"Was that Crow Daoist… still dangerous?" Mu Anqi was shocked.
"…Still a little." Zhao Guo looked extremely helpless. Although that Crow Daoist was completely under control and couldn't resist or use any abilities before he got killed, there was still some threat. After all, he was a BOSS! As for why this one felt even more dangerous than the Crow Daoist… Zhao Guo couldn't figure it out at the moment, she just reminded Mu Anqi and the others to be careful.
The only situation where danger might appear…
Loss of control, silenced maybe? With the precedent of the pharmacist, and Zhao Guo's own sense of crisis as a lucky guy… "My control might fail, maybe because of something in the air, or perhaps the mist released after the seal was lifted." Mu Anqi touched her neck. She had no problem speaking now, so it was likely the latter situation.
At this moment, she had no idea that the game planner had also temporarily given the Boss a buff.
"I think I have a tool for area confinement. Let me check." Zhao Guo slapped her head and opened her backpack to search. She had drawn quite a few one-time-use strange items. When Mu Anqi mentioned that her control might fail, Zhao Guo remembered that she seemed to have obtained a control tool before. "Oh, it's this! The Black-and-White Cube. Place it on the ground to activate it. After five minutes of charging, it will raise a black-and-white barrier, enclosing an area with a diameter of 100 meters centered on it! Within this area, even teleportation skills cannot leave. But the confinement only lasts twenty minutes."
Because it required so much charging time and there hadn't been an occasion to use it in previous games, the cube had remained in her backpack. When she drew it… it seemed to even indicate it was a specialty from a certain city.
Mu Anqi stared at the cube. "A specialty from Upside-Down City?"
"How do you know?" Zhao Guo was stunned.
"Hmm, I guessed. I've been to the Upside-Down City game." Mu Anqi scratched her head. Ever since visiting Upside-Down City and obtaining another mask, whenever she saw black-and-white products, she suspected they were local specialties from Upside-Down City.
Zhao Guo placed the cube on the coffin lid. Wu Sansheng, Xia Yun, and Si Suying began organizing their items and skills, taking a short rest to prepare. The moment the black-and-white barrier from the cube formed, Xia Yun and Si Suying, one on each side, used their True-Soul Sword and Bronze Sword to violently tear off the talismans on the coffin and pry open the lid!
"Clang!—"
The instant the coffin opened, countless bats flew out, so densely packed and ferocious it was even worse than a locust swarm or an enraged hornet attack. As the bats collided with the black-and-white barrier and turned into black mist, the young man lying in the coffin, dressed entirely in vampire attire, calmly opened his eyes, hearing Mu Anqi's repeated blessings.
"Hah, I've got a control-immune buff!"
He thought disdainfully. Using the swarm of bats to first disrupt the players' vision, he then suddenly slammed the coffin to launch himself into the air, nimbly dodging Xia Yun's sword formation. He collided headfirst with the black-and-white barrier and fell heavily—
"Damn?!" Isn't this stuff from Upside-Down City? Can those two grown-ups from Upside-Down City stop messing with all these ridiculous items all the time!?
"It's a bat demon." Mu Anqi said a few more blessing words toward him, puzzled. "I'm not muted, but he's uncontrollable… control-immune?" Mu Anqi quickly realized this. Without wasting any more time, once she confirmed it was a demon, she loaded three Demon-Slaying Bullet cards into the submachine gun magazine. "I'll start with suppressive fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat…
The temporarily control-immune bat demon (vampire) turned green in the face. He was still in a weakened state! Even though he was control-immune… with a wave of his hand, countless bats transformed and flew out to block the bullets for him. The bat demon kept retreating and then suddenly turned into an ordinary bat within the swarm, rushing toward the edge with the rest of the bats.
He even thought of digging a tunnel to escape, but the dome was actually a sphere, enclosing everything inside.
There were too many dispersed bats. Mu Anqi frowned, while Si Suying, holding the Bronze Sword, swiftly weaved through the hundred-meter dome in her cat-girl form, slicing all the low-flying bats. Xia Yun manipulated her True-Soul Sword to continuously chop the bats in the air, yet they still couldn't identify which one was the bat demon.
Wu Sansheng watched the increasingly scattered and vanishing swarm. "This is the bat demon's ability. Using this skill must be extremely mentally taxing—let him struggle."
Wu Sansheng said expressionlessly, "This dome has a two-hour time limit. He just came out and is in a weakened state—he can't escape for two hours. Everyone be careful, don't let him hijack you."
Bat Demon: ?!
Two… two hours? Is this for real? The bat demon, who had been planning to stall for a chance to escape, was shocked. No, no way—he'd have to kill a player or hijack someone… yes, hijack…
At that moment, an arc hand grenade was suddenly thrown high into the air. The instant it reached the high-flying bats, it exploded, sending out a dense web of blue electric currents. As the bats fell paralyzed and unable to move, Mu Anqi shook her little fire-breathing dragon flamethrower and set them all ablaze! The flames ignited the bat swarm, burning them into black mist that dissipated.
The bats here were very different from the ones outside in the cave. They were a manifestation of the bat demon's ability; after dissipating, no bodies remained. The bat swarms that entered the cave earlier, however, were real.
With a sharp screech, the bat swarm instantly surged, as if receiving some command, diving down in waves to attack the players.
For some reason, the bat demon's intended target had originally been Zhao Guo, standing quietly in the farthest corner, but when giving the order, its thought inexplicably misfired and it chose Wu Sansheng instead. No matter—both of these players looked like they were barely trying and seemed to be support roles. Hijacking such weaklings would be completely effortless—
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The Crow Daoist, robe flowing, suddenly unleashed countless crow feathers shooting rapidly in all directions. The bat demon drifted and dived to dodge the feathers. In the next instant, it revealed its true form: bat wings spread from its back, sharp fangs gleaming, as it lunged fiercely at Wu Sansheng—
His eyes met Wu Sansheng's, calm and emotionless. Invisible, silent, and seemingly harmless, the bat demon's mind went blank for an instant, then came the stabbing, dull pain, as if someone had slammed a hammer into his brain. A foot then stomped his head into a pile of needles. He let out a pained "hoh hoh" sound, his gaze unfocused, unable to speak clearly. In that moment, mentally devastated, he didn't even have the strength to control the bats he had split off; the intense mental and spiritual pain caused him to lose control, and the bat swarm exploded into countless black mist blossoms.
The Black-and-White Cube was completely calm.
"That's strange. What ability could a bat demon possibly have to resist control?" Seeing Wu Sansheng successfully disable the bat demon by using herself as bait, Mu Anqi was still puzzled.
"Try blessing it again?" Wu Sansheng suggested. "Maybe it was a temporary buff added when it came out of the coffin. Killing the Crow Daoist was too easy—maybe the game adjusted for balance."
Mu Anqi thought for a moment, then cautiously said "Good luck, great fortune" to the bat demon lying there, empty-eyed and frothing at the mouth. She watched as the bat demon wobbled its "body" and got up, obediently doing sit-ups as desired.
They changed it… this game really is unpredictable. Mu Anqi was a little speechless, but as long as her skills still worked, it was fine. She picked up the demon blade and sliced off the bat demon's head. Its body kept shrinking, eventually returning to a slightly fattened bat corpse, and then dissipated into black mist. Only a cross, a bat wing, and a pair of fangs remained.
The wing and fangs didn't have specific item descriptions. The cross wasn't defensive either; aiming it at an enemy released a laser attack, usable only once per day. It was… a good item for a sneak attack? Naturally, it couldn't be taken out of the game.
After cleaning up, Si Suying and Xia Yun also found a sacrificial text, a stack of joss paper, and a jar—maybe sake?—in the coffin. All were ritual items. However, these items really clashed with the vampire-themed coffin, and no one knew why the bat demon insisted on posing as a vampire.
"What do we need for the ritual? Incense, candles, joss paper, sacrificial text, sake? We already have the silk, and now we also have this bat wing and fangs, plus that cursed journal—I'm not sure what they're for, maybe offerings. If the game area's bosses are just these few, we can probably start thinking about clearing the game." Xia Yun counted their items.
"We still have to kill the two bosses that escaped from the pond and the apartment," Mu Anqi added, sighing. "Other player teams also have ritual items, but we now have the joss paper, so completing the ritual alone shouldn't be a problem."
Even though it was only the second day since entering the game, Mu Anqi and the others had already killed two bosses. She looked at Wu Sansheng, expressionless and unmoved even after killing the bat demon, and thought: Wu Sansheng is really amazing this time!
Her mental attack skills were incredibly strong and completely unexpected. It was said she could even extend mental protection to other players, turning passive defense into active group mental immunity. Wu Sansheng's ability was now fully mastered! She was no longer the player who relied solely on her brain to survive without any self-protection skills.
They collected all the items in the cave. As for the cross… after some discussion, they decided to give it to Si Suying.
"You're the only one without ranged attack capabilities, so this perfectly fills your gap."
Cat Si was speechless. She really… lacked ranged attack ability. Before, relying entirely on her speed, she hadn't felt this was a weakness, after all, she was an assassin. But when facing flying bats and crows… ah, no matter how fast she was, she couldn't just step on air to take flight. She couldn't argue, so she accepted it.
As for Zhao Guo? She obediently played the "mascot" role. "I'm naturally a lucky queen with divine luck! I just need to act as a danger radar and provide some useful items!" Saying this, she stuffed the cross into Si Suying's hands.
Seeing these two about to float pink bubbles again, Mu Anqi quickly walked toward the cave exit.