Chapter 83

In the deep of night, on the vast, cool grassland, Hao Ren stood face to face with a giant black wolf, which was as tall as a person even on all fours. Both were quite shocked, and the shock was still lingering, like the aftershocks of an earthquake.

Just a moment ago, the black wolf, which Hao Ren had thought was a "wild animal," had spoken, and its words were clear and sharp, with a bit of a Beijing accent—of course, this last part should be credited to the smart translation system. Hao Ren firmly believed that no matter how strange the dream plane was, it couldn't possibly produce a black wolf that spoke with a full mouth of Beijing dialect. However, even with the smart translation, he could confirm that the wolf had definitely spoken human language, not just the translation system turning animal growls into words. This had been tested; the system couldn't translate Lily's "woof" into language—it could only handle higher-level languages with structured syntax.

Hao Ren, still in his pajamas, sat on the grass, still enveloped in a faint glow. He didn't dare to take down his rigid shield casually, as the surrounding pack of wolves didn't look particularly safe. He glanced at the giant black wolf opposite him, his voice still tinged with surprise: "You really can speak? Do all the wolves here speak?"

"It depends on the pack," the giant black wolf glanced warily at the transparent light membrane covering Hao Ren's body. A punch through that membrane felt like being hit by a steel pillar, and it had just recovered from the stars in its eyes. Therefore, it was quite cooperative with Hao Ren's question. "Some of the grassland wolves can speak, like us with bone plates on our bodies—we are the superior breed, much smarter than those fools who just howl at the moon! But where are you from? You've never seen talking wolves before? We are the most famous pack on this grassland!"

Hao Ren's mind was in chaos. He had no idea about the situation on this dream plane and could only follow the advice of the data terminal and Raven 12345, treating everything as normal and trying not to show too much surprise. Based on the way the giant black wolf spoke, he judged that it had a very high level of intelligence, perhaps even comparable to humans. He put aside the idea of treating it like a wild animal and nodded sincerely: "I can't really explain where I'm from. I just passed by this place. You can consider me a traveler."

"A traveler? To this grassland?" The giant black wolf looked at Hao Ren suspiciously, its face clearly showing disbelief. "Few humans come here. This place is useless to you; you can't grow crops, there are no specialties, no minerals—there used to be some herders, but they moved away recently: there are too many wolves, and the livestock they raise can't even feed themselves."

After saying this, the giant black wolf approached Hao Ren under his wary gaze, sniffing him up and down. "You don't smell like a traveler; you don't have that strange smell from not bathing for a long time. But whatever, it's none of our business; we're just wolves."

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Were these wolves, which were so intelligent, still really "wolves"?

"By the way, why did you attack me?" Hao Ren asked awkwardly. He felt quite silly, having a serious conversation with a pack of wild animals, but then again, who would have thought that wolves could speak more fluently than humans?

"Why shouldn't we attack you?" The black wolf's voice was even more surprised. "We need to eat meat. Although you don't look like much, you'd still be enough to feed a few of our cubs. Our appetites aren't that big. But I thought you'd be easy to deal with; you weren't wearing that hard armor and didn't have any weapons—turns out you're tougher than those guys, and I'm not happy about that."

This wolf, after all, had a different way of thinking from humans. It spoke very straightforwardly, saying whatever came to mind. Hao Ren was speechless for a few seconds about his "food" status in the wolf's eyes, but considering the species, he couldn't really get angry. He could only chuckle dryly: "Heh, do you still want to eat meat?"

"No, I don't," the black wolf shook its head. "You're too hard, even harder than those people in hard armor, and I can't beat you. It seems we shouldn't fight humans; you have too many strange things on you, and it's dangerous."

At this moment, a slightly smaller black wolf suddenly spoke up: "Boss, wasn't it your idea to eat this guy in the first place?"

Hao Ren looked at the black wolf in front of him in surprise, realizing it was the leader of the pack. He had chosen the right target when he instinctively lunged to attack.

"Who told you to wake up in the middle of the night and complain about being hungry?" The wolf leader barked. "You were so full from eating meat in the afternoon that you looked like a ball, and you started complaining about being hungry as soon as the moon came up. You're the biggest eater in the whole pack! I even lost a tooth over this!"

"You only lost one, but some of the others almost lost all their teeth," the smaller, gluttonous wolf pointed with its nose at a few black wolves squatting outside the circle. These were the ones who had pounced on Hao Ren and bitten the rigid shield, now having baby-like teeth—some had only their back molars left.

The unfortunate ones, with blood all over their mouths, could only squat outside the circle, licking each other's fur to comfort one another, looking pitiful.

The wolf leader sighed and lowered its head. "Today was just bad luck. Human, can we go now?"

"Uh," Hao Ren nodded subconsciously, but just as the pack of wolves was about to disperse with sighs and mutual support, he suddenly remembered something and called out, "Wait! There's still something!"

The wolf leader stumbled, turned its head, and glared at Hao Ren. "Don't push it! I have my dignity! You didn't really suffer, so why are you so persistent?"

Hao Ren almost choked on his words: the wolf leader, who had just asked for mercy, was in no position to talk about dignity. But he just shook his head and pointed in the direction of the horizon. "I want to go over there. Can you give me a ride?"

The black shadows of what looked like man-made structures were far away, and Hao Ren felt that if he tried to run there barefoot, it would probably be morning by the time he arrived. His time on the dream plane was limited, so he wanted to find a convenient way.

"Over there?" The wolf leader looked up in confusion. "Didn't I say the herders have all left? There are only a few mud huts left."

That was the place the wolf leader had mentioned where the herders used to live. Hao Ren nodded. "I just want to take a look."

Whether there were people there or not didn't matter; what mattered was that there were traces of human activity. Hao Ren was now extremely curious about everything on the dream plane and was willing to take a look at anything.

The wolf leader grumbled in its throat and then turned around. "Fine, get on. I'll carry you there."

Hao Ren was a bit surprised. He had expected to have to argue about it, but the wolf leader had turned around and offered to let him ride, which was different from what he had anticipated. As he climbed onto the wolf's back, he muttered, "So generous? I thought you guys wouldn't let anyone ride you? It's a matter of dignity, and you have to pass some test or something..."

"Dignity? What's that for?" The wolf leader was puzzled by Hao Ren's words. "You humans think too complicated, always studying things that have nothing to do with filling your stomach. We don't like being ridden because it's inconvenient to carry something while walking, but what does that have to do with dignity? It's just uncomfortable... Hey, move forward a bit or lean back, don't sit on my waist; it makes it hard for me to run."

As Hao Ren adjusted his position, he felt a bit embarrassed: humans really had the wrong idea. In novels and movies, they always judged everything by human standards. Wolves didn't let people ride them because they were proud, wild horses didn't let people ride them because they were proud, and unicorns didn't let people ride them because they were not only proud but also noble—none of which was probably true...

The only reason they didn't let you ride them was that it was a hassle. Who would want to carry a few dozen kilograms of useless weight on their back that couldn't even eat or drink? Even Vivian had to wait until Lily was sleepwalking to tie luggage to her.

Hao Ren couldn't help but think that if unicorns could communicate, they might let you ride them for a couple of cookies. What was the "dignity theory" of humans to animals?

"Are you ready?" The wolf leader suddenly interrupted Hao Ren's thoughts. "Then hold on tight, let's go!"

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