Chapter 149: Something to Accompany the Meal

Chapter 149: Chapter 149: Something to Accompany the Meal"Let’s hail a car," the burly man shadowing her said, pointing to the nearby call button. "There’s an autonomous driving service here."

Xu Huo, who had been leaning against the notice board, approached, "Starting at two hundred White Notes, that’s expensive!"

The female player took a step back, distancing herself from him, and motioned for the burly man to call the car.

The burly man pressed the button, and Xu Huo, not to be outdone, pressed it as well, and soon two driverless minivans arrived.

Before getting in the car, Xu Huo waved a discount coupon at the female player, "Want to ride together?"

Without even looking at him, the female player got straight into the car.

"Can we carpool?" the young man asked Xu Huo.

Xu Huo lifted his eyelids and sized him up. "Alright."

Just as the two of them got on board, two muscular men burst from nowhere, squeezing into the car before the doors could close, each brandishing a gun at the waists of Xu Huo and the young man, and barked, "Shut up, move!"

The minivan’s cabin was fully transparent, so everything happening inside was visible from the outside. The man and woman, who had originally intended to hitch a ride, turned and walked away upon seeing this, while the female player ahead coldly averted her gaze.

Once the car started moving, the young man couldn’t help saying, "Gentlemen, let’s talk this over, I still have some money on me..."

The muscle-bound Buzz Cut sitting next to him smacked him across the face. "I told you to shut up!"

The young man’s head banged against the car, and when he turned back, his nose was bleeding profusely, a pitiful sight.

"You call yourself a player looking like that?" The brow-pierced muscular man holding Xu Huo scoffed, then turned back to Xu Huo, "Hand over your stuff."

"I don’t have any money!" Xu Huo hurriedly stuffed the discount coupons he was holding toward him, "This is all I have!"

The two men were after exactly that; the brow-pierced muscular man snatched it, exchanged a look with his partner, and asked, "Where did you get these coupons from?"

"From an old lady sharing the ride," Xu Huo said. "She recommended I stay at these two places."

Two discount coupons, one for "Bear’s Paw Restaurant" and the other for "Beauty Aromatherapy Shop."

"Do these spots look like proper accommodations?" the muscle-bound Buzz Cut murmured to himself.

"They offer lodging," the young man spoke up again. "It says on the notice board, most shops here provide accommodations. The Beauty Aromatherapy Shop is even a four-star recommendation."

"You all are players too, right? The tourist city is so big, it’s not easy for players to come together. More people make it easier to find clues to beat the game."

"I’m still completely clueless about the mission for this instance."

The two muscular men were obviously no better off, but compared to simply being unaware, they seemed more irritable, particularly the muscle-bound Buzz Cut, who, without a thought, dealt another slap.

As the young man raised his head again, blood flowed more freely from his nose.

"Big brother, do you think these two places are reliable?" the muscle-bound Buzz Cut asked.

The brow-pierced muscular man seemed very hesitant, and after a few seconds, he said, "They’re better than the spots that damn guide mentioned."

"Here we have two ready options. Let’s try one place at a time."

Upon hearing this, Xu Huo’s eyes widened in alarm. "There won’t be any danger at these places, right? I’m not going!"

"Such a big city, there’s accommodation everywhere. What’s the difference where you stay?"

"If it comes to it, I’ll just squat somewhere for the night!"

"What do you know?" the brow-pierced muscular man raised his hand to strike, but upon noticing several distinct scratch marks on the arm he raised to protect his face, he quickly withdrew his hand. "Where did you get these wounds?"

"From a monkey," Xu Huo replied.

"Was it sold to you by that guide?" the brow-pierced muscular man immediately asked. "Is the monkey from the contaminated area?"

Xu Huo nodded skeptically, but then he saw two burly guys wishing they could shrink into the corner of the car, and they pointed at him, saying, "Stay away from us!"

"I’ve already applied medicine to it," Xu Huo replied as he reached out, but that provoked both men to aim their guns at him simultaneously.

Xu Huo had no choice but to sit back down, exchanging a puzzled look with the equally bewildered young man.

"You’re not injured, are you?" the man with the eyebrow piercing asked the latter.

The young man shook his head, and after they confirmed this, they all moved to sit next to him.

"What kind of bad consequences can result from being scratched by an animal in the contaminated zone?" The young man, not heeding the lesson, started talking again.

But this time, Buzz Cut didn’t hit him. After exchanging a glance with the man with the eyebrow piercing, he fell silent and instead stared intently at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo touched the scar on his arm with a nervous expression, occasionally glancing at the guns in their hands.

The two parties maintained this tense state until they arrived at the Bear’s Paw Restaurant.

After getting out of the car, Buzz Cut hid his gun under his clothes and forced Xu Huo inside.

Xu Huo struggled briefly before being "helplessly" forced into the restaurant.

At that moment, the restaurant was bustling with people, most of whom were eating the same dishes.

He looked at the menu board.

This restaurant only had two set meals, red and blue; the red set meal was a simple Bear’s Paw set meal, and the blue set meal consisted of Bear’s Paw steak with a side of pumpkin soup.

Just after ordering a set meal and sitting down, the Gourmet sitting nearby leaned over mysteriously, "Young man, would you like something extra to complement your meal?"

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, "Sure."

The man reached out directly, "Fifty White Notes."

"How do I know it’s worth that much?" Xu Huo didn’t hand it over.

The Gourmet sat down beside him and whispered, "I’m privy to some insider information about this restaurant."

"But that’ll cost White Notes. You’ve got a kind face, so I’ll give you a discount upfront. The wound on your arm, it’s from an animal in the contaminated area, right?"

"You can tell?" Xu Huo was surprised.

The Gourmet grinned smugly, "Only you outsiders would carelessly get wounded by animals from the contaminated zone, we locals would never touch those things."

"Why?"

"Do you know how the Aliens came to be? They too were contaminated people at first, slowly mutating into Aliens. All the contaminated people, they either get locked up in the breeding zone or you’re thrown into the display gardens. Poor people, truly pitiable."

Despite saying ’pitiable,’ there was not a hint of sympathy on the Gourmet’s face as he looked at Xu Huo with schadenfreude, "Contaminated people can spread the contamination from one to ten, ten to a hundred. Your wound isn’t severe, so it’s not obvious."

"If it were a bit more serious, you’d definitely get caught by government mercenaries, locked up, and once you degrade into an Alien, you’ll be thrown into the Different Kind Zone to earn them revenue."

"Around here, tourists often disappear; my guess is they all get snatched away."

"Is there any hope for me?" Xu Huo asked.

"Us locals? We’ve lived here since the big contamination twenty years ago; those of us that made it have immunity and aren’t afraid of contamination. If we get injured, at worst we’re sick for half a month, so nobody sells any Potion..." The Gourmet added, "But I do know a place that sells Antitoxin smuggled in from other zones, you might want to try that."

With that, he rubbed his hands together, obviously waiting to be paid before offering any clues.

Xu Huo smiled and handed over fifty White Notes, "Tell me the insider information first."

The Gourmet gave a thumbs-up, "Little brother is smart."

Then, changing his tone, he spoke in an extremely low voice, "The Bear’s Paw steak here is made from human flesh."