Paintings of Terror

Chapter 72: At the Mercy of Others

Content warning: heavy description on dismembered human bodies when KX enters the slaughterhouse.

Without wasting any time, the two quickly and quietly climbed along the brick wall towards that side. This took longer than the initial climb upwards and was a test of physical strength. Fortunately, Ke Xun was able to follow closely behind Mu Yiran and successfully climbed out the vent.

Standing on the edge of the vent, they looked out into the distance and were surprised by how good the visibility was despite the waning moon and sparse stars. Unlike the polluted world of human beings, the air here was so transparent that it didn’t seem like a realm of monsters.

Because it was such a clear night, Ke Xun saw a cluster of tall buildings near the horizon. That was the city.

This painting was also different from the previous ones they’d entered, where the edges of the central subject were all low-pixel backgrounds. Whether it was the high plateaus in 【Faith】or the modern cities in【Breaking the Earth】, the peripheral areas of the painting were always blurred and fuzzy.

But here, there seemed to be more of the city visible past the horizon, and there seemed to be more beyond the end of the deep and vast sky.

It was like a real, living world.

“Does this mean that our movement range is very wide, and activities within the scope, even at night, won’t necessarily lead to the ‘night exploration restriction’?” Ke Xun gave the rule of “not being able to move around at night” a name.

Mu Yiran nodded his head a little, but his expression was still heavy.

“What’s wrong?” Ke Xun asked softly.

Mu Yiran’s eyelids fluttered for a bit before he looked at him: “This also means that the range where the signature could appear is much larger. Our search will be that much more difficult.”

Ke Xun also lowered his eyes, then he looked up, the corners of his lips raised in an optimistic arc: “Although the ‘painting’ has always shown malice towards us, you could say that every previous painting has left a small trace for us. When followed, no matter how difficult the search, the signature is always within our reach, and it won’t give us clues that we won’t be able to use, so….”

Mu Yiran had been looking at him intently, and after hearing this, an almost indiscernible smile passed across his face before quickly disappearing: “So no matter how vast the world is in the painting, the clues will definitely exist where we can reach.”

“Yes, let’s be optimistic, we can definitely find it. Let’s continue?”

“En.” Mu Yiran retracted his gaze and turned to look around.

The area covered by the farmhouse lawn was large but irregular, bypassing some bushes here and low rocks there, and was further surrounded by tall wooden fences. When viewed from above, it vaguely resembles a large crouching dog. The edge of the fence seemed to stretch to the city in the distance, separated only by a dense thicket of trees.

Nearby, there were several tall buildings on both sides of the farmhouse, and the furnishings inside could be seen through the windows. The two were able to easily identify which one was the manager’s office, and which one had the slaughterhouse and food processing room.

Because it took so long to climb, the two of them didn’t have time to visit these places at night while running back and forth, so they decided to give up and just go around the wall of the farmhouse cubicles and check the corners. Unfortunately, there weren’t any gratifying discoveries.

By the time they returned to their room, the sky was almost bright.

After breakfast, everyone was once again let outside the farmhouse for recess.

For the time being however, there was no chance to act out yesterday’s plan. There were several cows roaming the lawn, moving around a large wooden basin as well as a water hose.

“It’s bathing time!” Several NPCs screamed happily, chasing and playing around the tub.

“……” Ke Xun glanced at Mu Yiran, this kind of situation, suddenly having to take a mandarin duck bath or something…. Emmm….. although there seemed to be a lot of mandarin ducks entering the water at the same time.

Ke Xun had some mixed feelings. The tub had been filled with water, and the giant cows had begun to bend over and toss some people inside. Some people didn’t seem to like taking baths, and after being thrown in, they tried to leave the tub. However, the huge cows couldn’t be tricked, and the humans were thrown back into the basin again and again.

“Moo-moo.” One cow yelled at Mu Yiran and pointed to the tub for him to enter.

Listening to that pronunciation, it seemed he had also been given a nickname called “Mu Mu”.

Ke Xun inexplicably wanted to laugh, but he also didn’t want “Mu Mu” to be thrown around by the giant cow like a pig, so he hurriedly grabbed him and jumped into the basin.

The water splashed and Ke Xun popped his head out from below the surface, shaking his hair like a big gold retriever. He turned his head to look over and was met by a wonderful picture of a “tyrant exiting the water”.

Mu Yiran poked his head out of the water with his face tilted slightly upwards. As a result, his soft hair was drawn behind his head, creating a stylish CEO haircut. The water slipped from his forehead, and some hung onto his eyelashes, shimmering like diamonds, while the rest passed by the straight nose, moving over slightly opened lips, down that slender neck, before landing on a perfectly aligned collarbone.

….It was simply too much to handle.

Even more aggravating was the fact that he still had a cold and handsome face, an aura of both desire and abstinence, simply…. Demonic.

By the time Mu Yiran exited the basin, Ke Xun was still diligently singing the national anthem silently in the water. He suddenly felt a hand that reached out from behind him press against the top of his head, fingers curling up and grabbing his messy dog-like hair.

“Don’t delay business, come out.” President Mu’s low voice flowed near his ears.

Ke Xun obediently came out and saw that Qin Ci, Wei Dong, and the others were all there, cautiously keeping an eye out.

The giant cows seemed to be carrying equipment again, taking out a slender tube and a few strange utensils from the food processing room.

“According to yesterday’s plan,” Mu Yiran said in a quiet voice, “Groups should each slowly approach the room they’re infiltrating, don’t be too obvious. When I lead the giant cow away, you guys take the opportunity to enter. Leave one person to stay outside and watch carefully. Remember, don’t linger too much, quickly go in and out. Safety first.”

The crowd nodded and immediately dispersed.

Ke Xun took Wei Dong in the direction of the slaughterhouse, strolling slowly and getting closer.

Right when they reached the entrance, they heard a sudden scream and through it was Mu Yiran starting to act, but after looking towards the sound, he saw that it was Bi Jing instead.

Bi Jing was held aloft by the giant cow’s hooves, both cheeks were clamped, forcing his mouth to widen before one end of the thin tube was inserted deeply into Bi Jing’s throat.

Ke Xun and Wei Dong were both stunned into silence, before Wei Dong tremblingly said, “This depth…. It must’ve gone directly into the stomach….”

The other end of the tube was connected to a strange machine, into which another giant cow was pouring porridge-like food.

“This is…” Ke Xun frowned tightly, “Force-feeding.”

Wei Dong was frightened.

Bi Jing was truly too thin. His quality was so low that he couldn’t even be used for breeding, so the cows seemed to have decided to fatten him up quickly.

Wei Dong couldn’t bear to look at Bi Jing’s painful struggle between the cow’s hooves, and turned his face away before squatting and retching uncontrollably.

Fortunately the force-feeding process didn’t last long. After Bi Jing’s stomach swelled, he was released. The giant cow picked up the next thin person and inserted a thin tube into his stomach.

Ke Xun didn’t look any further, instead directing his gaze at Mu Yiran in the distance.

Mu Yiran seemed to be saying something to the NPC’s near him. Those people obviously had a high degree of obedience to their leader and quickly divided themselves into two groups. Suddenly, one group started running towards the far edge of the lawn, while the other group started chasing them, creating chaos across the entire field. Mu Yiran took advantage of the distraction and ran to the door of the food processing room where Zhu Haowen entered earlier.

The chaos on the lawn attracted the attention of several cows, and they temporarily let go of the thin people who were still being force-fed to chase the humans running around. The outsiders immediately entered their respective locations, leaving one person outside as a lookout.

Ke Xun was thankful that Wei Dong didn’t follow him inside.

He would never forget the sight in front of him, in this life- no, perhaps even in the next life. The slaughterhouse made him realize what hell on earth really was.

Old and new blood stains remained in different shades across the walls, the floor, the huge tabletop, as well as the gaps between various machines.

If you looked closely, you could still find shreds of meat wrapped around in some places, bone shards embedded in others, as well as nails left behind.

But these were still far less horrifying than the internal organs and intestines sitting in a big bucket in a corner, far less terrifying than the blood-stained human bones on the huge chopping board, and still far less shocking compared to the rows of iron hooks on the wall, where peeled off skin, dismembered limbs and heads, hollowed out abdominal cavities, and other chunks of the human body hung.

Below that, there were huge basins lined up one after another, filled with hearts, livers, intestines, limbs, or piles of human heads. All of the heads had their hair shaved, and some still had their eyes open. Others had their mouths still open, and although some had peaceful expressions, a good portion still seemed to be trapped in eternal agony.

His fellow humans, like raw meat waiting to be processed, were displayed here so neatly, coldly, without any dignity.

Of course.

There was no dignity for those on the lower end of the food chain.

Inside the basin containing human heads, Ke Xun saw Yuan Yuan. On top of him was fresher, forty-year-old women’s head.

It took a long time for the commotion outside to subside, and all the humans were driven back into the farmhouse stalls.

“Nothing found in the administrator’s room.” Qin Ci shook his head.

“There also wasn’t anything in the food processing room.” Mu Yiran didn’t look disappointed.

Everyone looked at Ke Xun.

“Nothing,” Ke Xun said.

Mu Yiran looked at his face for a while.

“Out of all the paintings I’ve entered, this one has had the least amount of clues.” Qin Ci was sullen, “Was the artist of this painting solely focused on having people understand the natural laws of survival?”

“Maybe he’s an extreme vegan,” Zhu Haowen said. “When I traveled abroad, I encountered various vegan demonstrations. Many people held posters depicting animals eating humans in protest.”

“So maybe the signature will be on the vegetables?” Wei Dong said.

“Maybe it’ll be ironically signed on the hatchet.” Qin Ci said.

“Or signed on the cow horns?” Dong Dong said.

“Ke Xun,” Mu Yiran did not participate in the discussion, but walked up to Ke Xun and stared at him with deep eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Ke Xun replied.

Mu Yiran looked at him for almost half a day, when he saw him with his eyelids down and not speaking, he stopped questioning him, turning to look at the crowd before lowering his voice: “In the evening, we will go to the fence. Ke Xun and I speculated that we can leave the area and go outside even at night. We can’t wait to just die, so we should at least try to escape.”

“How do we escape?” Dong Dong and Wei Dong asked in unison.

—

A: I feel a little sick too….

H: Ahh our poor baby :((( he got the short end of the stick there (MYR, quick give him a hug!)