Thriller Paradise

Soon, Oink came out of the kitchen with two piping hot bowls of meat soup. He walked all the way to the table where Feng Bujue and Passing Rain were seated and placed the bowls on the table. He opened his mouth to say, "Of these two bowls, one is human meat soup and the other pork soup."

His eyes lingered on the two's faces for a while. "Pick one each, the person that selects the pork soup will leave this place alive, while the other… will enter the freezer and become the ingredient for my next soup."

Oink's mountain-like body cast a shadow by blocking the light that came from the kitchen. In the dim environment, the layer of oil on the surface of the soups practically glistened. That, combined with the aroma, made them as alluring as they could be.

"Another warning, do not leave a drop of the soup behind, and do not vomit any out, or both of you will enter the freezer together," Oink added.

There were no visible ingredients in the bowls before them; Oink made sure to only scoop out the soup. Despite the layer of oil, the soups themselves looked clear. In any case, visual-wise, they were identical.

They would not make the distinction smell-wise either. Both pots of soup were seasoned with the same spices and garnishing. The smell of meat was covered up by the headiness of the red wine and spices. The human sense of smell was not the best in the world, and naturally, it would be preposterous to assume that Feng Bujue or Passing Rain would be able to tell the difference from smell alone.

Therefore, there was only one method left… which was to taste them.

Even though Thriller Paradise had an unnecessarily authentic replication of disgusting sensations with it came to things like blood, internal organs, and sewer sludge, as long as the players were able to overcome the 'psychological pressure', everything was edible. One could even chew on glass or nails, but it might cause effects like the draining of Life Points, bleeding, diseased, and so on.

After about ten seconds of internal struggle, Feng Bujue seemed to come to a decision. He picked up the bowl that was before him and tossed it down his throat, ignoring the fact that it might scald his throat. He finished it in less than ten seconds. Passing Rain looked at him and thought to herself, Well, it looks like the choice has been made for me. I can only choose the remaining bowl now. Well, at worst, it'll be a quick death.

However, after Feng Bujue finished his bowl, without saying a word, he leaned over to grab the other bowl and guzzled it out without stopping, finishing it similarly in under ten seconds.

Passing Rain was stumped for several seconds before the truth dawned on her. The first bowl that Feng Bujue drank was the pork soup. After finishing it, he knew that the one left on the table was human soup, so to protect her, he grabbed it away from her to finish it. That was exactly Feng Bujue's thoughts, but like always, things were not that simple.

Before the trial started, his thought was indeed, No matter what, I can't let a woman eat human meat, right?

Therefore, he had to move faster and more importantly drink faster. If he chose the human soup, then he would willingly accept death. If he chose the pork soup, he would grab the other bowl to finish it as well. That was the plan…

But once he got it into action, things changed.

The first bowl of soup, honestly, did not taste bad. Even in such a scary environment, for a brief moment, Feng Bujue felt satisfied from being given good food. Therefore, he confirmed that it was not made from human meat because if it was, his problem was not just a mere loss of fear; he probably had a latent hobby similar to that of Hannibal Lecter. However, when he tasted the second bowl, Feng Bujue was confused. Both bowls tasted practically the same.

He pushed that concern out of his mind and finished the bowl. When he was done, the question in his mind only grew. Which bowl was made from human meat?

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Oink looked at Feng Bujue and said darkly, "So, you want to protect your teammate? What do you think is stopping me from serving another two bowls?"

Hearing that, Feng Bujue slammed the table, and he bounced up. He used a very haughty gaze to glare at Oink, and the words that he could not say were, "F*ck you! What do you think is stopping me from murdering you‽"

Oink was unfazed. He turned calmly around to walk back into the kitchen. As he moved, he said, "Come with me."

Obviously, this directive was meant for Feng Bujue.

Passing Rain grabbed his arm, looked into Feng Bujue's eyes, and shook her head. She believed that Oink was inviting him because he was going to chop him up to make ingredient for the next pot of soup. However, Feng Bujue merely smiled. He handed the ownership of the lamp on the table back to Passing Rain. Before he left, he wrote down with his finger in her palm, 'Wait for me'.

Then, he signaled for Passing Rain to sit back down to rest. For some reason, she felt comforted by his action, like he had everything under control.

After following Oink into the deepest part of the kitchen, since Passing Rain was not around, Feng Bujue could bypass the ban after he lowered his voice. "Neither of the two bowls was made from human meat, right?"

"Naturally," Oink replied. "But that doesn't mean that I am unable to prepare a meal with human meat. In fact, I asked you in here to look at my storage."

He walked to the freezer, opened the door forty-five degrees, and pulled out a slab of meat from inside that was one meter long. The meat was hanging from an iron hook, and he tossed it onto the table.

If one looked closer, one would realize this was the lower body of a human male.

"The kid inside the well. He was weak and easily-bullied when he was alive, but after his death, he not only killed his nemeses but also went after many local ruffians that had not harmed him," Oink said. "Even after he was injured by the Yin Yang master, it did little to quench his desire for vengeance, so I chopped him in two, to get him to calm down."

Then, Oink dragged out an armless dead body from the large freezer, explaining, "This was a laughable music teacher. He was quite a conceited man and thought that teaching and not performing was a waste of his talent. He dreamed of becoming a composer, but the man simply did not have the talent. One day, he died in the music room when he was composing a piece and turned into a spirit that forced others to listen to his music."

At this point, Feng Bujue knew what was about to come next. "Let me guess… there's also a dead baby inside the freezer?"

"You've killed the child," Oink replied as he took out a female body whose internal cavity was emptied. "This is its mother. Like you suspected, before she committed suicide, she tore open her pregnant stomach out of hatred and resentment."

Then, Oink closed the door and took out a glass jar from the cupboard. The jar was filled with blood, and two human eyeballs were floating inside. "This was once a beautiful girl, especially her eyes; they were exceptionally electrifying. She was vain and knew how to make use of her good looks to get what she wanted. She was in a relationship with several male students at the same time and had each of them purchase expensive presents to win her favor.

"One day, a group of envious female students ganged up on her in the toilet and pressed her head into a filled sink. They just wanted to teach her a lesson, but their behavior was blinded by envy. Sin overwhelmed their brains and bodies. When the girl's blood from her lungs dyed the water in the sink red, only then did they realize the mistake that they had made.

"The resentment around this spirit was very strong, and she killed many people. Even after I gauged out her eyes, it was unable to stop her killing spree. If anything, it only caused her to cultivate the strange habit of collecting people's eyeballs."

"Then, are you related as well to the strange dimension that led from the thirteenth step?" Feng Bujue asked.

Oink turned the question back. "Where do think the souls of the people that were killed by these people went?"

"So, you created that dimension to act as a rubbish can to keep those spirits?" Feng Bujue realized. "But what about the hoard of ghosts that is currently outside?"

"That should be my question to you," Oink said. "Why are the ghosts outside from this school gathered here to pursue the two of you?"

That question made Feng Bujue understand that the ghosts that would chase after them once they broke the rules had nothing to do with the Specters from the seven supernatural phenomena at Ye Jie Elite Academy.

"I have no idea." Feng Bujue brushed off the question and quickly changed the subject. "You're telling me these because you're like the custodian here, right? Then, I must ask, why are you purposely coming up with this whole charade about cooking human meat? What is the meaning of the last line of the song?"

"Naturally, I'm here to help you," Oink said. "Or more precisely, to help those who have the courage to drink the soup."

Feng Bujue heard that, and something occurred to him. He opened the menu and cursed internally. He had done the wrong thing out of kindness. It turned out the two bowls of soup were able to recover one's Life Points. Currently, his Life Points were full. Even though he had no idea how many Life Points one bowl of soup would recover, it had definitely been wasted on him.

Thinking about it, he realized that this quest was quite interesting. It was not only challenging the player's courage. On top of that, it was to see who would drink first and what would happen after finishing the bowl of soup.

If only one player triggered this quest, then it was a simple test of courage, but if two players triggered this quest, then many variables would be introduced. If both were harboring the intention to harm the other, neither would be willing to drink first, afraid that they might pick the so-called human soup. At the same time, they hoped that the unlucky fate would befall the other player.

"With regards to the last line," Oink said, "you'll understand once you return to the school entrance."

"Is that so?" Feng Bujue said contemplatively. He understood that Oink was already giving him the location to trigger the last line. Feng Bujue cautiously asked, "Can you please give me another bowl of soup?"

"You want to take one to your teammate?" Oink replied. "Sure."

After two seconds of silence, he added, "But this third bowl will not be complementary. What do you plan to use to exchange it for?"

His eyes suddenly turned dark. "An arm? A pair of eyes?"

Feng Bujue felt the atmosphere turn. This heaven's butcher was chaotic neutral; no one knew whether he was really an ally or an enemy. When he heard the request of an arm or a pair of eyes, Feng Bujue instinctively reached into his backpack to retrieve the kitchen knife to arm. He was going to use Below-the-belt Shin Kick to save himself.

"A kitchen knife, is it?" Oink grabbed the weapon. He was so fast that Feng Bujue could not even react. "Not bad."

He weighed it in his palm for a while, tried to wave it around, and used the corner of his eyes to look at Feng Bujue. "Go get your soup."