Chapter 141: 139 Rental

At the dungeon entrance.

Having tasted success and feeling confident, Haojiao prepared to enter the dungeon again, only this time his teammates were a new batch.

After the last mission, the old teammates who were envious, though they didn't directly kick him out of the party, each quit one by one and then formed a "new party."

Haojiao's assessment of them was that they were a group of fools blinded by emotion.

He hadn't sold the +2 Agility dagger that represented his luck; instead, he kept it on him to boost his combat power.

His teammates had clearly become stronger, yet they abandoned him out of jealousy; what else could that be but stupidity?

Fortunately, Haojiao didn't care about being with those fools anyway; carrying his shiny dagger, he quickly found a newly formed party.

Now, the four of them were making final checks outside the dungeon gate.

Since the newly formed squad hadn't gelled yet, to prevent accidents, mutual confirmation before entering was unavoidable.

For instance, since their party had no mage, torches or the oilcloth needed to make them were indispensable items.

After checking everything, the new party finally entered the dungeon.

But as soon as they entered, the four were drawn to the crowd gathering at the edge of the hall.

Something must have happened; otherwise, no one would be lingering here.

Adventurers could be called one of the most gossipy groups; no one would refuse a spectacle, so the four naturally crowded over.

Someone in the crowd noticed Haojiao; the other was clearly an acquaintance and called out, "Yo, Haojiao, heard you pulled something good on the fifth floor?"

Adventurers were the most gossipy group, so news of Haojiao getting incredibly lucky and drawing a grand prize spread like wildfire.

Haojiao didn't hide it; he drew the dagger with its blade shimmering, spun it around, and made the other exclaim in envy.

After showing off, Haojiao also asked, "What are you blocking here for?"

It was indeed blocked; the hall at the dungeon entrance connected to eight corridors, this being one of them, with over a dozen people standing on the four-to-five-person-wide walkway.

"There's a group of Pujis at the entrance!"

Saying this, he grabbed Haojiao's hand and forcibly squeezed through the crowd.

After squeezing out, Haojiao almost thought he was hallucinating; a Fat Puji had actually come to the first-floor entrance?

But unlike the fifth floor, this Fat Puji was surrounded by many ordinary Pujis, all sitting obediently on the mycelial mat.

"What exactly is going on?" Haojiao asked.

The acquaintance shrugged; he wasn't clear on it either.

Suddenly, an adventurer who seemed to be from out of town said something that made everyone present shudder: "Huh? Are there monsters just giving themselves away at this dungeon entrance?"

The speaker was a warrior who, while talking, drew the longsword at his waist.

But as soon as the sword was drawn, the warrior was kicked down by someone, followed by a rain of fists and feet from the surrounding people.

"If you want to die, go die yourself! Don't try to drag me down!"

"You stinky outsider trying to harm us?"

"We'll beat you to death!"

Haojiao also went up and kicked a couple of times; who the hell didn't know that a Fat Puji would self-destruct when beaten? If it really exploded here, at least half of those present would die!

After driving away that idiot warrior, many people also realized the hidden danger of staying there and left one by one, no longer crowding to watch the spectacle; the place suddenly became less crowded.

Haojiao originally planned to throw a monster over first to see what would happen, but obviously he wasn't the only one who thought of that; an adventurer carrying a Rotfang Hound corpse ran over.

The Fat Puji extended mycelial tentacles, stuffed the monster corpse into its body, then the tentacles pushed, shoving out a Puji that had been sitting dazed on the mycelial mat.

The tentacle pressed on the Puji's mushroom cap... and the Puji lit up! Adventurer:???

The Puji, glowing with orange-yellow light, took small steps and followed behind the adventurer who had given the monster corpse; the adventurer took two steps, and the Puji took four to catch up.

Adventurer:!!!

That adventurer tried pressing the Puji's mushroom cap too; the light on the Puji flickered twice and then went out!

"Oh~!"

Immediately, gasps of amazement from others around rang out.

Seeing this, Haojiao consulted with his teammates, hunted a beast, and took away a Lighting Puji.

Everyone wanted to try this new thing; even some parties with mages, out of curiosity, took one away too.

Along the way, they figured out some kinks.

Pujis would only follow on the first floor; there was a Fat Puji by the stairs of each floor, and a new floor required re-hiring with a monster corpse.

On the second floor, their Lighting Puji was accidentally crushed to death by a scorpion; after reaching the third floor, the Fat Puji simply ignored them.

Only after they offered three monster corpses did they manage to borrow a Lighting Puji again.

Also, the energy of one Lighting Puji could last at most a full day; after it went out, it would still follow you until you brought it back to the Fat Puji.

The brightness of a Lighting Puji was several times that of a torch, and the effect was quite decent; the rental of one monster corpse per floor was acceptable for parties without mages.

The downside was that they were too easy to kill...

Lin Jun quietly observed the adventurers' reactions.

Seeing the new business proceeding smoothly, he was very satisfied.

After being blocked on the eighth floor, he began preparing to conquer the Rift.

However, after discovering last time that the Rift was difficult to traverse, Lin Jun had abandoned that high-maintenance mycelial mat and now had to lay it down again.

At the same time, Airborne Pujis suitable for expedition combat in the Rift environment also needed some time to finish production.

During this spare time, Lin Jun used it to repeatedly practice drawing formation arrays.

These Lighting Pujis were byproducts of his practice; recycling them directly would be somewhat wasteful.

So he simply launched a follow-and-light service; earning monster corpses was secondary, the main goal was to continue increasing the adventurers' acceptance of Pujis.

In the future, he might even launch services like luggage storage or a dungeon cafeteria.

Use the convenient Pugi service to slowly corrupt the adventurers, ultimately cultivating them into a state where they cannot explore dungeons without Pugi!

Of course, this plan is still in its early stages, and there are many problems.

For instance, since all the lighting Pugi are hand-crafted by Lin Jun, their quality varies; some substandard lighting Pugi suffer from sudden blackouts.

Fortunately, the dungeon has no rating system, so the cheated adventurers cannot come over to leave a bad review.

The Pugi do not support returns or exchanges either, focusing entirely on the principle of no responsibility once they leave the counter.

—

Lin Jun's evil plan to corrupt the adventurers has just begun; meanwhile, a party heading to Silent Wind Town also set out from Oath City.

The magnificent carriage at the head bears a prominent sword-and-shield emblem, with gold thread along the edges of the emblem signifying the important status of the person inside within the Adventurer's Guild.

Behind it followed a large carriage carrying eight clerical staff, along with four Golden-rank guards riding horses alongside.

(End of this chapter)