Edge of Death

Creak!

Yu Jing pushed open the metal door, and a blast of cold air swept over him, making his hairs stand on end.

Just as Yu Jing nervously looked around and prepared to step out of the room, he stopped his descending foot at the last possible moment.

A bloodstained bear trap lay at Yu Jing's feet. The corridor was dim, and Yu Jing had been too focused on whether the Butcher was lurking along either side of it, nearly overlooking the trap directly in front of him.

"That was close. My leg almost got crippled." Yu Jing kept his voice low, doing his best to calm his racing heartbeat.

Jiang Tian, standing in the room, covered her mouth with both hands at the sight of the bear trap. Her body trembled uncontrollably with fear.

"Everything proceeds according to plan." After making an OK gesture to show that he was fine, Yu Jing gently shut the door and relied on the faint light to see the path ahead in the cold iron corridor.

First, he needed to determine the layout of the corridor outside the buffer room.

The cold iron corridor was roughly two hundred meters long, with only this one isolated room inside it. He found no ventilation entrances, but fortunately, he had not encountered the Butcher along the way.

Just as Yu Jing was about to return to the room for a brief rest... Squeal! Squeal! The cries of pigs came from the distance once more.

"An opportunity!"

Hearing the pigs squealing, Yu Jing saw a chance to pass the test and immediately returned to the room to meet Jiang Tian.

The White Pigs' screams indicated that the Butcher was surely still slaughtering them in the slaughterhouse. Yu Jing and Jiang Tian moved in the direction opposite the squeals and began exploring the cold factory area.

Along the way, they found a bear trap roughly every fifty meters.

After investigating for some time, Yu Jing had returned to the room in the Interactive Area and had basically confirmed the shape and layout of the test area. What he had initially thought was a complex factory production floor was actually just a square area with sides roughly two hundred meters long. Though the corridors crisscrossed throughout it, they were not overly complicated.

In Addition, Yu Jing had now identified six scattered ventilation entrances and four rooms that could be entered. He had also acquired two bottles of spray and a flashlight.

The total test time was four hours. Half of it had already passed.

"Next, we need to figure out how to get rid of this Butcher. I still need to investigate the exact situation in the slaughterhouse. There's a large meat grinder in there, but I'm still not sure where its opening and switch are... So, Jiang Tian, I need you to lure the Butcher away. That way, I can go in and confirm how to kill him."

Yu Jing placed both hands on Jiang Tian's shoulders and looked directly into her eyes.

"Okay... When should I lure him over?"

"Five minutes. Start counting from the moment I leave."

Yu Jing took a deep breath and walked out of the room. He carried a bottle of healing spray on him in case of emergencies and Swiftly headed for the Closest ventilation duct entrance.

The pigs had stopped squealing. Yu Jing remained extremely vigilant; if anything unusual happened, he would abandon the plan and flee back to the room.

"The ventilation entrance is Not Far ahead, before the next corner."

However, as Yu Jing reached the corner, a series of heavy snorts entered his ears.

In Yu Jing's field of vision, ten meters away from him—

A Butcher standing a full two and a half meters tall, his body taking up half the corridor, faced him directly. He wore a black leather apron, iron nails embedded throughout his flesh, and held a butcher's cleaver. He was completely a "monster."

The reason Yu Jing called him a "monster" was because This Person's face made his hair stand on end.

His bloated, somewhat festering head had eyes sewn shut with crude needle and thread, while his mouth was covered by an iron mask.

Unable to see with his eyes or breathe through his mouth, the Butcher's heavy snorting had a clear cause...

Hiss—hiss! Along with the heavy snorts, an invisible presence spread outward.

Baleful Aura.

Even from ten meters away, Yu Jing's whole body had begun trembling without stop. Cold Sweat seeped down the back of his neck, and every hair on his body stood upright.

Run! Yu Jing! Run, now!

The thought of fleeing repeated endlessly in Yu Jing's mind, but his legs would not obey him in the slightest. They felt as though they had been filled with lead; even taking half a step was incomparably difficult.

The Butcher In Front of him would not give his prey any chance. He moved his enormous body closer to Yu Jing.

Each time his huge body took a step and landed on the ground, the narrow iron corridor shook.

After three brief seconds, the footsteps stopped. Yu Jing smelled an intense stench of blood, and his relatively slender body was completely swallowed by the shadow cast by the other man's body.

The butcher's cleaver hung above his head, ready to pronounce Yu Jing's death sentence at any moment.

At that critical moment between life and death, Yu Jing's entire body unexpectedly relaxed on its own. He relaxed with remarkable naturalness.

An image from his childhood suddenly surfaced in his mind. He had been only three years old at the time, an age whose memories he Should Not have retained, yet the scene that emerged was exceptionally clear.

Yu Jing stood amid rice paddies in the countryside, watching a man bid his tearful mother farewell.

But when the man turned toward him, his face was hidden in shadow, with only his mouth exposed. His lips moved slowly, and Yu Jing seemed to understand their meaning from their shape.

"...Xiao Jing, take good care of your mother."

In an instant, Yu Jing, whose legs had gone weak under the influence of the Baleful Aura, seemed to break free from his restraints. The moment the cleaver came down, he threw himself backward with all his strength, barely allowing the blade to slice past his heel.

Bang! That leap sent him crashing heavily onto the ground.

Hiss—hiss! The heavy snorting sounded behind him like a death knell.

His desire to survive drove Yu Jing to scramble and crawl toward the Interactive Area room a hundred meters ahead. He did not dare look back at all; slowing down even slightly might allow the Butcher to catch him.

His hundred-meter speed is about the same as mine. I have a chance to escape!

One hundred meters, eighty meters... fifty meters! Halfway there.

Just as Yu Jing was about to shout for Jiang Tian to open the door for him, an accident occurred.

A sensation like the flesh on his back being sliced open struck him, followed by cold iron plunging into his back.

Gah! A large mouthful of blood burst from Yu Jing's mouth. His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor. Intense pain surged from his back, making his entire body tremble and convulse. He wanted to scream, but blood clogged his throat, making it difficult even to breathe.

A great deal of blood spilled from his back. The icy sensation of steel embedded in flesh clearly meant that the butcher's cleaver had pierced into his body.

The Butcher had evidently thrown the cleaver directly during the pursuit. Yu Jing surviving without immediately dying involved a great Luck Factor—or perhaps the Butcher's throw had been so precise that the blade had lodged exactly between his organs.

Schtk! The Butcher walked over to Yu Jing and pulled the blade straight out.

Gah!

Blood gushed from his back in torrents. Yu Jing coughed up another mouthful of blood, and his vision blurred.