Chapter 605: Butcher House

    Contrary to Noir’s belief, Jin Jiuchi had not gone to bed at all. Instead, he had snuck out of the research facility without anyone noticing!

    Did they seriously expect him to stay put for the whole night when he had not found his Nian’er? Hah, not a chance!

    As for how he managed to do this, everything ought to be contributed to the novice tutorial. It was far more useful than he expected. At first, he had wanted to drag the Divine Oracle along with him because he thought he could make use of the other person’s fortune-telling ability to point out the way for him.

    But alas, according to the tutorial, the chances of him successfully seizing the oracle away was only less than 0.3%. It had even specifically noted that this number could only be possible if a miracle occured— or in other words, he would fail for sure!

    The sea witch was far too precious of an experimental subject, so how could Master Nasser possibly allow him to escape? The moment XXX stepped out of the room he was confined in, perhaps it would trigger the alarms in the entire research facility and all the exits would be locked in an instant.

    To prevent himself being skewered along with the Divine Oracle, Jin Jiuchi had no choice but to abandon this plan.

    Such a pity... he sighed. Without the presence of a useful teammate, Jin Jiuchi could only rely on the grumpy tutorial, who kept inserting a sentence of threat and curse with each question he asked. Luckily it was still reliable. Thanks to its timely assistance, Jin Jiuchi managed to evade the surveillance cameras, snuck into the hangar and hijacked the hover car which was supposed to belong to him aka the Second Young Master.

    That was how Jin Jiuchi found himself in the middle of the bustling city.

    "Wow..." a breath of awe and wonder escaped him.

    Even though he had caught a glimpse of this futuristic city from the introduction video shown by the bus officer, seeing it with his own eyes still managed to blow his mind. Steel skyscrapers pierced the sky akin to the claws of a slumbering titan, while massive holographic advertisements were playing across the streets, casting colorful striking lights over the somber ambience. Even the air smelled of iron and smoke.

    Everywhere he looked was people with mechanically transformed bodies, though their degrees were not as high as himself and Noir.

    Granted, it must have cost a fortune to upgrade one’s body, and not everyone could afford it.

    Jin Jiuchi was dressed only in a casual shirt with his sleeves rolled up, attracting quite a lot of attention to his bionic right arm as he walked down the streets. Those gazes were a mix of reverence, curiosity, fear or even envy— though Jin Jiuchi paid no heed to them all. He looked around and tried to sniff here and there, but the quality of air here was so rotten and turbid that he could not detect his jade doll at all!

    Feeling impatient, he prodded the novice tutorial again, "Hey, why are you going radio silent now? Come on, we only have... less than three hours until you expire! Hurry up and help me find Nian’er! And don’t pretend to be dead. I know you are listening to me right now!"

    Novice tutorial: "..."

    Please let me expire in peace, thank you.

    The novice tutorial was supposed to be a high-tech product of artificial intelligence, a cold and unfeeling machine that existed solely to achieve its purpose that had been programmed into it, but Jin Jiuchi’s behavior so far had been so brazen and preposterous that it was on the verge of developing emotional intelligence just to curse this human out!

    If it had a human form, its face would have become completely distorted at this point with a train of steam blowing out of its ears.

    Alas, as things stood, it could only twist its own string of corrupted data into pretzels and dump it into the nearly overflowing recycle bin just to maintain its calm outward appearance.

    In the next second, two options appeared before Jin Jiuchi—

    [Go to the Auction Hall]

    [Go to the Butcher House]

    [Novice tutorial: select option 1 if you’re looking for a living siren. Select option 2 if you’re in the mood for siren flesh. Either way, you may gain unexpected benefits and find what you’re searching for... or not. Heh.]

    "Can I choose both?" Jin Jiuchi wondered with a dead-serious look. "Nian’er told me that only children have to choose, while adults get to have ’em all."

    Get lost, you ungrateful bastard! If the novice tutorial could gain freedom of speech, it would have roared that out loud. Unfortunately it was but a system—a system who was almost driven to the brink of insanity—so all it could do was stay motionless and enlarge the floating screen right in front of Jin Jiuchi’s face to express its silent refusal.

    Receiving the cue, Jin Jiuchi did not press further and let out an exaggerated sigh instead. "Fineee..." he drawled on his words... then chose option 2 without hesitation.

    Novice tutorial: ...?

    I thought you’re searching for your lover? So why would you go to the Butcher House?? To eat your lover’s flesh???

    Once again, the poor tutorial encountered another error in its nth attempt to analyze the way Jin Jiuchi’s brain worked. It could only stew in its own confusion as it controlled Jin Jiuchi’s body to drive the hover car toward the Butcher House.

    The gleaming city of glass and steel gradually vanished from view, replaced by a quiet neighborhood dominated by old, weather-beaten low rise buildings. If this was the modern world, then this part of the city would be the slums. The road was cracked and littered with holes, which turned into puddles of muddy water caused by the previous day’s rain. People walked quickly with their heads lowered, seemingly in a constant rush to get somewhere, their expressions numb and indifferent.

    Jin Jiuchi disembarked from the hover car and made his way down the desolate street, each step of his boot creating wet squelching sounds.

    "Hmmm..." he took a deep inhale, taking in the distinct scent of earth wherein a subtle decayed odor was concealed, tinged with a nauseating fishy yet sweet smell of blood. Even without the novice tutorial guiding him, he walked toward his destination with firm and determined steps just by relying on his nose.

    Despite its name, the Butcher House did not specifically refer to a certain house, but an entire street instead.

    Once you found the right way, it was like a whole new world was opening right in front of you. A row of stalls were opened on both sides of the street akin to a night food market, where severed siren tails were hung upside down on the wooden rack, still dripping with blood. Further in, one would be able to spot the upper half of dead sirens being displayed on the wall akin to mere decoration, their eyelids hanging down vacantly, exuding a morbid aura of beauty and death. Men, women, young or adults—they were all available as long as there was a demand for it.

    Although it was a proper and legitimate business, the only reason why it was running like a shady, illegal establishment was all because of its bloody and gruesome processing, which had received complaints from many others. Eventually, the business could only operate here.

    "Discounted price for the common siren tail— guaranteed fresh!"

    "Sir, have you tried the flesh of a young siren before? Tender and sweet. One bite and it will melt in your mouth!"

    "I just caught this one early in the morning. She’s still hanging on her last breath! Would you like to taste her freshness firsthand?"

    Jin Jiuchi walked past the butchers trying to promote their goods without batting an eyelid, making the tutorial confused. It did not even wonder anymore whether Jin Jiuchi was scared and disgusted like how other people would usually feel. It simply couldn’t understand what Jin Jiuchi was doing here.

    Was he making a quick stop here to taste the siren flesh and see for himself how delicious it was?

    Just as the tutorial was coming up with one guess after another with its superior computing system, it saw Jin Jiuchi halt on his tracks, his eyes brightening. "Nian’er... I smell Nian’er here!!"

    After that, he dashed forward like an arrow released from its bow, leaving the novice tutorial utterly bamboozled and flabbergasted.

    No way...

    He really found his siren here—on the first try?! Was this the so-called ’luck favors the fool’?!

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    A/N: JJ chose the Butcher House with no reason at all lol simply based on instincts