Chapter 12 "Get Ready?!"

"Get ready?!" Hao Ren's feet felt unsteady as soon as he heard the data terminal say that. "Get ready for what?! Are we really going to fight a pack of wolves head-on?"

Hao Ren looked down at his current outfit. Being empty-handed was bad enough, but he was also wearing pajamas! Wearing pajamas was bad enough, but he wasn't wearing shoes! Not wearing shoes was bad enough, but he vaguely remembered that the black wolves on this grassland were bigger than him! In this situation, the data terminal actually had the nerve to say "get ready," and he immediately had the urge to tie that broken thing to a rope and use it as a meteor hammer: it was the only weapon he could think of in the current situation.

The data terminal ignored the dissatisfaction in Hao Ren's tone. It simply floated into Hao Ren's pocket and uttered a baffling sentence: "Your salary has arrived, but how much you can withdraw this time depends on you."

Hao Ren was just about to ask what that meant when a distinct rustling sound suddenly came from the nearby bushes: the wolves seemed to have noticed that this "prey" had become vigilant, and they were impatiently closing the encirclement.

As the data terminal said, it wasn't realistic to run out of the wolf pack's encirclement by force. Hao Ren could only concentrate his mind and prepare to face the first challenge he encountered in the dream plane.

He recalled the scene when he faced hundreds of steel undead in the underground palace that day, but to be honest, that battle wasn't very useful as a reference. At that time, he had two female superhumans with explosive combat power by his side, and those tin cans had just woken up, were extremely slow, and clumsy in their movements. Apart from their tenacious vitality, they had no advantages. As long as he calmed down and kicked hard enough, it wouldn't take much effort to deal with those tin cans. But dealing with the wolf pack from the "other world" was different. Perhaps in Vivian's eyes, these wolves were more "inferior" than those knight undead, but in the eyes of Hao Ren, an ordinary person with little combat experience, the threat of wild beasts was obviously higher.

He suddenly found it a little funny: for the sake of so-called improving his strength, he ran into the dream plane like a reckless fool to find trouble with wild wolves. Did doing this really make sense?

His wild thoughts were interrupted by a fierce light in the darkness. The wolf pack had approached to a very close distance. The stench of beasts floated in the night wind, and black shadows appeared in his field of vision. The smell of the wolf pack was within reach. Hao Ren didn't know what to do if these beasts swarmed over, but he guessed that these guys might send one or two to test the waters first: that's what they said in the animal world, and he didn't know how different the wolves in the dream plane were from the wolves in the real world...

The confrontation between the two sides didn't last long. After discovering that the ambush had failed, the first wolf couldn't hold back and pounced.

Hao Ren only saw a huge black shadow rapidly enlarge in his vision. His spirit was concentrated to the extreme in that instant, and the muscles all over his body were tense to the point of bursting. Then, he suddenly dodged—before making this move, he fantasized that he would throw a punch and hit the black wolf's fragile chest and abdomen, and then take the first kill beautifully, but the fact proved that this bravery didn't belong to him yet. Faced with the rapidly approaching danger, dodging was a person's first instinct.

But at least he dodged well. That giant black wolf with a strange appearance was obviously more ferocious and agile than the wolves on Earth, but it was still dodged. Moreover, at the same time as he dodged, Hao Ren also subconsciously waved his right hand. He vaguely felt that he should have hit something, but he wasn't sure how effective this blow was.

After landing, the first black wolf that pounced quickly turned around and kept a certain distance from Hao Ren, confronting him. The moonlight shone on the grassland, and Hao Ren's enhanced vision could clearly see what this beast looked like.

They were roughly similar to the wolves on Earth, but their size was twice that of normal wolves. Their fur was pitch black, and many plate-like black protrusions could be seen on their heads and waists, which seemed to be some kind of keratinous substance—it was impossible to classify them as the same species as the wolves on Earth.

The surrounding wolves watching the battle didn't stir at all. They simply adjusted their formation slightly, making the encirclement even tighter. Hao Ren actually saw a "watching the show" look in those countless eyes. He was stunned for a moment: this look was real, and the surrounding wolves were indeed observing the current situation with interest.

"Roar—" The first black wolf let out a threatening low growl in its throat. The sound seemed a little annoyed. One of the keratinous protrusions on its waist was broken, which seemed to be the result of Hao Ren's random punch just now.

In the blink of an eye, this beast pounced again.

But Hao Ren was in a much better state than before. He found that his body's reactions could actually keep up with the extreme pounce of this strange wolf, which greatly increased his confidence. After confirming that the surrounding wolves didn't seem to intend to gang up on him, he felt even more relieved. At the moment when the enemy pounced, he repeated his old trick, concentrating on observing the giant wolf's pouncing movements, then dodging and punching.

In the instant of the confrontation, he found that he could see every hair on the giant wolf's body even at such a fast speed. And at the moment of throwing the punch, he even had the spare energy to fine-tune the angle of attack. This was a feeling that he could never have experienced when he used brute force to deal with those slow-moving steel undead in the underground palace.

"Bang!" A punch hit the monster wolf's waist and abdomen solidly. Hao Ren tried his best to avoid hitting those keratinous armors like last time, so the effect of this second punch was obviously more effective. The giant wolf let out a clear whimper and missed Hao Ren's clothes as it pounced, but Hao Ren quickly felt a burning sensation on his face. He reached out and touched it, and found that his hand was covered in blood.

If it had been normal, his legs would have gone weak, because it meant that he had almost had his head bitten off by the monster wolf just now, but now he couldn't care about shivering, because after landing, that wolf immediately turned around and charged again. Hao Ren's reaction at this moment was finally a beat slower than the beast's. He had already seen the wolf's mouth approaching him, but his body couldn't keep up with his thoughts. He could only watch helplessly as that blood basin mouth bit down on his arm with a snap.

"I f—" Hao Ren subconsciously shouted half a sentence, but before he had time to recall the stories of revolutionary martyrs, he discovered something. "Hey, why doesn't it hurt?"

The giant wolf hung heavily on his arm, and the weight was definitely not fake, but when Hao Ren took a closer look, he found that his arm was covered with a thin layer of translucent light film. Although the light film was thin, it was indestructible. The wolf's teeth bit on this layer of light film and had already broken in half.

The giant wolf reacted half a beat slower. It wasn't until it chewed hard and found that the taste was wrong that it howled and retreated, circling a few meters away with a mouth full of blood.

Hao Ren was still confused when he heard the data terminal say faintly: "The two punches just now were good, and the mentality adjustment was barely passable. The fact proves that you can maintain a fighting mentality when the auxiliary tools are invalid. The judgment condition is established, and your basic ability as an inspector has arrived: Rigid Shield. Although it's not as good as a psionic shield, this thing has no radiation and is enough for you to use."

Hao Ren's body shook, and then he was overjoyed: Crows 12345 finally wasn't screwing him over!

"But this machine reminds you that the capacity of the Rigid Shield is limited. The 'little things' in your body that are used to open the shield are symbiotic with your body. This thing is only for the inspector to save his life, so don't treat it as invincible. Of course, it's more than enough to deal with these few wolves."

"That's enough!" Hao Ren waved his hand excitedly. After discovering that he finally had an ability that could be called a "skill," he couldn't wait to try it out, so he took the initiative to pounce on another monster wolf that was closest to him.

The wolf pack finally stopped watching. These beasts clamored in unison, and four wolves pounced on Hao Ren in two directions at the same time. The latter didn't dodge or avoid, and directly relied on the shield to let them bite him hard. After breaking a pile of wolf teeth, he finally successfully pounced on his target. The giant wolf's brute force and agility were not to be underestimated, and the two (or more?) immediately began to fight like this.

The fight was earth-shattering and impressive—actually, the commotion wasn't that big, but saying it like this would make it seem more powerful. Anyway, Hao Ren felt that his fight was very intense, and he ignored the data terminal's complaint that "your fighting style is not much different from animals." In the end, the tough were afraid of the stubborn, and the stubborn were afraid of the desperate. Hao Ren was about the same strength as these black wolves, and he also had a shield on his body. Before long, he beat the wolf under him dizzy. The surrounding wolves hesitated and didn't dare to come forward after discovering that this strange man couldn't be bitten at all. But the ferocity of the wolves was not fake after all. The giant wolf, whose face was covered in blood under Hao Ren's fists, still roared with its neck stretched out: "Dare you spare my life?!"

Hao Ren was not willing to let go: "You're dreaming! Who pounced first just now!"

"I was just watching the fun, the one who bit you first was someone else!" The giant wolf roared, and turned to look around, "You grandsons, don't just watch, come and help!"

"It's the same no matter how many come, I'll just grab one of you... Holy crap, you can talk?!"

"Holy crap, your reaction is so slow?"