Impersonation

The disheveled skin stripper held his bone-stripping knife, his menacing expression freezing the moment he heard Xu Huo's words: "What did you say?"

Xu Huo cast a look of disdain at his blood-stained apron. "Call the boss out."

"I am the boss," the skin stripper stared at him. "Who are you?"

"You're the boss?" Xu Huo shot him a contemptuous glance, walked straight into the office, sat on the sofa, and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Bring out the ledgers. I'm here for an audit."

The skin stripper was momentarily bluffed. He followed him in and said, "The taxes for this place have been paid in full according to the headcount..."

Xu Huo scoffed, cutting him off. "You know full well what kind of business you're running here. You think that pittance is enough to brush me off?"

The skin stripper's face flickered between shades of anger and uncertainty. "That's how it's always been paid."

"The past is the past. The rules have changed since I arrived." Xu Huo squinted at him, tapping his index finger against the sofa.

The Paper Phone in his pocket began to vibrate. Though it didn't make a sound, it was enough for the skin stripper to notice.

Xu Huo instinctively reached for his pocket but stopped halfway. Instead of answering the call, he said in a nasty tone, "So, you're playing hard to get, are you?"

With a sharp movement, he stood up and strode toward the corridor. Ignoring the dumbfounded Players, he pushed open the front door of the Workshop. As he walked inside, he covered his nose in disgust. "This stench—you could pickle dirty socks for three months and they wouldn't smell this bad."

"Is this floor even meant for humans? My shoes are ruined just from stepping on it!"

"And these machines—tsk, tsk. Are you selling meat or insect eggs?"

"There are rats! Is this factory a sewer?"

"I can't believe anyone would dare buy anything that comes out of this place!"

"Just breathing the air in here requires a lung wash before going home!"

"These two pigs died in such a disgusting way. Can meat from such a miserable death even taste good?"

"You're all sweating like pigs—stay away from me!"

Xu Huo walked all the way from the Workshop to the pigsty, criticizing everything from the floor tiles and machines down to the knives and aprons. Beyond berating the Players for being as filthy as the pigs, he even claimed the piglets in the sty looked depressed, insisting that anyone who ate this meat would surely be in a foul mood.

Tang Pei and the others were stunned by his performance. They had witnessed the skin stripper's brutality firsthand; didn't he fear being beaten to death here?!

Xu Huo truly wasn't afraid. After tearing the factory apart, he turned back to the skin stripper and sneered, "The Health Bureau would certainly love a place like this. I wonder how many inspections you can actually withstand."

The skin stripper had long since dropped his knife, which he hadn't washed in three days. His facial muscles twitched, and it took a long time before he managed a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Let's talk this over. Let's go to the front to discuss."

After speaking, he ushered Xu Huo out first, then roared at the Players: "You heard everything he said! Get back to work!"

Seeing the veins bulging on his forehead and his eyes wide as bells, the Players scrambled to grab their brooms and water guns, frantically resuming their work. Glancing sideways at the skin stripper, who had turned to face Xu Huo with a smile, they began to wonder if they were dreaming.

That was the skin stripper—cowed by just a few words?

Of course, those few words alone wouldn't have cowed the skin stripper.

He was notorious for his cruelty, and with his imposing height and aura, most Players naturally felt intimidated. Furthermore, the game had assigned them the task of working for him, which acted as an invisible shackle—since the other two tasks were impossible to complete, working for the skin stripper was at least a way to stay alive.

Thus, the power dynamic between the Players and the skin stripper was unequal; it was difficult for employees to stand tall before their boss.

Xu Huo, however, had put on a grand display of authority, talking of audits and inspections, crafting the facade of an outsider. Even if the skin stripper wanted to verify his identity, it would take time.

The game world possessed a complete social system, which was not entirely a bad thing for the Players.

Glancing at the tea the skin stripper had poured, Xu Huo couldn't even be bothered to reach for it.

Seeing this, the skin stripper turned to the desk drawer and retrieved several rolls of cash, stacking them before him. "I don't know how to address you. I'm new here, just raising pigs in the countryside, and I'm ignorant of matters outside. Please forgive any lack of hospitality."

Xu Huo didn't even look at the money. With a flick of his index finger, the Paper Phone in his pocket vibrated again.

He still ignored it, looking coldly at the skin stripper. "Are you trying to pull the wool over my eyes? I don't care whose connections you're using. The people at the top have changed, so the people at the bottom must change as well."

"I have no interest in these trifles."

Seeing that he truly wasn't interested in the White Cash, the skin stripper took a box of cigars from a nearby cabinet.

The gold-leaf-wrapped cigars were arranged neatly in a solid gold box. It looked incredibly tacky, yet Xu Huo finally revealed a smile.

The skin stripper lit one for him, and the two began to smoke, the atmosphere finally softening.

"My surname is Wang. You can call me Mr. Wang," Xu Huo exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Money is just an external possession. Compared to the finer things, it's no different from paper."

"I've never cared for it. But there are some things that money simply cannot buy."

The skin stripper echoed his sentiments while sizing him up, his expression shifting several times.

Xu Huo feigned ignorance. Sensing the timing was right, he tapped his index finger to signal Peng Fengnian to call again—the pre-arranged signal.

Once the call connected, he was no longer indifferent. He nodded to the skin stripper and went outside to take the call.

The moment he stepped out, the skin stripper's face darkened. He dialed a number on the landline, and half a minute later, he hung up and walked to the window.

"Be careful, the skin stripper is eavesdropping." Hiding in the distance and watching the factory, Peng Fengnian felt his palms sweating. He had wiped his hands several times since Xu Huo went in, not daring to blink for fear of missing the signal.

"I know." Xu Huo's expression remained unchanged. A second later, he said in an angry tone, "Sis, you're with him without any status or title, not for money or gain—I just asked him to arrange a decent position for me. Is that all he could give me?"

"...What do you mean it's inconvenient? Now is the perfect time to arrange for our own people..."

"In any case, if I'm not satisfied, I'm not coming back. Our family isn't destitute; he should be ashamed!"

After a bout of talking to himself, he put away the Paper Phone and returned to the office as if nothing had happened.

The skin stripper handed him a cigar with a beaming smile. "I heard the top official at the E27 wormhole point has been replaced. Is Mr. Wang also a new transfer?"

E27. Xu Huo immediately recalled the code on his Return Ticket. So, the game world divided regions by wormhole points. His starting point was the E27 wormhole point, and since the Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Factory instance had invaded the real world, it was located in the same place.

He narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Why are you asking so many questions?"