Lu Yan quickly understood the meaning behind the system's words.
In the corner of the alley lay a dead person, dressed in black robes from head to toe.
The corpse had started to decompose, pus oozing from its mouth, emitting a foul odor of flesh.
This was an ordinary person, the fatal wound being bite marks on the neck. It looked like the throat had been bitten by a beast, tearing off a piece of flesh.
[X City's most famous urban legend is that anyone still wandering the streets after midnight will randomly enter another world.]
[According to legend, those who survive until dawn can return to reality. This person was a paranormal enthusiast, aiming to prove that the urban legend was false.]
[Now, do you understand why there are so many missing people in X City?]
Lu Yan peeled the outer robe from the body and draped it over himself.
The smell of the garment wasn't pleasant, but it could mask his human scent.
In the cramped alley, red paint on the wall displayed a recruitment advertisement.
【Butcher, high-paying profession. Butcher, never unemployed.】
【——Are you still suffering from your aimless life?】
【——Are you still troubled by not finding suitable meat pigs?】
【Good Taste Butcher, now hiring butchers, a well-known conscientious processing factory in the industry. Free meals and accommodation, only need to work 80 hours a week!】
【Join us now! Interview address: 17 Sheep Road】
[For this encounter with the Harbinger, the slaughterhouse has recruited many new butchers, commonly known as cannon fodder. Today happens to be their first day on the job.]
"How did this place come to be?" Lu Yan couldn't help but ask.
[This is the inner world formed by the city lord's talent 4.]
[Talent 4 world controls space. It's much more than just dividing the outer world into regions. The inner world is the true terror of this talent. All the buildings are just like reality, but they exist in a spatial interlayer and can only be entered with special means.]
[The entire X City is the inner world of the slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, the city lord is too inactive. With his pollution value, he has only created one inner world so far, which he sold to Lu Zhi.]
[Twenty-seven years ago, Lu Zhi, under the advice of the Prophet, found the city lord. They signed a long-term contract, with Lu Zhi providing food to the city lord regularly, and in return, the city lord built an inner world for Lu Zhi.]
[In the inner world, the city lord can establish rules according to certain principles.]
[Today, these rules are: 1. Every night at 12 o'clock, the entrance to the world opens. Within the scope of X City, all Harbingers and randomly selected humans will enter the inner world, until 6 o'clock in the morning.]
[2. In the inner world, ordinary humans have no light. Harbingers emit white light, while butchers emit black or red light. Butchers can sense the position of Harbingers.]
[3. Butchers can see the appearance of Harbingers, but Harbingers cannot see the appearance of butchers, only a standard humanoid silhouette, like the black shadow in the anime "Death School." This setting is mainly to prevent Harbingers from judging the strength of pollutants based on appearance. It forces them to give their all and stay vigilant every time... after all, even pollutants are clear to them, Harbingers are a luxury commodity, aren't they?]
[All the above rules come into effect from November 11th. So now, your tea is only you in the inner world.]
[Do you like this birthday gift?]
Lu Yan raised an eyebrow: "Only me?"
[Yes, you have a butcher's permit. So you can enter the inner world at 12 o'clock. Lu Zhi is summoning you to the slaughterhouse center for a short meeting. Of course, you don't have to listen either. Thanks to the recent expansion of the slaughterhouse, even if you smell strange, there won't be any suspicion of pollutants.]
[But, darling. When you turn around later, I hope you won't be frightened.]
In front of Lu Yan was a dead end. On the wall in front of him, the red moonlight cast a elongated shadow, with horns, looking quite robust.
It held a huge axe in its hand.
Lu Yan turned his head, and the entrance to the alley was blocked by a sturdy goat.
It had muscular limbs, glistening as if coated with oil, a goat's head on a human body, blood dripping from the large axe in its hand, with a slippery intestine wrapped around its arm.
The goat sniffed and sneezed: "Meh, are you the new butcher?"
Lu Yan whispered, "Yes."
He was seriously considering the possibility of killing this goat. The hand behind him, with slightly protruding bones, had grown a fourth phalanx.
"Meh," the goat butcher said, "Why are you standing here in a daze? The meat pigs inside have been slaughtered for several days and aren't fresh anymore. If you can't find them, you can eat the ones I just killed. I like eating pig intestines, and the meat went to waste."
Lu Yan replied, "I just ate half a fish tonight, quite full."
The goat said, "You do smell like fish, from the sea? No wonder you like fish. Oh, by the way, Boss Lu is having a meeting today, don't be late, she doesn't like tardy employees."
Lu Yan hesitated for a moment, "I'm new here, couldn't find the way."
The goat butcher laughed heartily, "Then follow me."
This goat in front of him had a pollution value of only 4000. Killing it would be easy.
But Lu Yan was worried that killing it would alert others.
Moreover, he was quite curious about the difference between the meeting of pollutants and the meeting of Harbingers.
So, Lu Yan nodded slightly, "Thank you."
The goat butcher was two meters three tall, while Lu Yan was 181, making him look especially slim behind the goat butcher.
The two of them arrived at the conference center.
The conference center of the slaughterhouse happened to be the same place where Lu Yan had held meetings during the day. Even the decorations and furnishings were exactly the same.
However, the meeting room was much dirtier than during the day.
The table was covered in greasy grime. Strange slogans were still written on the walls.
【Brave butchers, not afraid of hard work.】
【Good Taste Butcher, only produces high-quality meat pigs!】
The number of butchers in the entire slaughterhouse was more than Lu Yan imagined.
The hall, which could accommodate 500 people, was filled with pollutants. Although some of the larger ones needed 2 to 3 seats, the total number was still astonishing.
Not all pollutants were large in size. To Lu Yan's right, there was a cute little rabbit holding scissors with the appearance of a carrot. Its eyes were shining red.
[C-class pollutant, Toy Rabbit. It only reached kindergarten, and when it went to the playground with its mother, it was caught by a B-class pollutant Teddy Bear and sewn into a rabbit doll.]
[In a performance, Toy Rabbit couldn't help but sneak out. It wanted to find its mother but was deceived by a passing butcher to the slaughterhouse. Because child labor is cheap.]
[You've seen its mother, the liaison officer of Yanbei.]
Because Lu Zhi hadn't arrived yet, the hall was very noisy.
Lu Yan listened carefully for a moment, mostly complaints about the recent rise in meat prices and reduced wages. Customers ordering on delivery platforms had more and more requirements, and suitable meat pigs couldn't be found.
Only the little rabbit, because of its young age, couldn't join the conversation, only holding the carrot and repeatedly saying, "Mom, mom. Savings, fare, find mom. Mom... fare... mom."
The goat butcher said, "You new employees have it good. Just arrived and you're already attending a team-building activity organized by Boss Lu. The meeting should start at half past twelve and she should be here soon."
Lu Yan inquired in his mind, "These pollutants aren't perfect evolved beings, but they all seem to have intelligence?"
[Lu Zhi can restore partial consciousness to pollutants through soul contracts. These butchers are basically humans, but their way of thinking has been permanently altered.]
[For example, meat pigs, in their eyes, are real meat pigs, even though they still retain some memories of their human lives.]
As they spoke, the lights in the hall suddenly went out, leaving only a cluster of stage lights shining in the center of the meeting hall.
The system whispered, "[She's here. Lu Zhi remembers what you look like, so don't let her see you, be careful.]"
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