# Chapter 53: Falling Out
Xu Huo hid in the pigsty for four hours before the darkness outside receded. He stashed the pigskin away, first went to check on the little pig, then circled around from outside to the room where the several players were staying.
Tang Pei and the others sat silently in the darkness, the blood-tainted air permeated with deathly stillness.
"Who died?" he asked.
"See for yourself." Qin An rubbed his face with both hands, bent over, and stared at the ground.
Xu Huo pulled open the door. The candles on the operating table hadn't gone out yet. The first thing he saw was Peng Fengnian, dead with eyes wide open on the wall, and then he discovered what was hanging in the center of the workshop... a person.
It could no longer be called a person. It was just a strip of red flesh stripped of its skin. Red muscle tissue and blood vessels were exposed to the outside, blood continuously flowing down his body, all dripping into the bucket below.
He was suspended by the back of his neck, yet his chest still had faint rises and falls.
In front of him, a complete human skin hung in the air, its edges all pierced with fishhooks, stretched flat like a painting, so thin that candlelight could shine through it...
The one who had been skinned was Zou Weichang. Although he hadn't breathed his last yet, at this point, death was only a matter of time.
Looking around and finding no trace of the Skinner, Xu Huo was about to move Peng Fengnian down when he didn't expect that "corpse's" eyeballs suddenly moved. With a face covered in blackened blood vessels, it jumped down from the wall in fury and swung a fist at his face!
Xu Huo dodged his punch, grabbed his arm while sidestepping, and lowered his voice to ask, "Where did the Skinner go?"
Peng Fengnian panted heavily, his angry and hate-filled eyes mixed with fear. His mouth opened, but he couldn't speak or didn't dare to speak.
Seeing that his condition was off, Xu Huo immediately pulled the man into the players' room.
As soon as the door closed, Peng Fengnian attacked him like a madman, even catching Qin An and the others in the crossfire. Yang Can and Xian Dazhi joined forces to hold him down. The former said with a frightened expression, "Could it be that the Skinner injected him with some kind of madness-inducing virus?"
Tang Pei gritted her teeth, stepped forward, and slapped Peng Fengnian across the face. "If you're not dead, then get a grip! Do you want the others to end up like Zou Weichang too?"
Peng Fengnian's eyes were bloodshot. He could no longer hear what others were saying. He stared fixedly at Xu Huo, his face completely twisted.
"You were playing dead on the wall and happened to see the Skinner skin Zou Weichang alive." Xu Huo looked at him.
Qin An and the others were all stunned. The commotion in the workshop wasn't loud, but it was enough to catch their attention. After discovering that Zou Weichang was missing, Qin An immediately used his X-ray vision ability to check the workshop. At that time, Zou Weichang's scalp had already been torn off.
Qin An couldn't describe the shock at that moment, but after just one look, he withdrew his trait and didn't dare look a second time.
"...Alive... he was skinned alive..." Peng Fengnian's voice was hoarse, trembling as he spoke, "...and after it was done, he was still alive..."
From the moment Zou Weichang was hung up, the Skinner was no longer just a character image in the game introduction in Peng Fengnian's eyes, but a true murderous maniac. He could skin a person alive with a smile on his face, operating for hours without his hands even trembling. And because Peng Fengnian had used a death-feigning potion, he couldn't even close his eyes and had to watch from beginning to end!
"Why did you give us false information?" Peng Fengnian stared at Xu Huo. "Zou Weichang sneaked out to get the animal hide. It's because of you that he died so horribly!"
Qin An and the other four looked at Xu Huo with mixed expressions. Qin An said, "What do you mean? The key to clearing the instance isn't the fur?"
"No!" Peng Fengnian exhaled heavily. "Zou Weichang didn't succeed. The Skinner cornered him."
"What exactly are you trying to do? What good does it do you to get other players killed?"
Xu Huo swept his gaze over the five people who were on guard and ready to strike at any moment. His face, covered in shadow, showed little expression, but his voice turned cold. "Think carefully. Did Zou Weichang die because of me?"
"I clearly told you that collecting the hide during the day was safer than at night, and the agreed time was also tomorrow during the day. Why did Zou Weichang go to get it on his own?"
"Even if Zou Weichang had selfish motives, you gave false information first." Qin An held a long whip in his hand. "If you don't explain yourself today, you're not leaving!"
"I told you the method to open the secret room. I deduced the key to clearing the instance. I also warned you to act during the day."
"We're all players. I've told you everything I should. Do I have to spoon-feed you and then get blamed for not blowing on it to cool it down?"
"Burned your mouth and now you're turning around to bite the hand that fed you..." Xu Huo let out a soft laugh. "I really wonder how you guys made it to D-rank."
Qin An and the others' expressions shifted unpredictably. Xian Dazhi hesitated for a moment before saying, "This really can't be blamed on others. We're all here for the first time. He was just guessing. Even if he was wrong, it's not his fault."
Peng Fengnian understood that what Xu Huo said made sense. This matter was indeed Zou Weichang's fault first, but the price was too brutal!
"I want to know one thing. Did you know that the instance would change at night?" he asked.
"No." Xu Huo's expression was frank. "It's you guys who didn't take the information that 'the Skinner's knife can't be used during the day' seriously."
"If you were more observant, you would have noticed that the Skinner actually has a dual personality. During the day, he's the irritable factory boss Red Nose Carl, and at night, he's the skinning maniac, the Skinner."
"His office is clean and tidy, his stationery and bookshelves are neatly arranged, and his reading range covers everything from anatomy to philosophy, matching the 'delicate inner world' mentioned in the game. But he himself is unkempt, a drunkard and womanizer, and his bedroom hasn't been cleaned for a long time. Aren't these contradictions obvious?"
"If the personality holding the skinning knife is the Skinner, then who Red Nose Carl is at night is obvious."
"Knowing such important information, you still sneaked out at night. You were the ones gambling with your lives."
Peng Fengnian had vaguely sensed that the Skinner's personality contrast was too great, but he hadn't had time to think it through before being stimulated into mental chaos by the live skinning.
Looking again at the man still playing with the lighter at the door, he wasn't unconvinced, but he also couldn't ignore the coldness Xu Huo showed when seeing the corpse, as if human life meant nothing to him.
"Our cooperation is terminated."
Xu Huo returned the paper phone to him and walked straight out of the room.
"Is that it?" Yang Can watched his back and whispered, "Actually, I don't think he was wrong. He didn't know Zou Weichang would act behind everyone's back. And just now... we didn't dare go out to save anyone either."
To put it bluntly, it felt like they were taking out their incompetence on him.
Peng Fengnian covered his eyes, took a deep breath, and then said, "Let's rest first. When it gets light and the Skinner goes out, we'll go to the secret room to search."
Regardless of what they thought, Xu Huo returned to the pigsty after leaving and pulled out the red-haired one who had been clawing at the stitches on its belly:
"Promise to behave, and I'll let you out."