Creak!
The metal door was pushed open by Yu Jing, and a blast of cold wind sent chills racing down his spine.
Just as Yu Jing nervously glanced around and was about to step out of the room, he froze his foot mid-air at the last second.
Right beneath his foot lay a blood-stained bear trap. In the dimly lit corridor, and with Yu Jing too focused on whether the "Butcher" lurked on either side, he had almost missed the trap right in front of him.
"That was close… I almost lost my leg," Yu Jing muttered in a low voice, forcing his pounding heart to calm down.
Inside the room, Jiang Tian watched the trap and instinctively covered her mouth with both hands, trembling with fear.
"Everything's going according to plan," Yu Jing signaled with an 'OK' gesture, then gently closed the door behind him. Walking down the cold iron corridor, he relied on the faint light to see the path ahead.
First, he needed to confirm the conditions outside the buffer room.
The cold iron corridor stretched about two hundred meters, with only this single isolated room. There were no ventilation openings to be found. Fortunately, Yu Jing hadn't encountered the "Butcher" along the way.
Just as Yu Jing prepared to return to the room for a short rest...
Squeal! Squeal!
The agonizing screams of pigs echoed again from a distance.
"Now's the chance!"
Hearing the pig cries, Yu Jing saw a clear opportunity to pass the test. He quickly returned to the room to meet Jiang Tian.
The white pigs' screams meant the Butcher was still slaughtering inside the slaughterhouse. Yu Jing and Jiang Tian moved in the opposite direction of the cries, beginning to explore the cold factory area.
About every fifty meters along the path was another bear trap.
After some investigation, Yu Jing had returned to the interactive room and basically mapped out the testing area's shape and layout. What had seemed like a complex factory space was actually a roughly two-hundred-meter square. Though the corridors were interwoven, the layout wasn't too complicated.
Additionally, Yu Jing had identified six scattered ventilation shafts and four accessible rooms, collecting two cans of spray and a flashlight along the way.
The total test time was four hours, and half of it had passed.
"Next, I need to figure out how to eliminate this Butcher. I must check the exact conditions inside the slaughterhouse. There's a large meat grinder there, but I'm still unsure where its opening and switch are located... So Jiang Tian, you need to lure the Butcher away. That way, I can go in and find a way to kill him."
Yu Jing placed both hands on Jiang Tian's shoulders, locking eyes with her seriously.
"Alright... when should I bring him over?"
"In five minutes. I'll start counting from the moment I leave."
Taking a deep breath, Yu Jing stepped out, carrying a healing spray for emergencies. He quickly headed toward the nearest ventilation shaft.
The pig cries had stopped now, and Yu Jing stayed on high alert. At any sign of danger, he would abort the plan and rush back.
"Not far from the next corner is the ventilation entrance."
But as Yu Jing rounded the corner, heavy, labored breathing filled his ears.
About ten meters ahead in his line of sight stood the Butcher—a monstrous figure two and a half meters tall, his massive body blocking half the narrow corridor.
He wore a black leather apron. His flesh was embedded with iron nails, and in one hand he gripped a butcher's cleaver. He was a true "monster."
Why call him a monster? Because his face sent shivers down Yu Jing's spine.
His swollen, partially rotted head had eyes crudely sewn shut with thick thread, and his mouth was covered by an iron mask.
Unable to see or breathe through the usual senses explained the heavy breathing.
Hhhh—hhh!
The heavy breaths radiated a palpable aura.
Malice.
Though ten meters apart, Yu Jing's entire body began trembling uncontrollably. Cold sweat poured down his neck, every hair on his body standing on end.
"Run, Yu Jing! Run as fast as you can!"
His mind screamed to flee, but his legs felt like lead, utterly unresponsive—moving even a single step was agony.
The Butcher gave no chance to his prey, his massive form advancing steadily.
Each step slammed onto the iron floor, causing the narrow corridor to shake.
Three agonizing seconds passed before the footsteps stopped. The stench of blood hit Yu Jing's nostrils. His smaller frame was completely swallowed in the shadow cast by the Butcher's towering body.
The cleaver hovered overhead, ready to deliver the death sentence.
At the critical moment between life and death, Yu Jing's entire body surprisingly relaxed on its own—completely natural and calm.
Suddenly, a vivid childhood memory surfaced in his mind, from when he was only three years old. Such memories shouldn't have been so clear, yet the image was sharp as if it happened yesterday.
Yu Jing stood among the rice paddies in the countryside, watching a man tearfully say goodbye to his mother.
But when the man turned toward him, his face was obscured by a shadow, leaving only his mouth visible. His lips moved slowly, and from the shape of his mouth, Yu Jing seemed to understand the unspoken meaning.
"…Xiao Jing, take good care of your mother."
In an instant, fueled by the overwhelming aura of death that had made his legs go weak, Yu Jing seemed to break free from his paralysis. Just as the butcher's cleaver came down, he leapt backward with all his strength, barely dodging the blade as it sliced past the heel of his foot.
Smack!
The leap caused him to fall heavily onto the ground.
Hhhh—hhh! The Butcher's heavy breathing echoed behind him like a death knell.
Driven by the instinct to survive, Yu Jing rolled and scrambled toward the interactive room a hundred meters ahead, refusing to look back. Even the slightest hesitation would mean capture.
"If I can keep up a hundred-meter sprint close to my top speed, there's a chance to escape!"
One hundred meters... eighty meters... fifty meters left—halfway there.
Just as Yu Jing was about to call out to Jiang Tian to open the door for him, disaster struck.
A sharp, icy pain tore through his back—cold metal piercing his flesh.
"Ahh!" Yu Jing choked on a gush of blood, his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. Excruciating pain radiated from his back, making his body tremble and convulse uncontrollably. He tried to scream, but the blood clogged his throat, and breathing became difficult.
Blood poured out from the wound in his back. The sensation of cold steel embedded in his flesh left no doubt: the butcher's cleaver had pierced him.
Clearly, the Butcher had thrown the knife with deadly accuracy. Yu Jing's survival so far was sheer luck—the blade had narrowly avoided vital organs, slipping between them.
Shing!
The Butcher approached and yanked the cleaver out from Yu Jing's back.
"Ahh!"
Blood gushed out even more fiercely, and Yu Jing coughed up another mouthful of blood. His vision blurred.