138: Chapter 138 Dire Wolf's Choice Seafood Wontons

It was another best-of-five points match. The first monster the opponent sent out was once again that Explosive Fist that released poison mist.

As soon as Lin Rui stepped into the ring, his vision was shrouded in gray-green mist. The poison mist poured out endlessly from Explosive Fist, spreading in all directions as if it were alive, and wherever it passed, even the stone tiles of the ring were corroded, forming tiny bubbles. The mist was mixed with a pungent, fishy-sweet smell, like rotting seaweed mixed with the scent of rust, making one want to retch.

Lin Rui subconsciously held his breath and tightened the straps of his gas mask. This mask was equipment the team had acquired back at [Burning Village]; its filtration level wasn't top-tier, but it was more than enough to deal with ordinary poison mist. However, he hadn't expected this poison mist to be so highly corrosive; the rubber seal on the edge of the mask had already started to make a faint sizzling sound.

Lin Rui, whose perception was not an advantageous attribute, fell into a stalemate the moment he entered this battle.

To avoid being approached by the poison mist released by this monster, Lin Rui could only continuously burn the surrounding poison mist with the flames from his portable flamethrower. Orange-red tongues of fire spewed from the front of the flamethrower, burning the gray-green poison mist with a sizzling sound, and the air was filled with a pungent, acrid smell of burning and rot.

The opponent's monster was also wary of Lin Rui's flamethrower and dared not get close to ambush him. Explosive Fist appeared and disappeared within the poison mist, the bone spurs on its fists gleaming with a ghostly green light, but it always maintained a safe distance from Lin Rui, not daring to rashly Charge through that wall of fire.

The battle between the two sides thus entered a tug-of-war.

However, the opponent was a projection; it only consumed some of its own power, or rather, the power within the instance. But every shot Lin Rui fired consumed his own hard-earned Credits.

The fuel tank of the flamethrower was dropping at a visible rate, and Lin Rui's heart was bleeding. As he sprayed fire, he calculated in his mind: "How much does this tank of fuel cost? How much did that last burst use up? Why hasn't this monster fallen yet?"

"Good grief, this isn't a match, this is burning money." Lin Rui cursed internally. He remembered the batch of fuel he had bought at the Daibei City supply station before setting off; one tank cost 150 Credits, and this match alone would burn through at least seven or eight tanks.

He made a rough estimate, and the corner of his mouth twitched even more violently.

Therefore, 10 minutes into the battle, Lin Rui began to feel a bit anxious. He popped an antidote pill into his mouth and rushed into the thick poison mist to find the monster's location, but unfortunately, it was to little avail. The poison mist was too thick, with visibility less than two meters, and he could only fire blindly based on sound and intuition.

Seeing this, Lin Rui could no longer worry about his ammunition consumption and began to fire his flamethrower in wide, continuous bursts. Tongues of fire poured madly from the front of the flamethrower, burning away the poison mist in a large area around him, and slowly advancing toward other areas of the arena.

The arena was suddenly filled with flames, and the gray-green poison mist was burned, rolling and twisting, emitting a shrieking sound like a wail. Sweat beaded on Lin Rui's forehead, and his fingers were slightly numb from pulling the trigger for so long, but he dared not stop.

By the 18th minute of the match, Lin Rui had finally cornered the monster and its poison mist in a corner of the ring. Explosive Fist was forced to the edge of the ring by the flames, with nowhere to retreat, and the poison mist had been mostly burned away, revealing its true, ugly body covered in bone spurs.

Lin Rui didn't give it any chance to catch its breath; he fired his shotgun at close range, with all three steel slugs hitting Explosive Fist in the chest. Explosive Fist let out a shrill scream, and its body dissipated into points of light in the air.

Lin Rui ended up winning this battle, but there was no joy of victory on his face at all.

He looked down at the remaining fuel in the tank, then at the shotgun shells in his ammo pouch, and the corner of his mouth twitched. Compared to the victory in this battle, his consumption was a bit too exaggerated.

He had fired nearly 200 rounds of ammunition in this match, which was nearly 1000 Credits. And the points gained from this victory were clearly not worth those 1000 Credits.

"Total loss." Lin Rui walked off the stage and threw the empty fuel tank onto the ground, making a dull thud.

Of course, this was mainly because Lin Rui's shortcomings were magnified in this battle. His perception attribute was not high, so he couldn't accurately locate the enemy in the poison mist and had to rely on firepower coverage to force them back. However, it couldn't be ruled out that the overly smooth battles throughout the afternoon had made Lin Rui underestimate his opponent. He had thought the ease of the qualifiers would continue into the knockout rounds, but he didn't expect to stumble on the very first opponent.

Taking advantage of the maximum 20-minute medical and tactical rest time in this kind of match, Hu Jinsi began to carefully analyze the skills and strengths and weaknesses of the remaining four enemies for Lin Rui.

He took out his communication terminal, pulled up the data on the Mo Xiao Team, and swiped his finger across the screen, showing the information of the four monsters to Lin Rui one by one.

"Especially," Hu Jinsi said very frankly to Lin Rui, "regarding skill counters, you don't have the advantage against the remaining four."

He pointed to the first avatar on the screen: "Lijiang uses Rock Armor to strengthen himself; you can barely fight him, but it would be another war of attrition." Hu Jinsi continued to analyze, "Hua Mo uses gravity spells that accumulate slowly; your load capacity is a strength, so the initial impact shouldn't be large. If you force a close-quarters engagement, you have a chance to resolve it quickly, but you must absolutely not let it turn into a war of attrition."

Lin Rui silently noted these key points, his fingers tapping unconsciously on his knees, as if simulating the rhythm of shooting.

Lin Rui leaned over to take a look, and his brow relaxed slightly.

"But there are still two monsters," Hu Jinsi's finger slid to the other two avatars, and his tone became serious, "Zhen, who uses Demon Qi Gale, and Dongshi, who uses Ice Demon Qi. If you run into them after you get on stage, it will be even more uncomfortable than this Explosive Fist that uses poison mist."

He paused and used himself as an example: "When I first encountered this team, both Zhen and Dongshi from the opposing side were worn down until they exhausted their Demon Qi. This is somewhat similar to your situation in this match; Zhen flies in the sky, and I couldn't hit him; Dongshi turns the field directly into an ice rink, and anyone who doesn't know how to skate will definitely suffer the first time they go up."

Lin Rui's face turned a bit pale after hearing this. He thought of the embarrassment of having to chase the poison mist to burn it just now, and then imagined himself slipping on ice or being chased by a tornado, and suddenly felt that the 1000 Credits spent just now were actually worth it.

"So it's not just you who will encounter setbacks," Hu Jinsi patted Lin Rui on the shoulder, "most people won't have an easy time facing such strange and peculiar skills."

But Hu Jinsi still suggested: "For the remaining few matches, I suggest I go up and finish off the enemies. After all, you aren't familiar with the enemies in these few matches, and plus, the enemies in this team have very distinct characteristics, so there's no need to waste time and Credits on them. Unless you are interested in the skills of any of them."

He looked at Lin Rui's expression and added: "Of course, mainly, getting injured in this kind of match is a very unworthy thing."

Facing Hu Jinsi's admonition, this time Lin Rui finally did not forcibly insist on fighting himself. After all, he had been fighting all afternoon, and combined with this match, the drain on him—both from his wallet and psychologically—was not small, and he couldn't handle a few more matches like this.

He slumped onto the stone chair in the preparation area, "Alright," Lin Rui waved his hand listlessly, "the rest is up to you. I'm going to take a break."

Hu Jinsi nodded and turned to walk toward the ring.

In the next two matches, his opponents were the monster Zhen from the Mo Xiao Team who could fly in the sky, and their captain, Lijiang.

As for Zhen, this was already Hu Jinsi's third encounter with it; he was too familiar with it. The monster took off into the air with a tornado as soon as the match started and circled above the ring.

But this time, less than 5 minutes after the monster took off, Hu Jinsi used [Spirit Gun], aimed, fired, and shot it down from the sky. The pale blue ball of light tore through the air, accurately hitting Zhen; the force damage penetrated its Demon Qi shield, and the blue light exploded on its body.

Just like before, Zhen lost its balance and fell from the sky. Hu Jinsi didn't give it any chance to catch its breath; he charged straight up, and his iron-wood staff smashed toward its head with a whistling sound of wind.

As for the final match, the opponent's captain, Lijiang, was actually easier for Hu Jinsi to fight. The opponent's ability was nothing more than full-body petrification, covering itself in Rock Armor. That layer of grayish-white rock shell was hard and thick, and ordinary unarmed attacks could only leave a white mark on it.

Hu Jinsi's iron-wood staff might not be a very powerful weapon in combat, but when smashing doors, locks, or stone walls, it was treated as a battering ram, capable of dealing double damage. Every swing of the long staff carried a dull sound of breaking air, smashing into Lijiang's Rock Armor, sending stone fragments flying and cracks spreading rapidly.

This monster's pride-and-joy defense was, instead, countered by Hu Jinsi.

Hu Jinsi once again easily won the match.

After the victory, the three advanced to the round of 32 and returned to that three-bedroom, one-living-room preparation suite.

Su Wan felt a bit bored and played with the Dire Wolf for a while. She took a rubber ball out of her backpack and tossed it back and forth in the living room, and the Dire Wolf chased the ball all over the room, its iron-gray fur gleaming under the lights.

After a few rounds, the Dire Wolf's tongue was hanging out long, panting heavily, and Su Wan was also too tired to straighten her back; feeling a bit exhausted, she returned to her room, washed up, and went to rest. Before leaving, she rubbed the Dire Wolf's head, and the Dire Wolf squinted its eyes comfortably, its tail tapping out a light rhythm on the floor.

But Lin Rui clearly didn't intend to rest so early; he dragged Hu Jinsi along, making him analyze the enemies he had fought in this instance one by one. What were their strong skills, what were their weaknesses that could be exploited—he kept pestering him until nearly 12 o'clock before letting Hu Jinsi return to his room to rest.

"This Zhen," Lin Rui sat cross-legged on the sofa, holding a cup of beverage poured from the [Drunken Immortal Gourd], "does its gale have any blind spots?"

"Yes," Hu Jinsi leaned on the other end of the sofa, "it needs 3 seconds of Charge time to take off; during this time, it is on the ground and is most vulnerable. Also, it is not flexible when turning in the air, so you can predict its flight path and shoot in advance."

"What about Lijiang?"

"After petrification, its movement speed is reduced by 70%, but its defense is increased by 200%." Hu Jinsi thought for a moment, "Your flamethrower works well against it; rocks fear high heat, and continuous burning can make its shell brittle."

Lin Rui took notes on his terminal while listening, his fingers swiping rapidly across the screen. He also asked Hu Jinsi about the [Spirit Gun] and what that pale blue ball of light was all about.

"Points." Hu Jinsi pulled up the exchange interface within the instance, "I've been saving for quite a while. In this instance, once you have seen an enemy use a skill with your own eyes, you can exchange for it if you have enough points. Zhen's Demon Wind, Dongshi's Ice Demon Qi, Lijiang's Rock Armor—theoretically, they can all be exchanged, but the prerequisite is that you must have seen them cast."

Lin Rui's eyes lit up after hearing this, clearly tempted by several of the skills. He stared at the exchange icon for [Spirit Gun] on Hu Jinsi's interface.

"Forget it," he sighed, "let's lay a solid foundation for the Soldier class first, then consider these fancy things."

The two continued to communicate like this until nearly midnight at 12 o'clock, and only then did Lin Rui return to his room to rest.

Actually, it didn't matter to Hu Jinsi; after all, Lin Rui didn't know that under the influence of [Transcendent Meditation] (Incomplete), he only needed one hour to return to a fully refreshed normal state.

In fact, staying up late like this was only harming Lin Rui, potentially causing him to be sleep-deprived. Lin Rui relied entirely on natural sleep to recover, so he would likely oversleep tomorrow morning.

As expected, the next day, Lin Rui and Su Wan slept in until past 8:00 AM.

Xiaoquan Yilang had been following Hu Jinsi's schedule for the past two days and woke up at 6:00 AM every morning. It had originally expected that waking up at 6:00 AM this time would mean there was something to eat. It lay on the living room carpet, its iron-gray fur rising and falling slightly with its breathing, its nose twitching incessantly as it tried to catch every trace of the aroma of food in the air.

As it turned out, at 6:00 AM, only Hu Jinsi opened his bedroom door and came into the hall to keep the little guy company. Hu Jinsi comforted it, saying, "Don't be too anxious. Once those two wake up, we'll go out for breakfast."

The Dire Wolf raised its head, its amber eyes full of resentment. It looked at Hu Jinsi, then at the two other tightly closed bedroom doors, and let out a low whimper, as if complaining about the laziness of these two humans.

As it turned out, those two slept until past 8:00 AM, leaving a growing, tens-of-pounds cub to go hungry for two full hours since waking up in the morning.

Therefore, as soon as Lin Rui pushed open his room door in the morning, he saw the Direwolf Cub wearing a bitter and resentful expression, its gaze fixed straight at him. The Dire Wolf sat in the center of the living room, its front paws neatly together, ears pinned back against its head, its eyes filled with the message, "You owe me a breakfast."

He asked Hu Jinsi somewhat puzzled, "What's going on here? I shouldn't have provoked it, right? Did we disturb its sleep while discussing tactics in the hall yesterday? Or did we sit on its tail while discussing tactics?"

Hu Jinsi smiled and said, "Neither. It's just that this little thing has been following my schedule and getting up at 6:00 AM for the past two days, so it's gotten used to it. It originally thought there would be food at 6:00 AM, and I told it that we would go out to eat once you guys got up. But it's past 8:00 AM, you've come out, but Su Wan hasn't. You have to realize it's a wolf after all; what kind of reaction can a wolf have if it's hungry? At the very least, it's not looking at you with glowing green eyes, which is already a sign of its politeness and restraint."

Apparently, the two of them talking outside finally woke up Su Wan inside. A few minutes later, Su Wan also pushed open the door and came into the prep room's living area. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were still half-closed; she clearly hadn't fully woken up from her sleep.

Once all the team members were present, they collectively chose to temporarily exit the dungeon to have breakfast.

...

Hu Jinsi didn't pay much attention to Lin Rui and Su Wan's breakfast choices, as everyone's taste is different. Lin Rui was muttering about wanting meat buns, while Su Wan wanted to drink some porridge to cleanse her stomach.

But what Hu Jinsi was eating this morning was the same seafood wontons as the Dire Wolf had yesterday morning.

Mainly because this morning, seeing that Lin Rui and Su Wan hadn't come out of their rooms, Hu Jinsi asked the little guy if it wanted some food to tide itself over. He took a piece of dried meat out of his backpack and waved it in front of the Dire Wolf's nose.

Who would have thought, the Direwolf Cub shook its wolf head vigorously at Hu Jinsi. It turned its face away, snorted disdainfully with its nose, and didn't even glance at the dried meat.

Hu Jinsi guessed and asked it, "Then you still want the same thing for breakfast as yesterday?"

The little guy nodded in a very human-like way, and its tail wagged ingratiatingly.

This made Hu Jinsi want to taste this seafood wonton that had been certified by the Dire Wolf, to see what kind of magic it possessed, to make this gluttonous little guy willing to skip its favorite dried mutton, go hungry, and wait until morning to go out and have a bite.

The three of them and the wolf exited the dungeon and came to the snack street. The morning sea breeze carried a chill, the sunlight slanted across the stone road, several breakfast stalls had already set up their tents, and the steaming aroma permeated the air.

Arriving at the small stall, Hu Jinsi directly ordered two large bowls of the specialty seafood wontons from the owner. The owner was an auntie in her fifties, quick and nimble; she scooped up a handful of wontons and put them into the pot. The boiling water churned, and the white wonton skins floated up and down in the pot.

Who would have thought that as soon as he finished ordering, the Dire Wolf rubbed its head against Hu Jinsi's thigh and tried hard to stretch out two joints on its paw for Hu Jinsi to see. Its paw opened and closed, as if gesturing something.

Seeing this, Hu Jinsi was a bit helpless and directly said to the owner, "Add another bowl. I need three bowls of wontons in total here."

Hearing that Hu Jinsi had added another portion as it requested, the Dire Wolf was finally satisfied and used its own way to curry favor with the owner + alpha wolf before it. It circled around Hu Jinsi's legs, its tail wagging like a little motor, and it stuck out its tongue to lick the back of Hu Jinsi's hand.

After all, in the Dire Wolf's simple value system, an alpha wolf that can keep its subordinates well-fed must be a good alpha wolf.

...

The breakfast stall owner nearby was clearly a knowledgeable person; after all, she saw all kinds of professionals at the dungeon entrance every day. Although professionals with animal companions were rare, the foot traffic at the dungeon entrance was immense.

Therefore, one could often see all kinds of animals or magical beasts that were as smart as humans; even if the Dire Wolf had spoken and ordered its own meal, the owner probably wouldn't have been too surprised. After all, as long as it could pay with Credit Points, it proved that it had a household registration recognized by Water Blue Star and was a legal citizen.

After all, Water Blue Star had long had its own unique way of dealing with the various otherworldly creatures that had escaped from dungeons over the years.

The most direct one was that Water Blue Star now had no so-called paper currency. Regardless of whether you were awakened or possessed a profession, you could use your consciousness to use Credit Points, the universal currency of Water Blue Star.

If you could not pay Credit Points, then there were clearly only two possibilities: you were a poor person who didn't even have Credit Points, or you were simply not a legal citizen recognized by Water Blue Star, but an unregistered person.

Facing such unregistered persons was something all kinds of vendors or ordinary folks loved the most; after all, after a report call, once the other party's identity was verified, the reporter would get 2,000 Credit Points. Could there be any easier way to make money than this?

Especially owners of snack stalls like this, guarding the dungeon entrance, each of them dreamed every day of earning this money. After all, those otherworldly creatures that came out of the dungeon, if one was not clear-headed, came over to order food, and couldn't pay, it was almost a guaranteed success with one report.

This was why some professionals would occasionally come out to set up a stall, not just because of interest or hobbies, but because this kind of luck-based income was really interesting.

...

As the owner served the delicious wontons to the table, Hu Jinsi had to admit that, at least in terms of finding good food, the Dire Wolf's mouth was more accurate than his; after all, the difference in their sense of smell was obvious.

The seafood wontons for breakfast were very substantial in ingredients and full of umami; one look and you could tell it was the morning's fresh catch. It was worthy of being "Dire Wolf Selected."

As for whether any technology and ruthless additives were added? Hu Jinsi was very confident about this, as the Dire Wolf would absolutely not eat any food that had technology and ruthless additives added to it.

Once, Hu Jinsi just put a little black pepper sauce on the pan-fried lamb chops for the Dire Wolf. This guy disdainfully used its claws to cut off all the meat chunks that had been stained with black pepper sauce, threw them aside, and only ate the parts that hadn't been stained with the sauce.

It was also after this incident that Hu Jinsi discovered that the sauce rejected by the Dire Wolf was indeed full of various kinds of technology and ruthless additives on the ingredient list; from then on, he trusted the Dire Wolf's sense of taste immensely.

Lin Rui had also bought a few buns for breakfast, but he saw Hu Jinsi and the Direwolf Cub eating wontons with such relish not far away.

He suddenly felt that these few buns still couldn't satisfy his empty stomach, so he also came over and added a bowl of seafood wontons. At the same time, he kept urging Su Wan to come over and try it too, but clearly, Su Wan's appetite couldn't hold as much as Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui's.

...

After finishing breakfast, the three of them began to return to the Dark Martial Arts Tournament dungeon; after all, they still needed to hurry up and clear it so they could catch the bus back to Wei City before nightfall as much as possible.

In the round of 32 to 16, the team encountered a typical weak team, the Fantasy Six Demon Team, and it was a team battle.

Regarding this team, Hu Jinsi had already had a brief analysis with Lin Rui last night. After the start, Hu Jinsi took out the Elf Weirdo who posed the greatest threat to Lin Rui, then stood on the side of the field to protect Su Wan, watching Lin Rui start his 1v5 massacre.

It's just that this team was always so lacking in fighting spirit; after Lin Rui only took out the Cat Demon and Cobra Demon among them, the remaining three collectively surrendered. The three members of the team won this elimination match without any effort.

Apparently, this fluctuating difficulty not only made Lin Rui feel a bit uncomfortable, but even Su Wan, who also participated this time, felt it was a bit strange.

Regarding this, Hu Jinsi could only explain, "You need to get used to this dungeon. It is said that every elimination tournament involves a new random draw. If you're unlucky, you might run into a very strong team at the start, so everything is fate."

In the subsequent 16 to 8 and 8 to 4 elimination rounds, the team encountered the One-Eyed Bull Pirates and the Five Beast God Team.

For such enemies that relied purely on physical confrontation, Hu Jinsi was very relieved to leave them all to Lin Rui to deal with. After all, Lin Rui's shotgun was quite useful against such enemies. Steel pellets hitting flesh and blood could leave a bowl-sized wound with every shot, which was much more effective than dealing with rock armor or demonic energy shields.

The Tiger Demon of the Five Beast God Team was extremely fast, with lightning on its claws. It pounced on Lin Rui at the start, its claws carving out a blue arc of electricity. Lin Rui dodged to the side, the arc of electricity flying past his shoulder and leaving a charred mark on the arena. Lin Rui pulled the trigger, and the shotgun's steel pellets formed a barrage. The Tiger Demon couldn't change direction in mid-air, crashing straight into the barrage and falling to the ground covered in blood.

These three matches were finished, and it was barely past 11:00 AM. Lin Rui had consumed quite a bit of ammunition, but compared to yesterday's poison fog tug-of-war, today's battles were simply easy and pleasant. He even had the mood to whistle in the arena and give a victory gesture to the fallen monster.

When dealing with most of the monsters in these two teams, Lin Rui only needed to start with a Charge to knock the opponent down. He sank his shoulders, and his whole body rammed into the enemy like a human tank. The three stages of damage from the Charge—base damage + Load Expert's specialty damage + weight-added damage—could already take away at least one-sixth of the opponent's health.

Taking advantage of the gap while the opponent was on the ground, he would give them another round of emptying the magazine. The shotgun's steel pellets formed a deadly barrage at close range, riddling the monster's body with holes.

Then he would move away from the opponent, and after the opponent got up, he would use another Tactical Roll to ram into them, simultaneously switching the weapon in his hand to a heavy sword, followed by another round of continuous damage from Heavy Strike and Shield Bash. Basically, after 1-2 times, the monster would be ready to be reincarnated.

Although it was barely past 11:00 AM, considering that the subsequent enemies were highly likely to be either the Elder Toguro team or the Urameshi team, the difficulty would increase significantly.

Hu Jinsi still suggested going out to have lunch first, and after eating, return to start the remaining two matches.