In her eyes, there was no trace of reluctance or sorrow, only a profound calm. She held no more hopes for that calamitous past, for what ruined everything for her was the heart of jealousy she now touched.
The pigfolk butcher looked at her, lightly moving his fingers to grasp the heart in his hand. He sniffed it and commented faintly, "Excellent quality."
Bloodsaw also sensed the oppressive aura that had been enveloping the surroundings dissipate slowly. He couldn't help but internally sigh in relief, though his expression remained grave.
"Alice..." Lynne, frowning slightly, gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
Alice shook her head, gazing into the distance, "There's nothing to cling to... She was my mother, but also the source of my hatred. I will no longer harbor any sentiment for her."
Suddenly, from the butcher's hand, a stretched, black, and ethereal human face screamed as it was extracted from the heart. The area resounded with its agonizing wails.
"Alice!! Alice!! My daughter! You can't trade me away! You can't! No!!"
The shrill and sharp voice continuously echoed from the twisted apparition.
Lynne and Alice both turned their heads, watching the scene unfold. But in Alice's eyes, there was no sign of emotional disturbance.
Amid the piercing screams, the face extracted from the heart slowly gathered in the butcher's hand and eventually transformed into a black marble.
He casually held the marble, sniffed it, and then placed it into a pouch on his waistband, the sound of beads clinking against each other ringing out.
Then he looked deeply at Lynne, hoisted his cleaver, and turned to walk into the darkness.
"We will meet again."
Silence fell around them. But before he had taken a few steps, Bloodsaw suddenly extended his hand, saying gravely: "Wait, I have a question for you."
Lynne was surprised. However, the pigfolk butcher didn't stop, continuing forward as if he hadn't heard him.
Bloodsaw quickly stepped forward, asking loudly: "I want to know, were you in Wandering Soul Lane two years ago? Was it you who left my apprentice at the door of my shop?!"
Hum—
Lynne's expression was utterly shaken.
The pigfolk butcher also stopped in his tracks.
A storm of emotions surged inside Lynne as he looked incredulously at his teacher. "Sir, why would you ask that? Wasn't I adopted by you?"
Bloodsaw, his body tense, spoke gravely, "Yes, I did tell you that I found you unconscious outside, but there's something I didn't tell you. You were deliberately placed at the door of my shop. I heard a noise, so I went out to check, and the creature I saw at that time... It was him!"
Hum—
A silence enveloped the surroundings, punctuated only by Lynne's increasingly rapid breathing. He stared at the pigfolk butcher's retreating figure, his eyes darting frantically.
How could this be? Wasn't he simply drawn into this world? Was there more to his story?
In the midst of the silence, the pigfolk butcher, without turning, his blood-stained cleaver in hand, finally spoke.
"Yes."
He gave an affirmative answer.
Lynne felt a chill run down his spine.
"Why did you bring me here?!" Lynne fixed his gaze on him.
The butcher, still not turning back, responded indifferently, "A certain being made a high-risk deal with me, and I agreed."
Lynne shuddered at the revelation. As he was about to ask more, the pigfolk butcher disappeared as if a phantom, leaving no trace as if he had never been there.
Lynne rushed forward, his eyes searching frantically. But even with his specter vision, he couldn't catch any trace of the butcher.
How could this be? A deal? What kind of deal? And with whom? Before falling into this Dark World, he was just an ordinary young man on Earth. What about him could possibly attract such attention?
Lynne's brow furrowed, but the calm he had cultivated over the past two years quickly helped him regain his composure.
Bloodsaw came over, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder, "You don't need to think too much about it. If that creature doesn't speak, it's hard for us to get answers from him. But since he mentioned that we would meet again, perhaps then we can get some more information from him."
Lynne, reassured by his teacher's comforting gaze, nodded, casting a deep look in the direction where the pigfolk butcher had disappeared. Clenching his hand, he turned to Alice.
"Alice, how did you manage to hire that butcher?"
Alice paused, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to remember, then shook her head.
"It's... vague... My thoughts seem to be interfered with. I know of its existence in the castle... but every time I think of the butcher, I naturally avoid delving deeper..."
A hint of confusion appeared in her eyes.
"I did hire him... but I can't recall the details..."
Lynne's gaze grew intense.
The greatest fear often stemmed from the unknown. And if what his teacher said was true, there seemed to be some connection between him and the pigfolk butcher. The butcher's stature clearly surpassed all other beings here.
Rubbing his temples, Lynne decided to set this matter aside for now, as pondering over it wouldn't yield any answers at the moment. He turned to Bloodsaw, asking earnestly, "Sir, could you tell me more about what happened back then when we return?"
Bloodsaw agreed, his eyes showing a hint of pride as he patted Lynne's shoulder.
"We'll talk in detail when we get back. But you did well on this mission, Lynne. I didn't expect not only would you complete it excellently, but also stumble upon some unexpected surprises."
Alice turned her deep gaze towards Bloodsaw, causing him to shiver slightly. He cleared his throat, suggesting, "Well... if there's nothing else, we should head back. This isn't a place to linger, right?"
Lynne nodded, though his thoughts remained heavy.
"Alright."
This was also a good opportunity to take his newly acknowledged little sister out for a bit. Alice reached out and gently held two of Lynne's fingers, following him obediently like a younger sister.
"Alice, would you like to visit where I live first?"
Lynne asked with a smile.
Alice nodded. She didn't refuse but followed Lynne for a while. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she paused, looking back at the direction of the castle.
"Brother Lynne... have you forgotten something...?"
"Have I? What's the matter?"
Alice thought for a moment, then said in a puzzled tone, "Never mind."
The group walked briskly towards Wandering Soul Lane, soon vanishing into the thick, swirling mist.
Unnoticed by anyone, from the direction of the castle high in the sky, there seemed to be an urgent and desperate shout of a creature.
"Big brother! Big brother!!"
Atop the high flagpole, Bayi clung tightly to the pole, crying out with great effort and distress, o(╥﹏╥)o,
"I'm afraid of heights! I have acrophobia!!"
...
Lynne, feeling guilty, brushed off the dust and frost from a frozen Bayi, who was shivering as if turned into a statue.
He coughed and apologized, "Sorry, Bayi, I didn't mean to forget about you. It's just that some important things happened yesterday, and you slipped my mind. Leaving you hanging on that flagpole for so long."
Seeing Bayi's blank expression, Lynne felt awkward (￣w￣;). He had been so preoccupied with the pigfolk butcher's matter that he completely overlooked his fellow villager.
Indeed, it was an unfortunate oversight. However, Lynne tried to lighten the mood, suggesting that it was an experience, a chance to enjoy the scenery, as such great moments in life are rare.
Bayi, still in shock, said, "I... I was... hit by the cold wind... all night..."
He felt utterly exposed. He had been alone, shivering, hanging there like a piece of seaweed, a floating, drifting seaweed!
Bayi lamented, "Brother, do you have any idea what I went through last night?"
Lynne coughed and tried to console him, (￣w￣;), "It's okay, it's okay, just consider it cosplaying as a flag. After all, such opportunities are rare. You should cherish them."
Lynne patted his shoulder reassuringly.
Bayi looked utterly dejected.
Was that even a comforting thing to say?
Then, Lynne's expression turned serious. He sat cross-legged in front of Bayi and signaled him to sit down as well. "Alright, let's stop beating around the bush. Tell me how you fell into this world. I've been thinking about it, and it seems rather strange."
Bayi, despondently rubbing his head, recounted, "Didn't I already tell you? I was going to a bar to meet friends after school, got lost in a small alley following the navigation, and then ended up on that street."
Lynne pondered. He felt there was more to the story than Bayi was letting on. Based on the information he got from his teacher, beings that fall into this world either do so because of immense hatred and resentment after death, triggering some mechanism and getting dragged here, like Alice.
Or they accidentally activate a mechanism that opens a portal to this world and inadvertently fall in. And those who fall here and manage to return are very rare. Most creatures that end up here don't have a beacon to their original world.
Lynne snapped back to the present, his gaze scrutinizing Bayi, making him feel uneasy.
"You often walked through that alley?" Lynne asked Bayi.
Bayi replied with a puzzled look, "No... I just took it as a shortcut because I was in a hurry. I've been down that alley a few times before. There are houses nearby, but somehow, I ended up crossing over..."
"What about your phone?"
Bayi fumbled in his pockets and pulled out his smartphone from the inner pocket of his jacket.
"It's broken."
The screen was shattered like a kaleidoscope, and the power button was completely unresponsive.
Lynne took the phone, examining it inside and out. He decided to try a diagnostic spell on the phone, although he didn't expect to find anything.
But the next moment, a system notification sounded in his ear.
[Ding! You have detected target damage: Hardware fracture]
[Ding! You have detected abnormal curse fluctuation: Blood Pact]
Buzz—
In an instant, Lynne's pupils constricted.
A curse! His phone actually contained a fluctuation of a curse?! What kind of joke was this!
Seeing Lynne's changed expression, Bayi asked in astonishment, "Brother, what's wrong?"
Lynne, with a serious expression, held up the phone, "I found something unclean in your phone. It might be the reason you fell into this world."
Bayi's face turned pale with shock, his heart pounding wildly.
"This... This must be a joke!"
Lynne gravely said, "Further investigation is needed, but since a curse has been detected, you must have come into contact with something unclean before you came here."
Without further ado, Lynne took the phone and Bayi to a room in the basement. The room was filled with various mechanical tools, a workspace used by his teacher for mechanical modifications.
Lynne fiddled with the phone, calmly saying, "Wait outside the door for me. I'll try to fix the damage to this phone. If I can, we might get some answers."
After drinking that soup, he had acquired a piece of knowledge and a curse. He hadn't yet had the chance to study that curse, but the knowledge had been easily absorbed by him.
[Mechanical Modification]
This knowledge gave him the possibility to repair the phone.
...
The sound of intense work echoed from inside the room as time flew by. Bayi paced anxiously outside, only hearing the occasional sound of welding from within.
Finally, the door opened.
Bayi immediately approached Lynne, asking hurriedly, "Brother, how did it go?"
Lynne, with a serious expression, came out, stretching his neck. He calmly said, "I managed to get it running, though I couldn't find a suitable material to replace the screen. It shouldn't affect much. You should try to remember if you did anything unusual before you came here."
Bayi racked his brain.
"Let me think... The night before I entered this place, I skipped a class to buy the latest comic book, then had a bowl of ramen, and at night, I went to a hotel with my girlfriend..."
Lynne interrupted with an exasperated sigh, "Focus on the important details."
Bayi, rubbing his head where a cartoonish bump had appeared, said, "Uh... I took my girlfriend home in the morning, then with some time to spare, I sneaked into an internet cafe..."
At that moment, Bayi suddenly paused, as if he remembered something crucial. He pondered, "Wait a minute... let me think. I remember that after playing games for a while at the cafe, I felt tired, especially since I had used up a lot of energy the night before. So I decided to just browse some web pages before logging off... And then... I remember clicking on a pop-up."
His breathing became rapid, "I remember now!"
Lynne, squinting, asked, "And what did that pop-up say? 'Do you want to truly live?' with options 'yes' or 'no'? Did you choose 'yes'?"
Bayi, looking confused, replied, "Uh... no, nothing like that popped up."
"It was a..." He furrowed his brows in thought. "A somewhat disturbing website."
...
In her eyes, there was no trace of reluctance or sorrow, only a profound calm. She held no more hopes for that calamitous past, for what ruined everything for her was the heart of jealousy she now touched.
The pigfolk butcher looked at her, lightly moving his fingers to grasp the heart in his hand. He sniffed it and commented faintly, "Excellent quality."
Bloodsaw also sensed the oppressive aura that had been enveloping the surroundings dissipate slowly. He couldn't help but internally sigh in relief, though his expression remained grave.
"Alice..." Lynne, frowning slightly, gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
Alice shook her head, gazing into the distance, "There's nothing to cling to... She was my mother, but also the source of my hatred. I will no longer harbor any sentiment for her."
Suddenly, from the butcher's hand, a stretched, black, and ethereal human face screamed as it was extracted from the heart. The area resounded with its agonizing wails.
"Alice!! Alice!! My daughter! You can't trade me away! You can't! No!!"
The shrill and sharp voice continuously echoed from the twisted apparition.
Lynne and Alice both turned their heads, watching the scene unfold. But in Alice's eyes, there was no sign of emotional disturbance.
Amid the piercing screams, the face extracted from the heart slowly gathered in the butcher's hand and eventually transformed into a black marble.
He casually held the marble, sniffed it, and then placed it into a pouch on his waistband, the sound of beads clinking against each other ringing out.
Then he looked deeply at Lynne, hoisted his cleaver, and turned to walk into the darkness.
"We will meet again."
Silence fell around them. But before he had taken a few steps, Bloodsaw suddenly extended his hand, saying gravely: "Wait, I have a question for you."
Lynne was surprised. However, the pigfolk butcher didn't stop, continuing forward as if he hadn't heard him.
Bloodsaw quickly stepped forward, asking loudly: "I want to know, were you in Wandering Soul Lane two years ago? Was it you who left my apprentice at the door of my shop?!"
Hum—
Lynne's expression was utterly shaken.
The pigfolk butcher also stopped in his tracks.
A storm of emotions surged inside Lynne as he looked incredulously at his teacher. "Sir, why would you ask that? Wasn't I adopted by you?"
Bloodsaw, his body tense, spoke gravely, "Yes, I did tell you that I found you unconscious outside, but there's something I didn't tell you. You were deliberately placed at the door of my shop. I heard a noise, so I went out to check, and the creature I saw at that time... It was him!"
Hum—
A silence enveloped the surroundings, punctuated only by Lynne's increasingly rapid breathing. He stared at the pigfolk butcher's retreating figure, his eyes darting frantically.
How could this be? Wasn't he simply drawn into this world? Was there more to his story?
In the midst of the silence, the pigfolk butcher, without turning, his blood-stained cleaver in hand, finally spoke.
"Yes."
He gave an affirmative answer.
Lynne felt a chill run down his spine.
"Why did you bring me here?!" Lynne fixed his gaze on him.
The butcher, still not turning back, responded indifferently, "A certain being made a high-risk deal with me, and I agreed."
Lynne shuddered at the revelation. As he was about to ask more, the pigfolk butcher disappeared as if a phantom, leaving no trace as if he had never been there.
Lynne rushed forward, his eyes searching frantically. But even with his specter vision, he couldn't catch any trace of the butcher.
How could this be? A deal? What kind of deal? And with whom? Before falling into this Dark World, he was just an ordinary young man on Earth. What about him could possibly attract such attention?
Lynne's brow furrowed, but the calm he had cultivated over the past two years quickly helped him regain his composure.
Bloodsaw came over, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder, "You don't need to think too much about it. If that creature doesn't speak, it's hard for us to get answers from him. But since he mentioned that we would meet again, perhaps then we can get some more information from him."
Lynne, reassured by his teacher's comforting gaze, nodded, casting a deep look in the direction where the pigfolk butcher had disappeared. Clenching his hand, he turned to Alice.
"Alice, how did you manage to hire that butcher?"
Alice paused, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to remember, then shook her head.
"It's... vague... My thoughts seem to be interfered with. I know of its existence in the castle... but every time I think of the butcher, I naturally avoid delving deeper..."
A hint of confusion appeared in her eyes.
"I did hire him... but I can't recall the details..."
Lynne's gaze grew intense.
The greatest fear often stemmed from the unknown. And if what his teacher said was true, there seemed to be some connection between him and the pigfolk butcher. The butcher's stature clearly surpassed all other beings here.
Rubbing his temples, Lynne decided to set this matter aside for now, as pondering over it wouldn't yield any answers at the moment. He turned to Bloodsaw, asking earnestly, "Sir, could you tell me more about what happened back then when we return?"
Bloodsaw agreed, his eyes showing a hint of pride as he patted Lynne's shoulder.
"We'll talk in detail when we get back. But you did well on this mission, Lynne. I didn't expect not only would you complete it excellently, but also stumble upon some unexpected surprises."
Alice turned her deep gaze towards Bloodsaw, causing him to shiver slightly. He cleared his throat, suggesting, "Well... if there's nothing else, we should head back. This isn't a place to linger, right?"
Lynne nodded, though his thoughts remained heavy.
"Alright."
This was also a good opportunity to take his newly acknowledged little sister out for a bit. Alice reached out and gently held two of Lynne's fingers, following him obediently like a younger sister.
"Alice, would you like to visit where I live first?"
Lynne asked with a smile.
Alice nodded. She didn't refuse but followed Lynne for a while. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she paused, looking back at the direction of the castle.
"Brother Lynne... have you forgotten something...?"
"Have I? What's the matter?"
Alice thought for a moment, then said in a puzzled tone, "Never mind."
The group walked briskly towards Wandering Soul Lane, soon vanishing into the thick, swirling mist.
Unnoticed by anyone, from the direction of the castle high in the sky, there seemed to be an urgent and desperate shout of a creature.
"Big brother! Big brother!!"
Atop the high flagpole, Bayi clung tightly to the pole, crying out with great effort and distress, o(╥﹏╥)o,
"I'm afraid of heights! I have acrophobia!!"
...
Lynne, feeling guilty, brushed off the dust and frost from a frozen Bayi, who was shivering as if turned into a statue.
He coughed and apologized, "Sorry, Bayi, I didn't mean to forget about you. It's just that some important things happened yesterday, and you slipped my mind. Leaving you hanging on that flagpole for so long."
Seeing Bayi's blank expression, Lynne felt awkward (￣w￣;). He had been so preoccupied with the pigfolk butcher's matter that he completely overlooked his fellow villager.
Indeed, it was an unfortunate oversight. However, Lynne tried to lighten the mood, suggesting that it was an experience, a chance to enjoy the scenery, as such great moments in life are rare.
Bayi, still in shock, said, "I... I was... hit by the cold wind... all night..."
He felt utterly exposed. He had been alone, shivering, hanging there like a piece of seaweed, a floating, drifting seaweed!
Bayi lamented, "Brother, do you have any idea what I went through last night?"
Lynne coughed and tried to console him, (￣w￣;), "It's okay, it's okay, just consider it cosplaying as a flag. After all, such opportunities are rare. You should cherish them."
Lynne patted his shoulder reassuringly.
Bayi looked utterly dejected.
Was that even a comforting thing to say?
Then, Lynne's expression turned serious. He sat cross-legged in front of Bayi and signaled him to sit down as well. "Alright, let's stop beating around the bush. Tell me how you fell into this world. I've been thinking about it, and it seems rather strange."
Bayi, despondently rubbing his head, recounted, "Didn't I already tell you? I was going to a bar to meet friends after school, got lost in a small alley following the navigation, and then ended up on that street."
Lynne pondered. He felt there was more to the story than Bayi was letting on. Based on the information he got from his teacher, beings that fall into this world either do so because of immense hatred and resentment after death, triggering some mechanism and getting dragged here, like Alice.
Or they accidentally activate a mechanism that opens a portal to this world and inadvertently fall in. And those who fall here and manage to return are very rare. Most creatures that end up here don't have a beacon to their original world.
Lynne snapped back to the present, his gaze scrutinizing Bayi, making him feel uneasy.
"You often walked through that alley?" Lynne asked Bayi.
Bayi replied with a puzzled look, "No... I just took it as a shortcut because I was in a hurry. I've been down that alley a few times before. There are houses nearby, but somehow, I ended up crossing over..."
"What about your phone?"
Bayi fumbled in his pockets and pulled out his smartphone from the inner pocket of his jacket.
"It's broken."
The screen was shattered like a kaleidoscope, and the power button was completely unresponsive.
Lynne took the phone, examining it inside and out. He decided to try a diagnostic spell on the phone, although he didn't expect to find anything.
But the next moment, a system notification sounded in his ear.
[Ding! You have detected target damage: Hardware fracture]
[Ding! You have detected abnormal curse fluctuation: Blood Pact]
Buzz—
In an instant, Lynne's pupils constricted.
A curse! His phone actually contained a fluctuation of a curse?! What kind of joke was this!
Seeing Lynne's changed expression, Bayi asked in astonishment, "Brother, what's wrong?"
Lynne, with a serious expression, held up the phone, "I found something unclean in your phone. It might be the reason you fell into this world."
Bayi's face turned pale with shock, his heart pounding wildly.
"This... This must be a joke!"
Lynne gravely said, "Further investigation is needed, but since a curse has been detected, you must have come into contact with something unclean before you came here."
Without further ado, Lynne took the phone and Bayi to a room in the basement. The room was filled with various mechanical tools, a workspace used by his teacher for mechanical modifications.
Lynne fiddled with the phone, calmly saying, "Wait outside the door for me. I'll try to fix the damage to this phone. If I can, we might get some answers."
After drinking that soup, he had acquired a piece of knowledge and a curse. He hadn't yet had the chance to study that curse, but the knowledge had been easily absorbed by him.
[Mechanical Modification]
This knowledge gave him the possibility to repair the phone.
...
The sound of intense work echoed from inside the room as time flew by. Bayi paced anxiously outside, only hearing the occasional sound of welding from within.
Finally, the door opened.
Bayi immediately approached Lynne, asking hurriedly, "Brother, how did it go?"
Lynne, with a serious expression, came out, stretching his neck. He calmly said, "I managed to get it running, though I couldn't find a suitable material to replace the screen. It shouldn't affect much. You should try to remember if you did anything unusual before you came here."
Bayi racked his brain.
"Let me think... The night before I entered this place, I skipped a class to buy the latest comic book, then had a bowl of ramen, and at night, I went to a hotel with my girlfriend..."
Lynne interrupted with an exasperated sigh, "Focus on the important details."
Bayi, rubbing his head where a cartoonish bump had appeared, said, "Uh... I took my girlfriend home in the morning, then with some time to spare, I sneaked into an internet cafe..."
At that moment, Bayi suddenly paused, as if he remembered something crucial. He pondered, "Wait a minute... let me think. I remember that after playing games for a while at the cafe, I felt tired, especially since I had used up a lot of energy the night before. So I decided to just browse some web pages before logging off... And then... I remember clicking on a pop-up."
His breathing became rapid, "I remember now!"
Lynne, squinting, asked, "And what did that pop-up say? 'Do you want to truly live?' with options 'yes' or 'no'? Did you choose 'yes'?"
Bayi, looking confused, replied, "Uh... no, nothing like that popped up."
"It was a..." He furrowed his brows in thought. "A somewhat disturbing website."
...
