Octavian's Cruise Ship Kitchen

The waiter in a black waiter suit pushed open the gray door of the back kitchen with a tray, and as soon as he entered the spacious back kitchen, he saw the chefs in white chef clothes bowing their heads and busy in front of one meal after another. Dessert area, cooking area, decoration area...... The spacious back kitchen is strictly divided into different areas, and those chefs with top hats will finish cooking the meals, then put them on the tray next to them, and the special person will put the card, which has already written the place where the food will be delivered and the best time to eat it in a black pen, so that the waiter can finish the meal before it cools down without serving the food too early and making it difficult for the orderer to swallow because the food is too hot.

Colin was sitting at a small table in front of the back kitchen door, his head bowed in a black pen, writing a string of fluent English on a shiny card.

That's right, that's exactly what he does.

Write down the meal information transmitted on the computer next to it, write it on the card, and then put it in the tray, and then the waiter will take the tray to the corresponding cooking area to pick up the food and complete the delivery chain.

"Wellington steak, creamy mushroom soup, chicken shafro, paella ......"

The smooth tip of the pen wrote clearly on the card, Colin raised his head and pushed the thick lens, sniffing at a freshly baked orange roasted duck not far away, he silently swallowed his saliva and pursed the corners of his mouth.

The boy in the back kitchen is really a "hard" profession.

Fortunately, he didn't stay here all his life to help write cards.

Colin thought, looking at the clock hanging on the wall, the hands were already pointing eight, and the minute hand was still quietly turning, cutting arcs.

Time passes minute by minute.

The next moment, will it be the time when the game starts?

(In any case, you have to be prepared.) ）

Thinking so, he picked up the card in his hand and put it on the tray at hand, and a waiter took the tray and headed towards the back kitchen.

Colin's gaze followed the waiter, bypassing the food cabinet, and landed on the knives placed on the kitchen table a few meters away, knives of different sizes and shapes were placed on the knife holder in the hands of the Western chef, some were long, some were short, some were light and some were heavy, some were used to cut meat, some were used to carve, some knives could easily scrape off fish scales, and some knives could easily cut bones. But it is clear that in the [Minghe System], the usefulness of these knives is not limited to cooking, in other places, they may be more useful.

Colin thought, put down the pen in his hand, looked around cautiously, and after making sure that no one noticed him, he shrunk his head and walked towards the knife holder.

"Uh...... Hello. He walked over to the kitchen and greeted the cook with a slight restraint.

“？” The chef was chopping a piece of beef tendon when he heard his voice, and the chef looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

"Let's go, someone in the hallway is looking for you."

"Who?"

"I don't know...... He's probably this tall and strong......" Colin casually gestured to his height and stature, "he seems to be a guest on the ship, and he says there's something wrong with the meat you're cooking." ”

"There's a problem with the meat I cooked?!" The cook stopped, glaring, "God, I can be the first chef on this boat!" Ivanov framed me for stealing a bottle of wine, and now I'm in charge of the entire kitchen! ”

The grumpy cook angrily slashed the knife in his hand and stuck it on the cutting board, Colin was so frightened that the chef rolled up his sleeves and walked past Colin to find the "guest" theory in the hallway.

"Ivanov, that stinky boy! Relying on some relationship with the captain, he secretly manipulated and removed my position, and I will beat him up one day! ”

The cook muttered, pushed open the door to the back kitchen, and disappeared from Colin's view.

Seeing that his transfer of the tiger from the mountain confidant was still a success, Colin breathed a sigh of relief.

He almost thought he was going to be chopped up by this chef like that tendon.

It's okay, it's okay.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked around, no one noticed him, each cook was busy with his work, and the waiters came and went, and did not interrupt his work rhythm because of what was happening at their kitchen station.

Everyone is like a small gear, running according to their own set rhythm.

Methodical.

Colin raised his hand, picked a modest knife, and carefully pulled it from the knife holder to take it.

"Yo, I didn't expect there to be rats in the kitchen of a luxury cruise ship—"

A man's voice rang out behind Colin, and his heart chuckled, his hand shook, and the knife fell on the kitchen counter.

The man bypassed him, picked up the knife, looked at it carefully, and smiled: "This knife is sharp, and your vision is good." ”

Colin followed the blade to meet the contempt in the man's eye, a black blindfold covering his right eye, but the only remaining eye was like a demon in the night, full of devastating madness from hell.

"One-eyed......" Colin instinctively took a step back.

"What are you afraid of, I won't eat you again." One-eyed said lightly, slamming the knife into the tendon on the cutting board, and the blade penetrated the beef and inserted it into the cutting board.

Colin turned pale with fright.

"Now, the alarm hasn't gone off yet, it's still [safe state], you can't kill me."

"Oh? Is that so? One-eyed raised an eyebrow, and he thought for a moment, "Oh, it seems that this is indeed the case, and that is really a pity." ”

“……”

"However, the [Minghe System] only stipulates that I can't kill you in the [Safe State], but there is no regulation, I can't hurt you."

Colin was stunned.

One-Eyed grabbed the knife in his backhand and pulled it out.

"Hey, boy, you know, I grew up in the dirtiest streets, and every time I was hungry, I would go to the bakery on the corner to steal, but sometimes when I was unlucky and caught by the shopkeeper, the big fat shopkeeper would take a knife and cut a hole in my arm and say let me remember the lesson." One-eyed said, rolling up his sleeves, and Colin saw that his arms were densely covered with old wounds, both long and short. Those wounds have scabbed over, but they remain on the arms forever, and they look shocking.

Colin had a sense of foreboding.

"Boy, when you want something, you have to pay for it." One-Eye said, taking a step towards him with a knife, "Understood." ”

His eyes were filled with a cold aura.

Colin stepped back until One-Eye grabbed his arm, raised his hand, and slashed his arm with a knife! The sharp blade cut through his thin shirt, cutting directly through his skin and penetrating his muscles.

Colin let out a scream that caused the entire kitchen to stop and look at them in surprise.

One-Eye sneered, threw the knife at Colin's feet, and watched him crouch on the ground, holding his injured arm, and couldn't help but think of himself as a child.

"Joe, you damn little bug, this is what happened to you stealing bread, next time I'll cut your damn arm with a red-hot knife so that you can remember this lesson forever!"

One-Eye muttered, remembering the beatings and scolding of the bakery owner at him, and the condescending look of disgust and contempt.

In the next second, he put on an arrogant and arrogant expression, and turned to look at those NPC chefs: "What are you looking at?!" Why, you want to be stabbed too?! ”

Everyone was stunned, busy and lowered their heads to do their own things.

One-eyed lifted his feet and walked towards another kitchen counter.

He was not interested in such a weak prey.

And poor Colin curled up on the ground, venous blood dripping down his arm and at his feet, musculature was cut open, deep fascia was faintly visible, the muscles of his forearm trembled slightly, and the sharp pain from the nerve endings made him gasp.

One-Eyed was very experienced, and the tip of the knife accurately avoided his arteries, so that although he bled out, he would not die of blood loss.

Dark red venous blood stained the corners of his clothes along the fingers covering his wounds, but fortunately, an enthusiastic young man on the side brought gauze to bandage him to stop the bleeding.

"Are you alright?"

Colin looked up and saw a young man in a white chef's uniform crouched in front of him, his badge with the words "Ivanov" written on it.

"You're Ivanov?"

"You know me?"

"No...... I just heard a chef mention you. Colin bowed his head, he let go of his hand slightly, took the gauze handed by Ivanov, and pressed the wound.

"The people here don't accept me, they think I'm too young to be in charge of the kitchen." Ivanov crouched beside Colin and looked at the chefs who were much older than him, "but they don't understand what cooking is, cooking is about treating the ingredients with care, making each dish a work of art, and then offering it to the guests who order the food, the carver of the ingredients, this is the meaning of the profession of chef." ”

Colin nodded understandingly.

“…… Are you new to the Minghe system? ”

Next, Ivanov's words made that Colin concentrate.

"You ......"

"Don't be nervous, I used to be one of the players just like you." Ivanov simply sat down on the floor and chatted, "Is it the eighth round or the seventh round of the game?" I forgot, I lost anyway and stayed here. ”

"How did you lose?"

"In the final battle, they were all killing each other, and I knew I couldn't beat them, so I hid at first......" Ivanov leaned against the wall and scratched his head, "but it was still found, I didn't see who shot it, but someone found me, I heard footsteps coming from behind me, and when I was about to look back, he shot and killed me......"

Colin paused, sighing.

"When I woke up again, I found myself in a new scene, and my headset was gone—yes, the same headset you were wearing now. I know I'm out and here forever. ”

Colin stopped his words, only to feel a heaviness in his heart: "...... Do you regret it? ”

"Regret what?"

"If you had noticed someone behind you earlier, maybe you wouldn't have been killed."

"That's useless, you can hide for a while, but you can't hide for a lifetime." Ivanov smiled sarcastically, "The players who can stay on the blood list all the time are perverted murderers, and you can't play them." It's like the man with the blindfold just now, you can't beat him with three tied together. ”

“…… Do you know why you were sent here? ”

"I don't know." Ivanov shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe as [the judge] said, we are all people who have committed the most heinous crimes, and maybe I have hurt a lot of people and committed very serious crimes. But no matter what, I can't remember, I'm in this world forever, my time won't go any further, I'm not going to get old, I'm not going to die, I'm going to endure the horror of every siren, I've been killed countless times, I've killed others, the cycle never ends, I'll keep repeating fear, fear, sadness, loss, self-blame...... That's the punishment for me. ”

Colin stopped Ivanov's words, and although he was talking about his feelings, he also spoke Colin's heart.

Looking at the boy in front of him who was about the same size and age as himself, he only felt sad.

But what makes him even more sad is that he is likely to have the same fate as him.

Hovering between life and death forever, it cannot be considered alive and will not die.

“…… But on the bright side, at least at some point in the world you can do whatever you want, and you can do whatever you want. Just like me, I love cooking and I do find a way to calm myself down, get used to it, and just get used to it. Ivanov smiled faintly.

Get used to it.

That's it.

That's a terrible word.

What's even more terrifying is that he who said this sentence has accepted it, has calmed down, and has ...... Extinguished all his hopes.

Colin lowered his head and slightly removed the piece of gauze that was pressing the wound, trying to see if the bleeding had stopped, but at this time, he noticed an anomaly in the wound - the edge of the wound cut by the sharp blade was neat, but from the wound, there seemed to be a small line that extended from the muscle to the wound.

"What is this?"

Colin looked down in confusion, he gently pinched the thread, carefully pulled it out, and found that it was indeed a thread, and it was a thread buried in his arm.

Ivanov also stepped forward and looked at the wound: "You have something in your arm. ”

"Something?"

"Take a look at it."

“…… Well. ”

Colin took a deep breath, tugged at the thread, and pulled out, little by little, a little rolled up note. The note was rolled very thinly, wrapped in a circle of thread, and buried in his arm, and if it hadn't been for One-Eye's slit-all slit-open arm, he might never have found it.

The note was stained with blood, but it was waterproof and would not be damaged.

It seems that the person who prepared the note had already thought of this layer.

Colin took the line apart and spread out the note.

On the note, there are two lines of words written -

[Only corpses can send messages]

【ＣＬ１３０７４】

"This ...... What is the meaning? Ivanov looked at Colin puzzled.

"I don't know. But it's always right to write it down first. Colin said, silently jotting down the information on the note, shredding the note and throwing it into the sink.

At this moment, the two smelled a pungent smell.

At the other end of the kitchen, several people exclaimed and fled the kitchen in a hurry.

Ivanov and Colin poked their heads out of front of the kitchen and saw One-Eye, whistling, standing in front of a cauldron, waving a shovel and stir-frying something. But it is obviously not the taste of normal cooking ingredients, or even different from the ordinary burnt smell, but a more pungent smell, which makes people feel like they are rushing straight to their heads and breathless.

"What is he doing?" Ivanov wondered.

After looking at it for a while, Colin came to a conclusion: "Make explosives." ”

"Huh? What nonsense are you talking about, he looks like he's stir-frying! ”

"That's ammonium nitrate." Colin looked at the one-eyed back and explained, "Put the ammonium nitrate in the pot, light the fire to melt the ammonium nitrate, add kerosene or diesel fuel and wood bran and stir it thoroughly, cool it and put it up, and the improvised explosives are complete." ”