The night passed without incident, and morning came quickly.
Wang Zhifan woke up earlier than usual that day. Perhaps after his personal attributes had improved, his need for sleep had begun to decrease; he could stay full of energy without sleeping as long every day.
"I feel like I ate too much at the buffet yesterday. I'm not hungry at all now, so I'll just get started."
After washing up, Wang Zhifan would normally have gone out for breakfast, rested a little, and then entered a dungeon. But he felt exceptionally good today, so he skipped that step. After fully equipping himself in his rented room, he summoned the player panel with a thought and chose to enter a dungeon.
Just as before, the moment Wang Zhifan activated the dungeon, his figure quickly vanished from the rented room. When his mind recovered from a brief daze, he found himself standing on a barren stretch of desolate ground.
The area around him was littered with rocks and weeds. Aside from the two female teammates nearby, whose expressions were still somewhat vacant, the most eye-catching thing was whatever hung from a dead tree over a hundred meters away.
"Two female teammates this time... That's a first."
Fully armed, Wang Zhifan wore Wolfhide Armor, Berserk Bracers, and Rage Gloves. He held a Fine Tier pistol in his left hand and the Rare Tier Blade of the Wolf Fiend in his right, while also wearing the Chapter of Gloom, Ape King's Rage, and Unyielding Ring. The Iron Mountain Sash was wrapped around his waist. He looked thoughtfully at the two female teammates standing two or three meters away.
He had encountered female teammates in previous dungeons, but far less often than male teammates. Moreover, they seemed somewhat weaker on average, which gave him a faintly bad feeling.
About a second later, as the two female teammates recovered from their dazed state upon entering the dungeon under Wang Zhifan's calm gaze, the dungeon objective appeared before all three of them.
Dungeon Objective: Kill the nearby Venomfang Spider (Lv4).
The moment the prompt appeared, before Wang Zhifan could even begin discussing team strategy, one of the female players suddenly cried out in panic:
"Spiders?! Where are the spiders?! I'm terrified of spiders! We're not really fighting spiders, are we?!"
She was a young woman dressed like a white-collar worker. Judging by the pistol in her hand, she was probably a gunner. The instant she realized the dungeon boss was a spider, she fell into a state of fear, frantically looking around while standing in place, seeming to want to locate it but too scared to do so.
"The spider's on that tree over there."
Watching this teammate's ridiculous panic, Wang Zhifan somehow felt a little more relaxed instead. He raised a hand and pointed at the dead tree over a hundred meters away.
At that moment, a hideous eight-legged creature, clearly no smaller than an adult human, hung from the branches of the not-so-distant withered tree by several strands of silk. It looked ready to drop to the ground and charge at them on eight long legs at any moment.
"Ahhh!!!"
Following Wang Zhifan's helpful guidance, the panicked white-collar woman turned her head and glanced at the giant spider hanging from the dead tree. She immediately let out a scream sharp enough to make their eardrums ache, then her whole body went limp and she collapsed to the ground with a thud.
"Well, damn. She just fainted."
Wang Zhifan was not particularly surprised by her reaction, because he was gradually beginning to understand why the dungeon had been arranged this way.
"Are you a newcomer?"
He shifted his gaze away from the woman who had fainted on the ground and looked toward the other woman. Her body was trembling slightly, but she had at least remained basically calm. She had neither screamed nor passed out.
This woman also looked young, around twenty. She seemed to be a gunner as well, but her clothes were somewhat old-fashioned: thick, dark long-sleeved clothes and trousers. From her bearing, she was likely from somewhere outside the city.
"Y-Yes... This is my first... dungeon."
The somewhat rustic-looking young woman grew nervous when Wang Zhifan addressed her. She answered haltingly, her body still trembling faintly.
"Mm... Then stand here and don't move. Leave the monster to me."
After learning that the only teammate currently capable of acting was a complete newcomer, Wang Zhifan lost interest in continuing the conversation. To him, it would have been nothing but a waste of time.
"Making a Lv2 lead two teammates like this against a Lv4 boss... This dungeon is really scheming... Still, I can barely understand it..."
After the attribute improvements he had gained yesterday in the Ash Domain Caverns, Wang Zhifan's confidence in his strength had reached a new level. After all, it would be difficult to find another Lv2 player in this world with average attributes close to 30.
He then calmly walked toward the dead tree a hundred meters away, gradually closing in on the massive spider still hanging there. The Blade of the Wolf Fiend in his right hand began tapping against the ground, stacking buffs one strike at a time. Then, at a certain moment, the Fine Tier pistol in his left hand suddenly rose, aimed at the giant spider, and pulled the trigger! Bang! The Fine Tier ammunition fired by the Fine Tier pistol was remarkably powerful. The instant the bullet struck the spider hanging from the tree, a huge burst of dark green fluid erupted from its orange-yellow, oval body covered in half-foot-long bristles. The dungeon boss shrieked in pain and dropped to the ground in the blink of an eye. Its eight two-meter-long legs moved so fast they left afterimages as it charged like an arrow toward Wang Zhifan, dragging a long trail of dark green fluid behind it.
But with Berserk and Rage fully stacked, Wang Zhifan's Strength had reached 35 and his Agility 28. His speed had long surpassed human limits. Though the so-called Lv4 Venomfang Spider exploded forward in pursuit, trying to bite him fiercely, it could not touch him at all. Like a cat toying with a mouse, Wang Zhifan continuously circled around, luring the giant spider all over the place. Dark green body fluid poured from its wounds and covered the ground, yet the distance between them always remained seven or eight meters, impossible to close.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Even while chasing and fleeing, Wang Zhifan had time to keep firing at the giant spider. Thanks to his exceptionally high Agility, he realized his marksmanship had improved considerably as well. Even with both sides constantly moving, he could maintain a hit rate of sixty to seventy percent. In the past, he would never have dared imagine such a thing.
So, about three minutes later, just as Wang Zhifan began wondering whether he should fire the last bullet in his pistol magazine, he saw the battered giant spider suddenly kick out with all eight legs and die outright from its severe injuries. Its entire body swiftly dissipated into the air like smoke.
Before you continue