Universe Infinite Canteen

"Anyway, welcome to Universe Infinite Canteen, Plus Mobile Edition. To thank new and old customers, we are traveling the Multiverse to open stores.

Ma Lu said, "You seem to be confused, no worries, just ask any questions you have. I have a few small questions for you too. We can help each other."

"Who exactly are you?" Lin Cheng asked quickly upon hearing this.

Ma Lu pulled over the retractable banner, "I knew you would ask that. It's written here, all these are objective evaluations of me."

"I... don't recognize the words on it."

"Oh, I almost forgot. Let me translate it for you."

Ma Lu pointed at the large characters and read, "Mr. Ma Lu—Founder of Universe Infinite Canteen, Chairman, Co-Chef, Ingredient Supplier, the only designated heir of Seven-Star Universe Chef ψ. Savior of the Multiverse, special advisor for Abyss game 'Red Ridge', millionaire."

"Uh... I don't quite understand," Lin Cheng said, "but it sounds impressive."

"Which specific part do you not understand?"

"A lot, actually, I don't understand any of it."

"Haven't you heard of my name, or the name of my restaurant? We should be quite famous in The Grand Alliance now." Ma Lu muttered.

"No."

"What about the ψ Chef? You must have heard of him. My master is the greatest chef in the history of the Multiverse, the only Seven-star Chef."

"No."

"That's strange." Just then, Ma Lu realized something was wrong. At that moment, the Hardware Store Owner returned from outside, carrying the corpse of a monster.

The monster looked like an Alien, with a protruding spine, a semi-transparent body, entirely hairless. The most striking feature was its claws, each claw measuring at least half a meter long, shining like metal in the sunlight.

Upon seeing Yan Wu, Ma Lu complained, "Look at the ship you directed us to. We agreed to land in the plaza, but here we are in the woods, crushing trees. If people come to ask for compensation, what am I supposed to do?"

"No one will come looking for compensation. I circled around and found no other humans except him. I did encounter several monsters." the Werewolf said.

"What?"

Ma Lu noticed Lin Cheng's gaze at the monster was odd, "Do you know her?"

Lin Cheng nodded, "She was my foreign language teacher."

"..."

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

"Check if she's still breathing." Ma Lu turned to the Hardware Store Owner.

"No need to check. She suddenly jumped down from a tree to attack me. I already twisted her cervical spine and killed her." the Werewolf said calmly.

"Ah, looks like your school needs a new foreign language teacher." Ma Lu said to Lin Cheng, "Hope you like your new teacher."

After a pause, he whispered to Flush Your Pee beside him, "Quick, pack up. Old Yan caused trouble. Let's move to the next Plane."

"Okay." The Black Bear brought over a stool and began to dismantle the welcome banner from the tree.

"No, no, don't leave. I'm not blaming you." Lin Cheng said hurriedly.

"Kid, it seems you didn't have a good relationship with your foreign language teacher. I understand, you're in your adolescence, a time when you are eager to defy authority. But even if you don't care, the police will come to hold us accountable."

"No, there are no police anymore."

"What do you mean, your society is highly autonomous?"

"No, the male officers were all killed."

"Uh… What about the female officers?"

"They killed the male officers. Of course, some male officers were killed by other women."

"Alright… To be honest, I don't understand what you mean. Are you Mantis spirits?"

"I'm not sure what happened," Lin Cheng smiled wryly. "I woke up like any other day, went to the zoo to take photos, and then… then…"

"And then what happened?"

"Then suddenly, all the women turned into monsters. I saw a mother, one moment buying a balloon for her son, the next moment swelling up and turning into a huge bug, biting off her son's head.

An old lady who often sat on the bench in front of the West Gate of the Red Panda hall, watching the Red Pandas play. She was a kind person, one of the few who was willing to pose as a model for my photography practice. But that day, her two arms, and calves turned into scythes, her skin disappeared, leaving only bones.

In less than half a minute, she first bisected the zookeeper, then chopped off the cleaner's head, and dismembered six tourists alive. The scene was bloody and horrific.

"That's terrible."

"Yes."

"How did you survive?" Ma Lu said while signaling Flush Your Pee not to hurry packing up.

"I was in front of a newsstand in the zoo. The stall owner ran away when he saw things going bad. Although he didn't get far before a huge meatball flattened him. I wanted to run too, but was too scared, my legs refused to obey.

"With no other option, I crawled into the newsstand, attempting to pull down the roller shutter. Inside, there were instant noodles, snacks, and bottled water drinks.

"I survived for about two weeks on those. When the drinks ran out, I had no choice but to leave the newsstand. Luckily, there was a faucet about 5 meters away from which I could get water.

"Another two weeks passed, and I became braver, exploring the surroundings using the telephoto lens of my camera as a telescope. This allowed me to observe further away and avoid danger in advance. Eventually, I managed to reach a nearby convenience store.

"I found more food there and lived in the zoo for about six months."

"Wow, six months have passed already?" Ma Lu said in surprise.

"Yes, in these six months I practically explored half of the zoo but never encountered a single living person."

"At first, I could still see news on my phone, learning that the mutation wasn't limited to a single city. It seemed like the whole world was in chaos. I saw many small videos on social media.

"People fighting their transformed grandmothers with chainsaws, tragically ending in mutual destruction; husbands being torn apart by their wives; survivor bases being established to gather survivors. The army was also deployed, but gradually, the news got fewer, the internet went down, followed by electricity and water.

"Fortunately, the convenience store had plenty of water. I also found a shared charging box with many power banks to charge my camera.

"Wow, that's really tragic," Angie remarked, "So why did you leave the zoo and come here? Was it because you ran out of food or were you looking for other survivors?"

"No, I wanted to see Chenchen."