Chapter 21: How To Offend A Chef
Placing two alphas in the same pack can only result in a gruesome blood bath that could easily implicate innocent bystanders. This meant that putting Jin Lin in a confined space with the ice prince Ming Wei could only have a brutal ending. It wasn't so much as a Jin Lin problem but rather a Ming Wei problem.
These two had been casting stones at each other for a very long time with the instigator half the time being Ming Wei. Jin Lin's motto was don't provoke unless provoked and Ming Wei had pushed him over the edge countless times.
Now they were telling them that they had to stay in the same room for an entire evening. Jin Lin sighed before saying, "This is going to be a long night."
Ming Wei snorted coldly as he retorted, "Likewise," as he lay on the bottom bunk furthest away unwilling to look at Jin Lin's smug face a second longer. The atmosphere fell into an awkward silence with an intense smell of gunpowder in the air. All it would take would be one spark to mark the beginning of world war three.
Fen Hao felt suffocated but it was all his fault. He knew water and oil can't mix but still facilitated this situation. This meant he had no choice but to act as an emulsifier.
In the days that he couldn't find Jin Lin, he had decided to team up with Ming Wei because they were at least familiar. Ming Wei might have been an ice-cold prince but his presence was reassuring. It was for this reason that he landed himself in this tense situation.
"Okay, we... I think we have greater things to worry about so how about a temporary truce?" suggested Fen Hao like a daycare teacher trying to stop a fight between two toddlers. Obviously, their current situation took precedence over their petty fights but he would never say that out loud.
"I take it that your silence means you approve?... Now let's discuss what's happening here because.....," he said taking a long pause like a sensible scholar but this calm demeanour changed quickly as he began to freak out like a dog before the storm.
"This shit is too real to be a game!" he carried on expressing his grievances while hugging Jin Lin's thigh, "Dage, I got beaten up the day l woke up for telling the chef that his cooking tastes like throw up and it hurt like a son of a bitch. Wuwuwuwu... Lin Li-er, what are we going to do? How are we going to find Chen-ge?..... Wuwuwu, how miserable."
Ming Wei, "....."
"Get off me or I will tell him you said his mouth smells like rotten fish," threatened Jin Lin looking down at him with a menacing gaze.
Fen Hao scurried off the floor in a hurry dusting off nonexistent dust from his clothes. His freak out was exaggerated because he thought the only reason for him to be in the game had ditched him. He just had to voice out his grievances when he saw Jin Lin so as to make up for the days he wasn't around.
"Idiots," whispered Ming Wei as he turned to lie on his side. What he thought was a whisper was clearly heard by Jin Lin which in itself was humanly impossible but none of them focused on this crucial point because of Jin Lin's outburst.
Jin Lin wasn't the kind to get into a physical altercation but even he knew he could beat a weak chicken like Ming Wei. "Keep talking... I dare you! I dare you to say it again," said Jin Lin at a regular volume but his voice carried a sinister tone that even terrified Fen Hao.
His chestnut coloured eyes had a faint azure tint in them resembling those of a repressed beast that was begging to be taken off its leash. They had been friends for so long but he had never seen this version of Jin Lin. Even when his mother angered him he had never been this hostile.
Jin Lin's reaction made Ming Wei furrow his brow. He wasn't the type to walk away from a challenge. In as much as he wanted to pick a fight with Jin Lin, he had no idea what the consequences would be if they fought here. With that in mind, he could only back down.
Fen Hao had Jin Lin sit on the bed opposite him and said, "Dage, there is something up with this game. Before I woke up I heard a system like voice welcoming me to Equino but I haven't heard it ever since?..... have you heard the same voice before?"
Jin Lin massaged his temple trying to recall what happened prior to being here. He did remember waking up in the capsule and the man in the hazmat suit mentioning something about failed reconstruction. He also recalled that man also took out a crystal-like thing from the corpse before he was sedated. Those memories were too vivid to be hallucinations.
And just now he heard the man from earlier talking about eliminating all the subjects that don't wake up by tomorrow morning. These weren't mere background settings for a game.
This was real which meant death was also a reality. There were no resurrection points like in the Gods of Equino. If one dies that would be the end of it.
Since he hadn't confirmed his conjecture as of yet he decided to hold off on telling Fen Hao what he thought. Instead, he chose to talk about the system's voice. He vaguely remembered hearing an automated voice welcoming him to Equino.
"I did as well but I haven't heard it since..... Have you found out anything else for these past few days?" he asked taking off his boots before lying on the bed as hard as a rock.
Fen Hao clutched the side of the bed tightly and said, "Something big is happening tomorrow. The day the chef beat my ass he was yelling that if I say one more word six days was enough time for him to murder me and turn me into mincemeat which he would then serve to everyone..... that old uncle is so fuckin crazy," before pausing but Jin Lin didn't respond so he continued, "..... what should we do next?"
Jin Lin shut his eyes feeling a little disoriented from the familiar pain that was slowly creeping up on him. He could no longer think straight with a lingering fear of what was about to come. If he had that excruciating episode again he wasn't certain he would survive it.
Fen Hao noticed something was wrong so he asked, "Are you okay?" attracting Ming Wei. He had been closely paying attention to these people's conversation while feigning sleep.
"Let's sleep on it and wait for tomorrow..... I feel like this is the last peaceful sleep we will have in a long time," replied Jin Lin with his eyebrows locked in a scowl.
Fen Hao wanted to chat some more but seeing that Jin Lin's state wasn't as good as before, he wisely shut his mouth and lay down on his bed as well. If this was the last peaceful night he will have in a long time he wanted to have a memorable sleep.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone