Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The extremely intense war of attrition had lasted for a whole night.

From having the upper hand initially to slowly losing, followed by gradually winning their advantage back bit by bit through attrition, the players experienced an emotional roller coaster. The up and downs turned their initially boosted confidence into anxiety, then reignited their hope at the end of the journey.

When the fight reached the second half of the midnight hour, the broken “idol” that linked all the underpasses was secretly reconnected by the Gatherer Beetles. Shortly after that, a fair amount of various beetles, none of them higher than Level 20, appeared from inside and intended to surround the players from behind.

However, at this time, the first batch of players who had been killed by the Suicide Bombeetles were revived and rushed over from Silvermoon City (the nearest city) and rejoined the battle.

The players now had the upper hand!

The battle lasted for a total of nine hours. By the dawn of the second day, when the sun had started to rise, the Southern Area, where Feng Luo and his company were located at, became the first region to have thoroughly eliminated all the beetles. At this point, they had fewer than 50 players left, including the reinforcements from the Veterans Tribe.

Later, Mu Wu issued a command, and the crew of a few players started to march to the city center. Due to the relatively mild battles in the other regions, they were no longer required as reinforcements.

They did not encounter a single monster on their journey. The whole place was empty and quiet. Not one beetle was seen after they crossed a total of 40 areas.

Later, they met the Scouts who had been sent out before the mission started at the building known as the “shrine.” It was a tall, extravagant building. The design was somewhat similar to Greek temples on Earth. There was a maroon staircase of fewer than 100 steps. Outside the shrine, a row of worn-out stone columns covered in moss had been erected on top of the staircases. On the columns was a strange pattern that resembled the “idols.” The shrine appeared to be very mysterious, almost sacred.

A few of the Scouts among the troops, including those who possessed Rare-grade recon meters, ensured that there were no monsters inside the building before the group decided to enter the shrine.

After taking the huge, long staircases, they finally arrived at the shrine. All of them were dumbfounded by the scene before them.

“Impossible!”

Compared to the aged and shabby outer appearance of the shrine, it was a completely different world in the inside.

The floor, made of pearl-white tiles, was sparkling clean. The wide, tall, arch-shaped ceiling was covered with a delicate oil painting as if it told a mythological tale. All the corners of the wall were decorated with gold and a fair number of large, ferocious-looking, unknown altars. There were also some lavish statues that were seemingly carved out of gold.

“Hmm…”

All the players were looking at each other awkwardly. This exceeded their expectations!

A Scout with a Rare-grade recon meter widened his eyes. He stretched out his finger and pointed in one direction while he mumbled, “Hang on. There… Oh my God. There’s a…”

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a golden statue that was approximately five meters tall. Its appearance somewhat resembled a beetle.

Precisely speaking, it was not a golden statue! It was not only coated in shiny gold, but a layer of faint white light encased it as well.

Holy Goldbug (Level-100, Boss). Species Number: ??. Type: ??.

The notification that appeared on the recon meter frightened everyone.

“A Level-100 Boss!”

“Damn it. Oh my God!”

“What is this? How can a monster this strong appear here? We can’t possibly take it on!”

Everyone spoke in low voices over the squad channel.

In War, the increase of a Boss’s level meant a significant improvement in fighting power. Now, they were facing a max-level Boss! A monster this powerful could probably destroy a town with a population of 100,000!

How had a Boss this scary appeared here? Why would the system set up such a high difficulty? Was this a trick to destroy the Lu Conglomerate?

They had expended so much effort to assemble a crew of several thousand and had spent more than ten million credits. They had spent half of the day and nine hours of the night fighting this frightening battle. A few thousand players had already dropped a level. And now, they ended up with a Boss that was impossible to defeat! Dark Night Stars would vomit blood if he found out about this.

“Retreat!” Mu Wu said cautiously through the crew channel with a solemn face.

The Level-100 Boss Beetle seemed to be in sleeping mode and did not react to the arrival of the players. However, all of them believed that they would be insta-killed if it woke up now. This was assured!

After listening to Mu Wu’s order, all of them retreated carefully. They took the lightest possible steps and did not dare to make any noise.

However, there was one special person, Feng Luo, who initially lingered behind everyone.

Feng Luo was a little skeptical. He had realized that there was something different about his eyes the moment he’d entered the shrine. The scene in front of him appeared to be very foggy, and he felt some quaking and shaking. It was slightly similar—albeit at a very different level—to the time when he’d been attacked by the Spray Beetles!

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

This odd situation triggered his curiosity. Hence, Feng Luo immediately checked the system log.

You were attacked by the Boss’s mental energy. Your Evolution Talent has been triggered.

Due to the Evolution Talent, your hidden “mental resistance” stat was activated. Your resistance toward the mentioned mental attack was increased temporarily. Mental resistance: 10%… 22.6%… 33.7%…

He was surprised when he looked at his log. Both of the notifications from the system appeared simultaneously. However, the percentage at the end of the second notification continued to refresh and increase.

45%… 53%… 61%…

“Mental attack? Mental resistance?”

Feng Luo furrowed his brow as he read this strange notification. He had never heard of a stat called “mental resistance.” And he had been “mentally attacked.” How was that possible? He was not bleeding, and there was no notification of any apparent debuffs.

This strange log urged Feng Luo to slow down his pace. When the percentage of the ‘Mental Resistance’ rocketed to 70%—

Suddenly, Feng Luo felt a quake. The extravagant golden shrine was slowly vanishing from his vision as if a veil had been pulled back. Then the golden and lavish shrine dimmed down abruptly. A new sight appeared in front of his eyes.

It was an old shrine with worn-out walls. The color of the painting on the ceiling had faded so badly that the colors were no longer distinguishable. There were countless tiny beetles climbing all over the fallen idols and across the floor. All of the tiny beetles were below Level 10. There were even some miniature Level-1 beetles that were barely the size of a knuckle. They did not attack the players but merely crawling about heedlessly. Some were also hibernating and staying still.

In the meantime, the frightening Level-100 Holy Goldbug in the middle of the shrine disappeared. In its stead was a golden beetle that was merely the size of two human adult fists.

Golden King Beetle (Level-40, Special Boss). Species: ??. HP:??. Compatibility with XP-S3 core: Unknown.

Feng Luo inconspicuously raised the M110 in his hand and aimed at the golden beetle. He realized that most of the information was displayed as question marks. Even the compatibility was unpredictable. However, its identity had been exposed. The name “King Beetle” made Feng Luo’s heart skip a beat.

The problem now was, how to approach it?

Feng Luo thought a special Boss like this would not possess any special attacks that could insta-kill players. However, being a Level-40 Boss, it was unlikely to merely threaten players with something mysterious like a mental attack.

Its location on the stage was about 20 meters away from Feng Luo. The floor between them was covered by thousands of various little beetles. Surely, Feng Luo would be attacked by all these beetles if he tried to approach the golden beetle! However, if he went back now, would he ever have the chance to seize this King Beetle?

At this moment, the only ones here were their crew, which consisted of fewer than 50 players. The battles in the other regions had yet to conclude!

This King Beetle had a certain level of AI. It might have thought that the humans could do no real harm to it. Besides, the underlings at the ruins were still there. However, if Feng Luo returned now and waited for the battles in the other areas to finish before he attacked again with the rest of them, would this golden King Beetle slip away?

His concern was correct!

Meanwhile, the rest of the players had exited the shrine. Because Feng Luo purposefully hung back from the squad, he was the only one left at the entrance of the shrine.

“One with guts will die with a full stomach,” muttered Feng Luo. “One without guts will die starving!”

Feng Luo hesitated shortly before making the bold decision to fight the Boss!

He pretended to step back while he slowly took out the syringe containing the biochip from his backpack and held it tightly in his right hand. Then he swiftly activated his Quick Sneak, stepped forward, and ran toward the golden beetle at full speed.

Feng Luo’s movement seemingly threatened the lives of the surrounding tiny beetles. They released a shriek that exceeded the audible range of human’s ears before they charged at Feng Luo.

Bladed Beetles, Spray Beetles, Energy Beetles, Suicide Bombeetles… All the small beetles charged at Feng Luo at full speed. Some were attacking Feng Luo with their long-range skills.

Even though the beetles were of low grade, there were thousands—maybe even tens of thousands of them. However, as they were spread to every corner of the shrine, it was impossible for them all to attack Feng Luo who was dashing at full speed.

Nevertheless, beneath the attacks of a dozen beetles, his HP was dropping drastically. The attacks from the Spray Beetles were particularly troublesome. Even though the toxicity of their poison was nothing compared to the Spray Beetle Boss, with the huge amount of stacks, the effect was still quite shocking.

Within three short seconds, Feng Luo’s speed dropped by one-third. The front of his combat uniform was covered with poison. Fortunately, he possessed 50 percent poison resistance and 3 percent debuff resistance. Moreover, the effect of the poison from normal Spray Beetle did not reduce his vision and hearing, and the effects could not be stacked indefinitely, after all. Hence, it wasn’t a major obstacle for him.

Consequently, Feng Luo ignored the attacks of the tiny beetles and sprinted full speed toward the Golden King Beetle with all his effort. With the assistance of his skills, and running as hard as he could, he arrived in front of the golden King Beetle within five seconds.

Apparently, the golden beetle sensed the arrival of danger. It casually stood up, intending to crawl away. But Feng Luo caught it in his hand before it could escape. It began struggling violently as Feng Luo held it in his hand.

Feng Luo felt an invisible rush of energy attacking his head. He felt as if his head was pummelled by a hammer. His vision turned dark, then blurry. Then it started to spin.

However, a notification was shown on the system log. With his evolution stat, his resistance to the mental attack had increased to 85 percent. His vision, which initially turned dark, was recovering. Although Feng Luo still felt dizzy, he could see.

But then Feng Luo realized that his HP was at 10 percent! As it was lower than 15 percent, he was in the “weak” state!

Hence, without hesitating, Feng Luo turned the body of the golden beetle upside down, took the custom-made syringe in his right hand, and injected the liquid biochip into the belly of the beetle that was barely the size of two fists. Luckily, the biochip was only of the size of a nail. Otherwise, Feng Luo would have had to worry about the liquid overflowing from its body.

The action took only one second. But before he could see the results, Feng Luo was torn into pieces by an enormous swarm of tiny beetles.

******

However, 10 seconds after Feng Luo turned into white light and died, his ranking on the city-clearing mission billboard took a leap of ten places. From 11th place, he rose to the very top!