Thus it goes...

My death is at hand...

The blood of my enemies, gushing forth in barrels, has created an ocean. Now I must traverse this sea in a small boat fashioned from their bones.

My sail is their skin...

What blows upon the sail is their last breath...

I shall gaze upon this ocean and tell my story, for I shall eventually receive mercy and forgiveness.

I await the order to execute me, expecting nothing—until I lose this life.

…………

A monologue abruptly appeared in the ears of Feng Bujue and Si Yu. When these words emerged, all other sounds vanished. Both noticed something on each other's faces, knowing the other heard the same content.

When the monologue ended, the surroundings returned to noise and chaos. The ghosts wildly slammed against the gate, some already breaking in through the windows.

Though they didn't understand what just happened, there was no time to stand there and think. Feng Bujue helped Si Yu up, grabbed the lantern, and led her quickly toward the kitchen.

As they approached the counter separating the kitchen from the dining hall, the kitchen lights suddenly flickered on, and a tall, dark figure stood behind the counter, staring at them.

This monster's body was humanoid, but it had a pig's head. Its exposed muscles were all pink, and it wore a white tank top and military pants, protruding its belly. The bulging muscles on its arms looked as hard as stone. This fellow's appearance gave the impression that Pigsy (Zhu Bajie) had finally succeeded in his fitness journey, but it seemed that he didn't have a Nine-toothed Rake nearby…

Feng Bujue and Si Yu were separated from the monster by only a counter. An indescribable sense of oppression suddenly descended, and they could clearly feel that the terrifying aura emanating from this monster was far stronger than that of all the surrounding ghosts combined. Just standing face to face like this, the invisible deterrent was enough to make them unable to move.

"Hello, I am Oink," it actually said, greeting them.

At this moment, a large number of ghosts had successfully poured into the dining hall, overturning tables, crawling across the floor, and closing in on Feng Bujue and Si Yu.

Oink tilted its pig head and said to the backs of the two players in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, "Get out of my territory, now!" It emphasized the last two words.

The ghosts actually stopped in their tracks after those words. They could only reluctantly glance at the two prey already at their mouths, and then left in disappointment.

"Go sit there." After the ghosts retreated, Oink pointed to a table closest to the counter, signaling Feng Bujue and Si Yu to sit there.

The two exchanged glances and reached a tacit understanding, then came to the table together, placed the lantern on it, and sat down facing each other.

Without a doubt, the fifth task in the rhyme had begun. The relatively gratifying thing was that the related plot of this pig-headed uncle seemed to not require combat to resolve. Because judging from its murderous aura… even if both players were at full health, fighting it would be a guaranteed death.

After Feng Bujue and Si Yu sat down, Oink began to busy himself. He took some things out of the refrigerator, then went to the cooking counter and began washing and chopping…

Suddenly standing up and walking around might have unpleasant consequences. Feng Bujue didn't want to take that risk, so he just stretched his neck and peered inside. However, the cooking counter was close to the wall on the other side of the kitchen, and Oink's mountain-of-meat-like physique completely blocked Feng Bujue's view.

Judging from the sound… Oink should have taken two large pieces of meat from the freezer, removed the skin, chopped them into several pieces, and threw them into two soup pots filled with water, bones and all.

As someone who often cooks, in this quiet environment, listening to the sounds and smelling the aroma, one could roughly know what the other person was doing.

Feng Bujue was skilled at cooking human stew. Today, it seemed that the process of a pig cooking humans was about the same…

However, Feng Bujue had no experience in cooking human meat, let alone knowing what that kind of meat soup smelled like. Assuming the two pieces of meat Oink was cooking, one was its own kind, and the other was Feng Bujue's kind, then… the "which bowl of human meat, which bowl of soup" in the rhyme might really require a taste to distinguish.

Oink was quite meticulous, cooking methodically, with carrots, onions, potatoes, celery, garlic, red wine, cream, bay leaves, various spices, and so on… Regardless of his knife skills, he put in everything that should be put in, and the aroma emanating from the pots indicated that the two soups were well-seasoned.

Feng Bujue and Si Yu had no intention of getting up and running away. They both knew that it wouldn't work. Even if Oink didn't stop them, the ghosts wouldn't let them go once they got outside. It was better to use the precious time to rest.

The two pots of soup simmered for more than an hour. During this time, Oink was constantly busy, adding seasonings from time to time and adjusting the heat, as if he had completely forgotten about the existence of the two players.

This was a good thing for Si Yu's injuries. After a long period of rest, judging from the menu, the [Bleeding] status had finally disappeared. She no longer needed to keep pressing her hand on the wound, but her Survival Value was still low, having only returned to about 20%.

Unlike Stamina Value, a player's Survival Value recovers very slowly, with a recovery rate of only about one-tenth of the Stamina Value. Passive skills, potions, and healing could all come in handy at this time, but these two had none, nor did they know any.

Silence and tranquility were a breeding ground for thought. Feng Bujue had been thinking about things during this time. He re-organized all the information he had obtained after entering the script, analyzing the current situation and the meaning of the last line of the rhyme…

Feng Bujue had heard the name Oink before, but he couldn't remember when or where he had heard or seen this name. After exploring the attic of his brain for more than half an hour, he finally unearthed that fragment of memory.

The Heavenly Butcher Oink.

Feng Bujue gradually recalled that the monologue he had heard earlier was Oink's last words before being executed.

It was originally a short comic, telling a dark and heavy story, which, in terms of content, was far more profound than this script. It was estimated that the Oink in front of him had little to do with the protagonist in the story, except for the same name and appearance.

Perhaps the system wanted to satirize something with this monster? Feng Bujue couldn't help but think that Oink, a hybrid life form that had once sent its own kind to the slaughterhouse every day, had now finally cooked the humans who created and enslaved it. Could this be considered a satisfying act of revenge…

A sound brought Feng Bujue back to his thoughts. He looked in the direction of the sound and found that Oink had turned off the heat and was scooping soup into two bowls.