Favorability

There shouldn’t be any issue with running out of time, after all, he had the ability to disperse his body, belonging to the Mist, and with puppets in hand, dealing with both sides was more than enough.

With this calculation, Zhu Yan, floating quietly atop the iron cage, descended, searching the room for a corner to deploy his puppet.

Behind that pile of corpses would be perfect.

Because that was an ideal blind spot!

"We’re all going to die, aren’t we," one player said, gripping the cage tightly. "I really can’t accept this."

"If that horror doesn’t come, we still have a chance," a girl replied.

But there was no color in her face, her lips trembling, clearly not even believing her own words.

"Come on. Didn’t the monsters outside the window capture us for exactly this?"

Someone whistled. "Just lie back and be the Boss’s food. The only painful part is the moment of death, anyway."

Zhu Yan had never tried picking things up in his Mist form.

He tested the thought, and with a mental command, a body identical to his own, dressed in a uniform, appeared behind the massive heap of flesh.

It lay limply on the ground, eyes shut, face a bit pale, as if dead.

Zhu Yan mimicked the Mist’s manner, squeezing himself into this puppet shell.

A few seconds later, he made the puppet stagger to its feet from the ground.

Apart from a slight stuffiness on the skin, it felt no different from using Zhu Yan’s own body.

He moved his limbs a bit, mussed his clothes slightly, and covered the hand without a player’s mark.

With another thought, Zhu Yan pulled out his phone.

He straightened up from behind the mountain of corpses, pretending to look around cautiously, then walked nimbly to the iron cage.

"Everyone, stay calm," Zhu Yan said loudly, holding his phone screen up to the cage, raising a finger to signal silence.

"It’s me. I’m Zhu Zeyu."

...

At that very moment.

Another part of Zhu Yan’s Mist had dispersed into thin flakes, hovering nauseatingly above the chunks of meat and usable organs, flowing along the conveyor belt into the next room.

The feeling was strange; it was as if he were an integrated processor, simultaneously handling two completely unrelated streams of visual input.

Yet his mind didn’t get confused, nor did his vision; all information was processed smoothly and orderly.

The next workshop was the cleaning station.

Strong jets of water pierced through the thin Mist body, continuously blasting at the meat slabs, hearts, or lungs.

As the remaining blood thinned out, a claw wearing a latex glove pierced through Zhu Yan’s body, grabbing the meat beneath.

Zhu Yan could feel that this hand was very hard, like a piece of stiff wood wrapped in a rubber sleeve.

The horror creature inspected the size and part of the meat, then slapped it onto a pile behind it, moving forward with the rest along the conveyor belt.

"The boss has new orders," a voice said.

The thing speaking was one Zhu Yan recognized—the uniformed horror that had sat opposite him during the meeting.

Its uniform seemed empty underneath, just air, and even its voice had a blurred, breathy quality; Zhu Yan had to focus to understand.

"The boss has new orders," the stiff horror repeated.

"Shut up," the first horror said, a bit impatient. "I really hate you monsters that just repeat things."

"..."

It adjusted its mask, staring at the neat piles of clean meat sorted by size, swallowing hard.

"The head chef has ordered that every piece of meat must be carefully inspected to ensure nothing remains intact."

"Also, from now on, no doors are allowed to open, and everyone is to stay at their workstations."

The creature raised its voice. "Did everyone hear that?!"

A few seconds later, one of the stiff horrors spoke up.

"...Shut up. I really hate you monsters that just repeat things."

Zhu Yan felt a touch of schadenfreude.

What was this all about? Was the head chef trying to guard against him?

But what a pity.

If they were going by that standard, it seemed he was already scattered piece by piece.

Zhu Yan laughed silently.

He evenly spread himself above each meat pile, riding the conveyor belt into the next room.

...

The noise faded, and the whole space grew quiet. Zhu Yan could hear the players’ uneven, heavy breathing.

"Zhu Zeyu?"

A trembling voice spoke.

A guy moved closer, staring intently at the social media homepage on Zhu Yan’s phone.

"You’re that Top Player...? A legend?!"

This was like a stone thrown into a lake; whispers rippled outward.

"A legend is here?"

"Legend, what level is your ability? Can you break the cage?"

"Shut up! Even if the cage breaks, how can we get out the door in this situation?"

"What if the horrors come back?"

The guy who spoke first pressed against the cage, trying to get as close to Zhu Yan as possible.

"Legend, this cage has a problem," he said, lowering his voice to explain.

"Those of us locked in here can’t contact the outside at all. We can’t even log onto the Player Forum."

"Legend, what’s the situation out there?"

Oh, so this cage was a nice piece of equipment.

Too bad it was too big; Zhu Yan’s ring couldn’t hold it.

He had to sigh, pretending to look back warily, then spoke quickly in a low voice.

"Do you know about the Hunter? The Hunter is inside here."

"I followed it all the way here. I picked up a time-limited invisibility item on the way, so I’ve avoided being spotted."

"Legend, what should we do now?" someone cried, voice trembling with a faint, desperate hope.

"Can we still get out? Do you... do you have any items...?"

Zhu Yan glanced cautiously left and right.

"I have a weapon, decent level, but it definitely can’t break this cage," he lied.

For now, he was just showing his face to these people.

Releasing them wasn’t an option.

So many players would be an enormous unstable factor.

If he let them out and something changed, wouldn’t everything be ruined?

Hearing Zhu Yan’s response, a few players nearby were once again gripped by despair.

True, even a legend was still a player.

They had no right to demand that Zhu Zeyu use high-level items to save them. The fact that a legend like him had appeared here and could keep himself safe was already a beacon of hope for human players.

The guy’s fingers clenched the cage’s wire so tightly it almost cut into his flesh.

"Legend, then you—"

He wanted to ask, "What are you going to do?" or "Take care of yourself," but Zhu Zeyu cut him off decisively.

"I know where the Porcelain Doll is," Zhu Yan said, carefully plugging the holes in the lies he’d told on both sides.

"The Hunter came over here, and it seems to have pissed everyone off."

"The Porcelain Doll is in a meeting right now and won’t be back for a while."

Zhu Yan pointed to the black curtain where he had crawled out.

"There should be another room behind that one."

"I'll go check it out first—I heard the Hunter has some high-grade knives on them."

Zhu Yan gritted his teeth, a look of resolve crossing his face.

"Wait for me. Once I've dealt with everything else, I'll be sure to come back and save you all!"