SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire-Chapter 41 - The Stale Bread_1
Chapter 41: Chapter 41 The Stale Bread_1
Chapter 41 -41 The Stale Bread_1
“Abdominal bloating and ascites due to indigestible food?”
Colin saw a slender-limbed child gnawing on a block of wood, biting it into pieces and then swallowing it carefully into his stomach.
His height was less than 1.2 meters, yet he had a belly bigger than a basketball, with his navel protruding.
Colin had only seen the likes of these people in pictures related to hunger in Africa.
“Is there a famine nearby, or has something happened?”
As Colin walked among the disaster victims, he looked around thoughtfully and noticed that many trees along the path had been stripped of their bark, and the ground was full of pits without a single blade of grass in sight.
Every edible thing within view had been cleaned out by the refugees…
What was more unsettling was that some of the refugees with limbs still intact cast vulture-like gazes at the injured and dying people, as if they were waiting for something.
The atmosphere in this area was oppressively somber and frightening.
But at that moment, Colin suddenly shivered, feeling a few malicious stares aiming at him from all directions within the crowd.
Someone had set their sights on him!
Almost at the same time, Colin also realized why he was targeted: all the other refugees were in groups, bunches of a dozen or more, while he was alone.
His solitary and isolated self was obviously the easiest target!
Without further thought, amidst a rustling sound, several people began to approach him.
Not many, only five or six, encircling and converging on him like hyenas.
These people dressed like other refugees but didn’t have that starved and feeble air about them; on the contrary, they appeared spirited and alert.
As the encircling tightened, these people stopped concealing their intentions.
One of the men, with dark skin and a face full of wrinkles, noticed Colin’s gaze directed at him, grinned, and revealed a sinister smile, his eyes brimming with undisguised greed.
He evidently viewed him as a piece of succulent meat—
Literally a piece of succulent meat!
“You really know how to pick your targets, don’t you.”
Watching the encroaching crowd, Colin was neither panicky nor upset; he even felt a bit amused.
Although there was an off aura around these people…
Overall, they were just a bunch of ordinary people, not about to suddenly turn into strong, two-meter-tall brutes like that Warden.
A “Contrarian” would be enough to handle them with ease.
“It’s the path to your own demise that you’ve chosen.”
Colin’s hand reached into his waist pocket, and this gesture caused the advancing group to hesitate, wary that their prey might have some unknown means.
But they didn’t want to let go of the solitary piece of fat meat they had found with difficulty.
“There doesn’t seem to be any danger around here; if there is any, it’s probably just this crowd.”
As his thoughts turned, Colin had some speculations about the fate of the employees he had lost contact with in this area.
If all went as expected, his first encounter would likely be their doing.
The way they had died probably wasn’t too comfortable.
Click.
After about ten more seconds of standoff, the hyena-like predators started moving their legs and closing in again.
The nearest one was already less than ten meters away from Colin.
Just as Colin was about to draw his gun, a sudden sound of bells from afar caused the group of predators to halt their movement.
Then, a commotion erupted from the depths of the refugee horde, breaking the standoff here.
“It’s food! That noble from yesterday, he’s come again to distribute food!”
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No one knew who shouted that sentence, but following it, the previously repressed atmosphere around them boiled over, and even the weakest individuals struggled to rise, surging toward a certain direction like a troop of monkeys scrambling for food.
Even those few who had regarded Colin as potential food had, upon hearing the bell, retreated and disappeared into the crowd.
Before leaving, one of those who had met Colin’s gaze had uttered, “You’re lucky this time.”
‘Should I take everyone down now?’
Colin narrowed his eyes, and after activating two traits of the Contrarian, he could, in an instant, hit any target he wished.
But after thinking it over, he decided to watch and wait instead.
He had already locked onto those few individuals…
If he acted rashly, it was very likely that he would alarm them, so it was better to keep them in sight, follow them, and see if he could find information about that employee.
Afterwards, Colin no longer just stood there watching the crowd surge away and walked along with them, planning to see what was happening.
After all, he still had the mission “Event 5: Carry ‘Token-13’ to ‘World Code-13’ to investigate any possible anomalies related to ‘Hunger’.”
Wasn’t everything unfolding before him related to “Hunger”?
Besides, something about these people’s hasty departure struck Colin as odd.
If they were leaving simply to get food…
Why would they also give up on ambushing him?
“Speaking of which, in the Life Paper’s prophecy, when Li Ming and I arrived here together, the description mentioned seeing a large number of injured, corpses, and signs of combat, and then not long after, we found the second employee nearby.”
Colin looked around and didn’t seem to see any signs of combat mentioned above.
Could it be that his coming here alone this time caused some changes in the events?
At least the ferocious combat mentioned in the Book of Fate didn’t seem to have occurred.
He probably arrived too early…
Colin followed the direction of the crowd, and soon he saw a larger carriage convoy up ahead with quite a turnout.
Some soldiers in iron armor stood guard at the side, wielding long swords, and although their numbers were few, merely in the twenties, they were spread out alongside a convoy of about a dozen carriages with only two or three people each, yet they kept the refugees from charging.
In front of the carriage convoy, a woman clad in a grey cloak, her features hidden beneath the hood, stood on a carriage, commanding the soldiers to distribute the food, piece by piece, to the starving refugees.
The food consisted of chunks of black bread with a sour smell.
Under the soldiers’ intimidation, order was maintained, and not even a stampede occurred.
Even when a few tried to be clever and get more bread, they were quickly caught and nonchalantly thrown to the back.
“These soldiers are quite strong, aren’t they? Lifting a grown person of over a hundred pounds seems so easy for them. They’re perhaps not as formidable as the Warden, but similar to his underlings. But are these bread loaves really that delicious?”
Colin watched the refugees who got their hands on the dark bread smile as though they had found treasure.
Then, in a frenzy, they stuffed it into their mouths, chomping away…
After some thought, Colin squeezed through the crowd and mixed in with the queue, intending to get a piece of bread to taste.
His keen sense of smell told him that the bread should be quite distasteful.
But seeing how happily these people were eating…
He was somewhat curious to try it himself.
What if it was like stinky tofu, reeking but delicious when eaten?
