Chapter 42: Continuous Face-Slapping
Twenty-five hours later, inside a civilian residence.
Crack, crack.
A crisp sound reached the assistant's ears. Lying in bed, the assistant's eyelids twitched. She felt a slight stinging sensation in her lower abdomen, but fortunately it no longer affected her combat ability, which brought a smile to her face.
"So noisy..."
The assistant was a bit groggy. She lifted her hand from under the blanket, the soft woolen fabric sliding down, revealing her pale arm wrapped in bandages resting on the edge of the bed.
After a moment, the assistant's snoring became steady again. The warm, dry bedding made her reluctant to open her eyes.
Crack, crack...
The strange sound came again. The assistant's brow furrowed.
Bang!
The bed beneath the assistant suddenly collapsed on one side. Her expression was one of bewilderment. A moment later, she heard the sound of claws scraping against the floor, followed by something shaking its fur.
"Huh?"
The assistant was clearly confused. The thick curtains at the window blocked the sunlight, leaving the room she was in somewhat dim.
The assistant sat up, the blanket sliding off. Her exposed body wasn't fully visible, as she was wrapped in large strips of bandages.
When the assistant's gaze swept around the room, her body stiffened. What met her eyes were five Icefield Wolves. One of the strongest had a scar over its eye. As for the other four, the assistant felt like a strange creature had somehow mixed in among them, but she couldn't identify it at a glance.
Sitting on the bed, the assistant dared not move. She knew about Icefield Wolves. At this distance, even if she had a gun, she would still end up dead.
"Grr..."
The scar-eyed Icefield Wolf let out a low growl from its throat. The other three wolves sitting on the floor stood up, their ice-blue eyes fixed on the assistant.
"Commander... wolves have gotten into the hideout."
The assistant spoke in a low voice. As soon as she finished, the scar-eyed Icefield Wolf leaped onto the bed, baring its full set of sharp fangs.
"Woof!"
After a canine-like bark, the scar-eyed Icefield Wolf on the bed shrank its neck, tucked its tail between its legs, and jumped off, whimpering.
The assistant's train of thought hit a dead end. She couldn't figure out what was happening. Her gaze shifted to the 'Icefield Wolf' that had made the unique sound. To her surprise, it didn't seem to be a wolf at all, but a large dog whose fur color closely resembled that of an Icefield Wolf.
What stunned the assistant even more was that the large dog seemed to possess high intelligence. Its gaze almost seemed to be greeting her?
To confirm this, the assistant raised her hand: "Hello there, little doggy."
"Grrr..."
The four Icefield Wolves surrounded the bed, as if ready to tear the assistant apart at any moment.
Just then, the door pushed open, and Su Xiao stood at the entrance.
"Bubu, time to eat."
Hearing Su Xiao's voice, the four 'fierce and vicious' Icefield Wolves lay down on the floor. One of them had a face swollen like two steamed buns, looking incredibly comical. Once, when Bubu Wang had teased a Gobaya Wasp and gotten stung, it had looked exactly like this.
That's right, Bubu Wang had come to rendezvous with Su Xiao. This guy had already killed the alpha wolf and taken control of the Icefield Wolf pack. Amu had stayed behind on the icefield to prevent any accidents.
Bubu Wang yawned, with faint traces of wood shavings still visible on its nose. The blood of a home-wrecker flowed through its veins.
Bubu Wang hadn't come alone to meet Su Xiao; it had brought four underlings. Among them, Scar-Eye was the most ferocious, with Strength, Agility, and Stamina attributes all between 85 and 90 points. Its 90-point Agility was even a True Attribute. It had as many as six different abilities and was a Leader-class Boss creature.
As for how Bubu Wang commanded these Icefield Wolves, it certainly wasn't through brute force. In fact, it couldn't defeat any single Icefield Wolf in a fight.
Bubu Wang used intelligence and strategy. Its appearance was very similar to an Icefield Wolf. When it first entered the pack, it was a low-ranking wolf on the fringes, the most insignificant kind.
Once, when the scar-eyed Icefield Wolf was severely injured, it was abandoned by its own kind. Bubu Wang dragged it into a snow cave and saved its life using the recovery effect of the Snow Goddess Halo. With Bubu Wang's intelligence, food was never a problem.
At first, the scar-eyed Icefield Wolf wasn't grateful to Bubu Wang and would even attack it. But sharing food gradually made the scar-eyed wolf's attitude friendlier. However, the scar-eyed wolf had its own pride: wolves would never be slaves, unless it was given a pretty female wolf to carry on its lineage.
With the lure of food and the crushing weight of intelligence, Bubu Wang soon tricked a female Icefield Wolf into coming over. In the scar-eyed wolf's eyes, the female wolf was quite attractive. But with Bubu Wang's level of intelligence, it saw the female wolf as just another wolf, with no other thoughts whatsoever.
The life-saving grace plus the gift of food greatly increased the scar-eyed wolf's goodwill. The pretty female wolf was the final straw that broke the wolf's pride. From then on, Bubu Wang had acquired its first underling.
Once the ice was broken, things became easier. Using the scar-eyed wolf's combat power, Bubu Wang forcibly recruited over a dozen Icefield Wolf enforcers from the pack. Ample food turned those wolves into Underling No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4.
Being able to do this was actually related to Bubu Wang's high Charm attribute of 75 points, plus the similarity in appearance, which further boosted the Charm attribute.
Bubu Wang's army gradually expanded. With Amu's reinforcement, the size of the wolf pack under Bubu Wang's command was second only to the alpha wolf's group. Under the crushing weight of intelligence, the alpha wolf quickly became a lone wolf, surrounded and killed by the Icefield Wolves. From then on, Bubu Wang had nearly ruled that entire icefield.
After doing all this, Bubu Wang rushed to meet up with Su Xiao, leading to the current scene.
At the dining table, the assistant stared blankly at Bubu Wang. She couldn't understand how it could use utensils more skillfully than she could.
"This is..."
The assistant finally voiced the question in her mind.
"My partner."
Su Xiao chewed his food as he sketched out a draft.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang barked, pointing its paw at the center of the sketch, meaning: 'This is the clock tower, about 30 meters high.'
"Hah..."
The assistant stood up, washed her face to calm down, and then sat back down at the table.
"Tell me the intelligence you have."
Su Xiao tossed the sketch to Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang had taken a tour around the city earlier, even sneaking into the Divine Court branch in the city center and having breakfast with the mission target, Dubois Yis. From start to finish, Dubois Yis hadn't noticed Bubu Wang at all, and neither had Buck, who was wrapped in bandages.
"The target, Dubois Yis, is located in the Divine Court branch of this city. The defenses there are tight; infiltrating it is completely impossible... What is this!"
The assistant stared at the sketch in Bubu Wang's paw. Bubu Wang grabbed a nearby pen and wrote several large characters on the sketch: Detailed Map of the Divine Court Branch.
The assistant felt an invisible hand slap her across the face.
"Uh... with a sketch, the operation will be much more convenient. But Dubois Yis's daily routine..."
Slap~
A document was placed in front of the assistant, clearly recording everything Dubois Yis did in a day, even how many times he went to the bathroom was written in detail. It included how many pieces of bread Dubois Yis ate last night and even noted that he was left-handed.
Another invisible slap. The assistant felt a bit defeated. She lowered her head and started eating, her cheeks puffing out.