Fur

Xu Huo had nearly been forced to watch the entire reality show before he was finally able to get away, just before the game clock struck twelve.

The skin stripper gave him the bedroom and went to sleep on the sofa himself.

Once it was quiet outside, Xu Huo sat up, his earlier drunkenness gone. He contacted Peng Fengnian and confirmed that the skin stripper had indeed gone to the office before quietly stepping out of the bedroom.

He went to the Fur Room outside, put on the skin stripper's gloves, and inspected each pelt.

Tang Pei and the others had checked this place during the day. Just as he'd seen, every pelt hanging here belonged to an animal. Yet the skin stripper had said there were human skins here.

If the human skins weren't hanging out in the open, they must be hidden inside these pelts.

The reason the skin stripper had hidden human skins inside the pelts was obvious.

He inspected every pelt and found at least three with hidden layers. He wasn't sure whether they contained human skin, so he didn't open them. Instead, he simply memorized their locations and distinguishing features before leaving.

Inside the small room beside the Workshop, several players waited anxiously. Hearing a knock on the window, they hurriedly opened it.

Xu Huo jumped inside and nodded to them in greeting. "Remember, when we're outside, call me Mr. Wang."

"Then, Mr. Wang, what did you find?" Zou Weichang asked, watching him with his arms crossed.

Xu Huo pressed the Paper Phone to his ear so Peng Fengnian could hear what he said.

"The way to open the Secret Room is to push the entire wall backward," he said. "It's not difficult. Two players can do it."

The others' expressions changed slightly. Qin An blurted out, "You really got into the Secret Room? How did you manage that? Why would the skin stripper believe you?"

Xu Huo glanced at him and calmly replied, "There's a Radio on the desk in the office. There's been a major personnel reshuffle at the place where the skin stripper opened this Dungeon. I pretended to be an administrative employee about to be transferred here through connections. At least for the next day or two, I should be safe."

"I heard Peng Fengnian say that each Station is actually connected to a huge area. The Dungeons inside are independent, but the locations should be connected to one another. It's just that our levels are too low. We can only enter closed or semi-closed Dungeons, and we can't leave the Dungeon boundaries." Qin An said, "We can only guess that every station city in the game has a manager. We don't know how it all works."

As he spoke, he watched Xu Huo. If he could bluff the skin stripper with that story, he must know quite a lot about what was going on.

"Is Mr. Xu a B-class player?" he asked tentatively.

"No." Xu Huo lit a cigarette, but didn't put away his Lighter. "Peng Fengnian knows the details."

He didn't explain further. He'd only mentioned his impersonation to pry more information out of them.

"You've got guts. What if the skin stripper didn't believe you and attacked?" Yang Can said admiringly, the five-fingered mark still on his face. He was a D-class player too, but after getting slapped, he now felt a little afraid whenever he saw the skin stripper.

"There's no way to avoid all risk," Xu Huo repeated.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry up and find the skin stripper's prized possessions." Zou Weichang stared at him, eyes shining. "There must be plenty of good stuff in the Secret Room. Surely we can clear the Dungeon if we just take one thing."

Qin An frowned at him but said nothing, instead turning to Xu Huo. "Anything worthy of being called a prized possession must be something the skin stripper considers important."

"If there are too many possibilities, it'll be harder to find." Tang Pei added, "Do you have any leads?"

"Peng Fengnian told you something about the skin stripper earlier." Xu Huo tapped the ash from his cigarette into a glass of water.

"The skin stripper can't use his knife during the day. What about it? Is that related?"

"The skin stripper's prized possessions probably aren't in the Secret Room," Xu Huo said. "Factory Boss Karl and Skin Stripper Karl are two different identities. The First Task corresponds to Skin Stripper Karl, and his prized possessions are the pelts in the Fur Room."

"When I came over just now, I found several pelts that might be prized possessions. But I don't recommend taking them now."

"Skin Stripper Karl, Factory Boss Karl—what's the difference? Aren't they the same person?" Xian Dazhi scratched his head.

Qin An caught on quickly. "That makes sense. The game's introduction mentioned the skin stripper's identity too. He used to be a skin stripper, but now his main identity is factory boss. Since the Third Task targets the factory boss, it makes sense that the First Task corresponds to his identity as a skin stripper."

"What if we get it wrong?" Tang Pei said worriedly. "We don't have many chances to get near those things."

"I'll ask the skin stripper to go fishing with me tomorrow," Xu Huo said. "You can act then. Daytime should be relatively safer."

"Still, I think the key to the First Task lies among those pelts." He gave them the locations of the three pelts, then added, "I have one request. If taking a pelt lets you leave the Dungeon, you have to get the other two and hand them over to me before you leave."

"Don't you want to leave?" Tang Pei asked in surprise. "Once the ticket holder clears the Dungeon, the Random Players who entered at the same time can leave too. Then you wouldn't have to take any more risks."

"You want to save the people in the Pigsty, don't you?" Xian Dazhi said at once. "Count me in!"

"You've got rocks in your head. Why are you playing the hero?" Zou Weichang said, scowling. "How are you going to save them? Unless you can make the skin stripper let them go, do you really think you can make that murderous lunatic give in by holding two pelts?"

The others all thought that was unlikely. Xian Dazhi muttered under his breath, "We have to try."

Xu Huo had no better way to save them at the moment. He needed these players' help to act, so he didn't try to persuade them. Instead, he said, "There's an order coming in two days. The skin stripper has to remove the entire skin from those six little pigs while they're still alive, and make sure they're delivered to the dining table fresh."

Tang Pei and the others' expressions immediately darkened. They all knew those six little pigs were actually children.

"I'm in!" Xian Dazhi said. "We can't let those beasts eat children alive!"

"I agree too," Qin An said. "Once we get the Return Ticket, we can take a chance and maybe really get them out. If we can't, at least we'll have tried."

Tang Pei and Yang Can both nodded.

"I have no problem with it either. Let's act tomorrow." In the Paper Phone, Peng Fengnian paused, then suddenly said, "There's something strange about the Factory."

"What's strange about it?" Xu Huo asked, immediately on guard.

"It suddenly got closer..." Peng Fengnian's voice cut off before he could finish.

"What happened?" Tang Pei and the others asked urgently.

"I'm not sure either. Remember, we agreed on tomorrow. I'm leaving first." Xu Huo finished hurriedly and climbed out the window. He looked up: the tree silhouettes that had been faintly visible a moment ago had completely disappeared into the darkness. That darkness seemed almost solid, closing in on the Factory from all sides!