20: Chapter 20 3V3? Impossible, 3V1+3V1+3V1 is the correct answer!

The giant boar's corpse dissipated into points of light at the bottom of the pit, and two pieces of equipment floated up amidst the swirling dust.

Hu Jinsi leaned against the pit wall to catch his breath, then reached out to scoop up the collar that shimmered with a dark gold luster. The chain was twisted from some unknown alloy, each link engraved with fine thorn patterns, and the pendant was a thumb-sized relief of a boar's head, with two tiny rubies embedded in its tusks.

[Princess's Gilded Collar]

His eye twitched, and he couldn't help but think: The residual consciousness of this dungeon definitely has a twisted sense of humor. A sow dropping a collar called "Princess"? In the games of his past life, this would definitely be some sinister prank by the developers. But he kept a straight face and simply tossed the collar to Lin Rui: "It's yours. It has a Charge effect; only you can use it."

Lin Rui took off his red mask, caught the collar, and weighed it in his hand. Without declining, he hung it directly around his neck. The dark gold chain against his second-hand heavy armor actually had a strange sense of coordination.

The second piece of equipment was a pair of greaves. Just as they solidified from the points of light, they emitted a pungent, foul odor, with half-dried mud and suspicious green stains smeared on the surface.

[Mud-Stained Greaves]

Su Wan pinched her nose and took three large steps back, her voice muffled by her palm: "Take it away, take it away! If I wore this thing, I'm afraid I'd be force-teleported out by the stench before anything else! It's bad enough that it looks dirty, but this olfactory pollution is basically a psychic attack, right?"

Lin Rui had actually snuck a peek at the stats—Muddy Protection: Your chance of being knocked down/knocked back is reduced. When you are knocked down, you have a chance to splash mud at the attacker, briefly lowering their hit rate. He opened his mouth, just about to say, "Actually, I could…", when he met Su Wan's eyes, which screamed, "If you dare take it, we are through." The murderous intent in that gaze was even fiercer than the giant boar from just a moment ago.

He silently swallowed his words and lowered his head.

Hu Jinsi quickly tried to smooth things over, picking up the greaves on the tip of his staff like he was holding a hot potato: "Don't throw it away, this is money. There are so many students with defensive classes in school; we can ask around later if anyone doesn't mind it. We won't sell it for less than three thousand credits. At worst, we can sell it to Yi Chun—if he really wants to take that giant boar as an animal companion, this is the ultimate artifact for grinding favorability, get it?"

"Are you sure Yi Chun would want it?" Su Wan asked suspiciously.

"If he doesn't want it, we'll list it on the exchange." Hu Jinsi stuffed the greaves into a separate slot in his backpack, sealing off the smell, "Anyway, we can't waste things."

After dealing with the loot, Hu Jinsi tossed [rixats elegy] back to Lin Rui. The faint blue sword light traced an arc in the air, landing steadily in the other's palm. He clapped his hands, looking relaxed: "The dagger is returned to its owner. I risked my life today to go 'truly' face-to-face with the boar—," he deliberately dragged out the tone, "I won't be participating in the cleaning and maintenance of this dagger tonight. Just kidding."

Su Wan immediately followed up, hugging her lyre and shifting to the side, nodding solemnly: "Me too. Lin Rui, you'll have to find somewhere else to clean your spear and magic dagger tonight; don't get too close to us. After all..." She glanced meaningfully at the blade of the dagger, "They just stabbed some unspeakable parts."

Lin Rui's face darkened instantly. He gripped the short sword that he had painstakingly cleaned of all odors just last night, and then looked at the spear at his waist that had also performed the "stab the director" mission. His lips moved, as if he wanted to launch a verbal counterattack. But then he thought, the best item from today's loot was already around his neck, and he had claimed half of the giant boar's drops, so he really lacked the confidence to argue.

"...Fine." He squeezed out the word stiffly, put the short sword back into its sheath, and said, "Let's hurry, clear out the remaining boars in the field, and go back to the tower for the night."

The three climbed out of the pit. Lin Rui, burdened by his heavy armor, huffed and puffed as he dragged the two ruined tower shields out of the pit and discarded them, then switched to the only one remaining. Hu Jinsi rode his bike along the edge of the farmland, using throwing knives and shouting to lure the remaining boars. Having lost their "Princess," the boar pack's morale plummeted. It took the three of them less than an hour to sweep the outskirts of Blackwell Farm clean of boars.

By the time the sunset sank into the edge of the forest, the three had already returned to the Tower of Azora. The skylight on the third floor let in the dark purple twilight. Su Wan lit a camping lamp, and the warm yellow halo filled the corner. Lin Rui squatted by the wall, truly cleaning his spear and short sword in silence by himself, his back exuding a sense of aggrieved stubbornness.

Hu Jinsi sat cross-legged on his meditation cushion, his prayer beads slowly turning on his wrist. But he didn't meditate immediately; instead, he took out a notebook and used the lamp light to review today's battle.

"Still calculating?" Su Wan sat next to him, hugging her lyre.

"Calculating experience." Hu Jinsi sighed, "I was only level 6 before entering the dungeon, and my Qi pool had just reached 6 points, yet one big battle drained it to the bottom. This consumption..."

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Lin Rui's voice. That guy had finished cleaning his weapons, leaned against the wall, opened his interface, stared at the experience bar for a long while, and then suddenly sighed heavily.

"6400 points." Lin Rui's voice echoed in the tower, carrying a sense of helplessness as if fate had grabbed him by the throat, "From level 6 to level 7, it takes 6400 experience points. I finally see it clearly now. When Teacher Fan said these three dungeons would be the battlefield for the next two months, he wasn't exaggerating at all. With the length of this experience bar, getting to level 11... will take until at least the end of the term."

"There will be other ways." Hu Jinsi put away his notebook and said seriously, "But the primary problem now is—how do we deal with the three elite monsters huddling together in the small house on the east side of Blackwell Farm? After we finish them, what do we fight next?"

The air was silent for a moment.

"Let's just burn that house down together." Su Wan was the first to raise her hand, her tone as light as if she were suggesting roasting sweet potatoes, "Anyway, there's no Druid or similar class among us, so we don't have to worry about the world consciousness deducting favorability for environmental destruction."

"Burning it is fine, sure," Hu Jinsi raised an eyebrow, "but what after we burn it?"

"Have Lin Rui Block the door with his tower shield." Su Wan pointed naturally at the person currently cleaning his sword, "Don't we still have one intact tower shield? Just jam it in the doorway, and one man can hold the pass."

"Do you think Lin Rui can hold up against three elite monsters for even a few hits?" Hu Jinsi shook his head, his finger pointing vaguely in the air, "If they are all as strong as that 'Princess' today, Lin Rui won't last five seconds before being force-teleported out. No matter how thick his heavy armor is, it can't withstand lethal blows from three directions simultaneously."

Lin Rui threw the cleaning cloth onto the ground and said in a deep voice: "Right, we can't fight a head-on 3v3; there's no chance that way. We must break the 3v3 into a 3v2 plus a 3v1, or better yet, break it into three 3v1s."

"Then we have to split the battlefield." Hu Jinsi rubbed his chin, his eyes scanning Lin Rui's and Su Wan's faces, "We do it like this..."

The three huddled together, their voices kept extremely low. The candlelight flickered, casting their shadows onto the stone walls of the tower like a group of Defias bandits plotting a rebellion. The specific plan wasn't spoken aloud, only a few words popped out occasionally— "tripwire," "pit," "mist," "Charge," "Roll"—colliding in the air.

Su Wan's eyes grew brighter and brighter, Lin Rui nodded repeatedly, and Hu Jinsi drew a sketch on his notebook that only he could understand, then tore it off and burned it.

"Let's do it." He made the final decision.

...Early the next morning, before the morning mist had dissipated from the forest, the three pushed out their bicycles.

Hu Jinsi's mountain bike was in bad shape—it had been dropped on the roadside too many times while luring monsters yesterday; the chain was loose, the handlebars were crooked by fifteen degrees, and it creaked when ridden, like an aged packhorse. He muttered while pedaling: "I'll have to spend money on repairs when I get back... Maybe I should ask Chen Yu in our class; does a Mechanic offer bicycle repair services? At least it could save some money."

"You saving on the number of times you crash the bike would be better than anything else." Su Wan overtook him, her ponytail whipping in the wind.

The three sped along the forest path, arriving at the east side of Blackwell Farm in less than half an hour. The solitary cabin stood at the end of the field ridge, doors and windows tightly shut, like a silent tumor.

Taking the front door of the cabin as the 12 o'clock position, Lin Rui took out his enchanted engineer's shovel, and [Tactical Fortifications (Simple)] was activated at full power. As the soil flew, a two-meter-deep cylindrical pit appeared at the 6, 3, and 9 o'clock positions, with sharpened wooden stakes slanted at the bottom of the pits. Subsequently, he quickly set up two tripwires twenty centimeters off the ground at the 2, 4, and 5 o'clock positions, covering the ropes with dead leaves and loose soil, leaving only a barely visible outline.

"The door is so narrow," Lin Rui said, leaning on his shovel and panting, "It's impossible for three people to rush out at the same time. If the warrior with the heavy weapon shows their head first, lure them to the tripwire at 4 o'clock; if the rogue holding dual daggers pops out first, drive them to the pits at 6 or 9 o'clock. The warlock has short legs and will definitely shrink to the back; it's impossible for them to be the first to rush out."

"Elite monsters aren't as stupid as boars; I hope the plan goes smoothly." Su Wan was a bit worried.

"If they don't come out, even better; we'll just blow them to death." Hu Jinsi squatted down to check the tension of the tripwires, a faint smile on his lips that made people's hair stand on end, "We'll know when the time comes."

Pre-battle preparations were complete, and Lin Rui began changing his gear. That second-hand heavy armor made another appearance, the scratches on the armor plates gleaming with a weathered light in the morning sun. He pulled the red linen mask over his head, revealing only a pair of steady eyes. But this time, his hands were empty; he held no tower shield and clutched no spear.

"Where are your weapons?" Su Wan asked.

Lin Rui slowly drew [rixats elegy] from his backpack, the faint blue sword light reflecting through the hole in his mask. He glared fiercely at Hu Jinsi, holding the short sword up in front of him: "I finally managed to clean it last night so there wasn't a trace of smell. Today—don't stab into strange places again, understand?"

Hu Jinsi took the short sword and shrugged indifferently: "Tch, you say that as if you were so high and mighty yesterday. Comrade 'Stab the Director,' we're both the same."

"Can you two be serious for one minute?" Su Wan covered her forehead, but the corners of her mouth were curling up.

"Ready." Lin Rui stepped back a few paces, pulling a long-handled grenade from his waist with each hand, his fingers hooked into the pull rings. He glanced at Su Wan. Su Wan was already clutching the Fog Cloud scroll tightly, her fingertips white, but her gaze was focused.

Lin Rui took a deep breath, his arms swinging around simultaneously— "Here you go!"

The two grenades traced an arc, accurately smashing through the cabin's window and falling inside. "Boom! Boom!" The muffled sounds of the explosions burst from inside the house, firelight gushing out from the window gaps and door cracks, and the shockwave shook the entire wooden house. Almost at the same time, Su Wan tore open the scroll—

Thick white magical mist instantly gushed out from the scroll, swallowing the ten-meter area around the cabin's front door like a living thing. The gale stirred up by the grenades failed to blow away this magical mist; instead, it made the mist Roll even more violently.

The moment the explosion sounded, Lin Rui had already activated [Tactical Roll], his heavy armor carrying him as he rolled rumblingly to behind the tripwire at the 4 o'clock position. The instant the Roll ended, he pulled out his standard-issue rifle from his backpack and pulled the trigger toward the direction of the cabin door in his memory.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The sounds of blind gunfire echoed through the farm, bullets drilling into the mist with muffled thuds into wood. This wasn't for damage, but to indicate direction—to tell the enemies inside the house that there was someone in this direction.

Following closely, footsteps came from the direction of the cabin.

The first figure to rush out of the thick fog was indeed not the warlock. It was a sturdy man clad in chainmail, holding a two-handed greatsword, his eyes bloodshot beneath his mask. He was clearly dazed from the grenade explosions, but his combat instincts remained; the moment he rushed out of the mist, he locked onto the seemingly most vulnerable Su Wan—the slender figure standing at the very front holding a lyre.

"Charge!" The enemy let out a muffled roar, dragging his greatsword behind him, and strode toward Su Wan.

Su Wan stood her ground; instead of retreating, she smiled. That smile carried the certainty of "just as expected." She tapped her toes, sliding backward lightly for two meters, while the lyre emitted a short glissando—that was the signal to execute Plan B.

The enemy rushed to about five meters in front of the position where Su Wan had originally stood, when suddenly his footing gave way—the tripwire twenty centimeters off the ground tightened instantly, wrapping tightly around his ankle. The momentum of his high-speed Charge caused him to tumble forward like a cannonball, his two-handed greatsword flying out of his hand and slamming heavily into the mud.

"Nice!" Lin Rui's roar came from the side. [Charge] activated! The soil exploded under Lin Rui's feet, and clad in heavy armor, he was like a rusty cannonball, closing the ten-meter distance in an instant. He didn't use his tower shield; instead, directly borrowing the momentum of the Charge, he launched himself into the air, slamming onto the fallen enemy like Mount Tai!

"Bang!" With the heavy armor plus the weight of an adult male, combined with the kinetic energy from the Charge, the power of this impact was no less than a direct strike from a warhammer. The enemy's chest cavity was crushed, he spat a mouthful of blood from under his mask, and his limbs struggled wildly in the mud, but he couldn't lift the "iron can" off his body at all.

"Jinsi!" Lin Rui squeezed the signal out through his teeth. "Received!"

Hu Jinsi had long been lying in ambush at the edge of the pit at the 6 o'clock position. The moment he heard the signal, he activated [Roll]! His body, like a kicked ball, rolled rapidly across the ground for three meters, precisely cutting into the enemy's side. As he stood up, [rixats elegy] was already thrust out, the dark blue sword light stabbing directly at the opponent's neck exposed outside the mask.

That elite was worthy of being an elite. Even though he was pinned down tightly by Lin Rui and unable to dodge, the muscles in his neck still instinctively contracted. The sword blade grazed past his Adam's apple, leaving only a bloodstain on his face deep enough to see bone.

[-12]

"Damn it!" Hu Jinsi cursed under his breath, and without hesitation, he activated [Flurry of Blows], consuming 1 point of Chi. His left hand struck out with two rapid punches, aiming at the opponent's nose bridge and Adam's apple!

[-5] [-8]

The damage wasn't high, but the continuous Heavy Strikes completely disrupted the opponent's breathing rhythm. The warrior elite had originally been trying to use his knees to push Lin Rui off, but after being hit by these two punches, his vision went black, and his struggling strength noticeably weakened.

He furiously tried to strike at Hu Jinsi with his dagger through Lin Rui's body. But Lin Rui was like a welded iron plate, firmly pinning his upper body, making his attack angle extremely awkward. Although the attacks were fierce, they lacked any accuracy and were easily dodged by Hu Jinsi with a slight sidestep.

[Combat Reflexes] triggered!

Hu Jinsi concentrated his energy. The moment the opponent's attack missed, a wide opening appeared. He kicked out with his right leg like lightning, the first kick precisely striking the opponent's right wrist, and the second kick following closely behind, striking the inside of the elbow joint!

"Snap!" The crisp sound of a bone dislocation. The warrior elite's right arm hung down limply, the spare dagger in his hand flew out of his grasp, and he completely lost the ability to resist.

The next ten seconds turned into a one-sided execution. Disregarding his stamina consumption, Hu Jinsi rained down punches, kicks, knees, and elbows like a torrential storm onto the opponent's head and neck vitals. Meanwhile, Lin Rui used his entire body weight to pin the opponent's torso and left leg, not giving him any chance to turn over.

Ten seconds later, the warrior elite turned into points of light and dissipated.

"First one!" Hu Jinsi panted as he straightened up. Before he could even wipe off his sweat, a second figure appeared in the dense fog.

It was a thin figure, also wearing a red mask, but holding two poisoned daggers in his hands. His chainmail was covered in scorch marks and mud from the explosion, and his right leg had a slight limp—clearly, he had stepped into a pit in the dense fog. Although he hadn't fallen in completely, he had been badly injured by the wooden stakes at the bottom of the pit.

"Rogue!" Lin Rui scrambled up from the ground, his heavy armor making clanking sounds.

From their long-distance observations yesterday, the three of them had suspected that this guy holding dual daggers was a Rogue class. Based on the general understanding of Rogues—they never attack head-on and always prefer to stealth and flank—the squad had specifically set up the remaining tripwires and pits on the flanks and in the rear.

Sure enough, when the Rogue saw the three of them, he didn't Charge immediately, but instead coldly stepped back half a pace. His form flickered, and he vanished into thin air within the mist.

Stealth!

"He's flanking!" Su Wan retreated quickly while holding her lyre, her fingers already pressed onto the strings.

But the mist exposed the Rogue's trail. The magic-created dense fog was not a uniform blank space. When that transparent silhouette moved through the fog, the airflow was disturbed, and the mist parted to both sides like water ripples, leaving a visible trail that pointed directly to Su Wan's side and rear.

"Plan C!" Hu Jinsi roared, and [Roll] was activated again!

His body rolled rapidly along the meadow, precisely intercepting the Rogue's path. The moment the Roll ended, he planted one foot on the ground and sank his Chi into his Dantian—

[Spinning Crane Kick, activate!]

Using his left foot as an axis, Hu Jinsi's body spun violently. The shadows of his legs turned into a blurry arc, and the whirlwind created by his energy tore at the surrounding fog, making it churn endlessly. The Rogue had just snuck to within three meters behind Su Wan when he was struck on the shoulder by this sudden whirlwind kick. His stealth state was instantly broken, and his form twisted and appeared in the air!

"#￥%" The Rogue cursed hoarsely, attempting to Roll to the side to escape.

But Su Wan's lyre music had already sounded—

[Tashas Hideous Laughter]!

The playful melody accurately struck the Rogue's consciousness. The thin body stiffened, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably pulled upward, and he let out a series of cackling, strange laughs. The entire person fell into a four-second state of uncontrollable laughter, and he couldn't even hold the dagger in his hand steady.

Hu Jinsi didn't stop. The Spinning Crane Kick lasted for three seconds, one circle per second. Caught in the fits of laughter, the Rogue was unable to dodge at all and took the full three seconds of consecutive kicks. By the time the laughter ended, the Rogue was left with only one dagger in his hand.

And Lin Rui had arrived.

Without [Charge], he simply lunged forward, wrapped his arms around, and once again staged that familiar wrestling lock. But this time, the opponent was much thinner than the previous warrior and significantly weaker in strength. As Lin Rui's heavy armor pressed down, the Rogue was like a monkey pinned under the Mountain of Five Elements, kicking his limbs frantically but unable to break free at all.

"It's over!" Lin Rui growled.

The three seconds of the Spinning Crane Kick ended, and Hu Jinsi stumbled to a stop, his vision starting to fill with snowflakes again. He resisted the dizziness, braced his knees, and panted a couple of times before walking shakily to the front of the Rogue.

"Ugh... ugh." The Rogue was pinned tightly, his voice distorted with terror beneath the mask.

"Don't worry, it'll be quick." Hu Jinsi said with a hoarse voice, raising his short sword, "I'll be steady this time."

Ten seconds later, the Rogue turned into points of light and dissipated.

The dense fog gradually cleared. At the entrance of the cabin, the battle had turned from 3v3 to 3v1.

Surprisingly, the female Warlock never left the cabin. Even though the room had been bombed by grenades, and even though her two melee companions had already fallen in battle, she still stood in the shadows inside the door, accompanied by a small, bright red demon that only reached her knees. Her combat intuition was correct: if all three of them didn't come out, the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad really couldn't do much about a closed room.

But now, facing the combined force of the three, she had no hope left.

The three did not rush in; instead, they stayed in the blind spots of the doors and windows, constantly harassing her with throwing knives and crossbow bolts. The Warlock tried to step out to counterattack with [Shadow Bolt], but every time she peeked out, she was forced back by Lin Rui's spear. She dared not step out of the doorway, and the three of them simply refused to enter the room, only patrolling on both sides of the entrance.

"A Warlock is not a Mage," Hu Jinsi said, squatting at the base of the wall, educating Lin Rui and Su Wan—actually, it was knowledge he had brought from his previous life's game, but he packaged it as a deduction when he spoke, "She doesn't have tracking skills like [Magic Missile] or Arcane Missiles. As long as we cut off her line of sight, she can't lock onto us."

"Then we'll wear her down." Lin Rui held his rifle, firing a shot before pulling back behind the wall.

It took an additional five minutes—the three of them were cautious, never greedy for hits, preferring to grind it out slowly—before the Warlock finally turned into points of light with a cry of frustration. The small demon beside her popped into black smoke with a "puff" sound.

The battle at Blackwell Farm was completely over.

The three slumped onto the steps in front of the cabin, gasping for air. Lin Rui's heavy armor was soaked through with sweat, and the inner layer of his cloth clothing could be wrung out. Su Wan's lyre strings were stained with dew, and her fingers were trembling slightly. Hu Jinsi was still fighting the aftereffects of the [Spinning Crane Kick], seeing everything in double vision.

"Clean up... the battlefield." Hu Jinsi waved his hand weakly.

The loot flickered in the points of light inside the room and at the entrance. The three forced themselves to gather their strength and began to count.

[Blueprint: Bronze Gem Gloves]—vendor trash.

[Recipe: Swiftness Potion]—vendor trash worth a lot of money.

[Pattern: Red Linen Tunic]—cheap vendor trash.

[Skill Stone: Honorary Counterattack]—After blocking or parrying an attack, the next weapon attack deals additional damage and has a certain chance to taunt the target.

[Skill Stone: Summon Lesser Demon (Ethereal Imp)]—Summons an Ethereal Imp from the Twisting Nether, which knows the Curse of Weakness.

"Two Skill Stones!" Hu Jinsi's voice suddenly rose, "Big drop!"

"[Honorary Counterattack]," Su Wan said, holding the blood-colored gemstone and pondering, "Lin Rui, both you and Jinsi can use this. But Lin Rui, you already took a [Charge] skill stone last week, and you were allocated the necklace this week, which is equivalent to you taking most of the squad's income. If you want this one too, you have to pay money into the squad's public funds to make up for the deficit. If Jinsi wants it..."

"I don't want it." Hu Jinsi waved his hand, looking disgusted, "Taunt skills don't fit a Monk like me. Give it to Lin Rui; you're the main tank now, so taunt is perfect."

"Alright." Lin Rui agreed readily, "After we get back and appraise it, I'll transfer the money to the public account immediately."

"As for this [Summon Lesser Demon]..." Hu Jinsi held the other skill stone up to the sunlight; black flames seemed to be flowing inside the gem, "I hope Miss Sun Yao can give a good price. Whether we eat meat or chaff next week depends on how generous she is."

...

There is always a strange emptiness after a battle, especially after such an intense one.

The three sat on the steps in front of the cabin, looking at the yellowing pumpkin field in the distance, no one speaking for a while. The intense battle had drained their adrenaline, leaving only exhaustion and a feeling of aimless lightness.

"What's next?" Hu Jinsi broke the silence first, leaning against the door frame with his long staff across his knees, "For the remaining time, shall we go to Stone Cairn Lake to find those Murlocs that can cast spells? Or should we look in a direction we haven't been to yet?"

Lin Rui lifted the visor of his heavy armor, revealing his sweaty face. He looked toward the west, his eyes gradually focusing: "Let's go to the west side of Goldshire. Both Nature Squad and Pear Garden Squad have mentioned that there is a group of Gnolls over there. Since they can handle it, it should be within our capabilities too. It's been three weeks; it's time to go and see."

"Gnolls?" Su Wan raised an eyebrow, "The ones Yi Chun and the others mentioned?"

"Yes." Lin Rui nodded, "Let's go."

The three didn't delay any longer, pushed out their bicycles, and rode along the gravel road on the west side of the farm toward Goldshire, then turned west. The morning sunlight shone through the canopy, casting mottled light spots on the road. Hu Jinsi's creaky, broken bike barely kept up behind, the chain letting out a dying groan with every turn.

At ten in the morning, they arrived near their destination.

In the woods to the left of the road, a large number of Gnolls were wandering. Those creatures had wolf-like heads and hunched humanoid bodies, with fur colors ranging from grayish-brown to dark yellow. Some were barely covered, wearing only a few tattered rags and carrying sharpened wooden sticks in their hands; others, however, wore well-crafted leather armor, with short swords and slings hanging from their waists—the gap in equipment was so large it was like two different species.

But whether rich or poor, they all uniformly emitted a body odor so strong it was suffocating—like rotting leather mixed with aged foot sweat, topped off with a ladle of spoiled meat broth. From nearly a hundred meters away, the three on the road felt their nasal cavities were under a biochemical attack.

Su Wan endured the discomfort of the smell, but still turned to look at Lin Rui, smiling teasingly: "Facing these Gnolls, do you still intend to implement your wrestler tactics? We are very much looking forward to seeing the effect of you engaging in close-quarters combat with these guys who don't bathe. The only requirement is—just keep your distance from us at night."

Lin Rui didn't respond, just rolled his eyes, and expressionlessly pulled his mask back down, blocking out some of the smell. His muffled voice came from behind the cloth: "What I'm actually more curious about is how Miss Sun Yao commanded her summons to attack these Gnolls. Logically speaking, last time in the Blood Moor, the hounds she summoned were disgusted by the zombies. Facing these guys, how could those summon-babies bring themselves to bite?"

"Maybe the [Dire Rat] isn't picky?" Hu Jinsi interjected from the side, then waved his hand, "Alright, let's talk business—how do we fight? Which plan?"

Lin Rui pulled his rifle out of his backpack, checked the magazine, and touched the short sword at his waist and the round shield on his back. Looking at the Gnolls getting closer and closer, his voice became steady:

"Standard plan. Facing these guys, I really can't bring myself to play mud-wrestling games with them. Besides, the tallest Gnoll only reaches my chest; their center of gravity is too low, making grappling awkward."

He paused, a glint of eagerness igniting in his eyes: "It just so happens that I've newly acquired equipment and skills from this dungeon. I also want to test just how strong I am in a normal combat situation."

Hu Jinsi and Su Wan exchanged a look, seeing only resignation and relief in each other's expressions.

"Then standard plan." Hu Jinsi shouldered his long staff and put his bicycle back into his backpack, "Team Leader Lin takes the lead, I'll flank, and Su Wan controls the field. Old rules—"

"Survival first." The three said in unison.

The morning breeze blew through the woods, bringing another wave of the rich scent of Gnolls. The three figures disappeared into the forest by the side of the road, slowly approaching their prey.