A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

"...Do you think the 'order' I'm talking about must be the order of justice? Then what crime did that model commit? Why is it okay to rob her, but the one who was robbed became the prey instead?"

As he spoke, Xue Li shook his head: "No, Mr. Leon Kaufman, I mean, it's very likely that this order itself is rotten and dark, and they obviously didn't let you go because you're nothing. crime'."

"Why do you say that?" Leon was still a little unable to turn the corner.

"Of course it's because 'innocent' people don't need to be changed." Xue Li said sarcastically, pointing to the food in front of the photographer Leon.

Maybe it was because Cheetos hadn't talked to Leon, but what the girl brought him was a plate of minced beef...

Because of the different methods, these beefs are not made into medium-rare for tenderness like steaks; but it does not mean that fully-cooked beef can be accepted, Leon is a vegetarian... no matter what the reason is that he has not eaten meat for a long time , People's tastes will gradually change, so that in the later stage, they will want to vomit when they smell the smell of meat.

It seemed that Leon had just realized that the delicious food he ate was beef, and his face turned pale.The frightening thing was not that he ate the meat by mistake, but that he didn't feel it at all, and even thought it was delicious.

"Bishop!" Xue Li knew what had happened when he saw his expression. In order to reconfirm, he simply called to the person sitting at the table by the kitchen door on the other side of the tavern: "Cut a piece of raw meat and bring it with you." The bloody one!"

Chapter 14 Slaughterhouse

The barbarian's physique is still strong enough, and with the healing potion poured down by Cassia, the injury quickly stabilized.

But two or three hours later, Dosten the Harrogath awoke and found himself lying on a rug.

"woke up?"

Cassia sat at the window and greeted while nibbling on the apple in her hand.

She stepped on the old but wiped clean window sill with one foot, and dangled the other foot casually under the window.The sun shone in from the side of her, making it difficult for those lying on the floor to see her clearly.

"I... where are we?" he asked.

Cassia spread her hands: "Brother Williams' home. Don't ask who Brother Williams is... I can't tell. The kind grandma saw that you were injured, so she dug out all the medicines at home and returned them to you. We ate... If you can eat now, sit up and eat some. The 'Williams' Special Pie' is delicious."

"Oh, thank you, girl. If only those two little bastards had your quality, but they didn't even go to high school."

With this old but energetic greeting, an obviously overweight black old woman came in from the door of this room.

As she walked slowly to the sofa and sat down, pressing the poor sofa out of the creaking sound, she babbled to Dosten who was lying on the carpet: "Our family really doesn't have a big enough bed, so I have to wrong you Lying on the carpet. But the carpet is clean, I don't have a cat or dog, and I just washed and dried it."

"Thank you."

The elder Dosten is also very respectful, not to mention that he was taken in and made a pie for him when he was unconscious.

Only Cassia, the Amazon, thought silently of disrespect in her heart, thinking that the bed you always need is probably no smaller than that of a savage.

Of course she would not say this in person, but changed the subject when Dosten silently ate the pie: "Are your two grandchildren going out again?"

"Yes, that's what they are."

The old woman sighed, "Since my son left, those two little bastards have been going to the streets to hang out with their cronies, and they rarely come back. But don't worry, whether it's the two of them or the neighbors on the street You guys will never tell anything about your being here; people in this neighborhood have lived by helping each other from the beginning, and no one will cooperate with the police."

Cassia heard something wrong, and asked with a curious smile: "How do you know we are hiding from the 'police'?"

"...Otherwise, who would come to such a place?" said the old woman, her cloudy eyes looking at the sunlight that diffused in around her.

Dosten on the one side swallowed the pie in two or three bites, and then the topic of the two asked another thing that concerned him: "You said your son..."

"Ah. It's hard for people in our neighborhood to get a job outside, and those well-dressed guys always think we'll steal from them... but my son is a good boy, he can't even swear or smoke, Also had a steady position in the slaughterhouse.

"But that year, my daughter-in-law got an infectious disease, and the hospital was overwhelmed with patients, who were unwilling to treat her... She died, and our whole family also got sick. Fortunately, we survived.

"Since then, my son has changed. He stopped talking to anyone and would rather stay on the subway until midnight before going home. Less than half a year later, he also disappeared."

Speaking of this, the old woman raised her hand and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes: "He is already the most promising child of ours...he works in the largest slaughterhouse in New York State, and the meat needed by the entire New York City is They supply it."

After hearing the key words, Cassia suddenly turned her head, thought about it carefully, and asked tentatively, "Which subway was your son taking at that time?"

The old woman looked at her strangely and replied, "Does it matter? I don't remember the train number, but it's weird...the only subway in all of New York that goes to the slaughterhouse. I remember... oh , that train was silver and it was different from all the other cars."

The Amazon jumped out of the window with a groan, nodded to the old woman and said, "Thank you for the pie. Dosten, it's time to go... By the way, ma'am, can you tell us the address of the slaughterhouse?" Better to write it down."

The old woman felt very strange about this request, but according to what Cassia said, she found out a certain receipt used by her son, and copied the column of "work address" from it.

When she packed her luggage and weapons and set off from this small house, Cassia did not forget to leave two gold coins for the old lady... Maybe she will never come back here again, so at least You have to give back to those who have helped you as much as you can.

Dosten, who followed behind, remained silent until he walked down the steps and waved goodbye to the old woman before he asked in a low voice, "Why?"

"What do you want to ask? Why did you only leave two gold coins? Gold in this world is very expensive. I saw a man wearing a gold necklace on the street last night. It seemed that the chain made him and The people around are distinguished. In addition, if the people living in this kind of house suddenly get a huge amount of property, can they really hold it?"

Cassia shook her head. Although this barbarian is very brave and has good fighting skills, he is still young after all and lacks a basic understanding of the world.

Dosten looked back around the room.He felt that the masonry buildings on these floors were no worse than the houses in his hometown of Harrogas, and the space utilization rate was also very good - the old lady only rented the first floor, and there were other tenants on the upper floors.

Of course, if compared with the shining high-rise buildings a few blocks away at this time, maybe this is really not a good house.

Evaluation of a thing, or can not be separated from its environment.

Turning around, I saw the Amazon pointing to the two black kids who were doing something furtively on the street corner ahead, and asked him in a low voice, "What did you think of?"

"'Rat'." The Savage replied, frowning.

Even in Harrogath, far from the center of civilization, there were occasional men of this kind who ran off southern merchant ships and demanded business.They do everything in order to survive, selling stolen goods for others, collecting debts for others, smuggling goods, etc., as long as you can think of illegal activities, most of these people have done it.These people's action patterns are so sneaky, especially when trading hallucinogens... The more people live in pain, the more they need illusory satisfaction.

"We are just passing through," Cassia said. "The people here choose how to live their lives, and we have no room for comment; they may just find no other way out, and we don't have the ability to help them. If If you want to help, let's do what we do best and drive the demons out of this city."

She pinched the piece of paper in her hand, stared back at the curious eyes cast by the two people's clothes, and whispered to the barbarian: "Yesterday when you were sleeping, I observed It has been a long time... There is something called 'taxi' in this city, its function can be understood in a literal sense, it can take passengers to a designated place, similar to the horse-drawn carriages rented by merchants in our world Well."

"That needs money. Do they accept gold coins? Do you have the currency of this world?" Dosten questioned his soul.

"Not yet...but I know what those currencies look like, isn't it easy to get some?"

Cassia began to look at the people around her with dangerous eyes again, not knowing what bad thoughts were brewing in her heart.

But before the two of them had gone far, a familiar voice sounded in the dark alley: "Good morning, two guests... I am relieved to see that you are safe and sound."

"Xue?" Dosten looked forward and saw Xue Li coming out of a basement door by the alley.

"It was me. Mr. Lyon ran to the tavern for help, saying that you were raided and shot by the police combat forces, so I used my authority to find the door closest to you, and come and see what's going on with you."

"Hey, so that thing is called a 'gun'."

Cassia nodded, "We're fine, but that 'photographer', he's just a commoner, I'm afraid he suffered a lot."

"He has suffered far more than you imagined, and it is strange just to survive... First of all, what you experienced yesterday does not seem to be a misunderstanding, nor is it that this world rejects visitors from another world ;The person who shot at you has no idea where you are from, and probably just wanted to hook Leon and get rid of the insider by the way."

Xue Li, who was standing in the alley, had already pulled out his communicator, planning to report the situation to Max, but suddenly saw the piece of paper clutched in Cassia's hand.

After asking where the address came from and getting the answer, Boss Xue couldn't help but frowned.

"It's really too coincidental, so coincidental that it's almost an obvious 'fate' arrangement... It seems that maybe we have to take some more risky actions to learn the truth as soon as possible."

As he spoke, he pressed the button on the communicator and was directly connected to a former New York police detective.

"Max, if your police ID is still working... go to the library or archives and look up the disappearances in recent years. It's best to find them together with their addresses and work addresses. I'm going to buy them now." A map of New York, and later bring your guest directly to this address to meet."

He took the piece of paper from Cassia's hand, gave the address, and hung up.

"Slaughterhouse... the symbolic meaning is too strong."

Boss Xue said to himself.

Chapter 15 Meat production line

Of course, the slaughterhouse is not located in the most prosperous location in the center of New York City, but is located outside the metropolitan area.

Large trucks transport various animals such as pigs and beef cattle to this place. After the quarantine is completed, they enter the pen to be slaughtered and wait in line for processing.

After being driven into the first slaughtering workshop from the pen to be slaughtered, the meat animals are slaughtered and bled. In modern slaughterhouses, the limit bars customized according to the types of meat animals will be fixed one by one for easy operation; after this step, the meat animals will be washed , hang up, and enter the automated assembly line; the next step is to remove the hair according to the predetermined steps, pre-process, cut off the unnecessary parts, remove the internal organs, and then rinse, and finally become "raw meat" with neat specifications. In the last process, packaging, Access to cold storage on a meat hook.

After so many years of development and the introduction of many new technologies, the efficiency of the entire slaughter process has been quite high.This slaughterhouse alone can slaughter thousands of meat animals every day, and there is no problem in supplying the consumption of a giant city like New York.

When a few people met, it was time for the slaughterhouse to resume work after the lunch break.

Looking out of the window of the nearby bar, the workers pouring into the workshop by the main entrance are all larger males; this conclusion is not a stereotype or selection bias...Meat animals still need to be more or less savvy when it comes to this job Vigorous.

The guilty photographer Leon stared at the backs of these workers, everyone looked like the murderer on the subway.

Xue Li on the side just took a few glances, then looked away, and then secretly glanced at the bar owner sitting behind the bar... Like all bars, there are really no customers here at this time, and the waiters are not there. The boss who got into a fight began to take a nap at the bar after pouring his drink, and would not pay attention to their side.

He then spread out the map on the table and asked Max in a low voice, "Have you got the information from your side?"

Max nodded.

Needless to say, he also showed his police officer certificate... Even if he is just an ordinary citizen who is particularly interested in this aspect, the news materials in the library are open to him.After finding an excuse of "necessary for handling the case", even the staff of the library kindly helped him sort out the abstracts of the materials through the keywords of "missing", printed them out and handed them to him to take away. Hours were useless.

When he walked out of the library, he was still thinking, if it wasn't for his police officer certificate that could not stand the test, would he be able to ask the whole picture of the matter directly by going to the police station to search the files?

He opened the news summary from the beginning, and reported one by one since ten years ago, the date of disappearance, the location where he was last seen, the address of the missing person, etc. Xue Li used different colors on the corresponding places on the map of New York. pen punctuation.

As there are more and more points on the map, even the photographer Leon can see that something is wrong... Most of these points are concentrated along a certain subway line, from the slaughterhouse where a few people are now to the Near the subway station on 112th Street, the closer you go to the end, the denser it is.

Needless to say, this is exactly the line of that strange silver train.

"... Then the people who disappeared all these years, were they all killed by that guy? The number doesn't match, I saw a dozen in the car last time." Leon asked his own question Say.

Xue Li put the cap on his pen, wiped the watercolors on his hands on the edge of the map, shook his head and said, "All we found were news reports, you have to figure out one problem - only those 'people care' where they went Only those who are in the newspaper will appear in the news.”

Such words were so cold and cruel that Leon didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Boss Xue continued to talk about the business: "...Actually, we can also guess... That 'killer' must be in the slaughterhouse, maybe it is an employee of the slaughterhouse. What Leon saw before It was all too obvious that the victims were hanging feet up on meat hooks, just like the pigs being disembowelled in the slaughterhouse right now.

"Now if you want to know what happened and how to solve the problem, you need to do two things first: first, go to the slaughterhouse to identify the murderer, and see how he is doing in his normal life except for another job. Do you have any other 'hobbies'? It would be best if you can dig out the things behind him; the second is to avoid the eyes and ears of the police, don't go to the last car, and don't get off at the terminal. Look at this Where is the train going.

"We need to act together, because Max and I have the 'key' in our hands. No matter what happens, we can quickly take you back to the pub and relieve the danger; even if you are seriously injured, you will be injured the moment you return to the pub. It will also immediately stop deteriorating and will not die.

"We have to change clothes... Since the police have witnessed these two big men in strange clothes last night, they must still be searching for them now, and they are too conspicuous with weapons."

Everyone had no objection, and accepted the plan... Actually, it can't be called a plan, it's nothing more than keeping in the dark, trying to find a way to understand the whole situation before making other plans.

A few people sneaked in from the surveillance cameras, put on the spare blue isolation overalls in the slaughterhouse, masks, and goggles, so no one could easily see who they were.Even though Dosten and Cassia were still a little out of shape, they stood behind Boss Xue according to Boss Xue's instructions, looking like bodyguards protecting the boss...then such a height is also reasonable.

As soon as someone noticed this, Leon in the same attire turned sideways and said something to Boss Xue with his hands behind his back, such as "The pork and beef in the whole New York City are supplied by our factory", "We often participate in charitable donations", " We use humane slaughter methods" and so on.

Of course, Boss Xue responded with "the protests of vegetarians are not small" and "we are considering acquiring such and such media to control the right to speak"; although Max didn't say a word, he would stand aside and nod frequently at this time.

Even if the people nearby thought it was strange, most of them just thought that it was probably a cooperating boss who came to visit and the administrative department sent someone to receive and explain.

Then just watch it, we are not afraid of people watching our work, and no one is lazy. The company is also very strict in terms of hygiene. Even the red-eyed Food and Drug Administration can't find anything wrong. Even if the media comes in to take pictures, we are not afraid. of.

Walking down from workshop to workshop, Leon, who had gradually begun to feel anxious, finally found that familiar figure.

In the pig cutting workshop, a man with a small chainsaw in his hand is standing at the back of the assembly line, focusing on cutting the pork in the operation area in front of him into 5 kg pieces, and then handing them over to the workers on the assembly line. The next ring is packaging.

He didn't wear a mask. If he stayed in the workshop for a long time, the mask would be too stuffy. He had also smelled the smell of pork for more than ten years, so it wasn't a big deal.

And this also made the photographer Leon recognize him at a glance. His natural movements and demeanor suddenly froze, and the fear that was finally suppressed began to affect his nerves and thinking again.

Dosten, who was standing behind, saw that something was wrong, quickly grabbed Leon's shoulders, took a step back with Cassia, and dodged out of the workshop.

The murderer with the cropped head and the fleshy face raised his head just at this time, and Xue Li, who was always alert, moved his body intentionally or unintentionally, just blocking his line of sight and the door.

While watching that side from the corner of his eye, Xue Li said to Max calmly: "Recently there is a plague in Brazil, and the United States may issue a restriction order, and soon there will be no more pigs from Brazil."

Max didn't know what to say, so he could only reply vaguely: "Ah, yes, yes, yes."

The murderer with the "Mahagney" badge looked suspiciously, and finally lowered his head and continued with his work.

His work has a special meaning, to support the population of a city, to leave the bloody and uncomfortable work here, so that the gluttons in the city do not have to face the cruel fact that they are preying on other creatures; out of the slaughter The things on the market have changed from "animals" to "food", which can be enjoyed without psychological burden.

Of course, this wasn’t really a problem when humans didn’t like to call themselves “civilized” so much: just like fish eat shrimps, cats eat fish, foxes eat cats, eagles eat foxes, humans kill other animals. what is the problem?How to eat without killing?

As for the so-called "level of cruelty"... cats will play with their prey, and will kill small animals purely for the pleasure of hunting, not for food; humans have done far more things to their own kind than to any animal Compared with the cruelty of slaughtering, it is really gentle.

I don't know why, but the few people who secretly watched his work felt that this guy seemed to have a sense of mission. His movement of swinging down the chainsaw was more precise and efficient than anyone else, and he stared intently at the pork in front of him. , Not even talking to other workers at all, just like the old priest Jacob who is holding a cross and preaching... People who can show a sense of sacredness and mission when working in a slaughterhouse have to be considered talents.

[117. No. 117]

Boss Xue and Max also walked out of the workshop after a while, and asked Leon, the photographer who had just regained consciousness: "How to say, is that him?"

Cassia, who was also paying attention to the situation, answered first: "That's right, it's this guy... I'm so impressed with him."

"I have a feeling ... that guy is doing pretty much the same thing on the subway as he is here."

So did Dosten the Barbarian, who has been silent until now.

Max frowned, and then the two asked in a low voice: "He is here to prepare the meat on the table for people in New York, who is he preparing for on the subway?"

Chapter No.16 Into the Abyss

"Mahagney is almost out of the task."

At the subway station near 112th Street, the black female police officer once again stepped on a train that was parked on the spare track.

She said this to the conductor who was washing the carriage, and opened a report in her hand.

This conductor with his head bowed was wearing the uniform of the New York MTA, and his blond hair was combed back into a hairstyle commonly seen by successful people. His appearance was fairly decent, but his eyes shone with a chilling and fierce light.

"What happened to Mahagony?" asked the conductor.