Dinner

The crowd went to the second floor and settled down in their rooms. To the left of Knox and Soren was Axel, the right Silas, and in front of them was Ava. They were planning on exploring the third floor after dinner. Entering the room, they notice an conspicuous painting on the wall.

Falling onto the bed, Soren took the time to think things over. Even if he understood what's going on, still, it hard to grasp. After all, he only ever read about stories like this, not be apart of them. And what was the invitation they were talking about? Headaches filled Soren's brain.

" What are you thinking about so hard?" Knox came over from the bathroom. Examining, he walked around the room. He moved closer and sat at the edge of the bed.

Soren thought if Knox would be the protagonist of this story. If Knox was the protagonist then Soren would read the book. Thinking about it made Soren's face heat up.

Seeing as Soren didn't answer but his face flushed red, Knox put on a grin but still remained quiet. It's nice not worrying about what's going to happen next. With Soren, a newcomer, he didn't feel the pressure like before.

Knox got up to take a better look at the painting. With a thought in mind, he moved his arms to take it off the wall. Soren got up at the noise at asked him, " Did you find something?"

" Come look," he beckoned with his hand. There was a talisman glued to it. Soren got an ominous feeling and backed away.

Like he understood something, Knox stood up and walked to the bed lifting it up. He asked Soren, " How many are there?" Soren looked at the bed and nodded.

" There's three," he wasn't that knowledgeable but still knew some things. " that's supposed to ward off evil spirits, right?"

Knox "..."

Knox gazed at his face as if he asked something stupid. Soren thought he had made a mistake until he spoke up." It's fine to leave it for tonight. It should be safe for n-" he cut off after they heard inaudible yelling in the corridor.

From the sounds of it, it was nothing good. Knox got up and went into the hallway, leaving Soren alone in the room. The room felt a lot bigger with him alone.

"Real, it's real. "he uttered to himself.

It would be a lie if he said he wasn't excited. That out of all those people, he got chosen to play this game. It felt exhilarating thinking about it. Soren felt his heart jump a bit. He leaned over and hugged the pillow. There was something that was still bothering him though. That invitation...

" I know what's going. You're all trying to trick me! You're all in it together! Even planting this fake crap here!"

This time Soren got off the bed to go look at the commotion outside. His head peeked out of the door locking eyes with Claire coming out of the room in front of him. She nodded at him and then walked to where Ava stood.

Dazed for a minute, Soren couldn't help but noticed she came out of Ava's room. He didn't think about it for long and walked towards the group.

It was the friend of the person who got angry at the hostess yelling at everyone. On the side were Axel and Silas with grumpy faces trying to reason with him, but the man wouldn't calm down. Soren frowned slightly.

The man waved his fist in the air unsightly hoping to gain some attention. Crushed in his hands were the talismans like the one he saw earlier. Was this how all newcomers act?

Maybe it was his ability to adapt, or the fact that he didn't really have any attachments before he entered the game but this was too much. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Instead, his eyes narrowed, focusing on what was behind them.

Before he could point it out, another shadow loomed over his head and caught the attention of the others. Even the annoying man quiet down.

" Ah, wonderful, you're all here. Dinner's ready. " He smiled but it made him seem like he had other intentions. You couldn't help but think he was a dangerous guy.

His beer belly stuck out along with red stains on his apron. Old and new. As tall as 6'1 He looked like a butcher more than a chef. Everyone saw how capable the old lady was. No one wanted to mess with him. Unknowing, Soren ended up at Knox's side when leaving. He bumped into him with his elbow.

Knox was already irritable with the guy in the hallway. He wanted to give his little roommate of his a small glare but soon stiffened at the sight of his face for a second but didn't take long to turn it into a small grin. Knox turned to look where he was staring but didn't see anything.

" Something wrong?" he asked without his usual teasing tone. Soren didn't catch his tone and shook his head before replying.

" No, it's just… I thought I saw a shadow coming down the stairs."

" Bah, maybe you saw it wrong."

" No, I'm sure-" He didn't get the chance to finish before Knox grabbed his wrist pulling him away.

" It's dinner time, we can go look later. It's not good to go against the Npc's. Anyways, we're going up after. We can check it then. "

It wasn't up for discussion seeing as he was dragged. Soren took one last look at the empty corridor before heading down the stairs. From the moment he saw the talisman in the man's hand, he couldn't shake off the eerie feeling of being watched. That something was watching and waiting.

~~

They arrived at the dinner table just when the food finished. The smell of food filled the air as they took their seats. Because they were the last ones to arrive, they both sat in front of each other at the end. Closest to the chef.

Claire and the two other newcomers gazed at the food with relish. The latter were tired of trying to find an answer and the former cried all her tears away. They were ready to dig in but stopped themselves at the weird atmosphere.

All the experienced players leered at the food full of suspicion. Pushing aside all the other dishes, the main course was the prominent soup full of unknown contents that they couldn't see through because of the murky water. It was the only one that didn't fit in with the delicious looking meal. Their stomach lurched at the bad memories.

It was hard to not notice the weird aura hanging in the air. Soren glanced at Knox after seeing the other's expressions but contrary to what he thought, Knox sat there with a bit of delight?

Soren thought his sight had gone bad. How could there be delight? However, he had no time to dwell on it as the pig chef placed a bowl of soup front of him. Because he sat so close to him, he had no way to avoid it.

" Well? Why don't you all dig in? It's my specialty." he smiled but his words seemed to have hidden meanings. He turn to look at Soren.

Casually, Soren stirred the soup with his spoon, picking up what he thought was a chuck of meat. Soren felt nauseous, using all his energy to not throw up. Like hell he was going to eat this! Soren gazed swept over the dinner table and locked on to something.

" Ah, I can't eat this." Soren said in distress. Everyone's ears perked up with interest. It was quite bold of a newcomer to go against a Npc.

The chef's face faltered for a moment before picking up his natural smile. Though, everyone still notice his awkward expression.

" May I ask the re-"

" I'm vegetarian. Of course I can't eat meat so I'll just settle for the salad over there." He said in a matter of fact tone and reaching over to grab some and stuff himself.

The chef "..." He wanted to say something but couldn't go against his role.

Finally, he decided to ignore this little brat and went to grab a bowl for Knox instead. Just as he was going to set it down loud noise came to his left.

" Is this even washed!? It taste... taste bad! And the rest..." Honestly, Soren couldn't say anything about appetizing meal. He only wanted to stop others from eating the soup. Other shouldn't have to smell what he did.

" Are you really going to eat meat in front of me?! Did you not think about the animals before you started to cook them? You know what I'm gonna,"

He fished in his pocket but realized he didn't have his phone.

Aggrieved, he bitterly stood up. " When I find my phone, I'm going to give you one star and tell others to stop coming here! The staff is horrible. "

Silence. No one expected this outburst. Even Soren who made is eruption stood silently. If one looked closer, they would notice the small beads of sweat.

As part of his role the chef looked dishearten while he took away the soup.

" I'm sorry. For tomorrow I will consider everyone's tastes." he reached out for the other dishes when Soren spoke up, again.

" Just leave it. I'm sure my companions are starving. If it wasn't for the snow I'd already be out of here." he slumped back into the chair looking down. He didn't want to look back in case the chef said something. But he really, really didn't want to eat the soup.

When the chef left, Axel was the first to speak up.

" What the hell was that?! Man, that was awesome! I seriously thought we were going to eat that shit. Did you see the way he looked at you. Oh man, I gotta tell the rest. " Axel words were exactly what the others thought. It wasn't long before the rest joined in with the laughter.

Ava was the first to stop laughing and asked " But really what was your job before you came here? "

Soren gave a sheepish smile and replied. " Ah, I did work as a waiter for a bit. Though, I was always on the receiving end."

With the lighten atmosphere, the group talked about trivial things, avoiding the main topics. It wasn't bad but they didn't know what type of hell they were going to see tomorrow, so might as well enjoy today.