The Original Flaying Labyrinth

The people from the Official Division looked everywhere and couldn't make sense of it. Then they turned their attention elsewhere.

If you said the man standing inside the house was a player, then his fearsome presence and completely unharmed appearance—with only a little dirt on his clothes—were far more intimidating than those of a mere madman.

He didn't look all that insane, but with all that blood on his hands, he couldn't possibly be a good person. He looked ruthless and merciless.

If this was the player who'd been trapped, then something was seriously wrong. What kind of twisted player could turn a madman into this?

For a moment or two, they even genuinely hoped both of them were Ten Evils members. At least that would mean the common sense they were familiar with hadn't been overturned.

Finally, the assistant spoke up. During those few dozen seconds of silence, they'd quickly relayed the situation: "We've received a message from the intern administrator. The one wearing the Wolf-Head Mask is a player!"

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The official administrators were even more confused. "What!?"

Zhang Anzai was in no state to keep calm. Certain factors made it impossible for him to settle down.

Before this, he'd been able to think calmly, of course. After all, he'd managed two successful ambushes, which showed that no matter how powerful this former player from the Ten Evils was, he was still made of flesh and blood.

He had a health bar, so he was nowhere near as frightening as the Mountain Peddler, the Road-Blocking Demon, and those other grotesque monsters he'd encountered before.

As a veteran administrator who'd been an intern for over half a month, he might not have seen a situation like this, but he'd at least heard of the Ten Evils.

And because he knew how infamous they were, he understood just how big the reaction from the Official Division would be.

Although these big shots were unlikely to come down and help him fight in person, their support would make his chances of clearing the instance very high.

So after hiding in that room earlier, notifying Xu Xinhai, and successfully ambushing his enemy again, he hadn't been worried at all about failing to clear the instance.

The only problem was that his situation was too unusual. For one thing, Xu Xinhai had seen him before. Sister Wang from the Official Fourth Division had too. If they saw his player form, he'd inevitably be exposed.

So after notifying them, he still had something more important to do: find something that could conceal his identity.

That wasn't difficult in this instance. Although he hadn't seen the player's file, he'd more or less guessed what Mr. Li's ability was. He also understood that Mr. Li couldn't possibly have just the one mask he'd seen.

So when he'd rushed into the workshop earlier, he hadn't just been after the saw he was holding now. He'd also come for the Wolf-Head Mask on his face.

Increasing his combat power was secondary. The main point was that it gave him a plausible way to cover his face without arousing the Official Division's suspicions.

"I didn't expect the effect to be this intense, though..."

Zhang Anzai knew the Official Division wouldn't connect to the instance right away, so after entering, he'd first picked out a weapon.

For maximum damage, he'd chosen the Meat-Sawing Blade, which looked like it would be the most effective.

Then he'd picked a mask. That choice hadn't been difficult. He couldn't stomach wearing a human-skin mask, so he'd gone with the Wolf-Head Mask.

Who could've guessed that the moment he put it on, he'd feel as if he'd been struck by lightning?

He'd already seen Mr. Li's file after using his administrator's true form to speak with the Official Division's assistant.

Bi Gan—the loyal Shang dynasty official from the Shang-Zhou period who'd been disemboweled and had his heart cut out. He'd remonstrated with the king at the cost of his own life, only to be killed by Daji in the end. The story of such a paragon of loyalty had always captivated people in China.

As a result, his standing had only risen after his death.

Because he had no heart, the ancients believed him to be impartial, and he became a god of commerce in certain traditions. Because he'd cut out his own heart, he was also revered as the patron saint of leatherworkers in ancient times.

The meaning behind Mr. Li's name was obvious.

The few abilities he'd unlocked with a 10% inheritance proficiency were all related to skinning and leatherworking.

His basic ability gave him a special advantage against skin and flesh. No matter what tool he used—even if he merely scraped them with a fingernail—he could find the critical points in the skin and flesh and cut or even separate them.

His 5% ability was Living Flesh. It let him keep wounds, or even severed flesh, alive for a short time, allowing them to heal and grow. It mainly worked on himself, letting him stitch flesh back together.

Thanks to this ability, the wound on his forehead had already stopped bleeding.

The most important ability was the last one: Skin Stitching. It wasn't a trick used by corpse stitchers or morticians. Instead, it let skin and flesh that had been kept alive for a long time, along with the original muscle memory, merge into normal skin.

Cut it away, keep it alive, then transfer and stitch it into place—that was how he'd gained the ability to create these special masks.

He had to admit, it was no wonder the Ten Evils' official members were valued by those ruthless players who'd gone rogue. Mr. Li was still low-level, but his abilities were undeniably effective.

The moment Zhang Anzai put on the Wolf-Head Mask, which had no rotting stench and was still warm, as if it were fresh, his whole head began to tingle.

It wasn't the struggling numbness of an arm recovering after being compressed. It was an itchy, tingling feeling, like a scab forming over a wound while new flesh slowly grew beneath the dead skin.

Then his facial senses began to change.

The mask wasn't going to reshape his bones, of course. But he really did feel his mouth and nose stretching out and his ears shifting higher.

Perhaps the nerves inside the human mask had been adjusted to connect to his facial features.

His hearing and sense of smell immediately became incredibly sharp. Even in the dark, he could see perfectly well.

He hadn't tested it yet, but his bite seemed to have grown several times stronger, too.

But...

"This guy smells kind of bad, but can't I eat him? I'm so hungry..."

After barely thinking that, Zhang Anzai immediately shook his head, banishing the dangerous thought.

Behind the mask's yellow, cloudy eyes, Zhang Anzai's gaze cleared again. "No, what am I thinking? This mask really does change a person's personality. I can't wear it for too long. I have to end this quickly!"

Zhang Anzai rubbed the weapons in his hands against each other.

After realizing that he'd developed a slight bloodlust, Zhang Anzai finally understood why Mr. Li was so deranged.

His abilities were certainly connected to his personality, but the mask was another important factor.

When something like this happened, the Official Division had of course obtained the original records of the Flaying Labyrinth for him free of charge.

The burned human-skin mask on Mr. Li's face had been flayed from the original boss of this instance. Wearing it was what had made Mr. Li's madness soar.

The original instance had been a perfectly ordinary scenario in which a humanoid madman hunted players through the Box Garden Space. The original boss had suffered severe burns to his face, so he'd taken up making human-skin masks, dedicated to finding the perfect face for himself.

In fact, it wasn't all that different from the current situation. The only difference was that he'd arrived, the original boss had become equipment, and the difficulty had gone up several notches.

"That's fine. As long as the reward for clearing the instance... is proportional to the difficulty!"