Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
The smiles on the Players’ faces froze. The air grew stagnant.
They looked at the Lord of Eagle Territory cradling a little maid, whispering sweet nothings, so obedient and endearing. Then, they looked at his HP bar, now completely full again, and a buff that, while not particularly eye-catching, was astonishingly powerful on a BOSS.
As if that weren’t enough, a slightly shorter HP bar appeared beneath the Lord of Eagle Territory’s. This one was grey and represented a shield, and it was far longer than the actual HP bar. Beneath the shield bar was a small buff: [Qi Shield].
This was utterly ridiculous! Inside the Players’ minds, a herd of metaphorical beasts stampeded, and an emotion called despair erupted.
“I fought for so damn long, aaaaaaah…”
“I’m done for, what the hell is this!”
“Lord of Eagle Territory, have you no decency?”
“Where’s the GM? The game has NPCs cheating, aren’t you going to do anything?”
A good number of Players, however, began to seriously contemplate and calmly analyze. This might be a BOSS skill mechanic. Once its HP dropped below two-thirds, it would enter a second phase, summon a petite and lovely little maid, and merge with her. Then, it would become an unkillable freak!
At least, they, the Players, couldn’t kill it. With their meager damage, the Lord of Eagle Territory healed faster than he lost HP. How could they possibly win? Therefore, reporting it as a hack was the best option.
Some Players also focused their attention on the little maid in the Lord of Eagle Territory’s arms. Soon, one Player posted a screenshot of a panel to the public channel, drawing everyone’s attention.
[Name: Loli]
[Identity: Lord of Eagle Territory’s Personal Maid/Beloved]
[Strength: Awakened Demi-human Stage 1, Level 43 (41-50)]
[Threat Level: Nightmare (Normal ~ Nightmare)]
[Other: ???]
“Loli, she looks a bit familiar? I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before?”
“Holy crap, quickly check the mission rewards…” A Player suddenly realized and immediately opened their mission reward panel, staring at one of the entries. They read aloud: “Mission reward four, special NPC follower, Demi-human girl Loli??”
“No wonder the required memory-clearing potion was a question mark. This is ‘beloved,’ their favorability must be off the charts…”
“And this threat level is really accurate. She becomes a ‘Nightmare’ just by being held by the Lord of Eagle Territory, right…?”
“No matter how attractive she is, she’s not a reward we can get. It’s all just false promises!”
The Players were furious. They cursed their turbulent fate, cursed the injustice of the world, and cursed the mission system for being so unreasonable. They were angry that an NPC was flaunting their affection while treating them like wheat to be harvested. They were angry that Ye Hao wasn’t coming to help!
Ye Hao: “…”
Regardless of the Players’ fury, Xi Wei had already taken action. His remaining quarter of Qi was more than enough to deal with these Players. Holding the little maid, which didn’t hinder his movements at all, Xi Wei charged into the Player crowd like a steel chariot. He immediately unleashed Mad Lion’s Strike, a skill accompanied by a phantom golden lion, its giant claw raised in a roaring charge.
With a resounding “Bang,” dozens of Player corpses flew into the air, while the ground was strewn with a vast number of them. But the Players wouldn’t give up. Avatars and others immediately began to organize a counterattack. They knew that the Lord of Eagle Territory’s current reliance was the super-healer in his arms. If they could kill that healer, everything else would be simple. Although, they also wanted to convert this little maid into a follower. A cute, obedient little maid with furry ears and a tail, how appealing would that be? Who wouldn’t like that? If she became a follower and they brought her out, it would be incredibly cool and impressive! Perhaps, in private, they could even do some indescribable things.
However, the reality was telling them that they were overthinking things. Back then, they thought the question mark indicated some hidden condition. Now they realized the question mark hid four words: “Don’t even think about it.” So, the Players stopped thinking.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic. Mages, dodge. Warriors… Warriors, try to die at the BOSS’s feet and create some obstacles for him…”
“All Mage Players, focus fire on the healer in the BOSS’s arms first!”
“Don’t hesitate to attack just because she looks cute and beautiful. Since you can’t have her, destroy her if you can’t have her!”
“Ura!”
The Players let out morale-boosting roars. The Warrior Players saw a glimmer of victory and bravely charged to their deaths with fearless expressions. They cast affectionate glances at the Mage Players, their mouths opening and closing as if confessing: “What are you staring at? Shoot at me!”
Gou Fugui stopped staring. He pursed his lips. Although these Warrior Players were full of vulgar language, seeing them charge like moths to a flame, Gou Fugui was still moved.
He then cast three Level 3 Flame Burst spells consecutively, accumulating them in front of him. With a wave of his hand, he pointed and fired them at the backsides of the Warrior Players. If his control wasn’t insufficient, he would have cast a fourth and fifth.
With three consecutive “Boom boom boom” sounds, the Flame Burst spells, like exploding grenades, quickly engulfed a group of Warrior Players and the man who was mowing them down like wheat with his greatsword.
“Did it work? I wonder how much damage it dealt?”
“With that much power, it should at least break the maid’s shield, right?”
The power of Level 3 Flame Burst was terrifying, but no Player was willing to sacrifice more Mage skills to specialize in just one. Only an eccentric like Gou Fugui did so. Although Gou Fugui wasn’t the highest level, he was currently among the top in burst damage. He had no defense, all offense.
The Players looked up with excitement and anticipation, only to see a string of “misses” appear above the little maid. The Lord of Eagle Territory’s HP bar twitched slightly, and then… and then nothing happened.
All the Players: “…”
Gou Fugui smiled awkwardly and explained to the surrounding Players: “I dealt over thirteen hundred damage, which is already a lot. But I immediately saw [+10400] pop up above the Lord of Eagle Territory’s head.”
“Someone with good math, calculate how much HP the Lord of Eagle Territory has?”
“No need to calculate. We can’t kill the maid. I just realized that true damage only affects the Lord of Eagle Territory. The little maid has a high-level Qi Shield provided by the Lord of Eagle Territory. No matter how we focus fire, it’s all misses.”
Avatar stood beside them and gave a wry smile, the brilliance in his once radiant eyes gradually fading.
“Focusing on the Lord of Eagle Territory is also pointless. That little maid’s healing ability is terrifying. The two of them together are unsolvable for us right now…”
“Then what do we do?” The Players asked in unison.
Avatar turned and looked at the rear of the Player legion, at the Resurrection Crystal, which was being thoroughly destroyed by the Hellfire Lord. Then he turned back to face everyone’s expectant expressions. Finally, he could only smile lightly and say softly, “Wait for death.”
