Entrance to the Underground City.

The Horn, who was brimming with confidence after tasting success, was preparing to enter the Underground City again, but this time with a new set of teammates.

After the last mission, his old teammates, though not directly kicking him out, had one by one left the team and then reassembled into a "new team."

The Horn's comment on this was that they were a bunch of fools blinded by emotions.

He didn't sell the +2 Agility dagger that symbolized his luck; instead, he carried it with him to enhance his combat power.

The teammates clearly became stronger, yet left him behind due to jealousy—what else could that be but foolishness?

Luckily, the Horn wasn't fond of staying with those fools anymore. Carrying his dazzling dagger, he quickly found a newly formed team.

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

The newly formed team hadn't yet coordinated well, so mutual confirmation before entering, to prevent accidents, was essential.

For instance, since their team lacked a Mage, torches or the oilcloth needed to make them were indispensable items.

After checking everything, the new team finally entered the Underground City.

But as soon as they entered, the four were attracted by the crowd gathered at the edge of the hall.

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

The adventurers could be said to be one of the most gossip-hungry groups. No one would refuse a spectacle, so the four naturally joined in.

Someone in the crowd noticed the Horn, apparently a familiar face, and greeted him, "Yo, Horn, I heard you drew something good on the fifth floor?"

Adventurers are the most gossip-hungry group, and things like the Horn having incredible luck and drawing a big prize naturally spread quickly.

The Horn didn't hide it, drawing out his glittering-bladed dagger and showing it off, making the other party envious.

After showing off, the Horn asked, "What are you all standing around here for?"

Indeed, they were blocking; the hall at the entrance of the Underground City was connected by eight corridors, and this was one of them, with ten or more people standing in a four- or five-person wide corridor.

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

As he spoke, he took the Horn's hand and forcefully squeezed through the crowd.

After squeezing through, the Horn almost thought he was hallucinating; the fat Puki had actually come to the first-floor entrance?

But unlike the fifth floor, this fat Puki had many ordinary Puki gathered around it, all sitting obediently on the fungal mat.

"What's going on?" The Horn asked.

The familiar shrugged, still unclear himself.

Suddenly, an adventurer who seemed to be from out of town said something that sent chills down everyone's spine: "Hey? Are there demons at the entrance of the Underground City for free?"

The speaker was a warrior, who drew his longsword from his waist as he spoke.

But as soon as he drew the sword, the warrior was kicked down, followed by a shower of punches and kicks from those around him.

"If you want to die, do it yourself! Don't drag me into it!"

"Damn outsider trying to harm people?"

"We'll beat you to death!"

The Horn also went up and kicked him twice. Who the hell doesn't know that hitting a fat Puki will cause it to self-destruct, and if it explodes here, at least half of them would die!

After driving away that idiotic warrior, many also realized the danger of staying there and left the scene, no longer crowding around. The place quickly became less crowded.

The Horn originally planned to hit a demon over to see what would happen, but he wasn't the only one who thought of this—a fellow adventurer carrying a Rot-toothed Dog corpse ran over.

The fat Puki extended mycelium tentacles, stuffed the demon corpse into its body, then used the tentacle to nudge a dazed Puki sitting on the fungal mat out.

The tentacle pressed on the cap of the Puki mushroom... and the Puki lit up!

Adventurers: ???

Only to see the Puki, glowing with an orange-yellow light, waddling its short legs, followed behind the adventurer who provided the demon corpse. When the adventurer took two steps, Puki took four steps to catch up.

Adventurers: !!!

The adventurer tried pressing the cap of the Puki mushroom, and the light on the Puki flickered twice before going out!

"Oh~!"

The surrounding people immediately let out exclamations of amazement.

Seeing this, the Horn discussed with his teammates and also caught a prey to take away a lighting Puki.

Everyone wanted to try this new plaything, and even some teams with Mages took one out of curiosity.

Along the way, they figured out something.

Puki would only follow on the first floor. At the edge of each staircase to the next floor, there was a fat Puki. A new floor required providing a demon corpse for hire again.

On the second floor, their Puki got accidentally clamped to death by a scorpion, and on the third floor, the fat Puki ignored them.

Not until they provided three demon corpses did they get another lighting Puki.

And one lighting Puki's energy lasted at most one whole day. After going out, it would still follow you, waiting for you to bring it back to the fat Puki.

The brightness of a lighting Puki was several times that of a torch, and its effect was quite decent. The cost of a demon corpse per floor was acceptable for a team without a Mage.

The downside was that they died too easily...

...

Lin Jun secretly observed the adventurers' reactions.

Seeing the new business develop smoothly, he was quite satisfied.

After being blocked on the eighth floor, he started preparing strategies for the Rift.

However, after finding the Rift difficult to traverse last time, Lin Jun abandoned that high-maintenance fungal mat, and now it needed to be relaid.

Meanwhile, air-combat Puki, suitable for fights in the Rift environment, also needed some time to complete production.

During this downtime, Lin Jun used it to repeatedly practice drawing arrays.

These lighting Puki were all by-products of his practice, and it would be somewhat wasteful to take them directly for recycling.

So he came up with a plan for follow-and-light services, where earning demon corpses was secondary, and the main goal was to continue increasing adventurers' acceptance of Puki.

Perhaps in the future, luggage transport or Underground City cafeteria services could be launched.

Gradually corroding adventurers with convenient Puki services, eventually training them to a point where without Puki, they can't explore the Underground City at all!

Of course, this plan was still in its early stages, and there were quite a few issues.

For example, since all the lighting Puki were handmade by Lin Jun, their quality was inconsistent, and some substandard lighting Puki had the issue of suddenly going dark.

Luckily, the Underground City didn't have a rating system, so adventurers who got the short end of the stick couldn't leave bad reviews.

Puki didn't offer returns or exchanges, adopting a no-responsibility-after-leaving policy.

-----------------

Lin Jun's sinister plan to corrode adventurers was just starting, and at the same time, a team bound for Dumb Wind Town was also departing from Oath City.

The leading luxurious carriage was engraved with an eye-catching sword and shield emblem, with golden threads along the edge indicating the important status of the person inside the Adventurer's Guild.

Following behind was a cart carrying eight office staff and four Gold Level guards on horseback.

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