Chapter 23: Item Assault

Seeing the Meng Yuan Chu monster, the players immediately launched a charge.

But after entering the cave, the expressions of all the players changed.

Countless fragments of images suddenly floated in their minds, weaving a Mental Illusion based on their memories that formed rapidly.

In the Illusion, the Taunt monster transformed into a loathsome object, generating uncontrollable rage in their hearts.

Seeing this scene, Qi Sheng, hidden in the shadows, let out a silent laugh, then decisively severed his subtle perception and observation of the players, switching to guide the avatar's perspective for external observation to prevent himself from entering the Mental Illusion the players were suffering.

According to the Guide's analysis information, Taunt possesses the ability to weave Mental Illusions, and with the players' current mental strength, they are utterly unable to resist.

The most terrifying aspect of this ability is not the Illusion, but the emotional manipulation.

He could imagine the players' plight within the Mental Illusion: Taunt would transform into whatever they hated most in the Illusion, perhaps the murderer of their father, or perhaps the neighbor Old Wang, but none of that mattered... At this moment, the players, their eyes bloodshot, rushed toward Taunt.

At this very moment, Taunt opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs, and swallowed the approaching players one by one.

This ability reminded Qi Sheng of the anglerfish in reality, specifically the deep-sea anglerfish, which lures other fish by using a glowing lantern protruding from its head.

In comparison, Taunt's ability is far more terrifying.

Once within Taunt's ability range, one will be uncontrollably drawn toward Taunt, becoming a target to be lured.

To resist the Mental Illusion, one must possess mental strength far superior to Taunt's, or have a Meng Yuan Chu ability that resists mental manipulation.

The players who entered the cave were wiped out by Taunt in less than a minute.

And Taunt, who had not eaten for long ages, merely ate nothing; all dead players would have their life essence extracted by the Super Dimension, then sent back to Di Zhao Village by Yan Ming to complete life reshaping underground.

【It seems the gift Ice Blade left for you is not just energy crystals.】

At this moment, a Guide water sphere appeared beside Qi Sheng, manifesting an arm to prop up its chin and analyze.

"Do you think this Meng Yuan Chu was imprisoned by Ice Blade, prepared as a gift for the next Beneath Di Zhao?"

【Exactly. Not just Taunt, I also sensed the auras of multiple Meng Yuan Chu monsters within the Dark Cave. Ice Blade's purpose in doing this is obvious; after all, only Beneath Di Zhao can absorb and fuse the abilities of Meng Yuan Chu monsters. I can think of no reason for him to imprison Meng Yuan Chu monsters.】

【Although this fellow is mad and warlike, his loyalty to Beneath Di Zhao is indeed admirable.】

"What about compared to you?" Qi Sheng turned his head to look at the Guide, a smile appearing on his face.

【Compared to me, of course, it's far inferior. I am Beneath Di Zhao's most loyal subordinate. Boss, are you doubting my loyalty?】

Without answering the Guide, Qi Sheng's gaze jumped back to the Monster World.

One hour later, the respawn point of Di Zhao Village.

Bai Guang flashed repeatedly, and players whose respawn cooldowns had ended logged into the game one after another.

"Holy crap, can you imagine what I encountered in the Illusion? I got cheated on by that big beetle, and the problem is, when I fell into the Illusion, I even thought it was reasonable. Thinking about it now is truly ridiculous."

"This game is terrifying; it can even extract memories to craft skills."

"My encounter was even more ridiculous. In the Illusion, the big beetle held my head down and forced me to eat shit, making my anger value skyrocket infinitely; I wanted nothing more than to turn around and smash its head with a punch."

After respawning, the players discussed their encounters when entering the Mental Illusion, exclaiming it was unbelievable.

After the idle chat, they began to consider how to take revenge.

What is clear is that Taunt's ability is to pull targets within a certain range into a Mental Illusion based on their memories, so melee is not advisable; only players inlaid with the Bone Fire Painful Painful Minghun can deal damage to Taunt.

Just as the players were discussing how to fight, a player from the Toddler Group proposed a suggestion:

"Who says we must use monster abilities to fight? Although the Black Python and Gargoyle forms can only melee, doesn't the Shangcheng have a large supply of torches and ranged attack items? We can completely stand outside the cave and throw ranged items inside to slowly grind down Taunt's health and kill it. This guy is bound by iron chains and cannot move, so he can't resist our ranged assault at all."

This idea immediately gained the approval of a large number of players.

Subsequently, they began purchasing ranged attack items in the Shangcheng.

Torches, Stone-Splitting Bows, Iron Crossbows... The players' Shou Shou Jili couldn't afford high-quality items, so they could only purchase ordinary items made with Shou Shou Jili.

While the players were sweeping up goods, the Challenger System automatically deducted 30% of the profit, bringing Qi Sheng 339 points of Shou Shou Jili revenue.

Subsequently, dozens of players left Di Zhao Village and headed toward the Dark Cave.

When the player team arrived at the second underground level, they immediately launched a ranged assault on Taunt imprisoned in the cave.

Players with the Bone Fire Painful Painful Minghun threw fireballs, while the rest threw various ranged items into the cave in rotation, launching a bombardment against Taunt.

During this period, Taunt's muffled roars continuously came from inside the cave.

This made them even more excited, looking forward to the Shou Shou Jili revenue brought by Taunt's death.

But the smiles on the players' faces gradually disappeared as time passed.

Taunt was far stronger and more tenacious than they imagined; the continuous half-hour bombardment still failed to kill it.

Many questioning voices also appeared in the voice channel:

"Is something wrong somewhere? Why hasn't it died after half an hour? Taunt's health bar is too thick."

"Is there a possibility that our attacks simply didn't break its defense? This game doesn't have a forced -1 damage setting, so our assault just now was likely ineffective output."

"Holy crap, don't say that. I've already drunk three bottles of Spirit Potion. If it doesn't die, the loss will be huge."

The view that they couldn't break the defense caused many players' mental states to explode.

Especially the players using the Bone Fire form; their levels were generally between 5 and 7, and their mental strength could only sustain the assault for a while before they had to stop, buy "Spirit Potion" items from the Shangcheng to replenish their consumption, and then re-enter the battle.

The price of low-level Spirit Potions is 5 points of Shou Shou Jili; the half-hour bombardment had already sunk a considerable cost.

If they cannot kill Taunt, it would undoubtedly be a total loss.

Half an hour later, Taunt's roars continued; the cave was already shrouded in flames, and black smoke mixed with heat waves made the players cough and retreat repeatedly.

The players' mental states also gradually collapsed from optimism.

One player even looked at the Xiong Xiong burning flames inside the cave and murmured:

"One torch costs 1 point of Shou Shou Jili, one bottle of Spirit Potion costs 5 points of Shou Shou Jili, one Stone-Splitting Bow costs 50 points of Shou Shou Jili, one arrow costs 1 point of Shou Shou Jili... We've thrown in more than 1000 points of Shou Shou Jili now, haven't we? I even threw in all the revenue I earned from mining yesterday..."

These words caused the players beside him to have their mental states explode.

But none of the players stopped.

The sunk cost was so high that they were like gamblers who had lost their minds, unwilling to accept the loss and choosing to fight to the death.

(End of this chapter)