Lin Yu still helped Furbollo heal that hand.
After all, the 'Doctor' ability wasn't limited to one use per game, but rather once per day.
Of course, the main reason was...
Furbollo had found "clues" about the password.
To save his own skin, Furbollo directly activated his 'Detective' ability.
Then, according to the 'Detective' ability's prompt...
The password clues for this metal box were hidden among the pile of books on the shelf.
There were eight books in total.
Naturally, Furbollo and Lin Yu began searching these books for password clues.
The two sat around the room's fireplace, flipping through these books covered in blacked-out sections, momentarily stumped.
Soon, dusk fell.
Furbollo closed his book and looked at Lin Yu.
"Boss May, any chance of dinner? I'm starving!"
Lin Yu looked at Furbollo helplessly. "Didn't you gather a bunch of food? Can't you just eat when hungry?"
As he spoke, Furbollo sheepishly rubbed his nose.
"Boss, I was thinking... this place has a stove, right?"
"Eating cold stuff keeps upsetting my stomach - I want something hot."
Lin Yu flipped through The Stupid Tire in his hands without looking up. "Go ahead then, just cook normally."
Furbollo looked embarrassed: "Well... actually I'm not great at cooking..."
Lin Yu finally looked up and sighed.
"I'm getting hungry too."
After spending this time together, Furbollo's initial fear of Lin Yu had faded considerably.
Perhaps the recent "hand healing" incident, combined with Lin Yu's 'Doctor' profession and his pretentious speech when they first met, had led to some misjudgment.
But Lin Yu couldn't be bothered to correct it.
Having Furbollo treat him with goodwill wasn't a bad thing after all.
Seeing Lin Yu set his book aside and head toward the kitchen, Furbollo quickly stood up.
"Boss May, don't worry, I won't freeload."
Furbollo took out an eco-friendly shopping bag from his pocket.
He opened it and produced peanut oil, a slab of pork belly, a box of eggs, plus various greens and seasonings.
Lin Yu was stunned.
"What the hell is this?"
"Oh, this is an item I got from my twelfth dungeon - [Discounted Shopping Bag]," Furbollo said proudly. "It provides discounted ingredients from supermarkets each time - 48-hour cooldown."
"If I don't take things out, they stay preserved inside."
"That thing's practically divine," Lin Yu remarked. "Why didn't you bring it out earlier?"
"Because I can't cook," Furbollo said matter-of-factly. "It only provides raw ingredients, never cooked ones - and usually near-expired stuff."
"I only eat from it when absolutely starving."
"Last dungeon I ate raw eggs from it - had diarrhea so bad I could barely stand by dungeon's end!"
Lin Yu resignedly took the ingredients.
"All thumbs and can't tell wheat from beans."
He commented.
However, according to his 'Chef' professional ability, these ingredients were indeed edible.
Having suffered through days of biscuits and barely edible roasted food himself - even with the canned food available here - Lin Yu's quality of life hadn't improved much.
Faced with proper cooking now, he naturally wouldn't refuse.
Soon, Lin Yu prepared braised pork belly with green beans, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and spinach rice porridge.
After turning off the stove, they ate directly from the pots in the kitchen.
Furbollo couldn't help praising: "Damn, you cook like a restaurant chef - just how I like it, heavy on oil and salt... You must cook often at home?"
Lin Yu shook his head while eating the eggs: "No, I barely enter the kitchen at home."
After all, his elder sister Lin Zhao usually handled cooking.
Furbollo looked impressed: "Then you're a natural! Ever considered quitting medicine to open a restaurant?"
Lin Yu smiled: "That's exhausting work... my family's actually in that business."
"Though I don't cook much, whatever skill I have comes from family influence."
Furbollo studied Lin Yu's slender fingers thoughtfully: "Hmm... I see."
After dinner, Furbollo enthusiastically washed the pots before resuming book searching.
Perhaps the full meal stimulated their thinking.
When Lin Yu returned to the books, he suddenly realized something.
"Wait, I always thought blacking out these books seemed unnecessarily elaborate."
After all, for whatever purpose...
Complete destruction or hiding would be simpler.
Why would the young scholar who lived here painstakingly black out every book?
A possibility struck Lin Yu.
He examined the page numbers in The Stupid Tire.
Though numbered normally, each had an added "." symbol.
"Give me The Crazy Wrench from your side!"
Lin Yu called to Furbollo, who blinked before handing it over.
This book's page numbers...
Also followed "1.", "2." patterns.
Lin Yu checked another book - The Particularly Good Angry Gear.
Here, page numbers appeared as "-1-", "-2-".
Soon...
Lin Yu realized these eight books' page numbers fell into four categories:
Dotted, hyphenated, wavy-lined, and underlined.
After categorizing them, Lin Yu recalled the earlier map connections.
He tore out the first five pages from both The Stupid Tire and The Crazy Wrench.
Ignoring margins, he began arranging combinations.
Five pages' blacked portions could connect seamlessly end-to-end.
Lin Yu laughed at the assembled image on the floor.
"This guy's spatial visualization skills are impressive..."
"And he really loves these 'connect-the-dots' style hints."
As Lin Yu spoke, Furbollo had an epiphany too.
"So the blacked parts weren't for hiding - they form a puzzle!"