Chapter 56: Instant Noodles

After reaching a consensus, everyone left the restaurant and walked toward the shop in the service area. The shop in the service area was actually a small supermarket. Through the glass doors and windows, they could see that the goods inside were quite complete.

As soon as everyone entered the small supermarket, they smelled the scent of instant noodles. They also heard the sound of someone eating instant noodles eagerly. The group called out inside the small supermarket, but no one responded. Lü Yang and a few bolder men followed the sound and walked over. In the corner of the small supermarket, they saw a thirty-year-old man with a full beard sitting by the shelf selling instant noodles, holding a bowl and eating.

Seeing that the instant noodles were still steaming, they guessed the man must have found hot water or something.

“Hey! Are you the owner of this shop? We want to buy some things.” One of the men in the group asked the bearded man who was eating instant noodles.

The bearded man did not answer the question. He just frantically shoved the instant noodles into his mouth, as if he were extremely hungry.

“We’re talking to you…” The group stepped forward a few paces, looking at the bearded man strangely.

The bearded man continued to stuff the instant noodles into his mouth wildly, ignoring everyone. After a while, he suddenly raised his head, made an unpleasant gurgling sound in his throat, and his eyes started to roll back, as if he were choking on the instant noodles.

“Eat slower!”

Someone loudly advised the bearded man. The bearded man’s dazed eyes then seemed to notice the group. He pointed at his own throat, tilted to the side, and fell from where he was sitting.

After the bearded man fell, the people who were about to go help him saw what he had been sitting on and couldn’t help but be shocked…

The bearded man eating instant noodles had actually been sitting on a black ashes urn!

The ashes urn was exactly the same as the one Lü Yang had seen next to the minibus driver. It also had a white slip of paper with a name written in black characters: Zhou Chao.

The bearded man lying on the ground clutched his own neck, his body convulsing continuously. The group rushed over, turned his body over, and kept patting his back. The bearded man finally recovered a little, and with his mouth slightly open, he said something intermittently.

After Lü Yang moved closer, he finally heard clearly what the bearded man was saying. He only repeated one word: “Stop… stop… stop…”

But after just a few utterances, the bearded man’s body went limp, and he completely lost any response to the outside world.

Someone searched the bearded man’s clothes and found his driver’s license. It said his name: Zhou Chao.

Lü Yang found a pen and a piece of paper on the ground near the bearded man. It was densely covered with writing, but it was the same sentence over and over again…

“What did I forget?”

Similarly dying inexplicably, similarly appearing ashes urn with a name written on it, the same question… What was forgotten?

Lü Yang stared blankly at the piece of paper in his hand. If all of this was because the mysterious domain had opened, then the ashes urn with the name and the forgotten matter must be clues related to the main storyline of this mysterious domain.

The appearance of the ashes urn with a name likely meant the death of the person corresponding to that name. But just what had they forgotten?

A living person actually choking to death on instant noodles made everyone who had tried to come to the small supermarket to look for food afraid to easily eat anything here. However, Lü Yang did not believe the bearded man’s death was related to the instant noodles, so he did not listen to the others’ dissuasion. He took some snacks and drinks from the small supermarket shelves and ate them.

Generally, a mysterious domain should have its own specific rules. After the mysterious domain ended, everyone’s memory, except for Lü Yang who possessed the eerie computer, would be erased. To safely get through this mysterious domain, sufficient physical strength was definitely necessary. So if you were hungry, you had to eat to replenish your energy.

Seeing that Lü Yang ate the food and drank the beverages without anything abnormal happening, some people who were also quite hungry boldly opened some food and started eating. In the end, everyone found something to eat, but no one touched the instant noodles.

One of the two teenagers who had been playing with game consoles on the minibus, after eating a pack of flavored peanuts, suddenly let out a scream and fell to the ground. He clutched his own neck, his whole body convulsing, exactly like the scene when the man eating instant noodles had died suddenly.

The group was greatly startled. Some even immediately threw the food in their hands far away and then used their fingers to try to make themselves vomit what they had eaten.

The teenager’s companion was frightened, his face pale. He crouched down and kept asking his friend on the ground what was wrong. Everyone gathered around, and the atmosphere became extremely tense.

“Haha… I was just playing with you…” The teenager who had fallen to the ground giggled and scrambled up from the floor. Seeing the angry expressions on everyone’s faces, he quickly stifled his laughter, as if he knew he had caused trouble.

“Please don’t make such boring jokes!”

The teenager who had fallen was sternly scolded by everyone. Being in this strange highway gas station service area, everyone was very tense now. The slightest sound made them jumpy, and they couldn’t handle such startling behavior.

“Ah!!!!”

Just as everyone was scolding the teenager who had fallen, another scream was heard. This time the scream came from a girl. Lü Yang recognized her as the twenty-year-old girl who had been reading a novel on her mobile phone on the minibus.

“What happened?”

The group, having been fooled by the boy who fell, had relaxed a little, but now they were startled and tense again by the girl’s scream. When everyone looked at the girl, she was pointing outside the supermarket’s glass window, her face pale, and saying to everyone, “Look… you…”

Everyone hurried to the entrance of the small supermarket and looked outside. Following the girl’s finger, Lü Yang saw a square black box placed neatly at the entrance of the small supermarket. On it was a white slip of paper with a name written on it.

“Is someone else going to die?”

Someone said fearfully. Every time this ashes urn appeared, someone would die, and the one who died was the person whose name was written on it.

Right now, everyone was most worried that the name was their own.

“Who will go take a look?” someone shouted.

Lü Yang did not hesitate much and walked over to the ashes urn. After looking at the name on it, he turned back and asked the group, “Who is Bai Wenzhi?”

“Mom!” a teenage girl cried out.

“Is it Wenzhi?” The middle-aged man who had temporarily acted as the driver for everyone, who had always seemed very calm, asked Lü Yang in a trembling voice. Then he looked around but did not see his wife!

“Wenzhi, where did you go? Wenzhi! Wenzhi!” After the middle-aged man realized his wife was missing, he immediately shouted and rushed out of the small supermarket. The teenage girl also followed the middle-aged man out, shouting loudly toward the gas station service area.

Lü Yang looked apologetically at the middle-aged man and the girl. Before figuring out why this mysterious domain had started, he always felt that these people were dragged into this dangerous mysterious domain because of him. If they lost loved ones because of this, it would partly be his fault.