Ita Era

Chapter 104 Cooperation
When Ding came out of the restroom, he showed his ID to the security guard and asked, "Excuse me, has any doctor entered the intensive care unit within the last 15 minutes?"

Security guard A nodded: "Yes, he went to Mayor Liu's ward."

Ding Shi said, "Let's go take a look."

The three went to Liu Decai's ward. The door was locked from the inside, but security guard B used his key to open it. They entered the ward, but there was no sign of a doctor, only an open window.

Looking at Liu Decai again, there was a fruit knife stuck in his body. Checking his carotid artery, they found that he was already dead.

Ding Shi said to the security guards, "The old police station is relocating, and the address of the new police station has not yet been announced. You are temporarily responsible for handling Mayor Liu's body." A small town like this can still be filled with singing and dancing; Ita doesn't follow the rules.

As he spoke, he walked to the window and looked down, and saw a man in black limping out of the hospital gate.

No way? Did the murderer hurt their leg? Could they be that unlucky?
Ding Shiyuan, possessed by his own power, leaped out of the window and landed steadily—a simple matter indeed.

After showering himself with compliments, Ding Shi chased after the man and saw him riding a bicycle. Ding Shi shouted, "Stop!"

The man in black glanced back, and the two men stared at each other, simultaneously exclaiming "Holy crap!"

"Fool!"

"Ding Shi!"

The man in black stood up and pedaled his bicycle wildly. Ding Shiyuan pulled off the bicycle lock on one side, got on the bicycle, and chased after him.

The two vehicles were about 100 meters apart, speeding along the almost deserted night street. Ding Shi took out the Wildcat Crossbow with his left hand, drew out the bolt, and loaded it, but it was difficult to aim.

Sha Bi kept turning and weaving through streets and alleys, with Ding Shi in hot pursuit. However, due to Ding Shi's Force, his endurance was far superior to Sha Bi's, and over time, the distance between them began to close.

After chasing for 15 meters, seeing a smooth road ahead, Ding Shi decisively braked, raised his crossbow, and shouted, "Don't move!"

Sha Bi's heart skipped a beat, but he still stopped his bicycle. He knew he couldn't escape Ye Mao Nu, so he turned around and smiled sweetly: "Brother Shi, what a coincidence?"

Ding Shi pushed his bicycle aside, slowly approached Sha Bi, and asked, "Why did you kill Liu Decai?"

Sha Bi asked, "Will you let me go?"

Ding Shi: "No."

Foolish Dagger: "Then I won't say."

Ding Shi: "Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Foolish Dagger: "Either way, I'm going to die. And if I die, you definitely won't survive either."

Ding Shi: "Oh?"

Foolish Bone said, "I can trade you the secrets of the slaughterhouse."

Ding Shi: "Tell me first."

Sha Bi said, "Lord Death is very unhappy about the Satanic Cult causing trouble on his territory, but he can't intervene directly, so he can only ask me to do it. Now, four inverted crosses have been activated in Ham Town. Once the last inverted cross at the slaughterhouse is activated, Ham Town will fall into hell."

Foolish Bone said, "The evil spirit of the slaughterhouse has been summoned, but..."

Ding Shi: "But?"

Silly Bone said leisurely, "A deal."

Ding Shi said, "I can let you go, but you have to tell the truth."

"Deal." Sha Bi said, "Liu Decai bought murderers from the heavy prison and put them in Ham Town. His stated purpose was to suppress land prices and acquire land. In reality, Liu Decai is the leader of the Satanic cult in Ham Town. I attempted to assassinate him three times. The first time, a car didn't kill him. The second time, a player named Ore stopped me. The third time, I finally killed him."

Sha Bi said, "After killing Liu Decai, I obtained further information through his soul."

Ding Shi: "How do we break the altar in the slaughterhouse, or eliminate the evil spirits?"

Sha Bi said, "There was a problem with the summoning ritual at the slaughterhouse. What was summoned was a pig demon. To be precise, it's a pig with a partial evil spirit soul. To summon the fully-formed evil spirit, we need some men and women whose birthdays are tomorrow as sacrifices. I guess they've already caught some sacrifices."

Ding Shi asked, "Can we enter the slaughterhouse now?"

Sha Bi replied, "Before 8 a.m. tomorrow, there will be many workers and security guards in the slaughterhouse. I think they will be arrested or kicked out soon. I don't know the specifics. At 8 p.m., we are now in a community of shared interests. Your goal is to disrupt the ritual, and my goal is to kill the evil spirit or the pig demon before it grows to its full form."

Foolish Bone asked, "So, cooperation?"

Ding Shi nodded: "If what you're saying is true, then of course we can cooperate."

Foolish Bone said, "It's definitely the truth. How many people do you have?"

Ding Shi replied, "It's just me, but Yu Yuan should have quite a few people's phone numbers."

Sha Bi gestured, "Then let's go and meet Yu Yuan."

Ding Shi believed that Sha Bi hadn't lied and nodded, "Okay."

……

Yu Yuan's home is an apartment, over 80 square meters, with the windows and curtains tightly closed.

As Yu Yuan brewed tea, he sized up Sha Bi: "There are truly no eternal enemies. Sha Bi, what do you know?"

Sha Bi took out a file bag from his backpack and pulled out a dozen or so sheets of paper: "This is a map of the slaughterhouse. We can't confirm the area where the pig demon is located at the moment. They've closed workshops 2-5, but kept workshop 1 open."

Yu Yuan looked at it for a while and said, "Number 1 is the old workshop."

There are a total of 5 workshops, each containing the necessary equipment for slaughtering, cutting, freezing or refrigeration.

The pigs are transported to the side of a passageway, where they are herded off the trucks and forced to walk straight ahead, unable to turn back, until they reach the slaughterhouse. Unlike traditional pig slaughtering methods, Ham Town employs a European-style approach: instead of bleeding the pigs, a sharp knife is inserted under the armpit, aiming directly for the heart.

Then a crane will lift the pig away and place it on a dehairing table. The pig hair will be singed off with a blowtorch, and then brushed clean with water. Next, it will be sent to a cutting table, where workers will cut the pig into several large pieces and hang them to dry. Some will be sold directly to the market, while others will be put in plastic bags and placed in refrigerated or frozen containers.

Workshop No. 1 is the old workshop, located outside the factory area, and its products are sold in Ham Town. The other four workshops are new workshops, mainly processing pork for sale. There is a railway track within the factory area used for transporting pigs and pork.

While sipping his tea, Sha Bi explained, "I went to the new workshop area last night but didn't find any trace of the pig demon, nor did I get any useful information from the workers. I suspect the pig demon is in the pigpen, which is separate from the four workshops."

The pigpen is only a little over 300 square meters in area and is located in the middle of the new workshop area. The slaughterhouse does not raise pigs, but the law has explicit regulations on the weight of pigs to be slaughtered. Pigs that do not meet the weight requirement are either sent back to the pigpen, transported back to the farm by train, or temporarily housed at the farm until they reach the required weight.

Sha Bi said, "There are 10 workers in the pigsty, all of whom are from the pig farm. The staff dormitory is right next to the pigsty. They will take the train at 7 a.m. tomorrow and leave the slaughterhouse with the pigs in the pigsty to return to the pig farm."

Yu Yuan asked, "What is the enemy's situation?"

Sha Bi said, "There must be believers." Yu Yuan asked, "What's the situation with the pig demon?"

The fool replied, "I don't know."

Yu Yuan: "Is the pig demon in the slaughterhouse right now?"

Silly Dagger: "I don't know."

Yu Yuan asked, "Then what do you know?"

Sha Bi said, "I know that if the pig demon wants to become a fully-fledged evil spirit, it must complete the ritual at the slaughterhouse."

Ding Shi disagreed and asked, "Silly Bone, are you sure the information you provided is completely true and reliable?"

Sha Bi said, "I'm sure." All the information was bought from the Grim Reaper with my points, how could it be fake? But he wouldn't say that, otherwise Ding Xiaoren would force him to spend more points to buy more information.

Yu Yuan said, "Silly Bone, write down the information that Death gave you. I'll contact other players now, but I can't guarantee how many will participate."

Ding Shi said, "Tell them that disrupting the slaughterhouse ritual will raise the participating players' completion rating by two."

Yu Yuan: "Two? Isn't that a bit too much?"

Ding Shi said, "Because this is the last altar, all the believers in Ham Town will swear to protect this altar with their lives."

Yu Yuan nodded: "Ding Shi, can you get a car? We need ten walkie-talkies."

Ding asked, "Do you have a walkie-talkie?"

Yu Yuan said, "Yes, it was the earliest one-way mobile Motorola walkie-talkie."

This walkie-talkie consisted of a main unit and a secondary unit; the secondary unit was mobile, while the main unit was stationary, with a range of approximately 500 meters to 1 kilometer. A significant drawback was that the secondary unit weighed over six kilograms and was quite bulky, requiring it to be carried on the body. It wasn't until World War II that the walkie-talkie's weight was reduced to 2.2 kilograms.

Yu Yuan said, "You have to go to the World's Fair to buy it; it's right next to the museum."

Ding Shi: "I don't have a car, and it's the middle of the night."

Yu Yuan said, "It's alright, I'll explain the situation when I contact them and see who can offer help." Yu Yuan hoped that the players would enter the slaughterhouse as soon as possible at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. However, the slaughterhouse was very large, and walkie-talkies were essential equipment.

Yu Yuan is not good at troop deployment; he is currently doing preparatory work. Ding Shi, on the other hand, often deploys troops, but his deployments are based on the weapons at hand and his understanding of the enemy's intelligence.

Strictly speaking, without any information about the enemy, anyone in command would be at a loss. Yu Yuan could only reluctantly take on this heavy responsibility.

……

On the fifth day, at four in the morning, a total of eleven players gathered at Yu Yuan's house. Wang Meng was still in the intensive care unit; he was said to have woken up, but he definitely wouldn't be able to participate in today's operation.

Among the eleven players, besides Hongyi, Yuyuan, and Shabi, there were three others whom Ding Shi knew. One was named Liuhe, and the other Zhang Hai; they were players Ding Shi had met briefly on the first day of entering the dungeon. In addition, the Iron Shirt girl was also among them.

Yu Yuan first took out the gold paper obtained during Ding Shi and introduced the current situation to everyone: players and believers must compete for the last altar.

Yu Yuan's Plan: Hongyi has provided a truck. Everyone will pool their money and head to the expo at 7:00 AM tomorrow to purchase walkie-talkies, then proceed together to the slaughterhouse. Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, the first step is to establish walkie-talkie terminals. Players will work in pairs to search the new area of ​​the slaughterhouse for the whereabouts of the sacrifices, believers, and pig demons.

The plan lacked details and was simplistic and crude.

Among the eleven, one girl with bandages stood out. Her attire had a martial arts feel; the black, fitted outfit made her look very capable, and she even wore a straw hat, mimicking the conical hat from a martial arts film. However, her most striking feature was more anime-like. Her entire face was wrapped in gauze, revealing only her eyes, nostrils, and mouth.

After Yu Yuan finished explaining his plan, no one had much to say about it. However, the bandaged girl spoke up: "On the second day, I did a mission related to the Satanic cult and obtained some information. It basically said that we are irreconcilable enemies with the Satanic cult, but some of us have betrayed our faith and become followers of the Satanic cult."

The bandaged woman said, "If this person didn't die at the hands of Death, then he must be among us."

Upon hearing this, a hint of suspicion crept into the glances exchanged among the group.

Ding Shi said, "The person you're talking about is called Wang Xi. He participated in the hospital altar mission and I killed him." Ding Shi lied without thinking, just spouting nonsense.

The reason for lying is that we can't discuss the traitor right now, otherwise, people will back out before the team even sets off. We need to make grand promises now, the bigger the better. That's why Ding Shi had Yu Yuan deceive everyone by saying it would raise the completion rating by two levels.

Ding Shi isn't a traditionally kind person; he wouldn't explain the situation to everyone and give them a choice. With a shortage of manpower, he'd rather deceive whoever he can.

Most people don't believe Ham Town will perish, so I'll have to do the opposite. Since you don't want to believe the truth, I'll lie and deceive you.

Hearing Ding Shi say this, everyone said they had no other questions.

At 7 a.m., Hongyi drove a truck with Ding Shi to the expo and purchased eleven walkie-talkies, including a main unit weighing 20 kilograms and composed of multiple parts. After learning how to assemble and use them on-site, Ding Shi and Hongyi headed to the slaughterhouse.

Outside the slaughterhouse, Yu Yuan and his group had already arrived; it was the end of the night shift. After the employees left, the new factory area was deserted, not even security personnel remained.

Yu Yuan said, "If we can come and go as we please, it means that believers can also come and go as they please. Who is the manager of the slaughterhouse?"

Liu He replied, "Liu Decai."

Yu Yuan asked in surprise, "Liu Decai is not only the town mayor, but also the slaughterhouse manager?"

Liu He added, "He is also a major shareholder of the pharmaceutical factory."

Ding Shi asked, "Such an obviously bad guy, isn't there any plot twist?" This is very un-Italian.

Liu He said, "The key point is not Liu Decai; there shouldn't be any reversal."

Yu Yuan: "Let's go."

Everyone got on the truck, which drove slowly toward the factory. Ding Shi stood outside, clinging to the driver's side door, watching his surroundings. Who knew if death would suddenly strike?

The truck followed the railway tracks, deep into the factory area, and reached the pigsty. At the end of the tracks was a warehouse, a hundred meters away from the pigsty.

The pigpen is seven meters high, with a roof and ventilation on all four sides. Each pigpen is five square meters in size to prevent the spread of disease from sick pigs. Many water pipes are placed on the ground, connected to water guns for washing the pigpen.

There were no pigs in the pigsty, but the stench was still overwhelming.

To the east of the pigsty is its entrance, and at that entrance is an office. Inside, besides desks and chairs, there are also a water dispenser, a dining table, and other supporting facilities. This office serves as the command center for Yu Yuan and his group.

Everyone worked together to unload the walkie-talkies from the truck and install and test them. Yu Yuan would be stationed in the office as the temporary commander, while the other ten people would split up into pairs to search.

Yu Yuan's simple and crude plan came to an end. From now on, everyone should explore on their own, improvise, and contact the command center if anything happens.

As everyone shouldered their walkie-talkies and prepared to depart, a train pulled into the warehouse. Everyone crouched down and leaned against the windows, looking outside.

(End of this chapter)