Since it wasn't human, Wang Yanfei suddenly felt much braver.
He pressed the steaming hot can directly against the "middle-aged man's" face. The skin reacted like a wet tissue touching fire, letting out a sharp hiss as smoke rose.
The flesh shriveled in an instant. The whole face wrinkled up like someone had crushed it in their hand and then let go.
The sight made chills crawl down Wang Yanfei's back.
"…Holy crap, this is insane. This is ten thousand times more intense than watching a horror movie at full volume at midnight."
Alvina snapped out of her shock too. Her vertical pupils tightened. "Damn… this thing… really was just a layer of skin?"
Before she even finished, the middle-aged man's head began to rapidly shrink, as if everything inside bone, flesh, organs had completely evaporated.
Everything below the neck deflated like a balloon losing air, collapsing with a quiet whoosh.
In the end, only a wrinkled sheet of "skin" slipped off the rope and drifted to the ground.
A cold forest wind blew through. The skin puffed up slightly, then collapsed again, eerie enough to make one's scalp tingle.
Alvina jumped off Wang Yanfei's shoulder and slid over to the skin. She nudged it with her nose, flipping it over. Her voice echoed as it bounced under the empty skin.
"Hello—anyone in there? ...Oh. Nope. Just a layer of skin."
Wang Yanfei: "…"
What happened tonight was about as shocking as that meteor sixty-six million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs dropping onto Earth again.
Alvina climbed back onto his neck. Her cool scales and faint touch finally helped calm him down.
"Relax, human. You're already in another world. If this scares you, what will you do later?"
Wang Yanfei took a deep breath and tried to give himself a bit of psychological support.
"...Yeah, I did transmigrate. Wait—what did you just say? Later?"
He turned his head slowly toward her. Alvina immediately looked away, pretending to admire the scenery. "Ahem… don't worry about the details."
Forget it. He didn't feel like arguing with this little thing.
He stepped forward and picked up the skin.
To his surprise, it felt cool and bouncy,like touching a sheet of cold jelly.
When he lifted it, the jacket the "creature" had been wearing slipped off and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
He set the skin aside, picked up the jacket, and felt the fabric.
Rough texture, but definitely something made for humans.
He checked the pockets and actually found a wallet.
Inside, the most eye-catching item was a blue card.
The card held the "middle-aged man's" photo, a string of incomprehensible numbers, and a strange metallic sheen.
Wang Yanfei flicked it lightly with his finger.
A low hum rippled through the air, forming wave-like vibrations.
"Whoa… this is some serious sci-fi tech."
Excitement flashed across his face. He had finally found an ID card.
But the identity was the middle-aged man's, so he obviously couldn't use it. That disappointment hit him immediately.
Then his gaze drifted back to the "skin."
A very questionable idea popped into his mind:
…Should he try wearing it?
But he was 183 cm tall, and that skin was barely 170. If he put it on, he'd look like an adult squeezing into a kid's sleeping bag.
He immediately abandoned the idea.
He continued searching the wallet, found a stack of blue bills, then another photograph.
In the photo were the middle-aged man and a little girl. The girl hugged a toy and smiled sweetly.
Wang Yanfei frowned even more.
"A monster… has a family?"
Alvina suddenly said, "Flip it over. There's writing on the back."
He flipped it over and saw a long line of text he couldn't read.
He froze. "…Do you think I can understand this?"
Alvina shot him an expression full of disdain. "Tch. You can't even read the common tongue. Human, your level of stupidity is beyond my desire to insult."
Seeing that the white snake was no longer cryptic and simply talking trash, Wang Yanfei couldn't help laughing angrily. He reached over to grab her off his neck.
Seeing the hand approaching, Alvina immediately surrendered. She tapped her tail lightly against his neck.
In the next moment—
A massive flood of information poured straight into Wang Yanfei's mind.
It felt like someone blasting his brain with a pressure washer full of linguistic structures, phonetics, symbols, grammar… His skull throbbed with pain, and he nearly collapsed.
When he came back to his senses, the rush of knowledge vanished completely, leaving no trace.
Alvina lifted her head proudly. "There. Human, check your panel. I granted you the power to communicate freely with all intelligent beings."
Wang Yanfei dropped the jokes and opened his panel quickly.
[Wang Yanfei]
Race: Human
Status: Healthy [large green stick figure]
Height/Weight: 183 cm / 69 kg
HP: 92% (this value is not digitized)
Sanity: 62/80
Energy: None
Attributes (Base → Bonus → Total):
Strength: 3 → (—) → 3
Agility: 4 → (—) → 4
Constitution: 4 → (—) → 4
Spirit: 5 → (—) → 5
Perception: 3 → (—) → 3
Abilities: Universal Communication
He tapped on "Universal Communication," and a new screen appeared:
Universal Communication: A mysterious [Language] created by Words. It automatically adapts to the communication patterns of all intelligent beings. ———Language is the treasure of civilization.
He closed the interface and stared at Alvina.
"You clearly had something good."
Alvina lifted her head proudly and tapped her own cheek with her tail. "Of course. My greatness has no limits. Hurry up and worship me."
Wang Yanfei's face darkened. He grabbed her off his shoulder and dropped her onto the ground.
"Worship your head."
Then he picked up the photo again and looked at the writing on the back, now clear as day.
His expression tightened instantly.
There was only one line:If anyone sees this record, don't trust me. That thing is not me.
But the handwriting was crooked, like the writer had been trembling with terror while forcing the words out.
A cold chill slid down his spine. He instinctively touched his neck.
At some point, Alvina had wrapped around him again. Her scales were cool. She looked up at him with curiosity.
"Why are you touching your neck? Afraid you'll turn into a monster too?"
Wang Yanfei's face stiffened. "…Stop talking. I'm mentally fragile right now."
Alvina: "But your Sanity is still 59."
"Shut up!"
He took a deep breath, flipped the photo over, and looked again at the man and the little girl.
The middle-aged man's smile was bright; the little girl held her toy, her eyes sparkling.
Now, combined with that bag of empty skin, the image felt terrifying.
After a moment of silence, he asked, "Alvina… what do you think this thing was?"
Alvina rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'm an encyclopedia?"
"Weren't you bragging about how great you are?"
Alvina flicked her tail proudly. "Greatness doesn't mean knowing everything. And why would I understand beings from such a low dimension?"
Wang Yanfei: "…"
In that moment, he truly couldn't tell whether he should feel worse for the middle-aged man…or bury this trash-talking snake in the dirt first.