Starting Out as a Skinner

Squelch.

The sharp slaughter knife plunged viciously into the rock sheep's belly, and streams of dark red blood gushed from the wound into the wooden bucket prepared long ago.

Lin Sheng gripped the slaughter knife tightly in one hand and seized the rock sheep by the neck with the other. Only after the blood flowing from its body had nearly ceased did he hang it from an iron hook, split open its body, and skillfully strip away its hide.

Only after finishing did he let out a heavy breath.

"Whew... Done."

He set down the slaughter knife and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Although he had skinned no fewer than a hundred rock sheep hides since coming to this world,

every time he did this work still cost him no small amount of effort, leaving him with a feeling of utter exhaustion.

He raised his head and swept his gaze over the others in the courtyard. There were nearly a hundred people, most of them youths around sixteen or seventeen like himself.

Without exception, these youths were working their butcher knives over the rock sheep in their hands, either bleeding them, skinning them, or cutting up the meat.

The air was thick with the pungent stench of blood.

Everyone bore more or less blackened, dried bloodstains on their bodies.

Town Mountain Tower.

This was where Lin Sheng currently was.

It was also a fairly influential force within Lin'an County City.

Yet right now, he was merely an utterly ordinary skinner in Town Mountain Tower.

Just as the name implied, his main task was handling the livestock raised by the tower—bleeding them, skinning them, cutting their meat, and even dealing with their bones.

Not to mention a half-grown lad like him; even for adults, it was an exceedingly grueling job.

Yet in this ancient world with its backward productivity, having a job meant being able to survive in these troubled times.

After all, compared to most forces in Lin'an County City, Town Mountain Tower's work was indeed more arduous.

But at least it provided two meals a day, and at the end of every month, one could still receive several dozen copper coins in wages. That was already considered decent treatment, better than that of most poor families in the county city.

Still, this was not the life he wanted.

As an ambitious young man from Blue Star who had devoured countless webnovels, he had read no shortage of stories about transmigrated protagonists sweeping all before them.

Yet now that such an opportunity had fallen into his lap by chance, reality was utterly different from his imagination. There was no sweeping all before him—only endless work.

"It's already been two months. When will this ever end..."

Lin Sheng took a deep breath as he looked around at his peers, all busily working in full swing.

Through his filthy, bloodstained apron and coarse cloth shirt, a ring-shaped mark could vaguely be seen at the center of his chest.

More than half of the ring mark had already been dyed blood-red, with less than one-tenth of it still a faint grayish white.

This ring was the only unusual thing he had discovered after transmigrating.

After absorbing the memories of the body's former owner, he could be certain that the original owner had not possessed this ring mark.

Thus, the circular mark had only appeared when he transmigrated into this body.

He clearly remembered that at the very beginning, the entire circular mark had been a faint grayish white.

When he had first discovered that he had transmigrated, his heart had been filled with delight. Unfortunately, the imagined cheat ability had never appeared; instead, reality gave him a ruthless lesson.

Inheriting the former owner's work as a skinner had caused him no small amount of hardship at first.

Although rock sheep looked much like goats from his previous life, they were far larger.

Even now, when he could barely be considered experienced, stripping an entire rock sheep hide still took considerable effort.

However, as more and more rock sheep passed through his hands, he discovered that the circular mark on his chest had begun to change.

It had gradually begun turning blood-red. After two months, the circular mark was already nearly filled with that crimson color.

Looking at the mark on his chest, Lin Sheng had a premonition. Perhaps once the circular mark was filled, it would bring him quite a surprise.

"Soon. At this rate, it'll take at most a few more days to completely fill this ring mark."

With that thought in mind, Lin Sheng rested only briefly before preparing to handle the next rock sheep.

If he wanted to gain a foothold here, he had to process at least two rock sheep every day.

As an upper-tier force within the county city, Tremor Mountain Tower had many branches under its command.

Their Slaughterhouse belonged to the logistics branch, and more than ninety percent of the processed rock sheep hides and mutton had to be taken out for sale.

This was also one of Town Mountain Tower's main sources of income.

Only when the sun was sinking westward and the sky had begun to darken did Lin Sheng finish processing two rock sheep.

By then, nearly everyone in the Slaughterhouse had also completed their targets for the day.

Only then did a burly, bald man stride into the Slaughterhouse from outside.

The bald man appeared to be around forty years old. His face held a distinctly fierce cast, giving people the impression at a glance that he was not easy to get along with.

Upon seeing the man enter, all the skinners immediately put down their tools and stood before their respective chopping blocks. Lin Sheng was no exception.

This bald man was the Slaughterhouse's steward and their immediate superior, Wang Dehai.

He was considered an old hand in Town Mountain Tower, and his status was far above that of lowly skinners like them.

As the person in charge of a small branch, he undoubtedly knew martial arts. Coupled with his powerful physique, he was immensely intimidating.

Wang Dehai held a roasted chicken in his hand. As he strode before the crowd, he gobbled it down in huge bites. In no more than three or five mouthfuls, he had devoured the entire chicken, then casually wiped his grease-slicked hand on one skinner's body. That skinner wore a smile, seemingly rather honored by it.

"Alright, work's over for today. Let me see what you lot accomplished."

Wang Dehai inspected the chopping blocks before everyone one by one, finally stopping before the blocks of several older skinners around twenty years old.

"You lot did well. As expected of experienced hands who've worked for years—you all processed three rock sheep. Keep it up."

He patted the shoulders of those older skinners, then turned his gaze to the crowd and spoke lightly.

"Though the work in our Slaughterhouse is heavy and bloody, it's not without chances to change your fate. Any one of you might just get lucky."

Having said that, he did not linger and simply turned to leave.

The skinners, however, looked at one another in confusion, unable to make heads or tails of Wang Dehai's words.

Yet several of them seemed to have thought of something, and a hint of joy appeared on their faces.

"Get lucky? Could something be happening?"

Lin Sheng watched Wang Dehai's departing figure and murmured softly.