"Uh..."

The Forest Cat, still with black gauze wrapped around her neck, couldn't help feeling a bit creeped out as she watched Li Ang squatting on the ground, giggling eerily while picking up trash. She asked subconsciously, "Are you..."

Li Ang's expression turned serious. Squatting, he turned his head and said in a deep voice, "I'm cooperating with waste sorting to be a civilized citizen. This is positive social energy!"

The Forest Cat was completely baffled. She thought Li Rising had also been cursed with some kind of mental interference, so she instinctively backed up half a step and clenched her whip tightly.

"Don't be afraid." Li Ang waved his hand, picking up the pile of shriveled lungs and minced polyps. He said indifferently, "Actually, I am an outstanding chef who graduated from 'New Western Cooking School.' I'm well-versed in a life-based skill called 'Cuisine After Death.' I can turn some extraordinary ingredients into meals with special beneficial effects."

"?!"

The Forest Cat was startled. Due to the brutality of the killing game, players specializing in life-based skills were very rare. Even if they did exist, they were top secrets of major organizations. Moreover, culinary skills that could benefit ordinary people using extraordinary ingredients were undoubtedly more precious than specialties like potion-making or metallurgy.

Could he be a logistical staff member from some large organization?

The Forest Cat's thoughts raced. She suddenly realized something and, looking at the two bags of oddly shaped meat with a bizarre expression, said, "...Can this stuff really be turned into dishes?"

"Yeah." Li Ang replied, his expression unchanging, his heartbeat steady. "As long as I activate the Special Effect of 'Cuisine After Death,' even the most disgusting and weird supernatural ingredients can be turned into gleaming dishes that make one's face flush and clothes burst upon eating. Things like raw pig intestines, steamed 'beef delight,' grilled chicken butts. The kids love them after trying."

What kind of kids from what plane would like raw pig intestines or grilled chicken butts?!!

The Forest Cat's expression changed slightly. Suppressing the urge to retort, she barely squeezed out a thin smile and said dryly, "That's really amazing."

Naturally, she wouldn't believe anything like the New West tale. They had barely exchanged a few words, and their relationship hadn't deepened to the point of disclosing one's identity and origins.

Even if he were indeed a logistical staff member protected by a large organization, he would never reveal identity-compromising information such as 'graduated from a certain cooking school' or 'specialist chef.'

"Right." Li Ang, ignoring the Forest Cat's turbulent thoughts, sighed wistfully. "Speaking of which, I really miss New Western Cooking School. That was the youth I lost..."

He looked down at the minced meat sealed in a plastic bag and said with great feeling, "To study cooking, go to New West. That's a great place: eight hundred stainless steel stoves, two hundred masters with strong skills.

"To study cooking, go to New West."

After that, he gave a quick, emphatic thumbs-up. Even through the Super Mighty Blue Cat Mask, the Forest Cat could feel him grinning broadly, his white teeth practically sparkling.

This teammate... seems to be not quite right in the head, the Forest Cat thought quietly, though her face showed nothing.

He took the polyps from my throat... but those polyps were generated by a curse. They'll soon dissolve into a puddle of pus as time goes by, so there's no need to worry about him getting my true information through them.

Li Ang looked at the silent Forest Cat, cleared his throat, and asked, "When you were being controlled just now, did you see or hear any hallucinations?"

"Hallucinations?" The Forest Cat furrowed her brows and said hoarsely, "I did see something..."

Just as the Forest Cat's throat was choked by polyps and her consciousness blurred, she dimly saw a dream-like scene.

Inside a Gypsy-style tent, a stern, elderly noblewoman sat on a chair behind a table. Opposite her sat a middle-aged Gypsy Witch with a silk veil covering her face.

"Mrs. Lesley, your husband's death indeed came from a curse's backlash." The Gypsy Witch's fingers slid over the Demon Tarot Cards. "That thing has resurrected. To be exact, before the Lesley family bought the Williams Mansion, that thing had already come back to life. It killed Williams and your husband too..."

"I know." The elderly noblewoman known as Mrs. Lesley nodded indifferently. "I came to consult you on how to get rid of it."

"That... is difficult to achieve." The Gypsy Witch hesitated, shaking her head. "From the moment you awakened it from the void, it latched onto you. No matter where the Lesley family flees, they can't stop its summons."

Mrs. Lesley was silent for a moment before asking, "Is there a way to delay it?"

"..." The Gypsy Witch pursed her lips tightly, her fingers trembling slightly as she stroked the Tarot Cards, apparently apprehensive about something.

After a while, she seemed to make up her mind and said softly, "Renovate, demolish, and rebuild the Williams Mansion. Construct strange room layouts—the more complex and bizarre, the better. This may confuse its senses and slow its approach."

"I understand." Mrs. Lesley's expression remained as calm as an undisturbed well. She stood up from her chair. As she walked out of the tent, she paused, turned her head, and said, "Thank you. I will leave a room for you in the mansion."

With that, the vision ended. The Forest Cat relayed all the hallucinations to Li Ang, adding, "That Mrs. Lesley looked exactly like the old woman in the oil painting we saw in the living room."

"Oh?" Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "So the builder of the Williams Mansion was killed by that same thing. And the last owners of the mansion must be the Lesley family. They set up the bizarre room structures in the mansion to evade pursuit..."

The Forest Cat quickly realized something and asked, "You knew about the hallucinations too? And the System alert that sounded earlier—was that your doing?"

"Yes. I cleared away the limbs." Li Ang raised his stone arm and said indifferently, "Hmm, it seems the implicit hints for this mission are hidden in all the abnormal organs. Only by encountering the organs can hallucinations be triggered, revealing part of the mansion's history. This information is key to whether we can survive this time."

Saying this, he bent down to pick up the stone arm he had thrown earlier and walked straight out of the room.

The Forest Cat quickly wrapped the Tarot Cards from the divination table and the various masks from the corner of the room in a thick purple cloth and hurriedly followed Li Ang. "Where are we heading now?"

"Of course, to support our other teammates," Li Ang responded without looking back. "If they perish along with the abnormal organs, then we'll never obtain the piece of information that organ represents."