To the Slaughterhouse
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“Just go wherever you want,” Ying Sheng, out of patience, is about to leave already.
Du Yixin can see that the direction leads to the Sleeping Beauty’s attraction, and asks offhandedly, “is it better heading there first?”
“Hah? Does it even matter?”
Right, nevermind.
Then he turns his head and sees the girl and her mother following right behind, and tells them, “we’re headed for the next attraction. Stay safe.”
Li Qiqi nods. She seems really tensed up.
They cross the drawbridge and make their way through the wide avenue of the front yard. The scent of tulips is getting stronger, as there’s practically whole flowerbeds of tulips stretching to the horizon, burying an ancient castle in an entire sea of it.
The castle looks ancient, besieged with ivy and cobwebs. If it could speak, it would certainly have tales to tell.
“The Sleeping Beauty’s castle…” Li Qiqi murmurs.
At the front entrance, they try to push the door in, but fail. It’s locked, and not even several kicks from Ying Sheng is any good.
“In amusement park terms, not open for business right now?” Du Yixin looks up from the entrance, and the top of the spire is so tall it is halfway buried in the fog already. He looks towards Ying Sheng, “want to try blowing it up?”
“I don’t want to waste my rings.”
“What?” Du Yixin is surprised, “weren’t you having a great time blowing us up the last time?”
Ying Sheng rolls his eyes at him.
Since Ying Sheng is unwilling to help, and having no options left, Du Yixin can only conclude that perhaps there is an order to these attractions, and only after finishing the last one will the next one open up. They turn around to go to the Three Little Pigs’ attraction instead.
Soon enough, they seem to cross an invisible boundary and the scenery begins to change with the story it represents. Right in front of them is a large, 5 metre tall statue in the middle of the road, standing proud and tall in a suit with a cigar on one of the hands and an excessively wide face. If not for the very recognisable ears and short snout for a nose, it would certainly pass for some fat middle-aged entrepreneur.
There’s a small plate underneath the stand the statue is on, introducing the person——’Piggy the Youngest.’
Given the story, perhaps Piggy the Eldest and Piggy the Senior have both been eaten by the wolf, so the only surviving member, smart as it was, became a successful entrepreneur, with a statue here.
But, really, both the previous ‘Mermaid’s Cruise,’ and this ‘Pigs’ Entrepreneurship,’ sure are far too grimly realistic to be attractions in a fairy tale-themed amusement park.
No other clues could be found, and they head forth.
Suddenly, Du Yixin stops.
“What’s wrong?” Li Qiqi asks nervously.
“Nothing. There’s just a bit of a smell,” Du Yixin tries to sniff some more but the scent isn’t being picked up again, and says, “it might have been nothing. Let’s go.”
Soon enough, the shape of a building gradually reveals itself to the visitors. The smell is strong enough for all of them to feel it by this point. The mother can’t stand it, and complains, “it seriously stinks!”
“Yeah,” Du Yixin is pinching his nose, muffling his voice in the process, “maybe you could wait a bit further away.”
The mother had wanted to stay by the entrance to the next attraction and be more easily able to ask for help if anything were to happen, but she can’t stand the stink. She agrees.
When suddenly, something is flying this way fast. The mother screams. Ying Sheng catches him with one hand, and it’s… Well, it’s a person alright.
A completely naked person, with unnatural swelling in his waist. He’s leaking from all orifices that could leak, puking up water even as he speaks, “hel-, help…” His cries for help are so quiet they could barely be heard; it seems he is on the brink of death.
Ying Sheng furrows his brows as he throws the person away, who doesn’t even have any strength to resist as he rolls onto the ground.
“Aah, ah…” Li Qiqi seems to panic as she says, “that… person…”
Du Yixin goes to take a look and realise he’s fainted already, saying, “there’s no face. It’s an NPC.”
Though they haven’t entered the attraction yet. Why is there an NPC?
“Oi.”
Du Yixin can hear Ying Sheng calling for him, but before he can raise his head to see, he is grabbed by the collar and choked backwards. Then, Ying Sheng stands before him and stares into the distance, where another thing is coming, and goes to the fainted NPC, picking him up and carrying him on his shoulder.
The form is wearing a hat and a mask, so his face is concealed. The person sure is fat though, and is even walking with wobbly steps. A few seconds later, he seems to finally register there’s people here, and asks, “you’re newcomers?”
“…” No one answers.
“This way,” the person doesn’t seem to mind their silence either, and is walking forward as if guiding them. Ying Sheng is about to follow when Du Yixin stops him.
“Wait, give me some time to reflect first.”
Ying Sheng looks at him with arms crossed.
“We haven’t entered the attraction yet, right? Has the plot started or not?”
“Who cares. Is there even a difference?”
Right, it might be meaningless to Ying Sheng, but Du Yixin at least wants to know what triggered it. He thought it was like the ‘Mermaid’s Cruise’ where it started when the door was opened, but it seems like that rule doesn’t hold?
Could it actually be that it started when they passed by the building’s premises? Like, a statue usually demarcates the entrance to some grounds…
The mother seems to have drawn the same conclusion as she looks like she just ate some faeces.
“Out, I need to get out…” She murmurs as she starts running off in the opposite direction.
Li Qiqi is all pale, and fails to stop her mother, only watching as she runs far away.
Du Yixin thinks that no matter how strong someone is it’ll still probably be tragic to see one’s own mother abandon them like that. He pats her on the shoulder.
Li Qiqi, as if snapped out of a dream, bites her lips and says, “I-, I’m fine. Lets’ go.”
The fat guy leading them has went on long since. Thankfully, there’s only one way forward too. They follow it until they reach the entrance to the building.
They already thought the building’s shape looked odd from afar, and only realise why that is when they are near. This is a gigantic factory, with the iconic jagged saw-like rooftop. It is a solid concrete structure with many chimneys poking out the top too, spewing untold amounts of black smog into the equally dark sky.
Rather than ‘Pigs’ Entrepreneurship,’ this is more like ‘Pigs’ Factory.’
The three of them enter the front door and come across a small waiting area with two doors in front. They’re the changing rooms, one for each gender. There’s a poster on the wall between the two doors.
[Work Guidelines:
1. Workers must change in their appropriate changing room.
2. Workers must only work in proper work attire.
3. Workers must complete at least one item of work before being permitted to leave for the day]
Rather than guidelines, this is more the rules for passing the ‘Pigs’ Factory.’ The last guideline seems to suggest that they must do some work as the factory worker and produce something.
Sounds simple enough, but it’s probably filled with deathtraps like how the ‘Mermaid’s Cruise’ was.
They would have to separate, then. Li Qiqi seems hesitant in front of the female changing room. Though it would probably not be a wise idea to disobey the rules directly.
Du Yixin thinks of something, and asks, “want to come with us instead?”
“Eh? But…”
“The NPCs can’t be trusted fully either. You saw it back in the cruise ship too, right?”
She seems to recall some terrifying image as she nods, the colour draining from her face by the second.
“That said, since we don’t know whether obeying this is correct or not, it’s always risky whether you do come with us or not. What do you want to do?”
The girl has always been meek and the type to go with the flow, never able to decide things for herself. She seems to struggle to come up with an answer, and then, seeing that the scary-looking man has already went inside, and only the sunshine-looking boy is waiting for her, she just blurts out, “uh, you, you can go first! I’m fine!” Then she mutters, “I don’t know… I’ll think a bit more…”
Seeing Ying Sheng leave, Du Yixin also nods and quickly enters.
There’s several rows of lockers in the room. Many of them seem to be stained with dark red… Rust? Or perhaps even blood? It’s hard to tell because of the awful stench. There’s a metal door right on the opposite wall, leading to the work area.
Most of the lockers are locked, and the ones that are open contain the so-called ‘work attire’ inside. Du Yixin takes one out and sees that, rather than a work attire, it’s more like a mascot costume, complete from head to toe.
“It’s a pig…” Du Yixin, with the head in his hand, stares silently at the two big nostrils. He glances over at Ying Sheng, and it seems he’s taken just one look at the costume before deciding he’s having none of it.
Even if he asked, he’d probably say ‘I’d never do anything that might immobilise myself, like putting myself in a dumb, unwieldy costume; anyone who does that deserves to die for their retarded decision-making’ or something.
Well, this is at least not as debilitating as putting on handcuffs, at least.
He then glances at the door; the girl hasn’t followed him, perhaps still coming to a decision, perhaps having decided to obey the rules.
Du Yixin asks Ying Sheng nonchalantly, “you won’t wear this, right?”
“Who in their right mind would wear such an ugly get-up.”
Oh? It’s different from what he expected his answer to be. He’s unexpectedly conscious of appearances, huh.
“It might be risky both wearing it or not, but thankfully there’s two of us, right?”
Ying Sheng raises his brow.
“If it’s better not to wear it, you could rescue me; if it’s better to have worn it, I could run away.”
“Oi, tryin’ to pick a fight?”
Du Yixin says, all innocent-like, “do you think you would ever need my saving you?”
Ying Sheng ‘tch’s, and ignores him.
After Du Yixin is done putting the costume on, they leave the changing room.
The work attire sure is fat and stuffy. It definitely weighs dozens of kilograms. It’s hard to even walk normally in it. The head, too, blocks sight and traps the entire person within.
They come out to a smaller room where the light is so inexplicably bright it’s blinding. There’s a small desk by the wall, next to which stands a gargantuan… pig, in white clothes and pants and with his hands crossed behind him. He looks kind of like the statue outside.
Du Yixin calls out, “… Piggy the Youngest?”
The pig snorts and says angrily, “points off! What’re you thinking calling the boss by his name directly!” Then he glances him over, saying, “you’re the newcomer, right? I’m your supervisor. Just call me ‘Piggy the Supervisor.'”
Before Du Yixin replies, another person, in the pig costume walks out of the other changing room, who gasps seeing the scene in front of her.
The supervisor is scolding again, “the heck were you dawdling for like a pig!”
… Something feels off about that sentence.
Li Qiqi, spooked, quickly apologises.
“And you!” The supervisor isn’t done yet, targeting Du Yixin this time, “why did you bring unprocessed food into the changing room!”
“Food?”
“Tie it up first,” the supervisor throws him some rope, “and take it to the slaughtergrounds. Move! The clock is ticking!’
TL’s notes: Well, yeah, the food is exactly what you’re thinking of, hehe.
Oriental Rabbit 