Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Li Na’s first thought was that Wang Hao and the others had tampered with the meat. She instinctively looked toward the three of them.
But Wang Hao and his companions appeared just as confused.
Sun Yao was feeding a steamed bun to her horse. At the sight of what was happening, she frowned slightly.
Wang Hao noticed their stares and looked at the black bear without saying anything.
Zhou Ming, however, was displeased. “What are you looking at us for? You watched the meat being divided yesterday.”
Li Na withdrew her gaze. In front of everyone, she picked up the elephant meat and tried to feed it to the black bear again. This time, the bear swatted her hand aside, sending the chunk of meat – over ten pounds of it – tumbling back to the ground.
After a moment’s thought, Li Na gave the bear her steamed bun and serving of greens. This time, it ate.
Wang Hao stared at the discarded meat. No one knew better than him whether it had been tampered with. After thinking for a moment, he picked it up and fed it to his tiger in full view of everyone. The tiger tore into it without the slightest hesitation.
He said nothing, but the act proved his innocence.
Sun Yao silently led her horse a little farther away.
Tongyu asked quietly, “What’s going on?”
Yu Lingling had already explained the situation to him. She had guessed the truth the moment she saw the black bear throw away the elephant meat.
Zhao Peng said bluntly, “The first meat you fed the black bear was human flesh. The tiger and leopard were fed elephant meat.”
Once Tongyu heard that, he understood as well. For a moment, he had no idea what to say. After a while, he slowly let out a breath.
The players present weren’t stupid. They had all realized that the animals had imprinted on whatever kind of meat they were fed first.
Li Na had fed her bear human flesh, so from now on, it would demand human flesh.
As for Wang Hao’s animals, they would have to find out for themselves whether they would now eat only elephant meat or accept meat from other animals as well.
Li Na’s expression changed.
Zhao Peng didn’t want trouble to break out, so he added, “Other kinds of food aren’t restricted.”
That might be true, but everyone knew such a small amount of food could never fill a black bear that large.
Li Na clenched her teeth and stared at Wang Hao and the others.
Wang Hao said frankly, “It didn’t work this way before.”
That was the truth.
“You’re useful to me.” No explanation could reassure her more than those words. Wang Hao softened his tone. “I have no reason to lie to you about this.”
Li Na wanted to live, but in this situation, she had no idea how she was supposed to survive. Was she supposed to find a way to kill the other players and feed them to her black bear?
At the thought, Li Na looked toward Yu Lingling and her brother. Of all the players present, the two of them appeared weaker than her.
But when Li Na looked over, Yu Lingling showed no trace of panic. Her beautiful eyes seemed to speak for themselves.
Li Na understood what she meant. Yu Lingling had clearly seen through her malicious thoughts and was telling her she was welcome to try.
One steamed bun and a small serving of greens naturally weren’t enough to fill the black bear.
Seeing this, Wang Hao handed over his greens, as well as Zhou Ming’s and Liu Qian’s, to Li Na. He then glanced at Sun Yao and Wu Bin.
Sun Yao lowered her eyes slightly and surrendered her greens too, but Wu Bin was reluctant. “My gorilla has a huge appetite too.”
Wu Bin’s gorilla hadn’t received any elephant meat.
Although Wu Bin had stored some food in his System Inventory before entering the instance, he hadn’t brought much. The previous night, he’d fed over half of it to the gorilla just to calm it down.
A greedy glint flashed in Wu Bin’s eyes. “I can hand over all the food I receive from now on, but I want her share of the elephant meat.”
Wang Hao glanced at Zhou Ming. “Give it to him.”
Zhou Ming was unhappy about it, but he complied.
Only then did Wu Bin hand over his greens. As for his steamed bun, since Wang Hao and the others hadn’t mentioned it, he simply kept it for himself.
Even after all that, the black bear still wasn’t full.
Of the people sharing Yu Lingling’s tent, Sun Jian and Xu Chao had received their food after Zhao Peng. Both of them had only gotten steamed buns.
Wang Hao’s gaze fell on Yu Lingling and Tongyu. He said bluntly, “Give your steamed buns to Li Na. Once we’re out of the dungeon, I’ll compensate you.”
He was clearly bullying them with an empty promise.
Every player present could see it, as could the viewers. But in Yu Lingling’s Livestream Room, the viewers who had witnessed everything she’d done merely sneered to themselves.
[That’s the Abyss Guild for you. How impressive.]
[The streamer is weak. Of course she’ll have to put up with a little unfair treatment.]
[I just want to know if the streamer saw this coming.]
Had she seen it coming?
Yu Lingling genuinely hadn’t. She’d never expected Wang Hao and his companions to be so greedy or so utterly devoid of scruples.
An elephant that huge must have yielded plenty of meat. Yet they had even been ruthless enough to target Chen Xue, another player. They hadn’t spared so much as her corpse.
Xu Chao and Sun Jian had already confirmed that the steamed buns were safe, but neither of them ate theirs. Afraid that Wang Hao’s group would turn their sights on him, Sun Jian immediately fed his bun to the goat.
Xu Chao likewise fed his bun to his monkey.
Since Zhao Peng wanted to recruit the siblings, he couldn’t simply stand by now. “That’s enough.”
Wang Hao knew Zhao Peng was one of their own, but he was still somewhat resentful of how highly the guild regarded him. The Vice Guild Leader’s words had implied that even Wang Hao was expected to listen to Zhao Peng.
“If the black bear doesn’t get enough to eat, we’ll have no choice but to feed it human flesh instead. Chacha and Little Fish, right? You’d better be smart about this. Would you rather receive compensation after we clear the dungeon, or take the steamed buns’ place?”
He hadn’t directly said he would feed Yu Lingling and Tongyu to the black bear, but his meaning was unmistakable.
Zhou Ming didn’t know Zhao Peng’s identity and snapped impatiently, “Why waste your breath on them? It’s only because our guild is kindhearted that we don’t want to kill anyone. But if you don’t know what’s good for you, don’t blame me for what happens next.”
Liu Qian spoke in a sweet, gentle voice. “Little girl, strength is all that matters here. From now on, bring us whatever you receive as soon as you get it. What’s so great about steamed buns anyway? If you make it through the dungeon, I’ll treat you to a feast.”
Zhao Peng frowned. “You-”
Wang Hao cut him off. He knew the Vice Guild Leader and the others were watching from outside, so he said pointedly, “Li Na is extremely useful to the guild. I’ll do everything I can to see her through the dungeon.”
That single sentence revealed that even if Li Na didn’t possess an Exclusive Skill, her skill was still highly unusual.
But Zhao Peng believed Yu Lingling and Tongyu were more important. Just as he was about to speak, Yu Lingling beat him to it.
“Okay.”
Yu Lingling took her and Tongyu’s steamed buns, walked over, and held them out to Wang Hao.
Wang Hao reached out to take them.
But Yu Lingling pulled her hand back. Wang Hao’s expression immediately darkened, but she had already asked, “If we don’t give you our food, are you going to feed me to that black bear?”
Wang Hao looked at her with a faint, mocking smile. “I know you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, but sometimes trying to be clever just gets you killed faster.”
Yu Lingling had gotten the answer she wanted. She handed over the steamed buns.
“Okay, then.”
They were the ones who wanted to kill her first, so fighting back would count as self-defense.
Inside the Special Department, Song Siyuan clicked his tongue. “Those three are as good as dead.”
Of all the people they could have provoked, they had just had to pick a little lunatic.
Calling Yu Lingling a little lunatic wasn’t an insult on Song Siyuan’s part. It was an entirely literal description.
Someone frowned. “But that’s one C-rank player and two D-rank players – one a combat type and the other a healing type. No matter how smart Yu Lingling is, she’s still only an F-rank player.”
Song Siyuan looked at the speaker. “Want to bet?”