127: Chapter 127 The Dire Wolf Who Loves to Eat Octopus

The afternoon knockout tournament featured the round of 16.

After Hu Jinsi entered the arena, he guessed based on his opponent's appearance that the opposing team was the Mo Xiao Team.

Five demons stood in the opposite waiting area, lean and thin, wearing ninja outfits of different colors. Some wore half-masks, revealing only the lower half of their faces.

They had black bindings wrapped around their wrists and ankles. Their stance was loose but their center of gravity was low, exuding a ninja style.

Hu Jinsi quickly flipped through the data. Forum posts claimed this team's appearance was extremely deceptive.

Many professionals, upon seeing their style for the first time, would instinctively react according to ninja tactics: anticipating stealth, guarding against hidden weapons, and watching out for backstabs.

But the result of doing so was a complete mistake. These five demons were better described as melee-type super-powered beings rather than ninjas.

Their combat style was completely different from traditional ninjas; they didn't rely on concealment and assassination, but on direct suppression using various super powers.

Those tights and masks were just a smokescreen, having nothing to do with their actual fighting style.

Hu Jinsi glanced at their positioning. The five demons were scattered at the edge of the waiting area, about three meters apart from each other, with no cover and no overlapping fields of view. If they were really ninjas, this positioning would be suicidal.

But they were demons, and since the data said to treat them as super-powered beings, it meant their attack methods were those distinctive single-attribute attacks that didn't require concealment or coordination.

In Hu Jinsi's view, the abilities of the opponents listed in the data were actually not bad. Some abilities even made him feel that, if the price was right, it wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase them.

But obviously, this was an arena, and thinking about these things was a bit off-topic. Hu Jinsi shook his head and cast these thoughts out of his mind. The current task was to win the match, not exchange points.

First was drawing the match venue and format. The system's random wheel spun rapidly in the center of his vision, with various venue names and format options flashing by quickly: Swamp, Lava, Desert, Ice Field, Jungle... Single, Round-robin, Melee, Best of 5.

Hu Jinsi silently prayed not to draw Lava; he had absolutely no resistance to that terrain.

Finally, the wheel stopped. Venue: Swamp. Format: Best of 5.

Hu Jinsi breathed a sigh of relief. The swamp terrain had certain limitations on his mobility; the soft mud underfoot would make dashing and changing direction difficult. But it was better than lava; he didn't want to jump around on boiling magma.

It was just limited mobility; he could compensate by adjusting his rhythm.

...

The enemy for the first match was a demon called Explosive Fist. When it walked onto the stage, Hu Jinsi noticed its physique was a size bulkier than the other four teammates, with veins and protruding blood vessels covering its exposed right arm. It wore a pair of damaged leather gloves, the leather at the knuckles worn white.

According to the data, this demon's ability was to release mist to obscure the entire field of vision. It could secrete a special gray mist from its pores, covering the entire stage within a few seconds, reducing visibility to less than half a meter.

More troublesome was that its body surface also secreted a special substance that would explode upon close contact.

Hu Jinsi was somewhat helpless regarding this kind of enemy that tried to interfere with vision. He had encountered similar opponents in previous battles, such as the Elf Freak's illusions.

Although he had to admit that compared to interfering with hearing, smell, or touch, interfering with vision was indeed the most efficient solution. After all, human vision carried the vast majority of information input, and once blinded, combat capability would drop significantly.

However, for a Monk whose perception had reached the maximum level among peers, the impact was really not that big.

Hu Jinsi's Perception attribute had been capped at twenty points before becoming transcendent, and with the bonuses from various specialties and equipment, his Blind Sight ability was enough to locate enemies in completely dark environments.

This artificially created mist just made his vision slightly blurry to him, and it didn't cut off his perception channels.

Here, it had to be said that the combat system of this dungeon's native world was still too simple. It hadn't kept up with the future trend of random 'bullshitting' (improvised power scaling).

If it were in some high-end dungeons of the later generations, the enemy would definitely attach multiple composite effects like perception interference, mental pollution, and spatial distortion while obscuring vision.

Even playing tennis in the later generations required sealing the five senses; for a demon like you to rely only on thick fog to seal vision was really too trashy. But the enemies in this dungeon seemed to only know single-dimensional interference, with methods so simple it was outrageous.

Although the data said Explosive Fist's body secretions would explode, Hu Jinsi had a long staff as a weapon, making his attack range easily exceed two meters. As long as Hu Jinsi wanted, he could attack while keeping a safe distance of over two meters throughout the fight.

As long as there was no close-quarters grappling, the opponent's explosion ability wouldn't be able to come into play.

Less than two minutes into the start, Hu Jinsi solved this guy. He didn't need to deliberately crack the opponent's mist at all; he just closed his eyes, locked onto Explosive Fist's position with his perception, then hit the opponent's knee with a horizontal sweep of his long staff, and then beat him to death with a flurry of strikes.

Explosive Fist hadn't even had time to release a second round of mist before collapsing into the mud of the swamp.

The first match ended. Hu Jinsi turned and walked back to the waiting area, gently spinning the long staff in his hand to shake off the mud spots on the tip. Explosive Fist's corpse was teleported away by the system, and the gray mist gradually dissipated. He checked his status; his Chi had not been consumed, and his stamina had almost no loss.

This could truly only be counted as a warm-up.

...

The enemy for the second match was a guy who used freezing demonic energy. Its appearance was completely different from Explosive Fist; it was tall and thin, with skin presenting an abnormal bluish-white color, carrying the bloated texture of long-term soaking.

Its fingers were exceptionally slender, with the fingertips glowing with a pale blue luster, and every breath sprayed tiny ice crystals from its nostrils.

The difficulty of this enemy was significantly higher than Explosive Fist. Not only could it release ice needles from its fingertips for ranged shooting—the ice needles were fast, with tricky trajectories, and carried a frostbite effect—but it could also turn the entire arena floor into an ice field.

And the ice field completely changed the combat environment; the originally soft swamp mud became a smooth sheet of ice, with a thickness of over ten centimeters.

Changing the venue had pros and cons for Hu Jinsi. He couldn't say for sure which was better, the ice field or the swamp. The swamp mud would limit movement speed, and every step would sink, but at least there was friction.

The ice surface was completely different; the friction was extremely low, and one would slip if not careful, but the surface was flat without the resistance of the mud.

But the bad news for Hu Jinsi was that the opponent was obviously very accustomed to moving quickly on the icy surface. That bluish-white figure slid, turned, and jumped on the ice, moving fluidly and turning freely, obviously extremely familiar with this low-friction environment.

It could even use the low friction of the ice to make large-scale lateral movements, launching attacks from impossible angles.

For Hu Jinsi, moving on ice was a new thing. Although his Agility attribute was not low, and the balance it brought was helpful, facing this kind of low-friction environment, it was obviously going to take some time to adapt.

His boots slipped on the ice, and every change of direction required deliberate adjustment of his center of gravity, otherwise he would lose his balance.

Therefore, for the first ten minutes of the match, Hu Jinsi fought quite difficultly. He could only roam the edges of the venue, using the rough ice at the edges and the gravel on the ground to assist in turning, slowly getting used to the way of moving in this low-friction environment.

During this time, he was hit by the opponent's ice needles and frost energy several times, with his left arm and right shoulder each hit by a needle; the skin at the wounds quickly turned white, and blood flow became sluggish.

Fortunately, Hu Jinsi did not lack healing methods. He intermittently cast a few [Renewing Mist] and [Vivify] on himself, with green mist swirling around the wounds, the warm current dispelling the cold, and blood flow returning to normal. He kept his health at maximum status, not letting the frostbite accumulate to the point of affecting his actions.

Fighting to the fifteenth minute, Hu Jinsi was finally able to move properly on the ice. He learned to use the sliding of the ice to save stamina, using small tilts to control direction instead of fighting the friction with brute force like at the beginning.

Although he couldn't maintain high-difficulty spinning turns and big jumps like his opponent, at least simple, fixed-direction straight movement was no longer a big problem.

The fight reached the twenty-fifth minute, and obviously, the opponent's demonic energy was no longer enough to maintain such a large range of freezing energy. The thickness of the ice began to thin, the smoothness of the surface decreased, and some fine cracks and uneven broken ice appeared.

And Hu Jinsi had gradually gotten used to this venue and started his own counterattack.

He no longer passively dodged the ice needles, but actively closed in on the opponent, using the range advantage of the long staff to suppress the opponent's movement space. The opponent tried to open up distance and release ice needles again, but Hu Jinsi used the sliding characteristics of the ice to close in quickly in a short time.

Fighting to the thirty-first minute, Hu Jinsi finally smashed the opponent's knee with a staff strike, and then added a [Vacuum Claw] to cut the opponent's throat artery.

The second match ended.

...

After winning, Hu Jinsi hurriedly came to the preparation area. His hands and feet were frozen until they felt somewhat numb, and the skin at the joints presented a dark red color—that was the congestion reaction after frostbite.

He immediately took out a gas stove from his backpack, lit a fire, and boiled a pot of hot water on it.

He suspended his palms above the steam, using the hot water vapor to drive away the cold for himself. His fingers gradually regained sensation, and a tingling sensation surged along with the warming up.

This was Hu Jinsi taking advantage of the competition rules to delay time at the first opportunity. According to the knockout tournament rules, there was 20 minutes of selection and tactical analysis time before the next match started.

What Hu Jinsi had to do now was to stretch this time as much as possible, letting himself recover to his best state.

He warmed himself up beside this pot of hot water, consuming nearly twenty minutes. It wasn't until the system prompted that the mandatory on-field time was approaching that he slowly put the gas stove and pot into his backpack, patted the ice chips on his pant legs, and came onto the field unhurriedly.

...

In the first two matches, the opponent seemed to have realized the shortcoming that Hu Jinsi lacked powerful ranged means. Therefore, in this match, the opponent was even more excessive, directly sending an opponent who could manipulate demonic wind.

This demon was named Zhen, with a medium build, wearing a wide gray cloak, the edges of which fluttered slightly in the air, obviously with airflow blowing continuously.

According to the data, this demon named Zhen mainly had two abilities. One was to manipulate demonic wind to release small tornadoes; the second was to fly briefly with the help of the demonic wind.

Hu Jinsi watched as the opponent raised both arms, and muddy demonic wind rolled up mud, water, and withered grass, raging on the stage. Zhen took advantage of the momentum to leap up, hovering at a height of three meters.

He frowned slightly; it seemed the opponent had indeed grasped his weak point. He really didn't have any powerful ranged means.

Conventional ranged attacks only included throwing a few small flying knives, as well as that small pistol he occasionally used, whose damage was not even as good as his unarmed damage.

He really had no way to deal with this demon flying in the sky right now. Once Zhen leaped up, all of Hu Jinsi's melee skills couldn't reach. Even if he used Water Bird Steps to perform aerial displacement, he couldn't reach the opponent's height.

It looked like this match was really going to develop in the direction of a 'bladder match'. Hu Jinsi stood on the stage, watching Zhen circling above his head, his gray cloak snapping in the demonic wind. He sighed, shouldered his long staff, and began to fight a war of attrition with the opponent.

He kept moving around the venue, dodging the tornado attacks falling from the sky. Those tornadoes smashed onto the ground, and mud and water were rolled up and flung in all directions.

Hu Jinsi's clothes were soon soaked through with muddy water, but he couldn't care about that. The only thing he could do was wait, waiting for the opponent's demonic energy to be exhausted, waiting for it to be forced to land.

Unsurprisingly, two hours later, the opponent's demonic energy was exhausted, and Zhen's figure fell from the sky. When it landed, it staggered a few steps, its legs went weak, and it could hardly stand steady. Hu Jinsi seized the opportunity, used a [Chi Torpedo] to rush forward, swept his long staff to hit the opponent's waist, and then smashed it to the ground with a dozen consecutive staff strikes.

The opponent was already unable to fly up and could only take this round of attacks head-on.

Hu Jinsi achieved victory in the match.

But this kind of victory made him unable to get excited. A battle purely ground out by time consumed both stamina and spirit. He leaned against the railing of the waiting area, panting heavily, the muddy water on his clothes dripping onto the floor.

This battle had no technical content, no tactical maneuvering, only simple waiting and consumption.

Obviously, the residual consciousness of this dungeon was not low in intelligence. Through so many matches before, it had also collected some of Hu Jinsi's own flaws. Although due to the interference of the Water Blue Star world consciousness, which required relative fairness, it couldn't use petty tricks like designating opponents.

But it didn't have many ways to deal with Hu Jinsi right now, yet it didn't rule out that he would encounter opponents with styles similar to today's in future matches, at which point the opponent would have room to play.

After this match ended, Hu Jinsi was finally confirmed to have entered the top eight. The system prompt sounded in his mind, congratulating him on advancing to the next round.

It was past three in the afternoon now; if he quit the dungeon to eat, it was too early, and if he continued to fight, he wasn't sure what future encounters would be.

So he decided to go back to the preparation room to take a shower, calm down, and then decide on the next plan.

Hu Jinsi returned to the preparation room and took a cold shower. The icy water washed away the mud and sweat from his body, clearing his head quite a bit.

He dried himself off, changed into a clean set of clothes, and sat cross-legged on the bedroom floor. He didn't meditate immediately but instead stared blankly at the wall, reviewing the battle that had just taken place.

He admitted that he had been a bit arrogant before coming here. He had originally thought that he could easily breeze through this "Dark Martial Arts Tournament" instance on his own. After all, he had accumulated a significant amount of combat experience in previous instances, and his level and gear were not bad at all.

But what he hadn't noticed was that since this was a five-person instance, it was designed with the expectation that teammates would complement each other's shortcomings. Since he was alone, there was obviously no one else to make up for his weaknesses, and thus, those weaknesses were easily magnified.

The lack of ranged capabilities was completely exposed in today's match. If he had a teammate capable of ranged attacks, even just basic arrows or magic missiles, they could have greatly suppressed flying enemies like Chu.

But he didn't, so he was forced into a two-hour battle of attrition.

In fact, there were ways to make up for his shortcomings. In the long term, he could consider practicing with ranged weapons. Monks could use standard hidden weapons like throwing darts, flying locust stones, or shuriken.

His Agility and Perception were currently quite high, so his throwing accuracy shouldn't be bad.

Besides that, he could also consider introducing some ranged skills.

For instance, although Hu Jinsi didn't remember much else from this instance, he still had a deep impression of the protagonist Urameshi Yusuke's Spirit Gun. That skill could fire an energy projectile condensed from spirit energy, which had decent power and sufficient range.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't encountered the protagonist team, so the price for the Spirit Gun hadn't appeared in his exchange list. If he could obtain this skill, his ranged weakness would be completely resolved.

After thinking for a while, Hu Jinsi stopped hesitating. It was already past four in the afternoon, so he quickly started the quarter-final elimination match.

After all, it was almost the afternoon of May 2nd, and he didn't have much time to waste. The May Day holiday was only five days long, and he needed to grind through as many rounds as possible in this instance.

...

Perhaps his luck had finally turned. In the upcoming quarter-final match, Hu Jinsi surprisingly encountered a weak team. Moreover, he drew a rare one-on-one single-elimination match.

This meant he only needed to defeat one enemy to advance directly, without needing to play a full three-game series.

The enemy across from him was a short-statured monster wielding a bone short spear, with clumsy and sluggish movements. Hu Jinsi had seen its description in the files; it belonged to one of the lower-ranked teams in the top 64, having reached this stage mainly through luck and byes.

Its attack style was monotonous, consisting only of straightforward thrusts without any variation.

In less than ten minutes, Hu Jinsi secured the victory. He didn't even use any skills; relying only on basic staff techniques and positioning, he easily neutralized all of the opponent's attacks, then shattered the opponent's knee with a strike of his staff, ending the fight in one motion.

This seesawing difficulty made Hu Jinsi feel quite awkward. He had just finished a profound self-reflection, and then this happened immediately after, making him feel like a clown.

Checking the time, Hu Jinsi dismissed the idea of pressing his advantage. Although the match had taken less than ten minutes, the preparation time beforehand had still been significant. It was now a little past five o'clock.

It was time for dinner, especially since the Dire Wolf was still young and needed to grow; he couldn't delay its feeding time.

...

Returning outside the instance, Hu Jinsi found that the crowd was even larger than at noon. The streets were packed with students discussing the battles in the instance in small groups. Long lines had formed in front of several snack stalls, and the air was filled with the aroma of various foods.

The commercial area near the instance entrance had completely regained its vitality, forming a sharp contrast with the emptiness of last night.

It had to be said that this type of instance was much more humane than those where you couldn't leave for 72 hours once you entered. At least when you were hungry or the time was up, you could come out to eat, and if you wanted to go home and sleep at night, you could. Furthermore, this series of dining and accommodation activities could stimulate the local economy.

The restaurants, hotels, and snack stalls near the instance entrance were all thriving due to the passing professionals.

Perhaps Daibei City was also quite satisfied with this instance. If there were awards and medals for instances, Daibei City would probably give it a "City-Level Model Instance Award."

An instance that could provide combat experience, stimulate the local economy, and allow professionals to flexibly arrange their time was simply a politician's dream project.

Hu Jinsi came to a nearby snack stall and began searching for what to eat tonight. He first bought two skewers of roasted lamb for the Dire Wolf. The cub sat on the side of the road, holding the bamboo sticks with its front paws, gnawing until its mouth was covered in oil. Hu Jinsi himself carried a portion of teppanyaki squid, eating while observing the surrounding stalls.

According to his own taste preferences, he actually wanted to eat some seafood hot pot. His own constitution was fine now, but considering the Dire Wolf was still a cub, he was afraid that eating seafood for several days in a row would cause the Dire Wolf to develop gout.

Although he wasn't sure if Dire Wolves could get gout, since it was already a magical creature, it was possible for it to catch such a "disease of affluence," right?

The bored Hu Jinsi actually picked up his information terminal and searched for related knowledge. He entered the keywords "Dire Wolf Gout," and several academic articles and forum discussions popped up on the screen. He quickly scanned through them and found that the Dire Wolf, this guy, actually wouldn't get gout.

All canine creatures could synthesize urate oxidase in their bodies, which could break down uric acid and allow it to be easily excreted, preventing it from accumulating like it does in the human body.

Therefore, as long as they weren't fed large amounts for a long time, canine creatures would not develop diseases like gout. Hu Jinsi breathed a sigh of relief, put away his terminal, and looked down at the Dire Wolf.

The cub had finished the two skewers of lamb and was licking its lips with its tongue, its amber eyes staring at a stall nearby that sold octopus.

Hu Jinsi glanced at the Dire Wolf and said to it, "Who would have thought, you little thing are born with a destiny to enjoy good food."

At this moment, the Dire Wolf obviously didn't know what kind of madness Hu Jinsi was spouting again. But walking on the snack street, its keen sense of smell was already so overwhelmed by the surrounding scents that it could barely walk.

Its nose kept twitching, and its iron-gray tail swayed gently behind it, obviously judging which direction the most tempting food was in.

It didn't know for a moment what it wanted to eat, or which direction it wanted to lead Hu Jinsi. It just stopped in place, looking left and right, making a low whimper in its throat. Hu Jinsi followed its gaze and scanned around, finally settling on a larger seafood hot pot stall.

Since the Dire Wolf wouldn't have the risk of gout, Hu Jinsi directly brought the Dire Wolf to that stall and started eating a simple seafood hot pot.

The stall was set up with a few rows of folding tables and plastic stools, with a large steaming pot in the center, boiling various seafood and artificial starch balls. Hu Jinsi and the Dire Wolf sat at a table on the side, with a small pot in front of them.

As various artificial starch balls, octopus, shrimp, and other small seafood were added to the pot, the broth began to boil, emitting a rich seafood aroma.

The Dire Wolf beside Hu Jinsi also began to look intoxicated. Its nose tip got close to the edge of the pot, its nostrils flared violently, and a satisfied purring sound came from its throat. It obediently rubbed against Hu Jinsi's thigh, the tip of its tail trembling slightly.

Whenever it was time to eat, this Dire Wolf would become exceptionally well-behaved and obedient, completely different from its usual lazy and arrogant attitude.

Obviously, for this highly emotionally intelligent Dire Wolf, even if it hadn't met Hu Jinsi and the others, it wouldn't have been difficult for it to feed itself on its own. Just based on its ability to act cute and beg for food at any moment, it wouldn't starve to death.

Hu Jinsi could even imagine that if the Dire Wolf were to end up on the streets, it would definitely find the softest-hearted auntie, stare straight at her with those amber eyes, and successfully trick her into giving it a sumptuous dinner.

...

Although Lin Rui sometimes joked that you only find the Dire Wolf cute now because it's in its cub state, the appearance of adult Dire Wolves is often quite terrible.

Hu Jinsi didn't care about that; after all, he wasn't exactly going for a looks-based path himself.

However, he did notice that this Dire Wolf seemed to be gradually growing into something different from the Dire Wolves they had learned about in textbooks.

Although the attributes on its stat card were not much different from the Dire Wolves in the textbooks, its appearance was more similar to the Dire Wolves in the Azeroth or Draenor worldview.

Its frame was sturdier, its fur color was darker, and the proportion of its eyes was larger. This difference was subtle, but if you looked closely, you could still tell.

Hu Jinsi guessed that this might be related to its lineage or some kind of mutation before awakening, but he didn't know the specific reason.

The taste of this street-side hot pot was actually quite average; it just won in terms of convenience and freshness. The broth was clear, and the seasoning was just simple minced garlic and soy sauce. But for Hu Jinsi, this simplicity was actually relaxing.

He didn't need to carefully prepare ingredients like he did at home; he just needed to throw things into the pot, boil them, and fish them out.

But looking at the Dire Wolf's expression, it was clearly very satisfied with this dinner, especially since Hu Jinsi had rarely discovered another ingredient besides lamb chops that the Dire Wolf was very satisfied with, which was octopus.

Whenever Hu Jinsi placed the cooked octopus in front of the Dire Wolf, the cub's tail would wag like it had an electric motor installed, continuously flapping left and right.

It pressed the octopus down with its two front paws, sniffed it with its nose, then opened its mouth, revealing sharp teeth, and began to tear into those elastic tentacles. Its chewing sound was loud, carrying a rhythm of satisfaction. Although he didn't know if it was the texture or the taste, this ingredient was deeply favored by the Dire Wolf.

Hu Jinsi himself ate more shrimp and fish balls, leaving most of the octopus for the Dire Wolf.

After dinner, the two decided to take a walk along the seaside. After all, they hadn't exercised after lunch today and had gone straight back to the instance; if they didn't walk along the shore tonight, this man and wolf would seem too lazy.

Hu Jinsi didn't care; after all, the combat inside the instance caused his expenditure to be quite high, but for the Dire Wolf, the food these two days hadn't been bad. If it wasn't supplemented with sufficient exercise, Hu Jinsi was afraid that after May Day, this wolf would be too round to be seen in public.

...

As Hu Jinsi strolled along the roadside, he finally had time to open his communication terminal again to see what new messages there were after being away for half a day. The moment the screen lit up, several messages popped up.

Sure enough, the matter that the Gunpowder Squad was still painstakingly inquiring about at noon no longer needed their inquiry; the news had already spread everywhere.

It was said that during a family dinner over the May Day holiday, the parent of a certain student, in order to show off their child, blurted out the ins and outs of the whole thing.

After hearing it, those relatives added their own embellishments and bragged about it to others around them, which resulted in some matters that needed to be kept confidential in a small circle becoming known to everyone.

The result of the matter was exactly as Hu Jinsi had guessed; that mysterious National Defense student from a certain military academy had given various high schools in Wei City some recommendation quotas, and these recommended students could receive some directional bonus points.

It was just such a simple matter, except that these recommendation quotas were decided by each school itself. It was not based on the usual instance completion progress, nor did it rely on levels; it was all based on these "promising, hopeful" standards for selection.

Now, even if the matter had been exposed, it was meaningless. After all, that National Defense student from the military academy had long since left Wei City, and the other relevant students had already signed this directional agreement; everything was settled.

Even if there were some dissenting voices online, soon, with the passage of time, they would gradually fade away.

To be honest, this matter had almost no impact on Hu Jinsi, because Hu Jinsi's own goal before graduating from high school had always been to reach level 30. As long as he reached level 30, he would have the threshold for admission, and by then, he would be the one choosing universities, and there wouldn't be these troublesome things.

He didn't care about this kind of directional enrollment bonus points, nor did he disdain to compete for this kind of opportunity decided by others' subjective judgment.

Of course, in order to achieve his small goal before graduation, he needed to enter the instance immediately after his meal and start playing the semi-finals. Hu Jinsi checked the time; it was already past seven in the evening.

He didn't know who his opponent in the semi-finals would be yet, but he didn't have much time to waste.

He put away his terminal, patted the Dire Wolf's head, and walked towards the entrance of the instance.