Chapter 40: The Fortieth Cup

Chapter 40: The Fortieth Cup

The loot dropped by the Spider Woman was quite rich. Apart from a pile of milk tea ingredients and mechanical parts, there was also a formidable spear that ignored defense, a venomous whip with a chance to inflict poisoning debuffs, and a spider silk soft armor that increased its attack power by 3% based on the damage received.

In addition, there was a small vial of venom.

For some reason, the combatants crouching in the bushes all looked uneasy when they saw the vial of venom.

He Wuning found it strange: "Do you guys want this?"

Everyone shook their heads in unison.

He Wuning frowned and bent down to pick up the vial of venom. Everyone immediately stopped him in alarm: "Hey! Wait!"

He Wuning paused and looked up, confused: "What are you doing?"

"You're still young," Cao Wu said, giving him a deep look, and handed him a towel. "Use this to pick it up and put it directly into your backpack."

He Wuning found it odd but didn't refuse his kindness. He picked up the vial of venom and glanced at the description: "A highly toxic neurotoxin that can randomly cause the poisoned person to enter a state of rage or weakness."

Yi Luo curiously stepped behind him and looked at the vial of venom: "Isn't this just a neurotoxin? I thought it was something improper."

"Haha." Cao Wu laughed dryly. "Don't talk nonsense."

He Wuning put away the vial of toxin: "It doesn't specify the damage. I'll try it out on a blade later."

Jiou swallowed nervously: "On who? That's too harsh..."

He Wuning furrowed his brow in confusion. Xing Yue asked gently, "Doesn't the toxin have any special effects listed?"

"No," Yi Luo squinted his eyes. "Could it have hidden information? Maybe it's effective against similar spiders?"

"Keep it for the spider woman in the dungeon."

Cao Wu cautiously said, "Isn't that a bit wasteful?"

Yi Luo narrowed his eyes: "My intuition tells me you guys are talking about something improper."

"Nonsense—" Cao Wu averted his gaze guiltily.

Yi Luo laughed and hooked an arm around Jiou, ruffling his hair forcefully: "Little Jiou, I remember you're an honest kid. Tell me, what bad things are you talking about?"

He lowered his voice, "Don't worry, He Wuning is here; he won't beat you up."

Jiou: "..."

Why did he always get picked on among so many people! Wasn't this just picking on the weakest?

Jiou wanted to cry but had no tears. He stuttered, "It's... it's just that..."

After a moment, Yi Luo, satisfied with the answer, got into the car and greeted He Wuning: "Done for today?"

"Yeah." He Wuning responded, glancing at the others around him. "Should we give them a ride?"

"Sure, if there's space." He cleared his throat. "By the way, Jiou and the others want to know if you're selling the whip. It suits their vice-captain, and the soft armor interests the master."

He Wuning nodded: "Sure."

Yi Luo stood beside him without moving away: "There's one more thing, that toxin..."

He Wuning refused: "I'm not selling that. I plan to test its damage."

"Oh, no one wants to buy it anyway." Yi Luo rubbed his nose. "How about letting me keep it? I'm afraid you might use it on me someday."

He Wuning narrowed his eyes. Q-jam perched on his shoulder: "Honey, he's up to no good!"

He Wuning suddenly took out the vial of toxin from his pocket and tossed it to Yi Luo, who covered his right hand with exoskeleton armor and cautiously stepped back to catch it.

Seeing his reaction, He Wuning knew there was likely something wrong with the toxin, but he didn't ask. Instead, Q-jam was curious: "Why are you acting so scared of this toxin?"

"You don't understand." Yi Luo glanced at him, putting the toxin away. "Alright, let's go. I'll make them squeeze in."

The milk tea truck had a decent interior space, but cramming so many adults was still challenging. Many ended up hanging off the doors and roof—Xing Yue insisted on getting on the roof and asked He Wuning to show him the newly installed heavy machine gun.

Yi Luo was somewhat proud: "I installed it. Impressive, right?"

Xing Yue would never admit it outright and scoffed: "It's passable, but it's pink. Tsk."

"Someone likes it; what do you care?" Yi Luo could see envy in his eyes and didn't bother arguing, slowly driving the severely overloaded milk tea truck towards the safe zone at a snail's pace.

Xing Yue muttered softly: "Why does He Wuning like these colors?"

He Wuning slowly opened his eyes, expressionless: "Wait, why am I the one who likes it?"

"Huh?" Xing Yue was taken aback and hesitated, "Don't you like pink? I think I heard someone say..."

He Wuning smiled dangerously: "Who?"

Xing Yue scratched his head, thinking hard: "I forgot. It was probably someone from the combat department, no, maybe the technical department..."

"Ah? I heard someone in the cafeteria say..."

"Wait, wasn't it on the forum?"

Yi Luo shrugged: "Anyway, it wasn't me."

Q-jam volunteered, flying up: "Let me help trace the origin of the rumor on the forum!"

"Ah, it was a post from a few days ago. This date... it was our first day setting up a stall at the edge of the safe zone."

Yi Luo laughed. "It might just be because they saw your pink milk tea cart and assumed you liked pink. It's just baseless speculation."

Q-jelly: "The post title is 'Today I bought He Wuning's milk tea in the safe zone, and Yi Luo said He Wuning likes pink!'"

Yi Luo: "..."

Wait, it couldn't be...

Yi Luo suddenly remembered when he had just finished painting the milk tea cart pink, still holding the pink paint bucket. At that time, there seemed to be a few ordinary players who misunderstood that He Wuning liked pink...

He Wuning chuckled softly. "It seems like it's not entirely baseless."

Yi Luo: "..."

At least the toxin was already in his hands.

Q-jelly took the opportunity to show his gentleness and comforted He Wuning. "Don't worry, darling. The post didn't say anything bad. I even saw someone comment—'This is the color a real man should love,' 'The pinker the car, the harder it crushes monsters.' It won't damage your image at all!"

"Such a cunning system," Yi Luo clicked his tongue. "Speaking of which, it's all because you wanted pink that this misunderstanding happened, right?"

"So you're blaming me?" Q-jelly switched to a different tone when talking to Yi Luo. "I'm trying to cheer up my darling here!"

He Wuning: "..."

Headache.

Cao Wu sighed silently. "Captain, let's change the topic."

"Oh..." Xing Yue awkwardly scratched his head. "Hey, He Wuning, do you usually not go into dungeons?"

He Wuning: "..."

Yi Luo: "...Xing Yue, you really know how to pick your topics. You always manage to hit a sore spot. When we get out, I'll package you up and send you to the enemy's foreign affairs department; you'd make them the target of everyone's ire."

Xing Yue was stunned. "Can't I ask?"

He Wuning lifted an eyelid. "It's nothing much. It's just dangerous to go into dungeons with me. I got my first fragment in a dungeon."

Now everyone knew that administrator permission fragments dropped from monsters with unusual difficulty and intelligence.

If He Wuning encountered such a difficult monster on his first dungeon run and chose not to team up with others to avoid putting them in danger, it made sense that he wouldn't go into dungeons often...

Xing Yue relaxed. "Good, as long as it's nothing serious."

"Hmm." He Wuning responded lazily. "But back then, my teammate told me he didn't want to die at the hands of a monster and asked me to kill him myself. That's how I discovered that players killed by other players can respawn at level one in the safe zone. I shared this information with Xue Xun."

With a calm face, he looked out the window, narrating a terrifying story in the most casual tone. "That's how I met Xue Xun, marking the beginning of everything."

"Oh, and because of this, Xue Xun even applied for a gun for me because he was worried that using a dagger to kill would cause psychological issues."

"But I haven't used it much since I stopped teaming up with others."

The atmosphere in the car froze for about half a minute. Xing Yue opened his mouth. "You..."

Cao Wu almost jumped up. "Captain, please shut up! Don't say any more!"

Xing Yue scratched his head. "No, but..."

"Speaking of which, the system's fix for the bug where teammates couldn't harm each other in dungeons might also be because of you," Yi Luo smoothly changed the subject. "Xing Yue wasn't trying to pry into your business; this idiot was just trying to indirectly ask if you'd be willing to go into dungeons together."

He shrugged. "I told him his EQ is too low for indirect questions, but he didn't believe me. Look."

He Wuning actually chuckled. "I asked World Voice before, and it said the dungeon difficulty is determined based on the individual potential of the players entering, according to the system's assessment."

"If I enter a dungeon, the difficulty will likely be set to the maximum. My advice is not to."

Apart from him, no one could treat World Voice like customer service. Everyone exchanged glances, and Xing Yue desperately signaled Yi Luo.

Yi Luo didn't look back. "Actually, I have an idea."

He looked eager to try. "Do you want to test how lenient the game is with our exploits?"

He Wuning raised an eyebrow slightly.

"First, find a team to lower the dungeon difficulty, then we'll enter through food delivery." Yi Luo pointed to the crowded people inside the milk tea cart. "We'll transport a whole cartload of people."

"We'll use a sea of people strategy. We'll transport carts full of people and see how many trips it takes before the system warns us."

He Wuning was somewhat intrigued. "What if we figure it out?"

Yi Luo smiled. "Once we figure out the boundaries of violations, we can dance on the edge of breaking rules."

"If it's not considered a violation—"

"Then we'll change the rules of dungeons. Instead of five people, we'll send an entire division."

To be continued...