14: Chapter 14 Hellish Joke: In Hell, the Hell Knight's squire's teammate is dead, but he is still alive.

The classroom was deathly silent for a full ten seconds.

In those ten seconds, sycamore leaves fell onto the windowsill outside, and the girl in the front row clenched her clothes, the rustling of fabric audible. Hu Jinsi heard his own heartbeat—thump, thump, thump—like someone was drumming inside his chest.

Then, it exploded.

"How is that possible?! Didn't Zhang Qiang and Li Xue have Mandatory Teleportation Talismans?"

"Yeah! The life-saving talismans issued by the school trigger automatically when facing fatal damage. How could they die?"

"What about Zhao Lei? Teacher Fan, did Zhao Lei not come out either?"

It was as if a stun grenade had been thrown into the classroom. Over fifty people sprang from their seats at once, the harsh sound of chair legs scraping against the floor merging into one. Some turned pale and gripped the edges of their desks, while others rushed to the podium, their voices cracking: "Teacher! Are you mistaken? The Mandatory Teleportation Talismans can't fail!"

Teacher Fan stood on the podium, his back to the window. The morning light shone in from behind him, stretching his shadow long like a black fence, separating the podium from the students below.

"The cooldown for the Mandatory Teleportation Talisman is 30 days." Teacher Fan spoke, his voice hoarser than when he had announced the news. "This is a basic concept you learned in your first year of general education. The last time the Knight Squad used their Mandatory Teleportation Talismans was in the Blood Moor when they encountered the elite monster 'Corpsefire', triggered by the Frost Nova after the elite monster died."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over every young face in the classroom.

"Today is exactly the 30th day since it was last triggered. The cooldown for the teleportation talisman binding... doesn't end until midnight tonight."

The classroom went quiet again.

Hu Jinsi sat in his seat, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He subconsciously opened his interface and glanced at the [Mandatory Teleportation Talisman] icon in his status bar—it was green, indicating it was available. Their Jack-of-All-Trades Squad had been in Goldshire for 72 hours and hadn't encountered a situation requiring a forced teleport, so they had kept the talisman in hand.

And the Knight Squad... they had encountered Bishibosh in the Cold Plains, but they didn't have any teleportation talismans on them.

"Then what about Zhao Lei?" a boy asked with a trembling voice. "Zhao Lei is Grade A, he should have had a way, right?"

Teacher Fan remained silent for two seconds.

"Liu Betti from Class 3 has been safely discharged from the hospital, as it was her first time using a Mandatory Teleportation Talisman," he said slowly. "Our class's student Zhao Lei carried a shield item provided by his family. While the shield was active, he voluntarily accepted the World Consciousness penalty, actively exited the dungeon, and has now applied for a one-year suspension."

A buzz went through the classroom, like a kicked hornet's nest.

"A one-year suspension?"

"Voluntarily accepted the penalty to exit? Doesn't that mean... all stats permanently reduced by one?"

"The shield item could only protect him?"

Teacher Fan did not answer these questions. He waved his hand, signaling everyone to return to their seats: "Students of the Life Professions, continue with your studies. Students of the Combat Professions... the dungeon schedule for this week will be announced separately."

He turned around and began to write on the blackboard. The sound of chalk scratching against the board was screeching and teeth-gritting.

Hu Jinsi noticed that the few students in the class specializing in tailoring, cooking, and alchemy—the Life Professions—really didn't have much of a reaction. They just kept their heads down, their eyes filled with a heavy 'as expected' look. On the Combat Professions side, several boys clenched their fists until they cracked, and one girl covered her mouth and ran out of the classroom.

"This world..." Hu Jinsi sighed in his heart, "I've never heard of any middle school that could maintain a zero mortality rate for two consecutive years."

His parents had died in a dungeon. Back then, he was still young, and all he remembered was one night when Lin Rui's father, Lin Jianjun, knocked on their door. He stood at the entrance for a long time before finally saying, "Jinsi, from now on you'll live next door. We'll just set an extra pair of chopsticks at our table."

So, he was no stranger to death. It was just that when his classmates' names were linked with the word 'killed in action,' the impact made his temples throb.

The bell rang without warning.

Teacher Fan walked out of the classroom clutching his lesson plan, his back stooped more than usual. As soon as the door closed, the stifled crying in the classroom broke out intermittently.

"It's Jinsi, right?"

Hu Jinsi was leaning against the hallway railing catching the breeze. Lin Rui and Su Wan walked over and stood on his left and right, sandwiching him like two door panels.

"Hmm?" Hu Jinsi didn't turn his head, watching several first-year freshmen in the playground below practicing basic combat, their movements as clumsy as penguins.

"Are you okay?" Su Wan asked, her voice very soft. She was holding her lyre; the crack on the instrument body hadn't been repaired yet, making it look particularly glaring in the hallway light.

"What could be wrong with me?" Hu Jinsi pulled at the corner of his mouth. "My own father and mother both died in a dungeon; I accepted the rules of this world long ago. The dungeon mortality rate is higher than the hospital's; that's common knowledge."

He turned around, back against the railing, his gaze falling on the group of Combat Profession students gathered at the classroom door. They had lowered their voices, but words like 'Bishibosh,' 'Boss monster,' and 'Teacher Fan clearly warned us' still drifted over intermittently.

"I just think..." Hu Jinsi narrowed his eyes, "Zhang Qiang didn't actually want to go to the Cold Plains."

Lin Rui raised an eyebrow: "How do you know?"

"Remember when we were choosing dungeons last week?" Hu Jinsi counted on his fingers. "Zhang Qiang said at the time, don't forget what happened in the Blood Moor last time. With the three of them being melee, they have to sacrifice health every time they encounter ranged monsters. He suggested adding a ranged character. It was Zhao Lei who insisted on choosing the Cold Plains, saying something like 'A Hell Knight Squire has no room to retreat when facing the undead and demons'—a terminal case of 'chuunibyou', hopeless."

Su Wan bit her lip: "So... was Zhang Qiang coerced by Zhao Lei?"

"Most likely." Hu Jinsi sneered. "And think about it, the monster intensity in the Cold Plains isn't enough to wipe out four Level 5 professionals. The only possibility is that they ignored Teacher Fan's warning and went to challenge a boss monster."

"Blood Raven?" Lin Rui asked.

"No, not Blood Raven." Hu Jinsi shook his head, his gaze darkening a bit. "Blood Raven is a ranged archer. After one person died, the rest should have been forced to exit; they wouldn't all be wiped out together. The only thing that could wipe out a four-person squad simultaneously... is Bishibosh."

He lowered his voice, as if giving the two a lecture: "Bishibosh, a fire-elemental Fallen leader, huge in size, can summon a rain of fireballs, and can resurrect Fallen Shamans. When Fallen and Fallen Shamans are together, everyone solves the Fallen Shamans first. But when Bishibosh, Fallen Shamans, and Fallen are all together, what should you do?"

Su Wan answered 'Solve Bishibosh first', Lin Rui answered 'Run away'—the two gave different answers.

Hu Jinsi didn't comment on these answers, but continued: "The most disgusting thing is—Bishibosh has a high probability of self-destructing upon death. The fire ring expands, with a range of at least fifteen meters, and the damage is 90% of Bishibosh's health. The Knight Squad had four people, 3 of whom were melee; they had to get close to hit it, and after killing it, they couldn't run out of the self-destruct range at all. Without a Mandatory Teleportation Talisman, it was a guaranteed death trap."

Lin Rui and Su Wan looked at each other, both of them having lingering fear in their eyes.

"So," Hu Jinsi patted the railing, "the Cold Plains has been temporarily deleted from my schedule."

"What about Raccoon City?" Su Wan asked.

"Definitely not going." Hu Jinsi rolled his eyes. "Didn't you hear what the other students said? The city is full of zombies, Lickers, Tyrants, Pursuers... The Gunpowder Squad has already scouted the area for us, we'll go exchange specific intelligence in a bit. That place might be even more hellish than the Cold Plains."

The classroom after class was like a pot of boiling porridge.

Students gathered in groups of three or five; some talked a lot, some were silent. Several students from other classes who had been to the Cold Plains were also pulled over to answer questions, and the feedback was surprisingly consistent: "That place is a bit harder than the Blood Moor, but not enough to wipe out the Knight Squad. As long as you don't touch the red-named bosses in the depths, farming monsters in the periphery is very safe."

"So..." the class monitor pushed up his glasses, his voice astringent, "they really went to provoke a boss monster."

"Teacher Fan clearly emphasized repeatedly 'You can't beat them'." Someone gritted their teeth, "He said it three times! Three times! Were their ears deaf?"

Another silence followed.

The three of them, Hu Jinsi, did not participate in too much discussion. They stood in the back of the classroom like three bystanders, watching this panic that belonged to their peers—a panic that came too late.

"Are we a bit cold-blooded?" Su Wan asked in a low voice.

"A bit." Hu Jinsi admitted frankly. "But we also encountered Defias Thieves in our dungeon this time and were almost sent away. We solved it, and our Mandatory Teleportation Talismans haven't been used yet. We are safe, so there is no need to be overly suspicious."

"This is the reality of this world." Lin Rui said lightly. "In the dungeon, there is only life and death, no middle state."

The three left the classroom and headed straight for the training ground. When passing the equipment room, they found the Alchemist from the Gunpowder Squad, Li Hao.

"Buying explosives?" Li Hao pushed his glasses, a merchant's typical shrewdness appearing on his shy face. "Molotov cocktails are fifty each, grenades are one hundred twenty, stun grenades are eighty. How many do you want?"

"Twenty Molotov cocktails, ten grenades." Lin Rui gave the numbers. "We don't lack control, we don't need stun grenades for now."

"Alright, come pick them up tomorrow." Li Hao made a note in his notebook, then suddenly lowered his voice, "About the Knight Squad. We feel the same way."

"Hmm?"

"Our Raccoon City run also failed." Li Hao gave a bitter smile. "We used our Mandatory Teleportation Talismans. We originally wanted to learn from the experience and continue next week, but now..." He looked at the students in the classroom with red eyes, "Our squad has decided to pause for a week and wait and see."

Hu Jinsi nodded, not trying to persuade them. Persuading people to enter a dungeon at a time like this is equivalent to persuading them to commit suicide.

"By the way," he took out that three-dollar-and-fifty-cent notebook, "I've organized some monster intelligence on Goldshire for you, as well as the 'Pig-Tripping' tactic and 'Bonfire' tactic we developed. If you want to switch to Goldshire, you can use it as a reference."

Li Hao took the notebook, his eyes lighting up: "This... can you give this to us?"

"Intelligence sharing." Hu Jinsi waved his hand. "We're all classmates; it's the right thing to do. After all, no one wants to see familiar faces disappear one by one."

On the training ground, Teacher Zhang stood with his arms crossed, watching the three demonstrate their assembly line of tripwire + fence + Thunderwave.

"Stop." He suddenly spoke.

The three froze in place. Su Wan's lyre string was still taut, Lin Rui's short sword was raised in mid-air, and Hu Jinsi's long staff was stuck between the front legs of a scarecrow wild boar.

"The tripwire height is wrong." Teacher Zhang walked over and kicked the rope on the ground with his toe. "Thirty centimeters is too high. Wild boars have a low center of gravity and will easily break through it. Twenty centimeters—trip the front legs, that's the best effect."

He pointed at the long staff in Hu Jinsi's hand: "You are responsible for tripping the legs, but don't use a sweeping motion, use a lifting motion. Lift from the inside of the ankle upwards; the wild boar's center of gravity will shift forward, and it will definitely fall."

"Su Wan, don't cast Thunderwave until all the boars are in the trap. As soon as the first one steps on the tripwire, cast it immediately to knock the ones behind back and bunch them up. That way, Lin Rui's Molotov cocktails can cover the maximum area."

Lin Rui nodded. "Molotov cocktails?"

"Yeah." Teacher Zhang pulled a crumpled note from his pocket. "Didn't you guys buy Molotov cocktails from Li Hao? That stuff is sensitive to wind, but if you splash a circle of cheap fuel around the trap area, then use Grease or a fuel barrel to create a restricted zone, the boars won't be able to get up after falling, and they'll take the full damage from the Molotovs."

"A shovel." He added at the end. "Go buy a civilian engineer shovel, the kind with stats. It's life-profession gear and very cheap. You'll need it for digging bunkers, latrines, and traps. You can't expect Lin Rui to spend his stamina on digging holes every time, right?"

Hu Jinsi and the others were taking notes frantically.

Over the next while, the scarecrow boars in the training ground suffered. The three of them practiced the rhythm repeatedly: luring the monsters, the tripwire, Thunderwave, Molotovs, and finishing them off. Teacher Zhang stood by with a stopwatch, timing them down to the second.

"From the moment the first boar hits the tripwire to when Su Wan casts Thunderwave, the interval cannot exceed 1.5 seconds. Any longer than that, and the boars behind will scatter."

"Lin Rui, don't throw the Molotovs at the boars' faces, throw them at their feet. The continuous damage from the sea of fire is higher than a direct hit."

"Jinsi, after the boars go down, your task isn't to finish them off, it's to intercept. Knock back anyone trying to stand up. Your long staff's length is your advantage."

After three days, their coordination had evolved from "chopping meat at a wet market" to "assembly-line slaughter." Although it sounded bloody, the efficiency had indeed doubled.

...

On Friday night, the three gathered at Hu Jinsi's house for a "pay-to-win meeting."

"Financial situation." Su Wan pulled out a small notebook. "With the 4,000 credits returned from previous dungeon materials, plus the 5,000 sponsored by my mom and dad, that's 9,000 total."

"My family sponsored 5,000 as well," Lin Rui said.

Hu Jinsi dragged an iron box from under his bed, inside which lay a neatly stacked pile of credit notes. "This is what I've saved from my pension over the years, I'm taking out 5,000. Plus the remaining 3,000 in the squad's total funds, that's 22,000."

"Twenty-two thousand..." Su Wan gasped. "Have we become nouveau riche?"

"Nouveau riche, my ass. Being a professional is a money-burning business." Hu Jinsi slapped the money onto the table. "Distribution plan: Lin Rui, you're in charge of firepower investment and supplementing our front-line toughness."

Lin Rui nodded. "I've prepared two plans. Plan A: Buy twenty Molotovs, ten grenades, and prepare backups for all weapons—one short sword, one spear, and one one-handed hammer each. Plan B," he paused, "I plan to hunt for a set of second-hand heavy armor and a few worn-out tower shields to keep in my backpack as backups. When the time comes, we can use these tower shields as cover, saving us from having to tear down doors again."

"Heavy armor?" Hu Jinsi raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid that will affect your movement speed?"

"It's for backup. The Soldier profession inherently has Heavy Armor Proficiency. I don't wear it usually because it affects the squad's speed too much." Lin Rui said in a low voice. "But that time with the Defias Thief, if I had heavy armor, I wouldn't have been stabbed through the chest piece. The same goes for the tower shields; besides the boars, they can also serve as cover to dodge the Murloc Mage's spells."

"Then buy both." Hu Jinsi looked at Su Wan. "How about you?"

Su Wan counted on her fingers. "The lyre is fixed, it cost three hundred. I bought five barrels of cheap fuel, two hundred per barrel, to create Grease-covered ground. Also, three Fog Cloud scrolls, four hundred each, specifically to deal with the Stone Cairn Lake Murloc Mages—creating fog within their field of vision so they can't see our position clearly and are forced to walk over and approach us."

"Smart." Hu Jinsi gave a thumbs up. "That thing's vision is more important than its casting range; once they're blinded, they're just targets."

"What about you?" Lin Rui asked.

Hu Jinsi grinned. "I replaced my iron-clad hardwood long staff with a new one, same model, cost eighty. I replenished three sets of throwing knives, thirty knives per set, ninety. And then—" He deliberately drew out the sound, pulling three... bicycle keys from his backpack?

"Mountain bikes, three of them, with gear shifters and off-road tires, six hundred each." Hu Jinsi looked smug. "From now on, we won't have to walk in the dungeons anymore! On those crappy roads in Goldshire, riding a bike can save half the time!"

"You actually bought them?" Su Wan's eyes widened.

"We all thought you were joking." Lin Rui repeated expressionlessly.

"Think about the Nature Squad," Hu Jinsi tapped the table. "Although this stuff isn't as energy-saving as a pony, the time saved is time we can use for grinding monsters and resting. We need mobility! Plus, it only takes up one slot in the backpack when folded. Huge profit!"

Su Wan covered her forehead. "Forget it, let him be..."

...

Sunday morning, before dawn had fully broken. Hu Jinsi sat cross-legged on his meditation cushion, his interface vibrated slightly. [Experience: 1601/3200]

"Enough!" He almost jumped off the cushion. There was no time to bathe and change clothes, so Hu Jinsi had to keep things simple. He washed his face and sat back down cross-legged on the bed. [Spend 1600 experience points to draw a Level 5 profession talent?] "Yes!"

[Please select from the following talents:] [Qi Meditation: You are breathing and circulating energy whether walking, sitting, or lying down. Your Qi flows with your steps, and fatigue dissipates while traveling. This is not static seclusion, but cultivation seeking stillness within movement—turning the battlefield itself into a place to recover your Qi. Effect: You can enter meditation while moving at half speed (and cannot enter combat). This state can be considered a short rest.]

[Extra Qi: Your sea of Qi is an inch deeper than your peers. This is not a talent, but the mark of your Dantian widening on its own after countless times of pushing your internal energy to the limit. That extra wisp of Qi is often the chasm between life and death, victory and defeat. Effect: Your "Qi Pool" maximum value increases by 2 permanently.]

[Combat Reflexes: You have honed muscle reaction into an instinct. Every mistake an enemy makes is a slow-motion close-up in your eyes, a window for counterattack granted to you by fate. This is not simply fast reaction time, but control over the rhythm of battle—walking on the tip of a blade, waiting, then reaping. Effect: Your number of attacks of opportunity is no longer limited to 1, but depends on the difference between your agility and the opponent's. Your attacks of opportunity will not trigger the enemy's attacks of opportunity.]

Hu Jinsi rubbed his chin, starting to analyze. First, [Extra Qi] was directly eliminated. His Qi Pool was only 5 points right now, he didn't even have a decent skill that consumed Qi, so what was the use of adding 2 points to the cap? It was a late-game talent; picking it now would just be wasting a slot.

[Qi Meditation] looked very nice, meditating while moving, and it could even count as a short rest. But Hu Jinsi calmly did the math: this thing didn't benefit from [Deep Meditation] or the cushion's bonus. How many hours could he walk a day? In a dungeon, he'd be lucky to travel for three hours a day, which would only be 6 points of experience—not even as much as sitting and meditating for half an hour. Plus, even if his movement counted as a short rest for himself, Su Wan would still need a real short rest on the spot after consuming spells, so the result was that it was a useless chicken rib.

As for [Combat Reflexes]... Hu Jinsi thought of the boars in the training ground that were tripped by the tripwire. The 1-2 seconds they struggled after falling were an "indefensible state," belonging to a standard window for attacks of opportunity. If he held that [rixats elegy] of Lin Rui's and combined it with this talent, he could slash three times in the instant the boar fell, maximizing the chance of triggering the special effect. "No question about it, it has to be this." "Select Combat Reflexes!"

[Level 5 extra talent unlocked: Combat Reflexes] [Current experience: 1/3200] Hu Jinsi clenched his fist, gaining a new understanding of past battles. He picked up his long staff and thrust it into the air a few times, feeling that even the trajectory of his staff swings had become a bit smoother. "Pro version Jack-of-All-Trades Squad," he grinned at himself in the mirror, "officially formed."

...

On the bus on Sunday, the atmosphere was much more subdued than last time. At the entrance of the Goldshire dungeon, the number of students gathered in front of the pale green vortex was significantly higher than last time. Hu Jinsi scanned the crowd and found many faces from No. 2 High School and Experimental High School, along with many more unfamiliar faces, probably transfers from other schools. The incident with the Knight Squad had spread throughout the middle school circle in Wei City; not just high schools, even Su Qing and Su Yu's middle school were using this event as a counterexample to educate students.

"Did you hear that the A-rank squad from No. 1 High School wiped?" "Yeah, two died, one suspended... so tragic." "That's why many students at our school changed their recommendation to Goldshire, saying it's safer here." "Safe, my ass," Hu Jinsi muttered quietly, "it's just a different way to die."

Lin Rui was adjusting the equipment in his backpack from time to time on the side. Weapons and projectiles had to be packed separately, and the small bag for projectiles had to be near his chest—for easy access. Su Wan's lyre was fixed, the body re-varnished, gleaming with a soft luster under the light. Hu Jinsi, on the other hand, continued to zone out on the spot (the restrictions of the Monk profession meant there really wasn't anything to equip; anything with effects was magic equipment, which was too luxurious).

"The Gunpowder Squad really didn't come." Su Wan looked around. "Normal." Lin Rui checked his short sword. "Their forced teleportation scroll cooldown isn't up yet, and they need time to adjust. Besides..." he paused, "they need time to digest the death of their companions."

"We are the same," Hu Jinsi suddenly said. Su Wan and Lin Rui looked at him. "It's just that our way of digesting it is different." Hu Jinsi folded the bicycle and stuffed it into a backpack slot. "We choose to become stronger, strong enough not to die."

The three stood in front of the vortex and took a deep breath. "Let's go." Lin Rui reached out his hand. "Let's go." Su Wan stacked her hand on top. "For strength, for Level 6, for not being blown into fireworks by Bishibosh." Hu Jinsi pressed his hand on top of them. "Goldshire, we're back."

The three stepped into the pale green vortex in one stride. Light swallowed their figures. This time, it was the fully upgraded, pay-to-win Jack-of-All-Trades Squad. Molotovs, grenades, fuel barrels, Fog Cloud scrolls, mountain bikes, backup heavy armor, tower shields, throwing knives, new long staff, Combat Reflexes—and a heart that wanted to live even more than before. The Murlocs of Stone Cairn Lake, the boars of the farm, the Kobolds in the mine, the Defias Thieves—just wait. Pro version squad, logging in.