Chapter 8: Annihilation
Twenty minutes later.
The players found the resting Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken.
"Based on my years of gaming experience, BOSS monsters definitely have more abilities than regular mobs. Plus, this monster has a pretty thick HP bar. It’s best to first figure out its ability mechanics," Ye Li Meng said as he rubbed his shiny bald head.
Black-Eyed Rui Ge immediately volunteered, "I’ll take care of the probing. I’m a Level 2 Ranger, so I have higher movement speed and quicker reflexes. You guys hide and don’t act rashly."
Everyone gave him a thumbs-up.
Black-Eyed Rui Ge’s willingness to volunteer for probing not only showed he had guts but also that he was confident enough.
Once everyone was ready, Black-Eyed Rui Ge darted out of the grass and cautiously approached from behind. However, when he was about twenty meters away, the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken suddenly stood up. Its fiery red feathers flared out, and it let out a low cry.
They had been discovered?
As expected of an elite monster.
Its perception was indeed sharp!
Since the sneak attack had failed, Black-Eyed Rui Ge decisively activated Sprint, accelerating to close the distance. He slashed his sword towards the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken’s slender neck.
Based on almost a day of monster hunting experience,
Black-Eyed Rui Ge had already roughly figured out the game's combat mechanics.
Although the game displayed numerical HP, it fundamentally followed real-world logic.
In other words, it wasn’t purely a numbers game — if a critical point was hit and fatal damage was dealt, no matter how high the monster’s level or how thick its health was, it could still be instantly killed.
In theory,
As long as one's skill or luck was good enough,
Even a Level 1 newbie could slay a Level 10 or even higher monster!
Black-Eyed Rui Ge poured all his strength into this slash. If he could sever the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken’s neck, he could land a fatal critical hit and instantly kill it, regardless of its HP.
"Chirp!"
Sensing the threat, the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken let out a sharp, shrill cry and immediately spewed out a raging tongue of flame, three meters long, sweeping across a wide area.
"Shit!"
Black-Eyed Rui Ge was stunned. A wave of intense heat engulfed him. Even with the agility of a Level 2 Ranger, he couldn’t escape in time.
In an instant, he was swallowed by the flames and turned into a human fireball.
-38! -41! -45!
His HP bar was instantly emptied!
He collapsed on the spot, dropping a large amount of Abyssal Essence!
"Holy shit!"
"Rui Ge got roasted!"
"This monster’s that fierce?"
"How are we supposed to fight it? Are we still going in or not?"
The other seven players hiding in the grass were all stunned.
Although they had mentally prepared for the BOSS to be much stronger than regular mobs, seeing it firsthand was still way too overwhelming.
What the hell was this thing? It wasn’t a chicken — it was practically a flamethrower!
No way they could win!
Absolutely no way!
While everyone was still contemplating whether to flee, the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken suddenly took off and swooped toward the players’ hiding spot.
It even had flying capabilities, something they hadn’t anticipated at all.
"We’re screwed! That beast found us!" Midnight Pig Slayer shouted.
Ye Li Meng cursed, "Damn it, is this thing a chicken or a dog? How the hell did it spot us from so far away?"
Street Slayer grabbed his knife and charged out. "What the hell are you scared of? When enemies meet on a narrow path, the brave wins! Let's gooo!"
Yet he barely made it two steps before being hit by the flames head-on. Although he wasn’t instantly killed like Black-Eyed Rui Ge, he only managed to struggle for a second or two longer, ending up roasted to medium-well.
Street Slayer, dead!
Midnight Pig Slayer yelled, "Foolish brute!"
At this moment, Chimera Wraith summoned a flaming arrow.
Although it hit successfully, it only chipped away 9 HP — the damage was minimal, indicating the monster had extremely high fire resistance.
The three-meter-long tongue of flame swept over.
Chimera Wraith and two players beside her were all incinerated!
"Chimera Wraith is down too!"
Midnight Pig Slayer shouted, "Stop fighting! Run now! As long as the green hills remain, one need not fear running out of firewood!"
Eight players had come brimming with confidence to fight the BOSS, but in the blink of an eye, only three remained alive. How could they possibly keep fighting? Survival was now the top priority... but could they even escape?
The Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken could fly and was much faster than the players. With a single blast of fire, it hit Midnight Pig Slayer and another player.
Both of them fell simultaneously!
Only Ye Li Meng was left.
Knowing that with his speed he had no chance of escaping, Ye Li Meng roared and raised his knife to slash at the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken.
However, before the blade could even touch the monster, he was blasted three or four meters away by a burst of flame.
【You have died. You have lost “Abyssal Essence ×50”, “Abyssal Magic Stone Fragment ×125”, “Snake-Tailed Pheasant Feather ×7”, and “Snake-Tailed Pheasant Meat ×6”!】
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"
Inside a luxurious villa.
Ye Meng exited the game and returned to the real world.
Who would have thought that Ye Li Meng — the bald, rugged tough guy full of a roguish aura in the game — was, in reality, a man with graying temples, appearing quite scholarly and wise.
Ye Meng had already passed sixty years of age. He had successfully founded multiple businesses and had long since retired in triumph, now serving as an angel investor.
Though he was wealthy, he still loved gaming dearly and spent several hours a day on gaming platforms.
This game called 'Twisted Three Kingdoms' was just too much fun!
Initially, Ye Meng had just intended to give it a casual try, but before he knew it, an entire night had passed.
The last time he had gotten this hooked and this passionate about a game was probably forty years ago, when he had just entered university and spent countless days and nights hacking away at Legend in internet cafes — to the point where it affected his studies and he almost got expelled.
Over the years,
MOBA games had dominated the scene,
And all sorts of fast-food games had become mainstream.
It had been a long, long time since he had experienced such exhilarating fun in an MMO game.
Not that MOBA games were bad.
But those games emphasized competition over exploration.
As a hardcore veteran player, Ye Li Meng had not felt the thrill of exploring a bizarre and unknown world in an online game for years, nor the hot-blooded joy of intense teamwork and adventure!
What surprised him most was that instead of feeling exhausted, he felt unusually refreshed, as if he had just woken up from a high-quality sleep.
"This time I was really careless!"
"Didn’t expect the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken to be so fierce!"
"Damn, I lost a ton of experience and a heap of magic stone fragments!"
It took 100 experience points to level up from Level 1 to Level 2.
And 200 points to level up from Level 2 to Level 3.
Ye Li Meng had already reached Level 2, and his experience bar was more than halfway full — meaning he had accumulated over a hundred points of experience.
Although he lost some upon death, it was only around twenty to thirty percent, not enough to cause him to de-level.
However, death not only made him lose experience and levels, but also caused him to drop all the Abyssal Magic Stones he was carrying.
As for materials and food items, roughly twenty percent of them were dropped.
It stung a little.
This game was seriously hardcore.
It truly had the vibe of a Soulslike suffering game.
Ye Meng had never played such an insanely intense game before.
Since he was playing a Soulslike, he had to be prepared for repeated suffering — and this small setback was nothing. He immediately activated his helmet again, ready to dive back in and fight, determined to reach Level 3 before taking on the BOSS again!
A message appeared in front of him.
【Your character is currently reviving.】
【Time remaining: 1 hour, 59 minutes, 23 seconds!】
【You can pay 100 Contribution Points to revive immediately!】
Ye Meng took off the helmet, his face extremely dark.
Losing Abyssal Essence and Magic Stones upon death was one thing — but there was actually a resurrection cooldown?!
Worse yet, he couldn't find any recharge option at all. What the hell were the developers thinking? Did they even want to make money?!
Having his momentum forcibly interrupted made him feel unbearably itchy and frustrated!
Ye Meng had a strong feeling that 'Twisted Three Kingdoms' would definitely become a massive hit, possibly even impacting the global economy and society in a big way. Yet, strangely enough, such an unbelievably good game had almost no publicity before launch.
The developer behind this game was definitely no ordinary company.
It might even be a secret project jointly developed by superpowers!
Ye Meng opened his game library again and looked at the other games he had spent thousands of hours on.
Suddenly, they all felt bland and uninteresting — he no longer had any desire to open them.
He immediately decided to rally all his gaming friends to switch over to 'Twisted Three Kingdoms' and also planned to invest in one of the game’s studios.
This game had endless potential!