Chapter 77: Breakfast Problems
Rocky's good mood from training was completely ruined when he reached the breakfast hall and was surrounded by people who seemed on the verge of mental instability.
"There's a new kid here, hahaha, one more has come here to suffer, one more is fooled by the promise of power, what did they take from you handsome boy? What do you even lack?" A rough voice said as Rocky ignored him.
"Leave him alone Gerald, for all we know he can be deaf right now" Another male voice that was slightly less deep than the one before said as Rocky felt incredibly suffocated for not having the ability to see them.
Unfortunately, his noise perception was not yet great.
He could determine the general direction from where sound was coming from, however, he could not determine how far away or close the person speaking it was.
"Oh fuck off Leonard, look at him, with such good looks I would make Mia fall in love with me in an instant. That hoe, all she cares about is good looks.
I am the mudgong champion, my father is a legendary tier7 god but does she care about that?
No-
All that hoe cares about is Qin, and how handsome that bastard is…" Leonard ranted, as Rocky sensed some serious jealousy coming from that man.
Rocky carefully decided not to engage in conversation with him and instead focus on eating the food bread soaked in water for his breakfast meal.
The absence of sight transformed what should have been a simple meal into a challenging ordeal. Without his vision to guide him, even the basic act of scooping his food with a spoon and bringing it to his mouth felt hard as the food slipped from his grip time and time again, until eventually he gave up on the spoon entirely and began eating with his hands like a barbarian.
The bread soaked in water, a meal that once might have seemed merely plain, now became an unpleasant mush against his palate. The texture, which he could not avoid or ignore, seemed to amplify in his mouth, becoming a constant, unwelcome reminder of his new limitations.
The lack of visual cues stripped him of the ability to prepare mentally for each bite, turning each mouthful into a guesswork of texture and size.
Moreover, the sounds of the hall, previously a background accompaniment to his meals, now overwhelmed him. The clatter of utensils, the murmurs of conversation, and the occasional loud remarks from individuals like Leonard created a ruckus that made concentrating on his meal difficult.
This auditory overload, combined with his inability to judge the distance and direction of these sounds accurately, added a layer of isolation and frustration to his experience as surrounded by voices that he usually ignored, he felt alone in a bubble of sensory confusion.
"Nooooo– nooooooooo" someone shouted, as Rocky could hear some solid sobbing sounds coming from his right.
"Oh for god's sake Naya, we know you've lost your taste buds and now everything you eat you wish to throw out because of gag reflex, but can you please not ruin our meals for us? Do you have to cry everyday?" Leonard said as Rocky realized that the woman crying to his right was called Naya and she had lost her sense of taste.
"Hey you, new kid… nod if you've lost your vision" Gerald said, as Rocky nodded his head in acknowledgement.
"Fuck, we have a blind guy in the group, I thought so too by how messily he was eating, but damn, that's a brutal penalty for a first timer" Leonard said, as he talked non-stop during the meal, being a complete nuisance to Rocky.
As if the sounds did not annoy him enough, the smells of the hall, too, were overwhelming for Rocky to take.
Without sight to contextualize them, the mingling aromas around him became disorienting.
Whether he was hallucinating or whether the others were served meals different to him, Rocky was not sure as what might have been appetizing with the benefit of vision now teased and confused him, offering promises of flavors that his simple meal did not contain.
It heightened his sense of loss, a reminder of the variety and pleasure that sight had once brought to his dining experiences.
Eating without seeing, Rocky realized, was less about savoring and more about survival. It underscored his dependency in a way that nothing else had so far. Each fumbled attempt to bring food to his mouth was a stark reminder of the autonomy he had lost, the simplicity of life before his blindness now felt like a great way to exist compared to now.
In this new reality, even the most mundane tasks were tinged with frustration and a sense of inadequacy. The act of eating, once a straightforward, often enjoyable part of his day, had transformed into a source of daily struggle, a constant reminder of the limitations his blindness imposed on him.
*Dong*
*Dong*
.
.
.
*Ding*
Ending with a *Ding* signified half n hour had passed, which meant that meal time was over and Rocky was supposed to head to the penance hall, however, unexpectedly, as he stood up, he heard the others screaming beside him as he heard faint footsteps walking towards him.
*SWOOSH*
He was grabbed rather violently from his ankle and before he could even retaliate he was picked up off the ground such that his head was facing the ground and his foot was facing the ceiling.
"The red devil got him! We forgot to inform the poor guy that finishing his food was a must, even if he spilled some over. Now the devil got him!" Rocky heard someone screaming in the background as he felt frustrated that the idiot who said these words now did not inform him about this beforehand.
His ankle hurt from how strongly the devil gripped him, however, Rocky did not grunt in pain as he endured it silently.
Unfortunately, he had no idea about the world of pain he was about to be subjected to.
----------
/// A/N - Chapter 7/8 ///