94: Chapter 94: The trash can lid is the starting weapon for many heroes.

Another three waves of blocking enemies fell at their feet.

Hu Jinsi shook the blood off his fists and looked up.

Standing ahead was a giant warehouse; its grey-white concrete exterior walls looked particularly gloomy in the twilight, with mottled graffiti and faded job advertisements on the walls witnessing the decay of this city.

The warehouse gate was tightly shut, and next to it was an external freight elevator, its iron frame rusted and extending all the way to the roof.

Seeing this giant warehouse, the three of them knew they had completed one-third of the first stage's journey.

So far, it was going smoothly.

Compared to their usual lunchtime, it was a bit late now.

The three did not approach the freight elevator; according to the guide, once they got within a certain range of the elevator, a new round of combat would be triggered immediately.

They chose to stop about five hundred meters away from the freight elevator, found a hidden corner, and began to organize the loot collected along the way.

It was lunchtime.

Lunch was two burgers and a portion of fries per person.

The buns were baked golden and fluffy, the patties were thick and juicy, and they were piled high with fresh vegetables and rich cheese sauce.

Su Wan looked at the substantial burger in her hand and frowned; she clearly couldn't eat that much.

"Help me finish one." She handed one of the burgers to Lin Rui.

Lin Rui took it without hesitation and stuffed it into his mouth in a few bites.

His heavy load caused his consumption to be astonishing; this little bit of food couldn't even serve as a snack for him.

Unfortunately, these thugs didn't drop Happy Water.

Hu Jinsi searched through the loot but couldn't find a single bottle of carbonated drink.

He didn't know the reason, perhaps the dungeon hadn't secured a naming rights sponsor or advertiser.

In any case, all that dropped along the way was beer and hard liquor; there wasn't a single bottle of Happy Water.

Hu Jinsi and the others had to use the reserves in their backpacks.

The three of them each took out a bottle of ice-cold Happy Water, twisted off the caps, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and then washed down the burgers and fries.

"Mmm-hmm." Hu Jinsi took a big bite of the burger, looking thoroughly satisfied. "Pear Garden Squad wasn't wrong about this; these burgers are much better than what Silver Arch sells."

Su Wan rolled her eyes at him and retorted, "The calorie count is also clearly much higher than Silver Arch's. Look at this layer of sauce, it's almost as thick as the patty. How many calories are in this meal?"

"What's the problem with that?" Hu Jinsi waved his hand dismissively. "Our combat intensity is so high, we could burn off twice as many calories. On the contrary, once this dungeon breaks, we might never be able to eat these delicious foods again."

Su Wan thought about it.

Although Hu Jinsi's argument sounded a bit like sophistry, it made sense.

The food in the dungeon existed independently; once the dungeon broke, these unique flavors would truly disappear forever.

There was no point in worrying about calories; she might as well eat to her heart's content.

She stopped talking nonsense and began to gobble it down.

While Su Wan was still focused on her burger, Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui began to tally the loot from the journey.

There wasn't much that caught their eyes.

Most of the weapons were white or grey quality with mediocre attributes; they could only be taken back to trade for some Credits.

They had collected quite a bit of food; the burgers, fries, and tacos were enough for several meals.

However, there was one item that made their eyes darken.

Hu Jinsi pulled a rusty round iron lid from his backpack and handed it to Lin Rui.

The iron lid was about half a meter in diameter, its edges slightly curled, and the surface was covered in scratch marks and uneven rust spots, with a simple leather strap handle welded to the front.

Holding it, one could still smell a faint sour, rotten odor.

[swill lid]

[Type: Light Shield]

[Defense Bonus: +2]

[Stench Eruption: Whenever you successfully use this shield to Block or attack a target, it triggers the foul air accumulated inside the shield, causing it to erupt violently in a 120-degree cone area directly in front of the shield.

All creatures within this area have a high probability of falling into a state of olfactory paralysis, lasting for one minute.

During this time, the affected creatures' sense of smell is completely overwhelmed by the stench, unable to perceive any other scents through smell, and all perception checks relying on smell automatically fail. This effect triggers once per minute.]

[Item Description: A round iron lid taken from an overturned trash can on a street corner, with slightly curled edges and scratch marks and uneven rust spots remaining on the surface.

A simple leather strap handle is welded to the front, and holding it, one can still smell a faint sour, rotten odor.

Although its origin is humble, this iron lid is sturdy enough to Block ordinary knife slashes and club strikes.]

Lin Rui stared at this piece of equipment with a complex expression.

Seeing Lin Rui struggling there, Hu Jinsi offered his advice.

"I think you should at least give this [swill lid] a chance. The enemy bosses in this dungeon are all martial artists with keen senses; this shield might have some unexpected effects on them to a certain extent."

He paused and continued, "If you think it looks bad or is embarrassing, you don't have to use it outside the dungeon; just use it within this dungeon to deal with these specific bosses."

Lin Rui was still hesitant, his brow furrowed so tightly it could pinch a mosquito to death.

Seeing this, Hu Jinsi persisted.

"Don't underestimate a trash can lid. Do you know how many impoverished children used it as their first shield in life? How many heroes used it as their first shield at the beginning of their hero's journey!" He patted Lin Rui's shoulder with feigned depth. "Let go of your prejudice and embrace your fear."

Lin Rui was getting impatient with his nagging and waved his hand to shoo Hu Jinsi away.

"Alright, alright, just let me be alone for a moment."

He took the [swill lid] and walked to the side to think.

Hu Jinsi shrugged and stopped bothering him.

After a while, Su Wan finally finished the remaining burger in her hand.

She wiped her mouth, stood up, and stretched her limbs.

The three prepared to continue the journey of this stage.

Although they knew that the time outside the dungeon was only noon, the sky inside the dungeon had already turned completely dark.

Night had shrouded the entire city, and the neon Lights on the streets were the only source of Light.

Such an environment began to affect the three's state more or less, especially considering there would be a battle on the rooftop later; the darkness would severely affect their vision and judgment.

Su Wan cast [Light] on herself and Lin Rui in advance.

A pale white Light emanated from the two of them, illuminating a range of over ten meters around them.

Hu Jinsi didn't need it; his [blind fighting headband] allowed him to maintain clear vision even in the dark.

The squad arrived at the freight elevator door of the giant warehouse.

The next battle was a classic elevator door defense.

Above the elevator door was a rusty indicator Light, which was currently flashing red, indicating that enemies were descending from above.

According to the guide, every wave of enemies would swarm out from the elevator, attempting to drive the intruders out of the warehouse.

The three members of the squad did not intend to enter the elevator to play the classic "elevator war god" scenario.

The feeling of being attacked from both front and back in such a narrow space was too uncomfortable.

They preferred to guard outside the elevator door, playing the "shut the door and beat the dog" tactic; if one enemy came out, they would beat one, and if two came out, they would beat the pair.

Every time a new batch of thugs appeared the moment the elevator door opened, they were met head-on with the three's swords, spears, and clubs.

In the first few rounds, although Su Wan was participating, it was clear that the only weapon she could use was the hand crossbow in her hand.

The bowstring hummed, and the crossbow bolt shot out; although it could cause a certain amount of damage, compared to the two melee maniacs beside her, the efficiency was far too low.

Therefore, the main content of this recreational activity was monopolized by Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui.

Whenever this happened, Su Wan would always complain.

"Bards are truly the short ones among spellcasters! Even [Grease] isn't in the spell list; can this even be considered a spellcaster?"

Hu Jinsi heard her and retorted, "There's a variant class under the Monk system called Arcane Hand that can only cast up to third-level spells; isn't that even more miserable? It's hard enough that a spellcaster-like existence appeared among Monks, and it only has the power of the third level."

Su Wan hummed, and stopped talking.

Unable to cast [Grease] to get some malicious fun, Su Wan suddenly thought of a new way to entertain herself.

She borrowed the [swill lid] that made Lin Rui struggle from him.

Fortunately, this shield was also a Light shield, still within Su Wan's grasp, so she could barely use it.

Su Wan took out a mask, a facekini, and a simple gas mask from her backpack, layering them on to cover herself tightly.

Then, holding the [swill lid], she swaggered over and blocked the elevator entrance.

The elevator door opened again, and a new round of enemies was about to swarm out.

Su Wan immediately raised the shield and, while those thugs hadn't reacted yet, lightly patted them with the shield.

This pat triggered the special effect of the [swill lid]; the foul air that had been accumulated for a long time erupted violently from the front of the shield, forming a 120-degree cone-shaped blast of air.

The smell... was simply indescribable.

Rotten food scraps, fermented kitchen waste, spoiled Grease—various foul-smelling components mixed together, instantly reaching peak concentration in the confined space of the elevator.

The enemies affected by the stench rolled their eyes on the spot, covering their noses and throats while dry heaving in pain; not one of them could walk out of the elevator standing straight.

They all switched from standing to crawling, trying to escape this toxic gas zone.

And Su Wan, having tasted the fun, imitated Lin Rui's Shield Bash stance, using the shield to drive them back into the elevator one by one.

Whoever tried to crawl out, she would pat them back with the shield, incidentally triggering the Stench Eruption again.

Those thugs were so dazed by the smell that they didn't even have the strength to stand steady, let alone resist.

Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui on the side, facing such a situation, could only take out their long weapons, iron rods and harpoon spears, and poke at those poor enemies from the outside.

Su Wan was responsible for keeping the people inside the elevator, and the two of them were responsible for harvesting on the outside; the division of labor was clear, and the efficiency was extremely high.

Not until this batch of enemies all turned into points of Light and disappeared did Su Wan stop her recreational activity with some fatigue, returning the [swill lid] to Lin Rui.

"Here, it's quite useful."

But the after-effect of this [swill lid] was clearly a bit strong.

After a while, the elevator doors opened again. The three of them had expected another round of fighting and raised their weapons to meet the enemy. But when they looked closely, they saw that all the enemies in the elevator were lying on the ground, unconscious from the stench, foaming at the mouth, unable to even crawl.

Although this indirectly reduced the difficulty of clearing the enemies, the three of them also discovered a new, awkward problem.

They still had to take this elevator up to the top floor in a while.

Obviously, no one suggested taking the elevator up right now. The stench remaining in that enclosed space... they couldn't guarantee how long that smell would linger on them. If it stuck to them and couldn't be washed off, the next seventy-two hours would be unbearable.

With no other choice, the three of them had to keep waiting.

After waiting for twenty minutes, they confirmed that no new thugs would appear from the elevator. However, the smell in the elevator showed no signs of dissipating; instead, it seemed to have seeped into the metal crevices, lingering for a long time.

"It looks like we can't count on the elevator." Hu Jinsi pinched his nose and took a few steps back.

Su Wan sighed and cast [Spider Climb] on herself and Lin Rui. Hu Jinsi had the [lickers leg bind], so he didn't need any additional spell assistance to walk on vertical walls. The three of them went to the outer wall of the warehouse, preparing to climb along the wall to the top floor.

---

Of course, the situation on Lin Rui's side was a bit special.

His heavy armor weighed at least a hundred pounds, and while [Spider Climb] allowed him to walk on walls, the load was too heavy, making every step nerve-wracking. Before stepping onto the outer wall, Lin Rui removed all his equipment—armor, shield, and heavy saber—and stuffed them all back into his backpack.

Hu Jinsi even tied a safety rope between himself and Lin Rui to prevent Lin Rui from falling if his fear of heights caused him to suddenly lose his strength on the wall.

The climbing process was nothing short of torture. Lin Rui lost the ability to move on his own after leaving the ground by less than 5 meters. Hu Jinsi would pull the rope from above, then return to below Lin Rui to push him; with this combination of pulling and pushing, it took an immense amount of effort to finally get Lin Rui to the top floor.

Upon reaching the roof, Lin Rui collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air, drenched in sweat.

Because the method of getting up there hadn't been very friendly to him, Lin Rui clearly needed some time to recover and put his equipment back on. Hu Jinsi could only have Su Wan look after Lin Rui while he himself rushed forward with his iron rod to deal with all the enemies on the roof who appeared to be warehouse workers and thugs.

The good news was that after entering the warehouse building, the enemies' weapons were finally a bit more normal.

The things in their hands were at most common boxes and barrels from the warehouse; there were no more bizarre items like trash cans. Other weapons also became more standard—tetanus daggers were upgraded to short knives, and bicycle chains became iron chains. Although the overall style was still that of a street brawl, at least it was much more pleasing to the eye.

The next combat objective was very clear.

The three of them needed to fight their way from this roof down to the second basement level of the warehouse. The elevator couldn't be used, so they had to fight their way down floor by floor along the stairs.

Although Hu Jinsi, the former "pseudo" God of War of the furniture mall, wasn't too afraid of this kind of indoor chain combat, the number of enemies was simply too high.

Wasn't it said before that the West didn't have this kind of labor-intensive industry? Where did so many enemies in this one warehouse come from? According to Hu Jinsi's estimation, there were at least hundreds of enemies on each floor. And what the hell was with having bikers riding motorcycles inside the warehouse? Did they not want to pass safety inspections!

With them squeezed so tightly together, plus the exhaust fumes from the motorcycles, weren't they afraid of affecting the air quality they breathed?

Due to the overwhelming number of enemies, the trio's progress was severely slowed down.

It wasn't until their watches showed that the time outside the instance was approaching 7:00 PM that they had just fought their way to the first floor of the warehouse. They were clearly still some distance away from Dalton on the second basement level.

"Let's stop here for today." Hu Jinsi looked at his teammates' condition and suggested.

The intense fighting all afternoon had worn the three of them out; their physical stamina was depleted, and they were mentally exhausted. Continuing to fight would only result in lower and lower efficiency, so it was better to rest for the night and fight again tomorrow.

---

Fortunately, they didn't need to prepare dinner themselves.

In the afternoon, quite a few high-calorie foods had dropped, such as donuts, cupcakes, and curry burgers, along with a lot of miscellaneous items. The three of them found a relatively clean corner, spread out a moisture-proof mat, and sat on the floor. Unfortunately, there was still no ice-cold happy water they had been longing for, only some iced coffee. The three of them accepted it readily; it was free food, and it tasted excellent, so what was there to complain about?

While eating, the three of them began to review the day's battles.

Lin Rui spoke first: "Actually, the difficulty of the first stage isn't that high, but the main problem is that, other than Hu Jinsi's [Spinning Crane Kick], our squad lacks stable area-of-effect abilities."

He counted on his fingers as he analyzed: "Although Su Wan's [Shattering Sonic Wave] is area-of-effect damage, it has significant restrictions on usage scenarios. Once the monsters aren't clustered together, the damage is spread too thin. Fortunately, the fighting this afternoon was all indoors, so the damage was still quite impressive. But unfortunately, casting it consumes spell slots, so the sustainability is a bit poor."

"As for me, it's even worse." Lin Rui sighed. "I don't have any large-scale damage abilities. Although if I swing the [sigons saber], I might be able to hit a few monsters if I'm lucky, the efficiency is clearly not high, and the physical effort put in isn't proportional to the damage. Using firearms directly to deal with these small fry, if I use shotgun mode, the cost-effectiveness isn't really worth it."

Regarding this problem, Hu Jinsi was clearly much more optimistic than Lin Rui.

He patted Lin Rui on the shoulder and comforted him: "Think about what this instance is. A natural warehouse for martial arts skills! With so many enemies and bosses, I don't believe none of them have area-of-effect skills!"

"At least standard attack skills like the cyclone kick, similar to [Spinning Crane Kick], I saw the enemies use today; it's just that the corresponding skill stones didn't drop."

Lin Rui said: "I saw that cyclone kick too, but look at my current equipment status. Even if I got that skill, if I could jump thirty centimeters off the ground, that would already be doing justice to this gear."

"That's not a problem." Hu Jinsi waved his hand. "As long as we have gains from this trip, we can just sell the skills we can't use and then buy [Whirlwind], [Cleave], or other melee area-of-effect skills. Aren't those pretty good?"

He paused and continued: "Besides, Soldier isn't a class that necessarily emphasizes melee combat. It's normal that you can't get the Warrior's [Multi-Attack] through your own class. I think instead of obsessing over these issues, you might as well just choose a cheaper shotgun when we go back. The gun you're holding now has high damage, but as a shotgun, it's really not cost-effective."

"Given that your combat is actually mostly melee, there's absolutely no need to pursue multi-purpose firearms. Why not just get a pure shotgun, and after a [Tactical Roll], just like you did against the bikers today, fire right at their chests—that would definitely let them take full damage."

Lin Rui retorted: "I think my current [MS-15 'Steel Nail' Heavy Pistol] is pretty good. High damage, cool look, and it really matches my current vibe and style."

Hu Jinsi knew how difficult it was to persuade a boy to sell his beloved weapon. Therefore, he didn't intend to continue discussing this topic in depth and decided to change the subject first, leaving the rest to Su Wan when there was a chance, letting her slowly wear him down.

Considering there wasn't much else to do today, the three of them decided to get some good rest.

Especially since they needed to adjust their biological clocks. The time schedule inside this instance was completely inverted from the outside; it was daytime outside, but nighttime inside. Although no abnormalities were visible in the short term, lighting would have a subtle influence on human perception, and in the long run, it could easily lead to a decline in judgment and reaction speed.

The night watch activity was much simpler.

The enemies upstairs had been cleared, so here downstairs, they only needed to focus their guard on the door leading below. Although Hu Jinsi had never told the rest of the squad the secret of his talent, they often ran instances together, and Lin Rui and Su Wan had clearly sensed the abnormality in Hu Jinsi's sleep time; his daily sleep time was ridiculously short, yet he remained energetic.

But neither of them brought the issue into the open. After all, everyone had their own secrets.

Therefore, the work of night watch was implicitly left eighty percent to Hu Jinsi. Lin Rui and Su Wan only needed to take turns—one staying up two hours late, the other waking up two hours early—which was much easier.

Nothing happened all night.

Except that the soundproofing of the warehouse wasn't very good, and there were clearly quite a few people's footsteps walking back and forth downstairs, along with the roar of machines running, intermittently reaching their ears. But considering that these were all enemies waiting to be harvested tomorrow, letting them make a fuss for one last night was fine.

The next morning.

For breakfast, the three of them didn't choose to eat anything too greasy, even though there were some burgers and pizzas left over. They chose to boil a pot of hot water, brew a bowl of instant porridge each, and pair it with some Light, small pickles, simply resolving the meal.

Finished tidying up, checked their equipment, and confirmed that their condition was good.

The three of them came to the door leading to the first basement level. Hu Jinsi took a deep breath and reached out to push open the heavy iron door. The door hinges let out a harsh creaking sound, and behind the door were stairs leading into darkness.

They planned to finish the first stage of this instance around noon today.

Hopefully, everything goes smoothly.