Chapter 136: 135 Speaking

"Out! Out! Out! Come on!"

The last ten monster corpses were dumped in front of the fatso Pujiji; Horn, his eyes bloodshot, shouted as if yelling like that would make the fatso produce better items more easily.

His teammates watched Horn helplessly; after twenty pulls earlier, he had only obtained a pile of mushrooms and waste demon crystals, driving him somewhat mad.

It was already common knowledge in Silent Wind Town that the fatso Pujiji on the fifth floor allowed gacha draws using monster corpses.

The value of the previously useless monster corpses rose significantly, naturally giving birth to a new distribution method.

Just like this guy Horn: he took none of the materials gathered along the way; in exchange, all remaining monster corpses belonged to him, and everyone had to help carry the slain monster corpses down.

However, in reality, after trying this distribution method a few times, many squads stopped using it.

The reason was simple: if a teammate suffered a mental breakdown on the return journey, entering a hysterical or silent state, it would negatively affect the morale of the entire squad...

Fatso Pujiji finally finished collecting the monster corpses and began dispensing rewards.

Everyone heard Horn's breathing grow three times heavier.

Mushroom, mushroom, mushroom, waste demon crystal, mushroom...

"Where's the grand prize? Where's the grand prize? Give me equipment, give me high-grade demon crystals!"

The teammates exchanged glances, already deciding to speed up on the return trip to endure less of Horn's gloomy aura.

"I hit it! Hahahaha, hoohoo!"

Horn's nearly inhuman laughter made all three teammates look over in surprise.

They saw him kneeling amidst a pile of mushrooms and waste demon crystals, holding a dagger emitting a faint glow in both hands, kissing it and weeping.

Having a glow meant it was at least a stat-equipped item; in terms of value, it was worth more than they earned from ten dungeon runs combined!

This time, no one worried about Horn's gloomy aura; now the negative emotions had shifted onto the three teammates...

However, before they could even voice a couple of envious remarks, an extremely miserable and twisted scream, making one's hair stand on end, suddenly erupted from the mushroom forest.

Even Horn, still in his excitement, swallowed the rest of his "hahaha," hunched his neck, and retreated back into the squad.

Facing the unexpected situation, the group did not want to take risks and hurriedly retreated toward the staircase.

In the mushroom forest, several Pujiji worked together to pounce on a large, constantly trembling Pujiji, blocking the opening on its mushroom cap.

It was this Pujiji that had just made the strange sound.

Scaring the adventurers was one thing, but even Lin Jun himself was startled.

Why is trying to speak so difficult?

Lin Jun's 【Common Human Tongue】 was now at level eight, and thanks to using the Dylan Translator to learn, he had mastered most basic vocabulary.

He would no longer encounter situations where he couldn't understand what the adventurers were saying.

However, the problem was, he could only listen now; how was he supposed to speak?

The simplest method would probably be to fully parasitize a humanoid creature and then speak through the humanoid's mouth.

But that felt little different from borrowing Dylan's mouth to speak.

Lin Jun wanted to try seeing if he could use a mushroom to simulate a vocalizer.

Anyway, since Lin Jun would definitely be controlling the speech personally, there would be no skill restrictions; he just needed to modify the interior of the Pujiji to be suitable for producing sound.

The idea was beautiful; reality was harsh.

The vocal opening, constructed by imitating the human throat structure, could only produce a "puff-puff" hissing sound in the end.

Later, gradually undergoing demonic modifications, that one was just one of the failed products.

Lin Jun had already decided to change locations; staying in the mushroom forest, adventurers would sooner or later spread false rumors that the Pujiji in the mushroom forest were imprisoning and torturing adventurers, which would not be good.

The new experimental site was selected underground in the mushroom forest, in the dungeon dug previously.

As soon as the Pujiji entered, a certain starving Vampire Viscount squatting in the corner reflexively spoke in Demon Tongue: "I am a little pig who loves to eat."

She thought food had finally arrived, but after she spoke, the Pujiji remained unmoved; Louisa could only disappointedly shrink back into the corner, staring blankly at the Pujiji.

Right, obsessed with crafting voice Pujiji, she had forgotten to feed this guy for these past few days; vampires really are resistant to hunger!

Happening to have newly acquired monster corpses, two Pujiji soon brought one over and tossed it to the vampire.

Come to think of it, shouldn't vampires have that kind of setting?

Lying in a coffin, sleeping for a hundred years without eating or drinking; does this world not have that?

He would ask Louisa about that later; right now, Lin Jun was still more interested in speaking.

So, Louisa, who had barely eaten until four parts full, simply squatted in the corner, watching a group of Pujiji emit ghostly wails and wolf howls across from her from time to time.

At first, hearing them made her shiver subconsciously, but over time she gradually got used to it; it was just that the sleep quality in the cell became worse, waking up startled by strange sounds from time to time.

If there was any benefit, since the Pujiji arrived here, her meals had at least not been forgotten again...

One day, Louisa was woken by a sound again.

Based on past experience, the sound would not last long, and the next time a sound was made would be at least one or two hours later.

She blinked her eyes, preparing to go back to sleep; sleeping more was good, and sleeping more meant getting hungry less easily.

"Lou... isa..."

Louisa suddenly widened her eyes.

That voice was distorted and evil, accompanied by a chilling echo, and as unpleasant as stones grinding together.

But the key point was, this voice did not appear inside her mind!

Who?

Who was calling her name?

For a moment, Louisa imagined that a demon with an unpleasant voice had been sent to rescue her.

Because no one here knew her name, and the voice in her mind had never asked for a name; whoever could call her name must be someone from the demon side!

But this illusion shattered in less than a second.

The sound came from a long, strip-like thing that was barely recognizable as the source of the "poo-ji" noise.

After failing to mimic the structure for sound production, Lin Jun completely let himself go.

As the saying goes, whether black or white, a cat that catches mice is a good cat.

If it can make a sound, that counts as success; no need to fuss over standard results.

And this long, strip-like thing was the first version of the voice-making "Poo-ji."

Airflow was blown in from the tail, passed through complex internal structures, and finally achieved the effect of speech.

Of course, being a first version, it still had issues such as echoes and the inability to speak more than one or two words at a time.

But wasn't this taking the first step? Lin Jun believed that with improvements, it would surely get better and better in the future.

Seeing the vampire recognize that he was calling her name, Lin Jun controlled the "Poo-ji" to shout even more happily.

"Lu... Lu... isha... Lui... sha..."

"Ah... Ah——!!!"

Louisa suddenly clutched her head, rolled around, and screamed wildly.

Finally, disregarding the punishment of possibly growing mushrooms, she sprinted toward the exit.

However, since Lin Jun had never let her eat her fill, the two elite "Poo-jis" guarding outside easily subdued her and used 【Hallucinogenic Spores】 to calm her down.

Clearly, this Demon Language Learning Machine had a small malfunction; perhaps having stayed in the basement too long, its brain had filled with dust.

Should he let her go mine for some fresh air?

(End of this chapter)