# Chapter 42: Turned into a Pig
"What's the situation now?" Nie Xuan hurried back to the research institute and asked the others for an update.
Although the red-haired person hadn't said a single word after the call connected, it was enough to alert the research institute personnel, who immediately sent people to seal off the building.
"Currently, forty-six people have gone missing. The entire twenty-eighth floor has been wiped out, half the personnel on the twenty-seventh floor have disappeared, and the instance entrance has now closed." Team Leader Wu, the person in charge, explained the situation to him. "The only player of ours who got in was Xiao'er, who was originally on the twenty-eighth floor."
"I remember Sima Xiao'er was supposed to go to Happiness Community today. How did he end up at Golden Light Building?" Nie Xuan said while looking at the files of the missing personnel, but before Team Leader Wu could answer, he looked up. "Were they there to make an arrest?"
Team Leader Wu nodded and pulled up a photo. "We received a report this morning. Zhu Tao, the general manager of Kailun Building Materials Company, reported a cannibalistic evolver. Xiao'er brought twelve people and coordinated with the Criminal Investigation Unit to make the arrest. This is the person they were after."
Nie Xuan stood up the moment he saw the photo. "Xu Huo? He's a player, and someone I've been trying to recruit."
"Of course I know that." Team Leader Wu gestured for him to calm down. "With so many recent disappearance cases and the need to investigate instance entrances, the matter of capturing evolvers never even reached my desk, so I was unaware of it before."
"But this is actually a good thing. Take a look at this."
He handed over a document. "Fresh off the press. Based on clues provided by Xu Huo, Luo City successfully captured the cannibal player Liu Mei. Liu Yuanyuan was a fake name."
Nie Xuan flipped it open and said in surprise, "A B-level evaluation, and they even obtained the instance boss's item?"
"That's not all. According to Liu Mei's confession, Xu Huo was the first to find the stranded player, and he deduced that Hot Spring Villa might have previously been a non-closed instance. This aligns with the documents issued by Jing City." Team Leader Wu said.
"In other words, this game of Dimensional Rifts really did exist long before evolvers appeared." Nie Xuan slowly sat down.
"The Headchopper instance is supporting evidence." Team Leader Wu spoke with a mix of gravity and relief. "So Xu Huo stumbling into the game by accident is an opportunity for both us and the missing persons."
"On the 301st Preliminary Train you were on, only one player survived from the third-class seats, and they're still lying in the ICU. From the first-class seats, including you, two came out. The premium-class seats were completely wiped out. Only the second-class seats had four survivors, and they even saved a third-class player."
"Although Han Ming, Liu Jia, and Wang Xiaohui are all reluctant to talk right now, since you were on that train, it's easy to lock onto Xu Huo. Based on his performance on the Preliminary Train, if conditions allow, he will save people."
Nie Xuan still had his brows tightly furrowed. "What I'm worried about now is that hothead Sima Xiao'er. He got through his Preliminary Train by bribing the chef, has no instance experience, and is young and impulsive. I'm afraid he'll mess things up."
Team Leader Wu patted him on the shoulder. "For now, we can only wait."
---
Before him was complete darkness.
The moment the Special Affairs personnel disappeared, Xu Huo knew he had encountered an instance. The instant he jumped from the window, his vision went dark, and then it felt like he was wrapped in an airtight layer of fur, rolling down a slanted slope.
His nostrils were filled with the stench of animal hide. His arms were stiff, his legs bent backward, his limbs bound and unable to move. His mouth and eyes were also sealed shut. In this lightless state, he tumbled for several minutes before stopping.
After he landed, more than a dozen heavy objects kept crashing down behind him. They were all crowded into a narrow space, struggling and making indistinct whimpering sounds.
Unable to open his eyes or mouth, trapped in such a confined space, Xu Huo ignored the kicking and shoving around him and focused on listening to the sounds nearby.
About fifteen minutes passed before footsteps approached. Then someone opened a door and let out a hoarse laugh. "This batch of goods is pretty fresh. Let me count... forty-six in total."
"Can't use them all in one day. Let's keep them for now."
Then came the sound of dragging. Amidst the rising and falling whimpers, the rhythmic slicing of a knife cutting through leather could be heard—three cuts per set. Each time the sound rang out, one of the crying, angry, or pleading voices became clear, no longer muffled. Instead, it turned into a high-pitched, bright sound, but it was more like the howling of beasts than human voices!
There was one interruption in the middle. The man took away all the ones he had already processed, then came back after a while to continue.
Finally, it was Xu Huo's turn. He was lifted by a hand. *Swish, swish, swish*—three sounds, and his eyes and mouth went cold. He could open his eyes!
What came into view was a tall, muscular, red-nosed foreign man. He held Xu Huo up with one hand, shook him, muttered "mute," and then tossed him aside.
With his legs bound behind him, Xu Huo had no choice but to land on his knees. His line of sight dropped to below the foreign man's waist. He looked up and watched the man grab a fat pig, quickly slash its eyes and mouth, and then the pig could open its eyes and make sounds before being thrown back to the ground.
Only then did Xu Huo see clearly that he was in a warehouse-like place. There was a square pipe opening above where they had come down, and everyone must have fallen through there.
All the people who had fallen were wrapped in a layer of pigskin, penned inside a fence, with their eyes and mouths sealed shut. Only after the red-nosed man cut open their eyes and mouths could they see and make sounds again—but not normal speech. Instead, they howled, like pigs!
Wrapped in a layer of pigskin, had they really turned into pigs?
Xu Huo saw the words "Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Factory" printed on the red-nosed man's blackened apron, and his eyelids twitched:
Not only had they turned into pigs, but they were also about to be slaughtered!
In that moment, the red-nosed man had finished his work and started driving everyone outside.
Xu Huo followed the panicked crowd forward. As soon as they got out, two people tried to flee. But they were all wrapped in the skin, crawling on the ground with the front shorter and the back longer. They couldn't even stand up, so how could they outrun a fully capable man?
"Full of spirit, huh." The red-nosed man laughed heartily, chased after them, and smashed their pig heads with two punches. Before the red-and-white liquid could spill out, he grabbed one in each hand and hung them on hooks.
"Fresh brains. A little extra dish for tonight."
Two people in the group started vomiting. The red-nosed man furrowed his brows. "Don't tell me these are sick pigs. Nobody buys sick pork."
Everyone was startled. Even those who were vomiting instinctively held their breath. Just as they were at a loss, a pig next to Xu Huo collapsed to the ground, moaning pitifully, looking like it was about to die from illness.
Judging by the voice, it was that President Zhu.
Two more followed his example and lay down. The eyes of the others under the pigskin lit up, as if they saw hope:
If no one buys sick pork, could they escape this disaster?
But before they could act on it, the red-nosed man dragged the three out. "I'll slaughter you first today, so you don't die from sickness and become inedible."