Volume 1, Chapter 51: Boss-tier: Disease Reaper
Li Chuan opened his eyes and stood up without the slightest hesitation, speaking to the dozen or so remaining players.
"Follow me, everyone."
Regardless of what kind of personality Li Chuan once had or how many people he had killed, at this moment, he was the one in the hearts of many players who could lead them out of here alive.
Arriving at the previously chosen location, the players—numbering just over fifty in total—gathered together.
Li Chuan, Gao Han, Donghe Liushui, and many shield-bearing players stood on the outer perimeter of the crowd.
"Chen Dong, start."
Li Chuan looked at Donghe Liushui.
Donghe Liushui's eyes widened sharply.
This murderous star knew his name? Could old Zhao have told him?
Filled with lingering doubts, Donghe Liushui activated the item 'Old Goblin's Protective Barrier'.
Boom!
With a loud rumble, two annular stone barriers materialized out of thin air, enclosing all the players from the left and right.
Li Chuan looked up.
He saw the two stone barriers on either side slowly closing in, ultimately leaving behind a gap of less than thirty centimeters.
It seemed this item was not completely sealed after all.
"Supreme, we will guard the front gap. You take the front line first."
Screech—
The sound of the outer walls shifting continued.
Supreme Fungus nodded at Li Chuan and walked towards the fissure, dragging his heavy shield.
His gait was somewhat unusual, his left leg appearing to have suffered a significant injury; however, it did not matter. As long as he could level up, no matter how severe the injury, it would fully heal.
Seeing Li Chuan take the initiative to guard the front gap, Gao Han nodded in satisfaction and then led his people to guard the rear gap.
As for the other players, they all cowered in the center of the fortress, terrified that someone might make them fight on the front lines.
Thud, thud!
Thud, thud, thud!
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
Heavy footsteps echoed from beyond the barrier, instantly causing all the players to hold their breath in terrified silence, as if staying quiet might make the monsters take longer to find them.
Li Chuan stood on a stack of wooden crates, finally catching sight of the first monster.
[Disease Harvester: Blue]
[HP: 5000/5000]
[Level 20, the first batch of results from this experiment, first-generation disease weapons possessing extreme aggressiveness and armor. Beware of its scythe; weakness has been marked!]
Those were tall, humanoid monsters covered entirely in black horny keratin, with only their scarlet eyes and gaping maws exposed. Connected to their left hands were soft, arm-thick tentacles, the tips of which ended in sharp black scythes.
The monsters roared as they advanced, dragging their scythes along the ground and producing a teeth-grating grinding sound.
Slap!
Slap, slap!
Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap!
At a spot Li Chuan could not see, monsters were already attacking the barrier.
—89, —93, —103...
The shield value of the barrier decreased visibly to the naked eye.
Not daring to play clever tricks in a situation like this, Li Chuan hurriedly spent a heavy sum of four hundred gold coins to buy forty durability stones, dumping them all at once onto the shield of the left barrier.
Gao Han did the same.
In an instant, the armor values of the thick barriers on both sides were restored to full.
Roar!
Amidst the intensely tense atmosphere, the first monster reached the opening of the gap.
The aura of living people inside the fortress triggered its ferocity, and it immediately let out a furious roar, thrusting its scythe-bearing arm inside.
Bang!
A heavy shield met the scythe fiercely, producing a dull, heavy thud.
"Start attacking!"
Li Chuan said coldly.
Group Ice Element Enchantment! Stun Arrow! Explosive Strike!
The gap was only thirty centimeters wide and was already blocked by shield warriors, so the only ones left capable of outputting damage were the archers with ranged attacks.
There were nine archers in total around Li Chuan. Imitating him, they retrieved boxes, lumber, ore, and other stackable items from their inventories, stood upon them at a height, and fired arrows together toward the monsters outside the gap.
"The weaknesses are the eyes and mouth! The armor is too high everywhere else, don't waste arrows!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Bang! Bang! Bang...
Perhaps because the monsters were gathering in greater numbers, the barrier's armor value was dropping faster than expected.
Three minutes into the fight, the first monster fell outside the gap.
[Ding! Killed Level 20 Disease Harvester (Leader) * 1, Experience +200]
By this time, the armor value had dropped to just over thirty thousand.
At the fifth minute, Li Chuan killed another Disease Harvester.
At this point, only twenty thousand armor value remained.
"Damn it! The rewards and the effort are completely disproportionate!"
Li Chuan immediately bought thirty more durability stones, topping off the barrier's armor value.
He currently had a little over a thousand gold coins left. At this rate of consumption, he could hold out for twenty minutes at most—and that was assuming no unexpected complications arose.
Had he known this hunt would turn out like this, he wouldn't have split up the gold coins!
An idea flashed through Li Chuan's mind.
"Everyone, hurry to the store and buy 'durability stones'! My gold is being consumed too fast to keep up with the rate at which the barrier's durability is dropping!"
This barrier wasn't protecting Li Chuan alone, so why should he pay for the repairs out of his own pocket?
Yet he couldn't directly demand gold from these players; if he asked for money, they would certainly be unwilling to part with it. But if he had them purchase the durability stones themselves to restore the barrier's armor, this group of people would have no choice but to buy them to save their own skins.
Just as Li Chuan anticipated, when the barrier's armor dropped to five thousand, some players could no longer sit still and hurriedly bought several durability stones, applying them to the barrier.
At the same time, they shouted out.
"Stop holding back your resources, everyone! Are you really going to value money over your lives?"
Other players also bought numerous durability stones, crawled to the edge of the barrier, and pressed them against the walls.
"I bought some! You all saw it, and I suggest we keep an eye on each other to see who doesn't buy! We're all in the same boat, and I want to see who dares to be that selfish!"
The corners of Li Chuan's mouth curled up slightly.
His goal had been achieved.
"Well said! I can see clearly who bought durability stones and who didn't, and I know exactly what kind of petty thoughts some people are harboring. But you'd better not push things too far, or don't blame me for settling scores later!"
Li Chuan capitalized on the momentum to fan the flames.
As soon as these words were spoken, even more players began purchasing durability stones and heading toward the walls.
Within a short while, the armor values of the barriers on both sides were restored to maximum once again.
A player shouted out.
"I've spent all my gold coins! I posted the screenshot in the channel, I did my best!"
"Me too!"
"I spent all mine as well..."
...
Group Ice Element Enchantment! Explosive Arrow!
Li Chuan continued to output his high damage values.
However, just as Li Chuan thought there would be no trouble for a short while—
Whoosh! Slap!
A black scythe descended from the sky, striking an assassin player squarely on the head.
With a smack, the player's head shattered like a watermelon, scattering red and white in all directions!
A massive fatal damage text popped up, and the player was hammered to death by the monster before they even had time to scream.
"Ah! Someone died!"
"Someone was killed by something up above!"
"Oh god, what is going on!"
Li Chuan hurriedly jumped down from the crate and looked up toward the ceiling.
He saw an ugly head with glaring scarlet eyes pressed against the gap at the top of the barrier, staring fixedly at the players inside. Its scythe-bearing arm reached down, gathering strength in preparation for another strike.
"Damn it! Don't panic! A monster has climbed onto the top of the fortress!"
"Chen Dong, can you close both barriers completely?"
Donghe Liushui stared overhead and shook his head, shouting, "This is already the smallest gap we can leave!"
Amidst the terrified gazes of all the players, the monster's scythe swung down once more, and concurrently, multiple pairs of scarlet eyes appeared within the gaps at the top of the fortress.