seven tables.

At least, that was how it should have been.

But the final team to arrive was the group led by the Scar-faced Man—the same ones who had blocked Yan Jing at the stairwell.

And so...

They took one look at Yan Jing at table three.

Without a word, the entire group came to a tacit understanding and walked over to table six, where the Fat Man's team sat.

"Can't you see this table is almost full?"

The Fat Man frowned in displeasure. "You've got the wrong table."

"We want to sit here," the Scar-faced Man replied gruffly.

The Fat Man's expression darkened. He wanted to say more but swallowed his words.

At the same time, the Squinting Man strolled over from a distance.

He stood before Yan Jing's table, hesitating for a moment, before finally choosing to walk toward Mu Rao's table.

"May I sit here?" the Squinting Man asked with a smile.

"I'm afraid not, sir. It's already quite crowded."

Mu Rao returned the smile.

"Is that so? But I feel like there's just enough room for one more."

Ignoring Mu Rao's warning, the Squinting Man sat right down.

Seeing this, Mu Rao stared deeply at the man. Eventually, he raised a hand, signaling for the short-haired girl and the long-haired woman beside him to stay put.

Though the Squinting Man looked perfectly ordinary and sparked no recognition, those eyes reminded Mu Rao of certain rumors.

That guy was indeed due to enter a Dungeon recently...

But what baffled him was why this squinty-eyed fellow didn't just sit with Yan Jing, who was completely alone.

"Tsk, this is getting more and more interesting," he muttered under his breath.

...

Soon, the waiters emerged carrying the massive platters.

Tiger approached Yan Jing's table as agreed and placed the spiked platter right in the center.

Yan Jing made a token effort to reach for the food, but the Gluttonous Weirds instantly blocked him out with a wall of bodies. In no time at all, the entire platter of worms vanished.

Yan Jing watched the Gluttonous Weirds gorge themselves until grease smeared their faces, his expression utterly calm.

He then shifted his gaze to the other round tables to observe the different teams' tactics.

Mo Nagu's table used the most straightforward and brutal method.

Relying purely on physical strength, Mo Nagu swatted away the hands of the Gluttonous Weirds beside him, forced his way through their fleshy barricade, grabbed a massive handful of worms, and tossed them to his teammates.

Such an action undoubtedly lowered one's Mental Immunity Value, but the halo around him showed no signs of dimming.

He must have consumed a Mental Immunity Potion.

Fifteen minutes was plenty of time to scarf down a few items.

Then there was Chen Dalang's table and the two pre-formed player teams.

Their tactic relied on one person using their Inventory to smuggle in food steeped in weird energy from the outside. They used it to draw the Gluttonous Weirds' attention, creating an opening to snatch food off the table.

This method was quite demanding.

Not only did the person bringing the food need deep pockets, but it also required flawless teamwork to trade limited bait for as much table food as possible.

If any food was wasted, someone on the team would inevitably fall short of eating the mandatory two items.

Next was the Fat Man's table.

The two teams sharing that table employed the exact same strategy.

They relied on players with crowd-control Rituals to temporarily stun the Gluttonous Weirds, sacrificing their Mental Immunity Value to grab the food.

The primary controller for the Scar-faced Man's team was a man whose Ritual was a Pocket Watch. Its ability caused the surrounding Gluttonous Weirds to momentarily lose focus.

The controller for the Fat Man's team was that frail-looking girl.

Her Ritual was a Folding Fan. It was hard to tell exactly what it did at a glance, but as she fanned herself and spoke, the movements of the nearby Gluttonous Weirds noticeably slowed.

Finally, there were Mu Rao and the Squint-Eyed Man.

Mu Rao's method of getting food actually surprised Yan Jing.

The moment he showed a desire for the food, the two Gluttonous Weirds beside him actually hesitated, as if debating whether to yield their portions to him.

This meant those two Gluttonous Weirds were female.

What impressed Yan Jing wasn't that Mu Rao could charm female Gluttonous Weirds, but that he could even tell their genders apart in the first place.

As for the Squint-Eyed Man...

His fingers tapped lightly on the table, and the food in the platter flew straight up. Moving as fast as lightning, he snatched the worms out of the air in a blur.

He was so quick that even the Gluttonous Weirds couldn't react in time.

Brilliant. Truly brilliant. Yan Jing couldn't help but marvel.

The players who made it into this Dungeon really all had their own tricks. It was very much like the eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their divine powers.

Unlike him—he was just completely ordinary.

He watched for a bit longer until a series of thuds echoed around him. Only then did he slowly withdraw his gaze and look at the platter in the center of the round table.

All around him, one Gluttonous Weird after another slumped over the table, snoring soundly.

Amid the deafening snores, his gaze remained indifferent. He pulled out the disposable chopsticks he had swiped while passing the cutlery station, casually rubbed them together to remove the splinters, and slowly reached for the platter.

The show was over. Now, it was time to eat.