I Have a God Simulator

Chapter 34: Chapter 29: Carnivorous Girlfriend

Luh Yao really wanted to open the door and see what was happening outside. But his safety-first instincts suppressed his curiosity.

The sound of a knife constantly striking a cutting board in the kitchen was exceptionally clear to Luh Yao.

He could even tell from the friction of the blade against the food that it was a potato, and that it was being cut into slices.

’Oh, now the slices are being julienned.’

He caught the rich aroma of a meat broth—pork ribs stewed with lotus root.

Luh Yao stuck his head out the window. His room opened into a small living room, which connected to a small kitchen on the other side. From his window, he had a perfect view of the kitchen’s glass.

However, the glass was covered with floral window paper, making it impossible to see clearly inside.

The kitchen light was on, casting a silhouette on the window paper.

The figure had their hair up in a bun. They had a rather slender build and stood with a steady posture, cooking in the kitchen.

Luh Yao realized his vision had suddenly become incredible, as if his world had upgraded from 720p to 1080p. Even with just a shadow on the window, he could instantly make out the person’s body lines, as well as the precise position and rhythm of every chop.

’Am I... entering the legendary "zone" that Athletes talk about?’

’No, that’s not it.’

It wasn’t just his vision. His hearing and Olfactory Sense had also become far sharper than before. His body’s overall sensitivity to the outside world had risen by a whole level.

This was a complete change from yesterday. Why had he changed so much overnight?

The only reason Luh Yao could think of was that reminder.

"Population is the vessel, Faith is the power."

He had previously thought it was a description of his role as a God.

In the Pixel World, a larger population increased productivity and advanced civilization. This, in turn, revealed many hidden game mechanics, turning them into visible data.

Faith was even easier to understand. A God needed Faith to unleash the power of Miracles. Faith was a strategic resource, like ammunition—the more, the better.

Luh Yao now realized that perhaps this statement wasn’t limited to the Low Realm Dimension’s Pixel World.

It also included the real world where he lived.

The fact that all sorts of [Sacrificial Offerings] and [Blessings] could break through the World Dimension’s limits via the Divine Hall proved that this game was truly maintained by an unimaginable power.

So, it seemed perfectly understandable that the changes brought about by Faith and population would directly feed back to the player, the God.

Having figured this out, Luh Yao found his answer.

This change in his physical and cognitive abilities must be a physiological transformation caused by the ten-thousand-plus population of the Ghost City Saniluo.

He collected his thoughts and turned his attention back to the kitchen.

Luh Yao was now certain the shadow on the window belonged to Zhou Qiang’s girlfriend, Miss Yuyao.

Zhou Qiang had a girlfriend in college, but a rich kid later poached her. It was both fortunate and unfortunate.

Fortunate, because she revealed her gold-digging nature now rather than after marriage, so the loss was relatively small. Unfortunate, because having your partner stolen is a blow to any man’s pride.

Afterward, Zhou Qiang threw himself into running his online store, working from dawn till dusk. This was also part of the reason he hadn’t found another girlfriend.

Before today, Luh Yao had never even heard of this woman named Yuyao.

Coupled with her strange behavior of cooking and humming in the middle of the night, Luh Yao found her all the more suspicious.

...

When Luh Yao got home from work the next day, he opened the door to find the living room table laden with dishes: blanched shrimp, pork rib soup, braised carp, taro chicken, salt-water duck, mushroom and pork slices, and some vibrant green vegetables.

"Sit, sit, let’s eat together," Zhou Qiang said, looking smug. "Yuyao made it. Not bad, huh?"

"The presentation and color are impeccable... But where is she?" Luh Yao looked around but didn’t see Yuyao.

"She went out to buy a few things. We were low on seasonings, and we also needed toiletries, a mop, that sort of stuff."

Zhou Qiang cracked open a can of beer and took a sip.

Luh Yao sat down next to him and set down his backpack. "Old Zhou, how did you and Yuyao meet?"

"You could say it was fate."

A smile spread across Zhou Qiang’s face.

...

He and Yuyao had started dating a week ago.

It was raining that night. Zhou Qiang went downstairs to pick up some returned merchandise and saw a girl standing under the eaves. She was wearing a short, black slip dress and staring at the ground, looking lost and homeless.

Zhou Qiang hesitated for a moment before asking if she needed help.

The girl met his question with silence.

But when Zhou Qiang got back home, he found the girl had followed him upstairs.

He jumped in fright, quickly pulling out his phone. "Don’t try anything funny! I’ll call the cops."

Having been an online merchant for several years, Zhou Qiang knew all too well that it takes all sorts to make a world, and one could never be too careful. She might look like a harmless young woman, but for all he knew, it could be a honey trap, and he could easily get blackmailed.

But then she said, "Didn’t you offer to help me?"

Zhou Qiang explained that he was just being polite, that people just go through the motions in situations like that and she shouldn’t take it seriously.

While speaking, he opened his phone’s recorder to avoid falling for some new kind of scam.

The girl just said, "Oh," and turned to leave.

Before she left, she said she was hungry and asked Zhou Qiang for something to eat.

’This trick is so old,’ Zhou Qiang thought. ’Watch how I handle you. Just you wait.’

So he gave the girl a pack of sausage links, two cartons of milk, and a loaf of sliced bread. He told her generously to help herself and not be shy.

Right in front of him, the girl ate every last bit of it.

"Got any more?"

Zhou Qiang was stunned.

’This woman is something else.’

’Fine,’ he thought. ’If you dare to eat, I dare to give.’

Zhou Qiang dug out some instant noodles and made her a huge pot. The girl then slurped it all down.

He found a bag of pork floss cookies, and the girl ate them one by one, washing them down with plain water.

Finally, he took out his last resort: two cans of herring. The girl scooped it out with a fork and ate it, even crunching up the bones and swallowing them.

Zhou Qiang gave up.

He said, "Stop, please, don’t try to out-eat me. I admit defeat, okay? You should go to the bathroom and throw it all up. Eating this much could kill someone."

The girl said, "I’m fine. Thank you. You’re the first person to give me food. Everyone else just gave me money."

Zhou Qiang was completely bewildered.

He couldn’t quite tell.

’Is there something wrong with her stomach, or something wrong with her brain?’

The girl said her name was Yuyao, that she was twenty-one, and hadn’t had much schooling. She said someone had set her up with a job in the city, but a shady agency took her ID card and tried to trick her into working as an escort at a nightclub. When she realized something was wrong, she ran away and had been wandering the streets, starving.

Zhou Qiang talked with her for a while and found that Yuyao did indeed show a kind of naive ignorance. It wasn’t an act; she genuinely had no reaction to many things that were common knowledge.

For example, she didn’t know how to use a water heater or a smartphone, she ate bananas with the peel on, and she made no effort to avoid indecent exposure or observe the usual boundaries between men and women... like a female from the Wild People who had stumbled into modern society.

A very good-looking female from the Wild People, at that.

Hearing this, Luh Yao couldn’t help but interject, "Old Zhou, don’t mind me for saying this, but is there any possibility... that she’s faking it?"

"It’s possible."

Zhou Qiang grinned. "Women are natural-born actresses. I get that."

"If she really is faking it, then her acting is Oscar-level. To perform in front of me every day without revealing a single flaw... If I fall for it, I’ll take the loss."

Luh Yao saw a quiet sort of happiness on Zhou Qiang’s face.

He was really into that Yuyao.

"She’s so hardworking. Seriously, she’s the most hardworking person I’ve ever met." Zhou Qiang couldn’t stop gushing about his girlfriend.

"Since we got together, she hand-washes all the clothes, and she gets them sparkling clean."

"She does the cooking. She has a real talent for it; she picks things up instantly."

"She even insists on doing the heavy lifting around the house. It’s embarrassing to say, but she’s stronger than me, and her appetite is way bigger than mine too..."

"She’s just really good to me."

Zhou Qiang took a sip of his beer. "I’ve had bad luck for years. I guess my fortunes are finally turning."

Luh Yao felt that something about it was unreal.

"Does she have any demands at all?"

"Just one."

Zhou Qiang set down his beer. "She loves meat. She asks me to buy lots of it."

Just then, the front door pushed open, and Yuyao returned, carrying bags of all sizes.

Luh Yao’s nose twitched.

The smell of blood.

The strongest scent of blood was on Yuyao’s lips.