# Chapter 51: The Scent
This was what Xu Huo couldn't figure out—the Skinner instance wasn't a closed instance. If players could hide outside the factory and not come in, it couldn't really be considered forced participation.
But what was happening before his eyes made him understand that even if they hid outside during the day, they would definitely be driven into the factory at night!
If Peng Fengnian's information was accurate, the Skinner at night was far more dangerous than the Skinner during the day. Players who tried to cut corners by hiding outside might become the first targets, making it even more perilous instead.
Hesitating between the pigpen and the Skinner's bedroom, Xu Huo chose the former.
Before the darkness had completely closed in on the factory, he grabbed the rat he had hidden outside during the day and used meat strips to tie it to the electrical wires on the workshop ceiling. Then he slipped into the pigpen, signaled Sima Xiao'er and the others to stay quiet, draped the pig skin he had taken off back over himself, and squeezed into a corner.
The others were somewhat bewildered by his actions when they suddenly heard footsteps approaching from the front door of the pigpen. Startled, they all crowded into the corner, naturally shielding him from view.
The heavy, slow footsteps didn't belong to any player. Xu Huo was certain it was the Skinner, but this Skinner was different from the one during the day.
"Creak..." The front door slowly opened. With a "click," the light came on, and a figure gradually walked up to the pigpen.
This person had the same face as the Skinner, the same red nose and tall build, but that messy brown hair was now combed neatly, slicked with hair oil, every strand pressed tightly against the scalp. The thick beard was also smoothly braided into a small ponytail, with trimmed ends.
The bloodstained dirty coat had been replaced with a clean white lab coat, over which was tied a leather apron. At the edge of the apron were two black thin blades, two fingers wide, shaped like crescent moons. The patterns on the blades reflected faint light, like a pair of butterfly wings echoing each other.
Those were the skinning knives!
Through the narrow gap, Xu Huo watched this Skinner, whose mental state was completely different from the butcher version he had seen before, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind:
He absolutely must not be discovered!
As if sensing something, the Skinner turned his head, his calm and cold eyes looking toward the pigpen.
In that instant, Xu Huo's hands and feet involuntarily stiffened. The Skinner's figure kept magnifying in his field of vision. Watching the hand reaching out toward him, he even felt a despair that he absolutely couldn't escape!
The fear of death seized his body and mind. Thoughts of resistance, escape, and fighting to the death all weakened, and another cognition rapidly invaded his brain—he was going to die here!
"OINK!!!" Just then, a few meters away in the pigpen, a small piglet shrieked wildly, trampling over other piglets as it scrambled out of the pen and frantically ran toward the back of the pigsty.
The Skinner shifted his gaze and strode after the piglet. From a distance of over ten meters, he extended his right hand toward it. The piglet, which had been somewhat frantic a second ago, immediately became calm, trembling all over as it lay on the ground, unable to move.
The Skinner walked over and picked up the piglet, gently stroking its head. "Running around and bumping into things will damage the skin. If it's peeled off, the color won't be even, won't look good enough. So disobedient..."
He paused mid-sentence, grabbed the tag on the piglet's ear, "So a customer has already placed an order."
The Skinner regretfully tossed the piglet back into the pen and looked again at the large pig pen. "There's still a strange smell here..."
Before he could finish speaking, the lights inside the pigpen suddenly went out, and the darkness outside the factory stopped at the windowsill.
In the pitch black, the Skinner took a deep breath, then said in a cheerful tone, "A new scent. So there's a disobedient piglet hiding outside."
Footsteps quickly walked out of the pigpen, carrying a hint of eagerness.
In the darkness, the pigpen door had long been closed, but Xu Huo took a long time to recover.
His reaction when the Skinner had locked onto him earlier was too abnormal. A person's presence and aura were limited. Without external intimidation, it absolutely shouldn't make someone so terrified that they couldn't resist. Was this the Skinner's trait?
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Xu Huo wrapped himself in the pig skin, climbed onto the windowsill, and jumped down. But passing through the darkness, he landed back in the pigpen. This happened several times in a row. The night outside seemed like a barrier surrounding the factory. It seemed the factory wouldn't return to its daytime state until a certain time.
The one who had lured the Skinner away must have been Peng Fengnian, who had just entered. If he couldn't hold out until the darkness receded, the Skinner would very likely turn back.
If possible, Xu Huo wanted to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible, hoping Peng Fengnian could hold on a little longer.
While he was placing his hopes on Peng Fengnian, Peng Fengnian, hiding on the wall above the front door of the workshop, was equally hoping he could do something to attract the Skinner's attention.
Hiding outside and not entering the factory wasn't an option. The consequence of violating game rules and exploiting loopholes was instance backlash. He was certain the Skinner would list him as the first target. He knew his own level—in a physical fight, he'd just be delivering himself. Thinking of all the rumors about the Skinner, his body trembled uncontrollably.
Inside the factory, besides the pigpen at the back, the Skinner's bedroom and secret room, the slaughter room and the adjacent warehouse had walls reaching the ceiling. The spaces above other rooms, except for the beams for wiring, were basically hollow. So as long as the angle was high enough, one could more or less see the situation in other parts of the factory.
As soon as he had been thrown onto this wall, he had immediately hidden his tracks and hadn't planned to change positions. Whether it was the bedroom, the office, or the fur room ahead, entering any of them would be like being trapped in a jar waiting for a turtle. It was better to stay on the wall and, after the Skinner passed, sneak into Tang Pei and the others' rest room.
Just then, the factory lost power again. He used all his traits and items that could conceal his tracks, hoping to fool the Skinner.
Less than half a minute after the lights went out, the back door of the pigpen opened, and the Skinner's figure walked in. Although he couldn't see his face clearly, judging by the footsteps, he had gone to the warehouse next door.
Peng Fengnian's suspended heart relaxed slightly. At this distance, if the Skinner had discovered him, he would have struck first. Going to the warehouse proved he hadn't been found.
Just as he was nervously waiting for the Skinner to reappear, in the players' rest room across from the warehouse, a figure suddenly got up from the bed and, without anyone else noticing, silently walked out of the room.
At such close range, and with the players maintaining vigilance, it was absolutely impossible to go unnoticed unless he used a trait or item. Before the six of them had formed their alliance, each had briefly introduced their traits. Peng Fengnian knew this was Zou Weichang's trait "Dark Under the Lamp."
What was he doing out here?
Zou Weichang, immersed in darkness, had no idea there was someone else on the wall. He sneaked across the workshop, precisely avoiding the Skinner who was in the warehouse, and went out through the front door into the fur room.