Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Too Hungry

On the empty highway, Feng Ling drove until she realized she’d drifted off course.

She was hungry again.

Pain she could endure. Hunger was something else. It gnawed, hollow and relentless, like her body was trying to eat itself from the inside out. Her stomach felt scraped raw. Her thoughts blurred at the edges, as if even her brain was starving for fuel.

Su Yu Qing had said the apartment was empty. That meant no food.

So she drove and searched, street after street, until she found a vending machine glowing weakly at the roadside.

Most of the slots were drinks. Only the bottom row held self-heating rice meals.

Feng Ling bought every last one.

She carried the boxes into the truck’s cargo bay, tore them open, and poured bottled water into each heating pack. The chemical reaction flared fast, sending up steam that fogged the air.

Feng Ling sat in the cargo bay and stared at the food like it was a mission.

In the corner, Huang Fu Miao Miao curled into herself, silent, not daring to breathe too loudly. She was still torn apart by the question she couldn’t stop asking: had she just made the worst decision of her life?

Feng Ling hadn’t shown obvious malice, but the pressure she carried—sharp, predatory, impossible to ignore—only grew the longer Huang Fu Miao Miao stayed near her.

But what choice did she have?

Her devil card was weak at the beginner stage, yet it was high-tier. Every player she tried to befriend wanted the same thing: her ability card. No one wanted to team up. They wanted to take.

She needed protection, or she was going to die.

Would this woman protect her?

…Probably.

Players killed players for points, for ability cards, for the thrill of it. Humans killed players more often for hatred.

So as long as she didn’t cause trouble, didn’t make mistakes, Feng Ling had no reason to kill her. Right?

And she could use detect ma li ce. If something turned wrong, she could run.

Yes. That’s how she’d survive.

While Huang Fu Miao Miao’s mind tangled itself into knots, Feng Ling suddenly asked, “Do you know what this is?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao blinked, followed Feng Ling’s finger to the steaming meal, hesitated, and said, “Self-heating rice?”

“No,” Feng Ling said.

Huang Fu Miao Miao stared. She could read. The box literally said fish-flavored shredded pork self-heating rice.

Feng Ling tapped the meal box like she was giving a lecture. “This is a weapon. The heating pack releases a huge amount of heat in seconds. It boils water fast. If you flip it right now and slap it into my face, my eyes get scalded instantly. I inhale steam and boiling water. Between pain and blindness, I can’t track you precisely. You use that moment to escape the cargo bay. I’ll hear it and instinctively chase. You circle around, get into the driver’s seat, reverse hard, and crush me under the wheels. You get the points and my ability card.”

She paused, eyes bright with unsettling curiosity. “By the way—can you drive?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao’s blood turned cold. “I… I can’t!”

For a second, she thought she saw disappointment flicker across Feng Ling’s face.

“That’s a shame,” Feng Ling said, turning back to her food. “I’ll teach you another day. Driving’s a useful skill.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao didn’t know whether to cry or scream. She didn’t want to learn. She didn’t want to kill Boss. She didn’t want to be tested like this.

The meal finished heating.

Feng Ling snapped apart the disposable chopsticks and glanced at Huang Fu Miao Miao again, the look oddly encouraging—like she was asking, without words, if Huang Fu Miao Miao really wasn’t going to try.

Huang Fu Miao Miao turned away and shrank deeper into the corner.

Feng Ling sighed, bored now, and started eating.

She ate slowly at first, watching for how her body responded. One box. Two. Three. The burning emptiness eased slightly, but it didn’t stop.

So she kept going.

Food slid down her throat and vanished into her stomach, broken down fast. By the time eight boxes were gone, the hunger finally loosened its grip. But she still didn’t feel full. Not really.

It annoyed her.

Her paycheck used to barely cover living. Now even eating until she was satisfied felt like a luxury she couldn’t afford. How was she supposed to live like this?

She threw the empty boxes into a roadside trash can and stood there thinking, breath steaming faintly in the cold air.

The prompt she’d received had said: a strong physique and endless strength.

Endless strength?

All she had was endless appetite.

Especially after her body burned energy to repair wounds—the hunger came back like a knife.

Unless… endless strength came from eating.

Nothing in this world was truly infinite. Even the sun would die one day. But if energy could be stored—if she could accumulate enough—then maybe it would look endless.

The idea was interesting. Worth testing.

She knocked on the cargo bay wall. “Come on. We’re going back to my place to haul some things.”

“Huh?” Huang Fu Miao Miao poked out from behind her skull mask, shocked. “Go… home?”

Feng Ling was already in the driver’s seat.

Huang Fu Miao Miao scrambled into the passenger seat and fumbled with her seatbelt. “Isn’t that dangerous? What if the player who used logout finds help and goes to your home for revenge?”

Feng Ling started the engine and said, “If she could find help, why didn’t she bring them to the Inspection Bureau to kill me in the first place?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao froze, then her eyes widened as something clicked. “She went to the Inspection Bureau to kill you? But that’s not what she said. She said she went to pick up scraps—never mentioned a hidden Boss…” Her voice rose. “I get it! She didn’t want to split the points. She hid the intel!”

Feng Ling glanced over. “How many points am I worth?”

“I don’t know the exact number,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said quickly. “But Boss-level is at least three thousand.”

Feng Ling kept her eyes on the road. “What about normal missions?”

“Six,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said, almost proud. “Last week I got lucky and pulled a ten-point mission.”

Feng Ling didn’t respond. Her silence said plenty.

They drove through the sleeping city, trading scattered bits of talk, unaware someone else was already waiting—angry enough to vibrate.

At the gate of Xiu Yuan Residence, a man with messy hair crouched beside a motorcycle and snarled into his phone, “Su Yu Qing, can you be reliable for once?! Old Master has been waiting downstairs for almost two hours and hasn’t seen so much as a shadow! Did you tip her off and let her hide? You made me waste two hours of sleep. I’m going to kill her!”

On the other end, Su Yu Qing stared at the road surveillance feed, said nothing, and finally ended the call.