Chapter 53 - Falling Out

Xu Huo hid in the pigsty for four hours until the darkness finally receded.

He stowed the pigskin away, checked on the piglets, and then circled around to the players’ rooms from the outside.

Tang Pei and the others sat in silence amid the darkness, the air heavy with the stench of blood and permeated with a deathly stillness.

“Who died?” he asked.

“See for yourself.” Qin An rubbed his face with both hands and bent down to look at the floor.

Xu Huo pulled open the door.

The candles on the console had not yet gone out.

The first thing he saw was Peng Fengnian on the wall, his eyes wide open in death, and only then did he notice the person hung in the center of the workshop…

That could no longer be called a person, just a red strip of flesh that had been skinned.

The red muscle tissue and blood vessels were exposed, with blood constantly dripping down his body into the bucket below.

He hung by his neck, but there was still a faint rise and fall in his chest.

In front of him, an intact human skin hung in the air, its edges all pierced with fish hooks, stretched out flat like a painting, so thin that one could see through it with the candlelight…

The one who had been skinned was Zou Weichang.

Though not yet smoke-dried, at this point, death was inevitable.

Glancing around without spotting the Skinning Artisan, Xu Huo was about to move Peng Fengnian down when the “corpse’s” eyeballs suddenly moved.

Seething with veins bulging blue-black on his face, he leaped from the wall and swung his fist to hit Xu Huo’s face!

Xu Huo dodged his punch, grabbing his arm while sidestepping and whispered sternly, “Where did the Skinning Artisan go?”

Peng Fengnian huffed with heavy breaths, his eyes filled with anger and fear, mouth agape, not sure whether he couldn’t speak or didn’t dare to.

Seeing that something was off with him, Xu Huo immediately dragged him into the players’ room.

As soon as they closed the door, Peng Fengnian attacked him like a madman.

Even Qin An and the others were caught in the frenzy.

Yang Can and Xian Dazhi worked together to hold him down, the former saying with a scared face, “Could the Skinning Artisan have injected him with some kind of madness-inducing virus?”

Tang Pei clenched her teeth, stepped forward, and slapped Peng Fengnian hard across the face, “Stay clear-headed if you’re not dead.

Do you want to end up like Zou Weichang?”

Peng Fengnian’s eyes were bloodshot, he was beyond hearing what the others had to say, staring fixedly at Xu Huo with a look of complete breakdown.

“You were playing dead on the wall and happened to witness the Skinning Artisan flaying Zou Weichang alive,” Xu Huo observed.

Qin An and the others paused in unison.

Though not loud, the commotion in the workshop had been enough to draw their attention.

When they noticed Zou Weichang’s disappearance, Qin An used his ability to check the workshop and by then, Zou Weichang’s scalp had already been torn off.

Qin An couldn’t describe the shock he felt at that moment, but after just one look, he retracted his ability and dared not take a second glance.

“…He was alive…

he was skinned alive…” Peng Fengnian’s voice was hoarse as he trembled, “And even after it was done, he was still alive…”

From the moment Zou Weichang was hung, the Skinning Artisan in Peng Fengnian’s eyes stopped being just a character from the game’s introduction; he became a tangible killer, capable of peeling a man alive with a smile on his face, steady-handed for hours on end.

And because Peng Fengnian had used the “capricious” potion, he couldn’t even shut his eyes, forced to watch from beginning to end!

“Why did you give us false information?” Peng Fengnian glared at Xu Huo, “Zou Weichang sneaked out to get the animal hide because of you, and that’s why he died so miserably!”

Qin An and the others cast varied looks towards Xu Huo, with Qin An saying, “What do you mean?

Isn’t fur the key to clearing the level?”

“No!” Peng Fengnian exhaled sharply, “Zou Weichang didn’t succeed, he was caught by the Skinning Artisan.”

“What on earth are you trying to do?

How does killing other players benefit you!”

Xu Huo glanced at the five people ready to act on their guard, his face shadowed and expressionless, but his voice was cold, “Have you thought it through, did Zou Weichang die because of me?”

“I explicitly told you, it’s safer to take skins during the day, and the agreed time was also tomorrow during the day.

Why did Zou Weichang go and take it on his own?”

“Even if Zou Weichang had a hidden agenda, you were the one who gave the false information first.” Qin An held a long whip in his hand, “Today, if you don’t spit out the truth, don’t think about leaving!”

“I’ve told you how to open the secret chamber, and it was I who deduced the key to passing the game.

I also reminded you to act during the day.”

“We are all players, I’ve told you what you need to know.

Is it also my fault for not blowing on your food to cool it down?”

“You get burnt and then turn around to lash out at me…” Xu Huo chuckled softly, “I really wonder how you made it to Level D.”

Qin An and the others’ faces were “capricious,” and Xian Dazhi hesitated before saying, “Indeed, we can’t blame anyone else for this.

It’s all our first time here, and he was guessing too.

Even if he was wrong, it can’t be pinned on him.”

Peng Fengnian understood that Xu Huo had a point; indeed, the fault lay with Zou Weichang initially, but the price paid was indeed too cruel!

“I want to know one thing, did you know that the instance would change at night?” he asked.

“I didn’t know.” Xu Huo appeared forthright, “It was you who didn’t take seriously the message ‘The Skinning Artisan’s knife cannot be used during the day.'”

“If you were a bit more careful, you would have noticed that the Skinning Artisan actually has a dual personality.

During the day, he is Red-nosed Karl, the irritable factory owner; at night, he is the skinning lunatic, the Skinning Artisan.”

“His office is clean and tidy, stationery and bookcases neatly arranged, covering topics from anatomy to philosophy, fitting the ‘delicate inner world’ mentioned in the game, but he himself is unkempt, a drunkard and lecher, with a bedroom that has not been cleaned for a long time.

Aren’t these contradictions very obvious?”

“If the personality holding the Skinning Knife is the Skinning Artisan, then the appearance of Red-nosed Karl at night is self-evident.”

“Knowing this critical information and still sneaking out at night, you are the ones joking with your own lives.”

Peng Fengnian also faintly realized the huge contrast in the Skinning Artisan’s personality, only he had not thought it through before the shock of the live skinning made his mind a mess.

Looking again at the man still fiddling with a lighter at the door, he was not unresentful in his heart, but he couldn’t ignore Xu Huo’s indifference when he saw the body, as if human life meant nothing to him.

“Our cooperation is over.”

Xu Huo returned the paper cell phone to him and left the room directly.

“Is that it?” Yang Can looked at his retreating figure and whispered, “Actually, I think he isn’t wrong either.

He didn’t know Zou Weichang would act behind others’ backs, and just now…

we also didn’t dare go out to save him.”

To put it unpleasantly, it smacks of misplaced anger due to incompetence.

Peng Fengnian covered his eyes, took a deep breath, and then said, “Let’s rest for now.

When it’s light, we’ll go to the secret chamber while the Skinning Artisan goes out to search.”

Regardless of their thoughts, after Xu Huo left, he returned to the pigsty and pulled out Red furred, who had been tampering with the sutures on his abdomen:

“I’ll let you out if you promise to behave.”