Chapter 232: Who's the Problem?

Chapter 232: Who's the Problem?

Rustle, rustle...

The sound of heavy objects being dragged echoed in the darkness, intertwined with the sounds of a viscous liquid dripping intermittently.

Levi grabbed at the corpse’s ankle with an indifferent expression, dragging it with him along the corridor. Soon, he came to a hole-in-a-wall.

The hole is fashioned in a way that is similar to a garbage passage of an apartment, but it was large enough to fit a large pig to slide down.

Stopping in front of the hole, he recalled his experience of being dragged into the depths of the slaughterhouse with an iron hook pierced through his body. His heart beat against his chest, and his breathing became labored and uneven.

...

That night, Levi found himself waking up inside a cage.

The cage is made of welded steel, like a large cage made for dogs. He could barely move around inside of it.

His hand patted around the cage, feeling that it was covered with a coarse cloth. He couldn’t see anything outside, let alone the eerie darkness within the cage, and the air was filled with a nauseous, moldy stench.

Realizing his predicament, the panic brewed in his body as his body willed him to yell. He endured the pain of the bleeding hole through his shoulder and tried slamming through the steel bars of the cage.

He threw his body as hard as he could against the cage, and the cloth draped against the cage slipped off.

Immediately, he saw a large space with countless cages like his own stacked on top of each other, like Tetris.

A faint light shone from an unknown source, outlining deformed figures within the cages.

Levi’s mind went blank at the scene before him, and the only thing that resonated in his mind was the rhythm of his heart beating against the walls of his chest, threatening to leap out of his throat.

Then, he heard a high-pitched whisper behind him – artificial, but human.

“You’re stuck here too?”

Levi’s pupils shrank, quickly turning around to find the source of the whisper, and found somebody trapped in an iron cage just like him.

They were extremely obese, with all hair shaved off them. He couldn’t discern the person’s gender, but he could discern the slabs of flesh that were morbidly stacked on their body. If it wasn’t for their vaguely human face, Levi wouldn’t have believed that they were human.

Looking at this peculiar person, Levi swallowed, forcing his heart back into his body, “What do you mean, ‘stuck?’”

As soon as he spoke, the cage adjacent to his shook, and countless morbidly obese faces emerged from the darkness of the cage.

Their eyes bulged against the sockets, and their facial muscles undulated with rich, yet unreadable expressions – they could be crying, laughing, angry, disgusted, fearful, or all at the same time.

They repeated the person’s words in their mouths, and countless voices gathered together in a cacophony of high-pitched whispers.

“Are you stuck here too?”

The urban legend is true... there are humans being treated as livestock here, and I am one of them now...

Levi felt cold sweat dripping down his back, and subconsciously, his back hit the cold steel bar of his cage.

“Are you stuck here too?”

Another whisper rang in his ear, and he could feel a warm breath on his ear. He immediately turned around, feeling that his face had almost touched the other’s.

“Ack, get away from me!”

He shouted in a panic, falling on his shoulder. In a panic, he felt his injury sting within his inflamed nerves, and blood began to spurt out of his wound. His vision blurred, and he felt his body becoming light, transcendent.

In his haze, he heard heavy footsteps coming from a distance.

Huge figures as high as buildings approached in the darkness, waving their big hands and turning their huge heads to the cages.

Levi could discern they were humanoid in the darkness, but he swore he could make out pig-like features in the darkness.

He felt the air above him, and suddenly, he felt himself being grabbed by a large hand, and he was thrown onto a giant dining table.

Rotting meat on a cold table, with stone plates stained with blood.

The figures sat around the table, tearing apart the meat and grabbed at the food relentlessly on the table.

Cups and plates were haphazardly thrown across the table, as with the bones of the meat, and piles of eyeballs marinated in a putrid, black mucus that bubbled from time-to-time.

The sound of their maws chewing through muscle and bone caused Levi’s soul to shudder in fear, and as he shook, the four figures stopped eating, pushing a stone bowl in front of him.

The bowl was filled with rotten flesh and blood, and other viscous liquid-like masses that he didn’t want to name.

He stared blankly at the figures, and they studied him, waiting for him with a strange smile on their pig-like faces.

He realized their intentions quickly – they wanted him to eat the disgusting mass of ‘food’ as they watched. Just like how humans feed their leftovers to their pets.

...

“Tsk.”

Jiangli pursed her lips in annoyance, holding her sword in one hand as she stepped into the office. She looked ready-to-kill, both in appearance and intention.

Walking through the corridor of the ground floor, she didn’t enter any rooms on either side. Looking at the floor plan she saw before entering, she walked to the direction of the reference room on the third floor.

She suddenly stopped as her eyes adjusted to the darkness – dark red stains were omnipresent down the corridor, and various hand and footprints were hastily stained against the walls, the windows, and everywhere imaginable.

Remnants of an attack? She presumed, withdrawing her gaze and walked upstairs.

The moment she stepped onto the stairs leading to the third floor, the closed security doors of the second floor opened quietly, and figures in uniforms emerged from the rooms.

They did not follow her, but merely wandered in the corridor, still bound to their duties after their deaths.

Jiangli wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but she felt that the corridor of the third floor was much, much longer than the corridors of the second floor, possibly stretching out beyond the confines of the office’s geometry.

The walls were white, and every few meters, rusty iron doors with yellow seals on both sides of the corridor could be seen.

This is the experiment section of the building, and it felt as if nobody had come here for a long time. Strangely enough, there was no trace of dust despite the inactivity.

According to the markings of the floor plan, the third floor is where the data and miscellaneous research items were stored. About eighty percent of the third floor was used for storage purposes.

Through the windows of the corridor, one could vaguely see shelves through the darkness, and they were stocked with bottles and jars.

Taking a closer look, she was stunned – the jars were filled with an orange-red liquid, and the labels on them not only labelled pig organs, but human organs too. Some of the labels seemed to be made with a mixture of pig and human skin too.

Jiangli used her psychic senses to probe into the room and scanned the jars one by one, and after confirming that there were no psychic fluctuations, she continued walking, stopping in front of a rusty, metal door.

The door was welded shut with steel bars with large locks, and the locks had runic symbols engraved upon them, reminiscent of a spell for sealing urban legends.

Hanging on the wall was a placard that read [King of Pigs Exhibition Room].

Staring at the door, her vision deepened, feeling psychic energy fluctuations pulsing from behind the door.

...

Meanwhile, the invincible man named Zhang Dexian was in a bitter battle in the breeding farms.

His strategy was completely opposite from Jiangli, going straight to the breeding farm where it felt the most evil.

To him, the best way to succeed is to face the biggest problem head on. Once he kills the root urban legend, the night will be easy.

However, he underestimated the amount of urban legends in the slaughterhouse, and overestimated his own ‘invincible’ strength.

He was cornered now, and he leaned against the hard, cold walls of the building, panting violently. His bare chest that was firm with muscles rose and fell with each labored breath.

The shimmering copper rings that were clasped around his arm were dimming, and before him, a group of figures wearing work uniforms were closing in.

They looked humans, but their bones were deformed, and their hair was falling out. A layer of black mucus coated their bodies, and the mucus moved about under their shabby uniforms, coating their hands that held rusty iron hooks.

Their bloodied eyes stared him down, and they growled at him.

Although these were just low-levelled urban legends, there were simply too many of them – hundreds, thousands even.

They started closing in, and he closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate. He straightened his back and clenched his fist, yelling, “Come on, you sons of bitches! I have all night to deal with you bitches!”

“Secret Dharma – Fearless Lion!”

He roared and mobilized the remaining psychic energy left in his body, only for the wall behind him to be blasted open.

Boom!

A petite figure rushed in amidst the falling dust, shouting, “Mew Mew! I’m here to save you!” as she clumsily waved her kitchen knife around, beheading a few of the workers effortlessly.

As she sliced through their heads, she landed right in front of Zhang Dexian’s shiny pecs, like a bodybuilding champion covered in oil.

What the fuck?

The scene she had originally envisioned was perfect – Mew Mew, who she suspected was Jiangli, would be cornered by the enemy. Then, Yibei would fall from the sky like a guardian angel, killing all the urban legends and saving her.

Then, Mew Mew (Jiangli), would be safe, and Mew Mew (Jiangli) would like her. Then, Yibei would win the favor of her favorite cosplayer (Jiangli), and will win the favor of her superior (also, Jiangli) back in the Night Division!

That would be perfect, but instead, I was greeted with pecs and abs instead!

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

This story switches from vivid, descriptive horror to comedy in the blink of an eye... possibly one of the main reasons why I enjoy reading and translating this. That being said, I only notice mistakes like days after I post the chapters, so if you notice anything amiss, don’t be afraid to point it out in the replies!

As always, if you’d like to tip me any amount to support me, you can do so at /slicedbreadsbakery or order your very own translations <3!