Cyberpunk, but urban

"Oh wow... You make me look forward to it too..." Jack's eyes also lit up with anticipation.

"Really? Let me tell you in secret, I received an invitation letter from the library not long ago. I want to make a taste comparable to the '8 Great Chefs' and give those gourmets a big surprise! Jack, are you willing to trust me and follow me?"

"Of course, but what should we do with the ingredients we brought today?"

Although Jack wanted to follow his chef to the library immediately, the sack of ingredients at his feet made him give up the idea temporarily.

"Oh, that's right. Let's make those into meat paste first. After injecting them with anesthetics and blockers, throw them into the blender and can them while the meat is at its freshest."

"Meat sauce~ That would be great..."

While chatting and laughing, he and Pierre carried the victims into the back kitchen. After the victims were injected with a mixture of anesthetics and blockers, and a large amount of spices were added, they were sent into their blender by Pierre and Jack to be made into "fragrant" meat sauce.

Puff...pop!

One of the victims Jack had lifted up was stuffed into the blender, and his head smashed between the blades, making a strange noise.

Pierre said helplessly: "Ah, I reminded you before, don't release the head first, release the legs first, let them live as long as possible. Otherwise, there is no need to waste anesthetics and blocking agents... If they die too quickly, the taste will not be so good."

Perhaps because of the "23 Great Chefs" from Alley 8, all the chefs in Alley 23 regarded the human flesh that the eight members of the City Star were best at cooking as the best ingredient in the city. Then, they also followed the "8 Great Chefs" and regarded the suffering of the people used as ingredients as the best seasoning.

If it was the Earth of Ye Lan's previous life, eating people or making food feel pain would have long been proven to be meaningless. But in a city where people are the most important, doing so is actually effective. It's hard not to wonder if urban people are universal tools that look like humans.

In the library, Angela and Ye Lan, who had just returned to the director's office, happened to see this scene.

"It seems that eating people in the back alley is a common thing?" Angela asked. There was not much curiosity in her voice, but Ye Lan, who had been reincarnated with her in the Lobotomy Corporation for ten thousand years, could hear it.

"Of course cannibalism is taboo... but some rich people who seek excitement will pay to buy it. As for Alley 23, this back alley called the Alley of Taste is a little different. In pursuit of the ultimate delicacy, this back alley does not have a taboo against cannibalism."

"It seems that each part of the back alley has its own characteristics." Angela took another look at the scene displayed in the library and asked Ye Lan another question: "Is human flesh really that delicious?"

"Who knows, Angela, don't try it secretly just because you are curious."

"Humans can become food for humans... I don't want to try that."

Chapter 118. Reception - Pierre's Big Meat Pie (Part )

Angela sighed and denied Ye Lan's worries, then took him to the lobby of the library reception.

Not long after, Pierre, who had cooked all the ingredients Jack brought back into easy-to-preserve meat sauce, took Jack to sign the invitation letter and walked into the library through the door that opened out of thin air.

"Hmm~ This is a smell I've never smelled before~"

As soon as he entered the door, Pierre began to twitch his nostrils, sniffing the various smells floating in the library.

“I don’t like this smell.”

Jack rubbed his nose uncomfortably. After being accustomed to the smell of blood and flesh and various spices in Alley 23, the smell of books in the library made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Jack, unfamiliar smells can inspire new inspirations. Do you understand?"

"Okay, okay~"

After being gently poked on the cheek by Pierre as a punishment, Jack sighed and agreed with Pierre's statement, and no longer mentioned that he hated the smell here.

"Maybe it's because they have been in the abalone shop for too long and no longer smell the stench." Ye Lan, who came with Angela to greet the chef duo Pierre and Jack, said to her, not taking the couple seriously at all.

"Dear guests, welcome. I am the director and librarian of the library, Angela." Angela ignored Ye Lan's strange words and opened the conversation to the two guests by introducing herself as usual.

"Wow~ This texture, this luster, it must be top-notch ingredients..."

"It looks like first-rate ingredients, but... Pierre?"

"I know, but unfortunately this person isn't a human. That's why I'm so excited! Hmm~ I wonder what she would taste like~"

The two ignored Angela's self-introduction, but were interested in what she could taste like. It can only be said that Lane 23 is a place of outstanding people and good places, but it has produced nothing except the chef's brain.

"Tsk tsk, they are actually thinking about how to eat you." Ye Lan was almost amused by Pierre and Jack, "Your body is made of metal..."

"My dear guest, I'm afraid you can't hurt me at all."

Angela once again ignored Ye Lan's strange words and continued to speak to Pierre and Jack in those emotionless words.

"You're so brave to say that. How would you know if you don't try?"

"Wait, Jack, be polite. She's the one who invited us to this wonderful place, isn't she?"

Perhaps Jack's emotions were magnified by the library, or perhaps he was really angered by Angela's emotionless words. If Pierre hadn't stopped him, he might have pulled out the kitchen knife he carried with him and hit Angela.

"Oh, yes... Ma'am, I'm sorry for being rude."

But with Pierre watching, Jack finally restrained his sudden anger and apologized to Angela.

"So, we invited Ms. Angela? Can we enter now?"

“May you find the book you are looking for.”

Pierre hummed a tune and pushed open the door of the fighting room. Jack, who followed behind her, keenly discovered that Ye Lan beside Angela had disappeared at some point.

"Something's wrong... The man next to the librarian is gone."

The moment he entered the door, Jack said to Pierre.

When the door of the battle room was closed, Jack and Pierre saw Ye Lan again. However, this time, Ye Lan was wrapped in a complete set of He-level ego.

It seemed as if a cloak made of gradient-colored ice silk was covering Ye Lan's body. Through the gaps in his cloak, Pierre and Jack could see the close-fitting armor on Ye Lan's body that looked like it was made of dark blue ice.

"To be honest, I quite like your love story, so I chose this set of equipment today to face you two cannibals."

The tip of the sharp spear made of ice and snow in Ye Lan's hand paused on the ground, and a ruthless blizzard blew up from under his feet, submerging the entire room in a terrifying low temperature. Before Pierre could say anything, he turned into an ice sculpture under Jack's horrified gaze.

"Mr. Jack, you have two choices. First, defeat me. Then the ice outside your Ms. Pierre's body will melt naturally, allowing her to return to you safely."

"As for the other option, you can turn around and run away now and forget about Pierre. In this way, she will slowly die of hypothermia in the ice and turn into books in the library. Now, you can start making your choice."

Jack, who was standing opposite Ye Lan, took out the bone-cutting knife from his waist and told Ye Lan his choice: "If running away means that I can no longer help Pierre, I might as well die in the battle with you."

"What a touching love story..."

Ye Lan smiled and thrust her spear at Jack. [Frost Fragment], the ego equipment produced by the Ice Queen, brought up gusts of cold wind, making Jack, who was trying hard to dodge Ye Lan's attack, feel cold all over.

He was only wearing a butcher's suit. Apart from a thick leather apron that could only block the spurting blood, he didn't have any other warm clothes on.

"I have to fight quickly and not get hit by him..."

Jack thought to himself that if Ye Lan's spear pierced his body, he would most likely freeze to death due to the coldness of the spear. Even if he was lucky enough not to be killed by Ye Lan's subsequent pursuit, he would completely lose the possibility of saving Pierre.

It’s a pity that Jack will probably never have the chance to know that in order to improve the emotional level between him and Pierre, Ye Lan is not only letting him go, but also allowing Pierre to maintain the ability to perceive outside the ice shell.

She was indeed very happy that Jack did not run away, but at the same time, Jack's attack on Ye Lan, a strong man who could freeze her in an instant, made her desperately worried.

After only two rounds, within the vision provided by the ring in Ye Lan's hand, the emotional level of Pierre and Jack exceeded level three, and was even rapidly growing towards level four.

At this point, Ye Lan no longer needed to continue playing with them.

Ye Lan dodged Jack's full-strength vertical strike with a sideways movement, and then stabbed Jack's leg with his spear, who was trying to gain some advantage by relying on the disadvantage of the spear's poor close combat. Frost instantly covered Jack's stabbed leg, turning his right leg into bluish-white frozen meat in the blink of an eye.

"Uh……"

It was an indescribable dull pain.

Jack ignored his legs and, almost risking his life, slashed at Ye Lan again.

Chapter 119. Reception - Pierre's Big Meat Pie (Part )

"You are willing to wield your sword against an enemy you know you can't defeat for the sake of the safety of the one you love... Even if you are just maniacal cannibals, I still have to praise the relationship between the two of you."

The tip of the Frost Shard blocked Jack's slashing bone-chopping knife, and the frost crawled along the knife to his holding arm. Jack hastily dropped the knife and tried to punch back with his other hand that was not holding the knife.

However, the absolute difference in physical fitness made his counterattack completely useless. Ye Lan only kicked Jack's leg, which was frozen to death by the Frost Shard's spear, and Jack fell to the ground without any resistance, and was pierced through the heart by Ye Lan's spear.

"What a pity! It seems that you are too weak to save your Pierre from me. However, I can tell you a good news. After your death, your Pierre will also thaw from the ice. It's a pity that you won't be able to see it."

"I'm sorry... Pierre... If only I could be... stronger..."

Jack murmured as he gradually stiffened in the frost. The spear tip made of ice sealed his pierced heart, and the blood that could not circulate solidified, bringing him cruel torture. Pierre in the ice shell saw all of this and heard all of Jack's last words before his death.

Click...

After Jack stared with his eyes wide open and took his last breath, the ice shell outside Pierre's body gradually began to crack. After regaining some mobility, Pierre struggled to break free from the restraints on his body.

The back-alley cook rushed towards Ye Lan like a madman, and used her kitchen knife to attack him continuously in a disorderly manner as if to vent her anger.

"Jack... didn't you promise to stay with me forever..."

Ye Lan could hear Pierre's cries as he madly swung a kitchen knife, and could also see the miserable traces of tears running down her face.

"It makes me look like a bad person... But when you use people to cook, don't you ever think that one day you will be killed by others?"

Although now was not a suitable time to ask questions, and he did not need to make any more attempts to raise Pierre's emotional level, Ye Lan still raised the question that might cause her to do something even crazier.

"What... are you talking about?! In Alley 23, people are born to eat or be eaten! If we don't eat people... if we don't eat people, we will only end up being eaten by others!"

The kitchen knife drew a shining trail and just missed Ye Lan's chest by a hair's breadth, failing to pierce him as he took a half step back.

"…It seems you have nothing to say."

The next second, the end of the spear in Ye Lan's hand hit Pierre's hand holding the kitchen knife, knocking her knife out of her hand. Then, the spear turned half a circle in Ye Lan's hand and pierced Pierre's heart in an exact same direction as Jack's, leaving a wound on her chest that was exactly the same as Jack's.

“Ha…! I never thought… that I would become the last ingredient… for once in my life…” Pierre, kneeling down dejectedly, groaned, trying to touch the blood flowing from his chest, “…Anyway, I never thought of joining the “8 Great Chefs” alone… Might as well just do it… Ha wow…”

The next moment, countless pages flew out from Pierre and Jack's bodies, integrated in front of Ye Lan, and recompiled into two books.

The Book of Pierre and The Book of Jack.

"What a touching sentiment... Too bad it's from a lunatic."

Ye Lan took the two books, dispersed the [Frost Fragments] on his body, and left the battle room in the reception room.

He thought to himself that this set of equipment from the Snow Queen, an anomaly jokingly called the matchmaking agency by players because of its management mechanism, would have more opportunities to be used in future receptions. After all, just in the Street Lamp Office that would soon rush into the library, there was a pair of young people who had a crush on each other and were waiting for the help of the anomaly of the matchmaking agency.

"What a pity! It would be more fun if the Ice Queen woke up earlier."

"Ye Lan, what are you talking about to yourself? Give me the two guests' books first." Angela's sudden appearance scared Ye Lan. He immediately stuffed the rest of his words back into his stomach and handed the two books in his hand to Angela.

To him, it was a bit like when you were applying glue and suddenly found your mother pushed the door open and walked in. If you asked Ye Lan to choose one thing to do, he would rather apply glue to Angela than let Angela listen to him talking to himself.

After all, he didn't know whether any of his strange words would contain information about the future. If someone who shouldn't have heard it heard it, everything would be a mess.

"Hiss, I think I need to pay attention to the art of speaking..."

"The art of speaking?"

Ye Lan turned his head and saw Angela still standing beside him, holding the two books he had just handed over.

"Eh? Angela put the books away without you?"

"I can go later... First, tell me what the art of speaking is."

At this time, Angela's emotionless speaking style showed its advantage. Even Ye Lan, who was most familiar with Angela in the Assassin's Library, did not dare to clearly say that she was just studious, instead of mocking him in a roundabout way.

Ye Lan was frightened by Angela's stare, so he had to say to her: "Angela, when you speak like this without any emotion, you have no art of speaking..."

"Emotional fluctuations... This may be a little difficult. I am not very familiar with human emotions, Ye Lan, I think I will need your help next."

"This... I was planning to leave the library temporarily, after all, Luna is still outside..."

Angela's request somewhat disrupted Ye Lan's plan. He had only intended to send back the abnormalities in the branch and leave, but many things that happened during the day made him stay until now.

But now, Angela hopes he can stay a little longer.

"Luna... She is just like you. She cannot stay in the library for a long time with the invitation letter... Ye Lan, why don't you take her over as well?"

Although Angela didn't know much about human emotions, she would never forget the knowledge she had learned from Benjamin. Based on the existing information, she came up with a simple solution to this problem.

"Ye Lan, Angela. Why are you two standing here...are there new guests?"

Just when Ye Lan wanted to mention the matter of the branch employees, Malkuth, who had cleaned up the history layer, came over.

Chapter 120. In a Drink Shop

"Ah, there are new guests coming. But now they are all books."

Ye Lan pointed to the two books in Angela's arms that were transformed from the chef of Pierre's big meat pie, and told Malkuth what had happened on their side before.