Chapter 232: Who''s the Problem?


    <em>Rustle, rustle…</em>


    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 simr to a garbage passage of an apartment, but it wasrge enough to fit arge pig to slide down.


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


    …


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


    The cage is made of welded steel, like arge 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 mming 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 arge 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 nk 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 bs 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 undted with rich, yet unreadable expressions – they could be crying,ughing, 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?”


    <em>The urban legend is true… there are humans being treated as livestock here, and I am one of them now…</em>


    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 inmed nerves, and blood began to spurt out of his wound. His vision blurred, and he felt his body bing light, transcendent.


    In his haze, he heard heavy footstepsing 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 arge hand, and he was thrown onto a giant dining table.


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


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


    Cups and tes were haphazardly thrown across the table, as with the bones of the meat, and piles of eyeballs marinated in a putrid, ck 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 nkly 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.


    …


    Levi threw Li’s body down into the hole until a soft thud could be heard.


    “As agreed, I delivered the first tribute to you.”


    He spoke down the hole, feeling a slight sting in his shoulder. Then, a howl sounded from within the hole.


    It was an unpleasant howling that causes one’s body to cringe – a strangely inhumane howl of anger, pain, and despair.


    The sound of flesh could be heard crawling up the hole, and a big face with big, lifeless eyes revealed itself before Levi.


    It was strange seeing such a huge body crawl through such a narrow hole.


    He quickly squeezed out a smile, but he couldn’t conceal the disgust in his eyes.


    The big face retreated back into the tunnel, and Levi fell into deep thought.


    It was inhumane – the food he consumed; moldy, rotten.


    Those eyes that studied him with peculiarity, like a kid with their first pet.


    The memory lingered in him like a parasite. He knew that if he wanted to forget them, he could only destroy them.


    When it was finally quiet, Levi took out his mobile phone and sent a message.


    [I killed the first person in the review, but I’m afraid the others will be a much more difficult kill. When are youing?]


    An ount with a ck sun totem avatar replied to him, [Soon.]


    This man he was texting was somebody he encountered after leaving the ughterhouse.


    He imed that he could help Levi take revenge on the urban legend group chat and the urban legends in the ughterhouse.


    The man disyed his strength, convincing Levi. Subconsciously, he touched his shoulder that was still wrapped in a thick, stained gauze.


    …


    Jiangli’s original n was to find a safe ce, read a book, be alone with her mind, y a few rounds of online mahjong on her phone, and survive the night silently.


    However, recalling that the files regarding the ughterhouse seemed tock any information after the Night Division sealed this ce away, she had a change of heart.


    She wanted to investigate the ughterhouse, and find out the root of the urban legends that persisted here.


    Just like Shihekou High, the Night Division is unable topletely contain the urban legends surrounding the ughterhouse. It was difficult to demolish urban legends tied to buildings like this, and they cannot be erased until the root of the problem was found.


    If she could find the root, she would use her hands and tear its wretched roots out.


    <em>Thinking about it</em>,<em> why didn’t the previous Operator-in-charge mention anything else about this ce? It’s nothing but brief introductions in the files.</em>


    <em>They knew this ce is dangerous, so why didn’t they continue their investigation? Could there really be a mole in the Night Division?</em>


    Jiangli felt that something was amiss. After tonight was over, she nned on investigating who oversaw the investigation years ago.


    She walked in deep thought, and unknowingly, she left the feeding room, finding herself in front of the ughterhouse’s office building.


    The tall building towered over here, like a lonely tomb watcher, with the dark windows that bore deep into her soul.


    Staring at the buildings, her eyes narrowed slightly. She used her sword to pick at the lock, shing it into two cleanly-cut pieces.


    If the registration book contained such important information, then the office itself must hold greater secrets.


    She prepared to walk into the office, but stopped and took a few steps back.


    <em>Something’s here.</em>


    <em></em>


    She knew that she was being watched as soon as she entered the ughterhouse grounds, but it seemed as if the gaze had intensified tenfold.


    The eyes followed every single step she took, studying her from beyond the shadows.


    Jiangli immediately expanded her senses to the maximum with a stern face, however, something seemed to disrupt her range of detection. Her psychic powers were originally strong enough to cover the entire ughterhouse, but now, it seemed to forcibly stop in a radius of ten meters.


    <em>I’m being targeted by one, or several powerful urban legends, but where are they?</em>


    She felt annoyed.


    She isn’t afraid of urban legends, even the powerful ones – if she wins the fight, great; if she loses, they will still probably die no matter what.


    She hated dealing with urban legends that hid themselves in the shadows, watching over your every move.


    Like urban legends that stay inside your mirror, just out of view, or presences that loom over you when you close your eyes in the shower, or the child-like fear of sticking your feet out from underneath the nket.


    “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 n 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.


    <em>Remnants of an attack?</em> 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 hade here for a long time. Strangely enough, there was no trace of dust despite the inactivity.


    ording to the markings of the floor n, the third floor is where the data and misceneous 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 thebels on them not onlybelled pig organs, but human organs too. Some of thebels 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 withrge locks, and the locks had runic symbols engraved upon them, reminiscent of a spell for sealing urban legends.


    Hanging on the wall was a card 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 waspletely opposite from Jiangli, going straight to the breeding farm where it felt the most evil.


    To him, the best way to seed 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 ughterhouse, 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 eachbored breath.


    The shimmering copper rings that were sped 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. Ayer of ck 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 ept 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 sted 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, shended right in front of Zhang Dexian’s shiny pecs, like a bodybuilding champion covered in oil.


    <em>What the fuck?</em>


    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 cosyer (Jiangli), and will win the favor of her superior (also, Jiangli) back in the Night Division!


    <em>That would be perfect, but instead, I was greeted with pecs and abs instead!</em>


    <strong>TRANSLATOR NOTES:</strong>


    This story switches from vivid, descriptive horror toedy in the blink of an eye… possibly one of the main reasons why I enjoy reading and tranting 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 trantions <3!