"Fuck!"
Seeing the scene outside, Ryan was overwhelmed with shock and anger, and curses almost burst out of his mouth.
"Are you really trying to kill me off?!"
He was seething with frustration.
On the villa's porch, gray wolves stood one after another, each as large as the ones he had encountered inside.
Ryan did a quick count and realized there were at least ten of them.
They huddled under the eaves to avoid the rain, baring their teeth and howling at the windows, as if challenging the occupants inside.
What truly unnerved Ryan was the sight of a massive wolf standing on a stone planter next to the infinity pool.
This wolf was enormous, twice the size of the ordinary gray wolves.
While the average gray wolf stood just over a meter tall, this one was at least two meters, towering over Ryan even on all fours.
Its entire body was pure white, covered in rippling muscles, and the sheer presence it exuded was enough to make one's heart race.
It stood proudly amidst the storm, seemingly unfazed by the howling wind and rain, which only seemed to make its bright white fur glisten.
As Ryan's gaze met the wolf's, he felt a chill run down his spine.
The man and the beast looked at each other from a distance.
The wolf's large eyes seemed to flash with a cold, calculating light.
In that moment, Ryan understood: this was the alpha, the mini-boss of the pack, just like in those online games.
His heart sank to the pit of his stomach, and he felt utterly frustrated.
Trapped inside the villa by the wolf pack, he was safe for now, but who knew what would happen next?
What made it worse was that his lottery plan was ruined.
Leaving the villa safely was now a challenge, and even if he managed to escape, the wolves would likely chase him down, making it impossible to scratch tickets in peace.
But this also confirmed Ryan's earlier suspicion.
The game might create survival crises, but it always left a glimmer of hope, never pushing him to the brink of death.
For instance, if the game truly intended to kill him, the wolves would be inside the villa, not outside.
With this thought, Ryan immediately rushed out of the room to check if all the doors on the first and second floors were securely closed.
He locked them all, regardless of whether they were already closed or not.
After ensuring all the doors and windows were locked, Ryan went to the living room.
He sat on the sofa, frowning, and looked out at the wolf pack through the transparent glass wall.
He had completely calmed down by now, knowing that panicking wouldn't solve anything. The only option was to treat this as a survival game and strategize.
His first instinct was to simply outlast the wolves outside, no matter what they intended to do.
The villa had enough food and water to last him six months; he only needed to hold on for two and a half months.
The wolves couldn't possibly stay here without food or water for that long.
But Ryan quickly realized that the game wouldn't let him off that easily. It had only been a few days of relative peace before the wolf pack attacked. The idea of safely enduring two and a half months seemed like a pipe dream.
He was certain that if he tried to wait it out, the game mechanics might just open the doors and let the wolves in.
A sudden thought struck Ryan. He seemed to have grasped a pattern in the game.
In the first four days, he hadn't faced any danger. It wasn't until he set fire to the supercars and triggered a gas explosion, causing the city to burn, that he faced a near-death crisis. After surviving that, he had enjoyed nearly ten days of peace before the wolf pack attacked.
Judging by this pattern, if he could deal with the wolves, he should be able to enjoy a period of safety again.
Ryan narrowed his eyes, deep in thought about how to solve this crisis.
Ten minutes later, he suddenly stood up and went upstairs to clean his wound with alcohol again and change the bandages.
He had handled the injury promptly, and it hadn't become infected.
After a night's rest, the wound showed signs of healing.
Ryan let out a slight sigh of relief. He had been terrified of the possibility of contracting rabies.
Since he had no other symptoms besides the pain from the wound, he figured he was in the clear.
After that, Ryan did nothing else. He grabbed some food to fill his stomach and then rested inside the villa.
The most important thing for him now was to heal his left arm.
Besides, he wanted to see what the wolves would do if left without food.
Ryan picked up a book called The Impossible Skill and lay back on the sofa to read it leisurely. He had found the book in Aileen's room, and its content was fascinating. It discussed how to help people achieve peak performance, pushing their skills to an impossible level.
It covered topics like extreme sports, superhuman learning, groundbreaking creativity, and obsessive business acumen.
Ryan strongly suspected that Aileen had used this book as a manual to push her abilities to the limit.
Previously, he had been inspired by the first few pages he read but had been drawn into her diaries and never got back to it.
Now that he had finished the diaries, he remembered the book.
As soon as he picked it up again, he was captivated by its engaging content and lost track of time.
Outside, the pack of wolves continued to howl, scratch, and ram the glass wall with their bodies.
Ryan didn't pay them any mind. The wall was made of tempered glass, which, despite its transparency, was as strong as a solid wall.
The wolves had no chance of breaking through it, no matter how hard they tried.
However, while they couldn't break the glass, the noise they made was deafening. Ryan simply put on a pair of headphones to block out the cacophony.
Time flew by, and soon it was evening.
When the room grew dark and Ryan could no longer see the text, he realized it was night.
As he turned on the lights, he also understood what the wolves would do once they were hungry.
The white wolf had moved under the villa's eaves and let out a low growl.
Soon, five of the gray wolves turned and ran into the rain, disappearing into the darkness.