137: Chapter 137: Throat-cutting

The afternoon qualifiers weren't too difficult.

Su Wan, encouraged by Hu Jinsi, went up to fight two matches to feel the atmosphere.

For her, she wasn't quite used to this kind of 1v1 arena battle, but fortunately, the opponents in the qualifiers had limited strength, and relying on [Shattering Sonic Wave] and various tricks, she managed to win two matches.

For the team, drawing a group match was actually a better choice than drawing those gauntlet-style matches.

After all, in a group match, everyone rushes in at once, the match ends faster, and the consumption is lower.

Hu Jinsi had originally thought Lin Rui's strange behavior in the afternoon was due to being affected by Sha energy in the [Temple of the Jade Serpent] dungeon.

Therefore, during a break in the competition, he took the opportunity to cast [Renewing Mist] on Lin Rui in the name of healing.

Pale green mist enveloped Lin Rui's entire body, and his health points could be seen slowly recovering.

But it didn't change Lin Rui's mental state much; after all, the new [Purify] effect was the professional method for dealing with Sha energy.

However, after the skill was used, Lin Rui remained excited, still rubbing his hands, and still shouting "Who is next?"

Hu Jinsi then set his mind at ease.

As long as his mind wasn't taken over by something like Sha energy, it was fine.

...

The afternoon's battles must have been very rewarding for Lin Rui.

He switched from a shotgun to a flamethrower after finishing his shots, and from a flamethrower to a rifle after burning his targets; the professional characteristics of a modern Soldier were fully utilized in this dungeon.

He had originally thought about pressing his advantage to finish all the qualifiers before going out for dinner.

But Hu Jinsi remembered Su Wan's wish to watch the sunset by the seaside.

So he found a way to stop Lin Rui's excited momentum and said: "It's past 6 o'clock, time to rest for a while. After all, you guys haven't had a good rest these past few days. There are at most two more qualifying matches left before entering the finals, so there's no rush. Let's go out and have dinner first. After dinner, we can make it into the knockout stage in at most two hours. After all, having good stamina is the guarantee for success."

With some persuasion, Hu Jinsi convinced Lin Rui and quietly signaled to Su Wan.

Su Wan immediately understood Hu Jinsi's intention and chose to exit the dungeon to take a break.

Immediately after, Hu Jinsi also chose to temporarily leave the dungeon.

Lin Rui, on the other hand, helplessly saw the dungeon prompt that both his teammates had chosen to exit, and when asked if he agreed to exit, he could only grit his teeth and accept it.

...

After leaving the dungeon, Hu Jinsi led the three-person team directly to a barbecue stall near the beach.

The barbecue stall was set up on the beach, with a few folding tables propped up in the sand and plastic stools placed crookedly.

The sea breeze blew over with a salty, fishy smell, the charcoal fire was blown into a flickering glow, the seafood on the grill sizzled, and grease dripped into the charcoal fire, sending up a cloud of smoke with a charred aroma.

Lin Rui's afternoon battles had cost him quite a bit of energy, so he ordered a large amount of various grilled seafood by himself.

Grilled oysters, grilled scallops, grilled squid skewers, grilled prawns—the table was half-covered with a variety of food.

As for the rest, Hu Jinsi, Su Wan, and the Dire Wolf had barely fought in the afternoon, so each of them only ordered a small amount of food.

Of course, Hu Jinsi did not forget to order a skewer of grilled octopus for the Dire Wolf.

The Dire Wolf's ears perked up straight when it smelled the seafood, and its tail patted a shallow pit in the sand.

As for Hu Jinsi himself, it was just a simple pot of vinegar-pepper tofu.

The boss was a middle-aged man in his forties with dark skin and hands covered in calluses from years of exposure to charcoal fire.

While flipping the oysters on the grill, he chatted with Lin Rui in Mandarin with a heavy accent: "Young man, looking at your appetite, you must have put in a lot of effort this afternoon, right?"

"I fought quite a few matches." Lin Rui replied vaguely, his eyes fixed on the sizzling scallops on the grill, "Boss, add extra spice to my plate."

"You got it!"

Hu Jinsi sat on the plastic stool, the heat from the clay pot rising, carrying the sour aroma of vinegar and the spiciness of pepper.

He scooped a spoonful of tofu, the tender white tofu chunks trembling slightly in the spoon, and the broth was clear and bright.

Taking advantage of the time waiting for the food to be served, the three of them leaned back lazily on their chairs, just quietly watching the sunset slowly sink below the horizon.

The sun was like a red-hot iron ball, hanging at the junction of the sea and the sky.

The sky was dyed orange-red, the edges of the clouds were inlaid with gold, and the sea was shimmering, as if sprinkled with a layer of crushed gold.

Fishing boats in the distance began to return one after another, the sound of motors coming intermittently, mixed with the sound of waves hitting the beach.

Su Wan put away her communication terminal, clasped her hands behind her head, and squinted her eyes, enjoying this moment of tranquility.

For once, Lin Rui wasn't browsing the forum, just staring at the distant horizon, with a grain of cumin from his earlier snacking still stuck to the corner of his mouth.

His terminal screen was still lit, staying on the page of the Daibei City professional forum, but clearly his attention was not on the screen at this moment.

"The sunset in Daibei City," Su Wan suddenly spoke, her voice so soft it was as if she were afraid of disturbing something, "is much prettier than in Wei City."

"Wei City doesn't have a sea." Hu Jinsi replied, scooping another spoonful of tofu.

"It's not a matter of the sea," Su Wan shook her head, "It's the air. The air in Wei City always has a strange smell, I don't know how to describe it, but the sea breeze here is clean."

Lin Rui added: "It's somewhat like the smell of the Blood Moor."

"Right! Right!" Su Wan immediately agreed, "It's just that smell of the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains, I thought it was just my hallucination."

...

The Dire Wolf lay under the table, its iron-gray fur rippling slightly in the sea breeze.

It yawned, revealing sharp canines, showing no interest in the human sunset.

Compared to any sunset scenery, it was more concerned about when that skewer of grilled octopus would be served.

Its nose kept twitching, capturing every trace of seafood aroma in the air.

After enjoying the sunset, the various grilled skewers began to be served one by one.

The three of them ate the skewers while browsing their own communication terminals.

Of course, there was no need to order drinks, as the [Drunken Immortal Gourd] was still in Su Wan's hands, and there was plenty of free drink.

Su Wan untied the gourd from her backpack and poured herself a glass of clear, iced lemonade.

The liquid in the gourd seemed inexhaustible; she shook it, poured another glass, and pushed it to Hu Jinsi.

"Want some?" She raised her eyebrows.

Hu Jinsi shook his head and pointed to his clay pot: "It's vinegar-pepper, it's already sour enough; if I drink iced lemonade, my stomach won't be able to take it."

Lin Rui, on the other hand, was not polite at all; he took the gourd, took a big gulp, wiped his mouth, and continued browsing the terminal.

...

It was only at this moment that Lin Rui and Su Wan realized that so many things had happened while they were in the dungeon.

On the terminal screen, all kinds of news pushes kept popping up, from secret directed point boosts to rumors of the "lesser luck potion".

"Directed point boost?" Lin Rui frowned, his fingers sliding rapidly across the screen, "What kind of thing is this?"

Regarding the so-called directed point boost, Lin Rui and Su Wan were actually quite open-minded about it.

After all, they were both initial classes rated C, and with so many B, A, and S classes ahead of them, it wouldn't be their turn anyway.

Although both of them believed their talents were quite good, it was hard to say whether they could directly bridge the professional gap with others in the initial stage.

"It won't be our turn anyway." Lin Rui shrugged, put the terminal aside, and continued to tackle the grilled squid in his hand.

However, as they looked at the news about the "lesser luck potion", their expressions became strange.

Su Wan looked up at Hu Jinsi, then looked down at the terminal, hesitating to speak.

Finally, she looked at Hu Jinsi with some confusion and said: "The mysterious alchemy genius from No. 1 Middle School that is going viral online, that's not you, right? Because I increasingly feel that the so-called 'lesser luck potion' is just that extremely pungent rabies-curing potion."

To this, Hu Jinsi could only pinch his nose and admit helplessly: "If nothing goes wrong, this is indeed me. I have denied it to my classmates many times. This is not a so-called 'lesser luck potion' at all, it's just a simple rabies-curing potion; everything is just their psychological effect."

"Tell them not to spread fake news anymore. Who knew that something people used to joke about would be passed around and become a potion that everyone is chasing after now. I've recently started to doubt myself whether this medicine of mine actually has the so-called effect of adding luck and increasing drop rates?"

Su Wan asked directly: "If you promote it like that, wouldn't you make a fortune?"

Hu Jinsi shook his head and explained: "It's precisely because they hyped it up so bizarrely that I became even more timid. It's something that costs 2 credits to make, I didn't dare to sell too much, and most of it was bartered for the Dire Wolf's food. As for the prices going viral online, they have nothing to do with me; they were all hyped up by middlemen."

Lin Rui finally finished the big skewer of grilled fish in his hand, his mouth was free, and he said: "Since you have already explained it, there is no need to spend time and energy on this matter."

"Anyway, according to what you told us before, aren't you getting profession experience by making these herbs now? Although it's very little, only one point of profession experience per portion, the volume is huge."

"Before the holiday, you used the school's pharmaceutical room and brewed 500 potions in less than an hour, which translates to 500 points of profession experience. You wouldn't necessarily get 500 profession experience even after meditating for a few days."

"In that case, since others are paying the cost of the potions for you, this is equivalent to free profession experience for you, why not take it?"

Lin Rui continued: "At noon, you were still envying us Soldier class players for being able to get 100 free profession experience per hour in the [Unparalleled Hulao Pass] dungeon. But isn't it the same for you? Others spend credits or use materials to trade for these things, so you are also equivalent to getting 500 points of free profession experience per hour!"

"The efficiency is so high that I even regret not choosing a profession path with production skill support."

Su Wan, who was listening on the side, nodded repeatedly after hearing Lin Rui's statement.

Guided by Lin Rui, Hu Jinsi also suddenly felt relieved.

Although his meditation efficiency had greatly improved with the [Extraordinary Meditation] (Damaged) specialty, compared to the experience gained from refining these pungent potions, the experience acquisition from pharmaceuticals seemed more efficient.

In the past, other potions were for personal use, and refining them required controlling the heat and the quality, so the cost-effectiveness in terms of experience acquisition seemed very low.

But once this calculation model was applied to brewing this kind of potion that does not require a recipe and can be produced in large quantities in one big pot, the efficiency of experience acquisition would instantly become incredibly considerable.

Sure enough, as Lin Rui said, looking at this problem from a different angle, this incident should not become my trouble, but instead, it will become my blessing.

...

Seeing that Hu Jinsi had fallen into deep thought, Lin Rui and Su Wan stopped bothering him and began to pick up their own communication terminals to video chat with their families, sharing the surrounding food and sea views.

Su Wan set her terminal on the corner of the table, aiming the camera at the grilled seafood on the table and the distant horizon.

Mother Su's voice came from the other side of the screen, mixed with the chatter of the two little girls, Su Qing and Su Yu.

Su Wan smiled and held the grilled scallops up to the camera, letting them see how big the seafood in Daibei City was.

Lin Rui, meanwhile, was squatting by the beach, aiming his terminal at the sea under the sunset, reporting his battle results from the past few days to his dad.

His voice was loud and his gestures were exaggerated, vividly describing how he had blasted a monster away with a single shot in the qualifiers that afternoon.

Hu Jinsi flipped through his communication terminal; aside from a bunch of very cheesy thank-you messages from Zhen Jin after he exited the dungeon, there were no other interesting new messages for the time being.

Zhen Jin said in his message that the experience rewards he gained in the [Lakeside Town] dungeon were not quite the same as Hu Jinsi's.

Zhen Jin only received 20 career experience points for eliminating one Blackrock Orc; although the total amount added up to quite a lot, it was clearly not as much as the reward Hu Jinsi received for eliminating one Blackrock Orc.

Hu Jinsi didn't think too much about this difference, assuming he was the first Monk to go into this dungeon and eliminate Blackrock Orcs, so there might be some kind of first-time bonus.

After all, like achievements, the first one to trigger it always gets a lot, while subsequent rewards tend to be just a formality.

...

After Hu Jinsi finished his business, he saw Lin Rui and Su Wan were still on video calls with their families, so he took out the [Seed of Hesitation] achievement reward skill reroll ticket from his backpack.

The golden ticket shimmered in the sunset, imprinted with complex rune patterns. Hu Jinsi took a deep breath and tore open the ticket.

"Select [Disillusion Kick] as the cost to redo the three-choice skill selection."

Three skill options popped up in his field of view, golden light flowing across his retinas.

[Shattering Jade Lightning: Channel supernatural energy to deal constant nature damage to a target within 20 meters. When the target is less than 5 meters away, there is a chance to knock it back. Channeling lasts up to 4 seconds, dealing one-quarter of your current unarmed attack damage per second. 2 charges, 3-minute recharge.]

(Linkage: Under the influence of the [Master the Life Stream] specialization, your [Shattering Jade Lightning] damage type is now changed to Holy damage.)

[Swift as a Tiger: Clear all immobilization and slow effects from the target and increase movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. Instant cast, 1 charge, 60-second recharge.]

[Throat-Slitting Strike: Stab the target's throat. If it hits, it interrupts the target's currently casting spell and silences the spell school of that spell for 4 seconds. 15-second cooldown.]

(Linkage: Under the influence of the [Vacuum Claw] specialization, your [Throat-Slitting Strike] also gains all bonuses of [Vacuum Claw]. Specifically, [Throat-Slitting Strike] can now be launched from 0.6 meters away, and while interrupting the opponent's spell, it can cause the opponent's throat to bleed.)

The three skills obtained by rerolling with the achievement reward were indeed top-tier. Looking at these three skills, Hu Jinsi really wanted to say, "I want them all!"

At this moment, he truly missed the web novels he had read before. He used to think that the talent of some protagonists, "I want them all," was too overpowered. But until he faced this difficult choice himself, he really wanted to say, "I want them all," too.

But unfortunately, he only had 5 minutes to choose, not enough time for him to play out the little drama in his mind.

He quickly analyzed the pros and cons of the three skills, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the tabletop.

[Shattering Jade Lightning] was good; the ranged skill could hit up to 20 meters. If he didn't have [Spirit Gun], this might have been the only ranged skill Hu Jinsi could access. Although channeling required standing still, it had the advantage of stable continuous output, and the linkage with [Master the Life Stream] turned it into Holy damage, which might have extra effects against certain enemies weak to Holy.

But unfortunately, Hu Jinsi now had [Spirit Gun]. Compared to [Shattering Jade Lightning], [Spirit Gun] clearly had higher damage and didn't require channeling. The damage of one [Spirit Gun] shot was equal to the total of 4 seconds of [Shattering Jade Lightning] channeling, and [Spirit Gun] was instant cast and could be fired while moving; its tactical flexibility was on a completely different level.

"As long as I get the quantity of [Spirit Gun] up," Hu Jinsi calculated in his mind, "four [Spirit Gun] shots per short rest, compared to [Shattering Jade Lightning], it's like the difference between the real deal and a cheap knockoff."

Therefore, [Shattering Jade Lightning] was the first to be out.

The second skill, [Swift as a Tiger], was exactly what Hu Jinsi's current healing ability lacked—a skill to remove immobilization and slow effects. In team battles, control effects were often more lethal than direct damage; an immobilized teammate couldn't dodge area attacks, and a slowed tank couldn't retreat in time—these would all lead to chain reactions.

But Hu Jinsi's own [Parkour] could already clear his own immobilization and slow effects. Although this skill only worked on himself, it had saved his life many times at critical moments. Therefore, the priority of this new skill, [Swift as a Tiger], was not very high; it was more like icing on the cake rather than charcoal in the snow.

"Even if I choose this skill," Hu Jinsi thought, "it would only be a supplement to clear immobilization and slow effects for Lin Rui and Su Wan. But they are a Soldier and a Mage, and if they really get controlled, the time it takes for me to rush over and cleanse them might not be as fast as just blowing the controller's head off."

This skill was useful, but not what he needed most right now.

As for the last one, [Throat-Slitting Strike], Hu Jinsi could only say that the more he looked at it, the more he liked it.

He carefully studied the skill description, every word making his heart beat faster.

"Stab target's throat": Simple and brutal, with no fancy prerequisites.

"Interrupts the target's currently casting spell": This was silence, the control method he currently lacked the most.

"Silences the spell school of that spell for 4 seconds": This meant that not only was the opponent's current spell interrupted, but the same type of spells could not be used for the next 4 seconds.

This wasn't just an interruption; this was suppression—suppression to death.

Moreover, the linkage with [Vacuum Claw] made this skill even more terrifying. The [Throat-Slitting Strike], which originally required close-quarters combat to perform, could now be launched from 0.6 meters away. What was the concept of 0.6 meters? It was almost a body's length away, meaning Hu Jinsi didn't need to get completely close to the opponent; as long as he entered the attack range, he could interrupt them the moment they started chanting.

What was even more terrifying was the additional effect of "causing the opponent's throat to bleed." Hu Jinsi stared at this line, the corners of his mouth curling up unconsciously. He didn't believe any caster could chant magic loudly while their throat was bleeding, even after the silence effect ended. With a punctured throat, let alone chanting, even speaking normally would be difficult.

"This is simply a hard counter to mages," Hu Jinsi sighed in his heart.

He had already started to imagine the actual combat scene: the enemy mage just raised their staff and started chanting, Hu Jinsi flashed over, and [Throat-Slitting Strike] was launched from a distance. The opponent clutched their throat and retreated, the spell was interrupted, all spells of the same school were sealed for 4 seconds, and the throat was bleeding non-stop—even after 4 seconds passed, a hoarse voice wouldn't be able to chant normally.

4 seconds was enough for Hu Jinsi to do too many things.

The only drawback might be that it needed to hit. After all, for a caster, the throat was definitely a key area they would protect. Casters like Su Wan wore collars, and made of mithril at that.

Hu Jinsi definitely couldn't break through such mithril equipment right now, but dealing with those enemy projections in the dungeon was still no problem. After all, it was impossible for every monster projection to wear a collar made of precious metal around their neck.

Therefore, Hu Jinsi didn't hesitate much this time and decisively chose [Throat-Slitting Strike].

[Throat-Slitting Strike] also appeared in Hu Jinsi's skill bar after the selection.

...

Hu Jinsi had finished his selection, and on the other side, Lin Rui and Su Wan were also saying goodbye to their families on the video call one after another.

Hu Jinsi asked them again if they wanted to eat anything else or walk around the seaside. After getting a negative answer, the three of them bought a midnight snack each at the snack street, stuffed them into their backpacks, and returned to the Dark Martial Arts Tournament dungeon.

The vortex at the dungeon entrance swirled in the night, and the sea breeze made the small boat sway slightly. The three people and one wolf stepped onto the deck, and the lights on the boat were warm and bright.

Before 9 o'clock in the evening, the three of them finished the final qualifiers and qualified for the main tournament, which was the knockout rounds.

Similarly, during the intervals between matches, the three of them no longer had to teleport back to the small boat swaying on the sea, but teleported to a spacious and bright preparation room.

It was called a preparation room, but it was very different from the single room Hu Jinsi had before. After all, the number of people in the team had increased, so this time the preparation room had become a three-bedroom-one-living-room suite, with an independent bathroom in each bedroom.

Of course, our poor comrade Xiaoquan Yilang was still not considered a qualified player, so it didn't even deserve its own room, and the middle living room was its place to rest.

The Dire Wolf lay on the carpet in the living room, its iron-gray fur shining under the soft light. It yawned, revealing its sharp canine teeth, with no complaints about the room allocation for humans. Anyway, the carpet in the living room was much softer than the boat deck, and it didn't like staying in a narrow room alone; of course, it would be better if there was a TV.

...

Seeing that it wasn't too late, Lin Rui suggested playing one knockout match first. After all, if they pushed all 6 knockout matches to tomorrow, the time would still be a bit too tight.

Hu Jinsi and Su Wan still had no objections to this. Anyway, whether it was afternoon or evening, the main force of the battle was Lin Rui himself; as long as Lin Rui felt he wasn't tired and had energy, they had no objections.

Unlike when Hu Jinsi was alone before, this time the team members chose to ban the "random player duel" mode in the official knockout tournament. After all, Hu Jinsi and Su Wan didn't want to be randomly selected for the arena while watching from below.

When Hu Jinsi was solo before, he only needed to help the Dire Wolf surrender one match. Now if it were Su Wan who got picked, it would be too much of a loss to surrender as well.

However, it seemed that all their good luck from the afternoon had been used up, as they encountered the Mo Xiao Team in the first match of the round of 64 to 32 in the evening.

As soon as Hu Jinsi saw this team, he immediately knew what was going on. He figured Lin Rui would suffer a big loss, and he wanted to avoid his teammates being too embarrassed. Therefore, before Lin Rui wanted to rush onto the stage, Hu Jinsi immediately grabbed him.

He took advantage of the time before going on stage to introduce the main abilities of the opponent's 5 monsters to Lin Rui, and took out his only remaining bottle of Detoxification Pills from his backpack and stuffed it to Lin Rui.