Chapter 55: Sudden Assault
The moment he saw the fish, the Skinner's expression instantly switched. He stepped into the shallow water, grabbed the fishing line, and weighed it in his hand. "Damn, over half a catty. I've been here almost half a month and haven't caught one this big!"
Watching the Skinner seamlessly switch between expressions and personalities, Yang Can was shocked and uncertain. Just as he was hesitating whether to withdraw from the instance, Xu Huo suddenly stood up and pointed toward the factory. "There's a fire over there!"
The Skinner leaped out of the river, charging over like a small mountain, storming up to Yang Can. He grabbed his head and slapped him twice, then dragged him back. "I'll kill those little bastards today!"
The Skinner's five fingers were like they were stuck into Yang Can's head. Yang Can couldn't resist at all and could only let himself be dragged back to the factory.
The three entered through the front door. The Skinner saw the fur workshop was fine, but thick smoke was billowing from the pigsty, and people were shouting for help putting out the fire. He grabbed an empty bucket and rushed into the workshop!
"Bang!" No sooner had he entered than he fell flat on his back. A flying rope shot in from the side, wrapped around his ankle, and dragged him up to hang from the beam!
Yang Can recognized that whip as Qin An's item and realized they had made their move. He dashed into the workshop in one stride, a three-meter-long slender white bone appearing in his hand. One side of the bone had been ground into a sharp blade, and it whistled as it sliced toward the Skinner's neck!
But the anticipated scene of decapitation didn't happen. The Skinner, hanging upside down, bent his arm to shield his head. The bone knife struck as if hitting steel or metal—not only did it fail to cut in, but it was also jarred back, creating two cracks!
Yang Can's expression also cracked. He cried out in pain, "My item!"
"Forget about that!" Tang Pei rushed past him like the wind. "Cripple his left leg!"
Poison-coated darts wove around the Skinner, drawing his attention while also smearing venom onto his skin!
The Skinner's violent thrashing put immense pressure on Qin An. He gritted his teeth and held on. "Hurry up! I can't hold much longer!"
"Almost there!" Tang Pei and Xian Dazhi had already climbed onto the beam. Xian Dazhi pinned down the Skinner's leg while Tang Pei grabbed his ankle with both hands and shouted, "You are not you, I am not me, you are me, I am..."
Tang Pei still had more to say, but at that moment, the Skinner ignored Peng Fengnian's distracting darts, swung himself with force, grabbed a nearby dehairing machine with one hand, and smashed it violently at the beam!
The beam collapsed with a crash. Tang Pei and Xian Dazhi had no choice but to retreat from the beam. Flying dust temporarily blocked their vision, but Qin An was yanked forward several steps by his own whip. His face changed drastically. Just as he was about to retract the whip, the tension on the other end suddenly released, and a severed whip tail was tossed out!
Seeing a tall figure rise from the dust, the players' expressions all darkened!
"Bang! Bang!" The Skinner swung his steel-like arms, hurling stones indiscriminately, roaring in fury, "I'll twist all your heads off!"
The players kept retreating, but unexpectedly, at that moment, the Skinner slipped. His whole body crashed to the ground with a thud, his left foot dragged by something into the pile of rubble from the collapsed beam!
"Now!" Peng Fengnian jumped in through the window and lunged at the Skinner!
Xian Dazhi, Qin An, and Yang Can all surged forward, using their full weight to pin down the Skinner's arms. Tang Pei seized the opportunity to grab the Skinner's leg:
"You are not you, I am not me! You are me, I am you!"
After shouting these two sentences, her expression visibly relaxed. The next second, she raised a stone and smashed her own left leg!
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
One, or perhaps two, breaking sounds echoed through the workshop. The next moment, the Skinner screamed in pain. He kicked Tang Pei away with one foot, then suddenly sat upright, flinging his arms to throw the four players off!
The players hadn't intended to prolong the fight anyway. They retreated, and Xian Dazhi carried Tang Pei away.
As the players created distance, Xu Huo also retracted the strings he had used to trip the Skinner. He stared at the Skinner's left leg. When Tang Pei had smashed her own left leg, his left leg should have broken too.
"That's that female player's trait," Sima Xiao'er said from behind him. "That Peng guy said he wanted to cooperate with us to rescue people, so I let them help. He told you to hurry—this trait only lasts five minutes."
Xu Huo turned to look at him. "They cleared the instance using human skin?"
Sima Xiao'er nodded. "You were right. The human skin needed to clear the instance was hidden among those animal hides."
If human skin could clear the instance, then the dead Zou Weichang had simply been unlucky. The human skin was indeed one of the Skinner's prized possessions. Thinking back to when the players had cleared the instance and the Skinner's other personality had briefly awakened, Xu Huo had an idea. He lowered his voice and said, "You make your move."
Sima Xiao'er nodded and turned to go outside.
Inside the workshop, the Skinner, realizing his left leg was broken, went berserk, smashing the ground with his fists. On the thick concrete floor, each punch left a deep crater. After a dozen or so punches, his frenzied, exposed demeanor was like that of a wild beast!
This pinned the few players who had been thinking of taking advantage of his injury to finish him off, freezing them in place, completely afraid to approach.
Just then, the front door of the workshop opened. Xu Huo walked in, smiling at the scene. "Mr. Carl, you're not all that impressive, are you? Want me to give you a hand?"
Peng Fengnian and the others were stunned: What act was he putting on?
The Skinner's face flushed red. He stiffened his neck and said, "Don't mock me, Brother Wang. Losing one leg is nothing. Even if I only had my hands, I could still take care of these small fry!"
"Don't move!" Sima Xiao'er jumped in through the window, holding up the painting of the woman and a burning piece of wood. "Release the people in the pigsty, or I'll burn her to death!"
The woman in the painting was trapped in the frame by a layer of tape. She seemed to feel the heat outside, dodging and writhing in silent agony, reaching out toward the Skinner as if begging for help.
The Skinner ground his teeth audibly. He actually hopped on one foot and lunged at Sima Xiao'er!
Not only Sima Xiao'er, but even Xu Huo was startled. Fortunately, Peng Fengnian and the others reacted quickly, immediately lassoing the Skinner with a whip and pulling him down.
Sima Xiao'er managed to escape, his face pale as he fled toward Xu Huo. But Xu Huo stopped him with a sharp glare, so he immediately turned and ran toward Peng Fengnian instead.
Xian Dazhi and Qin An each grabbed one end of the whip, wrapping it around the Skinner's neck, barely managing to hold him in place. It looked like they were about to lose control of the frenzied Skinner when Xu Huo spoke again: "It's just a woman. Why ruin business over her? Just finish these people off quickly."
"Besides, that's just an item. It looks like a person, but it's not real."
"Are you really going to let them go for her sake?"
The players glared at Xu Huo with fury. But the Skinner stared straight at the woman crying bitterly in the painting, his eyes filled with reluctance. Seeing the flames about to reach the edge of the painting, he ground his teeth and said, "Fine, I agree!"