Chapter 230: She's Using His Phone to Stream?

There was a faint sound of water dripping, and his nose was itchy from the surplus of dust invading his nostrils after a great fall.

“Damn it, it hurts…”

All the bones in his body seemed to be falling apart, and his chest burnt and ached from the putrid air.

Li opened his eyes; his dilated pupils gradually focused as they adapted to the darkness.

He found himself in a small room, mottled with moldy, black hay. The walls were mossy, and the mice scurried in the darkness, squeaking and chewing.

He sat up holding his head, feeling dizzy.

He recalled holding his phone and turning on the flashlight to look into the manhole, and then…

That’s right! He took a photo into the darkness, and a pair of eyes stared back at him!

However, those eyes weren’t violent or malicious. Instead, it was empty, lifeless, like fog on a stagnant lake.

Those eyes merely observed with no other intention.

It was, of course, uncomfortable to be watched, but Li couldn’t find any other word to describe those eyes.

“I looked into those eyes, and I was forcibly dragged into the hole…”

He recalled something like an iron hook, which stretched from the darkness, piercing into his calf and dragging him into the cellar.

As he was dragged downwards, he immediately casted a hand-me-down spell given from his ancestors, enveloping his body with electricity as his body tumbled through the darkness.

In the face of death, potential energy awakens.

Li felt that it was the best time for him to cast that spell. If he could make it out alive, he would be able to advance his runes and become stronger.

As he was in deep thought, those empty eyes plastered themselves within his mind.

He remembered going to the zoo – it was dilapidated and somewhat worn-down, and the animals were trapped in dimly-lit, boxy cages, hiding themselves in the darkness with dead eyes.

It was different this time, however – he felt like he was the zoo animal being watched.

His body shivered. Only then did his mind realize that those eyes were currently observing him – they concealed themselves, not wanting him to know they were watching.

However, upon acknowledging them, it was as if he violated an unspoken rule, and those eyes seemed to turn angry…

…

Meanwhile, when the bald man noticed that Jiangli was following him, he immediately invited her to join his one-man party.

Jiangli flashed an unfriendly smirk in response, which startled the man, “I understand – strong people like you work alone. Take care.”

As he spoke, he gently bowed towards Jiangli and went into the other direction.

Watching him leave, she sighed to herself calmly, “It’s okay. If anything is following me, I can deal with them easily.”

She looked around and recalled the several safe zones recorded in the files of the Night Division, walking towards them briskly.

…

The slaughterhouse was once the largest pig slaughtering and breeding areas in Huacheng, and their production surpassed even the biggest ones in the surrounding cities.

In addition to three slaughtering and processing plants, there were also seven or eight breeding farms, and two small buildings used for office work and experimentation.

When the urban legends surrounding the slaughterhouse were sealed away, Jiangli had just joined the Night Division. Her situation was similar to Yibei’s, and since she was a new recruit, she didn’t participate in the mission to seal the slaughterhouse away.

She only obtained information regarding the slaughterhouse when she was promoted to a higher classification, so this was officially her first time here.

In the slaughterhouse, except for the office and experimentation building, the buildings were all five-meter-tall, blue-colored, brick buildings, which donned windows that were extremely high up from the ground and iron railings.

The windows were tiny – they acted more as a source of ventilation rather than to aid in sight.

The only other defining feature was the iron door of medium size. However, they were all locked by large, rusty locks.

Some may wonder what secrets these locked doors conceal.

Passing by the buildings, Jiangli noticed countless scribbles on the walls, and each word seemed desperately scrawled out.

Nothing new here, she remarked. I’ve seen writings like these before.

Humans aren’t designed to understand complex urban legends, and their minds crumble at the sheer complexity of the unknowable. Hence, they needed to vomit these negative thoughts out from their mind.

These may manifest in music, words, pictures, but the most common one was scrawled writings.

As if they could get rid of their nightmares by writing down what troubles them, she sighed. The opposite is true, in fact. Writing it down exposes the urban legend to more people, which powers them further.

Of all the urban legends she’s dealt with over the years, most of them were reoccurrences due to the fact that somebody would unravel these desperate writings and essentially revive the urban legend.

The moon was strangely dim tonight, barely illuminating the concrete floor. Recalling the information in the file, Jiangli quickly found the feeding room.

According to the records, this is the location with the least residual psychic energy fluctuations, which means that this must be the safest place.

The walled courtyard was tall, and it was overgrown with grass; the dark red paint had peeled off, and it looked abandoned.

Jiangli came to the door and pushed it tentatively. She didn’t expect the door to be pushed open with ease, and looking down, it seemed as if someone had broken the rusty locks that sealed the buildings away.

A messy courtyard came into view, and there was a blue-bricked building facing it. The door was ajar, and there was a little firelight dancing within the cracks of the door.

Somebody’s here. Is it another group chat member? Or somebody else?

Jiangli thought of the absentee and frowned. Her eyes turned cold, and with a flash of silver light, dazzling pieces of armor affixed themselves onto her arms, and a sword larger than her manifested within her hands.

Holding the sword, she quietly approached the building, and peered inside through the crack in the door.

She could see a small room with a twisted metal table and old wooden chairs that were sprawled across the room, which made it look as if the room was evacuated in a hurry.

A dirty, yellow notebook could be seen on the ground, and the word [Registration] could be seen written on it.

Apart from that, there is nothing.

An iron door could be seen diagonally opposite the main door, and a faint light could be seen behind the iron door.

Using her sword to open the door, she wasn’t in a hurry to explore what was behind the other iron door within. Using her senses to gauge the surrounding psychic energy fluctuations, she walked towards the table, picking up the yellowed notebook from the ground.

[July 7th, Special Growth Concentration Feed 2.1T

August 8th, Special Growth Concentration Feed, 450kg of Nutritional Powders

…]

The contents recorded on the registration page were normal in the first dozen pages, but there were large blanks between August and September.

Jiangli turned back a few more pages until she reached the last registration date at the end of September.

[September 25th, Special Growth Concentration Feed 2.1T, Meat 100kg, Nutritional Powder 350kg.]

Meat? Pigs are omnivores, but why specifically meat? From a costing perspective, it is incredibly inefficient… so what kind of meat were they feeding the pigs?

Human flesh. Those two words flashed in her mind, but she rejected it immediately.

There are problems in obtaining human flesh, and there weren’t any large-scale missing person reports back then.

So, what meat is it? 100kg isn’t enough to feed every pig… damn it, there aren’t detailed enough records in the Night Division Records.

Flipping through the pages, it seemed that meat was a new addition to the feed.

When it came to the month of November, it was blank again, and she remembered something.

The murder in the slaughterhouse was at the end of November, but that means…

Flipping through the pages, she was startled as she stumbled upon sprawled writings on the notebook.

Dark, red graffiti was painted on the page, and the shapes were inconsistent and twisted, like a child’s drawing. Looking closer, the drawings seemed to resemble tiny figures.

Jiangli continued to read through the page, and she felt a weak, psychic energy wave looming over her.

Raising her head towards the direction of the psychic energy wave, her eyes fell on the iron door, and she could hear a faint, muffled sound.

Thud… thud… thud… as if somebody was hitting a wall.

“Show yourself!” she growled, but nobody responded.

Her eyes flashed a cold silver, and she walked towards the door with her sword in hand.

Jiangli is much different from Lu Yibei. In her opinion, avoiding danger to the best of your abilities may be good, but it is not the best solution.

The best solution is to deal with the problem as soon as possible, guaranteeing long-term safety.

She had long smelled a familiar stench of animal carcasses rotting in a closed space. She remembered smelling this in the auditorium of Shihekou High as well.

However, she could also smell incense.

She diverted her psychic powers to wrap around her mouth and nose, took two steps back, and pushed open the door with her sword.

Behind the door reveals a warehouse used to store pig feed. It was empty, with thick dust and scattered footprints on the floor. In the center of the warehouse, an offering table stood.

The paper money had just burnt out within the shrine, and the flames of the red candles swayed in the darkness. The wax dripped down onto the table like blood.

Looking around with her sword, it was so quiet that she couldn’t tell where the slamming of the wall came from.

She saw a pile of bones in the corner of the room, however.

Walking forward, she could see bones of poultry and livestock, and even reptiles, but none of them were the bones of a human.

…

23:56, in the low barren hills behind the slaughterhouse, a figure wearing a black robe pinned with a skull emoji stood on a large tree with twisted branches, looking down from a distance. Her furry ears would shiver from time to time.

The leaves rustled, and the lanky man climbed up the tree and sat next to the cat girl.

“Any updates?” the lanky man asked.

“Zhang Dexian is fighting the urban legend in the slaughterhouse, but it’s hard to guess the victor; Mahjong Girl is investigating the feeding room; Li is trapped in the breeding farm, still alive, but not for long if nobody comes to save him; Levi is still missing, but boss suggests that he might still be here.”

The cat girl stopped, and the lanky man tilted his head, “What about Vaccaria?”

“Stop talking about her, or I’ll get angry,” she growled. “She hasn’t even entered the slaughterhouse yet. She’s being difficult, as per usual.”

“Is that so? What is she up to now?” the lanky man smiled playfully.

As the leader of the urban legend group chat, many members consider the cat girl to be the most stubborn member, which also means that she’ll get annoyed if things do not go her way.

Hence, watching her be this annoyed with the Witch entertained the lanky man.

“She’s streaming on Li’s phone.”

“Is that so?” the lanky man pretended to be surprised. He took out his mobile phone, opened the stream, and typed, [Can I see your feet?]

Before he could click send, a furry paw smashed his phone into pieces.

“Not the time,” she meowed angrily. “There’s a review now. Be serious for one night, that’s all I ask.”

“You’re no fun.”

The cat girl sneered at the man, “Vaccaria is acting up again, and I’m about to die of anxiety. What if the Night Division is watching the stream?”

“Not possible,” the man grumbled as he put away his crushed phone. “First, no normal person is watching the broadcast; second, there’s no psychic fluctuations radiating from the stream – you know our boss has the power to detect psychic fluctuations through a screen; third, she’s barely even showing her face.”

“Tsk, she’s barely showing her face, and you still want to sexually harass her. Got it.”

“Could you blame me? Her breasts look supple… I just want a tiny peek…”

“I can’t help but want real-life, face-to-face verification in our group chat now,” she purred. “Especially with people like you existing.”

“Tsk, I’m not done yet,” the lanky man said. “To address your concerns, our boss made sure that the Night Division and ordinary humans should not be able to see her streaming.”

“Does that mean…?”

“Correct. The viewers are all urban legends and lone psychics.”

“How do you know this? Oh… boss must’ve briefed you before you came here, correct? You just wanted to annoy me.”

The cat girl revealed her sharp claws, and the man twitched his lips, “Now, now, don’t scratch me-”

Before he could finish his words, with a flash of cold light, pillars of blood spurted out from his face.

“What the hell?! I told you, not the face, and yet…”

“Not the face? So anywhere is fine?” the cat purred, and her gaze glanced downwards.

“…fine, just the face.”

…

Three minutes after picking up Li’s phone, Lu Yibei discovered that the livestream was still running. She shoved the phone into her pocket, but the vibrations persisted. Impatiently, she pulled it out to find a private message from the livestream platform.

Despite her initial reluctance, the allure of the platform’s private message prompted her to register as a livestreamer. She fumbled with the settings, accidentally creating an account in the process.

“I’m definitely not an idiot, how do I…” she muttered to herself, blaming the platform’s confusing interface. After a few more minutes of tinkering, she stumbled upon Li’s own account.

The sudden surge of gifts rolling in piqued her interest. She pondered for a moment before switching back to the livestream room.

“Hello, viewers! I’m Li’s, uh, friend,” she announced, her voice laced with a hint of forced enthusiasm.

“He’s got himself into some trouble and sustained some really serious injuries, so he won’t be able to livestream for now.”

“But worry not! In his absence, I’ll take you on a tour of the Southern Suburbs Slaughterhouse. My livestream room code is 6324, so come join in the fun!”

Yibei had long wanted to become a streamer –  she had already set up an account and waited for Du Sixian to help her out. However, her fluctuating body temperature made it hard for her to carry electronics anywhere.

Now, she discreetly turned off Li’s livestream and launched her own, titling it– [The Docile, Soft-to-the-Touch Girl – G-g-g-g-ghost Hunting!]

As the clock neared midnight, she clutched the phone and stepped into the slaughterhouse grounds.

…

Moments later, from a distance, the cat girl spotted Lu Yibei. She was confused as she witnessed Yibei strapping something that looked like horse armor to her legs, galloping around the slaughterhouse grounds.

“What the hell is she doing?” the cat girl nudged.

“Uh…” the tall and lanky man pointed to his phone, “She’s found a loophole.”

“What?”

The lanky man sighed, “The rules state that upon entering the slaughterhouse grounds, you must take at least a step forward. So…”

The cat girl’s eyes widened in realization. “She took a single step into the slaughterhouse, and that’s it? Who else is watching the livestream?”

“I told you she’d be popular,” the tall and lanky man responded with a shrug, turning his phone to her. “Beautiful girls tend to have a lot of viewers.”

“But she hasn’t even shown her face?”

“That curvy figure gives her face away! Plus, her voice is pleasant, so the audience is smitten. Just. Like. Me,” the man explained with a wide grin.

The cat girl remained silent. She retrieved her phone from her jacket pocket and sent a message to Lu Yibei.

[100 2/3 CATS: @VACCARIA, please refrain from exploiting loopholes. This is your first strike out of three.]

…

A considerable distance away, Lu Yibei received the message, and a loud “FUCK!” echoed throughout the slaughterhouse. She couldn’t help but wonder how a game developer could allow a bug to happen, and proceed to prohibit players from using it.

Fuck! What disgusting developers you people are! This Divine Horse Armor was putting in work for me!

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

I’m glad to see so many familiar names in the replies section <33 Please comment any thoughts or theories regarding the story, I genuinely do read every single one of your comments ^.^

Story Discussion: I do think it’s funny how Yibei’s shameless mannerisms barely changed even after transforming from boy to Witch, to the point where even Jiangli got suspicious about it. Should’ve trusted your instincts, Jiangli!

As always, thank you for reading! If you’d like to support me by getting your very own freshly baked translation, or by just donating me any amount you’d like, you can buy me a coffee at /slicedbreadsbakery!