Chapter 2839: The Banquet of Deceitful Nightmares (11)

The body was dragged away, as everyone began a new game amidst renewed terror. This time, they were to write the story of the main course, but in this round, they had many more ideas.

After the results of the previous elimination were in, they realized that the strategy they had adopted was effective. All those deprived of their slips of paper, who had no ability to write new answers, were all eliminated. In other words, it was indeed possible to determine the winners early by destroying others' answers.

Only 20 people remained on the scene, and this time 10 people were to be eliminated.

It seemed there was no special pattern to the number of people eliminated, sometimes more, sometimes less, seemingly all dependent on the master chef's mood. As such, people couldn't rationally judge whether or not they would be eliminated in the next round.

This time, half of the people were to be cut again, and the remaining 20 had lost almost all sense of reason. They only wanted to quickly destroy each other's answers, as roars, screams, and battle cries were heard nonstop.

The master chef was indifferent to the chaos in the restaurant. Shiller continued eating as if the clamor had nothing to do with him.

Because there were fewer and fewer people, the difficulty of confiscating the slips of paper also decreased. Before long, all the answers had been taken away, and the master chef went backstage again. This time, when he came out, he paused additionally.

"I will now announce the list of the ingredients," said the master chef, starting off with the familiar preamble, but his tone had become heavy. He uttered a name that nobody expected.

"Naog Sophocles."

The others were surprised only for a moment before they quickly understood. Shiller's elimination was to be expected because he wrote nothing in the previous round, he was too busy eating, and didn't even submit his paper. It would have been strange if he wasn't eliminated.

The elimination of persons was done after announcing all the names together. Besides Shiller, there were nine others. The names were read very quickly, and those who didn't hear their names could finally breathe a long sigh of relief.

The elimination of Doctor Sophocles, who knew all the answers, could be considered the first piece of good news since the beginning because he no longer occupied a guaranteed winning spot, increasing the survival chances for others just a bit.

The execution began.

Past executions had always been quick. The spines that hung down from the ceiling would, in an instant upon touching a person, completely extract their spines. The body that fell to the ground would twitch a few times but would soon fall silent.

The spines had already descended.

But just at that moment, something unexpected happened. The spine hanging over Shiller's head was severed by a gleaming dining knife.

It wasn't a knife thrown by Shiller, for he was still eating.

The waiter closest to this location moved to stand behind Shiller. The spine continued to grow downward at an extremely rapid pace, but every time it was about to touch Shiller, the waiter would chop it off with a knife.

The execution was complete, the other nine people were all dead, but Shiller remained unscathed, sitting in his place. Even the dimmest of the remaining ten could tell something was amiss.

It seemed that this was not someone protecting Shiller.

Suddenly, someone realized something and shouted, "Eating! Shiller has been eating the whole time, so no one can hurt him!"

The atmosphere in the restaurant stalled for a moment. The puzzle seemed to have its answer written in the question itself – what else if not to dine in a restaurant?

Everyone was frightened by the anomaly above, and the master chef threatened them very fiercely, so naturally, they assumed that the person standing at the forefront had the power of life and death and obediently followed his orders, engaging in the games.

So, as long as one maintains the posture of eating, they would not be attacked?

Regardless, they decided to try it out. The other ten people picked up their cutlery, but at that moment, the master chef spoke.

"Are you serious? I believe I said that the winners are guests, and the losers are all ingredients," he said.

Everyone paused in their actions as they suddenly realized what the source of the food on their plates was.

But one of them clenched their teeth and said, "They deserve it for not realizing this sooner."

With that, he started to gorge himself without hesitation.

The rest didn't hesitate for too long and began to eat the food on their plates. The dish was cheese, but there was still meat on the plates, which seemed to be marinated roast chunks. Many people avoided the meat as if doing so would allow them to consume everything else without any moral burden.

During the cheese course, the master chef announced that five people would be eliminated.

Some were not at ease, fearing that Shiller's method of avoiding death wouldn't work for them, so they still wrote something and submitted it.

There were only 10 people left in the room, 5 had written something, and 5 had not. Both Shiller and Jerome, who had survived, handed in blank papers.

When the time came, the chef read out the list of those eliminated. None of the five people who failed to write anything down survived; their spines fell and started to attack them.

The other five who had narrowly escaped death were watching intently, wanting to know if eating to avoid being killed was actually a true rule.

Apart from Shiller, four more waiters came out. They cut down the spines that were trying to attack the diners, and the five people lived to see another day.

The other five sighed with relief. The rule was effective after all; indeed, eating could prevent death, and they could finally survive.

It was time for the dessert course, and the chef announced the number to be eliminated. Since the last phase had not successfully eliminated five people, the number to be eliminated this time was still five.

This time, no one handed in their papers.

After all, as long as you kept eating, you wouldn't be killed. The game had only seven rounds, and dessert was already the penultimate round; they just had to endure a bit longer to make it through successfully.

Everyone was quietly eating when a flash of cold light passed through the chef's eyes, but he made no move, just standing there and watching silently.

A young man in glasses, who should have been eliminated during the cheese course, gently rang the service bell beside him. He exhaled and looked at Shiller at the next table, realizing he could order anything on the menu. He decided to order an aperitif, as the dessert was a bit too sweet for his taste. He had never been fond of sweet foods.

The waiter approached him. At just the moment the bespectacled man was going through the motions of perusing the menu, there was a "schlick" as a knife was plunged into his chest. He looked down in disbelief and then fell face-first onto the table.

Now only nine people remained.

Everyone was stunned. Wasn't it said that as long as you kept eating, you would be safe? Was it because this man stopped eating to ring the service bell? But Shiller had done the same without any consequences.

Suddenly someone looked at the man's plate. The lady sitting beside him said loudly, "He didn't finish! He rang the bell before finishing all his dessert; the rules probably don't allow waste."

The others immediately looked at their own plates. Fortunately, the portion size of the dessert was not large, and they could finish it in a few bites. Of the remaining few, no one especially disliked sweets. Even if they did, they would force themselves to finish for the sake of their lives.

One person gobbled up the contents of his plate, sighed with relief, and set down his knife and fork. He paused for a while before intending to ring the bell, but during that pause, a hanging spine attached to his neck.

With a whoosh, his spine was extracted.

He was one of the five who had not submitted answers in the cheese round. Now only three of them were left, and there were a total of eight people remaining in the game.

The others realized that eating too slowly wasn't okay either. It seemed that protection from the waiters was only granted while continually ingesting food. As soon as you stopped, the terrifying creatures on the ceiling would kill you.

At this point, a smart person realized they should eat more slowly because although they weren't eliminated this round, there was still one more round in the game. If they got eliminated but could not eat any more, any pause would mean that the waiters wouldn't protect them.

So eating slowly in this round to save some stomach space could be a preventive measure, making it easier for themselves later on.

Of the five who weren't eliminated, two adopted this strategy. They began to scrape the frosting off the dessert slowly and put it into their mouths, achieving a look of eating without actually eating much.

After they had procrastinated for a little while, the waiter appeared behind one of them and stabbed him in the chest with another knife. Now only seven people were left.

The others were on the verge of breaking down. What was the rule this time?

"Each course has a time limit," Shiller suddenly said. "It's one of the etiquettes of French dining. Because the courses are served one by one, if you eat too slowly, the next course could lose its freshness. Stalling like this is useless."

No one knew how much time they had, but they didn't dare gamble. So they quickly finished their plates and hurriedly rang the service bell to call for the next dish.

Not finishing wasn't okay, eating too slowly wasn't okay either, so the only option was to choose the right dish. To eat something that wasn't too filling or easy to become sick of, the best choice among the first six courses was the aperitif.

Three of the seven chose this dish, but what was served this time was not a "Gotham Sunset," but a blue-purple cocktail.

Among the seven, some connoisseurs immediately realized this was no simple aperitif; it definitely contained hard liquor. But the moment the dish was served, they had no choice but to eat.

Three of them picked up their glasses, the strong scent of alcohol nearly making them retch, but they dared not leave it untouched. Some chose to down it in one go, others to sip it slowly.

The former, upon downing his drink, collapsed onto the table. He too was from the group previously eliminated. Without the act of eating, his spine was virtually extracted immediately.

There were now only Shiller and Jerome left in the eliminated group, with a total of six people remaining.

At that moment, the chef announced the start of the final round, in which five people would still be eliminated.