Just now, the moment his gaze fixed on Jiu Shu’s face, the frantic shrill whistling of the blood and flesh in his ears and those malicious voices urging him to kill and taste blood instantly disappeared.
Even his spirit on the verge of collapse was slowly recovering, and the ever-distorting world in front of him gradually stabilized.
In the face of such an unexpected situation, Lu Yuan seemed to be somewhat at a loss for words.
His brain was blank, he could only stand in the room, wrapped in bandages that hid his expressions.
His black eyes stared straight at Jiu Shu, as if there was something about Jiu Shu that was particularly attractive to him, making him unable to move his eyes at all.
In the field of vision that Jiu Shu couldn’t see, besides the scarlet flesh and blood, there seemed to be a pair of soft white long ears gently fluttering.
“……”
“I called you over because I found that your salary has been owed for two months.”
Looking at the target of discipline in the office who didn’t say a word and just stared blankly at himself, Jiu Shu didn’t mind.
He calmly picked up the envelope that was placed in his hand, inside was a thick turn of coins.
The he handed them over to Lu Yuan.
“……”
There was sticky flesh wriggling and licking on the slender fingers holding the envelope, and the crimson blood oozing from the flesh slid down the snow-white wrist with blue blood vessels.
Lu Yuan’s exposed eyes paused for a moment, it took a moment before he returned to his senses and silently took the envelope.
It was true that he hadn’t received a paycheck in months.
The former manager had stopped his paycheck as a matter of course, thinking that he could live and eat in the slaughterhouse.
Just because he was a big eater.
However, the thickness of the envelope wasn’t quite right.
Holding the envelope, he slightly raised his eyes, revealing his dark pupils and looked right into the eyes of the young boss that had a smile on his face.
Reflecting an amber like luster in the sunlight, it was out of place with the viscous flesh and blood entwined around him.
After a moment of hesitation, Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze in a somewhat flustered manner.
“The extra portion is a bonus.”
The young boss said, still with a smile on his face.
The politeness and gentleness was the right amount of distance between the boss and the staff.
It was also the first time in the past few years that Lu Yuan received a kind smile that didn’t imply any malice or mockery.
“I hope you continue to work hard!”
A look of appreciation appeared in the young boss’s eyes.
Obviously satisfied with Lu Yuan’s hard work and endurance.
And looking forward to him continuing to work hard and create more labor value for him.
He didn’t have the arrogant airs of a big shot like the other workers said.
Lu Yuan looked at the young boss with snow-white skin, and the beautiful smile on his face was reflected in the pupils under the bandage. For some reason, he was stunned for a long time.
It wasn’t until the young boss’s face showed embarrassment that he finally realized his outburst.
He was stunned, it seemed that even he couldn’t explain why he was looking at a person of the same gender for so long, he could only hastily lower his head and didn’t dare to look at him again.
And Lu Yuan who lowered his head also missed the smile on Jiu Shu’s face.
Only his still gentle voice could be heard, “Is it because you are uneasy about the future layoff plan?”
This still young boss seemed to take Lu Yuan’s extremely impolite direct gaze just now as uneasiness, and made his voice ever softer.
As if to appease, “Please rest assured that you are the only one who will definitely not be sacked.”
“Please allow me to keep the list of the others confidential for the time being.”
“……”
Lu Yuan’s loose, half-length black hair covered the upper half of his bandage-wrapped face, as well as his ears, which had somehow begun to burn red.
He didn’t know why, but when he heard the words “only you”, his heart beat fast in his chest.
It was just like when he had an attack, no, it was even faster than when he had an attack.
It was as if it would jump out at any moment.
“Okay then, I won’t keep you any longer, go get some rest, you can take the day off, don’t worry, it’s a paid vacation.”
Compared to the previous manager’s stinginess, the new manager seemed extraordinarily generous.
Maybe it was to appease the most competent employee in the eyes of the capitalist in front of him, or maybe it was because of other reasons.
He gave Lu Yuan a day’s vacation.
During this one day vacation, he could keep his salary and go home to rest for a day.
Even though Lu Yuan stated in a raw voice that hadn’t been used in a long time that he didn’t need to rest, the young boss insisted.
“Because you don’t look too well, go rest, your body is more important than your work!”
Looking at the concerned look on the young boss’s face, Lu Yuan’s gaze swept over the phantoms of flesh and blood that were entwined more and more tightly around his body.
After hesitating for a long time, he still agreed.
These blood and flesh were appearing more and more frequently, and he probably needed to go take his medicine.
And so, Lu Yuan followed the example of the other workers before him and bowed somewhat formally to Jiu Shu to show his appreciation.
The tall bulk seemed extremely oppressive even in this spacious office, almost reaching the ceiling.
It blocked the overhead light and cast a shadow over Jiu Shu’s desk.
The gesture was awkward to the point of being almost cute.
It seemed to be a far cry from the silent, cold-blooded, brutal butcher in the original who would only drag his huge machete around the slaughterhouse.
And before Lu Yuan was on his way out, his gaze swept vaguely and somewhat reluctantly over Jiu Shu’s lush black semi-long hair.
There was a pause, and then several moments of looking in the direction of Jiu Shu.
Inside the room.
The smile on Jiu Shu’s face remained unchanged, as if he hadn’t noticed his gaze as he watched him leave the office.
Looking at Lu Yuan’s distant back through the glass window, Jiu Shu withdrew his gaze after a long time and thoughtfully touched his cheek.
Just now, the object of discipline seemed to have been looking at his face.
As well as on his head and also on his shoulders, did something grow?
Jiu Shu touched himself at his shoulder blades and they were empty.
It seemed that only the disciplinary object could see it, and the world in his eyes had begun to change.
He just didn’t know what he looked like in the eyes of the disciplinary object.
Jiu Shu was a little curious, but after a moment, he still controlled his curiosity.
Opening the system panel, he continued to check the background information of this world.
Especially the information related to Lu Yuan.
In this world that leaned towards the grotesque style, perhaps because both the male and female protagonists were psychopaths who had escaped from a mental institution, under their perspective, the entire world was light and strange, with a gray and cold tone.
Especially after the apocalypse, the human race on Earth suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving behind a world strewn with scarlet flesh and blood.
Everywhere were flesh and blood monsters born based on human desires.
It was ironic in the original that only the male and female main characters, psychopaths like them who were ostracized on the fringes of society, survived, and instead, normal humans disappeared without a trace.
The heroe and heroine thus walked through the empty metropolis of former steel and concrete, encountering many monsters who were also psychopaths, and it seemed that not all psychopaths were able to maintain their sanity like the hero and heroine.
Most of the psychopaths were transformed into self-generated monsters in the world of flesh and blood, donning human clothes but with mutated limbs and grotesque demeanor.
In the original story, the mentally ill hero and heroine both firmly believe in the great being called Eldritch god, and intended to go to the end of the world to make a wish for Eldritch god to save this post-apocalyptic scarlet world.
Along the way, they encountered many bumps in the road, and from time to time, they were blocked by flesh and blood monsters and psychopaths transformed into monsters.
The object of this world’s punishment was one of the monsters.
He was also one of the most terrifying monsters that the hero and heroine encountered.
Because he had almost no weaknesses.
For this monster, who was so tall that he was terrifying and covered in bandages, neither g.uns nor weapons could easily defeat him.
At least not for the physically weak man and woman.
Under his pursuit, the hero and heroine were once in a desperate situation.
In the end, it was only through the heroine’s desperate attempt to fight to the death that she was able to turn her life around.
Successfully escaping the slaughterhouse, leaving only the dying object of punishment behind them.
And they also managed to reach the end of the world where the legendary god was located at the end of the story, and saw the truth of this world.
A god who had gone mad.
“……”
Seeing this, Jiu Shu flipped the original novel back again, to the part where the object of discipline was defeated.
Speaking of which, the reason the object of discipline was defeated was due to his own mental deficiencies.
He suffered from a severe mental disorder, and the world in his eyes was completely different from normal people; every human had the head of an animal, even himself.
This made him more and more unable to distinguish the difference between human beings and animal livestock, and his mental state became worse and worse.
Until finally, after the slaughterhouse closed down, with nowhere to go and no one that cared about him, Lu Yuan was completely reduced to a mentally deranged lunatic.
In the post-apocalyptic world, he habitually wandered inside the slaughterhouse as before.
And resisted any existence near the slaughterhouse.
Whether it was monsters or normal humans, they were all within the scope of expulsion.
Until he met the heroine.
A living creature who in his eyes was the only thing with a human head.
Instead of killing the heroine, he locked her up and brought her food every day, like he was raising a rare pet.
[Whee–
Dang-
The sound of the machete dragging on the ground was heavy and appalling, and it was even more eerie in the dimly lit slaughterhouse.
Li Qi leaned weakly against the wall, looking fearfully at the tall figure that gradually stepped out of the shadows.
The man dressed as a butcher still maintained the same appearance as before.
The muscles of his bandaged upper body were clearly defined, only his movements had a mechanical rusty lag, like a walking corpse.
His blood-soaked scarlet palms laid down a few pieces of raw mutant animal meat not far from Li Qi.
His face, which was wrapped so tightly in bandages that only crimson blood was oozing from the eye socket locations, he looked at her for a moment before dragging the heavy machete behind him and leaving with slow steps.
Only leaving behind a trail of blood on the ground that was difficult to dry.
Looking at the butcher’s ghastly back as he walked away, Li Qi tried to pull herself together and wiped the tears that filled her face.
Praying that her boyfriend, Li Sheng, would come to her rescue soon.
They still had to go to the beloved god together, and could never fall here!
She had to change the world back to the way it was and save everyone!!!]
It could be seen that the object of discipline here had not gone completely crazy, there was at least a trace of sanity left.
Jiu Shu’s fingertips gently rubbed his lips, his expression thoughtful.
He continued to scroll back and flipped to the object of discipline’s ending in the original story.]
[She succeeded!
She and her boyfriend made it!
Li Qi looked at the butcher who was pinned down by the heavy meat grinder machine and had his abdomen disemboweled by the spinning blades with an expression of unconcealed joy.
She was the one who had lured and tricked the Butcher into coming here as bait, but it didn’t matter if the means were despicable or not as long as they were able to win.
After all, they had a greater goal to accomplish.
“Let’s get out of here! It’s not advisable to stay here for long.”
Next to her.
Concerned, her boyfriend Li Sheng held Li Qi’s hand and led her in the direction of the slaughterhouse exit.
And Li Qi, for some reason, still looked back.
On the ground in the distance, the sound of the meat grinder starting up was still roaring.
The butcher got a moment’s respite with his machete stuck in the machine.
Instead, his abdomen had long since been cut open in a bloody gash.
A deep fissure cut along the abdomen that was tightly bound by bandages.
Black blood stained the lines of bulging abdominal muscles underneath the bandage, revealing black and red internal organs underneath the tight muscles.
Just by looking at it, one could feel the pain that penetrated deep into the marrow of his bones.
The butcher, on the other hand, as if he couldn’t feel the pain, just raised his head and looked at the direction they left from.
Silent as usual, as if the person about to die was not himself.
Or perhaps, he had already been expecting death for a long time.
Looking at the outline of the Butcher’s bandage-covered face, where his eyes were clearly only two ghastly bloody holes, Li Qi felt that the Butcher was staring at her.
The sight didn’t end until the darkness drowned out his figure.
Regarding the reason why the Butcher was looking at her so much, Li Qi wasn’t sure and didn’t want to explore it anymore.
They had embarked on a new journey.
Along the highway outside the slaughterhouse, and onward].
“……”
The psychological description of Lu Yuan in the original story was too little, not enough to judge his mental state after the arrival of the doomsday.
The only thing that could be confirmed was that the crazy Lu Yuan still had a longing for a normal life.
That was why he didn’t kill a human who looked normal in his eyes, but raised her.
And even ended up dying because of it.
Even the sight of looking at the heroine in the end was actually more regret and hope.
It was more like looking at a vain obsession.
An obsession that he could become normal.
Perhaps there was also some envy for the hero and heroine.
After all, the object of discipline in the original was alone until his death, no one cared about him.
Whether before or after the end, he was like a forgotten shadow living in the darkest corner.
Especially after reading the personal information of the object of punishment, Jiu Shu could understand his madness and loneliness.
Everything stemmed from his twisted and unfortunate childhood.
The shadows left behind by his childhood had driven him into madness, and this madness did not dissipate even until his death.
Jiu Shu put away the system panel and continued to ponder.
This world was more difficult to deal with.
After all, it was a mental problem, relying on himself alone was useless, and he also needed to rely on medication.
Not to mention there was that crazy god in the original story.
Jiu Shu was now suspicious of the connection between the god and the object of discipline.
With their mental states falling into madness at the same time, it was likely the same soul.
He was already accustomed to seeing object of disciplines’ souls split, but it was the first time for Jiu Shu that all of the split individuals had gone mad.
Even if You Xin and You Xin were just split personalities, the madness wasn’t that strong.
And it could be seen that the oppressive and eerie atmosphere in this world from beginning to end was mostly due to the already crazy god.
The end of the world probably came about as a result.
After all, even if an insane god was harmless, the aura he gave off was enough to turn the world into something else.
It seemed like it was time to think long and hard.
He sighed as he remembered the never-ending ending of the Punishment object in the Judgment Day spin-off.
Inside the slaughterhouse, Lu Yuan was going home for the rest of the day.
He was downstairs packing up his belongings, there was only a simple teacup and towel, so it was quick.
However, just as he was about to leave the slaughterhouse, a group of workers who had been watching him for a long time suddenly blocked his way.
“Hey! What did the factory manager say to you?”
“By the looks of it, you should have been sacked! Hahaha!”
The workers looked at the seemingly downcast Lu Yuan with glee, the malice on their faces almost overflowing.
To this guy who always rushed up to work and eventually disguised himself to force them to work together with him as well, they had long wanted to get rid of him.
Lu Yuan avoided them in silence, his drooping eyes not even looking at them, as if he had acquiesced to their statement.
This, in the eyes of the workers, meant that he had been dismissed.
This made them extremely excited.
They couldn’t wait to open champagne on the spot to celebrate, and they finally stopped hiding their laughter, and the cheers became more and more piercing behind Lu Yuan.
Until it finally turned into a miserable howl, like a bunch of livestock crowded together hissing.
Waiting for someone to slaughter them one by one.
Lu Yuan’s pupils contracted slightly, and his fingers on his side curled up without looking back.
“You’ve met the factory manager, haven’t you! Quickly tell me what the factory manager looks like? How old is he?”
Just as he was about to leave the slaughterhouse, another pig in work clothes was beside him, asking questions in a human voice.
Lu Yuan still didn’t answer, as if restraining some sort of urge to rip and slash his way through, and he picked up his pace, shaking off the animal.
Instead, a vision of the new manager came before his eyes.
The beautiful face covered in blood and flesh, and the white rabbit ears that clung to the top of his head.
The snow-white furry color was buried between the dark strands of hair, and could be overlooked if one wasn’t paying attention.
But when the new manager smiled, the ears fluttered slightly, revealing a presence that couldn’t be ignored.
And then there were the wings behind the new manager.
Tucked away at the back of his spine, the bird-like pure white wings would drop tiny feathers and dissipate into the air as he spoke.
Like an angel.
Completely different from the ugly livestock heads of the others.
Beautiful as a dream.
Lu Yuan didn’t say anything to anyone about what he saw, but simply replayed the images of the moment over and over in his mind.
The friendly smile on the young boss’s face, and the flesh and blood that clung to his snow-white skin.
The piercing red and white made up an almost magical beauty.
It was mesmerizing.
Falling into memories, he was somewhat in a trance.
Until he returned home from the slaughterhouse he still had a blank look on his face, as if he was still immersed in the scene of the meeting with Jiu Shu and was unable to extricate himself from it.
From time to time, he would also lower his head, his silent face vaguely revealing a slightly chagrined demeanor.
He felt like he should have acted a bit more subdued back then, but he seemed to have messed up.
Luckily, the new factory manager didn’t mind, and he kept a very nice smile on his face.
So good that he didn’t want to take his eyes off of it.
The hideous gore probably thought so too, becoming more well-behaved than any time he could remember.
So well-behaved that Lu Yuan was a little uncomfortable.
“……”
The memories continued, and his ears began to burn a little red again as he remembered Jiu Shu’s words of reassurance that “you’re the only one who’ll never be sacked”.
His always vacant gaze softened a bit as well.
For the first time, his bandaged face showed what could be called joy.
And such an emotion that was out of place with his silent appearance didn’t subside until he raised his head and saw the statue of the god of doom that was placed in the room.
It was a deity bound by chains to a stone pillar, with half-converged brows, seemingly both sad and happy, revealing the deity’s compassion.
Lu Yuan looked at it for a long time before he silently withdrew his gaze, and his expression returned to indifference.
When Lu Yuan was very young, his mother had once told him to believe in god devoutly.
Because god was the greatest being.
–He will forgive you, as long as you always remain pure and always pious!
–Keep away from all love and hate, especially love and lust!
–Those hateful feelings are all temptations of the devil. You must always remain pure, okay?
His mother’s crazy words echoed in his ears as a child.
He just stared at his mother in disbelief.
Until his mother pushed him into the burning fireplace and pressed him inside.
–You shouldn’t touch the unclean, you know! Those filthy heathens, you let them touch your head didn’t you!
–Don’t be afraid, only the flames can purify you!
The memory of the pain and cries had long since faded.
Until now, he could hardly recall what he felt at that time, and had long since become numb to the pain.
Only remembering that since then, he could never remember a person’s face for long.
This intensified until, as an adult, the heads of every person in front of him turned into the heads of livestock.
A scarlet world covered in flesh and blood also began to appear before his eyes again and again.
Countless voices full of malice seemed like they were coming from the dark side of his heart, urging him to kill.
Kill all the humans that made him feel depressed.
He knew this was god testing him.
Just like his mother had murmured in his ear countless times, one day he would pass god’s test and be forgiven by god.
Then, he would be able to live the same life as a normal person.
Even after his parents had died one after another, Lu Yuan was incomparably convinced of such a thought.
Perhaps it was simply because if he didn’t believe in it so strongly, he would go completely insane due to excessive despair.
However, even after several years of believing in this, he still had not gotten god’s forgiveness.
His world was still filled with the heads of various livestock.
Even he himself had become so ugly that he could only be wrapped tightly in bandages, unable to show a single crack.
Lu Yuan admitted that he had wavered at one point.
He didn’t know whether god existed or not.
And if they existed, why they had always refused to forgive him.
And now, it seemed everything was answered.
He met the new manager, someone who was exceptionally kind to him.
The new manager in his eyes didn’t have the head of an animal; instead, he was beautiful, so beautiful that he was like a creation of god.
To Lu Yuan, it was a beauty he had never seen before, one that mesmerized him and made him ashamed of himself.
And did this mean that god had forgiven him?
That was why the beauty had appeared in his eyes once again.
Thinking about this, Lu Yuan seemed to realize something, his dark eyes widened and his trembling fingers touched the bandages on his face.
He seemed a little agitated as he walked to the mirror in the room and slowly unwrapped the bandage from his face.
Revealing the burned skin under the bandage.
As well as the ugly and hideous head in the mirror.
In an instant, even the air in the dimly lit room turned cold.
Bang-!!!
The mirror was smashed.
Lu Yuan covered his face with his uncontrollably trembling palms, no longer looking at himself in the mirror shards.
He picked up a bandage off to the side and started wrapping it around his head, loop after loop.
In neurotic motions, he wrapped the bandage around and tightened it.
Until finally not a single slit could be seen anymore.
Only then did he open his numb eyes.
He stood in front of the glass he had shattered, looking at the fragmented remnants of himself in those shards of glass for a long moment of silence before walking away in a trance.
Once again in front of the idol of the god of doom, Lu Yuan made a quiet gesture of prayer and seemed to have regained his composure.
Only those intertwined, slightly trembling palms and the blood that continued to seep out from between his fingers were proof of his still overly agitated emotions.
It must be that he hadn’t completed the test yet.
Lu Yuan’s pupils trembled as he kept thinking about his sins.
He had committed many sins, many, many.
Love and hate were emotions that shouldn’t be there.
To those who mocked him, those who isolated him, he had killing intent towards them.
Those hateful emotions were not supposed to be there, and he was repenting, constantly.
But they weren’t enough, he needed to repent more times before he could do so.
Then love, by the way, he didn’t have desire ……
Thinking like this, a face with a smile suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
He didn’t know why he remembered the new manager whom he had only met once.
However, his movements stopped violently, and he lowered his head, staring somewhat dazedly at the room’s stale and cracked floor for a long time.
“There is no ……”
He had no love interest.
Just as he had for the past twenty years or so, he had obeyed the rules of god, eschewing all love and hate.
Lu Yuan’s voice trembled as he tried to so articulate his heart to god, but he stopped himself before the words were finished.
It was because he remembered those rapid heartbeats that had been beating faster and faster earlier.
And his own self who had just indulged in memories.
Those never-before-seen moods that were pleasant enough to be called pleasant were still preserved in his memory to this day.
Those feelings, were they considered love and desire?
In the humble room, the tall man bowed his head in prayer, as he always did.
But this time, his eyes under the bandages looked a little empty, almost dead.
Yes, he had.
He had those sinful, sinful, desires that should never have been there in the first place.
TN:
I don’t know which ML I pity for the most 😭
See ya tomorrow ✌️
Ah, I edited the last chapter, but for anyone that didn’t see it, C60 wasn’t posted before, so it went from 59 to 61, I got a comment about it and it was in the drafts, it’s been posted, but for anyone that missed it, here’s the link