The clear water at the top of the stone pillar suddenly rippled, and a purple laser shot out to strike his chest with pinpoint accuracy.
Before the player could even scream, his body was instantly vaporized, only dust remaining on the ground.
"Holy shit!" The players behind him stopped abruptly in fear.
At this moment, the system notification suddenly sounded.
[Remaining Match Time: 30 minutes]
"This is bad, the match is almost over! There's no time to waste."
"We can't wait any longer!"
"The only chance is to charge through right now!"
"Ok, let's do this! Together!"
"Charge!"
Amidst the rising shouts, the remaining players' eyes turned red. With a desperate determination, they roared and swarmed toward the depths of the hall.
But in the next second, more beams shot from the tops of the stone pillars and wove into a deadly laser net that filled the entire corridor.
What made them even more desperate was that these beams seemed to have eyes of their own, adjusting their trajectories to follow the players' movements and relentlessly chasing them down.
This wasn't a normal triggered trap at all.
It was a laser corridor that Alto had constructed by embedding a large number of guardians inside the stone pillars.
Roughly ten or twenty were stacked in each block.
The guardians' natural homing lasers became an insurmountable barrier for them.
"It's chasing and shooting me! Get out of the way!"
"Someone save me!"
The players fled frantically, but unfortunately, these lasers seemed to lock onto them with perfect accuracy, and thus their continuous screams echoed through the hall.
However, as more and more players flooded in, they had plenty of bodies to shield behind, and so, some leaders managed to push deep inside.
But just then, a faint, eerie blue light suddenly lit up on the floor in the corner of the hall.
A strange screeching sound rang out.
Several sculk shriekers slowly emerged from the ground.
The sound of players running and screaming triggered these blocks. A sharp buzzing echoed through the hall as the ground began vibrating violently.
"What is that thing?"
Someone's heart tightened painfully as they had a dreadful gut feeling.
In the next second, three pitch-black figures slowly emerged from the ground next to the sculk shriekers.
Their massive bodies looked extremely oppressive and were surrounded by mysterious blue energy.
These were the wardens of the ancient city, summoned to the scene.
As everyone on Earth knows, in Minecraft survival mode, the fake ultimate boss is the Ender Dragon, while the true threat is the warden.
As one of the strongest Monsters in Minecraft, it possesses the ability to sense vibrations. Additionally, it afflicts the Darkness Debuff, drastically limiting the player's sight, and its damage is dramatically high. Even in Full Netherite armor, you can easily get one-shot by that thing.
It certainly is much more dangerous than the Ender Dragon.
Furthermore, in multiplayer mode, the limit of only one spawning within twenty-four blocks had been removed.
At this moment, the sculk shriekers were continuously summoning Wardens. Three wardens appeared simultaneously, and the darkness debuff instantly covered the entire battlefield.
With the debuff applied, the players who were already in the dark maze suddenly felt as if they were blind.
"What's going on? Why can't I see anything!"
"What kind of monster is that now! I've really had enough! Why haven't I seen any of these before!"
"Ah!"
The wardens began their attack, and the players were harvested quickly like crop.
Some players still wanted to rush forward and resist, but their meager attacks were as effective as tickling a robot.
Suddenly, the three wardens stopped their attacks at the same time. The bones in their chests began vibrating violently, and then they slowly opened their pitch-black mouths.
A low buzzing sound leaked from the giant maws.
In the next second, three shockwaves burst forth and instantly swept through the entire central area of the hall.
The wide area of effect damage was nothing short of terrifying.
Players hit by the sonic boom, whether they were wearing armor or not, had their health depleted instantly. They vanished into white light in groups as the scene became suffocatingly horrific.
A large number of players were wiped out in an instant.
A truly terrifying power.
Some players were literally scared witless by this display of absolute dominance.
"This is simply not something humans can fight!"
A player in a full diamond could be considered an elite among the group.
Yet they didn't last even a second in front of the warden.
The wardens and the guardian lasers formed a double suppression. The players were attacked from both sides, vaporized by lasers, and torn apart by the wardens. The number of survivors decreased rapidly.
At the end of the hall stood a uniquely styled obsidian gate.
Through a gap in one block, the throne room could already be seen, with the energy crystal in the center glowing with a gentle yet deadly light.
This was something Alto had left intentionally, as if telling the players one simple message.
Keep going. There's only one last line of defense left. As long as you break through, you'll win.
Some people risked their lives to reach the front of the gate. If they could just destroy the last block, they could rush into the hall and destroy the core.
But before they could even swing their iron pickaxes, they were finished off by the lasers or the warden's attacks from behind.
The final step was like an insurmountable gap.
[Remaining Match Time: 5 minutes]
[Remaining Match Time: 3 minutes]
The system notifications kept ringing out like death knells.
Boshita led several players in diamond gear while attempting to break through the blockade of lasers and wardens as a coordinated group.
But the warden's claws could easily tear through the diamond armor, and the tracking lasers were even more impossible to guard against with their decreasing numbers.
For every step forward they took, they had to pay the price of countless lives. The crystal in the center of the hall was close at hand yet seemed unreachable.
By now, the players' resources had been completely exhausted.
Some didn't even have a full set of armor left, and a large number of players were intercepted on the lower floors.
[Remaining Match Time: 1 minute]
"One more time!"
Boshita roared and drank his last potion, then led the final charge toward the crystal.
But the warden suddenly locked onto him, and several sonic booms converged at once. His health dropped to zero instantly.
Jose wanted to rush over to cover him, but he was too late and could only watch as Boshita turned into white light and respawned.
The remaining players grew fewer and fewer until only dozens were left, barely able to stand.
Their equipment was long gone, and their potions were nearly exhausted. Facing the laser net and the wardens, they no longer had the strength to resist.
Finally, a cold voice rang out.
[Match time has ended! The player side has failed the challenge!]
The cold system notification rang in everyone's ears. The laser net slowly dissipated, and the wardens vanished back underground as the sculk shriekers fell silent.
The world rules were forcibly changed to a peaceful mode.
The players who heard the voice slumped to the ground.
Their eyes were hollow and devoid of anger, filled only with deep exhaustion and despair.
After twelve hours of bitter fighting and countless respawns, they had ultimately lost to these layers of vanilla mechanics and traps.
Some people simply collapsed and sat on the ground in stunned silence.
Hey guys sry for the scarce posts rn. I'm doing my driver's license rn, and between that, writing, and being cooked in an oven, I don't really have a lot of energy to write. I mean, fr tho, Why's it like 40 degrees??????