Defecting Player [Bi Gan]

Zhang Anzai was quick-witted; he reached into his pocket and grabbed a small bag of blood that had been opened but not fully used, merely tied shut. He squeezed it hard while whipping his hand forward.

"Bang!" The viscous blood splattered everywhere. While it lacked any real lethality, Mr. Li had not yet fully straightened his back, and the impact landed squarely on his face.

"Pfft!" A large amount of crimson blood covered his entire face.

Zhang Anzai turned and bolted the moment the empty bag left his hand, not forgetting to deliver a fierce kick to the Human-Headed Dog as he passed.

The old dog, already on its last legs from the previous blow, hadn't even managed to attack him before it was sent tumbling to the ground by his kick.

"Hah! Hah!" Zhang Anzai gasped for air, lengthening his stride as he ran toward the depths of the corridor.

Behind him, Mr. Li roared in impotent rage, swinging the machete and pointed knife in his hands.

Though he had recovered, he was still heavily injured from the earlier strike and couldn't catch up to him for the time being.

Zhang Anzai felt fortunate; his ambush had succeeded once again.

Although he hadn't known beforehand that Mr. Li was one of the Ten Evils, he could at least tell that he wasn't a monster-type entity, but rather a human boss leaning toward the profile of a psychopathic killer.

Such bosses were smarter, but they also possessed human weaknesses—for instance, they were prone to losing their heads after being injured or gaining the upper hand, especially since this one had a touch of psychopathy.

Because of this, Zhang Anzai had acted on impulse and played a reverse-logic game: he used the Ghost Wall-Building technique to hide a door, but instead of hiding in the studio behind it, he had ducked into the studio across the hall.

Most newcomers wouldn't think of such a maneuver, especially in such a critical situation.

Mr. Li hadn't anticipated this move, which was why he had fallen into the ambush.

However, if he hadn't known this guy was one of the Ten Evils, Zhang Anzai might have stayed behind to fight to the death; now that he knew, he didn't have the guts for it.

The half-used blood bag was precisely why he had swiped it from the studio where he'd been hiding earlier; he had guessed that the sneak attack wouldn't finish off Mr. Li, so he needed this item to make his escape.

"Still, getting him to this state means he's probably about to enter his second phase. I'll just wait for the big shots from the Official Division to save me. Before that... I need to make some preparations."

Zhang Anzai reached the end of the corridor and kicked open the door to Mr. Li's studio.

The bizarre scene before him confirmed his suspicions, but it also dealt a massive blow to his worldview.

A giant iron autopsy table sat in the center of the studio, with a mangled, flesh-and-blood corpse lying on top, long since devoid of life.

On two of the large walls, one side was packed with countless monitors like a security room, locking onto every corner of the entire warehouse, even the restrooms.

The other side was hung with all sorts of cleaned yet bone-chilling tools of various sizes—bone saws, skinning knives, meat cleavers. It didn't look like a studio at all; it looked more like a slaughterhouse.

On the remaining shelves and cabinets, one side held countless pieces of skin being stretched or in the process of being tanned, while the other held countless finished masks.

From animal masks sized to fit human heads to various ferocious human masks and even non-human monster masks, they were exquisite to the extreme, yet terrifyingly realistic.

At a glance, it looked as if dozens of human and biological heads of all sizes were displayed in the cabinets.

"Damn, this guy must be... Un-Dao, one of the Ten Evils."

In the massive office of the Official Division, the city night still loomed outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, yet they turned on the lights one by one, arriving at their workstations with sleepy eyes.

Excluding those currently on missions or dealing with other special circumstances, sixty or seventy percent of the Official Division staff had arrived. All five teams were present, countless employees looking like they had "bed-head" and were in no mood to be bothered.

But if one truly knew the inside story, they would realize their solemn expressions weren't entirely due to being called up in the middle of the night.

The Official Division office wasn't much different from the Intern Division's, save for better facilities; because of the long-term work, there were more personal items, giving it a more lived-in feel.

Other than that, it was just desks, computers, chairs, printers, water coolers, and the team leader's office.

The most obvious difference was that in the center of each team's area hung a massive screen, paired with a high-spec projector.

The Official Division employees were experienced and possessed unique personal abilities; many didn't even return to their dorms at night, preferring to stay in the office.

Most of their attention was focused on the large screen in the center.

However, following an emergency notification, no matter what was playing, the screens of all five teams were cut to a gray display in an instant.

After all the employees had basically arrived within a few minutes, Xu Xinhai reached the Team One office: "What's the situation? Still haven't connected?"

A dedicated assistant from the Logistics Division held a file while operating the computer: "There is no previous matching record for this instance. Although we have the connection information from that employee's side, it's not very easy to match it."

While no Official Team Leader had stepped forward specifically for this matter, the sight of so many Official Division employees mobilized at once was already spectacular.

This alone proved that the matter was of great importance.

"Although we haven't connected yet, we have communicated with that intern. My team members have already pulled up the player's information," the assistant added from the side.

The Official Division players who had arrived were indeed all flipping through a complex player profile.

However, it was not that of [Fate Controller] Zhang Anzai.

"[Bi Gan]"

"Inheritance: Second Skin Art..."

"It reached 10% completion before detachment?"

"Craft-based? No, this counts as a Trickery-type. By completely stripping away skin, flesh, and nerves, one can create special leather goods that inherit abilities, physical fitness, conditioned reflexes... and even personality?"

"This ability should correspond to the heinous crimes of serial killing, dismemberment, or practicing evil arts among the Ten Evils—Un-Dao.

Whose subordinate let this slip through the cracks? It's fortunate it was discovered this early."

The members of the Official Division all furrowed their brows, their assessment of the situation appearing far from optimistic.

"Don't get too happy just yet. Even though it was discovered early, it's hidden inside a newbie dungeon..."

Xu Xinhai flipped through the files while listening to their discussion, perfectly clear on the situation they were describing.

"We can talk about whose hands it escaped from later; that's a matter for the Oversight Department. For now, find a way to rescue that player."

Xu Xinhai's expression was grave: "Ten Evils, they're like ghosts that refuse to dissipate..."

As members of the Official Division who frequently had to handle various emergency situations in dungeons, there were several scenarios in their operational manual that had to be treated with the utmost seriousness.

The special organization known as the Ten Evils was precisely one of them.