Returning and Buffing Up

"Hey, handsome, why haven't you opened your chest yet?"

As Wang Zhifan stood with his hands clasped, putting on an act toward the sky for a while, he suddenly noticed that the Gunner girl in a steel helmet and sportswear had come over to his side.

There were still tear stains at the corners of her eyes, but her expression was no longer as panicked as before. She had long since calmed down and was watching Wang Zhifan's bizarre behavior with curiosity.

"Ahem... I'm praying for the favor of the Goddess of Luck. It's a necessary step before opening a chest."

Wang Zhifan had not wanted to pay attention to her interruption, but he remembered that although the girl had not performed very well earlier, she had at least listened to his advice. So, he lowered his head and casually answered her.

"Oh? Does praying like that really work?"

When the Gunner girl heard his answer, obvious curiosity appeared in her eyes. She stared unblinkingly at the solemn-faced young man.

"As they say, sincerity brings results. Whether it works depends on the person."

Wang Zhifan continued brushing off his temporary teammate while using his mind to make his selection from the reward list visible only to him.

"If sincerity makes it work, I'll try it next time I open a treasure chest."

The girl nodded to herself as she spoke, then complained to Wang Zhifan about her mediocre luck earlier.

"I heard on the Player Forum that rewards for your first dungeon clear are usually better, but I only got two boxes of ordinary bullets and an ordinary bracer. I really got my hopes up for nothing."

"It's already pretty good that you got three rewards this time. I've seen people open treasure chests and get only one item, or even an empty chest."

Wang Zhifan chatted with her casually while considering whether to keep pretending to pray for luck or simply stuff the entire chest into his personal storage and leave.

"There can even be empty chests? That's way too terrifying!"

The girl, however, seemed utterly oblivious and continued standing beside him in astonishment.

But Wang Zhifan paid her little attention after that, seeming to return to his focused prayer for luck.

Seeing this, the girl finally realized that she was disturbing him. She stopped bothering him, and her body soon vanished from beside Wang Zhifan into thin air.

Only then could Wang Zhifan finally stop his prayer-for-luck performance, which had left even him somewhat speechless. He bent down, intending to open the treasure chest before him.

But just as his palm touched the chest's lid, his opening motion abruptly stopped. He put it into his personal storage instead, then quickly vanished from the mountain forest.

Less than two seconds after Wang Zhifan left the dungeon world, a somewhat short figure suddenly appeared behind a large tree over ten meters away from where he had been. Who else could it be but his other teammate, the middle-aged Assassin? The hooded eyes of this Level 3 middle-aged player flashed with confusion as he muttered, "This newbie player definitely has an unusual background... The blade techniques he displayed earlier were absolutely not at the level of an ordinary Level 1 player. His equipment didn't look Ordinary Tier either, especially that blade. It seemed to be more than Fine Tier quality... His behavior is also very strange, as though he follows some special rules... Could he be an elite prospect specially raised by some cult? It was probably very wise of me not to provoke someone like him..."

After pondering for a while, the middle-aged Assassin player's figure quickly dissipated into the air as well. This time, he truly left the current dungeon world.

Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous rented room in the real world, Wang Zhifan began opening the chest after checking that his doors and windows were tightly shut.

At that moment, the ordinary-looking wooden chest on his bed had already been opened, revealing three items inside.

One was a sheet of yellow paper that exuded an ancient, weathered aura. A fierce-looking blood-red tiger head was drawn on it.

Another was a narrow white porcelain bottle about the length of an adult's palm, its mouth tightly sealed with a wooden stopper and thin cloth.

The third was a small square box with pictures of a pistol and bullets printed on it.

These were Wang Zhifan's final selections before leaving that dungeon: the Rare Tier Tiger Soul True Rune, the Fine Tier Tiger Blood Potion, and a box of Fine Tier pistol bullets.

There was no need to explain his choice of the Tiger Soul True Rune. It was the only Rare Tier item on the reward list, so Wang Zhifan could not possibly pass it up.

He chose the Fine Tier Tiger Blood Potion because he valued its ability to permanently increase attributes. If its description had not explicitly stated that the effects of multiple bottles of Tiger Blood Potion could not stack, he would definitely have taken two bottles with him.

As for the box of Fine Tier pistol bullets, Wang Zhifan had made that decision after considering many factors.

He had not chosen it because he currently needed it. Rather, he had already planned, before entering the dungeon today, to bring rewards out of dungeons and sell them in the real world to resolve his pressing financial troubles.

If he only wanted money, he actually had plenty of options. He could have picked any Fine Tier weapon and brought out a bottle of Tiger Blood Potion, or taken something like a Fine Tier skill upgrade scroll to sell. There would be no shortage of buyers.

But if he did that, he could only sell those items for money. The reason he chose to bring out a box of Fine Tier pistol bullets was that they could be sold in smaller portions. He could sell some of them for the money he urgently needed, while keeping the rest. Then, the next time he entered a dungeon, he could choose a pistol and put them to use.

Wang Zhifan had long had plans to acquire a firearm of his own. If he were not currently facing a financial crisis in the real world and so broke he could barely afford to eat, he would definitely have brought out a Fine Tier firearm and a box of bullets this time.

However, Wang Zhifan was in no hurry to sell some Fine Tier bullets. Right now, he was busy buffing himself up—with permanent buffs.

First, he took the yellow paper bearing the blood-red tiger head from the chest in front of him. Then he rolled up the sleeve on his right arm and pressed it against his upper right arm, on the outer side of his bicep.

In an instant, the blood-red tiger head that had merely been drawn on the ancient yellow paper seemed to come alive. It transferred strand by strand onto the skin of Wang Zhifan's right arm, becoming a majestic dark-colored tiger-head tattoo within seconds!

At the same time, Wang Zhifan felt waves of heat rapidly spreading from the tiger-head tattoo on his right arm. His body swiftly began changing, and his strength in every aspect increased considerably!

But Wang Zhifan resisted the urge to immediately check his personal panel. He then uncorked the bottle of Tiger Blood Potion from the chest and drank it all. Only after a burning sensation spread throughout his body and quickly faded did he use his mind to open his player attribute panel.