Chapter 16: The Man-Eating Hot Pot Restaurant (Part 5)

Chapter 16: The Man-Eating Hot Pot Restaurant (Part 5)

Defective?

When Zhu Ning heard these three words, she paused. The hot pot restaurant owner was a defective, just like her. So he wasn't sick; it was simply his time to naturally deteriorate.

Zhu Ning had later researched some information about defectives. In this world, everyone undergoes a comprehensive genetic screening at birth, which detects any genetic defects.

The downside of advanced technology is that it can predict your future with great accuracy. Genetic diseases can be diagnosed immediately after birth, and even the approximate lifespan can be determined.

Artificial humans, mechanical beings, and clones are all human creations, and their defective products resemble manufacturing errors on an assembly line. As long as they are mass-produced, there will always be some that are substandard.

Defectives can improve through gene serums, but the effects vary from person to person and cannot guarantee normalcy. Besides, gene serums were not fully developed thirty years ago.

"I don't know how much I can remember. Since I came in here, my memory has become chaotic," a man's voice came from the recording.

"Little Hui told me to record my memories while I'm still lucid. She's been writing a diary every day, but since I live with Yang Tao, I can't write, so I record them and leave them on the toilet seat. If anyone finds this, don't bother calling the police; you probably won't make it out either."

Little Hui must be the cashier, and the person recording might be another employee.

Creak—

Zhu Ning pushed open the door, revealing a very messy room. Many white plastic sheets hung from the ceiling to the floor. The wind from opening the door made the plastic sheets rustle.

Click, Zhu Ning closed the door behind her.

This room was large, with shelves lining both walls. The white plastic sheets obstructed Zhu Ning's view, and moving through them caused a rustling sound, constantly revealing one's position.

Holding her gun cautiously, Zhu Ning moved forward while listening to the recording.

"We usually report to the manager and have never seen what the boss looks like. That day, Yang Tao asked me to help carry a giant therapy pod into the basement, and that's when I saw the boss. He was already paralyzed and couldn't stand up."

"At the time, I felt sorry for such a young boss being a defective. Yang Tao told me to keep it a secret, saying it would give competitors leverage. I knew the business was doing well and making many people envious, so I never said anything; it didn't concern me anyway."

Zhu Ning pulled aside a piece of plastic sheeting, and under its reflection, shadows seemed to be darting around the room.

"But one day, I was resting alone in the staff dormitory, half asleep, when I saw a figure standing over me."

"I woke up startled. It was the boss, staring down at me from the foot of my bed. His gaze... it was as if he was looking at a piece of meat."

"When I called out to him, he didn't respond and slowly walked away. I stared at him for a long time before realizing he was paralyzed. Why could he stand? Later, I found out he was conducting some kind of experiment."

Crunch—

Zhu Ning's boots crushed something. It was a glass bottle. She picked up the discarded medicine bottle, which bore the name "Yongsheng Pharmaceutical."

There were more than just this bottle of medicine in the room; it seemed to be a drug storage area.

Swish—

Zhu Ning carefully lifted the plastic sheeting, revealing rows of medicines on the shelves—injectables, glass bottles of serums, and even a set of surgical knives.

A pink card was attached nearby, with a smiling face drawn on it: "Welcome to Yongsheng Pharmaceutical's Free Experimental Program."

The man's voice mixed with static continued from the earpiece: "Things started getting weird. The meat in the kitchen became stranger, the hot pot restaurant became more fragrant, and my mental state deteriorated. My memory became chaotic until one day—"

His voice paused, filled with sobs, "Little Hui disappeared."

"I suggested going to look for Little Hui, but Yang Tao didn't care. He immediately posted a new job ad, hiring new staff—not just cashiers but also many chefs and servers. But this place doesn't need so many employees."

"They were like... reserves. I had a feeling that if I died, someone else would take my place."

Bang—

Zhu Ning turned around, bumping into something.

In the darkness, a three-meter-tall object stood inside the room, part of it touching her back. Layers of plastic sheets covered the massive thing, making it seem like a monster looming over her.

Zhu Ning's hair stood on end. She spun around, instinctively wanting to shoot. But her rational mind took over, pointing the gun at the creature, her finger on the trigger.

The monster looked down at her, casting a dark shadow on the ceiling, as if the entire room belonged to it.

Don't act rashly in the contaminated zone.

"I wanted to call the police and quit, but I always felt everyone was watching me—Yang Tao, the other staff, even the customers. They were always paying attention to me. If I moved, they would kill me. I couldn't even sleep peacefully."

"The boss's health improved, and he seemed perfectly fine, but the healthier he got, the more scared I became. I felt he wasn't human anymore. Today, he said he was closing the shop to focus on treatment and offered us a share of the closing costs."

"I hesitated when I heard about the money, thinking maybe I should take the money and then leave."

"Later, the shop closed, but guests still came late at night. The manager told us to serve them well; they were our VIPs."

His voice grew lower and shakier, "The guests started acting strange. One day, I saw a guest dip his finger into the hot pot, burning it entirely, but he kept laughing."

"I began to wonder what the guests were eating. Was I an accomplice? Did I... kill them?"

"Am I a murderer?"

"Wang Ming!" someone called out in the recording, "Where are you hiding? Yang Tao is looking for you."

Then came the sound of the man's panicked breathing, and the recording abruptly ended.

Ding—

System notification: "Mental Value Decreased by 5"

The recording was a form of contamination. After listening to it, her mental state became unstable. The contamination level of the recording was much higher than that of a diary. An ordinary person listening here might suffer brain death. She snapped off the recording and deleted the entire folder.

So the employee who recorded this was named Wang Ming, and he seemed to have encountered the same problem as Little Hui.

Zhu Ning had been facing off against the giant monster for a while now, but it hadn't moved. She had been affected by mental contamination, and her preconceived notions made her doubt that what she was seeing was actually a monster.

Being covered in plastic, one could easily scare oneself. The greatest fear of humans is the unknown, and imagined fears can kill you.

She gritted her teeth and decisively pulled off the last piece of plastic, revealing what lay behind.

Sure enough, it wasn't a monster but a... large incubation chamber?

The three-meter-tall incubation chamber was entirely transparent and shaped like a test tube. The clear glass had been violently shattered, and whatever was inside was gone. What had been in here? Where was it now?

Wang Ming's recording was two minutes long.

Zhu Ning already had a rough idea based on the cashier's diary. The owner of Hao Zaikui Hotpot Restaurant was a defective product. He had participated in Yongsheng Pharmaceutical's free experimental project, but it was clear that the experiment had failed.

Zhu Ning guessed he might have turned into a contaminant, and employees Little Hui and Wang Ming were both affected by varying degrees of mental contamination.

As for the pig-headed man Yang Tao, he might have initially followed orders for money, but later his state seemed more like being parasitized by contaminated spores.

However, this theory wasn't entirely accurate because Little Hui and Wang Ming were both mentally contaminated, making their statements unreliable. Moreover, many things remained unexplained, such as why so many employees were hired and the subsequent bounty.

The bounty on hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and mutated genes—was it for experiments?

The internal bell of the hotpot restaurant continued to ring, having persisted for at least six minutes. The contamination level was rising, and Zhu Ning needed to act quickly.

If the system said there was a survivor here, this unfortunate survivor might be close to brain death.

Zhu Ning carefully examined the incubation chamber, confirming that whatever was inside had left.

Behind the incubation chamber was a light source, casting its shadow onto the ceiling, creating the illusion of a monster.

This thing was meant to deceive people; it was nothing like the rotten flesh fingers or tentacles in the trash bin Zhu Ning had seen before. It was more like a child's plaything.

The light source came from a palm-sized hole drilled behind the incubation chamber, allowing someone to see into the basement.

Who did this?

Through the hole, Zhu Ning could glimpse the basement, which emitted a warm orange-yellow glow. She squinted to adjust to the light.

The pig-headed man and other employees were gathered in the basement, kneeling in a hierarchical order.

The pig-headed man knelt at the front, the waiters behind him, and the customers, who should have been treated as gods, knelt at the back. They were orderly, resembling a... WiFi symbol.

At the smallest point of the WiFi symbol was a hospital bed.

Lying on the bed was something Zhu Ning couldn't even name. A mass of human-shaped rotting flesh lay on the bed, its body constantly writhing, with each piece seemingly still growing.

The rotting flesh slowly overflowed from the bed, and at this rate, it might fill the entire hotpot restaurant.

If she hadn't guessed wrong, lying on the bed was the owner. The pig-headed man led the employees in kneeling before him, reciting prayers as if to a god.

While showing respect by kneeling, the pig-headed man took out a knife.

What was he doing? Was there an internal conflict?

With a slicing sound, the pig-headed man's knife cut a piece of flesh from the person on the bed, and the flesh continued to writhe after being severed.

The employees behind held a black plastic bag respectfully, catching each piece. Every time a piece was cut, the employees and customers would smile contentedly.

Zhu Ning: "..."

So that's where the strange meat came from. Was this boss too great? Had he single-handedly sustained a popular hotpot restaurant?

Having learned enough, she needed to leave the contaminated area quickly. Just as Zhu Ning was about to stand up, she heard a familiar clicking sound.

Someone had cocked a gun, and a barrel emerged from the darkness, pressing against the back of her head.

Indeed, there was another person in this room.