Chapter 70: Sea of Blood and Chunks of Flesh

“Wait, what are you planning to—”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Ji Linmo watched as Qin Feng squeezed into the crowd and vanished from sight.

While Ji Linmo was still pondering just what the boy intended to do, a thunderous roar broke out, and chaos erupted among the crowd.

“Human! I smell a human!”

Pairs of ferocious eyes swept the air, nostrils flaring as they sniffed for a scent.

“So fragrant, that's the scent of a human! Where is the human?”

Ji Linmo frowned deeply and stepped back unobtrusively.

At that moment, he suddenly caught sight of Qin Feng, standing motionless at the center of the crowd.

The boy noticed Ji Linmo watching him and smiled in return.

With a sharp snap, Qin Feng took off his convenience store uniform and threw it to the ground.

[Player: Qin Feng]

[Role: None (Convenience Store Employee status revoked)]

Instantly, the crowd was in an uproar. Nearly every one of the ghastly diners began to drool, eyes bloodshot as they stared at Qin Feng.

“A human! It really is a human!”

“Quick, eat him! Let me have a taste!”

“Get lost, I saw him first!”

Mucous drool dripped onto the floor as the ghouls’ teeth ground together with a chilling crunch.

Only then did Ji Linmo understand just how crucial the uniform had been. The disguise had concealed their human identity.

That explained why the other ghouls, absent any restrictive rules, had not craved their flesh, but had treated them as their own kind.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I may be blunt, there’s hardly enough of me to go around,” Qin Feng said, his voice calm.

Bathed in the blood-red light, he performed as if on stage, bowing with perfect courtesy to the salivating ghouls.

“So, in the interest of fairness, why not let the gentleman who found me first have the honor?”

He reached out a hand to one of the ghouls before him.

“Back off! What are you doing? This human is mine!”

The ghoul about to take Qin Feng’s hand was yanked aside by another, and, eyes blazing with fury, they both roared and lunged at each other, jaws snapping for each other’s throats.

In an instant, the shopfront devolved into a brutal arena, with almost everyone fighting and killing each other over the slightest provocation.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?”

A staff member from the rabbit meat shop gasped at the bloody mayhem and shouted for the kitchen crew to come out, chaos reigning everywhere.

“Qin Feng…”

Ji Linmo frowned, seeing the boy surrounded, and was about to move closer when Qin Feng caught his eye and mouthed a silent message with a smile.

“Go—to—the—kitchen—”

Right now, with all the chefs rushing out to restore order, the kitchen was indeed the best place to slip away.

After a brief hesitation, Ji Linmo concealed himself and took advantage of the chaos to head for the back of the “Rabbit Meat Shop.”

Unlike the mouthwatering aromas outside, the kitchen was filled with a choking stench that hit him the moment he entered. It was an inescapable, overwhelming reek, as if he’d plunged into a summer sewer brimming with rotting rat carcasses.

Ji Linmo grimaced, bent low, and crept toward the source of the smell.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Only one chef remained in the kitchen, hacking away at something on the chopping board with a cleaver.

As Ji Linmo drew closer, the foul odor grew even stronger, almost unbearable.

It was coming from the chopping board.

Ji Linmo looked up and saw a chunk of red flesh, just larger than a baby’s arm.

The gelatinous red meat throbbed on the board like a beating heart. When the chef sliced it in two and tossed it into a frying pan, a rich, meaty aroma instantly filled the room.

The familiar scent made Ji Linmo swallow involuntarily, his brows furrowing.

It was the unmistakable aroma of rabbit meat.

The chef was focused on stirring the food in the pan, and once he finished, he sauntered toward the counter window, oblivious to Ji Linmo’s presence.

Ji Linmo seized the opportunity, quickly scanning the room before making his way toward the very back.

[No entry for unauthorized personnel]

The small door at the rear was the only exit from the kitchen.

Ji Linmo inspected the iron door, its black surface plastered with warning signs, a rabbit sticker at the top.

After confirming the chef hadn’t noticed anything, Ji Linmo didn’t hesitate. He pulled out a keycard and swiped it.

The iron door swung open slowly, and a blast of cold air swept out.

Ji Linmo stared expressionlessly at the empty cold room, a wave of disappointment washing over him.

There was nothing inside, not even a single crate—only a massive iron pipe dangling from the ceiling.

He walked over and looked up into the pipe’s dark interior.

It appeared to be some sort of chute, but he could glean nothing more.

He was just about to leave when a raspy, guttural voice sounded behind him.

“Hee hee, meat! Meat that runs!”

The hulking chef—his gut so enormous it seemed to fuse with his neck—had somehow crept up behind Ji Linmo.

Smiling idiotically and sucking his fingers, the chef’s belly split open, revealing a cavernous maw lined with sharp teeth.

“Hee hee, the kitchen is off-limits—either you’re staff, or you’re meat. So, you’re meat, you’re meat…”

Raising his cleaver, drool streaming, the monstrous chef lunged at Ji Linmo.

At the same time, the iron door slammed shut with a deafening clang.

Ji Linmo twisted aside, dodging effortlessly, but in the next instant, a wet, tongue-like tentacle shot from the chef’s belly, lashing for Ji Linmo’s face.

Rip!

Ji Linmo’s brows knitted. As he dodged, another slick “tongue” snaked from the chef’s gut and wrapped around his trouser leg, tugging him toward the gaping maw.

“Hee hee! Meat! Fat, juicy meat!”

The monster chef’s belly gaped wide, drool and gastric juices spilling onto the floor, sizzling as they corroded the tiles.

“Tsk…”

Ji Linmo clenched his fists, but didn’t dare attack outright—striking an NPC without knowing the rules could be disastrous.

He scanned the room, quickly undid his pants, and wriggled free, slipping out of the “tongue’s” grip. With a leap, he sprang up into the iron chute.

At this moment, escaping upward through the pipe was safer than trying the door.

“Come out! Get out here!”

The chef roared, reaching blindly into the pipe after him.

But Ji Linmo climbed swiftly, bracing himself with hands and feet, scrambling upward.

With a slick swish, another tentacle shot out and wrapped around his ankle, the chef yanking hard to drag him down.

Ji Linmo’s body plummeted, threatening to drop him from the chute.

But at the chute’s mouth, it was no longer the floor beneath him, but the chef’s grotesque, gaping belly, flesh and teeth churning.

Ji Linmo glanced back and saw the stomach splitting open, bile oozing out, yellow-white fangs gnashing like a meat grinder.

“Really… how long is this going to go on?”

His gaze cold, Ji Linmo grabbed the “tongue” and hauled upward with all his strength.

Thump—

The chef slammed hard into the chute, but his massive belly was too large to fit, merely wedging against the opening.

“Didn’t you want to come in? Well, come on, then!”

Ji Linmo’s eyes glinted darkly. Since dragging the chef hadn’t triggered any warnings, he no longer held back.

A smirk on his lips, he yanked harder.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The pipe boomed under the repeated impacts, Ji Linmo nearly forcing the chef inside.

“Ugh… my tongue! You’re going to tear it off! Let go!”

For the first time, fear appeared on the chef’s face. He was used to bullying the meat in the kitchen, but had never encountered anything so fierce.

“Come on, didn’t you want to keep me company?”

Seeing the tentacle go limp, Ji Linmo tossed it aside without a word.

“Waaah! Boss! There’s someone in here! He’s bullying me!”

As the cold room door mechanism whirred, the monster chef shouted for help.

A clamor of footsteps sounded immediately.

“Where? In the chute? Just press the button, then—one more ingredient for the pot!”

Ji Linmo’s heart sank, and he scrambled upward as fast as he could.

With a sharp click, the chute shuddered, and the sound of a meat grinder echoed beneath him.

Bzzzz—

He looked down: blades had sprouted inside the pipe, spinning up from below like a giant shredder.

They were rising—row after row—toward him.

Cursing inwardly, Ji Linmo climbed for his life.

He barely escaped onto the topmost edge of the chute before the blades caught up, spinning at full speed.

Ji Linmo tumbled out, landing with a splash—his eyes instantly dyed red by the bloody water.

He was in a vast pool of blood, corpses bobbing all around, drawn by the swirling current toward the “meat grinder” at the base of the chute.

The powerful suction began to drag Ji Linmo back toward the spinning blades. Shoving aside several corpses, he flipped his wrist and summoned his whip.

“Lightning Whip!”

With a fierce snap, he looped the whip onto a ladder at the center, hooking himself a lifeline and pulling free from the whirlpool.

This… is it a cauldron?

Gazing at the dense, floating bodies amid the blood, Ji Linmo looked up and saw a sheet-metal ceiling.

It seemed he was at the bottom of a gigantic iron pot.

Wiping the blood from his face, Ji Linmo reached for one of the corpses.

But corpse was hardly the word—these were formless lumps of red jelly, throbbing like oversized hearts.

Was this the rabbit meat?

His gaze drifted downward, spying the slit-open belly of one corpse, something still squirming inside.