Chapter 86: Farting

The scene was quite awkward, twelve people surrounding four rice dumplings, sizing them up.

The four people's facial expressions were naturally varied—embarrassed, fearful, awkward, pleading, forcing calm, and so on.

The scene fell silent for a moment.

It was obvious that neither side knew how to handle the situation at hand.

After a while.

The male student who had exchanged blows with Chen Mu showed an embarrassed, appeasing expression and said to everyone present: "Um... seniors, have you eaten?"

"Pfft—"

Those words directly made Du Jia Jia burst out laughing. This girl has a low laugh threshold; a random joke from ten years ago can make her shake with laughter, laughing from lunch to dinner.

Chen Mu felt somewhat helpless, thinking to himself, "I hope I haven't run into another guy like Sun Yuan again."

He had actually realized that these four people's purpose in coming was nothing more than to find some supplies and food, but he didn't know whether they had planned it in advance or just happened upon this place.

As for the male student who spoke, his earlier strike had been decisive and precise, indicating he had some combat experience; it was unclear whether this was some kind of special ability.

According to He Ying's experience, people who discover their own abilities are already few, and combat-type ability users are even rarer; this is indeed the case—even within the Qiming Organization, the only true combat-type ability user is Wei Dalei, and He Ying can only count as half.

Chen Mu was just about to ask about these four people's backgrounds.

Zhao Xiao Yan suddenly sniffed and asked, "God, it stinks—who farted?"

Chen Mu also recalled the stench he had noticed during the fight earlier, but by now a while had passed, it had mostly dissipated; only Zhao Xiao Yan, who had activated her ability, could still smell it.

One of the four men slowly raised his hand, voice tinged with shame and unease, and said softly, "It was me."

Chen Mu immediately froze.

In fact, only he had truly perceived the peak of that stench; although it indeed resembled a fart, Chen Mu absolutely did not believe a human fart could reek that badly, and he once even suspected the other side had used some kind of biochemical weapon.

But it was obvious that this person had no need to lie.

Moreover, upon reflection, it was indeed the smell noticed when apprehending that male student.

In that case.

The matter became clear.

In other words, this person's ability is to produce an especially foul-smelling fart?

"Is this an ability?" Zhao Xiao Yan asked, frowning. If that's truly the case, this ability seems to clash with hers.

"An ability? Oh, right!"

The male student obviously felt a bit embarrassed, but dared not conceal it, so he could only nod in acknowledgment.

Indeed so.

Everyone stared at each other, obviously stunned by this fact.

The varieties of abilities are simply myriad—before, Zhu Hao had horns growing on his head; later, Chang Junyan had lumps on his body; now even farting counts as an ability.

Chang Junyan's ability, as far as we can see, is still pretty good, while this guy's fart‑producing ability, though disgusting, cannot be said to be completely useless.

At least Chen Mu has suffered greatly from it.

If it were someone with less resolve, they might have just vomited outright.

Because it really is damn foul.

It's like mixing rotten eggs into feces from a week ago, boiling it in a pot, and then making it ten times stinkier!

That stench is absolutely enough to temporarily rob most people of their combat ability; functionally it's comparable to a skunk's spray, but its power is definitely stronger.

"Can you control your ability at will?" Chen Mu was genuinely curious about this.

"Voluntary? Oh oh, uh, yes."

"In other words, you can fart whenever you want to?"

"Yes, yes, or I could let another one go right now…"

"Don't!"

Chen Mu didn't let him finish, directly blocking him, and even his whole body had stepped back two steps—perhaps this was the first time the self‑proclaimed brave and decisive Chen Mu retreated without a fight.

What's speechless is that the guy's remaining three companions also instinctively spoke up together to stop him, but each only shouted a single word before falling silent, apparently realizing they were now the fish on the chopping block.

"Don't let you fart—absolutely no spontaneous farting." Chen Mu, still uneasy, hastily added a nonsensical command.

"Oh oh." The male student nodded frantically, then added proactively: "Actually, although I can control my farting, there's a daily limit—about ten or so at most; if I want to fart more, there's none left. I've already let out seven or eight today, and my supply is almost exhausted."

Everyone was dumbfounded.

For a moment, no one knew what to say.

Like Tang Jing, Chen Mu values the investigation of abilities, but their purposes may differ—Tang Jing seems purely curious, whereas Chen Mu seems to want to know both himself and his opponent.

As Tang Jing previously said, abilities may be bizarre, but they appear to follow a set of rigorous rules—only those rules don't fully align with modern human scientific theory.

Therefore, besides strengthening one's own ability, the deeper one's understanding of the laws governing abilities, the more confident one can be in dealing with other ability users.

"Are you in your first or second year of high school?"

The four exchanged glances, and finally the female student said, "We're freshmen."

"Same class?"

"Yeah."

"What about the other classmates?"

"Either they got separated, or they died."

Chen Mu suddenly stopped questioning, turned his head, and consulted with Tang Jing and Dong Junwei for a moment.

Afterwards, the four were separated.

Dong Junwei, Tang Jing, and He Ying each questioned the three male students, while Chen Mu continued to be responsible for the female student.

"What's your name?"

"Lu Shanshan."

Well, Lu Shanshan, if we had merely run into each other by chance on the road, we might have gotten along fine, perhaps even become companions, but you chose to sneak in furtively to say hello; since that's the case, you should prepare for the worst.

Chen Mu neither threatened nor comforted them; he simply spoke in a calm tone: 'You should understand why we're questioning you separately. We don't want to hurt anyone, but to survive we sometimes have to do things against our will. I hope you can understand.'

Lu Shanshan swallowed hard and nodded.

Chen Mu showed satisfaction and continued: 'All right, then my first question: what are the names of your other three companions?'

'Cao Zishan, Xue Xu, Lu Liangliang.'

'The one who… releases odor… that one…'

'Xue Xu.' Lu Shanshan answered bluntly before Chen Mu could finish his question.

'Is his ability really the same as he just said?' Chen Mu asked again.

'Yes, basically the same.'

'Basically?'

'Um… well… sometimes when he's nervous or in a hurry, he can't help but… release odor, maybe he feels embarrassed about it, which he didn't mention just now.'

Obviously.

To win Chen Mu's trust, Lu Shanshan didn't hesitate to expose her companions' secrets.

Recalling the earlier situation, Chen Mu realized Xue Xu had been forced into it, involuntarily letting out a fart, and it truly wasn't aimed at him on purpose.

Even so, thinking of that earth‑shattering, ghost‑weeping fart, Chen Mu was at a loss for words.