"What?"
Alex saw them squint at him. None of them seemed to believe him. Before they could ask more, he said, "It wasn't your average street dog. I had to fight against a mid-sized muscular dog."
Their eyes went wide the next instant.
Russell shouted in shock, "What! A mid-sized dog in the first trial?"
Alex nodded his head. "Yup."
Solmb gulped down, took the next shot, and said, "Doesn't fighting against something like that usually happen in the second or third trial?"
Alex sighed. "I don't know. Maybe the difficulty of the trial increased again, or maybe I was just unlucky."
Carl took out his phone. "Wait, let me check." He started searching for the latest news about Hunt 5.
Alex also looked at Carl's phone screen. He still hadn't checked anything about the game.
Carl looked up after a minute of checking several sites. He sighed and showed them an article. "Just today, the thousandth-rank hunter reached level 7, so the lower-rank game difficulty increased today."
A silence fell in the room.
Russell asked in a low voice, "So, in a few days, we're going to see a level 7 game, right?"
Solmb shook his head. "Nah, we still have time. The game won't start until there are double the number of players at that level."
Russell slammed his fist on the ground. "Shit, this is unfair. Those guys are already so far ahead of us. At this rate, they might even complete the game before we have time to reach there."
Alex rubbed his chin and shook his head. "Don't worry. The level 6 game already had absurdly low passing rates, and level 7 will be a notch above that."
Carl nodded. "Yeah, there's no point thinking about those guys. We better focus on our trials first." Carl pulled out another graph and said, "You know, with the additional difficulties, the passing rate fell from 99.9 percent to 80%."
Alex looked at Carl with wide eyes. "Only 80%?" He didn't think seven other people could pass that challenge. 'What's going on? How can so many players kill those dogs? Is there some trick to the task that I failed to understand, or am I the unlucky one to encounter the worst dog?'
Carl's words pulled him out of his thoughts. "Yeah, although it must be because of the surprise increase in difficulty. This will probably climb back to 90 percent tomorrow."
Solmb sighed, "I remember at the time of level 6, something similar happened, but this time, the passing rate dropped by a bigger number."
Russell said in a defeated tone, "There are still 3 months until my appointment. I think the difficulty is going to increase again by then."
Alex shook his head. "Don't worry, it won't happen anytime soon."
Carl also nodded. "Yeah, none of us will face the higher difficulty."
Russell nodded and then asked him, "Big brother Alex, please tell us what happened in your game."
Alex started recounting his fight with the dog and the alley situation while hiding the rabid situation.
After 30 minutes of back and forth, he finally stopped.
The other three remained engrossed in their thoughts.
He could see Carl didn't look too concerned, while Solmb and Russell were frowning non-stop.
Solmb just lay back and said, "I don't think I'll be able to do all that running."
Carl nodded his head. "Well, in that case, you better focus on sneaking up on your target, you know. I don't think we'll have much trouble with some weapons in our hands."
Alex nodded. "Yeah, fighting that dog without a weapon was a mistake. By the way, guys, I suggest all of you get familiar with blood and dead bodies. In the game, I encountered a mutilated corpse of a dog. It was much different seeing those things on a screen and in real life, you know."
Carl smiled at him. "I'm following in your footsteps, you know."
Russell tilted his head. "Big brother Carl, what do you mean?"
Solmb answered him, "Haha, you bastard, Carl, so you joined that butcher shop."
Carl nodded with a smile on his face. "Yup."
Russell asked with wide eyes, "What about your work at the construction site, brother Carl?"
Carl shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. If possible, I'll try to manage both, but if not, I'm going to take a month off from construction."
Alex shook his head. He knew Carl was just as serious as him but never expected this guy to go that far.
He knew there was a huge difference between him and Carl. After all, Alex didn't rely on construction money to manage his life, but the same wasn't true for Carl.
From experience, no butcher shop would pay much in the first few months, so Carl would earn almost nothing.
Russell asked with concern, "Big brother Carl, you're taking a big risk, you know. I heard from others that leaving just like that will affect your reputation as a worker. You might not get the jobs you want anymore."
Solmb also said, "If nothing happens with the game, you'll have to redo all the work you did to establish your name."
Carl shook his head. "Well, you guys know this is the only opportunity we have. I want to give my all in this. It doesn't matter if I fail afterward. At least I'll live with relief, knowing I gave it my best shot."
Alex smiled at him. "Good for you!"
Russell thought for a moment and shouted, "In that case, I'll do the same!"
Carl said, "Well, you still have 3 months, you know."
That was like cold water, calming Russell down.
Solmb drank another beer bottle and said in annoyance, "It's good to be young. I can't make these choices at this stage of my life."
Russell shook his head. "Big bro, tell the truth. Even if you wanted to, I don't think our sister-in-law would let you do that."
At this, Carl blinked at Alex and tapped Solmb's back. "Don't worry, man. I don't think a bunch of dead bodies will affect you."
Alex nodded. "Yup, what you're dealing with is far worse than those things."
When Russell heard that, he rolled on the ground, "Haha, so true."
Solmb stared at them with red eyes and jumped on top of Russell. "You little bastard! How can you say such things to her? I'm going to kill you right now!"
Alex saw the drunken Solmb trying hard to catch Russell, who was still active and jumping around the house.
Not caring about those two, he looked at Carl and asked, "Hey, do you know any thieves in the area?"