165: Chapter 165 Trapped

"What a pity, what a pity. It managed to break free. Otherwise, after killing it, we might have gotten another two green items." Hu Gualing watched the Red-haired Wild Boar outside the corridor with a face full of helplessness as he put away the extremely difficult-to-use fearless fangs. Looking back, he saw Xiao Niao just putting down his bow; he must have been aiming just now and didn't have time to shoot.

However, even if he had shot and hit that Red-haired Wild Boar just now, he wouldn't have been able to kill it. After all, it was more or less an elite monster. Even if it wasn't as sturdy as a Fearless Black Wild Boar, it still had over two hundred health points. So, Hu Gualing didn't care that Xiao Niao hadn't fired that arrow, but another matter needed to be properly addressed.

Hu Gualing walked up to Xiao Niao and scrutinized the bow he had put down but hadn't yet stowed away. He stared until Xiao Niao lowered his head, his face flushing red with embarrassment, before finally speaking: "Takanashi Toka?"

"It's just something people called me for fun when playing games before, just for fun..." Xiao Niao said sheepishly, his voice as low as the buzzing of a mosquito.

Hu Gualing snorted. "To think I actually believed your nonsense and thought you were some top-tier pro player, letting you handle pulling the mobs. Who would've thought this is how you 'pull' them? There were five wild boars in total, and you pulled all five of them over, didn't you?" Hu Gualing pointed angrily at the five wild boars that had yet to leave the area outside the corridor.

It wasn't surprising that Hu Gualing was so angry. Before Xiao Niao shot his arrow, he had advised him, suggesting they should just take a long detour around the pack of boars. It was Xiao Niao who had insisted with a firm attitude that pulling mobs was a trivial matter for him. As a result, this pull... ended up drawing every single monster over. It was a complete failure.

Xiao Niao also knew he was in the wrong. If they hadn't happened upon this corridor, they likely wouldn't have escaped the fate of being wiped out. So, with a very apologetic attitude, he explained: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But... I really rarely failed at pulling mobs in those previous games. It's just that I'm not quite used to things here, and I was a bit nervous just now, so my hand shook a little. That's why I made a mistake... But don't worry, next time..."

Before Xiao Niao could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Hu Gualing and Tang Yao in unison.

"You actually want a next time?"

"Forget it, just stick to being carried."

"Actually, I think Xiao Niao is quite impressive. Even with a shaky hand, he could shoot so accurately that a single arrow pulled every monster over."

"Nice shot. Don't shoot again next time."

"..."

Listening to Gualing and Tang Yao's back-and-forth banter, Xiao Niao silently put away his bow and arrows. He secretly made up his mind that he must practice his Archery.

Although he hadn't gained any experience for half the day, aside from the previous stroke of luck where he got the kill on that Black Wild Boar and earned over two hundred combat experience points, he knew that one could also gain skill experience outside the game, though it required spending game points...

While Xiao Niao was secretly planning how to become stronger, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao fixed their gazes outside the corridor.

They saw that the Red-haired Wild Boar, after pulling its head out from the corridor entrance, did not leave. Instead, it found a rock not far away and lay down. The other four ordinary wild boars also stood guard nearby, staring intently at the corridor with their pig eyes.

Hu Gualing frowned and said, "Could it be that these wild boars aren't going to leave?"

Tang Yao didn't seem to care much as she said, "Let's wait a bit longer. Maybe if they see we aren't coming out, they'll wander off on their own." After saying that, she began to stroll around the corridor, leading the Sharp-toothed Piglet.

After waiting for a good while, they saw that the Red-haired Wild Boar's lost health had slowly recovered to full. The health bar that had appeared above its head due to the injury also faded away, yet it still showed no sign of leaving.

Hu Gualing's frown deepened. Usually, it was players camping and waiting for monsters to respawn; when did monsters ever block players inside a cave so they couldn't even get out?

A look of worry also appeared on Xiao Niao's face. Logically, as the only player in the party with long-range attack capabilities, he should be happy to encounter such a situation. Because of the obstruction of the narrow corridor entrance, those boars with small heads and wide bodies couldn't get in, while he could shoot arrows from inside the corridor. But on second thought, he only had eight arrows left in his quiver. Even with a 100% hit rate, if all of them hit that Red-haired Wild Boar, it would be difficult to even take its health down by half. There was simply no possibility of a kill!

As for hoping to scare the wild boars away with these few arrows, Xiao Niao also felt it was unlikely. Because that Black Wild Boar from before hadn't been scared off even when its face was shot to pieces; instead, it had charged at him even more furiously. Although that was partly because the Black Wild Boar had the 'Fearless' prefix, this Red-haired Wild Boar outside the corridor also had an 'Irritable' prefix. He guessed that an Irritable one wouldn't be much easier to deal with than a Fearless one. So Xiao Niao thought it was better not to draw aggro; otherwise, if the wild boars got angry and held a grudge, camping outside and refusing to leave, it would be a problem if they stayed hidden in the corridor forever.

Xiao Niao sighed and said with a hint of complaint, "Just how long are they going to keep guard?"

Hu Gualing, still resenting Xiao Niao's feat of pulling five monsters with one arrow, said crossly, "Don't ask me. You're the one who pulled the pigs; go ask the pigs."

"..."

Tang Yao walked over, leading Sharp Tooth. "Gualing, don't be so petty. Although these wild boars were pulled by Xiao Niao, he was also the one who discovered this corridor, wasn't he? It's a wash between his merits and mistakes."

Xiao Niao nodded repeatedly. "Right, right, right."

Hu Gualing: "What's there to be proud of for finding a corridor? If you ask me, rather than being camped here by a group of monsters like we're being corpse-camped, it would be better to die early and get a Resurrection. Coming back out from the village would be better than wasting time here."

Tang Yao smiled. "How is this a waste of time?"

Hu Gualing said without thinking, "We're blocked in here by wild boars and don't know when we can get out. If they can guard for ten days or half a month, are we going to stay here for ten days or half a month? Our game time is very precious, and a single day... not even a single day can be wasted." Actually, what he wanted to say at the end was that they could only play for six hours a day, but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly realized Tang Yao's special situation and quickly changed his tune.

Tang Yao smiled and said, "We finally managed to get in, so why would we want to go out?"

"Hmm?" No matter how careless Hu Gualing was, seeing Tang Yao's happy expression, he sensed something was off. "Did you discover something?"

Tang Yao stopped pretending and said excitedly, "Of course! I walked further inside just now and discovered there's actually a cave at the very end!"

"A cave!?"

Hearing this, both Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao were shocked.

Hu Gualing asked urgently, "For real? Aren't we already in a cave? There's another cave inside?"

"Gualing, are you stupid? The place we're in now isn't called a cave, it's a corridor!" Xiao Niao also held a grudge against Hu Gualing's pettiness, and finally found a chance to score a point back. However, he also harbored doubts about the cave Tang Yao mentioned.

Xiao Niao frowned and looked at Tang Yao. "You're saying that inside this corridor, there's another cave? How could there be such a coincidence..."

This corridor was naturally formed by two mountains happening to lean against each other. It just so happened that sedimentation didn't connect the bases of the mountains, and it just so happened that a corridor just wide enough for a person to pass through was left between the two mountains. This was already extremely coincidental. To say there was another cave inside this corridor? Xiao Niao found it very hard to believe.

Tang Yao: "So what if it's a coincidence? It's a game; no matter how coincidental something is, it's possible."

"!!!"

Xiao Niao and Hu Gualing suddenly understood.

That was indeed the case!

In order to improve playability and create unexpected surprises for players, it was normal for games to intentionally design extremely rare events. Events that seemed almost impossible in reality might be easily encountered in a game.

Thinking this way, Xiao Niao and Hu Gualing mostly believed in the cave Tang Yao mentioned and couldn't help but get excited.

"Let's go, let's go, quickly take us to see this cave."