Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 57: Collapse

The Skinner’s expression suddenly changed drastically.
Before this, he had appeared as an emotionless killing machine, with features and emotions seeming like fake skin embedded on a flesh body. The fear he inspired was the fear of a different species; he looked human but was not human—without human emotions, fearless, without preferences, flawless, making it impossible to find a weakness.
But now, his calm face twisted, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets, instantly turning from an invincible killing god into a vulnerable mortal.
“Fair trade!” Yang Can, who had been hiding in the distance, suddenly shouted. Qin An, who was being stepped on by the Skinner, immediately turned into a heavy stone, and Qin An was swapped over to Yang Can’s side.
Freed, Qin An crawled out from the dog skin and hurriedly said, “Everyone be careful, that is the Skinner’s trait. Once wrapped in the skin, neither traits nor items can be used!”
Xu Huo had also experienced the Skinner’s trait in the pigpen. Once you wore the skin, besides losing the use of traits and items, you would develop an absolutely uncontrollable fear toward the Skinner.
After all, the Skinner had peeled ninety-nine thousand skins; this was probably an instinctive fear animals had toward him.
“Skinner, you’ve killed so many people, have you ever killed someone you shouldn’t have?” Xu Huo moved closer with his torch, kicking aside another burning tiger skin by his feet.
Both animal skins had human skin sandwiched inside—one burning, one held in his hand. The Skinner didn’t even glance at the one on the ground but fixed his eyes on the flickering flames.
“Too many people killed to remember?” Xu Huo sneered coldly. “Dungeon upgraded? Got the pass? As long as the Field family is in E27, don’t even think about it!”
He wrapped the torch with the wolf skin, and then the Skinner disappeared from where he stood!
“Ahhhh!” The Skinner howled as he charged at the burning wolf skin. Peng Fengnian, still at the warehouse entrance, didn’t know the reason but clearly saw the air around the wolf skin crack into vertical stripes. When the Skinner embraced it, the paper-like fragments peeled off and scattered!
“The dungeon collapsed!” Peng Fengnian was stunned. Seeing the paper pieces swirl and spread in all directions, he rushed to the warehouse entrance and threw a wooden box to Sima Xiao Er, shouting, “Give this to him!”
Sima Xiao Er was being jostled by panicked people trying to escape, and when he suddenly received the box, he just opened his mouth when Peng Fengnian vanished on the spot. Instead, a swarm of mottled fragments flooded into the warehouse, and everyone was engulfed in darkness!
Ting City.
In the temporary command room, the now-empty Golden Light Building’s every room on every floor, including the bathrooms, was displayed on the screens. With a flicker, as if a frame had been cut, a figure appeared out of thin air on the long-abandoned twenty-eighth floor.
Xu Huo grabbed the ground and leapt up, luckily reacting fast enough; otherwise, he would have fallen from the twenty-eighth floor.
Sure enough, he returned to the place he came from.
Just as he was about to leave, a game notification popped up:
[Due to the collapse of the D-grade dungeon "Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Plant," all players and non-players in this dungeon are forcibly removed from the dungeon (rewards for cleared players remain unchanged)!]
His steps paused: the dungeon had actually collapsed!
Before he could think further, people began to appear one after another on the twenty-eighth floor—the agent of Yu Qingqing, staff from the entertainment company, special operatives from the research institute... Just as the game said, everyone inside was forcibly removed after the dungeon collapse.
Xu Huo walked over to Sima Xiao Er, who was holding the box with a dazed expression. “For me?” He had seen that box before; it was the one Peng Fengnian used to carry the paper phone.
Sima Xiao Er nodded blankly. Xu Huo thanked him and took the box, then left.
“Hey! You can’t leave!” Sima Xiao Er tried to stop him but was pulled back by an injured colleague. “This person can still be saved!”
Seeing the person had disappeared at the door, Sima Xiao Er gritted his teeth and stayed to help.
A large number of special operatives and medical personnel poured into the Golden Light Building. Hearing the voices of those crying tears of joy, Xu Huo grabbed the Omnipresent String and jumped out the window, sliding down the wall to the twentieth floor, then left the building by stairs.
Needless to say, the items he left in the hotel had been taken over by the research institute. He didn’t rush to get them but returned to his previous rented room.
The room had been cleaned; broken furniture was moved away, including the new refrigerator he bought.
He opened the old, barely cooling refrigerator, took a bottle of water, and quickly finished the unexpired biscuits and bread to quell his hunger. Only then did Xu Huo clutch his chest and down a bottle of D-grade healing potion.
The effect of the D-grade healing potion was obvious; within minutes, the pain in his chest completely disappeared. He gently moved his arm, but the pain surged back again. Standing in front of the mirror, he saw his entire shoulder bruised and swollen—apparently the shoulder bone was fractured.
Not knowing if the D-grade healing potion could shorten the bone healing time, Xu Huo didn’t touch the wound further but sat on the sofa and opened the game interface.
The notification about the dungeon collapse was still scrolling on the screen, with bright red text accompanied by fireworks effects.
[Congratulations player Extra, you destroyed an underground factory in this random dungeon. For maintaining game order, you have made an outstanding contribution. The game considers you to have completed three tasks. In addition to the clearance rewards, you will receive the "Gentleman of Light" medal and a special item.]
[Also, since this is a random dungeon, player level ranking is not applicable.]
He raised an eyebrow slightly. The dungeon was recognized by the game, and causing the dungeon to collapse not only gave full clearance credit but also extra rewards?
This game world really was sound in its thinking.
Leaning back on the sofa, Xu Huo’s thoughts raced before settling on the last skin that was burned.
At first, he intended to set fire to the two human skins to buy time but didn’t expect that the wolf skin couldn’t be ignited with ordinary flames.
The thing inside the wolf skin was even more important than the Skinner’s rare items and was even protected by an item. He originally wanted to use it to trap the Skinner, but the dungeon collapse was completely unexpected.
However, it was a happy accident, just like when he only wanted to scrape for another bottle and ended up winning first prize.
The thing inside the wolf skin must be crucial to the dungeon. If it was damaged or missing, the dungeon would collapse.
Hidden inside the wolf skin and hung in the factory, it meant it couldn’t be collected into the item bag during the dungeon’s open time, or rather, it was part of the dungeon itself—unable to be collected, only hidden.
Let’s call it the dungeon core. Once the core is destroyed, all players and non-players are forcibly removed. Does this mean that once this D-grade dungeon collapses, it can never be reopened?
Xu Huo stroked his chin. Judging from the Skinner’s behavior, even if it didn’t reach that extent, it wouldn’t be much better.
Maybe Peng Fengnian knew some inside information. He took the paper phone out of the box and pressed it to his ear.