Disguise

The skin stripper, his hair a mess and a bone-stripping knife in hand, had been wearing a menacing expression. It froze when he heard Xu Huo's words. "What did you say?"

Xu Huo glanced disdainfully at the bloodstained apron. "Bring out the boss."

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

"So you're the boss." Xu Huo shot him a contemptuous look, then walked straight into the office. He sat on the sofa and propped both feet on the coffee table. "Bring out the books. I'm here to audit your accounts."

The skin stripper was taken aback for a moment, then followed him in. "I've paid the full tax here, based on the number of people..."

Xu Huo gave a derisive laugh and cut him off. "You know damn well what kind of business you run. You think that pittance is enough to make me go away?"

The skin stripper's expression darkened and shifted. "That's how we've always paid."

"That was before. Now that I'm here, the rules have changed." Xu Huo cast him a sidelong glance and tapped his index finger against the sofa.

The Paper Phone in his pocket began to vibrate. Though it made no sound, the skin stripper noticed.

Xu Huo instinctively reached toward his pocket, but stopped halfway. He didn't answer the phone. Instead, he snapped irritably, "So you're going to be stubborn!"

He shot to his feet and headed straight for the passageway. Ignoring the several players who stared at him in shock, he pushed open the front door to the workshop and walked inside, covering his nose in disgust. "What a stench. Three-month-old dirty socks smell better than this."

"Is this really a floor people are supposed to walk on? If I step in this, these shoes are ruined!"

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

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

"I can't believe anyone would buy the stuff that comes out of here!"

"Just breathing this air means I'll have to get my lungs washed!"

"These two pigs died in such a disgusting way. Can the meat really taste good after that?"

"You're all drenched in sweat. Stay away from me!"

Xu Huo went all the way from the workshop to the pigsty, criticizing everything he could, from the floor tiles and machines to the knives and aprons. He even called the players filthy and stinky as pigs. And the piglets in the sty, he said, looked so depressed that anyone who ate their meat was bound to feel miserable.

Tang Pei and the others were dumbfounded by his performance. They'd seen the skin stripper's slap before. Wasn't Xu Huo afraid he'd beat him to death?

As it turned out, Xu Huo wasn't afraid at all. After tearing the factory to shreds, he turned to the skin stripper and sneered. "The Health Bureau must love places like this. I wonder how many inspections you'd survive."

The knife in the skin stripper's hand had been tossed aside as soon as Xu Huo said it hadn't been washed in three days. The muscles in his face twitched. After a long moment, he managed a twisted smile. "Let's talk this out. We can discuss it in the front."

He invited Xu Huo out first, then roared at the players, "You heard what he said! Why aren't you getting back to work?"

The players saw his veins bulging and his eyes protruding like bells. Some grabbed brooms, others grabbed water guns, and they hurriedly got back to what they'd been doing. From the corners of their eyes, they saw the skin stripper turn back toward Xu Huo with a smile, and they couldn't help wondering if they were dreaming.

That was the skin stripper. He'd been bluffed by a few words?

Of course, those words alone couldn't have bluffed the skin stripper.

He was already infamous, and his towering height and imposing presence made most players flinch when they saw him. On top of that, the game had given them a task to complete the work he assigned. This had placed an invisible shackle on them: with the other two tasks impossible to complete, working for the skin stripper was at least a way to stay alive.

That put the players and the skin stripper on unequal footing. It was hard for employees to stand up to their boss.

But Xu Huo had put on a commanding air, talking about audits and inspections at every turn and posing as an outsider. Even if the skin stripper wanted to verify his story, it would take time.

The game world had a complete social system, and that wasn't entirely a bad thing for players.

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

Seeing this, the skin stripper went to the desk, took several rolls of cash from a drawer, and stacked them in front of Xu Huo. "I don't know what to call you. I'm new here, and I've been raising pigs out in the countryside, so I don't know much about what's going on outside. Please forgive me for anything lacking in my hospitality."

Xu Huo didn't even look at the money. He tapped his index finger once, and the Paper Phone in his pocket vibrated again.

He still ignored it this time, fixing the skin stripper with a cold gaze. "Trying to pull the wool over my eyes? I don't care who helped you get in. The people up top have changed, so the people underneath them need to change too."

"These things don't interest me."

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

Wrapped in gold foil and arranged neatly in a pure-gold box, the cigars looked gaudily tasteless. Yet Xu Huo smiled.

The skin stripper lit one for him, and they began smoking together. At last, the atmosphere eased.

"My surname is Wang. You can call me Mr. Wang." Xu Huo exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Money is just a worldly possession. Compared with good things, it's no different from paper."

"I've never cared for it. But there are some things you can't buy with money."

The skin stripper echoed his words while studying him, his expression shifting several times.

Xu Huo pretended not to notice. When the timing seemed right, he tapped his index finger to signal Peng Fengnian to call again. That was the code they'd agreed on.

This time, when the call came through, Xu Huo didn't ignore it. He nodded to the skin stripper and went outside to answer.

As soon as he left, the skin stripper's expression turned grim. He picked up the landline and dialed a number. Half a minute later, he hung up and walked to the window.

"Careful. The skin stripper's eavesdropping." Peng Fengnian watched the factory from a distance, his palms sweating. Since Xu Huo had gone in, he'd wiped his hands several times. Afraid he might miss the signal, he hadn't dared blink.

"I know." Xu Huo kept his expression unchanged. The next second, he spoke angrily. "Sis, you've been with him without a proper title or status, and you don't want money or benefits. All you asked was for him to arrange a decent position for me, and he brushed me off with a spot this low?"

"...What do you mean it's inconvenient? This is exactly when he should be placing his own people..."

"Anyway, if I'm not satisfied, I'm not going back. Our family isn't completely broke. How dare he!"

After muttering to himself for a while, 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 broad smile. "I heard the chief official at the E27 wormhole point has been replaced. Were you transferred here too, Mr. Wang?"

E27. Xu Huo immediately thought of the code on the Return Ticket. So the game world was divided into regions by wormhole points. His starting point was the E27 wormhole point, and since the Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Factory Dungeon 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?"