Chapter 011: The Butcher's Clue

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Night had fallen deep, and the school, shrouded in black mist, was suffocatingly silent.

Su Cheng strolled along the outer corridor of the teaching building, his katana in hand. His footsteps were so light that they made only the faintest rustle against the ground.

The classrooms and corridors were pitch-black, so dark one could not see a hand before their face. Yet Su Cheng did not turn on his flashlight; his eyes had gradually adapted to the darkness, his attention sharper than ever before. Even the flight of an insect nearby could not escape his senses.

Silence—an abyssal silence.

In this fifty-meter-long corridor, there was not even the sound of an ant crawling, not a single breath to be heard. But Su Cheng knew—the Butcher was lurking nearby.

He could smell the evil stench that seeped from the Butcher’s soul.

Bang!

Just as Su Cheng passed a classroom, the glass window inside suddenly exploded outward. Sharp shards shot forth like blades, embedding themselves in his windbreaker.

Fortunately, Su Cheng wore a police-issue bulletproof vest beneath his coat; otherwise, those shards would have left him in agony.

“He’s here!”

Su Cheng’s eyes turned icy cold. A terrifying black figure burst from the classroom.

His gaze fixed upon the monstrous shadow—the pig-headed mask on the Butcher’s face was especially grotesque and horrific in the darkness.

The Butcher’s explosive power was astonishing; in a blink, he was before Su Cheng, swinging his bloodstained executioner’s axe down upon Su Cheng’s head.

The ambush happened so quickly that Su Cheng had no time to dodge. He could only raise his katana to block the blow.

A piercing clash of metal rang out, and a tremendous force jolted through the blade, numbing Su Cheng’s hands and sending his katana flying several meters away.

In that moment between life and death, Su Cheng became utterly calm. As the Butcher’s axe came down, he lunged forward, diving at the killer’s legs.

Dodging the axe by a hair’s breadth, Su Cheng pulled a sharp dagger from his belt and stabbed it into the Butcher’s right knee.

In such close quarters, the katana was unwieldy; the dagger was far more agile and lethal.

Su Cheng gripped the handle tightly, twisted, and severed the Butcher’s lower leg.

Losing his balance, the Butcher fell to one knee, his demonic eyes glaring at Su Cheng with venomous hatred, as if intent on dragging him into hell.

But he would have no such chance.

Rather than press his advantage, Su Cheng quickly put distance between them.

If it were an ordinary human, such an injury would have rendered them unconscious from pain. But the Butcher seemed unfazed. From this, Su Cheng deduced that the pig-masked killer was not human—more akin to an undead, evil being like a zombie. No pain, no fatigue.

If that was the case, killing him would take more effort.

Based on his experience with horror games, Su Cheng knew that undead in games were never truly immortal—find the right method, and they could be destroyed.

For example, in Resident Evil, a zombie could be killed by a shot to the head.

Unfortunately, Su Cheng had no gun. Otherwise, at this range, a bullet would have settled things easily.

Just as he distanced himself and retrieved his fallen katana, the Butcher, still kneeling, suddenly let out a terrifying roar and hurled his axe straight at Su Cheng.

“Damn it!”

Su Cheng couldn’t help but swear as the axe spun toward him with deadly momentum.

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The wind howled through the corridor.

With the Butcher’s terrifying strength, a hit from that axe would have decapitated Su Cheng without question.

A wave of death washed over him. Gritting his teeth, Su Cheng forced his body to move, throwing himself to the right.

Blood sprayed—Su Cheng felt a burning pain in his shoulder, as if hellfire was searing his very soul.

He’d managed to avoid a fatal wound, but the sharp blade had cut a deep gash across his left shoulder, splattering blood across his face.

Agony!

The pain was soul-scouring, almost enough to make him black out.

“Damn, looks like my shoulder’s shattered.”

Su Cheng hissed in pain. Such an injury wouldn’t heal anytime soon; he could barely muster any strength in his left arm. Things were looking grim.

Though leaving the scenario would heal any wound instantly, a shattered shoulder would make clearing the level far more difficult.

At that moment, the Butcher suddenly rose, limping toward Su Cheng.

Su Cheng had no time to treat his injuries—he hefted his katana and advanced.

At this stage of the game, any retreat would mean no chance at all.

He had to finish the Butcher here!

Unarmed, the Butcher was still tough and resilient but wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary person. Su Cheng still had a chance.

When the Butcher was within five meters, Su Cheng exploded into action, accelerating like a hunting leopard, katana poised to strike.

With a snarl, the Butcher lashed out with an iron chain wrapped around his left hand, whipping it hard against Su Cheng.

Taking the blow, Su Cheng tasted blood in his throat, but he swallowed it down, enduring the torture as he gripped his blade in one hand and thrust upward at the Butcher’s neck.

Swish!

The blade, cold and sharp, pierced straight through the Butcher’s neck, the tip protruding from the back.

A normal person would have died instantly, but the Butcher only howled in pain and seized Su Cheng’s throat.

A terrifying sense of suffocation overwhelmed him—trapped in the Butcher’s iron grip, Su Cheng could barely breathe, his eyes filling with blood.

“It’s over. Go to hell.”

With the last of his strength, Su Cheng twisted the blade, severing the Butcher’s neck. The pig-masked head tumbled free, rolling to Su Cheng’s feet.

A moment later, the iron grip on his throat loosened. Su Cheng collapsed, coughing violently, spitting out bloody phlegm before regaining his composure.

He’d nearly died.

Gasping for air, Su Cheng realized that had he hesitated a moment longer, the Butcher would have strangled him.

Regaining some strength, Su Cheng quickly treated his wound with Yunnan Baiyao spray and a hemostatic bandage. His left hand was still useless, but at least the bleeding was under control.

After bandaging his shoulder, Su Cheng pounced on the Butcher’s corpse with the eagerness of a lifelong bachelor spotting a naked beauty.

Of course, he wasn’t about to take advantage of the situation...

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Su Cheng’s intent was to search the body for clues or tools that would help him clear the level.

The Butcher’s corpse was ice-cold, devoid of any human warmth. From it, Su Cheng found only a single key. The Butcher’s identity remained a mystery.

Checking his phone, Su Cheng saw that dawn was still four hours and twenty-three minutes away—he had to find clues to escape before then.

As a fan of horror games, Su Cheng had once played Dead by Daylight on PC. But this scenario was nothing like the game—it was hell mode right from the start.

In the PC game, it was enough to evade the killer and escape the area to win.

But in this horror scenario, the only way to find clues for escape was to kill the Butcher. And given the nature of this damned game, Su Cheng suspected there was more than one Butcher in the school.

He was about to leave when he noticed the decapitated head glaring at him, eyes wide open in deathless spite.

Su Cheng pondered a moment, then walked over and tore the pig mask off the corpse’s head.

Beneath the mask was an unfamiliar face, though it seemed vaguely familiar.

“I remember now—he’s a teacher here. I saw his photo earlier on the staff board downstairs,” a flash of insight crossed Su Cheng’s mind.

As a top student, Su Cheng’s memory was always sharp. In his free time, he was deeply passionate about suspense and horror games.

“So, the Butcher was a teacher? But how did he become the Butcher?”

Having found an important clue, questions flooded his mind. To uncover the truth, he’d have to start with this teacher.

Returning to the first-floor hall, Su Cheng found the teacher’s name.

“Koji Tezuka, high school Japanese teacher, office on the fourth floor.”

About ten minutes later, Su Cheng stood at the door of Mr. Tezuka’s office on the fourth floor. He inserted the key taken from the Butcher, and with a click, the door opened.

Stepping inside, a wave of musty, rotten air assaulted him, making him sneeze several times.

“So this is Koji Tezuka’s office—the pig-headed Butcher’s lair.”

The office was small, containing only a desk and a cabinet. A thick layer of dust covered the desk, suggesting it hadn’t been cleaned in ages.

Su Cheng searched the office carefully and soon noticed a blue travel bag stowed under the desk.

“This bag is heavy—what’s inside?”

His eyes narrowed as he cautiously unzipped it.

“A bowling ball? No wonder it’s so heavy.”

To his surprise, the bag contained a bowling ball—apparently, Mr. Tezuka was a bowling enthusiast.

Just then, the bowling ball rolled out, fell to the floor with a thud, and cracked open.

Inside the bowling ball was a severely decomposed human head...