In front of him stood a row of rusted lockers inside the sealed small room. In the center of the room sat an iron table stained with blood.
The first thing Yu Jing did upon entering was to calm his nerves and carefully observe the layout of the room, waiting for the broadcast to deliver the relevant test instructions. But as time passed, no notification or announcement came through.
"No reminders or warnings about the test? It seems that as long as I can eliminate the so-called 'dangerous object' within the four-hour limit, I'm free to use any means necessary. There's still plenty of time. First, I need to confirm exactly what this 'dangerous object' in the test area looks like."
Listening to the distant, agonizing cries of pigs, Yu Jing felt a chill run down his spine.
"The door…"
Yu Jing approached the small door in the room and turned the handle. To his surprise, it was not locked and could be pushed open easily. Yet, seeing the bloodstains on the floor—marks that looked like something had been dragged—he chose not to step through right away.
"This small room has no windows, so there's no way to see what's outside. Going out blindly would be too dangerous. There's a vent opening on the ceiling—maybe I can find a way to enter the ventilation duct?"
Yu Jing walked over to the row of three lockers lined up against the wall. He opened them one by one, searching for anything useful. Inside were twisted wires, bloodstained newspapers, and tattered clothes.
Fortunately, among the bloodied clothing that looked like an electrician's uniform, he found a screwdriver—just what he needed to unscrew the vent cover on the ceiling. The height of the iron table was also just right for him to reach the vent.
Click!
With a soft creak, Yu Jing quietly removed the vent's iron grate and hid it inside one of the lockers.
Grasping the edges of the vent, Yu Jing attempted to pull himself up, but his weak body couldn't even manage a single pull-up.
"Looks like the Advanced Potential Institute really has turned my body into useless junk. I have to move this iron table… but if anyone comes in, they'll know I'm here immediately."
Reluctantly, Yu Jing pushed the iron table aside and replaced it with one of the tall, unstable iron lockers.
Climbing onto the locker via the table's surface, the whole thing wobbled because of its damaged condition. As Yu Jing grabbed the vent's edge, the locker suddenly tilted and began to fall.
"Shit!"
Without hesitation, Yu Jing quickly crawled into the dark ventilation duct ahead.
Bang!
After crawling just two meters, a loud crash echoed behind him—like disturbing a hornet's nest. If the so-called 'dangerous object' has any sense of hearing, it would surely come into this small room soon. Judging from the layout, it would be easy to deduce that Yu Jing is crawling through the vent.
"I really need to improve my physical fitness! This is going to be a big problem."
Yu Jing forced himself forward through the ducts. At every junction, he chose a path at random without analysis—these ducts shouldn't have dead ends, and the end must lead to another room.
Suddenly, as Yu Jing passed beneath a vent, a huge black shadow flickered across.
Seeing the shadow leave the vent's visible range, Yu Jing gasped, inhaling a sharp whiff of intense, pungent blood odor drifting from below.
"What the hell is that? Is it human?"
For some unknown reason, the shadow's passage caused a cold sweat to pour down Yu Jing's back, and his blood-stained axe hand trembled uncontrollably.
"That thing's heading toward the room I entered earlier."
Without realizing it, Yu Jing had already passed three junctions and arrived at a dead end. At the bottom was a vent exit.
No matter where it led, as long as he could land safely, Yu Jing had to leave here. If he had to turn back, he might run into the dangerous object chasing him. In such a narrow ventilation shaft, encountering it meant no chance of passing the test.
But as Yu Jing reached the end, he immediately caught a foul stench.
"What is that smell?"
Yu Jing covered his nose and mouth, looking down below. What came into view was a white pig's carcass lying on its side atop an iron table. The pig's abdomen had been slit open with a sharp blade—from its chin down to between its legs.
Recalling the pig's agonized screams that had echoed from a distance when he first entered this area, Yu Jing concluded they must have come from this very room below. The one slaughtering the pig was most likely the tall black shadow he had glimpsed earlier on the way here.
"Am I just too lucky? Out of three junctions, I ended up choosing the path leading here… The other side should still be checking the room I first entered, maybe even the ventilation ducts. I have to move quickly, get down, and head to a safer area."
With no way to retreat, Yu Jing hurriedly used the screwdriver hanging from his waistband to pry open the vent cover just enough to kick it off with his right foot.
Clang!
The iron panel first fell onto the pig carcass, then hit the floor with a dull noise—not too loud.
The drop was about three meters, so Yu Jing carefully lowered himself down onto the pig's body, his feet creaking under the weight.
Standing inside the room, Yu Jing was shocked by the scene before him—and now understood the source of the overwhelming stench of blood and decay.
In this roughly thirty-square-meter room, dozens of slaughterhouse hooks hung from the ceiling. At least twenty pig carcasses dangled from these hooks.
"But that's not all—these iron hooks are attached to a conveyor system. Once the machine starts, the pig bodies will be sent into the meat grinder. I can't stay here long. I have to get out—fast!"
Yu Jing's eyes swept the room, spotting only a single door leading outside.
At the doorway, he slipped off his shoes and stepped barefoot onto the cold, clean floor beyond, careful not to leave any footprints.
Holding his shoes, Yu Jing gazed down the long corridor. The lights hanging above flickered sporadically, damaged in places. Beneath the dim glow, he noticed several huge, bright red footprints stamped on the floor.
"Footprints this big—does this person wear size fifty shoes? Judging by foot size and height correlation, someone with feet this large would have to be at least two meters three tall. What a concept."
The 'huge footprints,' the 'massive black shadow,' and the 'pig slaughterhouse'—all these clues combined in Yu Jing's mind to form the image of a butcher: a towering figure wielding a cleaver, radiating an aura of bloodlust.