Chapter 43: Chang Street Slaughterhouse
Inside the slaughterhouse, the bloody smell mixed with the stench of animals and perhaps the rotten smell of animal corpses blended together, forming an indescribably foul smell.
For an ordinary person, just staying here and breathing would be a form of torment, and for those with weaker tolerance, vomiting wouldn’t be impossible.
But Lu Jinzhao, who had experienced two platforms, was already able to adapt to the various smells that occasionally appeared inside the platform.
The smell of rotting corpses and the smell of blood no longer had a strong impact on her.
She and Wei Ling simply walked around this fairly spacious slaughterhouse without going deep into the building, just getting a general sense of the terrain first.
The main building of this slaughterhouse was a two-story building, and the slaughter workroom was probably inside it. Surrounding the main building were places for raising various animals, including cattle sheds, pig pens, sheep pens, and so on.
Many complex smells came from these places.
Getting closer, they could occasionally hear some noises. Looking in from outside through the windows, they could see that there were clearly living animals inside, but for some reason, these animals were unusually quiet, causing them to mistakenly think there were no living creatures inside when they first entered.
“But having animals makes it easier.”
After all, the hygiene of this slaughterhouse looked really too poor. Where there are living creatures, there are probably rats.
After walking a full circle and confirming the distribution of various buildings inside the slaughterhouse, the most important remaining task was to catch a rat first.
The slaughterhouse also had a place for storing meat, but the rotten smell there was the strongest. Wei Ling planned to check the situation inside there first.
“But is the rat the butcher mentioned really just a rat?” Wei Ling was clearly a bit worried.
“Probably.” Lu Jinzhao said.
Because the waiting information clearly stated [Deliver the correct animal], and the butcher’s requirement today was “rat.” The waiting information would absolutely not be wrong or fake, so the rat they caught would definitely meet the butcher’s requirements.
However, what Lu Jinzhao was worried about was another issue.
The two headed to the storage room. This storage room wasn’t large; probably the slaughterhouse’s meat was all freshly killed and shipped out the same day, and in small quantities, possibly just supplying the nearby town.
The storage room’s freezing system had stopped working for some reason, and the already cut meat had long rotted. The stench hadn’t even entered the room yet, but it already stung their eyes.
As soon as the storage room door opened, a chaotic buzzing swirled as a large number of flies flew toward the two of them. Even Lu Jinzhao, who had prepared herself mentally, couldn’t help but close her eyes briefly.
“Fuck.” Wei Ling couldn’t help but curse, but she quickly shut her mouth in the next instant.
This smell, plus the large number of mosquitoes and flies, made her regret not bringing a mask before entering the platform.
But once the buzzing of the flies passed, the two heard a bit of another sound.
“Huh?” Doubt appeared on Wei Ling’s face.
“Is this sound rats squeaking?”
Lu Jinzhao wasn’t very sure either; she hadn’t seen many rats and only vaguely felt that it did sound like it.
“Let’s go take a look.”
The two endured the discomfort and walked toward the inside of the storage room.
No one knew what had happened in this storage room. Large amounts of rotten meat were piled together, and the blood water from the thawed frozen meat had condensed into a black gel-like substance covering the ground. Every step produced a sticky sound underfoot.
The two followed the sound to one side of the storage room and found several rat traps below the vent, with two rats caught on them!
“What is this? A freebie?” Wei Ling looked at the two struggling rats, somewhat puzzled.
Lu Jinzhao couldn’t help but frown, sensing something was wrong.
Not with the current situation, but these rats had come too easily, as if it were a giveaway question.
But did platform missions really have giveaway questions?
“Let’s take the rats out first.”
“Okay.” Wei Ling nodded and took out a pair of gloves from her backpack. Although she hadn’t prepared bags, she almost always brought gloves because of an experience where she had to dig something out from inside an extremely disgusting corpse.
Catching just two rats now couldn’t make Wei Ling panic anymore.
Still, they had to be careful; getting bitten by these rats that ate rotten meat—who knew how much life-buying money it would take to cure it.
“Let’s go, out first.” This ghost place always felt a bit ominous.
The two walked out of the foul-smelling storage room and discovered that several people were already standing outside.
They were probably people who had entered and heard the noises from Lu Jinzhao and Wei Ling and chose to observe first.
Now seeing the two come out with rats, these people looked at each other, and one stepped forward to ask: “How did you catch the rats?”
Wei Ling rolled her eyes inwardly, thinking the other wanted a free ride, but she didn’t speak rashly and waited for Lu Jinzhao to answer.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t hesitate and directly answered: “There are rats inside, and rat traps.”
“Thanks.” That person thanked her and then led his group into the storage room.
Seeing them go in, Wei Ling then approached Lu Jinzhao and asked: “Why did you tell them?”
Lu Jinzhao replied to her: “Consider it a small experiment.”
As she spoke, she looked seriously at Wei Ling: “Later, when delivering the rats to the butcher, I need you to go in first—ideally as the first one among everyone. Can you do it?”
This wasn’t a simple request; it could even be called very dangerous.
Wei Ling didn’t agree immediately. She hesitated, looked into Lu Jinzhao’s eyes, and the choices of agreeing or refusing were almost fifty-fifty in her mind. After struggling for a bit, she chose to ask directly: “Might I die?”
Lu Jinzhao didn’t lie to her and only said: “Ninety percent chance you won’t.”
If everything was as she envisioned, Lu Jinzhao was actually certain Wei Ling wouldn’t die from this rat delivery.
But just in case, nothing was absolute. If this instance was as weird as the previous two, she didn’t dare say it was certain.
Therefore, Lu Jinzhao left a ten percent fault tolerance.
“Ninety percent… that’s enough.” Wei Ling pondered for a moment and made her decision.
“Okay, I’ll try.”
If worst came to worst, she still had a supernatural item to save her life.
It couldn’t be that unlucky, with the ghosts inside the platform twice in a row being the type her supernatural item couldn’t affect, right?
Although going in first was very dangerous, going in first could also get more information.
She just didn’t know why Lu Jinzhao wanted her to go in first instead of everyone going together.
Obviously, everyone going together to deliver the rats was the safest choice.
“So when should I go?” she asked.
“Wait a bit first, until more people have caught rats.” Lu Jinzhao answered her.
She was certain that there wouldn’t be few passengers choosing to catch a rat first. When at least most people had caught rats, it would be time for Wei Ling to act.
