Secret Room

Chapter 45: Secret Room

Red Hair—Sima Xiao Er—first shook his head, then lunged at Xu Huo like a madman: this man clearly knew he was a player, yet he pretended nothing was wrong, and didn't even plan to let him out!

Xu Huo grabbed his pig snout with a firm hand and said coldly, "If you want the skin stripper to find you, go ahead and make a scene. The one who killed that pig just now was the skin stripper. Want to know how he got that title?"

Sima Xiao Er froze, then scratched frantically on the ground with his front hooves.

Without needing to see what he wanted to say, Xu Huo said, "I can't let you out for now. The incomplete stitching might slow down the fusion with the pigskin. Those people outside are all ticket-holding players; they won't care if the people in the pigsty live or die. If you want to save the others, listen to me."

After hesitating for two seconds, Sima Xiao Er nodded.

"You too." Xu Huo turned to scan the pigs gathered around. "If you want to get out alive, you have to listen to me."

A herd of pig heads bobbed up and down frantically.

"The later I'm discovered, the better the chance of rescuing people." He patted Red Hair's pig head. "Stay here and cooperate with me."

"I'm going out now. I'll come back tonight."

With that, he silently slipped out of the pigsty and into the orchard outside.

The Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Factory sat on a hillside with a moderate elevation, surrounded by many fruit trees. Below the slope, to the left of the factory, there was also a river.

The area around the river was open ground, while beyond the fruit trees stretched a patch of woods.

Xu Huo glanced in that direction, then circled around the warehouse and slaughterhouse to the front of the factory, entering the office there.

Inside the office was a desk, with a bookshelf behind it. One side held philosophy and anatomy books, the other side held pornographic gossip magazines and photo albums.

He casually pulled out a couple, flipped through them, and put them back in place, then turned to look at the items on the desk.

On the left side was a stack of account books, with stationery like paper, pens, and a small knife neatly arranged. On the right side sat a radio, a water cup, and a landline phone.

In front of the desk were two leather sofas of fine material, sandwiching a solid wood coffee table that gave off a faint fragrance. The tea set was exquisite; the teapot held no brewed tea, and teacups were placed around it at equal distances.

On the wall directly opposite hung an oil portrait of the skin stripper, and on the shelf below sat a vase with fresh flowers.

This office was clean and meticulous, filled with a sense of dissonance.

Time was short, so Xu Huo didn't linger. He turned on the radio, turned the volume to the lowest setting, and flipped through the account books while listening.

The order information in the account books covered at least twenty restaurants and small shops, with delivery dates spanning three months. The earliest order was three days from now: the Bauhinia Restaurant wanted six six-month-old piglets, requiring the skin stripper to skin them alive and wrap the skin back around the piglets without affecting the customers' appetite.

Xu Huo's gaze lingered on the circled word "appetite" for a moment before he closed the account book.

By then, the radio had finished the weather report and moved on to current events.

"...It is reported that the highest administrative official of this district has recently stepped down. The new successor is Carroll Field, grandson of Carmen Field, known as the 'Morning Star of the Fields.' He arrived at 13:00 district time with his seven wives."

"His soon-to-be eighth wife, Miss Kim Seol, who hails from the most distinguished Kim family in this district, personally received him and expressed a warm welcome to Carroll Field and his seven wives..."

"...Carroll Field's arrival has caused quite a few personnel changes..."

Listening to the news, Xu Huo's expression shifted several times.

Indeed, the Dimension Rift game not only used instances to invade the real world but also constructed a social system of its own. Someone managed this society; there was money, consumption, game administrators, players, and even ordinary people—all could become part of this social system.

Now he was even starting to believe what Professor Han had said on the Preliminary Train—perhaps the game came from an advanced civilization.

"Thump!" A noise came from the inner room, followed by a woman's muffled voice: "...Don't look anymore... Get to work first..."

Xu Huo immediately stood up, restored everything he had touched to its original state, and left the office the same way he came.

As he passed the slaughterhouse, he saw the other two players had already returned to the workshop, and the four of them were cleaning up.

Glancing at the sky, he picked up his burlap sack and walked out of the orchard, choosing a hidden spot to conceal himself.

The skin stripper returned soon after, and Yang Can, who came back with him, had a face so swollen his eyes couldn't open. The other players didn't dare ask, because the skin stripper was in a rage.

"You useless pieces of trash, you can't even sweep the floor clean!"

"And you dare to apply for a job like this? Anyone who hires you must have a screw loose!"

"No dinner tonight, all of you work through the night!"

With that, he slammed the door and left, locking the front door of the workshop behind him.

"You okay?" Xian Dazhi asked Yang Can.

Yang Can opened his mouth and pointed inside. "Knocked out two teeth, just because I didn't thread the bait right."

The others fell silent for a moment, then Qin An said, "If we don't get this place clean tonight, we'll probably all get slapped tomorrow."

The group winced at the thought. Yang Can asked, "Any of you find anything?"

"Ask Tang Pei." Zou Weichang gestured with his chin toward the female player.

"To the right of the front hallway is the freezer and office. To the left is a large fur room, full of whole pelts from rare animals. Some are oiled and polished—they should all be the skin stripper's collection."

"At the far end is the bedroom. Qin An and I measured it—the bedroom is only half the length of the fur room. There should be a secret room on one side. Compared to the furs outside, the real collection is probably in there," the female player Tang Pei said.

"Did you get in? What's inside?" Xian Dazhi asked eagerly.

Tang Pei shook her head. "Couldn't open it. We tried every mechanism we could think of, nothing worked."

"Don't you have a universal lockpick?"

Tang Pei exhaled. "Qin An used his X-ray vision. That secret room is almost as fortified as a bank vault. The door alone is half a meter thick, and there's not even a keyhole to be found. No way to open it."

The other three's disappointment was plain to see. Yang Can twisted his mouth and said, "I thought this mission would be the easiest, but it's just as hard."

The door was as formidable as a vault, ruling out almost all violent methods. Though they were D-class players, they simply didn't have any high-damage items.

"We have to find a way to open the door," Qin An said. "Otherwise, even if we break it down by force, the Skin Stripper will take care of us before we can even get the collection."

"Ask Peng Fengnian."

Tang Pei nodded, put a paper phone to her ear, and before she could even explain the situation, her expression shifted. After a moment, she said to the others, "Peng Fengnian says there's another player here."