14 The Man-Eating Hot Pot Restaurant (Part 3)
◎So this is what it means to foresee danger?◎
The man's appearance was a bit abrupt, and Zhu Ning didn't have time to dodge. The two were too close to each other, and Zhu Ning could even see the pores on his pig nose.
Last time it was a fishman, this time it's... a pigman? The owner of the hot pot restaurant is a pig-headed butcher?
Zhu Ning's helmet automatically notified: [It has been confirmed that cleaner Zhu Ning has entered the contaminated area. The pollution level is roughly estimated to be Class C. Please choose whether to report to the cleaning center's technical department.]
[Currently, the highest pollution concentration has reached 99%, and the contaminated area is 5,000 cubic meters in size, with living pollutants inside.]
[The contaminated area is growing and the pollution concentration is constantly changing. Please pay attention to safety when cleaning up.]
Zhu Ning discovered that this new helmet was different from the one he had used before. It was smarter and could automatically detect and report data internally, eliminating the need to measure pollution concentration himself.
Compared to last time, when he was a complete novice, Zhu Ning was now able to understand the data. The contaminated area, the size of two swimming pools, was even larger than the sewers he'd seen before. This was quite unusual. Sewers were extensive, but how big could the interior of a hot pot restaurant be?
The pollution concentration is 99%, but based on Zhu Ning's previous experience, once entering the polluted area, the pollution concentration will rise rapidly as outsiders continue to interact with pollutants.
As for the pollution area rating, if Zhu Ning did not report it to the technical support department, the helmet would not be accurately calculated, and a rough estimate would be C level, which should be more dangerous than last time.
It appeared again, black lines drawn out of the air, as if some black particles were floating in the air.
Zhu Ning saw this thing on the last train of Line 1 last time. It was invisible and intangible, and more like a background board of the polluted area.
Zhu Ning looked back and found that the stairs he had come down were gone. Behind him was pitch black, and something was wriggling in the darkness. There was no way back.
The contaminated area expanded, Zhu Ning was trapped again, and had lost contact with the outside world.
Pig-headed man: "What's the matter?"
He had a low voice and his pronunciation was very strange, as if it didn't come from his throat.
Zhu Ning said calmly, "I'm here to apply."
She had taken classes on witchers. Pollutants would retain their behavior before being polluted. For example, the murloc would continue to look for the last bus after becoming a pollutant.
The easiest way to enter a polluted area legally is not to force your way in, but to wait for the pollutants to "invite" you.
The job recruitment notice posted on the rolling door provided Zhu Ning with a perfect reason for the invitation.
"Applying for a job?" The pig-headed man looked at her.
Zhu Ning has figured out some rules. To do normal things in an abnormal place, Zhu Ning is doing normal things.
Zhu Ning: "Yes, applying for the cashier position."
Zhu Ning's application for the position of store manager might be blocked, but her bachelor's degree in mechanics is more than enough for her to be a cashier.
The pig-headed man fell silent. He stood there for three full minutes like a stuck robot.
He didn't say a word or even blink for three minutes. Zhu Ning guessed that he didn't want outsiders to enter the hot pot restaurant, but he couldn't find a reason.
Three minutes later, the pig-headed man gave in and said, "Come in."
Sure enough, Zhu Ning summed up a law of pollutants: as long as you conform to the other party's logic, he cannot refuse you.
With a click—
The rolling shutter door fell behind Zhu Ning, and this time he was really trapped.
Each polluted area is different, but they all share some common underlying logic. If ordinary people enter a polluted area, the pollutants inside will find ways to pollute you.
If Zhu Ning wasn't wearing work clothes, the problem would be simple. As long as a contaminated spore landed on her body, she would be assimilated.
So the behavior logic of pollutants is predictable: they will either try every possible means to take off your body and break down your defenses, or they will mentally pollute you, gradually making you brain dead.
Zhu Ning stepped into the hot pot restaurant, and the interior of the restaurant was very strange.
Firstly, as a hotpot restaurant, it is very quiet and no one talks.
There are a total of twenty-eight tables in the lobby, all of which are already full. The red oil hot pot in the center of each table is still boiling, and the guests are eating with smiles on their faces.
Their eating styles were bizarre, with some people even dipping their arms into the red oil hot pot without noticing. The food on their tables was far from delicious; the meat was rotten and maggots were crawling around in their stomachs.
A customer in front of Zhu Ning put the tripe into the hot pot as if he didn't see anything. He even followed the traditional way of boiling the tripe and didn't even boil it for a second longer before stuffing the rotten tripe into his mouth.
Then he smiled happily.
There were also people whose meat on their tables Zhu Ning couldn't even identify. It was a pitch-black, rotten mass, and he couldn't tell what it was. Visually it must have been disgusting, but if he closed his eyes, it smelled surprisingly delicious.
These dishes all exuded a strange aroma, more fragrant than any hot pot Zhu Ning had ever eaten. It even made those watching curious, wondering if it was really delicious.
She also wants to try it. It should be okay to try it, right?
Zhu Ning was suddenly startled. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the hot pot and even wanted to reach out to pick up the chopsticks to taste the food.
Mental pollution, normal people doing abnormal things is equal to mental pollution.
The more everyday things are, the more we let down our guard. If someone kills someone here, you will only be scared because the brain recognizes that killing is a terrifying thing.
But eating hot pot and catching the last bus are daily trivialities that seem very harmless and can make people relax their vigilance.
It's okay to try it? If you think like that, you'll be easily contaminated.
The system in Zhu Ning's mind didn't prompt her that her mental state had dropped, but even so, she was affected. It was hard to imagine what would happen if Li Nianchuan was here.
"Boss," Zhu Ning asked, "where do I go to work?"
Pig-headed man: "I'm not the boss, I'm the acting store manager Yang Tao."
Not the boss? That's right, the boss must be sick.
Yang Tao: "Come with me."
Zhu Ning followed Yang Tao to the cashier counter. He pointed at the cashier counter and said, "You will work here."
Zhu Ning asked, "Starting now? No orientation?"
Yang Tao glared at Zhu Ning and asked, "You don't know how to use a cash register?"
It seems like Zhu Ning wrote on his resume that he was proficient in a certain skill, but after joining the company, he was caught and shamelessly said, "Yes."
Yang Tao: "Work."
Sure enough, after working in a dream-like cleaning center, I felt very uncomfortable being exploited again. I didn’t sign a contract, wasn’t familiar with the procedures, and started working directly within five minutes of entering the door.
After Yang Tao finished speaking, he went into the kitchen, from which came the sound of chopping meat.
There were not many employees in the hotpot restaurant, and the acting manager had to take on several duties. Zhu Ning could tell from the sound of chopping meat that they were chopping large pieces of meat. She didn't want to go to the kitchen to see what kind of meat Yang Tao was chopping.
Zhu Ning was silent for a minute in front of the cash register. She swept garbage during the day and worked as a cashier in a cannibalistic hot pot restaurant at night.
Fortunately, the cash register was smart and not difficult to open. It opened after trying two buttons. After it opened, Zhu Ning paused and wanted to put it back.
The inner compartments of the cash register drawer are filled with fingers of varying sizes.
The fingers were carefully classified according to size and thickness. Some of them still had rings on them, and the broken surfaces were still bleeding. Some fingers were even twitching slightly.
Is this the currency of this hot pot restaurant? It is indeed a man-eating hot pot restaurant, and its reputation is well-deserved.
This is also a kind of mental pollution. If you look at fingers for a long time, those fingers will wriggle wildly in the drawer as if they have life, which is used to make people lose their mental value.
Zhu Ning stuffed the cashier drawer back into the room. He felt that this hot pot restaurant was more upscale than the sewer, and the scene was more complicated. No wonder it was a C-level mission.
The latest pollution data is displayed inside the helmet: [Pollution concentration 108%]
The cashier position is actually useless because these diners don’t seem to need to pay for their meals. They just sit in their seats and eat as much as they can.
Zhu Ning observed for a while and found something was wrong. The diners were not happy. They just kept smiling, which did not mean they were happy.
They ate too much, eating meat without stopping and without talking, and their stomachs became more and more swollen, as if they were pregnant.
Puff——
Zhu Ning heard a slight sound. One of the diners' stomachs burst open, and the meat in his stomach flowed out all over his body. Even so, the diner was still eating with a smile on his face. It seemed as if they were trapped here by something.
Zhu Ning frowned. It was not the diners who were eating the hot pot, but the hot pot that was eating the diners.
After the diner's stomach split open, a mass of broken and rotten meat flowed out. They were not dead things, but were actually moving slowly, eating the diner's internal organs and skin bit by bit.
The diners stared blankly, willing to be eaten by the rotten meat, without any reaction.
It's a bit disgusting, the disgust caused by the visual impact. This is no longer a question of pollution or not, it's purely disgusting.
It had to be said that it was quite effective. She heard her system prompt: [Spirit value decreased by 1%]
He had to get out early. If there were no survivors inside, Zhu Ning could simply blow up the hot pot restaurant to complete the task, but there were survivors inside, so Zhu Ning could only use the old method - looking for the source of pollution.
According to the description of the duck owner of the Honorable Queen Shop, the source of pollution may be the owner, but how can she contact the owner?
Zhu Ning decided to go to the kitchen to ask Yang Tao. She couldn't really stay and work at the cash register, as the hot pot restaurant wouldn't pay her.
Zhu Ning left his post without permission and went into the kitchen. It was very dark back there, so Zhu Ning's helmet automatically turned on the night vision function. Because he had been running a hot pot restaurant all year round, the whole kitchen was filled with the smell of oil.
The floor was covered in old grease and was very slippery when people walked on it. The walls were black and yellow from the oil, and if you touched them with two fingers you could pick off a sticky mass.
The structure behind the hot pot restaurant is very complicated, with a very long corridor and a total of eight rooms on both sides. At the end of the corridor there is a staircase leading to the basement.
To Zhu Ning's left should be the food preparation room, from which the sound of chopping meat could be heard, and to his right was the freezer, used to store some meat.
Zhu Ning had no idea what was going on in the other rooms. Just as he was about to explore, a hand suddenly stretched out from the darkness and grabbed his wrist accurately.
Zhu Ning's hair suddenly stood on end, and he instinctively reached for his gun.
Don't fire your gun lightly; disturbing the source of the pollution could lead to it hiding deeper. But the hand that touched me was very cold, and there seemed to be oil in the palm.
Zhu Ning caught a glimpse of a cold light from the corner of his eye. It was an axe.
Someone was standing quietly between her and her behind a curtain, holding an axe, and his other hand had already grabbed Zhu Ning's wrist.
"What are you doing?" It was Yang Tao.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath and did normal things. He should do normal things and not make a fuss. Zhu Ning continued to brainwash himself.
Her danger perception was not triggered, proving that it was not dangerous at the moment.
"I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help."
This excuse was perfect. There was only one waiter in the store, and Yang Tao in the kitchen was chopping meat alone. It seemed normal for her to offer to help.
Sure enough, Yang Tao loosened his hand. He was silent for a moment, then turned and left. Zhu Ning didn't rush into the kitchen, fearing that seeing something disgusting would affect her performance.
There was a rustling sound in the kitchen, and after a while, Yang Tao came out. He handed Zhu Ning a black garbage bag and said, "Go take out the trash."
Taking out the trash is Zhu Ning’s old job.
Zhu Ning took the garbage bag and felt something was moving inside it as soon as he touched it.
Flutter flutter——
The meat inside was twitching slightly, rubbing against the plastic bag and making a slight noise.
"What is this?" Zhu Ning maintained his action and did not throw the thing away on the spot.
Yang Tao: "It's rotten meat. It can't be eaten."
"The trash can is at the back door, go out from here." Yang Tao pointed to a door to Zhu Ning.
That was the third door on the left. It turned out that this door was not a room, but the road leading to the back door. Now three of the eight rooms had been figured out.
Zhu Ning was holding a garbage bag, his face expressionless as if he had been killing fish for ten years.
She followed the instructions, pushed open the third door, walked through a three-meter-long corridor, and successfully arrived at the back door.
Because the entire hot pot restaurant was half-embedded in the underground structure, even if she walked out of the hot pot restaurant, she would not reach the real ground. She felt like she was in a deep pit.
There was a trash can at the back door, and they even sorted the garbage. Zhu Ning wanted to see what kind of meat was in the garbage bag, but her mind told her not to do it, as it would kill her.
She threw the entire black garbage bag into the meat recycling bin. The moment she closed the bin, Zhu Ning heard a short scream, and then the bin returned to silence.
What is this? Is the trash can alive? Is this a form of feeding?
Zhu Ning stared at the dark trash can, still trying to figure out what secrets were hidden in it.
Suddenly, she heard a slight thud and got goose bumps on her arms. The black trash can reflected a sudden cold light. Someone was standing behind her, holding an axe high in the air and standing close to her.
When did it come? Why so quietly?
She suddenly remembered what was said in the Demon Hunter course: pollutants occupy the main territory in the polluted area, the pig-headed man is the host, and Zhu Ning is the guest.
It's too late to escape.
At that moment, Zhu Ning saw blood spurting out. The axe struck her neck accurately, severing half of her neck with one blow. Zhu Ning's eyes widened, and her body fell forward uncontrollably.
The black trash can began to shake violently, and something was climbing out.
Zhu Ning was just about to stand up and fight back when the lid of the black trash can opened and a large number of tentacles crawled out from it. The tentacles wrapped around Zhu Ning's body and dragged him into the abyss as if they were eating.
Boom——
There was another slight sound, and she didn't understand what was happening to her for a moment before she heard the system prompt in her mind: [Primary talent Danger Prediction triggered, 30-second advance warning has been sent, please pay attention to safety.]
When she came to her senses again, the pig-headed man reflected in the trash can had not yet raised his axe.
So what had she just seen? A preview of her own death? So this was actually premonition, a way of foreseeing how she'd be killed in 30 seconds?
A fancy death notice.
Zhu Ning didn't even have time to marvel at this talent. Before the pig-headed man could raise his axe, he shot him in the head.
Damn, I hate people who attack me by surprise.
The author has something to say:
Pollution Area Classification Table
E-level pollution area: less than 60%
Class D pollution area: 60%-90%
Class C pollution area: 90%-130%
Class B pollution area: 130%-180%
Class A pollution area: 180%-230%
S-level contaminated area: 230%-300%
S+ pollution area: more than 300%
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-08-01 14:39:17 and 2022-08-04 17:20:38~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine: 1 tick in the alley;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 1 bottle of Jin Yan Shen Xing;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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