Butcher

A row of rust-stained lockers stood in the sealed room before him, while a bloodstained iron table sat in the center.

The first thing Yu Jing did upon arriving was calm his slightly nervous state of mind and carefully observe the room's layout, waiting for the test instructions that should have come over the broadcast. Yet after some time had passed, no announcement came at all.

There are no test precautions or forbidden rules? In that case, as long as I remove the so-called Dangerous Object within four hours, I can use any means necessary. There's still plenty of time. First, I need to find out what exactly this "Dangerous Object" is.

Listening to the miserable squeals of pigs drifting over from afar, Yu Jing felt a chill crawl down his spine.

The door...

Yu Jing walked over to the small door in the room and turned the handle. To his surprise, it was not locked and could be pushed open easily. However, seeing the bloodstains on the floor that looked as though something had been dragged across it, he did not step outside immediately.

There are no windows in this room, so I can't see what's outside. Going out under these unknown circumstances is too dangerous. There's an opening in the ceiling that looks like a ventilation duct. I should see whether I can get into it.

Yu Jing came to the three lockers lined up against the wall and Opened the cold lockers one by one, checking for anything useful. Inside lay scattered twisted wires, bloodstained newspapers, and tattered clothes.

Fortunately, Yu Jing found a screwdriver in a set of bloodstained clothes that appeared to belong to an electrician. It happened to be suitable for removing the screws from the sealed vent cover above, and the iron table in the center was just high enough for him to reach it.

Creak!

As the panel loosened, Yu Jing quietly removed the iron grille from the vent and hid it inside one of the lockers.

He grabbed the edge of the vent with both hands, but his frail body could not even manage a single pull-up.

The Advanced Potential Institute really did turn my body into a pile of trash. I'll have to move the locker. If anyone comes here, they'll quickly realize I was here.

Left with no choice, Yu Jing moved the iron table away from the center and replaced it with one of the tall metal lockers beside it.

As he climbed from the table onto the tall metal locker, the damaged locker swayed slightly as a whole. Just as Yu Jing braced himself against the inside of the ventilation duct with both hands, the unsteady locker tilted and fell over.

Damn it!

Yu Jing did not freeze at the sight of the falling locker. He immediately crawled deeper into the dark ventilation duct before him.

Clang!

After he had crawled barely two meters, a tremendous crash rang out, making Yu Jing feel as if he had kicked a hornet's nest. If the so-called Dangerous Object possessed hearing, it would certainly come to the small room. Given the room's layout, it would be easy to deduce that Yu Jing was crawling through the ventilation duct.

I really need to improve my Physical Fitness! This is bad!

Yu Jing crawled through the vent with all his strength. Whenever he reached a fork, he made no attempt to analyze it and simply picked a direction at random. After all, ventilation ducts should not have dead ends; their ends were bound to lead into a room.

Suddenly, as Yu Jing crawled past a vent opening, a massive black shadow Flashed Past below.

After the huge shadow left the vent's field of view, Yu Jing sucked in a breath of Cold Sweat. A powerful stench of blood drifted in through the vent after it passed, thick and pungent.

What the hell was that? Was it human?

For some unknown reason, when that shadow passed beneath him, Yu Jing's back broke out in a cold sweat. Even the hand gripping his bloodstained axe trembled uncontrollably.

It went in the direction of the room where I entered the test area.

Without realizing it, Yu Jing had crawled past three intersections. Now he had reached a dead end, with a ventilation outlet directly below at its far end.

No matter where the vent led, as long as he could land safely, Yu Jing had to leave through here. Otherwise, if he turned back, he could run into the pursuing Dangerous Object at any moment. If they met in such a narrow ventilation duct, Yu Jing would have no chance of passing the test.

But as soon as Yu Jing reached the end, he caught a foul stench.

What is that smell?

Covering his nose and mouth, Yu Jing looked down. What entered his sight was the corpse of a White Pig lying across an iron table. Its belly had been split open with a sharp weapon, from its chin down to the gap between its legs.

Recalling the pig squeals he had heard in the distance when he first entered this area, Yu Jing believed they had come from the room below. The one who had slaughtered the pig was most likely the towering black shadow he had glimpsed along the way.

Is my luck really that good? There were three intersections, yet I happened to choose the one leading here... That thing should still be searching the room where I first entered, or even the ventilation ducts. I need to get down quickly and head for another safe area.

With no way to retreat, Yu Jing hurriedly used the screwdriver tucked into his waistband to pry open a Small Portion of the vent cover. He then kicked the panel down with his right foot.

Clang!

The iron panel first landed on the White Pig's corpse before dropping to the floor, producing a relatively muted sound.

The ground was about three meters below. Yu Jing could only lower himself slowly onto the White Pig's corpse, his feet making a squelching sound.

Standing inside this room, Yu Jing was shocked by the scene before him. He also understood why the place reeked so strongly of blood and rot.

The roughly thirty-square-meter room was filled with hooks like those in a slaughterhouse, and at least twenty White Pig corpses hung from them.

Not only that, these iron hooks are attached to a conveyor circuit. Once the machinery starts, the pig corpses will be sent into a meat grinder for processing. I can't stay here long. I need to leave immediately!

Yu Jing scanned the room, but only a single door directly ahead led outside.

When he reached the door, Yu Jing chose to take off both shoes. Barefoot, he stepped onto the clean, cold floor outside so that he would not leave footprints behind.

Holding his shoes, Yu Jing looked down the long passageway before him. Some of the lights hanging overhead were damaged and flickered intermittently. Under their glow, Yu Jing saw several enormous, bright-red footprints stamped across the floor.

Such huge footprints—were this person's feet size fifty? Judging from foot size relative to height, someone with feet that large would probably be over two meters thirty tall. What kind of concept is that?

"Massive feet," "an enormous black shadow," and "a slaughterhouse where pigs were killed"—combining this information, Yu Jing pictured a gigantic Butcher wielding a butcher's knife, his body reeking of blood.