Let's set aside the question of why an entertainment company has so much medical equipment—the real question is: what's up with the electric pressure cooker? Planning to settle down and cook themselves on the spot?

Ruan Xing translated this kind of message from the look in Li Yuan's eyes.

The two of them were still relatively clear-headed at this point—but only the two of them. Even Chen Fan's eyes sparkled when he saw the devices—as if he wasn't looking at terrifying machines capable of cutting him in half but some god-tier system that could graft him onto the world's richest man.

The Instructor spoke: "As a star, the most important thing is body management. You can't expect a greasy, fat-faced man to wear the face of a dainty beauty, right? This round's difficulty is a bit higher than the first, but I believe it won't be much of a challenge for everyone here."

Ruan Xing raised his hand again: "What's the standard for a 'good' figure?"

The Instructor pointed at the medical scale nearby. “Your BMI must stay under 16.”

BMI—body mass index. The healthy range was around 18 to 24. But here, they were demanding under 16. That meant a full-grown adult who’s 178 cm tall would have to weigh just 50 kg.

After Fu Gui's explanation, Ruan Xing silently did the math in his head and realized... he didn't quite meet the standard to be a star.

Lulu smiled, then took off his top. His skin was as pale and smooth as jade, flawless like silk. But what caught everyone’s attention were the ribs sticking out starkly—clear, visible bones, an obvious sign of severe malnutrition.

When a trainee asked how to achieve this, he explained, "It's simple. Just cut off the excess fat. Or, you could break your legs and put them back together."

Reduce the numerator or increase the denominator—either way, both will reduce the BMI value.

Fu Gui: [Damn, this person is actually pretty good at math.]

Ruan Xing: [Is there a way to cheat the system?]

Fu Gui: [Just say you're going for a rugged, tough-guy image.]

Before Ruan Xing could speak, another trainee actually said that aloud.

In response, the Instructor shoved a bloody piece of meat from the floor into his mouth, calling it a "supplement" for being underweight. Then, he was dragged away by someone wearing a mask.

No one knew where he went.

One trainee eagerly started. He picked up a scalpel and began slicing his belly fat.

Ruan Xing tried to stop him, but the guy, with bloodshot eyes, already smelled faintly rotten. Desire had completely overtaken his reason.

After shoving Ruan Xing aside, he sliced off the fat from his stomach and then moved on to his thighs. In the end, only two skeletal legs held up his body, and the over-180cm-tall trainee finally cleared the round.

But he hadn't even taken two steps or had time to drink the special medicine Lulu offered before he collapsed on the ground, completely lifeless.

The medicine was restorative, but it couldn't bring the dead back to life. Lulu smiled faintly with a sigh of pity, then put the small bowl back.

Carving up your own body like that is far more dangerous than any facial surgery. And the worst part? No one knew how much flesh you’d need to cut off to pass.

Over and over, they stepped on the scale. Again and again, they continued to carve their bodies. Those who couldn't feel pain were actually thrilled and excited, stimulated by the sight of the blood.

Some people cut off most of their body fat and still didn't meet the requirement, so they aimed the blade between their legs, grinning viciously—and then went through with it.

Maybe in their eyes, they could already see themselves standing on stage—that image alone enough to push them through the transformation.

Chen Fan, wincing in pain, made a move on his tiny belly. He was already thin from malnutrition, so he met the standard after cutting a small piece. After drinking the tonic, his wounds healed, and all that was left was a flat stomach.

Li Yuan still had a long way to go, but he didn't pick up the knife. Instead, he gritted his teeth and broke the leg that had been fractured by traffickers before. Using a crutch, he stepped on the scale, which indicated that he barely passed by lowering his height.

This time, he drank the tonic voluntarily, and even the injury from before healed quite a bit—he was so surprised he jumped in place.

Across the bloody room, Lulu gave Ruan Xing a devilish smile.

Ruan Xing didn't react at all and walked straight to the scale.

Fu Gui freaked out: [You’re gonna be overweight at your current size?!]

Ruan Xing: [Not necessarily.]

The scale directly displayed the BMI since the company didn't care about the actual height or weight—only whether the trainees met the standard.

When Ruan Xing stepped on the scale, Lulu's smile deepened as he approached. "Those who don't meet the requirement will be eliminated. You get three chances."

Ruan Xing straightened up: "Got it."

He removed his shoes and coat and stood on the scale in white socks.

BMI: 15.9

Lulu's eyes went wide. "How is that possible?!"

This guy looked like he had at least 21 BMI—how could it be under 16?!

Was the scale broken?

Lulu stepped on the scale himself. 15.6. Totally normal.

"Try again."

Ruan Xing stepped up again: 15.9!

Lulu muttered to himself, "This can't be right…"

He could clearly see the muscle lines on Ruan Xing's body. With that build, he shouldn’t be under 16 unless he was nearly 190 cm tall.

Looking up, Lulu saw that Ruan Xing was a full head taller than him.

Had he always been that tall?

Ruan Xing: “Can I go now?”

Lulu suddenly shouted, "You cheated! You're wearing height insoles!"

Ruan Xing let out a quiet sigh, bent down, and took off his socks before stepping back onto the scale. This time, it read 15.8—even lighter than before.

The Instructor walked over. "What's going on?"

Ruan Xing pointed. “He’s accusing me of cheating even though I clearly met the qualification. Is this how you treat newcomers under your so-called ‘fair and impartial but not transparent’ system?”

Lulu's face flushed red. "That body type can't be real!"

The Instructor narrowed his eyes, and the dozens of faces on the body opened their eyes—half stared at Ruan Xing, half at Lulu. Lulu was struck by a sudden sense of danger and flinched while Ruan Xing calmly let them look.

The Instructor praised, "Since the machine gave the same result three times, you've passed this round. You've also got a good mindset. The third round shouldn't be a problem for you."

Lulu's expression twisted.

What the hell is up with this guy?!

Fu Gui: [Bro, how did you pull that off?]

The mycelium poked out from Ruan Xing's head and squeaked softly.

Ruan Xing didn't use height-lifting insoles or hide anything under his feet—that would’ve been too risky. Instead, the mycelium formed a nearly invisible web across the surface of the scale.

When he stepped on it, the tension slightly reduced his weight. But when Lulu tested the scale, the mycelium slackened just enough to avoid detection, restoring the scale’s actual reading.

Fu Gui's eyes widened: [Holy crap, that's genius.]

During the day, only a handful of trainees managed to pass after surviving the brutal and bloody second round of selection. Even those who did were completely drained and fell into deep sleep.

Ruan Xing was also snoring away in his S Room.

A figure quietly slipped inside.

The lights weren't on, so all that could be seen was that the figure had long hair. But currently, other than Li Yuan and Ruan Xing, all the trainees had long hair and slim figures, so it was impossible to tell who it was.

Seeing the lump under the covers, the figure raised a machete and stabbed wildly into the bed. Feathers from the comforter flew, but there was no satisfying resistance—no sense of piercing flesh.

Realizing something was off, the shadow immediately turned to escape.

But just then, a swooshing sound came from under the covers. The figure was quickly bound by something unknown.

Whoosh! The curtains opened.

Ruan Xing stood there, arms crossed, looking at the long-haired intruder.

"What are you doing?"

Lulu's face twisted. “Why ask as if you don’t know.”

Ruan Xing waved his hand. Before Lulu could react, the mycelium bound him tightly, leaving no room for movement.

"Let me go! You despicable awakened! What's your purpose for sneaking in here?!"

Lulu struggled and shouted, but strangely, no one outside responded. The building was dead silent.

"I just want to compete fairly," Ruan Xing stepped closer. The scent from his body was even stronger than before. “So why are you trying to kill me?”

Lulu’s face twisted further, but he remained silent.

Ruan Xing snapped his fingers, and a mycelium strand sliced off one of Lulu's fingers.

Lulu screamed in pain.

“Can you talk now?”

"I want your skin! I want to win the competition!"

Ruan Xing had heard this line three times now.

"My skin?"

Lulu finally spilled everything.

He had passed the first two rounds, but the third round's selection was extremely difficult, and he failed, barely surviving to his current position. But he hadn't given up. He actively participated again, and he could enter the final round once he passed.

Whether it was the facial conformity or body reshaping from earlier, everything had been prepared for the third round.

The third round's theme: Who is the most beautiful person?

In this round, trainees would drink a potion, peel off their own skin, and then fight to steal someone else's. Only those who ended up wearing the most beautiful skin would get to meet the boss and prepare for their debut.

In other words, it didn't matter what was underneath—as long as you wore the most beautiful skin, that was enough. Basically, a plastic-surgery-themed battle royale.

"I survived the last round but didn't manage to grab the best skin."

The stench from Lulu grew thicker. From the center of his forehead down to his chin, a crack slowly appeared on his face. Then, like a freshly skinned bullfrog, a monster burst out of the skin like a cannonball—red and glistening—leaping at Ruan Xing.

"If I wear your skin, I'll definitely debut!"

Ruan Xing's gaze turned icy. He raised his palm slightly, and a black arrow shot straight at Lulu. The mycelium followed half a beat later and bound him up tightly.

The monster, suspended in mid-air, struggled and screamed as the taut mycelium restrained its limbs.

A second black arrow pierced its skull. A spray of red and black fluid splattered everywhere—on the walls, the floor, the bed. The room became a complete mess.

The stench was overwhelming—like a fish market massacre.

Ruan Xing's expression darkened. “I don’t want to spend one more damn day in this hellhole.”

—

The next morning, Bai Xu woke up and found the dorm empty. He'd slept like a dead pig while the other guy got up early for work—just like those kids back in school who claimed they didn’t study but always aced the test. Despicable.

But unease crept into his heart when he couldn't find Ruan Xing anywhere. Don't tell me he disappeared?

Chen Yihang's face turned serious. "He wasn't abducted."

Bai Xu complained, "How could a full-grown person just get kidnapped? This is a base, for crying out loud. I think he just used the 'investigation' excuse to skip work! Left a little note just to throw us off."

Chen Yihang sneered, "You think everyone is like you?"

Bai Xu puffed out his chest, "I'm just making a reasonable guess."

Chen Yihang said, "Let's not tell the captain about this yet. Senior Pei and Sister Xiaona aren't here, and the Quarantine Center is waiting to find something to use against us. They're unreliable. You go find Ruan Xing. I'll push back your current tasks for now."

Bai Xu received the last signal address from Ruan Xing's wristband—it turned out to be an entertainment company.

"Driver, to the Meili Building." (美麗 'Měilì' = Beautiful, I will edit the previous chapter when I have time.)

Going all out, Bai Xu splurged on a premium ride and rushed over.

On the top floor of the Meili Building, a handsome man woke up amidst a mess. He looked over at the "employee" who had been cowering in the corner the night before and was now sleeping sprawled out, snoring loudly. His skin had long disappeared, leaving only dry, cracked pink muscles twitching with every breath.

The handsome man cursed, "Where the hell did he go?!"

A masked person nervously said, “He’s here, sir. Someone died last night, so the Instructor went to check. He’s not upstairs right now.”

The man paused. "Who died?"

"Lulu."

He didn’t recognize the name and didn’t care. He only remembered his actual staff members’ names—those half-polluted subordinates came and went all the time. It wasn’t unusual for a few to die inexplicably.

He kicked the employee beside him. "Let it drink the potion. How the hell are you selecting these people? Just sending up any kind of garbage."

The masked person trembled slightly. "There have been occasional oversights, but this round's quality is decent. Quite a few have passed the second round already. You'll be seeing them soon."

The handsome man walked to the wardrobe. His skin split open from the middle of his body, revealing what lay inside. Unlike the employees, the boss's insides weren't the red, slimy flesh of a skinned frog.

Instead, his body was covered in a pale bluish-green membrane, its layers arranged in symmetrical fan-like patterns, making him look like a legged fish—one without scales.

He took a wrinkled white film from the wardrobe, blew into it, and then deftly climbed in. After a bit of adjustment, a stunningly beautiful woman stood before the mirror.

She found a magenta dress from the closet, put it on, then took out her cosmetics and began applying makeup in front of the mirror.

"These self-registered candidates lately? Total garbage. They can't even make it to the final round. Even worse than previous batches. Seriously, is it really that hard to produce a few skin-swapping employees? Others seem to manage it just fine!" she grumbled with a pleasant voice.

"If that brat hadn't taken out a few of my top men, I wouldn't be in such a hurry…"

As she reached for her eyeliner, she raised a brow and asked the masked employee, “What’s the situation with this batch?”

The employee bowed low. "A recruit from the Scar-Tail group—good physical condition. His older brother used to be in the Quarantine Center's reserves. He was the one who killed the top scorer of his batch. Later, he was made into supplements in the cafeteria. The younger brother's very alert. When Scar-Tail sent him over, he already had a broken leg.”

"I remember him. He does look good," the glamorous woman said as she licked her lips while clipping on some earrings. "If he's still alive after today, bring him up. I want a look."

The masked man flinched and quickly agreed.

"And the others?"

"There's another strange one. Hmm… really good-looking, but weird personality. He didn't drink the supplement but wasn't scared when he met the Instructor."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Oh?"

That evening, the remaining ten trainees gathered in the dance studio.

Chen Fan started trembling as soon as he arrived.

Ruan Xing asked what was wrong.

Chen Fan didn't want to appear weak in front of him, but he couldn't stop shaking. "I ran into a monster in this dance studio a couple of days ago."

Ruan Xing recalled that his first encounter with Chen Fan was in this area.

"Do you remember what it looked like?"

Chen Fan shuddered. "No skin. All red. And there were several of them."

Ruan Xing thought of what Lulu had said about the third round the night before. He suspected that those might be failed participants from that round.

Those who failed to obtain the most beautiful skin could only become skinless monsters, waiting for another chance to acquire new skin.

The Instructor stood before them, opening all the eyes covering their body, scrutinizing each person.

"Something serious happened today. Our Instructor, Lulu, was found dead in the dance studio—with a giant hole in his head. I hope whoever did this will step forward and admit their mistake."

The tone, while serious, wasn't particularly accusatory—almost like a plea. Coming from a stunning woman or even a normal authoritative figure, such a tone was strangely persuasive.

The trainees were stunned. Then they started murmuring to one another. Dressed in identical clothes, with similar heights and builds, they looked like octuplets at first glance.

"We're not against competition between trainees. In fact, we expect you to engage in deadly competition during the third round. However, the problem is that such incidents must not happen outside our surveillance. That is absolutely unacceptable!"

The Instructor looked at each face one by one. Everyone seemed genuinely shocked, with no signs of faking it—it didn't seem like any of them were the culprit.

Even the most outspoken ones, Ruan Xing and Li Yuan, appeared surprised.

"We just saw Lulu yesterday, and he was perfectly fine. What happened today?"

The Instructor walked up to Ruan Xing.

"I remember Lulu always gave you special attention."

He deliberately emphasized the last few words.

Ruan Xing looked shocked.

"You suspect me, Instructor? But I'm just a harmless, ordinary trainee!"

He even removed his black-framed glasses. His green eyes shimmered with a misty gloss, the rims reddening as tears welled up. His once-upturned eyes now drooped slightly, radiating a fragile and innocent charm.

Anyone seeing that face would never associate it with a killer.

Fu Gui: [Keep pretending! Keep it up!]

Now the Instructor began to doubt as well. He questioned a few more trainees but got nowhere. Could it have been a disgruntled former participant who secretly killed Lulu?

All the surveillance footage was just static snow—no clear view of who the killer was. Since there were no clues on the trainees, the Instructor had no choice but to report it and let the matter drop.

"Regardless of what happened earlier, the third round of selection is about to begin. I hope everyone is ready—this will be your decisive battle. If you succeed, you'll face the boss and proceed to the final stage of selection and evaluation."

Everyone present rubbed their hands together eagerly, full of anticipation.

With Lulu gone, the Instructor personally handed each of them a bowl of green liquid.

"You must drink it before participating in the final selection. Otherwise, you won't get to meet the boss."

The other eight trainees drank without hesitation, but Ruan Xing and Li Yuan hesitated as they stared at the liquid.

Ruan Xing mentally dubbed it "skin-peeling fluid," unsure of its side effects.

To be safe, Ruan Xing raised his hand again.

The Instructor looked annoyed—this one always had the most questions. He would have been ignored long ago if he weren't so good-looking.

"Instructor, can I drink it after the selection?"

The Instructor laughed angrily, "No. Why can everyone else drink it, but you can't? The previous supplement was optional. This one is mandatory."

"Alright then." Ruan Xing seemed to give in, reluctantly raising the bowl to his lips. Moments later, it was completely gone.

Only then did the Instructor relax.

"Alright. The selection method this time is simple—or you could treat it as a game. A game of musical chairs."

"I'll remove one person's skin. The rest of you will scramble to steal someone else's. The one left without skin at the end will be eliminated."

The Instructor grinned, and the faces on his body grinned too.

"Oh, and there's no limit to how many skins you can possess. The winner will be the one with the most beautiful skin."

With that, the Instructor grabbed a dagger from nearby, seized the most average-looking trainee by the back of the head, sliced down the center of his forehead with a swift stroke, and peeled his entire skin off like a banana.

The thin layer of human skin dangled in his hand—no blood splattered, and the skinned person beneath was pink and fleshy, still unaware of what had just happened as he wobbled in place.

Then, without hesitation, the Instructor swallowed the skin whole. A new human face bulged from his belly button—the same face as the skinned trainee.

Fu Gui: [With skills like that, couldn't he have done something better than breaking the law?!]

At that moment, the skinned person looked down and let out a piercing scream, finally realizing what had happened.

He wasn't alone—the others were also stunned. But they quickly accepted the reality. They had come this far; there was no turning back.

The Instructor looked around in satisfaction and tossed ten daggers onto the floor. His voice was cheerful:

"I'll return in two hours to check on everyone."

The door of the dance studio slammed shut with a bang.

The room was eerily empty, with mirrors on both ends reflecting the nine remaining trainees and the one skinless creature infinitely.

Li Yuan turned to Ruan Xing. “What now?”

Ruan Xing blinked. "How about we stage a rebellion?"

No sooner had he spoken than a flash of steel slashed through the air. The skinned creature had picked up a dagger and lunged straight for Ruan Xing's face.

With the most beautiful skin in the room, Ruan Xing was an obvious target. Stealing his skin could end the fight instantly.

Ruan Xing leaned back lightly, losing only a few strands of hair.

Then he lifted his hand and flung out a thread, binding the attacker tightly.

The creature struggled, emitting inhuman howls.

Fu Gui: [Thank goodness you three didn’t drink that stuff. That bowl was pure concentrated pollution—one sip and your pollution level would’ve exploded.]

Chen Fan didn't want to drink it either, and neither did Li Yuan. Ruan Xing had his mycelium discreetly absorb their portion. Though the mycelium grumbled about the "awful taste," it didn't mutate—it just turned a slightly greener shade.

Chen Fan and Li Yuan moved closer to Ruan Xing, clearly impressed by his abilities. Especially Chen Fan, whose eyes sparkled with hearts.

Seeing how hard it would be to beat Ruan Xing, the other trainees gave up on him and turned their attention to the rest.

The room quickly descended into chaos. Screams and the sound of skin being ripped echoed throughout the dance studio. Like a pot of venomous creatures, the trainees began a vicious slaughter among themselves.

Ruan Xing let out a sigh. A soft glow flickered in his palm, and the mycelium swelled with energy.

“I really didn’t want to get involved…”