The Gronder's mouth dripped with transparent mucus, its gaze somewhat unfocused.
However, upon the approach of the Anjanath and the Thunderjaw, it immediately regained its alertness.
Li Fan sheathed his blade and sat down on the snow, looking up at the night sky and sighing, "The scene of our last meeting was truly unforgettable."
The team was a little confused, as this was clearly the first time Li Fan had encountered the Gronder.
The Gronder lowered its head, its guard lowered, a look of bewilderment in its eyes.
"Ao..."
"What do you mean I shouldn't have come?"
Li Fan asked.
"Ao..."
The Gronder looked up at the dark night sky and let out a sigh-like low growl.
"To chant its name... to participate in the war of fate... to experience unavoidable death..."
Since the Gronder had mistaken him for someone else, Li Fan decided to use this opportunity to inquire about the whereabouts of Patch's master.
However, the results were beyond his wildest imagination.
Patch's master had indeed not been killed by the Gronder; he had gone in search of the forbidden!
This was impossible! This guy was also a transmigrator. Early on, by casually fighting Felynes in the outer regions of the snowy mountains, he should have realized this was not the same as the game.
How could he possibly go to hunt the Black Dragon?
His whereabouts remained unknown, and a greater mystery had been added.
"Buzz! Buzz!..."
The Melynx, carrying a bubble of healing liquid, hovered above its head. Dilu leaped up and swiped with a claw, scattering healing powder.
"Li Fan, are you okay, meow?"
Dilu asked with concern.
"I'm fine, much better."
Li Fan responded, still in a daze.
"Big Brother, do you have any information about Master's whereabouts, meow?"
Patch asked nervously.
"We can confirm now that Senior's disappearance has nothing to do with the Gronder."
"Ah... is that true, meow."
"I can guarantee it."
"Uh... then our previous revenge operation was completely misdirected, meow."
Patch's shoulders slumped.
"How did you get revenge?"
Li Fan asked curiously.
"I hunted beast meat in the outer regions, then carried it to the top and stuffed it with dung bombs, feeding them to the Gronder, meow."
Yudora's mouth twitched. She felt like she had seen this method of revenge somewhere before.
"Not bad... I mean, the idea is good, understanding the vast difference between the two sides."
Li Fan praised.
"This was just a prank, wasn't it."
Yudora said helplessly.
"No, beast meat with added substances could indeed affect the Gronder. But without a follow-up attack plan, it would only increase the monster's resistance to it. Meat stuffed with dung bombs is different. Although the effect isn't as strong as in tropical regions, as long as it's consistently fed to the Gronder, the low-level monsters in the area can use this scent as a warning signal to stay away from the Gronder's activity range."
Li Fan explained.
"That's amazing, meow."
Patch exclaimed.
"Ao?"
The Gronder felt like the team was talking about it and let out a tentative roar.
"No, we weren't talking about you... I see you're hungry too. Go find a place to eat."
Li Fan waved his hand.
"Ao..."
"Another fight tomorrow? I'd like to have a good spar, but my legs can't take it."
The resilience and recovery abilities of humans and monsters were on entirely different levels. Li Fan decisively refused.
"Ao..."
The Gronder let out a somewhat disappointed roar, leaped up, and began to climb the icy rock face, leaving.
"We used to fight every day... What a joke."
Hearing the meaning conveyed by the Gronder, Li Fan found it incredible.
The team returned to the cave. Li Fan was sketching and writing in his notebook, but he kept tearing out pages and crumpling them into balls in dissatisfaction.
The team members knew he was planning their next move, so no one disturbed him.
Patch, with his back to the others, began to organize the items in his backpack.
A paw-shaped meatball stamp, dozens of coins, a stack of Felyne tickets, and a small piece of Hellfire Stone.
These items, laid out on a cloth, were Patch's entire possessions.
Then, he took out the PSP from his plush chest armor and reluctantly placed it on the cloth.
Patch looked at it for a moment, scratched his side, and couldn't help but sigh.
The team's arrival had indeed brought hope for finding his master, but seeing Li Fan's thoughtful expression, Patch guessed that things were developing in a complicated direction.
If they were to leave the snowy mountains to investigate, the current reward would certainly not be enough for the team.
"Uh... I still can't figure it out."
Li Fan tossed the notebook aside, looking frustrated.
The behavior of this transmigrator who appeared in Pokke Village could not be explained by logic.
Even more bizarrely, everyone had forgotten his existence, to an extent even greater than that of the Guild's chief hunter.
Only the Gronder, who fought him daily, retained the most vivid impression.
Seeing that Li Fan had stopped pondering, Patch gathered the cloth spread on the ice into a bundle and approached him.
"Big Brother! This is all I have, meow! I can also sign a lifelong contract as a Felyne. No matter what, please don't give up on searching for Master."
"The problem isn't the reward, Patch, but that your master's actions are incomprehensible. He went... to seek the forbidden."
Li Fan had initially not wanted to tell him, but Patch was, after all, the client, and he had been searching for five years with significant memory loss.
"The forbidden, meow..."
Patch's eyes widened.
That was the legend of legends, a terrifying existence that all creatures avoided.
Rumor had it that merely chanting their names would bring about destruction.
"Perhaps he didn't bring you along because he wanted to protect you."
Li Fan offered the deduction he had come up with.
Felynes couldn't participate in direct combat, but if they cooperated with hunters for a long time, they could provide a lot of assistance.
Although such help was insignificant in the face of the forbidden, if he wanted to fight with all his might, he would definitely bring a Felyne.
The reason that transmigrator didn't bring Patch was likely because he knew he wouldn't be coming back.
"Hmm... things are finally clear. Thank you, team, meow. These are my personal belongings, consider them a gift."
Patch said, placing the bundle down, and then began to put on his gear.
"Patch, meow... Let's leave together when we go down the mountain."
Dilu, sensing his emotional distress, quickly advised.
"I don't want to wait anymore, meow. Now that I know Master's whereabouts, I must find him, at least to bring back his remains."
Patch fastened his backpack and said calmly.
"Sigh... the investigation isn't actually over yet."
Li Fan informed him helplessly.
Patch suddenly turned his head, but quickly drooped his ears in disappointment.
"I understand, Big Brother, meow. You don't want me to go to my death. Perhaps I'll die on the way before even reaching Shureid City."
"No, your master isn't the only one who's missing. If you're willing, you can continue to investigate with our team. I feel we'll be at least closer to the truth than we are now."
Li Fan informed him.
Patch thought of the monsters on the team and immediately understood the meaning of his words.
"I can handle any job, meow!"
Patch excitedly raised his paw.
"Take back everything in the bundle except for the treasures."
Even without opening the bundle, Li Fan saw the silver metal ring through the gap and knew it was a PSP.
"Treasures... they can't be awakened anymore, meow."
Patch said somewhat dejectedly.
"I'll take a look. Perhaps it can be repaired."
Li Fan said, pressing the power button and tapping the keys. After a moment, the screen remained black.
Recalling the operating procedure, Li Fan opened the UMD disc drive.
"Click!"
As the disc drive opened, a scent of long-sealed burnt material emerged.
A UMD disc with a plastic case appeared. After pulling it out, Li Fan was shocked by its degree of damage.
First, there were severe burn marks that had melted and shrunken the disc.
The cracks on the disc surface and the plastic case were densely distributed, with no intact areas found.
Li Fan couldn't help but feel strange, as even deliberate destruction might not cause such comprehensive and detailed damage.
He carefully placed the disc on the ice and then examined the inside of the UMD disc drive.
Aside from a few minor scratches, there were no abnormal structures, making the severe damage to the disc even more incomprehensible.
"Click!" He tried to close the disc drive and pressed the power button again.
"Ding... ding ding."
The black screen lit up, and the familiar startup sound played.
"It's awake, meow!"
Patch exclaimed and rushed over to look.
After a brief black screen, the PSP did not enter the system. Instead, after a period of reading, it directly entered a save file selection interface.
"What doesn't kill me makes me stronger."
Below the sentence made of colored blocks, there were three selectable save slots.
Li Fan realized that this sentence did not originate from the wallpaper but from the save interface.
He tried pressing the directional keys, and the cursor immediately stopped at the first save slot with information.
Character Name: u瀳_簽???鮱
HR Level: 9h?斠
To the right of the garbled information, a hunter character model loaded.
The armor was the Fatalis set, and the weapon was the Fatalis Bow, "Heavenly Roar."
Looking at the character in the save slot, Li Fan became even more convinced of Patch's experience.
"This is Master, meow! I remembered many things by looking at this image!"
Patch's paws trembled with excitement.
Li Fan selected the first save slot.
After a brief loading, a string of warning red text appeared.
This save file is corrupted! Cannot be read!
Li Fan selected the second blank slot and clicked confirm.
Duplicate character detected, do you wish to inherit the original save file?
※※※ Note: Inheriting the original save file carries a severe risk of detection.
Duplicate character detected? Severe risk of detection?
Li Fan, feeling increasingly strange, selected [No].
The character creation familiarization phase did not appear. Instead, a slightly slow loading progress bar took its place.
After the confirmation of successful creation, a male hunter wearing the Narukami chest and leg armor appeared on the right side of the screen.
Is this the system that Senior used?
Li Fan wasn't sure if this description was accurate.
After a brief familiarization with the controls, attributes and ability activation were displayed more intuitively as data.
These data were very helpful for training.
However, Li Fan was disappointed to find that this seemed to be just a simple data panel.
Its function was limited to reading one's own information and displaying it on the screen.
"What is this disc for? It looks like the burnt one."
Yudora asked, looking on.
"That should just be an icon. If the UMD disc were reading, it would start spinning..."
Li Fan said, then looked at the severely damaged disc on the ground and suddenly noticed something unusual.
If this system was just an attribute panel, why would there be an icon of a UMD disc?
Li Fan moved the cursor with the directional keys, clicked on the disc, and confirmed.
"Squeak... squeak squeak..."
With a faint spinning sound, the disc icon began to rotate.
Super Regeneration Disc in production, please wait...
"This..."
Li Fan was speechless.
"Buzz..."
As the spinning sound gradually increased, after about a minute.
"Click!" The UMD disc opened on its own, revealing a disc with a plastic case.
Prompt: Only one Super Regeneration Disc can be produced per day. Inserting it into the disc drive and running it will take effect immediately, lasting for 10 minutes.
Li Fan took out the Super Regeneration Disc and held it near the campfire, observing it quietly for a moment. He seemed to understand how the previous transmigrator had gradually become stronger.
"If he wanted to become stronger with this disc, there was only one way."
Although Li Fan had a theory, he still found it incredible.
"Can this thing enhance combat power?"
Yudora took it to examine. Apart from the disc surface reflecting a rainbow light, she didn't notice anything special.
"Yes, the process is a bit horrifying."
Li Fan sighed.
"What do you mean, meow?"
Patch asked eagerly.
"Excessive strength training, in essence, is also a process of destruction and reconstruction. If the injury is not too severe, the body will become stronger after healing."
Li Fan stated his conjecture.
"This way of getting stronger has existed for a long time."
Yudora was confused.
"If, within a certain period, you can recover from injuries at an extremely fast rate, then a single battle can cause the process of destruction and reconstruction to repeat several times at a very high intensity."
"You... you mean that the battles between Patch's master and the Gronder were merely training?"
Yudora found this deduction unbelievable.
"In the beginning, he certainly wouldn't have used the Gronder as a training target. Even with the Super Regeneration Disc's ability, it shouldn't be able to regenerate severed limbs. I suspect he started with weaker monsters and gradually increased the training difficulty. When his body could withstand stronger monsters, he would switch to the next opponent."
Li Fan offered his conjecture.
"Fighting monsters to the death..."
With Yudora's hunting experience, she could quickly imagine the bloody scene.
"This kind of desperate battle can not only rapidly strengthen the body but also quickly hone hunting skills... But if this is true, there's still another incomprehensible point."
Li Fan sighed.
"What is it, meow?"
Patch pressed.
"The damage from these desperate battles can be recovered by super regeneration, but the pain cannot be negated. Your master has reached a level where he can completely defeat the Gronder... No, that Gronder, through constant fighting, is stronger than an ordinary Gronder. Yet, even so, he continued high-frequency training until he sought the forbidden. This willpower... it's difficult for an ordinary hunter to achieve. I still can't figure out why he chose to persist."