Huh? Isn't This A Galgame?

The players were trapped under the stairs, with the giant beast standing high above at the stairway entrance. Against the light, they couldn't make out its fur color or facial features, only a massive silhouette.

Its two front paws lifted, its size comparable to an adult Siberian tiger, casting a shadow over all the players on the stairs.

The instinctive fear of large carnivores buried in their bones rendered the players in the front row, closest to the beast, momentarily incapable of moving.

The most terrifying thing for the players wasn't the beast's massive body or the oppressive growl from its throat, but rather the highly corrosive saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Like concentrated sulfuric acid, even just a few drops would instantly corrode a palm-sized dent in the floor.

If that saliva fell on a face, wouldn't half of it be melted through, leaving a hole instantly?

This realization plunged Han Feng, at the very front, into extreme terror.

At the moment the beast lunged, he instinctively used his only weapon—the metal breastplate that the system assigned to him—as a shield to protect himself from the beast's attack.

The breastplate did help him dodge the corrosive saliva attack, but the beast still pounced on him.

The expected scene of fangs piercing through the breastplate didn't happen. Instead, he heard a strange, slick sound next to his ear, like something wet was licking his breastplate...

Han Feng was stunned.

In the next moment, the guild leader's voice came from behind: "Duck!"

Han Feng's knees buckled, and he instinctively knelt on the ground.

Immediately, a thick, long stick-shaped object was thrown over his back, flying over his head towards the beast's back.

The beast immediately stopped its "attack" on Han Feng's breastplate, howling and turning to chase after the stick-shaped object.

Han Feng carefully lowered his breastplate to peek outside, and that's when he saw clearly—the beast... was actually a giant Chow Chow?!

The Chow Chow stuck out its purple tongue, "slurping" as it licked a giant meat bone.

And that meat bone was precisely the stick-shaped object their guild leader had just tossed out.

The sight was so strange, Han Feng was about to ask something when he heard his own system prompt in his mind—

Shan Zhi Feng: [Detected large-scale contact between your portable item and the target Little P., successfully locking the target for you.]

Shan Zhi Feng: [Now conducting matching detection for the target with your strategy object...]

Hearing this prompt, Han Feng was dumbfounded.

What the—?

No... he never intended to lock a target! It was just a self-defense accident! Who would choose a dog to lock onto!

Stop it! Don't detect!!!

Yet, no matter how he shouted in his mind, he couldn't stop the advancement of the built-in process of the system, and the prompt in his mind continued—

Shan Zhi Feng: [Compatibility assessment complete! Your target lock is incorrect!]

Shan Zhi Feng: [Detected that you have one more chance to cancel the target lock, do you want to cancel now?]

Han Feng: ...

At this moment, he was in despair.

Damn, he's going to waste his only chance to cancel a target lock on a dog!

Without a response, the system asked again: [Do you want to cancel now?]

At this point, Han Feng was utterly hopeless, stopping his thoughts and replied, "Cancel—"

Before he finished the word "lock," his shoulder was tapped. Having just narrowly escaped the previous attack from the giant dog, Han Feng was still in a state of shock and reflexively lifted his breastplate defensively.

His hand raised halfway up, but when he saw who it was, he hurriedly halted, "... Guild leader?"

Wen Nan asked him, "Are you okay?"

Han Feng shook his head and managed a twisted smile, "I'm fine." He glanced at the giant dog still gnawing the bone in the corner, then sincerely said, "Thank you, guild leader."

Wen Nan smiled at him, "Why do you have that look if you're fine?"

Han Feng, feeling like crying without tears, said, "I... I locked a target." As he spoke, he glanced at the giant dog by the wall.

In an instant, all the players present looked at Han Feng with sympathetic eyes.

Han Feng's mind was a mess, and the system kept buzzing in his head. Helplessly, he said, "The system is urging again, I'm going to unlock the lock first..."

When Wen Nan heard Han Feng say this, his brow furrowed, "Wait!"

Han Feng was just about to issue the "unlock" command to the system, but was startled silent, looking at Wen Nan, "Wh-what is it?"

"If maintaining the lock state doesn't affect subsequent tasks, I think, maybe it's safer not to cancel it for now?"

With Wen Nan's reminder, Han Feng finally understood—

Yes, by keeping a dog bound, if he accidentally takes out his portable item again and touches an unintended character in the future, today's mess won't happen again.

After all, he's already bound a dog; he couldn't possibly be forced to bind a cat next time, right?

Upon hearing the system's query again, Han Feng immediately chose to refuse to cancel.

After hearing the system's response [Maintained target lock state for you], Han Feng exhaled a long sigh of relief.

Thankfully!

Thank goodness the guild leader stepped in timely to help him stop the loss.

Looking on the bright side, at least he didn't have to worry about his last lock chance being wasted again on such a blunder.

Thinking of this, Han Feng looked gratefully at the guild leader, about to thank him again, when suddenly the giant dog stood up.

Seemingly excited by Wen Nan's proximity, the giant dog became very playful, wagging its fluffy tail toward Wen Nan.

At this moment, Wen Nan's system prompt echoed in his mind—

9527: [Congratulations, player! By using the key item 'Little P.'s meat bone', you successfully halted the transition of Little P.'s friendly emotion into hostility. You will gain an extra 10% of Little P.'s exclusive friendliness toward you as a result.]

Wen Nan looked at the big dog happily panting and wagging its tongue at him.

It looked like the big dog really liked him now?

However, looking at the purple tongue that was drooling, Wen Nan was slightly worried if he could handle the dog's enthusiasm.

Little P., naturally unknown to Wen Nan's thoughts, met his gaze for two seconds, and seeing that Wen Nan didn't avert his eyes, assumed he was encouraging it to come closer.

Little P. happily jumped, swaying its head and tail, pouncing toward Wen Nan.

"P.P.!" a voice scolded from behind, "Go back inside, my little darling, you're frightening our distinguished guests." Jiang Xueying's voice called out.