125: Chapter 125: I finally got lucky this time, but started by encountering a weak opponent.

Hu Jinsi's luck in the afternoon remained average. He first encountered a four-person team, then a five-person team. If he had run into the five-person team first, he might have gathered enough points after just one match. But his luck was just that mediocre; after finishing the first match, he was just a tiny bit short on points.

In the end, he still had to fight one more time-consuming five-person gauntlet match.

By the time the afternoon matches were all finished, it was already past four o'clock. Hu Jinsi didn't plan on playing another knockout round in the time before dinner. After all, he didn't know how long a knockout match would take, and he didn't want to enter the arena on an empty stomach.

He decided to take the Direwolf Cub out of the dungeon, watch the sunset by the sea, have dinner, and then return to continue.

After exiting the dungeon, Hu Jinsi discovered that since today was the first day of the May Day holiday, there were even fewer people in this dungeon than last night. The pier was empty, with only a few figures in uniforms walking in the distance.

Even the official guards were halved in number; it seemed they were all on holiday rotation, spending time with their families.

The Direwolf Cub stretched, its iron-gray fur gleaming softly in the sunlight. Man and wolf strolled leisurely along the shore in the direction of the sunset.

The sea breeze blew past, carrying a salty and damp scent. The Dire Wolf twitched its nose, its nostrils flaring as if it were distinguishing the various scents in the air.

The two of them just wandered and walked slowly along the shore. Hu Jinsi occasionally stopped to look at the distant sea. The setting sun dyed the surface of the sea a golden red, shimmering with light.

The Dire Wolf sat at his feet, its tail drooping onto the sand, its amber eyes fixed on a seagull flying low overhead.

They walked until six-fifty-five in the evening. The sun had completely set, leaving only a few wisps of dark purple afterglow on the horizon. The sea breeze had turned chilly, and only then did Hu Jinsi turn and head toward the surrounding commercial street.

The Dire Wolf followed behind him, its pace unhurried, its claws making a faint clicking sound as they stepped on the stone path.

Hu Jinsi specifically chose a barbecue restaurant that allowed animals inside. The shop wasn't large, and several exhaust fans buzzed at the entrance. He sat down by the window, while the Dire Wolf lay on the floor at his feet, resting its head on its front paws, its eyes fixed on the platter of raw meat on the table.

The man and wolf ate their barbecue slowly. Of course, the "slowly" mainly referred to Hu Jinsi, because he not only had to grill his own portion but also the Dire Wolf's.

Only after finishing the Dire Wolf's meat could he find time to eat his own. After all, if he waited for the Dire Wolf to grill the meat while he ate, that scenario was still far too distant.

The Dire Wolf's appetite was much larger than his. Hu Jinsi grilled three plates of beef, two plates of lamb, and one plate of pork belly, all of which the cub devoured, even licking the plates clean afterward. Hu Jinsi himself only ate two plates of beef and a bowl of stone-pot bibimbap, the warmth in his stomach dispelling the chill of the sea breeze.

Since he had already finished the preliminary rounds, he wasn't too anxious about the upcoming knockout rounds. Perhaps he would play another match when he entered the dungeon at night, or perhaps he wouldn't, choosing to rest and save it for tomorrow morning.

In any case, he had already exchanged the points from the preliminary rounds for general experience; coming here was originally for the experience anyway.

As for the other items that could be exchanged with those points, most were items and equipment dropped by the monsters he had fought, which weren't of much use.

As for wanting to exchange for those monsters' skills, Hu Jinsi's points weren't enough; he would need to add the points from the later knockout rounds to possibly exchange for one.

But the risk was too great. Once he surrendered in the knockout rounds, the points he hadn't yet exchanged would instantly be wiped out. He wouldn't make such an obvious mistake.

During the meal, Hu Jinsi boredly scrolled through relevant news. He learned from the local news section of the satellite television that the university students from Jin Province had not continued clearing The Cathedral dungeon today.

It seemed that, just as the mysterious young man he had met at the Silver Arch had said, the cleanup work had completely ended.

During the May Day holiday, many locals also went to the vicinity to watch. Although the spatial distortion, compression, and displacement caused by the dungeon had all returned to normal, The Cathedral dungeon remained in an unopened state.

Although that massive phantom had returned to the normal size of a dungeon gate, it still stood in the center of the city like a solidified scar.

With the departure of the support team from Jin Province, more news and snippets of information were passed around from various corners.

It was said that the support team from Shanxi University consisted of four standard five-person squads, totaling twenty people. And that lone national defense student from a certain university was just one person, a single-person squad.

Perhaps it sounded abnormal that a single-person squad could accomplish a feat that five-person squads couldn't, but this happened to be the most normal thing on Water Blue Star.

After all, the difference in combat power between people of the same level was worlds apart; this was nothing new. Talent, equipment, specialties, skills, school lineages, etc.—there were too many ways to create a gap in combat power.

Furthermore, the fact that he could clear a dungeon alone that five people couldn't didn't necessarily mean he was strong; it could also be that his combat style happened to counter the final boss of The Cathedral dungeon, Andariel.

Hu Jinsi vaguely guessed that the mysterious young man he had met at the Silver Arch might be this national defense student.

However, it was a pity that none of the three had carefully thought about the meaning of that "I suppose so" at the time, and thus missed an opportunity to learn more up close about this powerhouse who was not much older than them.

Hu Jinsi sucked on his teeth, set his terminal aside, and picked up another piece of grilled beef for the Dire Wolf.

Re-entering the dungeon, Hu Jinsi arrived at the preparation room once more. But the moment he entered, he realized that this time he didn't appear on a ship, but in a very formal preparation room.

The preparation room not only had rest facilities like sofas and chairs, but it even had bathing facilities and a bedroom. The walls were made of dark gray soundproofing material, and the lights on the ceiling were soft and bright. There was a water dispenser next to the sofa, and there were even cups and a refrigerator.

Seeing that the facilities inside were so complete, Hu Jinsi became even more determined in his decision to rest in the dungeon for the night. He had originally intended to make do on the ship for another night, but now it seemed completely unnecessary.

Hu Jinsi, having entered the preparation room, didn't intend to rush into the match immediately. After all, the upcoming rounds were the knockout stages. Compared to the preliminary rounds, the opponents in the knockout stages were not only much stronger, but more importantly, the intelligence gathered online was much more detailed than that of the opponents in the preliminary rounds.

After all, for the knockout rounds involving these sixty-some teams, the students in Daibei City had been grinding this dungeon for at least two months. Most of the enemy intelligence had been figured out by them.

Which team was good at what playstyle, which monster had what weakness, and which team had dangerous individuals that needed special attention—the posts on the forum stated everything clearly.

As he read the relevant information, the images of the related memories in Hu Jinsi's mind gradually became clearer. But racking his brain, the only information he could recall was the Elder Toguro and Toguro Younger team and the team the protagonist was on.

He couldn't recall any of the other top 64 competitors at all. It was as if he had watched a fake anime back then. He didn't even remember there being such a long tournament in the anime, and he couldn't figure out what the problem was. Did he remember it wrong, or had the dungeon expanded upon the original work? He shook his head and stopped dwelling on this question.

Anyway, the information on the forum was enough. As over an hour passed, he read through all this information. Hu Jinsi discovered that for at least the 100% difficulty dungeon, as long as he didn't play too recklessly, there was a high probability that he could pass.

At the very least, in the 100% difficulty Dark Martial Arts Tournament dungeon, Toguro Younger only had 60% muscle strength, and Hiei could only use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame once per battle. As long as Hu Jinsi dodged the ultimate moves of those key characters that could seriously injure him, he wouldn't fail. After all, his most outstanding trait wasn't output ability, but healing and sustainability.

He could make many mistakes, but as long as the opponent made one mistake and he seized the opportunity, it was possible for him to grind them to death. The only good news was that after entering the knockout stages, these dungeons had begun to keep up with the times. There were actually options to ban stages and ban match formats. This was a mechanism that didn't exist at all in the preliminary rounds.

Regarding the match stage, Hu Jinsi didn't have anything he wanted to ban. He had to adapt to any stage anyway; grass, rock, water—it didn't make much difference to him. But for the match format, he unhesitatingly used his only ban opportunity to ban team matches.

After reading the information, Hu Jinsi checked the time and found that it was too early to rest. It was only past eight in the evening; it was still early for rest. So he decided to play a knockout match to test the waters. He would just treat it as digesting his dinner.

After confirming his choice, Hu Jinsi was teleported by the dungeon to a match stage he had never seen before. Completely different from the previous match stages, this time there were a large number of monster spectators around the stage.

Although these spectators were just fake, projection-like existences, a stage with spectators and one without were different. In particular, the cheering and clamor brought by these spectators would have a significant impact and distraction on the match. Those projected spectators sat on the tiered stands, letting out deafening shouts and boos.

Hu Jinsi even heard someone shouting in a language he couldn't understand, probably some kind of monster dialect. As for Hu Jinsi's opponent this time, it was also easy to identify. After all, the combination of a werewolf, vampire, and Frankenstein-like monster was too obvious; they were the Six Demon Team recorded in the files, and also a rare "noob" team. There were even people on the stands booing this team; it seemed even the spectators looked down on them.

Apparently, Hu Jinsi's luck had finally come through for once. A flying start to the knockout rounds, encountering a weakling team; this was quite good news. At the very least, the advancement experience for this round could be easily obtained without too much effort.

On Hu Jinsi's side, he banned team matches, while on the other side, the Six Demon Team banned the sunny environment. Hu Jinsi guessed that they were afraid their vampire would be weakened by the sunlight, so they banned the sunny environment first. This choice was reasonable, but it also exposed their trump card.

After a round of random selection by the dungeon, the remaining stage and match format were quickly determined to be a best-of-five knockout match held in the grass at night.

Hu Jinsi was very satisfied with this. The night had no effect on him, and although the grass would obscure his vision, his perception attribute was enough to compensate for this disadvantage.

On Hu Jinsi's side, there was no choice to be made; it would certainly be Hu Jinsi himself playing from start to finish. And on the opponent's side, the first to step up was the Spirit Monster mentioned in the files.

Seeing the opponent step up first, Hu Jinsi couldn't help but twitch his face. Although he already knew that the opponent would likely be throwing this round, he still felt it was a bit surreal that they would throw so thoroughly right from the first person. After all, this was the knockout round, not the small fry from the preliminary rounds.

After all, the Spirit Monster mentioned in the files was actually a profession similar to an illusionist. Their combat style involved casting low-level illusions, creating multiple afterimages, using illusions to confuse and interfere with the opponent's vision, disrupting attack predictions, and then quietly launching a sneak attack to secure victory.

But the problem was, Hu Jinsi's perception was already at the pre-transcendent cap of twenty points.

Coupled with the bonuses from his various feats and equipment, he could take down this squishy illusionist even without relying on his vision.

Furthermore, with so much gear on him that boosted psychic resistance, Hu Jinsi hesitated for a moment; he realized that it would actually be quite difficult for him to lose this match.

Unless a meteorite suddenly struck the arena halfway through the fight—if his luck were that bad, he would just have to accept it.

The match began.

Hu Jinsi and the Elven Freak arrived on the arena.

Although separated by waist-high grass, with the night vision ability from Hu Jinsi's [blind fighting headband], he could still tell that his opponent was a silver-haired, pointed-eared monster that leaned towards being a spirit entity.

The opponent's limbs were wrapped in bandages, its eyes were hollow and eerie, and its aura seemed gloomy and quite frightening.

But Hu Jinsi knew that this thing was as thin as paper.

After all, according to the data, someone had taken it down with three critical hits.

Since he knew the opponent was terrifyingly weak and completely countered by him, Hu Jinsi was ready to accept this with pleasure.

"A quick battle it is; if Heaven grants it, one must take it."

He started with a [Chi Torpedo], his body shooting forward with explosive force to close the distance between him and the Elven Freak as fast as possible.

The grass retreated rapidly at his sides, the wind pressure from his movement blowing the blades of grass flat to either side.

The Elven Freak clearly relied on its illusion abilities from the start, releasing low-level illusions around itself while simultaneously creating multiple phantoms to try and confuse Hu Jinsi.

Those phantoms were identical to the original body, floating in mid-air and striking various attack poses.

But as long as the Elven Freak wasn't completely invisible, it wasn't a big problem for Hu Jinsi.

After all, upon rushing to the vicinity of the Elven Freak, Hu Jinsi immediately began a stationary [Spinning Crane Kick].

With a four-meter attack radius, he was attacking the Elven Freak's true body along with the illusions.

The strong wind cut through the air, creating a sharp whistling sound.

After discovering that Hu Jinsi's attack method was harmful to it, the Elven Freak immediately switched tactics, attempting to use an illusionary environment to confuse Hu Jinsi.

The surrounding scenery began to twist and deform; the ground turned into lava, the sky turned blood-red, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of sulfur.

But Hu Jinsi was a Monk; he was a natural counter to classes that used illusions, not to mention the bonuses from his equipment.

The moment he rushed near the Elven Freak, he closed his eyes.

He relied on his perception and the blindsight ability granted by the [blind fighting headband] to determine the enemy's location.

Therefore, the Elven Freak's flashy illusions were a complete waste of effort for Hu Jinsi.

After finishing two rotations of the [Spinning Crane Kick], Hu Jinsi felt he had cleared out most of the surrounding illusions.

The sound of the wind cutting through the air echoed, and those phantoms shattered and dissipated under the impact of the strong wind.

Relying on the intuition brought by his perception, he used his long staff to strike repeatedly at the location of the Elven Freak's true body.

The staff's shadow flew up and down; he didn't even use any skills, just the most basic normal attacks.

The sensation of the long staff hitting the spirit entity was somewhat strange, like hitting a ball of wet cotton.

Five seconds later, the instance sent a notification that the first battle had ended.

The system prompt sounded in Hu Jinsi's mind, declaring his victory.

The time spent on the entire battle: Hu Jinsi's opening [Chi Torpedo] charge took less than three seconds.

Two [Spinning Crane Kick]s took less than six seconds.

Finally, Hu Jinsi hit it with a few more staff strikes, taking less than five seconds.

The battle ended in less than fifteen seconds, all things considered.

The opponent's level of weakness was somewhat unreal; it was no wonder this team was commented on by everyone as being in the top 3 weakest teams among the entire Round of 64.

They were even worse than many teams in the qualifiers.

Hu Jinsi shook his head, shouldered his long staff, and turned to walk back to the waiting area.

...

Hu Jinsi had thought the next second match would start quickly.

Because from the perspective of consuming himself, the faster the match started, the more advantageous it would be for the opponent.

Delaying would only allow Hu Jinsi to recover more stamina and Chi.

However, the opponent dragged it out for nearly twenty minutes, almost until the time when the instance would force an opponent onto the stage, before a monster from the opposing team reluctantly arrived at the arena.

That figure slithered through the grass, its snake tail rubbing against the ground with a rustling sound.

Hu Jinsi really didn't know what was going on with the opposing team.

After all, the opponents were just mindless projections, and if a projection could achieve this level of behavior based on the original body's habits, then the team atmosphere of their original bodies must be terrible.

It was likely a team riddled with internal conflict, where no one respected anyone else.

As for the guy who came up, it was a Cobra Demon.

Just by the name, one knew it was a poison-using enemy.

This monster looked like a snake-headed human, with scaly skin, flicking its tongue, and covered in a green toxic miasma; it was truly the kind that Hu Jinsi found disgusting to even strike.

Even though the enemy was a projection, the general judgment was indeed correct.

For a melee class like Hu Jinsi, dealing with such a guy that clearly looked poisonous was indeed very annoying and worrisome.

After all, no one wanted to get poisoned while fighting, and then have to be distracted by detoxifying while losing health.

But the only thing these projections didn't anticipate was that Hu Jinsi himself had detoxification abilities.

Whether it was detoxification skills or medicinal pills, he was not lacking.

He always kept a few detox pills in his backpack, just to deal with such situations.

Furthermore, although this Cobra Demon possessed poison-using abilities, it was quite comical that its venom could only be sprayed from its mouth.

The spray attack range was only three meters, and it required two seconds of charging.

Hu Jinsi really didn't know how to evaluate such a comical ability; after all, he didn't remember the original source of this instance being a comedy series.

Hu Jinsi wouldn't trade for such a skill even at a fifty percent discount.

He really couldn't think of any use for it in actual combat; was he supposed to control the opponent in melee and then spit on them?

Joe Higashi's "pants-dropping fart" was probably more unexpected and insulting than this move.

Other than that, the intelligence was that because this guy was a Cobra Demon, its body flexibility was extremely high.

It could slightly dodge melee attacks and was immune to a certain degree of critical hits or Heavy Strikes.

But it also had almost no defense; once the opponent ignored its venom and attacked continuously in close quarters, it would easily collapse.

...

After the second match officially began, Hu Jinsi suddenly felt a bit envious of Lin Rui and Su Wan.

Either of them would have had an easier time facing this battle than Hu Jinsi.

One could just take a shotgun or flamethrower and open fire, while the other could chant some low-damage magic and simply wear the Cobra Demon to death.

Anyway, since the opponent was a Cobra Demon, one didn't need to expect it to have a very fast movement speed.

A snake-headed human guy, with its strange center of gravity, couldn't possibly run very fast.

Thinking of this, Hu Jinsi suddenly realized that he also had items that could cause magical effects.

Although he had always treated this item as something like a toy, it could occasionally serve as a main force.

Thus, Hu Jinsi took out that [thunder spirit bead (fake)] from his backpack and checked the skill effects:

[Lightning Missile II: Fires an unstable lightning ball. Performs a ranged magic attack. If it hits, the target takes fifteen points of lightning damage (limited to four times per day).]

Four shots, sixty points of damage; that was enough.

This kind of Cobra Demon was naturally squishy, and it would be impressive if it had just over a hundred health points.

Thus, Hu Jinsi had a plan to save effort and be lazy.

Although Hu Jinsi thought about so much content, on the actual battlefield, this was only a matter of one or two seconds.

As soon as the battle started, Hu Jinsi paused for a second, took out a [thunder spirit bead (fake)] from his backpack, and casually put it in his pocket.

Then, he began to rush toward the opponent while carrying his long staff.

However, Hu Jinsi did not activate any skills for this movement.

He neither used [Chi Torpedo] nor the speed boost effect of [Unarmored Movement], just running toward the opponent at a normal speed while carrying the staff.

His purpose in doing this was, first, to put psychological pressure on the opponent.

An enemy walking toward you unhurriedly had a stronger sense of oppression than one rushing over quickly.

Second, it was to give the opponent time to charge, allowing it to charge up its venom before spraying.

After all, this venom couldn't be produced out of thin air.

Once it finished spraying, it would have to wait a while before the next round could be generated.

And what Hu Jinsi wanted was the gap in this round.

Without venom, the Cobra Demon's threat level dropped by eighty percent immediately.

To lure the opponent into spraying its venom, Hu Jinsi deliberately jumped in front of the Cobra Demon, making an attack of swinging his staff in mid-air.

In this way, most people in the air would be unable to dodge.

Therefore, the Cobra Demon, discovering this, immediately sprayed out the venom it had been charging for a long time in succession.

Seeing that his plan had succeeded, Hu Jinsi, at the moment the opponent sprayed, used a [Water Bird Steps] to shift his original position in mid-air.

Those two streams of green venom flew past his side and hit the grass behind him; the blades of grass instantly withered and turned yellow, emitting a sizzling corrosive sound.

After landing, Hu Jinsi used his long staff to launch a [Flurry of Blows], three consecutive strikes aimed directly at the guy's legs.

The staff's shadow carved three arcs in the darkness, carrying a sharp, strong wind.

[-12], [miss], [-13].

Hu Jinsi didn't care at all about one staff strike missing; after all, the opponent was a Cobra Demon, and it was normal for snake scales to be that slippery.

After [Flurry of Blows] ended, Hu Jinsi immediately followed up with a stationary [Sweeping Leg], knocking the opponent to the ground.

The Cobra Demon's body thrashed randomly on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Following that, Hu Jinsi struck the opponent's head and legs a few more times with his staff in a disorderly fashion.

Confirming that he had already depleted a portion of the opponent's health, Hu Jinsi didn't want to engage in a hard melee fight with it anymore.

During this brief few seconds of battle, Hu Jinsi had already smelled a hint of sweetness in the air, and [-1], [-1] values were gradually appearing in Hu Jinsi's own field of vision.

He was poisoned.

He bit into the detox pill in his mouth right there and retreated quickly.

The pill melted upon entering his mouth, and a cool sensation spread from his throat to his limbs, neutralizing the spread of the toxin.

After finishing his retreat, he cast a [Renewing Mist] on himself; green mist swirled around his body, and only then was his health slowly brought back to full.

For the rest of the battle, Hu Jinsi took out that [thunder spirit bead (fake)] and activated the effect of Lightning Missile II.

Four lightning missiles, one after another, flew toward the Cobra Demon that hadn't managed to crawl up from the ground yet.

The lightning balls traced bright trajectories in the air and hit the snake demon's body, making a crackling sound.

After a burst of crackling lightning sounds, Hu Jinsi received a notification from the instance.

The second battle was over; Hu Jinsi won.

He shook the dust off his long staff, put the [thunder spirit bead (fake)] back into his backpack, and turned to walk back to the waiting area.