3: Chapter 3 Upgrade

Waking from a dream.

Waking up in the early morning, Mo Bai stretched. The air in this forest was exceptionally fresh; he felt refreshed upon waking.

"Mmm, what a beautiful mor—"

Mid-sentence, he suddenly locked eyes with a wild wolf on the ground.

"This... is truly beautiful."

Excited, Mo Bai grabbed a stone and lunged down, fearing the wolf might run away.

"Awoo!"

"A strange wolf, doesn't even run when it sees me."

Seeing that the wild wolf didn't run but instead pounced at him, Mo Bai felt relieved and immediately began to scuffle with it.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

With his increasingly skilled movements, the wild wolf soon died under his stone.

Just before dying, the wolf let out a series of miserable howls, and there seemed to be faint wolf howls responding from afar.

"experience points +15."

"ink box: 59/100."

"A good start."

Having stretched, Mo Bai didn't bother processing the wolf carcass and instead walked directly toward the place where he had set his snares yesterday.

"Chirp! Chirp chirp!"

Before even getting close, Fang Bai heard many bird calls, which grew more frantic as he approached.

"Hey, a Small Green Bird."

Mo Bai walked closer to see a Small Green Bird tied to the hemp rope at the top of a triggered bamboo pole, trying to escape and pulling the rope taut.

"Kind of cute."

Mo Bai grabbed the Small Green Bird and gave his wrist a sharp twist.

*Crack.*

"experience points +1."

"There really are experience points!"

He immediately stopped pitying the little bird, reset the snare, and turned to go to the next snare's location.

However, the next snare wasn't as lucky; it hadn't been triggered at all.

But the third one successfully caught another.

"experience points +1."

The fourth one had one too.

And the fifth one gave Fang Bai a surprise.

He saw a pitch-black Triangular-headed Venomous Snake coiled around the bamboo pole, with a hemp string extending from its mouth.

"This snake ate the bird."

Looking at the venomous snake, Mo Bai felt goosebumps on his back. He found a stone and smashed it to death on the spot.

"experience points +6."

After a round of searching, he had harvested eight birds and one snake, gaining a total of fourteen experience points.

And his total experience points reached seventy-three.

"Still over twenty points short. I wonder if a few more wolves will show up."

Mo Bai opened the forum and looked for a while, finding that no players had reached level one yet.

Although many people posted to share hunting experience, this sort of thing couldn't be learned just by reading text.

"Mmm, come on, a few more wolves. I want to level up."

Mo Bai stretched and muttered to himself, but as soon as he finished speaking, he felt something was wrong.

"Why is it... so quiet?"

Suddenly, the surroundings fell into a dead silence. Even the sounds of insects and birds vanished without a trace, as quiet as a classroom full of chattering students suddenly falling silent during self-study.

The silence was truly heart-palpitating.

And in the very next moment... "Awoo!!!"

Accompanied by a domineering wolf howl, several more howls responded.

"Awoo!" "Awoo!" "Awoo!"

From all directions, continuous and unending!

Mo Bai's heart tightened slightly; judging by the sound, there were at least a dozen wild wolves.

A wolf pack!

"There are quite a lot of them."

He took a deep breath, his whole body tensing up, but there was no fear.

Only a slight nervousness and a bit of excitement as he grabbed a straight wooden stick over a meter long.

The wolf pack didn't keep him waiting long; in the blink of an eye, they appeared before him.

A silver figure flashed by, and an extraordinary wild wolf appeared on the small platform he had built, its narrow wolf eyes staring coldly at Mo Bai.

In front and behind him, one sturdy wild wolf after another emerged from the bushes and bamboo groves, surrounding him in the center.

Mo Bai gripped the long wooden staff he had picked up, his tensed body suddenly lunging toward a gray wolf.

"Awoo!"

The silver Wolf King let out a low growl, and in the next instant, the pack charged all at once.

"Awoo!" "Awoo!" "Awoo!"

The wolves circled Mo Bai. He spun around and poked a wolf attempting a sneak attack with his staff, but in the next moment, wolves pounced from all sides, biting his limbs and pulling him apart.

"Holy sh*t!"

Mo Bai was torn to pieces by the pack, his corpse eaten clean. Even after resurrecting, he died on the spot again, unable to kill even a single wolf.

"This... is tricky."

Having resurrected once and finding the outcome no different, Mo Bai had no choice but to wait for the Wolf King to lead the pack away.

"Leveling up is really hard."

After waiting for about ten minutes and realizing the Wolf King had left with the pack, he resurrected again.

But in the next moment, he heard a wolf howl nearby again.

"Awoo!"

"They're still here?"

Just as Mo Bai was about to go take a look, he heard the pack responding from the distance.

A moment later, Mo Bai was bitten to death by the pack again.

"Is... the wolf pack's desire for revenge this strong?"

Having died yet again, Mo Bai couldn't help but scratch his head, not even daring to resurrect. The frustration was becoming quite unbearable.

He waited for over half an hour before finally resurrecting.

But as soon as he resurrected, he heard another wolf howl in his ear.

"I..."

Within a few minutes, the Wolf King arrived again with the pack.

The result was no different.

An organized wolf pack was like an army, coordinating perfectly and extremely difficult to deal with.

"No, I can't keep wasting time like this. I need to go to a nearby town and buy some tools."

Mo Bai grumbled irritably.

"You guys just wait, see if I don't kill you all!"

Determined, Mo Bai resurrected as soon as the pack left and ran downstream along the river.

In the wild, following a river increases the chance of finding civilization.

Not long after he started running, a wolf howl sounded behind him, but when Mo Bai realized only a lone wolf was chasing him, his eyes lit up.

The moment the wild wolf caught up, he suddenly spun around and threw a stone.

*Bang!*

"Awoo!"

The wild wolf, braking hard, was hit squarely by the stone. In the next instant, it was struck heavily on the waist by the long wooden staff in Mo Bai's hand.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

In just a few moments, the wild wolf was beaten to death on the spot.

"experience points +17!"

"ink box: 90/100."

"Awoo!"

The pack behind immediately became anxious and came charging over.

Seeing that the ink box only needed ten more experience points to level up, Mo Bai didn't want to run anymore.

Turning back, he looked at the leading wild wolf. He gripped the long wooden staff tightly, took a deep breath, and lunged forward with his right leg.

"Kill!"

The long wooden staff in his hand was like a Red-tasseled Spear. As they charged at each other, he thrust it out violently.

*Puchi!*

With terrifying relative speed, the long wooden staff pierced straight through the wild wolf's mouth, pinning it to the spot instantly.

And then, the system notification sounded.

"experience points +17."

"ink box: 100/100."

*Click!*

The moment the ink box's experience points were full, a soft sound echoed in his mind.

*Click click click! Click click click!*

Without any external force, as if an invisible hand were twisting it, the ink box began to rotate on its own.

Rays of light poured from the cracks on it, gradually converging as it rotated, lighting up the strange patterns on the first side one by one.

The moment all the patterns on the first side were lit, the points of light shattered and merged into his mind like a sky full of starlight.

Mo Bai felt his mind clear and cool. As his thoughts turned...

The ink box... moved without any wind!