Chapter 045 What’s with that “do” tone?

After training his abilities for half the night, Ling Mo suddenly discovered a delightful piece of news—

His abilities had made a breakthrough.

Originally, the items he could manifest were mostly useless little trinkets. The best he could scavenge from the trash pile to use as a weapon was a brick. Just when he hadn’t even had the chance to kick off his “Brick Hero” dream, the list of manifestable items had suddenly expanded.

Moreover, all the newly available items were quite useful, like daggers, short swords, and even katanas, successfully transforming his basic potential from infinite bricks to infinite swords.

Could it be because of his intense training over the last half night?

If it really only required a single night of strenuous exercise to unlock new skills, then this way of enhancing his abilities was way too easy.

However, after attempting to manifest a few new items, he quickly realized there was a problem.

While he could manifest new items, the difficulty was on an entirely different level compared to a brick. He could produce a brick in three seconds with nearly zero consumption, feeling like he had merely taken a regular step. But to manifest a dagger, he needed at least half a minute to fully complete the process, and the consumption was quite evident—it felt like sprinting a hundred meters without warming up.

For the first time, he discovered that these abilities also had fitness benefits.

Too bad it was just in-game; if he could bring that into reality, it would truly be groundbreaking.

…Tsk, if it really could be brought into reality, he probably wouldn’t care about such scraps of help.

All in all, it was good news, indicating a new enhancement in his combat capability.

But just as he was fiddling with the manifested dagger, a figure suddenly appeared on the second floor, interrupting his excitement.

At this time, it was close to dawn, and the dim corridor lights were the only source of illumination. The visitor was a random NPC they had rescued before, but his expression wasn’t great.

“Uh… hello,” seeing the dagger in Ling Mo’s hand, the man’s hesitation grew, “I… I wanted to ask you do, what are your plans do?”

“Hmm?” Ling Mo looked him up and down; his skin color was still normal, which made Ling Mo lower his guard. “We’ll take it one step at a time; for now, we don’t have any plans.”

“But staying here isn’t a solution do; the food will eventually run out do,” the man said, looking worried.

Their food from yesterday was found in the hotel kitchen on the first floor, and the supply was limited, barely enough to split among them. Moreover, he didn’t officially belong to this group. Luckily, Ling Mo kindly gave him a small portion of food, or he would have probably gone hungry all night.

But just staying like this wouldn’t work; they would run out of food in a few days, and then they would starve.

“We’ll talk about what comes next when it comes; maybe there’ll be a turning point then?” Ling Mo didn’t seem to care much. “Such a big deal happened in the city; the people outside can’t just sit back and watch.”

—In reality, it’s definitely like this; no, it should be said that such a large-scale disaster wouldn’t happen in reality. The power of the national machinery can squash any obvious signs of a large disaster in its cradle—provided that those in control of the national machinery are of sound mind.

Unfortunately, this was a game, so who knew how things would develop? Let’s not even mention it—yesterday they saw so many armored vehicles at the police station, and then those police and vehicles seemed to have evaporated into thin air; they hadn’t seen a single police car or officer on the street.

Maybe this city became an isolated city after the disaster started—after all, essentially, this city was merely a dungeon designed for them players to challenge.

But only this NPC didn’t know that.

So Ling Mo found it quite fascinating.

If the NPCs in the dungeon only adhered to basic logic just like the NPCs in their first dungeon, it wouldn’t feel much, but this NPC in front of him gave him the impression of being a living, breathing person.

A desperate survivor in the face of a great disaster.

And destined not to see hope.

Yet under this environment, Ling Mo wasn’t worried about death at all; he was only a bit concerned about whether they could successfully clear the dungeon.

This huge difference in perception brought around philosophical musings.

He couldn’t quite put a finger on a definitive answer; it just felt very subtle.

Just a game dungeon… Was it really necessary for NPCs to have such human-like behavioral and thought logic?

“I… I’m really scared do,” the man, unaware of Ling Mo’s thoughts, perhaps slightly lowered his guard thanks to Ling Mo’s friendly demeanor. “I tried calling before; all the emergency numbers are unreachable. I don’t know if you’ve tried after… and also, I can’t see a single police car on the street. I’m really confused about where they all went? Did they run away do?”

“I don’t know about that,” Ling Mo shook his head. “But I guess with such a big incident in the city, there must be some rescue measures; we’ll just have to act according to the situation when the time comes.”

Otherwise, how would they clear the dungeon, right?

“Really going to have rescue measures do?” The man was half-convinced.

Ling Mo shrugged: “Just think of it as there will be; thinking this way will make you feel a bit better.”

Pausing, he turned and asked, “By the way, I’m really curious, what is ‘do’? Is that a tone particle?”

“Hmm?” The man was stunned, “What do? I don’t know do…”

Then there was another pause.

“I don’t… do… I don’t want to talk about this… do… how do I reply do…”

It seemed that after Ling Mo pointed it out, the man fell into some strange state. His expression gradually twisted as if he were trying to stop himself from saying that tone particle, yet he couldn’t help but blurt out one after another until all that was left was ceaseless “dodododo”—just like those crazies outside when they charged.

At the same time, his skin began to visibly redden at an alarming rate, transforming into something like an infected person within seconds.

No, actually, he was an infected person.

Ling Mo: “…”

Looks like some fun is brewing.

Realizing this, he suddenly jumped up from his chair, kicked the nearby fat guy’s door: “Everyone get up! Something’s happened!”

After shouting that, he immediately stepped back a few paces to keep a safe distance, drew his pistol, and aimed at the man, speaking in a low voice, “You good? If you’re not sick, take a step!”

“Do—!” The man suddenly let out a particularly high-pitched sound and then abruptly turned to look at Ling Mo. His expression was completely consistent with the previously seen red-faced man, and the almost overflowing desire to attack in his eyes left no doubt about his danger.

However, someone who was having a normal chat just a minute ago, Ling Mo couldn’t just go on and kill him: “Wake up, brother! If you can leave here alive, you’ll be the hottest dude in the city; don’t be taken down before dawn, man!”

“Huh? Who’s the hot dude?” Just at that moment, the fat guy hastily opened his door, clearly startled awake by Ling Mo’s commotion, with a somewhat dazed expression.

Then he instantly became the man’s target—because he was closer.

With a shout of “do,” the man charged, slamming a headbutt into the fat guy’s waist.

Too bad it didn’t budge at all.