The Expert Team

"Drip..."

Fat, juicy lamb skewers glistened over the charcoal fire, golden grease dripping onto the coals and filling the air with an even richer aroma.

"Captain!"

Mad Dog sat in a beach chair, watching his teammates wave at him. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Captain, come on! We've completed the mission, so we should celebrate properly."

Two teammates came over, took him by the arms, and pulled him out of the chair, leading him to the grill.

Someone handed him a fragrant skewer. Mad Dog had just opened his mouth to eat when a thick stench of blood hit his nose. He took a closer look at the skewer in his hand and froze.

The skewer was threaded with bloody eyeballs.

"Eat! Come on, eat! Try my cooking!"

His teammates urged him enthusiastically. Mad Dog's scalp prickled. He tossed the skewer aside and angrily looked up, only to see a row of bloody heads. Their eyes had been gouged out, and their empty sockets stared at him like bottomless pits.

"Eat! We were blind to make you our captain. Come on, eat! Eat!"

"Ah!"

At last, unable to bear the sight of his teammates crowding around him, Mad Dog screamed. His tightly shut eyes flew open—but sunlight fell across his face, and all he saw was a ceiling hung with dried fish.

"Phew! So it was just a dream."

Realizing he'd had a nightmare, Mad Dog let out a long breath.

"You're awake!"

A familiar voice sounded beside him. He turned and saw Xu Tong sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling as he read a book.

"Oh, it's you!"

Seeing Xu Tong, Mad Dog finally relaxed. Then he suddenly remembered something and reached for his abdomen. The wound that should have gone right through him was now tightly wrapped in bandages.

"Did you save me?"

His heart stirred as he asked Xu Tong.

"No. We got lucky. Chief Wang and the others brought people over. If they'd been any later, who knows what would've happened?"

Xu Tong briefly recounted what had happened the day before. Mad Dog's injuries had been severe, and there was no doctor at the Forest Farm.

Yang Guanjin, the only one with any medical knowledge, had been so frightened by his wound that she'd been at a loss. She'd only learned basic first aid, bandaging, and how to apply medicine. She had no idea how to deal with an injury that serious.

At the critical moment, Xu Tong had stepped up and stitched the wound himself. Otherwise, the person lying in bed now would probably have been a corpse.

"Phew!"

Mad Dog let out a long breath. Then he sat up straight, grinned, and said, "Heh. I didn't know a veterinarian like you could be so reliable."

Xu Tong didn't answer. He glanced at the wound on Mad Dog's abdomen and frowned.

As if guessing what Xu Tong wanted to say, Mad Dog gave him a mysterious smile and produced a medicine bottle. "Don't worry. As long as I'm not dead, this stuff can heal even the worst injuries in no time."

As he spoke, he drank half the potion in one go, then tossed the rest to Xu Tong. "Here. Call it payment. It could save your life in a pinch."

Xu Tong took the bottle. The potion inside was bright red, and he casually put it into his Prop Catalog.

[Item: Muscle Recovery Potion]

[Instructions: Restores muscle damage and heals physical injuries quickly after consumption.]

(Note: It cannot restore severed limbs, disabilities, or loss of function. If the wound is more than two days old, the potion's effect is halved. After five days, it has no effect.)

"With all these medicines, you seem more like a doctor than I do."

Looking at the medicine Mad Dog had given him, Xu Tong couldn't help asking.

Mad Dog grinned smugly. "Heh, this potion's good stuff. You can't even buy it at the Exhibition Hall. I'm the only one who can get it through certain channels in exchange for script points."

"The Exhibition Hall?" Xu Tong raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It's probably open once a week, every Sunday. You can enter the Exhibition Hall through the Script Hall. It's a place where players trade with one another. Besides medicine, there are all kinds of items you wouldn't even imagine."

As he explained, Mad Dog began removing the bandages from his abdomen.

But as the bandages came off, the smile froze on Mad Dog's face. He stared wide-eyed at the wound stitched shut on his belly.

"Don't tell me you stitched this damn thing up for me!" He jerked his head up and grabbed Xu Tong by the collar.

Xu Tong looked sincerely regretful. "Sorry. At the Forest Farm... No, I suppose they probably don't have absorbable sutures in this era either, so I had to use ordinary cotton thread to stitch up your wound."

"Bastard! That's not what I'm asking! What the hell is this damn Peppa Pig?"

Mad Dog pointed at his abdomen. Cotton thread had been used to embroider Peppa Pig across his thin belly.

Mad Dog prided himself on being a tough guy. He nearly lost control and strangled the bastard right there.

"Get these stitches out of me! Now!"

He roared, pointing at his stomach.

Xu Tong regretfully explained again, "The Muscle Recovery Potion worked too well. The thread's grown into the flesh. I can remove it, but I'll have to cut open the wound again. Are you sure you want me to?"

Mad Dog looked down at his stomach and hesitated. "Really?"

"Really!"

Xu Tong placed a hand over the left side of his chest and swore, "I swear on my conscience!"

"Like hell I believe you have a conscience."

Mad Dog cursed under his breath, but let go of Xu Tong and reached for a shirt to put on.

"Last night, when I broke in, someone caught me off guard. He seemed to be good at mental attacks too. We've run into a tough one this time."

Mad Dog recounted what had happened the night before. After entering the house, he'd tried to fight the man hand-to-hand, but the man had been far stronger than him. Worse, he'd also had some kind of mental attack. The most troublesome part was that none of Mad Dog's attacks had worked.

Whether he'd tried slashing with a knife or using his ability, the man seemed to have blocked everything with some special technique.

"Did you get a good look at him?"

Xu Tong asked.

"A man, probably in his early forties. About one seventy-five tall!"

Mad Dog tried hard to remember the details, but he hadn't gotten a clear look at the man's face. It had been as if something was covering it, making it impossible to see.

Xu Tong stroked his chin. Based on Mad Dog's description, he'd already formed a rough picture of the man in his mind. But no one at the Forest Farm matched it.

In other words, the person who'd taken the Golden Dagger last night wasn't from the Forest Farm.

"No! There was someone else!"

He thought of the monkeys. The other person couldn't have been fighting Mad Dog while also controlling the monkeys to attack him.

That meant there'd been someone else at the scene, and that person had come for him.

With that thought, Xu Tong took out the body of the monkey he'd killed the day before.

Mad Dog's mouth fell open at the sight of the enormous monkey. After examining the corpse carefully, he mused, "Could there have been two people last night? One went to steal the dagger, and the other came to kill you?"

Then he scrutinized Xu Tong. "But I don't get it. Why would they want to kill you? You're just a poor student. What threat could you possibly pose that makes them keep trying to kill you?"

Xu Tong didn't understand it either. He was about to ask Mad Dog what was special about the Golden Dagger when Mad Dog suddenly waved a hand, signaling that someone was coming. Footsteps approached outside the door.

"Uncle Li Si!"

Before long, Yang Guanjin's voice came from outside. The door opened gently, and she walked in carrying a basket of eggs.

When she saw Mad Dog standing up, her face immediately filled with alarm. "Uncle Li Si, why are you up already? Quick, lie down! Your wound was so bad. What if it opens up again?"

Then she turned to Xu Tong and complained, "You too! Why weren't you keeping an eye on him?"

Yang Guanjin was about to check Mad Dog's wound, and he hurriedly climbed back under the covers. "No need, no need! My wound's fine now. It's fine!"

Mad Dog didn't want Yang Guanjin to discover that his wound had completely healed, much less see Peppa Pig on his belly.

Seeing how stubborn Mad Dog was, Yang Guanjin could only let him have his way. She set the eggs beside the table and reminded him:

"Uncle, Captain Wang didn't expect things to get so dangerous this time either. He'd planned to come check on you, but then he got a call from the higher-ups saying an expert team was coming. He left before dawn to drive out and pick them up. These eggs are a special get-well gift from Captain Wang."

"The expert team!"

Xu Tong and Mad Dog exchanged a look, both sensing that something was wrong.

Yang Guanjin nodded and continued, "That's right. I heard a top expert from the capital was already in our county for an inspection. Someone must have let it slip that a Golden Dagger was unearthed here, so he hurried over with his team. They should be back soon."

As soon as Yang Guanjin finished speaking, the three of them heard a car honking in the distance, outside the Forest Farm.

"Speak of the devil! I'll go take a look. Uncle, get some more rest."

Yang Guanjin left, leaving Xu Tong and Mad Dog staring at each other.

"Let's go take a look!"

Mad Dog tried to head outside, but Xu Tong stopped him. "You were stabbed last night and nearly died. Now you're going to go running around outside? Wouldn't that give you away?"

"Then what do we do?"

Mad Dog frowned. He wanted to confirm as quickly as possible whether the so-called team of experts was the group he feared.

If it was, the two of them would be in an even worse position. They might be pushed aside by those people—or even used as cannon fodder.

Xu Tong slowly turned around and looked at Mad Dog. "Actually, I have another idea."

"What... Pfft!"

Mad Dog's brow twitched. He'd only just opened his mouth when his eyes flew wide. Looking down, he saw a silver dagger sticking into his abdomen...

Xu Tong leaned close, his lips barely moving as he whispered, "Being dead is the best way to stay out of it."

Sorry, my stomach problems flared up again today. The pain was unbearable, so I went to the hospital for tests. The doctor said it was acute gastritis. I spent half the day dealing with it, and lost track of time. I can only post one chapter today. I'm going to rest now and continue updating tomorrow.