Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 15: Ghost Animal (12)

Chen Tian pulled back his torch, not because he was afraid, but because there was oil in the membrane.

He knew in his heart that no matter what, he had to climb this passage.

With a determined effort, Chen Tian pushed forward.

The ghostly faces and hands seemed to fear the torch. As it approached, the ghostly hands would recoil and the faces would silently wail.

They seemed to hate the fire intensely. After the torch passed, the ghostly faces became more hideous and angry, and the ghostly hands around them would reach out towards him.

Chen Tian pressed his elbow against the sticky furnace wall and crawled forward carefully and laboriously.

Ning Su followed closely behind him, holding a flashlight to see the situation inside the furnace wall.

Next was Chen Qing. When she saw what was inside the incinerator’s wall, she almost vomited.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, she hurriedly used her invisibility scarf to cover herself. She wanted to leave a part of it for Ning Su, but saw that Ning Su was staring at the wall with relish, as if he was looking at a mural.

Chen Qing: “?”

Ning Su noticed Chen Qing’s movement and said, “I don’t need it. Give it to Li Yin.”

At this moment, Chen Tian reminded Li Yin, “Be careful, these things fear and hate fire.”

“Fear and hate fire...they were all burned to death in the incinerator, right?” Li Yin said as he held the torch carefully.

This speculation was reasonable, but it made the situation even more chilling.

Even the sticky feeling on their hands was unbearable. They didn’t know if it was an illusion, but there seemed to be a thick, pungent odor inside.

Chen Qing suppressed the urge to dry heave and shifted her attention, asking Ning Su, “Was it like this last time you came in?”

Ning Su replied, “I don’t know. It was too dark last time, and I just kept crawling forward.”

“......”

Indeed, it might be better not to see anything.

Chen Qing stared at Ning Su’s feet, not looking at the things on the incinerator’s wall.

Without turning her gaze, her hearing involuntarily concentrated on capturing all the surrounding sounds.

In this state, she seemed to really hear the mournful wails of those ghostly faces mixed in with the sound of clothes rubbing against the sticky wall.

The cold breath entered her limbs through her ear canal, and Chen Qing became colder and colder.

“Why do I feel like those little hands are getting longer and about to touch me!” screamed the person behind her in horror.

Chen Qing’s body immediately tensed up, and just then, she felt a weighty liquid drop on her neck, like the unknown sticky substance on the little hand.

A pungent odor rushed to her head, and an unbearable burning sensation came from her neck.

Chen Qing breathed fast and trembled, nervously swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

A liquid that could penetrate her scarf was already warning for her of the approaching danger.

Li Yin: “Ah fuck! They caught me!”

Chen Qing also felt her ankle caught by something sticky and cold. The little hand was too small, and it clung tightly to her rather than grasping her.

She gritted her teeth and didn’t cry out, silently counting the little hands that caught her.

“Don’t mind them! Hurry up and climb desperately!” Chen Tian shouted loudly in front.

He tried hard to stay calm and gave orders in a cold, hard voice, hoping to give some stability to the people behind him.

In fact, several little hands had also fallen on his legs and waist, and he was not climbing easily.

After struggling to kick off the few little hands on his legs, Chen Tian lowered his head and almost cursed.

At first, there were only spooky faces and small hands on the left and right sides, and also on the top of the head. But now, on the side where he was crawling, there were even smaller hands sticking out.

These hands were too tiny, with fingers that looked like young plants and were wide open, and the fingers were dripping with a gross, sticky fluid.

“Quick, crawl!”

Li Yin said, “The ghost faces are trying to break free from the membrane! Ah, it hurts!”

At this point, Chen Tian had no time to worry about him. After shouting “quick, crawl,” he couldn’t move himself.

Many small hands grabbed him tightly, and he felt himself being pulled in different directions. He couldn’t move because the hands on his left and right sides were pushing and pulling him from all directions.

Chen Tian was anxious, as he couldn’t move and therefore nobody behind him could move either.

In fact, thousands of little hands below caught each of the four people in the passage and couldn’t move.

Tiny hands came out of the gooey material and grabbed and poked them. Dark, green, and red liquid dripped continuously down, making a smelly stream below.

Ning Su was pulled and dragged around by the innumerable little hands, swaying slightly like a swing.

One little hand pierced his finger, and a drop of blood seeped into the little hand, which suddenly jumped up high. Other little hands immediately went crazy and reached out towards his body.

A group of little hands rushed in and directly knocked Ning Su’s face askew, leaving a bunch of putrid black-green fluid on the side of his white nose.

Ning Su was a little unhappy.

Chen Qing’s hair was already standing straight up from being pulled by the little hands on top of her head, and the liquid had clumped her hair together.

The little hands pulled her hair hard, and her face was pulled so tight it was distorted.

She forcefully opened the little hand on her right arm, and with her bloody hand, she reached for her boot, took out a knife from inside, and cleanly cut off her hair.

Then, holding the knife, she slashed back and cut off a small hand that was grabbing her.

Immediately, hundreds of small hands sprang up and grabbed her arms, as if they were glued on with strong adhesive. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t break free from the grasp of these small hands.

The scratches on her body became deeper and several small fingers poked holes in her skin.

She could clearly feel her blood flowing out, and her strength was fading away.

As more and more small hands emerged and surrounded her, Chen Qing’s eyes filled with despair.

Li Yin had only entered the dungeon instance twice, and his mental fortitude was far inferior to that of Chen Tian and Chen Qing. Moreover, he had more space for the small hands to operate as he was the one at the last of the line. At this point, he was on the verge of collapse.

More and more small hands emerged, and he could not break free, no matter how hard he struggled. The pain of the ghost's hands burrowing into his body twisted his face in agony.

What was even more frightening was that he was being forced to move towards the right side, closer and closer to the membrane on the incinerator’s wall.

He happened to come face to face with a dog demon inside.

This was the only dog face he saw in the membrane, black fur stained with blood, one side of the head smashed in, a charred and missing chunk of the face, and the pitch-black eyes filled with despair and wicked resentment.

It bared its teeth and struggled fiercely, making the membrane thinner and more translucent.

“They...it’s really coming out!!! Ah!”

Obviously, Chen Tian also understood the situation behind him.

As his energy drained away and the small hands multiplied on his body, he fell into a hopeless abyss.

A ghost hand was crawling towards his mouth, trying to enter his body. Chen Tian’s body was already unable to move. He looked up with difficulty and spat out, “Crawl if you can!”

His voice was no longer as loud as it was at the beginning, indicating that his strength was also reaching its limit. He pinned his last hope on Ning Su and said desperately, “Ning Su...there aren’t many hands on my back. Try crawling over me.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a weight fell on his neck, and his face was pressed into a pile of small hands. The pungent smell of corpse fluid covered his face.

“...”

Chen Tian raised his face, his eyes glued shut by the cold and sticky liquid. In a hazy state, he saw a person lying flat on the ground, rushing forward. With a loud bang, the incinerator’s door was knocked open.

Light shone into Chen Tian’s dirty eyes, and his pupils trembled slightly in the brightness.

Ning Su reached out to Chen Tian. “Come out.”

Chen Tian struggled with all his might to break free from the small hands and drape his arm around Ning Su’s. “Okay! Let’s go out!”

With the door in sight, Ning Su dragged Chen Tian out. The small hands ahead of them withered and melted for some unknown reason, and Chen Qing, who had been unable to move, suddenly struggled again.

“Help! Help me!”

“They’re coming out!”

Chen Qing immediately turned around as soon as she moved.

Li Yin, at the very back, not only couldn’t crawl, but was also being slowly moved towards the incinerator’s wall on the right by countless small hands. Several ghost faces immediately emerged there.

Dog faces, pig faces, and human faces all rubbed against his back like insane ghosts who hadn’t smelled human breath in a hundred years.

Li Yin leaned against the furnace wall, struggling and screaming.

“Li Yin!” Chen Qing mustered all her strength, twisted her upper body, and hugged Li Yin’s leg, dragging him down with difficulty.

Under a thin membrane, a sheep’s face with half of its lips torn off used its exposed teeth to tear at the membrane while madly butting with its horns.

On the other side, a rotten human face also leaned in, jostling with the sheep's face to tear open the membrane.

“Ah! Ahhhhh!!!”

Li Yin, in extreme fear and panic, raised the torch in his hand and swung it towards the goat-faced creature.

Chen Tian, who had just landed, saw this scene and shouted in fear, “Don’t use the torch!”

The torch did have an effect at first, but then the ghostly faces inside howled with grief and indignation, their malevolent aura scattered and their twisted, grotesque faces frantically burrowing into the membrane.

A splash of blood landed on Chen Qing’s arm and face, accompanied by a mournful scream.

She raised her head in confusion and saw Li Yin’s back covered in blood and tiny pieces of something.

She saw Li Yin’s white spine.

His body became thinner and thinner.

Before Chen Qing could react, the torch in Li Yin’s hand ignited the oil in the membrane, and the incinerator’s passage burst into flames with a “bang.”

Countless ghostly faces struggled and screamed in the inferno.

The flames rushed towards the furnace door, and without hesitation, Chen Tian bent down and leaped into the incinerator.

Two seconds later, Chen Qing was pulled out of the furnace by Chen Tian, who was in turn pulled out by Ning Su by his ankle.

The siblings lay on the ground together.

Chen Qing’s pants were half burned, her calf covered in blisters, and her body marked with varying degrees of injuries inflicted by the small hands. There was a small blood hole in her left wrist where a small hand had stabbed her.

Her body also bore traces of burns from the sticky fluid.

Chen Tian was also in a sorry state, with a strand of his hair burned off and his body covered in sticky goo, but he bore no injuries.

Ning Su suspected this was related to his ability.

The two of them lay motionless on the ground, enveloped in the fear and exhaustion of having narrowly escaped death, as well as the grief of losing their companion.

Ning Su did not disturb them.

He looked towards the small warehouse in the corner of the slaughterhouse and saw that the little child in a white t-shirt and white trousers was standing there, as expected.

From this far away distance, Ning Su could tell that the child was a little unhappy just by the way the other was looking at him with his head slightly lowered and his eyes raised.

Last time, when the butcher stuffed Ning Su into the incinerator, the child had pulled him out with a rather unhappy expression.

What should they do now?

To solve the mystery, they must come to the other world.

His gaze moved away from the small warehouse and surveyed the slaughterhouse.

It was exactly the same as before they entered the incinerator. The familiar butcher was chopping meat not far away.

It seemed like they had returned to the original slaughterhouse.

But all three of them knew this was not the case.

When they entered the incinerator, it was just after 7 a.m. or nearly 8 a.m., and the bright white sunlight had already spread out.

The sun was also out here, but it seemed to be covered with a layer of yellow film, and the sunlight that shone through was dim and depressing.

The butcher was indeed the same butcher, but in the normal world, he looked like a regular human during the day, and only showed his different side when Ning Su and Chen Qing followed him to the riverbank next to the funeral home.

Now the sun was out.

The butcher’s eyes were a deep green and emitted an eerie light.

Moreover, he was not chopping any pigs, cows or sheep, but a long, slender limb with white, hairless flesh.

Chen Qing, who had been enduring it in the incinerator, finally couldn’t help but vomit on the ground after seeing the pieces of white flesh that he was chopping.

In the gloomy slaughterhouse, the most conspicuous thing was still the bloody red words on the wall.

[Normal world: Killing is prohibited in the slaughterhouse.]

[Other world: Only killing “humans” is allowed in the slaughterhouse.]