The Devourer's Flesh Workshop

Sand and wind filled the sky as countless shackled humans stumbled among indistinct buildings carrying heavy loads. A pool of blood sat right in the center of the complex, broken corpses bobbing up and down in the dark crimson blood, occasionally releasing a few bubbles.

A human hung upside down above the blood pool, blood slowly dripping into the pool below. Surrounding him were numerous grotesque figures who left fresh wounds on his body from time to time. Every time a new wound was inflicted, a burst of wild cheers erupted from the crowd.

【The Devourer's Flesh Workshop: Baron William's slave workshop, where he offers the flesh and souls of slaves to the Ancient Devourer in exchange for the blessings of the evil gods of the Dreamlands.】

Forcing down the inevitable terror and oppression brought on by the psychic shock each time, Lynch felt he was growing somewhat used to it.

This was the end of the secret passage over ten meters underground—a secret chamber spanning dozens of square meters. It might once have been a steam engine room, but all the machinery had been removed now. Only a few gas lamps protruded from the walls, illuminating a desk in the center of the chamber and a set piece tray spread out across it.

The set piece tray was densely packed with pieces, but rather than houses and buildings, they were models of various production lines.

These production lines seemed to be fixed onto the tray in an orderly fashion. With a stir in his heart, Lynch traced his memory to locate the approximate positions of Workshops 8C and 10E. Upon closer inspection, the layout of the model production lines matched the actual factory almost perfectly.

“Officers, this is that item.” Under the light, Manager Frank approached the set piece tray first, rubbing his arms as he said in confusion, “Why do I feel so uncomfortable all over? I never felt like this before.”

Lynch and Officer Natalie both cast a bizarre glance at Frank.

An uncontrolled mystery relic constantly radiates filth to the greatest extent. Close-range contact severely impacts ordinary people, making it easy to leave irreversible mental damage, but neither of them reminded him to step back.

Loss of control was a quintessential feature of mystery relics—a taste one had to savor. Since some people loved using relics so much, they might as well let him enjoy it to the fullest. There was no need to waste any sympathy on him.

Thus, Lynch merely gave Frank a nod, turning his full attention to the relic. Because it was clearly out of control, Lynch did not dare touch it directly to read the detailed information. Instead, he asked straight away, “Aside from feeding it one person every day, tell us all the other details. We need to find a way to solve the problem.”

Frank had completely bought into their identities and held nothing back. “This thing really is wonderful to use. As long as it remains active, the workers on the production line that day become obedient. No one dares to slack off, and everyone works with everything they’ve got, even if they collapse from exhaustion in the end. What’s more, bathroom breaks are reduced by several times; unless they’re about to wet their pants, they never leave their posts.”

Listening to Frank’s explanation, Lynch formed a general picture of the relic’s effect.

The models on the relic were arranged in exact alignment with the screw factory's actual production lines, conceptually transforming the screw factory into the flesh workshop itself. Once a victim was sacrificed, all the workers on the production lines were controlled to labor tirelessly, just like in the memory he had seen moments ago.

Seeing that Lynch did not interrupt, Frank continued to explain, “The only drawback is that once they start working, they become stiff, numb, and behave just like puppets. But anyway, they’re just a bunch of tools; knowing how to work is enough. It doesn’t matter if they lose their minds.”

“Shouldn’t the only drawback be that one person dies every day?” Officer Natalie simply could not hold back, asking with a stern face.

“It’s not like we have to pay compensation—it just means one extra person appears on the roster each day, so that hardly counts as a drawback. Besides, with it, production increases by at least a third. It’s more than worth it.”

“Mm, quite right. Making money is what matters most. A shame something went wrong in the end.” Lynch nodded with a faint, mocking smile, secretly stepping hard on the female officer’s foot below. “I heard that on the day of the incident, the count on the roster didn’t decrease, right?”

“Right, exactly! It seems His Excellency the Chairman mentioned it to you two officers. In truth, it was our own poor handling. Before using it, His Excellency the Chairman told us that if the roster didn't decrease one day, we had to stop using it immediately for twenty-four hours. But shutting down would hurt output, so we couldn't bring ourselves to stop it. As a result, the extra names increased to two the very next day, and then another was added every few days after that. That was when we grew a little concerned and hurriedly notified that lord.”

“Very good, you notified him in a very timely manner.” Lynch’s fists had clenched several times behind his back. In the end, he even closed his eyes before barely managing to suppress the rage in his heart. In a calm voice, he asked, “On the day no names were added to the roster, was there anything unusual in the factory?”

“We checked into it as well, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary that day—except that a female worker left early.”

Lynch’s heart stirred. The timing seemed to match. If he connected this incident to little Janet’s anomaly...

“A female worker? What was her name?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check the registry to find out. I only remember she was a child on half-pay.”

Lynch already had a preliminary guess in mind. He pressed further, “After the incident occurred, did you not try to stop it?”

“We couldn’t stop it.” Frank showed a distressed expression. “Previously, all we had to do was detach that pool model in the center to disable it, but when we tried to stop it, no matter how hard we pulled, we couldn’t get it off.”

Lynch frowned, taking a few steps back and pushing against the set pieces on the relic with his cane. The tactile sensation returned was very strange.

It did not feel like it was fastened by nails or glue at all, but rather anchored to space itself, leaving not the slightest room for deformation.

Officer Natalie leaned in close to Lynch’s ear and whispered, “This is normal. Relics are the materialization of certain memories from the Dreamlands. Interrupting the active state of a relic is equivalent to stopping the operation of the memory. While it is out of control, you cannot interrupt the memory; you can only re-contain it.”

“I understand. Manager Frank, go fetch the registry right now; we need to verify it. While you’re at it, invite the other four down as well. You know who I’m talking about—you are all the most important people in this factory, and we must keep you safe.”

The moment Frank left, Officer Natalie could bear it no longer and kicked the wall hard. Fortunately, Lynch promptly activated his ability to isolate the sound.

“Those bastards... what do they think human lives are?! I thought we Soul Severers were callous enough toward ordinary human life, but they are even worse!” The muscles on the female officer’s face twitched, her eyes red. “Several hundred lives, dead without a single whisper, yet they feel no guilt at all, caring only about that extra third of production... If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have broken his bones on the spot.”

“I stopped you because they’re still useful right now. Once all the problems are resolved, they will pay the price.”

“You said it yourself—every single one of them must pay the price.”

“Of course. Including Grant behind them, I will never let him off easily, I promise.”

“Alright, then everything goes according to your plan.” Officer Natalie stared at Lynch for a few seconds and bit her lip, nodding. “But whatever we do, we must first re-contain the uncontrolled relic. Otherwise, letting a fear grade relic remain in an uncontrolled state is simply too dangerous. Someone else will fall victim soon.”

“Not just yet.” Lynch gave a sinister smile. “The factory’s most important people haven’t arrived yet. We can’t start now.”

“Hiss, you’re not planning to...”

“Naturally, I want them to thoroughly experience the full package of a relic’s delights as well—and to keep them from sabotaging things while we contain it. Don’t worry, I figure as long as we act fast enough, their lives won't be in danger. Everything is just beginning; letting them die in there right now would be letting them off far too easy.”

As they were speaking, led by Manager Frank, the four other suited men who had previously participated in reporting to Chairman Grant walked into the secret chamber.