Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 164 (Patreon)

Chapter 164: An Incredibly Unbelievable Failure

Winter still had a tail left, and it was some days away from spring. The mountain wind was as cold as a knife.

The three people on the mountain top were thinly dressed, especially Ruby, who was in a vest and shorts, yet unaffected by the low temperature.

Uncle Li materialized a laptop and then entered the name "Luo" on a page.

After he pressed the Enter key, the aura surging around him instantly dissipated into invisibility, entering the state of 'Zetsu', while his laptop remained.

The screen displayed countless codes, swirling and entangling like a storm.

"How about it?" Aya looked at the screen and asked.

"Wait a moment, the verification condition is only a single-word name and appearance, which increases the difficulty of breaking through the firewall."

Uncle Li stared at the chaotic screen of codes, his chubby hands typing rapidly on the keyboard, his technique resembling the playing of piano keys, revealing a unique rhythm of beauty.

As he gradually increased his typing speed, the swirling codes slowed down, but still not enough to yield the desired result.

Time passed by, and Uncle Li's bald head unknowingly began to sweat, his hands dancing over the keyboard at the fastest rhythm and speed.

Seeing that Uncle Li had already spent over half an hour, Aya's expression of surprise grew more evident, yet she remained silent, not wanting to disturb his process of breaking through Luo's data firewall.

At some point, Ruby quietly approached beside Uncle Li, looking at the content displayed on the laptop screen, equally surprised.

Though the speed of the chaotic codes had decreased, they had not yet stabilized.

Even as nonchalant as he was, Ruby now dared not act recklessly, staring intently at the laptop screen, silent.

Obviously, Ruby was also a Nen user, and previously, Luo could not tell that Ruby was a Nen user because Ruby had not used 'Ten' to retain his dispersing aura. Now, however, he was using 'Ten'.

For Nen users, using 'Ten' to stabilize the aura at all times is a basic practice, ultimately maintaining it even in sleep, with the earlier one starts, the more likely they are to keep their youthful appearance into their forties.

'Ten' is also a way to distinguish whether someone is a Nen user, and Ruby, in front of Luo, had not used 'Ten', allowing his internal aura to dissipate, hence Luo initially didn't realize that Ruby was a Nen user.

Ruby's behavior could be seen as a minor tactic to conceal his power.

An hour passed, and Uncle Li's face gradually turned pale, while the expressions of Aya and Ruby, who were observing from the side, grew increasingly strange. They were well aware of Uncle Li's Nen, but they had never seen him take so long.

Name, appearance, birthday, blood type, personality...

Regardless of the condition, even the simplest, appearance, could be a verification condition.

Conversely, not inputting any conditions, just relying on a remembered appearance, the difficulty of breaking through would be the highest. The more known conditions, the lower the difficulty of breaking through.

Uncle Li had learned a word from Luo's name and scanned Luo's appearance with his eyes, using these two conditions as the basis to break through the firewall, which usually only takes between twenty-five to thirty minutes.

However, now that an hour had passed, no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't break through the firewall, let alone the next step of penetration.

"I've never encountered this situation before."

Uncle Li maintained the highest typing speed, trying his utmost to gather and soothe the codes, hoping to use these codes as a trump card for attack. Yet, after struggling for over an hour, he couldn't even get to the firewall.

"Could it be because he gave a fake name?" Aya hesitated, then asked.

"That's his real name."

Uncle Li's eyes moved left and right with the streaming codes, affirming Aya's doubt.

Aya exclaimed, "Then how could this be? I didn't see anything special about him."

"I'm sure Luo is his real name, but it's not his full name."

Uncle Li's lips began to turn as pale as his face, he bit his lower lip tightly, and said gravely, "And besides, even if the name isn't real, it doesn't matter, as long as you remember the appearance, you can always find an opportunity to break through."

"But I can't even see his firewall..."

As he spoke the last word, his voice began to tremble, not from fear, but from excessive physical exertion.

"Ruby, get to work." Aya's heart grew heavy, glancing at the sweat-covered face of Uncle Li.

"It seems I have to take action myself!"

Ruby made a motion as if he was DJing, grinning to reveal

 his white teeth, his body's aura surged, quickly condensing into shapes of musical notes.

The next second, those notes, like burst bubbles, twisted for a while before being absorbed back into his aura, disappearing into invisibility.

Meanwhile, Ruby stopped his actions, looking at Aya, and seriously said, "This handsome guy needs a pair of earplugs."

"Damn."

Upon hearing this, Aya burst out a swear word, glanced at the ground, and found the earplugs previously discarded by Ruby, stuck among the rocks.

She quickly ran over, picked up the dusty earplugs, then returned to Ruby's side, handing them over without good grace: "Hurry up, Uncle Li seems like he can't hold on much longer."

Ruby looked at the blackened earplugs, frowning heavily, and disdainfully said, "These precious ears of mine, and you're heartless enough to use such dirty earplugs on me?"

"Go to hell."

Aya couldn't stand it anymore, her eyes widened, and she kicked Ruby's thigh, angrily said: "Keep being so effeminate, and I'll kick you down the mountain!"

Ruby took the kick without any sign of pain, making a gesture as if showing his cards, grinning and shouting, "This kick, I'll give you 60 points."

Aya, seeing this, closed her eyes in despair.

"Can you two be serious? I can't hold on much longer." Uncle Li's strained voice came through.

Aya glanced at him, then slapped the earplugs into Ruby's hand, frowning and said, "Get to work."

"Ugh."

Ruby reluctantly took the earplugs, inserting them into his ears, and his expression immediately became serious. As his aura surged, his body began to dance, each movement rhythmic and coherent.

The aura swirling around his body morphed into musical notes, encircling him.

In a silent world... creating musical notes!

He stepped with rhythmically rich dance moves, swinging his arms to drive the musical notes into Uncle Li's body.

Moments later, Uncle Li's pale face showed a hint of rosiness, and his typing speed increased slightly.

"I just don't believe it... what kind of monster are you."

With Ruby's musical notes boosting him, Uncle Li's expression became stern.

"Uncle Li, keep it up."

Aya walked over to Uncle Li, cheering him on.

Five minutes passed... ten minutes passed... fifteen minutes passed...

Finally, the codes on the screen stabilized, slowly condensing into a picture made of blocks, which resembled Luo to a degree of about sixty to seventy percent.

"It's out!" Aya saw the block image, her spirits instantly lifted.

Uncle Li nodded, the glasses behind his lenses reflecting a glint, and he chuckled: "As long as there are verification conditions, there's nothing that can't be broken through..."

Before he could finish speaking, an unexpected change occurred.

Just as the block image was assembled, the bright screen suddenly went dark, as if someone maliciously pulled the plug.

At the same time, Uncle Li's laptop suddenly exploded, transforming into a surge of aura that blasted Uncle Li and Aya, who was close by, several meters away.

Ruby saw this, stiffened his movements, and stopped using Nen.

What is this situation?

The three of them looked at each other, all revealing expressions of disbelief, and the scene fell into a deathly silence.

"What the hell is that guy?"

After a moment, Aya looked at Uncle Li.

"I'd like to know that too."

Uncle Li looked down at his sweat-soaked hands, which were trembling slightly.

He had truly never encountered such a situation.

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