102: Chapter 102 Bad news is often followed by even worse news.

The roar of the bus engine was muffled by half by the soundproofing, leaving only a low, humming echo in the cabin. Some students had fallen asleep against their seatbacks, their heads bobbing with the jolting of the vehicle. But most just stared blankly out the window, their faces bearing an indescribable heaviness.

The three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad sat in the back row of the bus. The atmosphere in the cabin was somewhat stifling. The incident with the Pear Garden Squad earlier hung over everyone like a heavy stone. The image of Mo Ming being forcibly teleported out of the instance by a Forced Teleportation Talisman, with a large hole pierced through his ribs—though no one had seen it with their own eyes, the mere description was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine. Occasionally, someone would whisper, but they would quickly fall back into silence, leaving only the sound of the engine circling in the cramped space.

Hu Jinsi turned his head to look at Su Wan. She was closing her eyes, her lips pressed slightly together. The [Siren's Voice Collar] around her neck shimmered with a dark metallic luster under the bus lights. He hesitated for a moment, nudged Lin Rui with his elbow, and the two exchanged a glance.

"Su Wan," Hu Jinsi lowered his voice, "let's talk about something."

Su Wan opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.

"Your spell slots..." Hu Jinsi carefully chose his words, "all six spell slots are configured to maximize the squad's damage output. We understand that, but you also need to save one spell for self-preservation."

Lin Rui nodded from the side and said, "You saw what happened to Mo Ming this time. If an enemy ever bypasses both of us and charges at you, and you don't have any means to protect yourself, we won't be able to rest easy."

Su Wan was stunned for a moment, then revealed a somewhat helpless smile. She touched the collar around her neck; the cold sensation cleared her thoughts a little.

"I know you're doing this for my own good," she said softly, "but among the second-tier Bard spells, there really aren't many suitable for self-preservation. Defensive spells that can truly save your life in a critical moment... the choices are very limited."

"Limited doesn't mean non-existent," Hu Jinsi said. "Go back and browse the public database. Even a spell that can block an attack or buy some time would be good."

"Mm, I'll look carefully," Su Wan nodded. "If there's a more suitable choice, I'll discuss it with you beforehand."

The conversation between the three did not attract the attention of those around them. Hu Jinsi leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. The jolting of the bus made his thoughts drift, and the image of Mo Ming's serious injury kept flashing through his mind.

The bus was traveling on a bumpy road, and the cabin swayed slightly with the undulations of the road surface. Just as most of the students were dozing off, a sudden exclamation came from the front of the cabin, like a sharp knife cutting through the stifling air.

"Holy shit!"

The voice carried an incredulous tremor, and its volume was so loud that half the cabin was jolted awake from their slumber. Some looked up blankly, some frowned impatiently, but more were drawn by the panic in that tone. Several students who usually enjoyed the excitement had already stood up and were swaying as they walked toward the source of the sound.

"What happened?" someone in the front row asked.

"Look at your terminals, quick!" The student who had exclaimed was pale, his fingers swiping frantically across the screen of his smart terminal. "Something big has happened!"

His voice was like a stone thrown into a lake, startling those around him. People crowded around, wanting to see what kind of news could make someone lose their composure so completely. But space in the front row was limited, and driven by curiosity, more people pulled out their communication terminals and opened social apps and school forums.

Hu Jinsi and his two companions also opened their terminals almost simultaneously. Su Wan's fingers swiped quickly across the screen, while Lin Rui set his helmet aside and leaned in closer. Hu Jinsi watched the post on the screen, his nerves slowly shifting from skepticism to tension.

[Emergency Notification: A major anomaly has occurred in the Wei City [The Cathedral] instance, resulting in a large number of student casualties.]

The content of the post was short, but every word hit the eyes like a hammer. Nearly one-third of all teams that entered [The Cathedral] instance this week triggered a Forced Teleportation Talisman. Even more suffocating was that some of these students had already triggered a Forced Teleportation Talisman in other instances previously, meaning they had no protection and died directly. Preliminary statistics showed that in this week's instance cycle alone, the death toll in [The Cathedral] instance had already exceeded sixty.

Sixty students.

This number made Hu Jinsi's fingers tighten involuntarily. The metal frame of the terminal dug into his palm, causing a dull pain. The cabin soon exploded into chaos; the sound of people gasping for air rose one after another, some whispered in shock, and others had already started frantically searching for more information on their terminals.

"This is no longer a minor accident..." someone in the back row muttered to themselves.

"This is a major educational disaster," another person added, their voice trembling. "With something this big happening, the relevant upper management will definitely be held accountable."

Hu Jinsi quickly browsed the comments under the post, but the information was fragmented. No one knew the specific reason, and various guesses were flying everywhere, but no theory had any concrete evidence to support it.

The three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad thought of something almost simultaneously and lowered their heads to send messages to their friends. Hu Jinsi's fingers tapped quickly on the screen as he sent private messages of inquiry to the members of the Gunpowder Squad and Liu Betti. Su Wan also opened her chat window, her fingers dancing rapidly over the virtual keyboard. Lin Rui, meanwhile, directly dialed a voice call.

The messages came back quickly.

The members of the Gunpowder Squad were all fine, and Liu Betti was also safe and sound. But that was where the good news ended; the Gunpowder Squad had suffered significant injuries in [The Cathedral], and Liu Betti's team had also suffered heavy losses, with much of their equipment and wealth lost. When asked what exactly happened, their replies were surprisingly consistent: they didn't know.

"It was just that all of a sudden, the enemies felt stronger," the captain of the Gunpowder Squad said over the voice call, his tone filled with confusion and lingering fear. "Usually, a Skeleton Archer shooting me would only take off about ten points of health. Yesterday, one Skeleton shot an arrow, and I lost a third of my health bar instantly. I have absolutely no idea what's going on."

"Our experience was similar," Liu Betti's message followed. "It's like the instance suddenly took some kind of super-supplement; the monsters just inexplicably became tougher."

The students in the cabin had recovered from their initial shock, only to start panicking. Some immediately began searching for news about other instances, while others went to check instance reports from neighboring cities. Fortunately, it was slightly comforting that, apart from [The Cathedral], no other instances showed similar anomalies. Several conventional instances around Wei City, including [Double Dragon III], [Burning Village], etc., maintained their normal difficulty levels.

"It's a good thing it didn't all collapse," someone said, patting their chest. "If we can't go to one instance, we can just switch to another."

But this idea was quickly shattered. In less than ten minutes, all posts, news, and discussions about the anomaly in [The Cathedral] disappeared from the internet. It was as if someone had taken a giant eraser and wiped all traces clean. Entering keywords into the search bar would only return a blank page.

Some people didn't believe it and tried to post inquiries themselves, only to immediately receive a system prompt—the content contained prohibited words and could not be published.

The atmosphere in the cabin shifted from stifling to suffocating. The low pressure brought by the incident with the Pear Garden Squad was now superimposed to a new height. Someone couldn't help but sob quietly—it was a girl sitting in the middle row, covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking. No one asked her what was wrong, because everyone could probably guess that among the list of sixty dead, there might have been someone she knew.

Hu Jinsi closed his terminal and rested his forehead against the cold glass. Outside the window, farmland and tree shadows were rapidly receding, and the setting sun dyed the horizon a dark red, like some kind of ominous omen.

The bus continued to drive, and the commotion in the cabin gradually subsided, leaving only the occasional sob and suppressed whispers. Hu Jinsi reopened his terminal, but he didn't look at the messages that had been blocked; instead, he opened the search bar and began to input keywords.

His fingers paused on the virtual keyboard for a few seconds, then he typed out a few words: "Far Oasis", "Valley of the Snakes".

The search results returned quickly—blank, and Hu Jinsi felt a sense of relief. There were no records of instances with these names in the country. He changed to a different set of keywords and searched for "Lut Gholein", "Stony Field", "Dry Hills", but also found nothing. Finally, he searched for "Kurast Docks", "Spider Forest", "Flayer Jungle", and the results were still the same.

Hu Jinsi leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. [The Cathedral] was only a part of Act I, and the strongest being within it was at most Andariel, who guarded the deepest part.

If the maps for Lut Gholein and Kurast had not descended in the country, it meant that the Diablo 2 instance fragments that had appeared domestically likely only contained content from Act I. The other parts were highly likely in other nations on Water Blue Star. This made Hu Jinsi breathe a sigh of relief; after all, a pimple is only safe when it's growing on someone else's face.

Because compared to the bosses of other acts: Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo, Andariel was indeed the weakest among them. Even if this instance had undergone an anomaly, as long as the authorities were determined and sent elite squads from universities in, completely clearing [The Cathedral] was not an impossible task.

"Don't think too much," Hu Jinsi said to himself in his heart. "This is not something we can solve."

He put away his terminal and closed his eyes. The jolting of the vehicle was like a cradle, and it soon lulled him to sleep.

---

After the bus returned to the school, the students got off in twos and threes; some headed toward the residential areas where they lived in groups, while others disappeared into the streets alone. After the three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad got off the bus, they exchanged greetings at the school gate and then walked toward their respective residential areas.

The entrance to the residential complex was the same as usual: children were playing, elderly neighbors were walking their dogs downstairs, and the convenience store was still open. The anomaly in the instance felt like something that had happened in another world, while everything in real life continued to operate as usual. Hu Jinsi walked into the hallway, and when the elevator door opened, there was a familiar smell of disinfectant inside.

Back home, Hu Jinsi first leaned his wooden iron staff against the door, then ordered takeout. While waiting, he opened the profession shop and entered the words "Poison Recipe" into the search bar. He set the filter conditions to: low-level, direct damage, no slow or debuff effects.

A few lines of results quickly popped up on the screen. Hu Jinsi glanced at the prices and couldn't help but suck his teeth. Poison was indeed much more expensive than healing potions; not only was the recipe itself expensive, but the cost of raw materials was also significantly higher. Moreover, a bottle of poison usually only supported forty to fifty attacks. For a Monk with his extremely fast attack speed, forty attacks might not even last a minute.

He carefully compared several recipes and finally noted down two options with decent reviews:

[Recipe: Introductory Piquant Poison Oil]

[Materials: Kingsblood/Wolfsbane ×3, Poison Toad Egg ×1, Animal Fat ×1, Empty Bottle ×1]

[Effect: After applying to a weapon, light attacks deal an additional 2-5 points of poison damage; can be used 40 times.]

[Recipe: Level 1 Corrosive Poison Infusion]

[Materials: Corpse Moss/Rotten Meat ×1, Peacebloom/Oleander ×2, Poison Sac Residue ×1, Empty Bottle ×1]

[Effect: 15% chance on hit to poison the target, dealing -8 nature damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds (can be refreshed, cannot stack). Can be used 40 times.]

Hu Jinsi noticed that the "Kingsblood" and "Peacebloom" in the recipes were both herb names from the Azeroth world. It seemed that with the fusion of the world fragments of Azeroth and Water Blue Star, these otherworldly plants had gradually integrated into the ecosystem of Water Blue Star and could be used as substitute materials. This was actually good news.

He kept the two recipes in mind, planning to discuss with Lin Rui and Su Wan tomorrow at noon before deciding which one to buy.

The takeout was delivered quickly. Hu Jinsi had ordered eggplant and pork over rice. When he opened the lunch box, a sauce aroma with the scent of a wok hit his face. He picked up a mouthful with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth; the taste of fat and sauce mixed together exploded on the tip of his tongue.

Although the food dropped in the [Double Dragon III] instance tasted great, this kind of takeout with the scent of human life made him feel a more solid sense of reality. That was the warmth unique to the real world, which even the most exquisite dishes in the instance could not imitate.

After eating, Hu Jinsi did not immediately start meditating as he usually did. He took out the book [Drunken Fist Manual: Cheng Fu's Autographed Illustrations] from his backpack and spread it out on the living room sofa to study carefully.

He didn't expect to learn any skills or techniques from it. The Monk's skill system had its own path, and the routines of Drunken Fist were very different from his current combat style. The routines in the manual leaned more toward the Drunken Eight Immortals style—staggering gaits and using the opponent's force against them—which was completely different from the Azeroth Brewmaster style that used the power of alcohol to delay damage.

But in the way of martial arts, one can learn by analogy. He read this book to accumulate knowledge in martial arts and to improve his move coherence and on-the-spot adaptability during combat.

The illustrations in the book were not complicated; Cheng Fu's writing style was concise, and every move was accompanied by detailed annotations. Hu Jinsi gestured in the air as he read. When he read about some more versatile power-generating techniques, he would stop and repeatedly ponder them in combination with the [Tiger Palm] he had recently mastered.

The "falling" and "rolling" in Drunken Fist seemed completely unrelated to the short burst of the Tiger Palm, but the core principle of power generation had similarities—they both relied on the sudden shift of the body's center of gravity to unleash power that exceeded the norm in an instant.

An hour later, Hu Jinsi closed the book and stood up. He had intended to practice [Tiger Palm] in the room, but after looking at the furniture in the living room, he dismissed the thought. The sofa, coffee table, and TV stand—damaging any of them would be painful enough.

He searched the professional store and ordered a training dummy made of ironwood. After doing that, he sat cross-legged on the yoga mat in the living room and began his daily routine of meditation.

Qi flowed slowly through his body, rising from the Dantian, passing through the Shanzhong, sinking into the Qihai, and then dispersing into his limbs and bones. The city noise outside the window was gradually blocked out, leaving only the sound of breathing and heartbeat rising and falling rhythmically in the darkness. Hu Jinsi's consciousness gradually sank, entering a semi-conscious state.

The next morning, the ironwood dummy arrived on time. When the courier carried it upstairs, Hu Jinsi opened the door and saw the wooden post that was almost as tall as he was, and couldn't help but be stunned. The dummy was carved from a single piece of ironwood, with a rough surface and simple spherical joints that could withstand a certain degree of impact. He placed the dummy in the center of the living room, wiped off the wood shavings with a rag, and then took two steps back, setting his stance.

The starting stance of [Tiger Palm] was not complicated, but the key lay in the timing of the Qi infusion. Hu Jinsi took a deep breath, stepped forward with his right foot, and pushed his left palm out from his waist. Qi surged along the Taiyin Lung Meridian towards his palm, exploding the moment it touched the dummy's chest.

"Bang."

The dummy made a dull thud, and its wooden chest slightly dented. Hu Jinsi retracted his palm, looked at it, and then at the dummy. The power of this palm was even greater than he had expected, and a clear palm print had already appeared on the ironwood surface. He adjusted his breathing and attacked again, this time using a chain of palms, his right palm following closely after the left, with Qi surging into both palms wave after wave.

The air in the living room was set into slight motion by his palm wind, causing the curtains to flutter gently. Dull thuds constantly sounded from the surface of the dummy, and wood shavings fell in a rustle. After a set of exercises, Hu Jinsi's forehead was already sweating, but he was quite satisfied with his progress. The proficiency of [Tiger Palm] was indeed steadily improving, and the flow of Qi was much smoother than when he had first mastered it.

He checked the time; there was still a while before the noon appointment. He compiled his experience in the [Double Dragon III] dungeon into a guide with text and pictures, adding two video clips: one showing the route to skip the roof and enter the Amon room, and the other showing how to bypass the conveyor belt using [Spider Climb]. He edited the guide into a post but did not publish it immediately. It was the team's collective achievement, so he had to wait for Lin Rui and Su Wan to arrive and confirm it before posting.

Just past eleven o'clock, the doorbell rang. Lin Rui and Su Wan stood outside the door, with the bright natural light of the corridor behind them. As soon as they entered, their eyes were drawn to the brand-new ironwood dummy in the center of the living room.

"Yo," Lin Rui circled the dummy, reached out and knocked on its wooden chest, producing a dull thud, "Getting ready to work hard in secret at home? Not easy, it's been over half a year, and you finally thought to buy a training tool."

Hu Jinsi picked up the [Drunken Fist Manual] from the table and waved it at Lin Rui: "The concepts in this book are really quite good. I don't expect to learn any skills, but some of the ideas on force generation and the continuity of moves are very helpful for us at this stage. You can take it back to read when you have time; after all, we are all melee classes, so we can draw inferences from one instance."

Lin Rui nodded: "I'll definitely read it when I have time."

The three chatted briefly, and Hu Jinsi showed the written guide to them. Su Wan sat on the sofa, her fingers sliding across the terminal screen, reviewing the text line by line. Lin Rui stood to the side, watching the positioning routes in the video screenshots, occasionally offering a suggestion or two for improvement.

After confirming it was correct, he published the guide on the Wei City professional forum in the name of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad. Shortly after the post was published, several replies appeared below, mostly expressing gratitude and asking for details. Hu Jinsi did not continue to refresh the replies; he had more important things to deal with.

"About the Awakening Stone," Lin Rui said, "My dad has already contacted a buyer."

Hu Jinsi and Su Wan looked at him at the same time.

"The price has been agreed upon. After deducting taxes and fees, each of us can get over fourteen thousand credits." When Lin Rui said this, his tone was a bit complicated, "The Awakening Stone for a Ninja is indeed not as valuable as a Warrior's. The Awakening Stone for a Warrior class that that squad got last month sold for two hundred and seventy thousand."

Hu Jinsi patted Lin Rui on the shoulder and grinned: "Having one is already pretty good. Look at other squads; some people haven't even seen what an Awakening Stone looks like to this day. We've dropped two, and although the two combined don't even add up to a fraction of theirs, it's still better than nothing."

Su Wan also nodded with a smile: "Exactly, contentment brings happiness."

The three came out of Hu Jinsi's house and walked aimlessly along the street at the entrance of the residential area. Both sides of the street were full of small restaurants with colorful signs, selling seafood, noodles, and barbecue, with a mixture of food aromas floating in the air. The three hadn't decided what to eat yet, chatting as they walked.

"Speaking of which, about [The Cathedral]," Su Wan couldn't help asking, "It's been over twenty-four hours, is there still no new news?"

Hu Jinsi put his hands in his pockets and replied lazily: "How could it be that fast? At the very least, we have to wait for the official team to send a new exploration squad in and come back out; there's no way that happens in less than seventy-two hours. Plus, investigating the cause, analyzing the data, and publishing the report—there's no way a result will come out in less than three to five days. Instead of worrying about this, it's better to think about what replacement dungeon they will arrange for us."

He paused and added: "Whatever you do, don't let it be another [Demon Cat Forest] or [Ragefire Chasm] type of dungeon. One is pitch black and gloomy, the other is hot enough to roast a person; it's better to have something with a normal environment."

The three finally stopped in front of a restaurant with a "Siphon Worm Rice" sign hanging on the door. Pushing the door open, a fresh seafood aroma rushed towards them. The three sat down at a window seat, ordered a large portion of the signature Siphon Worm Rice, and asked for a few side dishes.

In the gap while waiting for the food, Su Wan took out a small bottle from her backpack and shook it on the table. The bottle contained a translucent liquid; it was a beverage she had brought out from the [Double Dragon III] dungeon.

"I took the food dropped from this week's dungeon home," she said with a smile, "and in the blink of an eye, it was eaten clean by my parents and the twins, Su Qing and Su Yu. The two crazy girls were even unusually polite for once, asking me to run this dungeon more often in the future, saying the food inside was too amazing."

Su Wan shrugged, "After that, the two kept complaining and asked why they couldn't go in with me."

"[Drunken Immortal Gourd] is also highly acclaimed." Su Wan said, "As soon as I brought it home yesterday noon, Su Qing and Su Yu hugged the [Drunken Immortal Gourd] and wouldn't let go, drinking the juice inside all day. When I left this morning, they even took the gourd to school to show off. I guess I won't be able to get it back until I enter the dungeon next time."

Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui looked at each other and laughed at the same time. Lin Rui picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said: "My parents also quite like those foods. The key is that you can clearly feel the culture of another world; it's very similar to ours, but there are also different places. That sense of difference is very interesting."

"The only pity is that roast goose." Hu Jinsi sighed, "Our whole team only got one, and it wasn't enough for us to eat ourselves. If there were extras, and we let your parents and Su Qing and Su Yu taste them, I reckon they would praise them even more."

While talking, the Siphon Worm Rice was served. Bright green leek segments and pink siphon worms were spread over the rice, drizzled with a layer of oily, savory sauce, steaming hot. The three picked up their chopsticks and began to gorge themselves. The texture of the siphon worms was crisp and tender, and the pungent fragrance of the leeks mixed with the freshness of the seafood, making every bite satisfying.

Eating halfway, Hu Jinsi put down his chopsticks and showed the poison recipe page on the terminal to the two again. Su Wan leaned over to look, while Lin Rui glanced at the screen while chewing his rice.

"I'm thinking," Lin Rui put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin, "Isn't our financial problem just relieved? Once the Awakening Stone money arrives, we'll have a lot more cash on hand. I suggest you buy both types and make some of each."

Hu Jinsi was a little surprised: "Make both?"

"Yeah." Lin Rui nodded, "Actually, it doesn't matter much whether I use them or not. Melee classes don't lack output on their own, and applying poison is just icing on the cake. But from Su Wan's perspective, these two things can directly increase her non-magical output efficiency by a large margin. Think about it, usually besides spells and sonic attacks, she has almost no damage in physical output. But if she applies poison to her arrows, every attack can add poison damage, and the overall efficiency will increase by at least fifty percent."

Hu Jinsi slapped his forehead. He had indeed only considered it from his and Lin Rui's perspective, thinking the poison was optional, but forgot that while this Bard, Su Wan, had magical output, her damage was almost zero once her spell slots were exhausted. The two poison recipes were like charcoal in the snow for her.

"You're right." Hu Jinsi immediately opened the professional store and completed the order in front of them. The recipe plus the raw materials cost over five thousand credits. Looking at the numbers jumping on his account balance, Hu Jinsi's heart twitched slightly, but immediately he felt it was worth it; Su Wan's safety and output efficiency were far more important than these few credits.

After lunch, the three went to the hospital together.

The surgical ward of the Wei City Third Hospital was on the sixth floor, and the corridor was filled with the smell of disinfectant. The nurse at the nurse station looked up at them, then lowered her head to continue organizing medical records.

Mo Ming was in a double room, but the patient in the next bed happened to be going for an examination today, so he was the only one in the room. When the three pushed the door open, Mo Ming was leaning against the head of the bed reading, with an IV drip in his left hand and a thin comic book in his right. His face was a bit pale, but his spirit looked quite good, and when he saw the three enter, he immediately smiled.

"Yo, you guys are here." He put the comic aside, "Sit, sit."

Hu Jinsi put the bag of fruit he bought on the way on the bedside table, and Lin Rui and Su Wan sat down by the bed. Su Wan looked at the bandage wrapped around Mo Ming's abdomen, with a little light yellow medicine stain faintly visible under the white gauze, and she couldn't help but ask: "Does it still hurt?"

"It's okay, after all, healing potions aren't just for show, but the internal injuries aren't something healing potions can solve." Mo Ming waved his hand, his tone as relaxed as if he were chatting about a trivial matter, "But the doctor said the recovery is going well, and I can be discharged in three or four days."

"What about those two guys?" Hu Jinsi referred to Wu Yingyu and Wang Jingshan, "Didn't they come to see you?"

"They came, just left this morning." Mo Ming said with a smile, "Those two insisted on cooking some nourishing soup for me, but I chased them away. The hospital food is quite good, and I don't want to drink their dark cuisine."

A light laugh sounded in the ward. The three accompanied Mo Ming to chat for a while, the topic ranging from dungeon gossip to school homework, deliberately avoiding the mutation of [The Cathedral] and the Pear Garden Squad's subsequent arrangements. Mo Ming's mental state was indeed good, although he would occasionally frown because his movements tugged at his wound, he had generally recovered most of his energy.

Before leaving, Mo Ming suddenly called out to Hu Jinsi.

"Jinsi."

"Hmm?"

Mo Ming hesitated for a moment, his eyes falling on the plane tree swaying in the wind outside the window: "The Pear Garden Squad might fall behind for the next two months, but we will hurry to catch up. You guys... keep it up."

Hu Jinsi looked at his profile; that face, still carrying a bit of childishness, was calm, not like what someone of his age should have. He nodded, didn't say too many comforting words, just patted Mo Ming's shoulder: "Rest well. See you in the dungeon then."

The three left the ward, and the smell of disinfectant in the corridor seemed even stronger. During the elevator's descent, no one spoke. When they walked out of the hospital gate, the afternoon sun was shining on their faces, a bit dazzling. Su Wan squinted her eyes and raised her hand to block it.

Hu Jinsi stood at the hospital gate, watching the cars coming and going on the street, pedestrians in a hurry, as if nothing had happened. He took a deep breath; there was a faint smell of exhaust in the air, completely different from the carefully prepared "fresh air" in the dungeons, but this smell made him feel a solid reality.

He turned and walked towards the residential area. Behind him, the glass curtain wall of the hospital building reflected the sunlight like a huge mirror, reflecting the outline of the city. In the direction of the distant dungeon entrance, the sky showed a dark tone different from the surroundings, as if a dark cloud was slowly gathering.

But that was something to be faced tomorrow, the day after, or even in the more distant future. Now, he needed to go home, sort out the newly bought poison raw materials, then read the [Drunken Fist Manual] for a while, and then complete today's meditation.

Life goes on.