Chapter 33: Weekend

Su Xing opened his eyes, but did not immediately flip over to stand up. Instead, he silently observed his surroundings, listening for sounds and sensing the situation.

During his first two "Weekends," he had been killed for suddenly sitting up. Death here arrived without warning; any sudden movement could invite demise.

Peeking secretly as he lay there, he saw only darkness. It took a long while before he could make out some details.

This appeared to be a factory, a workshop, or something similar.

Seeing this, Su Xing felt a slight sense of relief.

In his first "Weekend," he had descended directly into a graveyard, with a gargantuan, exaggerated full moon hanging in the sky, and corpses and ghosts filling the air. He had been extremely lucky to die twice before being reborn inside an empty coffin, where he waited until the "Weekend" ended to survive.

His second "Weekend" had brought him to a "small" town.

The reason he marked this town with special symbols was that it was not small at all. In fact, it was unimaginably vast.

Su Xing had been practicing the Tiger Demon Art at the time, and though he had only touched the edge of External Jin, his physical strength and mobility already surpassed that of an ordinary person. He had climbed a tall building to look out, and everywhere he saw was an endless, dense expanse of buildings and alleyways...

It was a "living" town that constantly proliferated and shifted—a massive labyrinth. Moreover, even the buildings themselves were labyrinths if they were large enough.

Once Su Xing confirmed the town's nature, he had initially been bold enough to try and leave, but he soon regretted it. As long as he left the town center and entered any alleyway, he would lose his way within ten minutes. He faced endless, shifting mazes, and the deeper he went, the more horrors he encountered.

During that second "Weekend," he had not only died three times, but he had also been corrupted; a third of his body had mutated, and he had lost many of his past memories.

He had survived that second "Weekend" purely by luck, as staying in the town center significantly increased his chances of survival, even if it was still a gamble with his life.

This was his third "Weekend." Since he seemed to be in an enclosed area, he reasoned that by hiding in a corner and remaining perfectly still, he had a high chance of surviving.

Su Xing slowly pushed himself up from the ground, minimizing his movements as much as possible. Only then did he clearly see his surroundings.

This appeared to be a food processing plant. He saw employees working on an assembly line, sorting meat, while in the distance, another line processed meat into cans.

It looked normal enough... if one ignored the other image revealed to his eyes.

The entire factory transformed from orderly and clean into filthy and chaotic. Its appearance shifted entirely; it was no longer a modern assembly line, but something akin to an ancient or rural slaughterhouse—a dilapidated, horror-movie scene.

All the employees had become monsters with the heads of oxen, pigs, sheep, and birds. They were massive, the shortest being over 2.5 meters tall. The "meat" they were sorting clearly displayed human features: hands, feet, and even half-human torsos with heads attached...

But this... was still not the true reality!

Su Xing forcibly suppressed his urge to peer deeper, for behind this horrific image, he could vaguely perceive another, hazy, blurred scene...

Bizarre machines, constructed from wires, metal, chaotic parts, and bits of flesh, were using chainsaws, hammers, and various crude tools to cut apart all manner of life—humans and creatures Su Xing had never seen before. Everything was being sliced, smashed, and decomposed before being tossed into massive, high-tech-looking containers.

Yet!

Even this was not the deepest layer of truth. Su Xing had an intuition that something truly fundamental was hidden behind this blurred image, though he could not see it clearly.

Just then, the Golden Lotus Fragment around Su Xing's neck pulsed slightly. In an instant, every single "employee" turned to look at him.

Had this been before, Su Xing would have prepared to flee. But because of the Golden Lotus Fragment, he suppressed his urge to run or attack, simply standing there as if nothing were amiss.

The core rule of Spiritual Sense: when you perceive "reality" or the grotesque, reality and the grotesque perceive you in return.

His Spiritual Sense now had two data points unlocked: Bizarre Perception at 2.2 and Barrier-Breaking Perception at 1.4. This meant his Bizarre Perception was 64 times that of an ordinary person, and his Barrier-Breaking Perception was 4 times that of an ordinary person—enough to see countless truths invisible to others.

This was not entirely a blessing, for when you see the truth, the truth sees you. In the previous Dream World, he had likely been branded by the Unborn Mother precisely because he "saw" her, triggering her gaze.

Given his level of Spiritual Sense, perhaps if these "employees" looked at him, he would have to face not just the attacks of beast-headed monsters, but the far more terrifying mechanical entities made of wires, parts, and flesh.

However, none of this happened. The employees stared at him for three or four seconds before turning back to their work. Only a medium-sized, chubby employee walked toward Su Xing, saying, "Newbie, get to the slaughter zone. I don't know what they're doing over there, but the output is slowing down. We only have twenty-three hours left before the collector arrives!"

As he spoke, the chubby supervisor pointed the way.

Su Xing walked toward the slaughter zone with his head bowed.

All this tranquility relied entirely on the miraculous effects of the Golden Lotus Fragment. It was a miracle-level ability.

It directly bypassed the core rule of Spiritual Sense, allowing him to perceive the "truth" unilaterally without being perceived in return. This was a divine skill in any situation, turning a double-edged sword into a purely beneficial one.

For instance, Su Xing felt he could bluff his way through this "Weekend." As long as he made no mistakes, he could pretend to be ignorant of the truth.

Based on his past experiences, the environment and living things would become increasingly grotesque and terrifying as time passed, but this would at least buy him more than half the time he needed.

The "Weekend" lasted twenty-four hours!

There were probably twenty-three hours left, meaning the "Weekend" would end when the collector arrived!

Su Xing walked toward the slaughter zone with his head down, trying his best not to look at the "employees" or the meat.

Although the Golden Lotus Fragment was miraculous, it had its limits. It could only shield him from "truths" at the level of Baseline Reality 0.9 and 0.8. Since his Spiritual Sense was extremely strong, he wasn't sure if the fragment could hold up, so he dared not look around or indulge his curiosity.

He walked to the entrance of the slaughter zone with a pace that was normal yet slightly slow. Before he even pushed the door open, a thick scent of blood rushed into his nostrils.

(I'm sorry. I'm just an ordinary person struggling to survive. Perhaps I have a little strength, but compared to these terrifying grotesqueries, I am but an ant. I'm sorry... I'm sorry...)

Su Xing took a breath before the slaughter zone door and pushed it open. Inside was another assembly line—a slaughter line.

There were lines for cattle, pigs, and sheep. The outer end connected to the outside of the factory, pushing the livestock in on conveyor belts. There was no intelligent control, no stunning—just "employees" standing by the belts, stabbing, dismembering, and tossing the carcasses onto the belt to be rinsed with water as they were sent out.

In Su Xing's eyes, the cattle were strong or fat humans, the pigs were men, and the sheep were women. They were all numb, doll-like, and naked as they were conveyed in.

He couldn't do anything, so he kept his head down.

Just then, a tall, sturdy man among the "employees" said, "Newbie, go help in the sheep zone."

Su Xing nodded silently and walked to a "sheep" slaughter line. He watched the numb humans pass by, his heart filled with sorrow and fear, and kept his head down, pretending to work.

Suddenly, he noticed some commotion at the end of the conveyor belt. The "employees" ignored it, so he walked over. He saw a girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old with emerald green hair, trying to climb off the belt toward the outside of the factory.

Seeing the girl, Su Xing's heart stirred. He didn't do anything drastic, but leaned his head toward the girl near the belt and whispered, "Dog Egg?"

The girl stiffened, turned around, and slammed her head into Su Xing's, trying to bite him.

This commotion drew the attention of two "employees." Su Xing clutched his forehead and said, "Jiu Jiu? How did you get in here? And why are you like this?"

Su Xing knew who it was.

It was the spiritual bird, Jiu Jiu. He hadn't expected her to follow him in, or to take on a human form...

Jiu Jiu looked at Su Xing with teary eyes, then looked in terror at the approaching "employees." Then, she did something... she stopped struggling and followed the numb humans toward the next stage of the process, as if she didn't know Su Xing at all.

Su Xing shook his head. He walked up to one of the approaching "employees," reached out, and snapped its throat and spine. Before the second one could react, he stepped forward and smiled at it.

"What are you thinking, Dog Egg... no, Jiu Jiu?"

(End of Chapter)