This room must have an exit leading to other rooms. Otherwise, the extracted blood can't be transported out. Shiller looked at the stains left by the blood on the wall and realized that the highest point should be the maximum storage capacity. Although there seemed to be some distance left, in reality, the blood that a giant Beast could provide was a lot, and after feeding a few more, it would be almost full.
Shiller waited for a while, and two more giant Beasts fell down, disappearing silently into the slime. Once the water level rose to the top, a small whirlpool started to form at the bottom right, indicating that the drainage pipe was there.
Shiller and Little Superman wrapped their bodies with tentacles. Fortunately, the cat's body is relatively small and can curl up to be completely wrapped by tentacles. The two of them dropped into the black slime like torpedoes.
Clearly, the black slime couldn't devour them or extract blood from their bodies through the tentacles. Shiller and Little Superman didn't need to move; the drainage pipe had suction power, and they were quickly drawn into the pipe.
Following the pipe downward, the two cats fell into the slime again. The black slime made everything unclear; fortunately, this substance had buoyancy, allowing them to float slowly to the surface, where they used tentacles to lift themselves up and slowly moved toward the wall.
This looked like a central station; the mixed blood from above flowed here, preparing to enter the next phase. But what was the next phase? Shiller was unsure, so he continued to look for the drainage pipe.
Soon he found the pipe again, and the two cats used the same method to protect themselves with tentacles, move in the water, and leverage the suction power to reach the next room. After several rooms, they heard a thud and landed on the ground.
"Oh my God, it's you guys!" A sudden squeal from a mouse pierced Shiller's ears. He hurriedly looked in the direction of the sound and saw two cats and a mouse sitting on a platform against the wall, watching them.
He scanned the surroundings and froze. It was a vast, empty room with many pipe outlets on the ceiling from which blood occasionally flowed, but quickly ran down the floor drains.
In the center of the room was a mountain made of bones, and just by looking at it, one could feel the evil, filthy aura emanating from it without getting closer. The two cats took a few steps back, feeling a bit dizzy.
"That's leftovers; don't look, come over quickly!" the mouse shouted.
The two cats climbed onto the platform and saw Peter sitting in the innermost part. He seemed weak, as if he had fallen asleep. When Constantine turned around, he was missing a large part of his tail, which had become a unicorn tail.
The mouse was in bad shape too; half of its body seemed corroded, with fur falling off, revealing hints of bone in some places. As Peter turned over with discomfort, Shiller saw a long wound on his stomach, as if he'd been disemboweled.
"The Tindalos Hound attacked us. They suddenly emerged from the shadows, trying to swallow us. Luckily, you accepted the power of my true form; otherwise, you'd be in their stomachs by now," said the mouse.
"As expected, it seems the pollution here is related to them. Fortunately, Nya had already prepared. But what do you mean by leftovers?" Shiller asked.
"Literally, it's what they left behind after eating," the mouse looked at the pile of bones in the center, "These are all their leftovers."
"They actually leave bones after eating?" Shiller was a bit surprised, "The Tindalos Hound isn't really a dog; when they eat humans, shouldn't nothing be left?"
"Everyone sees it differently," the mouse shook its head, "They can't digest everything, so there's always something left. Most humans see the leftovers as food remnants; either bones and flesh or leftover meals, according to your perception."
What Shiller saw was indeed bones, but as he looked carefully, he found the bones not quite logical. If the Tindalos Hound liked to eat humans, a bit of human bone was normal; but where did this Alien skull come from? Isn't Alien supposed to fight the Iron Blood Warrior, not engage with Outer Gods?
So it's very likely, as the mouse said, that this thing changes based on human perception. Shiller looked at Little Superman, who was curled up in the corner. "I see a big pile of trash, like kitchen waste from a fast-food restaurant, quite disgusting," he said.
Shiller stared at the pile of bones; if these were leftovers from Tindalos Hound, then all prior deductions had to be overturned. Previously, he thought Misisha purposely tossed the leftovers here to disrupt Iron Man's plan, but now it looked like these weren't thrown by Tindalos Hound at all; they were actively collected and piled here by Iron Man, possibly serving an important function.
Shiller had a new hypothesis, but due to a lack of specialized knowledge, he couldn't be sure, so he had to wait for Peter to wake up. But Peter's condition was too poor, so they had to find a way to help him recover. With tentacles, they could do many things, so Shiller thought for a moment and said, "Let's figure out a way to find some food and then weave a stretcher, find a slightly drier room, and make a fire."
The mouse nodded, staying behind with Little Superman while Shiller and Constantine went hunting. On the way up, Constantine said, "You go every time we act; you've been working non-stop for so long, aren't you tired?"
"Tired?" Shiller was a bit puzzled, "Clark and I have eaten quite a bit, and we slept well last night, I've rested quite well."
"I mean mentally." Constantine said, "Everything here is so eerie that even I'm a little tired."
"I rarely feel mentally fatigued," Shiller said, "You should be aware that greed provides endless motivation. Whether it's greed for the truth, greed for goals, or even just greed for doing something, these all keep me excited and indefatigable."
"I'm kind of tempted to write a novel with you as the protagonist," Constantine said, "In the past, most of my novels featured protagonists drawn into situations unintentionally. Even those who actively investigate always have realistic reasons, like seeking revenge or pursuing the truth. But I feel that focuses too much on the narrative."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Readers are never satisfied," Constantine seemed somewhat helpless, "I don't want to put so much effort into explaining the protagonist's motivations anymore. But if I don't write it, then the character doesn't seem quite normal, so I might as well write about an abnormal person."
"As you wish," Shiller wasn't angry, "Just make sure it's a bit lighter than the arrogance affair."
Constantine laughed, then Shiller asked, "What do you think that black slime is?"
"That stuff is contaminated, no doubt about it." Constantine's tone turned serious, "And it's contaminated by the residue in that room."
"What do you think happened?"
"I don't know." Constantine looked a bit bewildered, "Do you remember the pipe outlet where you encountered the centipede earlier? We escaped into it, followed the pipe all the way, and somehow ended up inside the cube."
"Did Peter lead the way?"
"Yes," Constantine said, "He might have already guessed that the pipe outlet led to the cube, a shortcut to avoid the dangers along the way. But it wasn't easy coming through; Peter fainted after arriving, and I went out once to catch him something to eat. After eating, he fell asleep."
Shiller understood. The pipe where the small drone stayed earlier was clearly a man-made structure, most likely a discharge outlet for the cube. It's supposed to bypass the dangers on the ground, but the problem is that there are monsters guarding it. The centipede is not easy to deal with.
Moreover, there's a big centipede outside, and there might be more centipedes inside. That's why they didn't choose to go there in the previous cycle. Not just Peter, but Shiller too had thought about it, but they didn't take the risk due to the high danger.
Being chased by the Tindalos Hound, they couldn't worry about much else. If they went on the ground, they'd be chased not just by hounds. Shiller and Little Superman also hitched a ride on the Pteranodon to reach the station smoothly, but the Pteranodon wasn't theirs to control. In emergency situations when being hunted, they couldn't just stand around waiting and had to risk trying the pipe.
Fortunately, the pipe shouldn't be too dangerous; they reached with the added strength of Nya's powers. However, the pipe was buried underground, so they must have traveled from bottom to top and didn't see the feeding room or know about the mixed blood situation.
Shiller briefly explained to Constantine, then said, "I have a hypothesis, but whether it's correct still needs to be confirmed after Peter wakes up."
Constantine also faintly guessed a bit, but the two of them had to first complete their tasks on hand. With tentacles, hunting became much easier; generally, smaller body types weren't opponents for them. Shiller quickly killed a few rabbit-like creatures, and also gathered a pile of dry twigs. Constantine was responsible for gathering grass, collecting all kinds of flexible grass leaves to weave.
The two carried a load of things and still went through the feeding passage. The reason they dared to carry so much was because they knew the slime didn't eat meat, so tentacles only needed to protect their bodies. The rest of the things were tied to themselves as they swam to where the mice were.
Arriving at the platform, Shiller checked the condition of the rabbits, and sure enough, though the rabbits had all their parts intact, their blood was drained. This was better; bloodletting made them tastier.
First, they used grass to weave a stretcher and moved Peter onto it, then used other grass to tie him to the stretcher to prevent falling as they transferred him. Initially, they wanted to find a dry room, but couldn't find any, so they had no choice but to move onto the roof terrace.
This had its advantages; the Pteranodon didn't mind them being there, and the terrace was dry with good sunlight. If there were any attacks, at least they could hide by the Pteranodon. Importantly, this made it easier to hunt back and forth, avoiding the trouble of swimming through black slime each time.
Peter woke up once midway, confusedly eating something. Shiller, Constantine, and Little Superman tried to make fire by drilling wood, but unfortunately, it required very dry materials, and what they had was too wet to start a fire, so they just had to dry them first.
A few Toms and Jerrys had finished eating and slept quietly in a corner of the terrace. At night, Shiller got up several times to check Peter's wound, fortunately, there were no signs of worsening. Feline vitality was strong; by morning, Peter was awake.
Shiller really wanted to make hot food, but couldn't start a fire. The tentacles were turning so fast they nearly sparked, but couldn't ignite the wood. The whole cube didn't have any glass items, couldn't make lenses, had to wait for everything to dry out in the sunlight.