Chapter 1284: Limited Alliances

"Eat it?"

Lin Sanjiu held the plate and walked to the back of the queue with Ji Shanqing, standing behind the silent woman. The next piece of meat was still grilling, and the fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy was still waiting at the front of the line. Lin Sanjiu lowered her voice and asked the grand prize, "Why eat it? What if the next piece is another lamb leg?"

As she saw it, there were four types of meat, and the probability of getting a lamb leg each time was 25%. Getting a lamb leg once wouldn"t affect the likelihood of getting another one, so why eat it now if it was possible to collect two lamb legs at once?

"It"s cooked!"

Before Ji Shanqing could respond, the chef at the front of the line shouted, and even the people at the end of the queue could clearly hear him, "It"s a chicken sausage!"

The boy examined the sausage on his plate and then walked over from the front of the line. Ji Shanqing raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Sis, according to the method everyone has temporarily agreed upon, we can get two pieces of meat without fighting for it. But what kind of meat we get for the first two pieces is evident to everyone. It would be fine if you didn"t collect two lamb legs. But if you truly collect two lamb legs, it will be difficult for you to get the next yellow mark spot."

He paused and glanced in the direction of the barbecue grill, seeing that the next piece of meat wasn"t ready yet, and continued, "The earlier you show that you have collected two of the same kind of meat, the harder it will be for you to reach the end. If you keep it, you only have a slim chance of collecting four lamb legs and will be targeted by others from the beginning. If you eat it, we can eliminate one doubt, and others will become the target... and we can also eat lamb leg meat."

Previously, he asked, "Do you want to eat it?" Now, he had changed to "we." This guy"s gluttonous nature was somewhat reminiscent of Bohemia.

"Here"s the skewer for you!"

As the chef finished speaking, Greene walked slowly out of the queue and approached them. Lin Sanjiu moved forward two steps along with the silent woman, took a look at the lamb leg on her plate, and finally nodded, "You hold the plate, and I"ll tear the meat off one by one for us to eat."

"Are your hands clean?" The grand prize took the plate and didn"t forget to say, "Wipe them first..."

As Greene pa.s.sed by them, she glanced at their gazes while they divided the lamb leg meat as if they were crazy.

Ji Shanqing didn"t care at all. Lin Sanjiu divided the lamb leg meat in half, and he ate with his mouth s.h.i.+ning with oil and his eyes s.h.i.+ning. He was busy eating and said, "It"s really... oh, delicious, no regrets."

Why did he also fear regrets?

With a 25% probability, the taste was indeed amazing; the outer layer of the lamb leg was slightly crispy, while the inner meat was tender, juicy, and full of the seasonings" flavors. With one bite, her mouth opened up to a small paradise.

Lin Sanjiu tried her best not to think about the next piece being another lamb leg. She wondered how regretful she would be. They finished eating in no time, and she saw that the tall man had also arrived at the end of the line with a piece of beef ribs in his hand.

"If the next piece is still a lamb leg," Ji Shanqing said, licking his lips. "We"ll eat it again."

"Somebody just ate the meat I grilled!"

Suddenly, the chef"s loud and excited voice resounded from the front. "How was it? Delicious, right?"

Everyone in front and behind turned their heads to look. The empty plates in Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing"s hands, with the grease stains around their mouths, seemed like glue, immediately capturing everyone"s attention.

"Delicious. We were hungry," Ji Shanqing explained to the people in front with a smile. He then turned and said, "Sis, describe it to the chef."

"If the full score is five, I... I"d give it a ten." Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment before flattery took over.

The chef was delighted and lifted the spatula, treating it like a partner in a tango, twirling around in place. "I didn"t expect my cooking to be so tempting. Well, now you can specify what the next person will get."

"What?"

The villa owners in the queue all jumped up when they heard the announcement. Standing on the yellow plate mark at the moment was the dark-skinned woman. As she turned her head, her previously calm face showed a hint of surprise. It didn"t matter what type of meat she was about to get for her first piece, but no one expected that Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing eating the meat would trigger this effect.

"Wait, is this a special reward for them?" Greene, being pregnant, had a big temper and spoke directly, "Do you get rewarded for being greedy?"

The chef raised his shovel and looked crestfallen. "If you"re not eating grilled meat, why did you come to the beach barbecue? It"s not a special reward. Every time someone eats the meat, there will be this... this situation."

Apparently, he had forgotten to mention this earlier, so he explained vaguely and concluded with a casual "Whatever."

"Is this what you were wondering about?" Lin Sanjiu asked in a low voice, "You were suspicious because you wondered what would happen after eating the meat?"

Ji Shanqing nodded.

"I found it interesting that the chef specifically mentioned that we can eat the meat but not throw it away. Posthumans usually eat whatever they find, and no one knows where the next meal will come from. Why would anyone want to throw away perfectly good grilled meat? Unless something happens after eating it. I initially thought I might have overthought it, but it seems not. I guess the effects of eating the meat vary widely. What happened to us wasn"t that bad."

1

He paused for a moment as if he hadn"t expected that he could decide what meat the next person would get. He frowned and pondered for a while, "Hurry up," the dark-skinned woman urged, "I don"t care what meat I get."

"Indeed," the grand prize shrugged, "then... chicken sausage, what do you think, sis?"

Lin Sanjiu nodded slightly, and the chef shouted, "Okay, you got a chicken sausage!"

As he finished speaking, the piece of shapeless meat on the grill instantly turned into a sausage and was handed to the dark-skinned woman.

Although Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing triggered the "eating meat effect" after eating the lamb leg, none of the other people in the queue started eating the grilled meat on their plates. It was still too early.

When the white-haired Mori also got a meat skewer and walked to the back of the queue, he suddenly stopped by Ji Shanqing"s side.

"You did well," he complimented and faced a posthuman and a person-shaped Special Item, taking both into account as if he had noticed that "Sis" was very important to Ji Shanqing. "Now we have learned new information. Next, we can cooperate completely, help each other, and each try to get four pieces of the same grilled meat."

"The effect of eating grilled meat next time may not be the same," Ji Shanqing shook his head.

"True, but finding an ally is always beneficial," Senping said calmly. "No rush, come find me after the second round."

After he walked away, Lin Sanjiu whispered, "This person is not bad."

Ji Shanqing glanced at her, asking, "Are you making friends again, sis?"

"No, I don"t know why I feel a little embarra.s.sed," Lin Sanjiu replied, and she didn"t know why she felt a bit embarra.s.sed. "I mean, he thinks of cooperation first when encountering a situation, rather than plotting and guarding against others..."

Ji Shanqing sighed and said nothing.

The boy from the F06 villa came closer. He was slender, not very tall, and only had a few soft hairs on his lips, apparently not yet fully matured before being thrown into the doomsday. It"s unclear where his parents had gone. He looked curious and timid as he whispered to Ji Shanqing, "It"s amazing that you thought of eating the grilled meat. If we form an alliance, can you include me too?"

"We"ll see when the time comes," the grand prize replied half-heartedly.

As they talked, the 11th villa owner also got his first piece of grilled meat—beef ribs. This man had a dark complexion and a somewhat flabby figure. He seemed to keep a distance from everyone and blended into the background when he stood on the beach at night without speaking or moving.

The first round of meat was finally distributed, and apart from Lin Sanjiu, each villa owner now had a piece of meat.

"Oh, it"s the turn of Villa 1 now," the chef greeted the chubby Li Xing and looked at his plate. "Let"s see what you get this time... Ah, too bad. You got a lamb leg."

"Looks like I didn"t get a matching pair," Li Xing said, smiling bitterly, and walked away from the queue, standing barefoot on the flat beach, contemplating his next move after completing two rounds of queuing.

As Lin Sanjiu followed the queue forward, she noticed that the three villa owners ahead of her had each received a lamb leg, a chicken sausage, and a beef rib, respectively. The lamb leg had appeared twice in a row, but no one got the same meat as the previous time. After receiving the grilled meat, everyone dispersed around the grill, standing two to three steps away from each other, their gazes repeatedly scanning the entire beach.

When it was Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing"s turn, the chef picked up a skewer of grilled meat—the lamb leg they had just eaten, thinking about it now, it seemed to taste even better.

Ji Shanqing took the plate with the skewer from her hand and had only taken two steps away from the queue when Mr. Ito slowly approached like a cat smelling fish. He had a skewer of grilled meat and a chicken sausage on his plate. His eyes moved back and forth between Ji Shanqing"s plate, but he pursed his lips and said nothing.

They couldn"t exchange the grilled meat, so they had to be on guard against each other and use force to s.n.a.t.c.h it. Under such strict limitations, Lin Sanjiu couldn"t quite figure out what methods Mr. Ito could use to take the meat skewer.

"Now, n.o.body will take action," the grand prize seemed to have guessed what she was thinking and whispered.

When the second round was also completed, the yellow plate mark lay lonely on the beach, surrounded by 12 people at varying distances. As everyone"s gaze swept over it, it was discovered that after two rounds, two people had indeed obtained the same type of grilled meat: the dark-skinned woman, who had two chicken sausages, and Senping, who had two skewers of grilled meat.

"Both of you should give way to each other," just as the grand prize had guessed, someone spoke up. "Let the remaining nine of us take turns again. How about that?"

Senping lowered his gaze and looked at his grilled meat for a few seconds.

"I understand," he said calmly. "I now know how to get four identical grilled meats. I now accept allies but will only accept the first seven people approaching me."