Chapter 13: Pigman

[Mission accepted successfully; please complete it before sunrise. ] It's now 12:06. sunrise would be at 6:02 She had about six hours to get ready. Janet realized that the "grave post" she had visited earlier had disappeared after she had accepted the Mission. She remembered the exact address and the navigation would find the destination. Before she left, Janet was faced with a box of weapons and began to think. Which gun should she carry better, anyway? In the end, Janet chose a shotgun and a submachine gun and brought along two daggers; plus, there was an explosive on her system panel that could blow up a thirty-story building. Compared to the last time she fought a Fishman, she at least had enough firepower this time. She put on her coveralls to avoid parasitizing herself with contaminated spores and finally put on her helmet. I was taking a complete set of cleaning tools with her. Before she left, she glanced in the mirror, which reflected a woman in a "biker suit" carrying a black backpack over a meter long. The black helmet covered her face, the high-tech material reflecting a cold light. Well, that's good. With time running out, Janet couldn't walk to the site, so she needed to choose a mode of transportation. That's when she saw a cool motorcycle set up in front of the black store, and Janet quickly looked at it. The motorcycle had smooth lines and a perfect body, like a low-lying cheetah, and it was too good a match for her. It had Janet's name written all over it. The owner of the motorcycle store was smoking a cigarette in front of the door. She looked Janet up and down as she judged whether Janet could afford it. Janet had money now and was full of energy, "Boss, how much is this bike?" Boss: "Four million EAC." Janet "!" SHIT. Why couldn't she afford a scooter? Janet whispered, "So what if I want to rent the scooter?" The owner flicked his cigarette ash. "I don't rent." Janet whispered, "But...." "Where are you going? I can drop you off." The owner said, "Five thousand EAC at a time." Good, that was a price she could live with. "Shall we go?" The owner stubbed out his cigarette. " Okay." The boss glanced at Janet's address. Janet's guard was up. She had yet to give the boss the address of the hotpot restaurant, but the address of a small store in the neighborhood of the hotpot restaurant. "Are you sure you want to go here?" The boss asked. Janet: "I'm sure." The boss snickered, "You have quite a unique taste." Janet "????" She glanced down at the address of the store she had casually located. It was a slammer strip joint. For a minimum purchase of 8888 EAC, you could have the muscular men inside pole dancing. Janet: "WTF?" I'm glad she wore a helmet on her way out. No one would recognize who she was. The owner dropped Janet off directly in front of the strip joint and then drove off on his motorcycle without asking anything. Janet stood under the pink "Queen of Dignity" sign, looking like a poor little girl her parents had lost. "There was a muscular waiter at the door of the Queen. His eyes lit up when he saw Janet, and he rushed over to her and asked, "Would you like to come in and try it out?" Janet was flustered. She wanted to ask this man where the nearby hot pot restaurant was, but she got really scared when she saw the purple turtleneck tights the muscle man was wearing. Janet had 0 experience in dealing with muscle men. "Thanks, I'm not here to spend money," Janet spoke in a shallow voice. Janet kept reminding herself that she had a task that she still needed to complete. It was now 12:56 PM, and there were only five hours left until the end of the Mission, so it was time to hurry up. Muscle Man: "Oh, that's okay." Muscle Man was a little puzzled to see the backpack Janet was carrying. In her biker outfit and helmet, the woman looked like a murderer. Muscle Man raised an eyebrow and said lightly, "Where are you going? I can show you the way." The roads here were very complicated, and many people got lost. Janet quickly said, "I'm looking for a hot pot restaurant." "A hot pot restaurant?" The muscular man's face changed, "Yummy hot pot?" "What's wrong?" Janet asked. The muscular man frowned, "We're not even close to nobody going there. I heard it's a haunted restaurant. It's been closed for decades, but you can still smell the hot pot whenever you go across that street. It's so weird." Janet frowned. The information she found about the store closed thirty years ago, and it was surprising that it still smelled like hot pot! The muscular man said, "And the smell of meat always appears there. Although I don't know what kind of meat it is, I'm sure it's not beef or lamb." "A lot of people say it's human meat." Human hot pot? Janet asked, "Why did the fondue restaurant close down?" The muscular man said nervously, "I heard that the hot pot restaurant was trendy, but then the owner got sick and needed money urgently, so he closed the hot pot restaurant to focus on his illness." "Sick?" Janet asked, "Do you know what kind of illness the owner had?" Muscle Man: "I don't know. It's quite a shame indeed." Janet pondered for a moment. Something wasn't right. Medical care was very expensive in the wasteland. Why didn't he transfer the store if the owner was sick and wanted money? Janet continued asking, " Is anyone alive inside that hot pot store now?" "How can that be?" The muscular man's voice turned shrill with excitement, "That store has been closed for thirty years. It's impossible that there are still people inside." What he said made sense. But why did the system still tell her to rescue the survivors in the hot pot restaurant? Was this person who had been living in a contaminated area for thirty years still really human? Janet asked the muscular man, "Are they open now?" "When I passed by earlier, I noticed the hotpot store had walls built into it." Janet nodded. "What were you doing there?" The more the muscular man looked at Janet, the more suspicious he felt. Janet: "I don't know." Muscle Man "........." "I won't ask you then. I can tell you where the hot pot restaurant is. At the intersection ahead, you need to turn right, then right, right again, three times, and you'll be there. You can find it by smelling the scent." "I hope to see you again tomorrow." The muscular man said. Janet broke out in a cold sweat. Janet left the Exalted Queen's store and walked towards another street, following the directions. This street was very depressed. Not a single person was there. A prominent warning sign stood on the street: The area ahead is contaminated, so please go around. Janet stepped into the cordon and found the fondue restaurant with no problem. Muscle Man was right. It smelled perfect here. Butter fondue mixed with a meaty aroma—a very strange aroma indeed. Her brain could tell that it was meat, but it couldn't tell what kind of meat it was at all. The hot pot restaurant was under the ground. This should be because the owner was poor and couldn't afford to rent a ground-level store, so he could only choose to go semi-underground. However, the signboard of the hotpot was surprisingly still lit up. The two words Hot Pot were probably flashing all the time because of a short circuit. Next to it was a small line - 24 hours open. Before going in, Janet tried to find a way back for herself. She had to let it be known that she had entered a contaminated area. That way, even if she still needed to complete her Mission, someone from the cleaning center could come and clean it up in time. This would prevent the contaminated spores from escaping and contaminating the entire area. Janet thought about it and found Carter's contact information. The employee bracelet would automatically display the employee's status. Carter's name was followed by a string of small letters - Mental Contamination, Hospitalized. Janet decided to send her condolences to Carter and sent a message, "Are you okay?" Carter's reply was delayed, and Janet thought she might not be able to communicate with anyone while she was being treated in the medical department. After about a minute, Janet received the message, "Master! Woof woof." Janet talked to him stiffly, "Are you still not healthy?" "They took a lot of blood and stuck me with a lot of needles." Carter sent a crying emoji. Carter: "Can I get a present?" Janet "What?" Carter: "I want a pair of wings that are on fire." Janet quickly shut down the comms page. This guy was way out of his league. Janet took a deep breath and chose to send timed messages to Sherry and Lynn, as well as to her coworkers in tech support. The speed of the clock varied within the contaminated area, so if she went into the contaminated area and didn't come out for an hour, she should be considered killed. The help message she set up would automatically be sent to Sherry and Lynn so they would know where she was. Of course, Janet didn't really want that to happen. After setting it up, Janet strolled down the stairs and kept looking around. The stairs were covered in moss and leaves, with some discarded trash. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time from the outside. The store's roller shutter was half down, so she couldn't see what was inside from the outside. There were no stone walls. There were no stone walls, as the muscular man had said. Suddenly, Janet saw a warm red light and smelled something. There seemed to be people in here! Janet had seen fish people before, so this time, she was very calm. This must be a contaminated area. She watched the hunter's course at home today about teaching people how to kill contaminants quickly. Unfortunately, "contaminant hunting" was a massive course, and Janet only took three lessons. There were a lot of notices posted on the roll-up door. Job Announcement—We are looking for a cashier. Food and housing are included. The candidate must have a high school diploma or higher and be under 35 years of age. The salary is 3500 EAC per month. Job Announcement—We are looking for a food preparation clerk, including food and accommodation. Education and age are not limited; relevant work experience is more than five years. The salary is 5000EAC per month. Job Announcement—We are looking for an agency manager. The salary is 10,000 per month, including food and accommodation. The candidate must have a bachelor's degree or above and be below 35. There were ten recruitment posters in total. Next to the recruitment posters was a relief poster. Help Wanted - I have a severe genetic defect and urgently need a C-gene bone marrow match. If there is a successful match, heavy thanks will be given. Then, next to the help poster, a reward poster was created. Reward - Heavy money for eyes, can pay 300,000 EAC. Reward: For a kidney, eight hundred thousand EAC can be paid. Reward - heavy gold for mutant genes, can pay one and a half million EAC. Reward? The more Janet looked at it, the more wrong it seemed. Janet had remedial lessons before she left; just one contaminated spore escaping could contaminate the entire area, and that's why the cleaner's job was so important. From these bounties and posters, she deduced that there were clues that a mutant had once died here. Janet was still thinking when she suddenly heard a rattling sound. The roll-up door was suddenly pulled up from the inside, and a man appeared. He was dressed in a butcher's suit, wearing a black leather apron, and holding a large knife in his left hand. And he was holding a pig's head above his neck.