Chapter 62: Dropped Special Item - [Heart of the Glutton]

Inside the shabby, crude, and cramped restaurant, the first floor resembled a bar counter, with no door at the entrance, only a simple folding screen hanging loosely.

Following the adjacent staircase leading to the second floor, one would find a room measuring only a few square meters. A makeshift bed was laid out with sisal hemp, devoid of quilt or pillow.

Wang Jing lay on his side on the bed, staring at the sky outside the window. He had counted thirteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight sheep, yet still could not fall asleep.

"The boss's sugar-roasted chestnuts are truly a celestial cultivation artifact; after eating them, there's no need to sleep at all..."

Sighing, Wang Jing laboriously crawled up, leaning against the wall to avoid a sore back and waist from lying down for too long.

Ever since eating those sugar-roasted chestnuts, any trace of drowsiness had vanished entirely.

Previously, Wang Jing considered sleeping to be a troublesome chore. A day had twenty-four hours, and sleep alone consumed a full third of that time. If all those hours could be reclaimed and used for studying or working overtime, how high would the efficiency be?

Yet now he understood that a major portion of human life was spent in boredom and idling away. Sleep was like a mobile progress bar, directly skipping meaningless time and fast-forwarding to the energized morning of the next day.

Nowadays, trapped in an era swarming with anomalies, going out in the middle of the night was out of the question.

If not sleeping... what else was there to do?

Utterly bored, Wang Jing opened his phone.

At that exact moment, right in the center of the crimson screen, Chen Ye's trading notification suddenly popped up.

Wang Jing jolted awake as if springing from a dying dream, leaping up so fiercely that his head smacked heavily against the low ceiling, leaving his brain buzzing and stars dancing before his eyes.

Even so, he paid it no mind and directly tapped open the trading panel.

On the left chat window, a message had popped up—

[Chen Ye: "I've developed a new dish, want to have a taste?"]

[Wang Jing: "No problem, Boss! I earned thirty copper coins from evaluations today, and I can give them all to you!"]

[Chen Ye: "......"]

This silly kid, how could he be so enthusiastic when it came to sending money to someone else?

Chen Ye didn't take any extra copper coins; after all, he intended to do long-term business with the guy.

He had to admit, Wang Jing's job as an appraiser brought in money quite quickly.

In the early stages, very few players could acquire wealth at such a pace, let alone be willing to play the fool and earn him so much money.

In the future, he would still rely on making different dishes to present to the [Gourmet] for evaluation, thereby gaining anomalous value returns. Given this fellow's intelligence, it was better to let him keep a few more copper coins, just in case he kicked the bucket unexpectedly someday. Having a bit of extra cash in his pocket would at least save him from taking risks and provide an extra layer of survival security.

[Chen Ye: "No need for that much. After all, you're a gourmet, and evaluations return anomalous value too. Just five copper coins will do. Heh, given the ingredients in this dish, if sold to ordinary players, it would cost at least twenty-five copper coins."]

[Wang Jing: "I understand! I understand!"]

The transaction was swiftly completed.

At this moment.

An oiled paper bag suddenly materialized before Wang Jing, filled with aromatic minced-meat flatbread.

Just catching a whiff of that scent...

Rumble!

His stomach let out a rebellious growl.

"The Boss is far too kind, willing to sell this food to me at a discount."

"I heard someone in the forums recently sent trade invitations to Boss Chen, yet none of them got a reply..."

"Actually, that's completely normal. Food has been acting up frequently lately; any fool would know to prioritize keeping provisions for themselves!"

"Yet the Boss is still willing to offer me a discounted rate. I must forever remember this kindness!"

Wang Jing took a deep breath, muttering inwardly.

Then, his gaze shifted to the minced-meat flatbread, and just as he prepared to dig in...

Right at that moment, a rhythmic "thump, thump, thump" echoed from downstairs.

Wang Jing frowned slightly. Although the shop had no door, if a customer arrived seeking an evaluation, they would usually knock on the hollow tiled wall downstairs.

He went downstairs to find a figure as thin as a bamboo pole, clutching a tattered sack, standing quietly at the entrance under the dim, flickering light.

"Here for an evaluation?" Wang Jing asked tentatively.

The man's expression was somewhat numb. After a long pause, he nodded, placed the sack on the counter, and drew out a dinner plate from within.

Upon the plate rested a heap of viscous, ink-black paste, looking completely unrecognizable as anything edible.

Even the traditional culinary arts of Street Food masters probably couldn't produce such an abomination!

A faint, fishy stench wafted over with it...

Wang Jing instinctively pinched his nose. The moment he smelled that odor, he almost retched.

Having tasted the delicacies crafted by Chen Ye, his culinary standards had risen; looking back at this sort of trash...

It simply wasn't meant for human consumption!

No!

Even dogs wouldn't eat this!

At that moment, the visitor produced a coin shimmering with silver brilliance, placing it on the table.

Wang Jing's gaze was instantly drawn to it.

"This is... a silver coin?"

The monetary system of the Anomalous Era was divided into copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins, though the vast majority of circulating currency currently consisted of copper coins.

Silver coins were extremely rare and practically never seen.

According to conventional guides shared by experts in the forum, while the standard exchange rate of copper to silver was one hundred to one, silver coins could typically be used to purchase extraordinary items related to traits, and regular channels offered no way to exchange for them.

The actual value would only be higher!

In the early stages, it might even fetch a high price of four or five hundred copper coins.

Wang Jing had originally intended to refuse, but as his gaze landed on that gleaming silver coin, the words hovering on his lips were swallowed back down.

"Damn it, so what if it tastes a bit bad? Anyway, I have the [Gourmet] trait, eating it won't kill me!"

"Worst comes to worst, if my body feels unwell, I'll just eat the Boss's sugar-roasted chestnuts to restore health."

"This is a silver coin!"

"For the sake of having money in the future to enjoy more delicacies made by Boss Chen, endure the bitter now to taste the sweet later—I'll risk it!"

Wang Jing pinched his nose, took a deep breath, and mustering all his life's strength, shoved the black paste from the plate directly into his mouth.

However, the moment it crossed his lips, Wang Jing couldn't help but spit the stuff out in one go, much like a pea shooter.

This pungent, fishy stench was simply nauseating!

He had never tasted anything so vile!

Even excrement would taste better than this!

Wang Jing gulped down several mouthfuls of water, yet he still felt the taste lingering on the tip of his tongue, continuously irritating his throat and nasal cavity. Stomach acid churned violently, and a fierce wave of nausea kept surging upward.

He looked around in despair, suddenly spotting the minced-meat flatbread inside the oiled paper bag. Abandoning all caution, he grabbed it and wolfed it down in huge bites.

Finally...

That unbearable feeling of nausea quickly subsided.

At that instant, an unprecedented, formidable surge of power suddenly gathered within Wang Jing's fists!

"You retarded piece of trash, daring to bring such foul-tasting garbage for an evaluation? Evaluate your granddad's ghost, go to hell!"

Wang Jing cursed angrily. His punch carried a violent gale of force, fueled by what seemed like his entire life's strength, and smashed straight toward the withered man's face!

The man's eyes suddenly turned crimson, as if sensing a immense threat, and his facial features began to split apart...

However, with that single punch landing, the emaciated man couldn't even emit a muffled groan before his entire body was instantly pulverized into dust, flesh and blood scattering across the floor in an instant!

"Dead?"

Wang Jing stared at the corpse on the ground, at the fluttering bits of flesh, and then at his own blood-stained fist, momentarily lost in disbelief and finding it hard to accept.

Since when did he possess such ferocious might?

Just then, he noticed a black heart dropped upon the floor.

The crimson phone suddenly flashed with a notification.

[Congratulations on slaying the 'Gluttonous Anomaly', dropping trait item—Gluttonous Heart]

Wang Jing stared blankly for a moment before plunging into an intense wave of ecstasy. He frantically opened his crimson phone and sent a message to Chen Ye.