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Chapter 240: 240

“Notification for Player 0000! Friendliness level with Xu Qin increases by 1! Great minds think alike, your relationship is now closer.” When this notification appeared in Han Fei’s mind, he knew that Xu Qin was plotting the same thing he did. “Sis, you’re considering that too, aren’t you?” Xu Qin put away her glinting table knives and glanced at Han Fei’s injured arm. Then she said softly, “We still have time.”

With Xu Qin leading the way, they left the 3rd floor, passed through many empty rooms and returned to the first floor. All the rooms had been made to connect with each other but some of the rooms were death traps. A careless move and you’d die. “You guys better rest here for now. I’ll go find you some food and medicine.” Xu Qin turned into a kitchen, which was apparently the room she had taken for herself at the House of the Butcher.

Few minutes later, the delectable smell of meat drifted out from the kitchen. Han Fei’s nose had been tortured by the nasty smell of putrefaction since he entered Cattle Alley. The delicious smell of food brought him to heaven. “The freshness of ingredients determines the deliciousness of food, unfortunately I do not have many fresh ingredients here.” Xu Qin walked out from the kitchen carrying an iron basin. Her eyes were red, her fingers tapered and pale, her red skirt still dripping with blood. When a normal person saw a scene like this, they would turn and run lest they were made to join the food inside the basin. Han Fei though smiled brightly. He sat at the dining table obediently. Seeing the basin of meat, his mouth watered.

With extremely high points in luck, plus the curse resistance to meat and cold steel brought upon by Midnight Butcher meant that Han Fei could enjoy Xu Qin’s food without worry. The thick meat stew inside the basin emitted a delicious fragrance. Using his free right hand, Han Fei quickly dug in.

Seeing how gratified Han Fei was wolfing down the food, Weep licked his lips, and took a bite of the meat out of curiosity. Weep was still in essence a child, even though his memory was dominated by despair. Now with Han Fei’s help, his more child-like nature started to show through. Munching carefully on the food, Weep was pleasantly surprised to discover how delicious the meat was. Just as he was about to reach for a second bit though, black curse started to show on his frail body. The meat that he swallowed appeared to have come alive inside his stomach. A growl could even be heard coming from the boy.

With the help from Xu Qin, Weep finally got the curse lifted from him. Holding his hurt tummy, Weep edged away from the dining table. He did not know what to think seeing Han Fei continue to shovel the curse-addled food down his gullet. ‘So not everyone has the ability to enjoy Xu Qin’s cooking.’

Staring at the duo who sat around the dining table, Weep pulled the black snake who had been trying to crawl towards Han Fei and went to the side to play with it.

Han Fei truly enjoyed the food. After he got the new profession, his desire for blood and flesh had grown tremendously. Thanks to the unique feature of Midnight Butcher though, he would not lose himself in the search for food. Han Fei soon finished the whole basin of meat. Throughout the process, he did trigger the curse several times, it felt like his internal organs had been punched but he showed no pain, he did not want to disappoint the chef. Thanks to the curse resistance and the fact that the curse on the meat itself wasn’t that strong, Han Fei stomached all of them silently.

After finishing the big basin of meat, the wounds on Han Fei’s body had healed for the most part and he noticed his curse resistance against flesh and meat like objects had increased further. If he continued to work together with Xu Qin, he might one day be fully immune to curse on meat-like objects.

“Sis, is this house yours? How did you end up having an asset inside Cattle Alley?” Han Fei turned to stare at his own stomach. He had just engorged a truckload of meat but he did not feel full at all.

“There are many different kinds of curses in my mind, one of them came from deep inside Cattle Alley. The female chef begged me to kill her and bring her away with me. At the time, I was not in control of myself, I dissolved her into part of my curse.” Xu Qin was different from normal spirits, she was a Curse Amalgamation. Her power level couldn’t be gauged with the system that Han Fei was familiar with. Han Fei had not really considered this before. Now that Xu Qin brought it up, he remembered that Spider’s 8th persona was a female chef. The change to her psychology was only second to the writer. Before her first murder, she was extremely kind; but after her first murder, there was a drastic change to her personality as she morphed from a chef to a butcher.

“This was from way back when, at the time, the previous building manager was still around. After he found out I had been to Cattle Alley, he asked me for a favor. He wanted me to look for someone.”

“Who?”

“Someone called Spider. The manager only knew his name, he did not have any other information, until now, I have not found this person.” Xu Qin put away the iron basin. “After I killed the chef, I gained part of her power and also inherited her room in this building and her mask.” With her fingers tapping lightly on the pig mask, Xu Qin provided another crucial piece of information, “Each of the masks has a number behind them, for now I have no idea what they represent. However, most of the residents here are collecting masks, apparently, a reward will be given to the person who manages to find all the masks.”

“Then what is the number behind your mask?”

“8.” Xu Qin admitted easily.

‘This isn’t a coincidence. The number on the mask denotes the different personalities of Spider.’ Han Fei stared at Xu Qin’s face while he was parsing another question in his mind. ‘Xu Qin has killed the original 8th persona and consumed her to become part of her curse. If the author still wished to use his old method to redeem himself, does that mean he will need to kill Xu Qin who has taken the number 8 spot? Or perhaps I should envision it like this. Spider in real life had murdered all of his personas but he only fought to a draw with the Butterfly. He knew about the Butterfly’s weakness but he did not know how to exploit it. So theoretically speaking, there should be a better solution I can offer him.’

Han Fei was trying to see the problem from many different perspectives when the door was knocked on. Everyone in the room instantly had their expression changed. As if pulled by a string, they all turned to the door. Pulling out her knives, Xu Qin eased the door open. It revealed a boy around 9 years old. Normally, a child this age should be able to talk already but the boy at the door appeared to be mentally challenged. He stammered for a long time but was still unable to communicate his thoughts. Perhaps he was too nervous. In the end, he took out the paper and pen that he carried with him everywhere. He drew something and handed it to Xu Qin. On the piece of yellowed paper, there was a drawing of a doctor wearing a pig mask.

After seeing the drawing, Xu Qin signalled for Han Fei to stay inside the room while she left with the boy.

‘Spider’s 7th persona is called Dreamer, he’s a stutterer and is born with a neurological defect. He also likes to paint, which matches with that boy perfectly.’ The moment Han Fei saw the child, the corresponding info appeared in his mind, ‘The child has to have more secrets about him to be able to survive at the House of the Butcher. He appears to be able to see things that other people can’t.’

Studying the closed door, Han Fei waved for Weep and the snake to stay close to him. He had a feeling that something big was about to happen.