Is this a Restaurant?

Walking through this marketplace, I must say. This is Hollow-like. He sighs, pacing through the bustling street, filled with Hollows of different colours and variations to the brim.

The street felt both vibrant and yet horrifying to look any further, evidently as he views an odd scene in a peculiar restaurant.

A ceilingless restaurant that resembled the interior of a bar. People starting noticing the ginormous individual walking with their guard up and with their uncuffed slave.

Moving through the crowd and in through the front door, striding across tables and reaching to an empty spot, Gorr and Darwin sit on opposite ends to each other on an unclaimed table.

"So what do you want?" Gorr asked with a slight grin.

Closing his eyes, Darwin waves it off saying, "I'm not owing any more favours."

"Tch." With his eyes rolled, Gorr crosses his arms in irritation.

Darwin analyses the building's internal structure, amount of individuals, and their system of operation. He finds it perplexing that this is not the typical restaurant he would imagine in his past conversations about them.

With a loud scream at the back, Darwin slightly flares his nostrils in response.

Blood spewed out of a cuffed individual's arm as it was forcefully taken off and placed on a dark wooden chopping board

Mincing the arm into three slices, topping it off with a special sauce as red and bloodied like the victims of murder, the dish then served directly to a masked humanoid Hollow. They were sitting next to another humanoid Hollow, chained and cuffed.

"You seriously telling me that you eat these things?" Darwin asked with a look of contempt.

"Hmph," Gorr grumbles, "There is something that I need here."

Tapping on the table with fingers, a nearby waiter came over in hurried footsteps.

"What do you need, Sir Gorr?" Slit eyes, a symmetrical smile, with a perfectly incline posture, the waiter asks with a polite tone.

Gorr responds, "Blood, Victims, Immortality."

Raising their brow, he gestures the two esteemed guests to follow him.

Striding across tables and into the kitchen, at the very back, there was a seemingly bland wall with nothing to see.

Darwin sensing something amiss, he scans the entire restaurant again.

He notices something different that he didn't from the exterior of the facility.

He saw a minute amount of Reishi, moving across a rectangular border.

They tampered the exterior's Reishi movements, blocking the interior so that they can keep something hidden. Intrigued by the use of Reishi Manipulation, he rubs his chin as he mulls over that thought.

In the backroom, a plain wall greets them. The waiter gestures to a cub hole in the wall and says, "An offering is required to proceed." Darwin takes out a small, shiny bead, its surface reflecting light with an eerie intensity, with Reishi abundant within its grasp.

As Darwin places the bead into the cub hole, the wall begins to react. Lines of Reishi energy form intricate, glowing patterns that trace across the surface. The bead vanishes as though absorbed by the wall, causing a shift in the Reishi flow. The lines of energy rearrange, creating a lattice that glows brighter with each passing moment.

Looking at his slave, Gorr couldn't help but feel that he made the right decision into buying Darwin. Patting on his shoulder, he said, "Very good, loser."

With a stoic demeanour, Darwin responds, "I can't help but remember the face you made when I absorbed your puny attack."

With a slight mood change, Gorr acknowledgedly said, "If it weren't for your help, I would've punched you in your sorry ass face."

Detecting something happening to the internal structure of the mechanisms, Darwin's eyes widen as he realises its purpose. This is a sophisticated use of Reishi manipulation, he notes.

It could be anything Reishi related but for this instance, the bead acts as a catalyst, triggering the hidden energy lines to alter the Reishi flow and unlock the hidden chamber behind this wall.

The wall slides open, revealing a concealed passage. Darwin watches in awe as the hidden space is unveiled, "Ingenious," he mutters. He continues, "By controlling the Reishi flow, they've created a secure way to hide and reveal important areas."

Gorr listening to Darwin's explanation couldn't help but feel even better about the choice he made in purchasing this 'loser'.

As they step through the newly revealed entrance, Darwin's appreciation for the mechanism deepens. The complexity of the Reishi manipulation reflects the restaurant's hidden depths, adding layers of intrigue to whatever Gorr was intending to do.

"How did you come to know this location?" Darwin asks with genuine curiosity.

Gorr replies, "It just so happens that I am acquainted to the nasty individual we will soon meet."

Nasty individual? Are they perhaps unhygienic? Darwin begins to wonder who they were that made Gorr describe them as nasty.

Making their way through a passage towards an underground space, they were met with a enormous room filled with radiating blue test tube canisters, revealing human bodies inside.

Clean and tidy white marble flooring, a clean smell rid of odour, walls with hidden mechanical features in place from what Darwin had spotted.

A weirdly unexpected contrast to what he had in mind.

The humans who were inside these liquid filled tanks were either sound asleep or were in the transitional phase of becoming a Hollow, as their poor souls scream with desperation and loathe for the particular being coming at their way.

How did they gather humans in here?! Shocked at this revelation, Darwin felt an immense dread pouring over his head.

This presence! Strong was an understatement to whoever was in the midst of the laboratory.

As a tall, slender figure emerged from the shadows with a vibrant smile, the atmosphere grew even more tense. Their Hollow mask showcases sets of majestic and intricate purple lines.

"Well, if it isn't Gorr himself. What is it that you need?" the figure's calm, sinister tone hinted at the complex and unsettling nature of their intentions.