Chapter 1 The Beginning

David exchanged a look with Hohenheim, who nodded and stood in the center of the crossroads, releasing a fireball spell down each of the three paths.

Three orange-red fireballs flew slowly in different directions,

almost simultaneously striking objects, exploding, then extinguishing.

The objects the fireballs hit were also wooden doors, with the same structure as the door the players had just seen, but smaller in size.

The three wooden doors were not completely sealed off. The fireballs smashed them open, revealing three rooms with extremely large floor areas.

To the left was a forest (the plants were withered, and the ceiling was covered with a layer of withered moss that, upon inspection, may have once been luminous),

in the middle was an oriental courtyard with a pool,

and to the right was a medieval village.

Apart from their different sizes and shapes, the three rooms had dried blood and battle marks on the floors, walls, and ceilings.

On the other three walls besides the entrance were also three wooden doors, which could be opened to access three different rooms.

"The entire dungeon is made up of a large number of different rooms, each containing monsters and rewards. The team of heroes needs to clear them one by one, find the quest objective, obtain the rewards, and escape the dungeon.

In order to be replayable, the entire dungeon and each room will also be reset every 24 hours, rearranging the rooms and monsters."

David, who had returned to the crossroads, said softly, "In a video game, this might be a fairly ordinary dungeon game design.

But in the real world...it's quite terrifying."

"To achieve a complete reset on such a large scale, the energy required would be astronomical."

Hohenheim said calmly, "Unless there is an ingenious magic circle with extremely high energy utilization, responsible for maintaining the operation."

"But that magic circle should have been scrapped long ago."

Li Ang pushed open the middle wooden door and walked into the oriental courtyard room.

The water in the pool next to the courtyard hadn't flowed in a long time. The surface was covered with a layer of green algae and some viscous impurities. Through the murky water, one could see some stones and broken wood lying still beneath the surface.

"The smell of corpses is ahead."

Li Ang withdrew his finger, which had touched the surface of the water, stood up, and walked toward the wooden door at the far end of the oriental courtyard room.

The group passed through several rooms, and the further they went, the more intense the stench became.

After pushing open a wooden door with a crack, the players finally found the source of the smell.

This was a vast room. The four walls of the room were covered with the most dense claw marks, almost piercing through the walls.

In the middle of the room was a strangely shaped hill – the bottom of the hill was surrounded by a circle of emerald green water, and the surface of the hill itself extended a large number of绒毛 (róng máo, fine hairs).

Wait, those weren't fine hairs.

Hohenheim instantly stopped releasing his fireball spell, abruptly raised his arm, and stopped Ding Zhensi from using a searchlight to illuminate the hill in front of him.

[Group Dim Vision]: Doubles vision in dim environments.

[Group Night Vision]: Improves visual ability in dark environments.

Hohenheim drank a potion and silently cast two layers of buffing magic on everyone.

This kind of group buff spell consumed a lot of energy in a low-magic environment, and the duration and effect were greatly reduced, but it was enough for the players to see the appearance of the mountain itself.

It was a mountain made of a massive accumulation of biological remains.

The materials of the mountain were fragmented. With the players' knowledge, they could barely identify some of the remains as belonging to goblins, two-headed ogres, trolls, gnolls, and other common fantasy world monsters.

The other part of the remains, however, looked like monsters pulled from the sets of the video games "Serious Sam" or "Dead Space". They were extremely bizarre and grotesque, and even more difficult to identify after being turned into broken limbs.

What everyone thought were fine hairs on the surface of the mountain were actually limbs and various weapons exposed outside the remains.

The circle of green water at the bottom of the hill was actually a large amount of blood in a closed environment.

The scale of the entire mountain was so large that it produced some kind of mutation – the surface of the hill was shrouded in a layer of dense, black mist that swirled slowly, forming vortices around the forest of surface limbs.

The entire mountain vibrated slightly every few seconds, as if it were alive.

And at the very top of the mountain, there was a huge, burly shadow that resembled a silverback gorilla. That seemed to be the source of the black mist.

The situation was special. Li Ang silently used the Group Telepathy spell again.

As soon as the mental network formed,

Ding Zhensi said in a low voice in the network: ["A huge demonic beast shrouded in shadow." Is that thing on the mountaintop the monster that the village chief said plundered the stone from the Holy Mountain gate?]

[It's possible, we better prepare in advance...]

Before Hohenheim could finish speaking,

the shadow entrenched at the top of the mountain suddenly raised its head,

and two eyes emitting a scarlet light stared intently at the players at the entrance of the room.

Whoosh—

The huge shadow slowly straightened its body,

and the biological remains on the surface of the mountain slid down like an avalanche, splashing emerald green blood.

They were discovered.

Hohenheim's expression remained unchanged. Gas flowed beneath his feet, lifting him slowly into the air. With the help of sound amplification magic, he said loudly to the shadow, "Hello, we are a team of heroes here to explore the dungeon..."

"Roar!!"

The shadow demon beast raised its head and let out an intense roar.

Its strong arm waved heavily downwards, and the black gas that enveloped the room poured towards Hohenheim like a long dragon.

"Tsk, as expected, negotiation is impossible."

Hohenheim's expression was gloomy. Just now, he had actually cast a spell on himself to temporarily increase his charm, as well as two buffs, [Charm Monster] and [Charm Human], which had a chance of convincing ordinary monsters.

Unfortunately, it didn't work on the shadow demon beast.

That was normal, after all, his own charm was limited. He hadn't added many attribute points, and he didn't carry any equipment or props that could increase his charm.

Faced with the black mist dragon, Hohenheim flickered and instantly teleported to the other end of the room,

dodging the opponent's attack while quickly flipping through the pages of the Book of Sand, releasing multiple attack spells in an instant.

[Burnout Spell], [Electric Blast Orb], [Mochuria's Light], [Stone Blast Spell]...

These spells had completely different attributes, functions, trajectories, and forms of action.

Ordinary mages needed to go through a lot of preparation steps such as incantations, gestures, and casting materials to successfully release them.

However, with the help of the Book of Sand, a Clock Tower containment item passed down from ancient times, Hohenheim could directly skip the lengthy pre-casting and instantly release multiple schools of magic.

Boom!

Various spells bombarded the black mist dragon, easily shattering it, and continued unabated, hitting the surface of the shadow demon beast's body.

In an instant, flames burst, lightning flashed, and the splashing effects of different attribute magic attacks flattened a part of the remains on the surface of the mountain.

However, the main body of the black mist, the shadow demon beast in the shape of a silverback gorilla, took all the effects of the spells without resistance,

and raised its two arms, pressing them heavily on the surface of the mountain.

Buzz—

The vortices on the surface of the mountain flowed rapidly.

The black mist that had just been shattered by Hohenheim instantly re-condensed and suddenly bombarded Hohenheim.

Caught off guard, the light of the protective magic on his body flashed and disappeared.

When the smoke cleared, he had completely disappeared from the spot.

Not only Hohenheim,

David and Amberley, who were standing at the very front, were also attacked – black mist rapidly poured out from the mountain, walls, and ceiling, engulfing the two like a tide,

causing them to disappear like Hohenheim.

Li Ang's pupils shrank suddenly. In his mental network, the signals of these three people disappeared almost instantly, without any fluctuations.

This is...

Without time to think, the black mist that had dealt with David and Amberley roared over. Li Ang pulled out the Basha Heng Lan Spear and stabbed it hard on the ground.

With the help of the thrust, his entire body soared into the air, and then he activated the [Ladder Cloud Ascend] skill to create invisible steps under his feet, providing a point of leverage,

barely avoiding the black mist.

"Don't get touched by this mist!"

Li Ang shouted in a low voice.

Hearing this, Liu Wuwei, who was standing behind, quietly folded his shoulder armor, unfolded like bird feathers, and fanned them violently, providing upward thrust.

Ding Zhensi's Kui Niu mecha also activated the vector nozzle thruster.

The heavy body avoided the black mist attack with an agility that did not match its size.

Bang!

Colt fired his revolver at the shadow demon beast. The silver, magic-breaking bullets rotated at high speed, crossed the full distance, and grazed the top of the shadow demon beast's head—

The demon beast's entire body was shrouded in shadow, causing its actual size to be much smaller than it appeared, and the first bullet failed to do much damage.

After one shot, the opponent seemed to know the power of the magic-breaking bullets, and dug its arms into the mountaintop, taking out a broken shield like a city gate, and an exaggeratedly large, rusty greatsword, blocking it in front of itself.

Its feet stepped heavily on the mountain, and its entire body fell diagonally downwards like a meteor, wrapped in an extremely dense black mist.

It can even use weapons?

Li Ang did not hesitate to pull the trigger of Colt's revolver, firing four magic-breaking bullets at the fastest speed.

Three silver bullets were deflected, and only one hit the shadow demon beast's left arm, which was holding the shield, through a gap in the broken shield, splashing scarlet blood.

But it only splashed blood.

In the blink of an eye, the shadow demon beast in the shape of a gorilla had fallen from the top of the mountain, wielding its greatsword and slashing down at Li Ang.

That greatsword was clearly corroded by flesh and blood and had become rusty, but it could still cut through the air with a rustling shriek under the pure brute force.

Boom!!!

Li Ang stepped on the invisible steps created by the Ladder Cloud Ascend, dodged to the right, and barely avoided this simple and unadorned greatsword slash.

His left-hand Colt pistol completed its aiming, and shot the last magic-breaking bullet at the shadow demon beast's neck, in a corner that the shield could not cover.

The silver bullet silently hit its target,

blowing off a large piece of flesh from the shadow demon beast's neck.

"Roar!"

The demon beast roared in pain and anger, and the surrounding black mist surged wildly, sweeping towards the remaining three players from all directions, sealing off all maneuvering paths.

The black mist was formless and intangible. It could be shattered by energy attacks like [Ten Finger Dissociation Technique], but the total amount was too large – every crack in the bricks in this room was constantly spewing black mist outwards, inexhaustible.

In the Group Telepathy mental network, Li Ang said very quickly: [Hohenheim, David, and Amberley are not dead, but have come into contact with the black mist and have been teleported by the black mist to other corners of the dungeon. This demon beast also has combat intelligence based on instinct, prioritizing teleporting away those enemies with the highest energy levels, the most difficult to deal with, and then defeating them separately, according to the level of energy that each of us shows.]

Without using the divine power stored in the God's Mark, Li Ang's total spirit energy value was not particularly high (the total spirit energy value provided by Ripple Breathing Technique and Alchemy was not enough), and there was also the cover effect of the Mirage Dragon Crimson Mane Outerwear,

causing the shadow demon beast to mistakenly believe that his overall strength was on the same level as Liu Wuwei and Ding Zhensi.

However, this also proved that the strength of this demon beast was not as high as imagined, at least not high enough to crush the entire player team.

The speed of thought interaction in the mental network was faster than language communication in the real world.

Li Ang quickly said: [The main body of this demon beast took Hohenheim's spell bombardment just now and was completely unaffected, it has very strong magic resistance, but its physical defense is relatively low, and high-level silver magic-breaking bullets can cause damage. If we close the distance, I am confident that I can kill it. The only problem now is, Comrade Ding, can you do the Hua Shou?]

[???]

The more serious and earnest Li Ang's tone was, the more real Ding Zhensi's astonishment was.

Countless images flashed through his mind in an instant, such as the mental guy wearing a Wangzai milk-style tights, tight pants, and bean shoes,

the flamboyantly dressed mental girl,

the square dance mental auntie group in collective padded jackets,

mentally confusing short videos,

and all kinds of weird shouts similar to "Don't love me, there's no result, unless Hua Shou shakes me over";

Fortunately, in the next moment, Ding Zhensi reacted.

He took a deep breath and immediately rotated his body, so that the Kui Niu mecha faced the overwhelming mist head-on.

The two mechanical arms grasped the high-frequency cutting blade,

and the information commands transmitted from the cockpit, passed through the internal cables of the mecha, to the inside of the high-frequency cutting blade,

causing the two ends of the cutting blade to fold up and down, forming the structure of a wind turbine blade.

Spin!

The Kui Niu mecha's hands rotated the handle in the middle of the high-frequency cutting blade,

and the mecha's arms, condensed with the cutting-edge technology of the Special Affairs Bureau, rotated the high-frequency cutting blade like a rotor motor,

creating a howling wind, facing the overwhelming black mist head-on.

Whoosh—

The dense black mist was actually blown out of a gap under the sweeping wind.

Li Ang and Liu Wuwei's figures suddenly darted out of the gap.

The latter drew his bow like a full moon, shooting out thousands of golden arrows, sealing off the area around the shadow demon beast,

while the Basha Heng Lan Spear in Li Ang's hand quietly cut towards the demon beast's neck, which had just been hit by the magic-breaking bullet.