Translator: CinderTL
As the darkness receded, Feng Qi returned to reality.
He reached out and pressed the switch on his bedside table, flooding the room with light.
The two lines of text that had appeared before he left the dream left him puzzled.
"Initial energy depleted? What does that mean?"
After a long silence, unable to figure it out, he decided to ignore it.
Getting up, he could clearly sense a significant change in his physical condition. A ravenous hunger surged through him, driving him to seek food immediately.
Opening the refrigerator, he grabbed some ingredients and headed to the kitchen.
Compared to the canned food in the fridge, Feng Qi craved something warm and freshly cooked.
The dorms at Star City Academy were fully equipped, providing him with the opportunity to indulge his culinary whims.
He skillfully cracked two eggs into a bowl, whisking the whites and yolks together. Then, he washed and diced a tomato into bite-sized pieces.
After heating a wok with two spoonfuls of oil, he poured in the beaten eggs.
As the oil met the egg whites, a savory aroma wafted through the air, causing Feng Qi's stomach to rumble in protest.
Suppressing his hunger, he sprinkled a pinch of chopped scallions into the wok. Once they were slightly heated, he added the diced tomatoes and stir-fried them.
The fragrance intensified. When the juices began to simmer, Feng Qi instinctively seasoned the dish with salt and sugar, continuing to stir-fry.
By now, the fried rice had transformed. Each grain was plump and round, coated in a translucent golden-yellow sheen.
Before attending Star City No. 1 High School, Feng Qi had always lived alone.
His parents were members of a domain combat team, stationed far from home year-round. Apart from occasional remittances, they rarely contacted him, forcing him to learn self-reliance from a young age.
Cooking and preparing meals came naturally to him.
While he wasn't particularly picky about food, he approached every dish he made with meticulous care.
After glancing at the rice in the wok, he added water and cornstarch. As the sauce thickened, a golden-yellow tomato egg fried rice was ready.
Ravenous, he devoured the entire wok in minutes.
Satisfied, he licked his lips and was about to stand up when a panel popped up in his mind.
Energy replenishment in progress. Current energy: 0.02%
The percentage of current energy on the panel slowly ticked upward, increasing by 0.001% with each jump.
"Eating replenishes energy?"
Feng Qi wondered if the fluctuating numbers on the panel were connected to the fried rice still digesting in his stomach.
What truly astonished him was that the virtual panel, previously only visible in his dreams, had now manifested in the real world.
The difference lay in what the virtual panels displayed. In the dream world, the panel showed his physical attributes, while in reality, it showed an energy replenishment progress bar and numerical values.
As for what would happen when the progress bar reached its maximum, he was completely clueless.
Unable to find an answer, Feng Qi returned to his bedroom.
He decided to continue sleeping, hoping to learn a new cultivation technique in the dream world. Tomorrow morning, he would head to the library to delve deeper into cultivation technique research.
Since he was determined to make a grand impression, he couldn't neglect the fundamentals. He had already planned out his schedule.
After washing up and lying in bed, Feng Qi's breathing gradually evened out, and his expression softened into tranquility.
The next morning, Feng Qi woke up leisurely.
Rubbing his tousled hair, he felt dazed.
He had slept soundly, waking up without the slightest hint of fatigue. The problem was that he hadn't entered the dream world's future realm after falling asleep.
"Have I lost the ability to enter the dream world?!"
Then he suddenly remembered the energy replenishment progress bar that had appeared in his mind last night.
"Does this mean I need to fully replenish the energy bar before I can enter the dream world again?"
"One meal only replenished 0.12% of the energy. At this rate, I'd have to eat a thousand meals to fully replenish it!"
"Damn it!"
As dawn broke, Feng Qi rose, washed up, and headed straight for the academy cafeteria.
The pot of fried rice he'd devoured the night before had only staved off his hunger, far from satisfying him. After a night's sleep, his hunger had returned with renewed intensity.
This physical change reminded him of Mu Qing, whose appetite was equally astonishing.
As a rune augment, Mu Qing's power stemmed from domain creatures, granting her an insatiable hunger and the ability to extract strength from food. The more she ate, the faster her power grew.
Though Feng Qi lacked Mu Qing's prodigious appetite and couldn't draw power from food, he felt fundamentally similar to her. Both of them had gained their abilities from domain creatures.
The key difference lay in how their powers manifested. Mu Qing required embedded rune crystals, while Feng Qi's abilities from domain creatures manifested as prefix titles that enhanced him.
With this realization, Feng Qi suddenly felt a kinship with Mu Qing. They were both monsters!
As he hurried toward the academy cafeteria, Feng Qi prepared to feast, eager to replenish his energy progress bar.
Arriving at the cafeteria, he found it already bustling with students carrying trays and weaving between food counters. The mingled aromas of various dishes made his stomach growl involuntarily.
Scanning the crowd, his gaze locked onto Mu Qing sitting in a corner.
Her table was already piled high with various foods, and in stark contrast to the crowded dining hall, the area around her remained conspicuously empty, clearly indicating that no one wanted to approach her.
Feng Qi picked up a tray and began selecting his breakfast.
Molten cheese egg tarts, scallion-potato-egg pancakes, banana crepes, rice noodle rolls, fried dough sticks, bagged soy milk (one sweet, one savory), sticky rice balls... He only stopped when his tray was completely full.
"Young man, the food is free, but wasting it is shameful," the dining hall auntie said sternly, glaring at Feng Qi.
"You're right, Auntie!" Feng Qi grinned, casually grabbing another hamburger.
The dining hall auntie: ...
After collecting his food, Feng Qi walked over to Mu Qing's table, placed his tray down, and sat down beside her.
Mu Qing, who had been devouring her meal, immediately looked up. Seeing Feng Qi sitting across from her, she maintained a calm expression, but a flicker of surprise appeared in her eyes.
Without a word, Feng Qi picked up a sticky rice ball, added some pickled mustard greens, wrapped it around a fried dough stick, and took a large bite.
"Why are you sitting here?" Mu Qing asked.
"Why shouldn't I? Did you buy the cafeteria? Everywhere else is so crowded, and you've got all this empty space!" Feng Qi replied without looking up.
Mu Qing stared at him in astonishment as he continued to eat heartily, then turned away, ignoring him completely.
Feng Qi's arrival immediately drew the attention of many students in the cafeteria. Their surprise wasn't at his appetite, but rather at the fact that he had dared to sit across from Mu Qing.
Those who knew Mu Qing were well aware of how terrifying she could be.
Once, during a moment of losing control, she nearly beat a student to death on the spot. If a passing teacher hadn't intervened, the unfortunate student would have been left permanently disabled, if not dead.
This incident was one of the main reasons no one dared approach Mu Qing. They feared being killed by her during another outburst.
In the eyes of many students, Feng Qi's actions were nothing short of suicidal.
Feng Qi completely ignored the astonished stares around him.
After a moment, Mu Qing looked up.
Observing Feng Qi still devouring his food, her expression turned curious. Her need for such large quantities of food stemmed from her unique constitution; ordinary food was digested too quickly in her stomach, leaving her constantly hungry.
But Feng Qi was just an ordinary person. His appetite seemed utterly absurd.
"What are you looking at... eat... it'll get cold!"
With his mouth stuffed full, Feng Qi glanced up at Mu Qing and casually grabbed a pork chop from her plate, shoving it into his mouth without a hint of hesitation.
Mu Qing: ...
(End of the Chapter)
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