Butchered into Mince

Liu Zheng did not stand on ceremony and inspected the pots one by one.

The things floating on the surface were all the same: onions, carrots, celery, rosemary, cilantro, and so on.

Beneath the broth lay a thick, murky mass, impossible to see through.

At the same time, the system gave no prompt whatsoever.

After thinking for a moment, he extended a tentacle.

"You can look, but touch anything and I'll chop it off."

Oink could not bear to watch any longer.

"It doesn't cost money."

After a pause, it added.

"Tch."

Liu Zheng smacked his lips.

"Then this one."

He pointed at the pot in the very middle.

For no other reason than symmetry.

"Looks like your luck isn't very good."

Oink shook its head and took out some tableware from the cabinet behind it.

Before long, a brimming bowl of meat soup was placed before Liu Zheng.

"Drink up. Then you can get on the chopping block."

The Pig-headed Man spoke gently.

Liu Zheng looked into the bowl. The soup was much clearer than it had looked in the pot. Several red-eyed flies fluttered inside it, as though they were still alive.

Name: Hell Dragonfly Spicy Soup

Type: Item

Quality: Inferior

Effect 1: Loss of taste. Duration depends on constitution.

Effect 2: Constitution permanently decreases by 5 points.

Can be taken out of the instance: Yes

He looked at the spicy soup with a troubled expression.

It was not because it contained Hell Dragonflies. He had even eaten eyeball sashimi before, so this was nothing.

The main issue was that every effect was negative, especially the permanent reduction to constitution.

Liu Zheng's true constitution was only twelve points. This would wipe out nearly half of it in one go.

Once the instance was cleared and he cleansed the Flesh Mutation status, he would probably be half-paralyzed on the spot.

"Can I get it to go?"

Liu Zheng asked seriously.

"I can package you up."

Oink answered just as seriously.

"Sigh."

He sighed, lowered his head, and took a sip.

The extreme spiciness punched his taste buds hard, while the sulfurous aftertaste dealt a second heavy blow to his brain.

"Hiss—ha, hiss—ha!"

Liu Zheng stuck out his tongue as saliva flooded from his mouth, but it was barely enough to help.

"Is it good?"

Oink asked.

"Not. Spicy. Enough."

After recovering a little, he spoke one word at a time.

"That mouth of yours needs at least eight hours in the pot."

Oink laughed despite itself.

"What, can't you bite through sashimi?"

Liu Zheng stubbornly kept talking back.

"I don't eat people, though you humans have eaten me. After all, half of me is human."

Oink shook its head.

"But I will sell your meat to them, just as you did to me."

It said this calmly.

"Like Bloodstained Restaurant?"

The moment those words fell, the firelight in the room dimmed instantly.

Oink's shadow stretched and swelled without limit, transforming into a demon god wielding a massive axe.

"You didn't tell him?"

It tilted its head and asked Cow-Horse.

"I didn't expect him to ask that either."

Cow-Horse looked helpless.

No, how did they end up talking about supplying meat to the Restaurant?

You're an ingredient. Why are you so proactive?

"Bloodstained Restaurant used to have a signature dish: live-roasted suckling pig."

The firelight in Oink's eyes blazed brightly again.

"I was that pig."

Amid the suffocating silence, Liu Zheng slowly spoke.

"Was it fragrant?"

"Fragrant my ass!"

Cow-Horse exploded with curses and kicked Liu Zheng over with one hoof.

After kicking him down, it ruthlessly stomped him several more times, crushing all four tentacles into meat paste.

"Ever since he stopped being human, it seems like his brain has gone bad too. Please don't mind him."

It shouted as it kicked him.

"You want to protect him?"

Oink saw through its intentions.

"He calls me boss, after all."

Cow-Horse said humbly.

"You can't protect him."

Oink shook its head as well.

"Let me try. We both came out of the farm. You wouldn't beat me to death, would you?"

Cow-Horse lay on the ground and exposed its belly.

It even wagged its tail.

"You learned that move from Black Claw, didn't you?"

Oink frowned deeply.

"Black Claw died ages ago."

Cow-Horse said.

"Oh. No wonder I haven't seen him come by to sell meat in so long. Did he get made into dog meat hotpot?"

Oink asked.

"He went to Landfill to open a treasure chest and got his guts turned inside out."

Cow-Horse replied blandly.

"He was still as stupid as ever."

Oink sighed.

"I told him back then to stay obediently in the Sewer. If that didn't work, he could have come here and been a guard dog."

The Pig-headed Man shook its head.

"Dogs always want to become strays."

Cow-Horse said.

"Mm."

Oink answered indifferently, and its shadow shrank back beneath its feet.

"Alright, lie down."

It dragged a wooden slaughter table over from the corner. It was soaked through with layer upon layer of bloodstains and filth.

"Hurry up."

Cow-Horse kicked Liu Zheng.

Liu Zheng walked over and lay face down on the slaughter table.

"Why aren't you looking at me? Scared?"

Oink mocked.

"Every pig I see being slaughtered lies face down."

He replied in a muffled voice.

"You seem very eager to anger me."

Oink sneered.

"I'm not doing it on purpose. I just can't control it. Cow-Horse was telling the truth—I have something wrong with my brain."

Liu Zheng explained.

Irritability left him unable to control his anger, and sometimes he could not help provoking others as well.

"It's fine. You won't need to control it much longer."

As Oink spoke, it raised the Cleaver.

With the first cut, it removed his head.

With the second cut, it removed his limbs.

With the third cut, it removed his organs.

With the final cut, it split him in two.

Liu Zheng clenched his teeth and did not make a single sound from beginning to end.

He treated himself as a tree, while Oink was merely pruning away his stray branches.

Perhaps that self-hypnosis worked. Liu Zheng's senses grew duller and duller, until he barely felt any pain at all by the end.

"All done!"

Oink called out, tore off its filthy apron, and draped it over his face.

Liu Zheng's eyes were wide open.

He could see nothing and hear nothing.

So this is an "Empty Shell."

That final thought flashed through his mind before he fell into everlasting silence.

"Emergency Rations have been automatically used."

The system's cold voice suddenly rang out.

A wriggling lump of flesh appeared out of thin air, then crawled into Liu Zheng's mouth on its own.

"So that's what he was relying on."

Oink folded its arms and watched with a cold smile on its face.

"You never said it wasn't allowed."

Cow-Horse said with a grin.

"This is the first time, and the last."

Oink said sternly.

"Of course, of course."

Cow-Horse wiped away a bead of cold sweat.

Though it had dared to do this only because it knew the Pig-headed Man's temperament, it was not truly relieved until it heard those words.

Who knew whether Oink might suddenly lose its mind? Back then, it had chopped down half the Restaurant.

"You think highly of this human?"

Oink suddenly asked as it looked at Liu Zheng, who was still unconscious.

Otherwise, Cow-Horse would never have dared risk provoking it just to pull such a little trick.

"He got me a two-person Vacation Voucher for Paradise Island, and he even got Airplane Head's vest from that tree."

Cow-Horse's smile faded.

"I think this kid might actually accomplish something."

"Is that so?"

Oink suddenly walked over to a stove and lifted up an entire pot.

Then it pried open Liu Zheng's mouth and poured all the soup inside, completely ignoring how his mouthparts were scalded until they changed color.

"Then let's look forward to it for now."