8: Chapter 8, give me the most intense one yet!

"Give me the most powerful one."

Shen Ruoxi's voice wasn't loud, but all the surrounding players heard it clearly.

The entire scene fell silent.

Chen Ergou froze for two seconds, then hurriedly put on a smiling face: "The most powerful? That has to be my substitute scarecrow! It's a dungeon artifact, a BOSS killer. A mage just used it to daze an Armored Giant Lizard, and the World Channel saw it—"

"Are there any more scarecrows?" Shen Ruoxi interrupted him.

Chen Ergou's smile stiffened on his face: "Uh... out of stock for now. There was only one, and it just sold."

Shen Ruoxi frowned slightly.

Chen Ergou hurriedly tried to salvage the situation: "But! I still have a shrinking cookie! This one is also very powerful!"

He picked up a shrinking cookie and handed it to Shen Ruoxi: "Look at this. After eating it, you can shrink to the size of a mouse for five minutes. You can crawl into a BOSS's body to hit its weak points, or crawl into secret passages in hidden maps. It has so many uses!"

Shen Ruoxi took the cookie and looked it over back and forth.

"Shrink to the size of a mouse?" There was a trace of skepticism in her tone.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Chen Ergou nodded repeatedly. "Just think about it. When fighting a BOSS, the BOSS is covered in armor and scales on the outside, so you can't deal damage by attacking head-on. But if you shrink and crawl through the gaps in the armor to attack its weak points from the inside, wouldn't that damage directly double?"

Shen Ruoxi's eyes brightened slightly.

She was indeed challenging a hidden dungeon—the "Shadow Nest."

The dungeon's BOSS was called the "Shadow Lord," completely wrapped in shadow armor, and almost immune to external attacks.

She had led her guild's main force to fight it three times, and each time they got stuck at the last 10% of its HP and couldn't make any progress.

If the shrinking cookie could really let her crawl into the Shadow Lord's armor gaps and attack its weak points from the inside...

"Does it have any side effects?" Shen Ruoxi asked.

Chen Ergou's heart skipped a beat.

Here it came, the question he feared most.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say "none," but his conscience felt a bit uneasy.

Moreover, the system description clearly stated in black and white: "While shrunk, there is a possibility of being chased by small animals such as cats and chickens."

But Shen Ruoxi's gaze was too cold.

Those eyes were like two pools of ice, staring straight at him, as if saying: If you dare to lie to me, you're finished.

The truth on the tip of Chen Ergou's tongue was forced back.

"No... no side effects!" he said with a smile. "Absolutely none! Use it with confidence!"

Shen Ruoxi stared at him for three seconds.

Chen Ergou felt like he had been scanned by an X-ray, completely transparent from head to toe.

Fortunately, Shen Ruoxi didn't continue to press the issue.

She put the cookies back on the stall and said, "Three. I'll take them all. How much?"

Chen Ergou was overjoyed: "5 gold coins each, 15 gold coins for three!"

Shen Ruoxi didn't say another word and transferred 15 gold coins directly.

Chen Ergou looked at the 15 extra gold coins in his inventory and almost laughed out loud.

Adding the previous 25 gold coins, he now had 40 gold coins! In the Novice Village, this was already a huge sum of money.

Shen Ruoxi put the three shrinking cookies into her inventory and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Chen Ergou blurted out.

Shen Ruoxi stopped and looked back at him.

Chen Ergou opened his mouth, wanting to mention the side effects. But when Shen Ruoxi's gaze swept over, he instantly chickened out.

"Um... come again next time!" He squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying.

Shen Ruoxi didn't speak and walked away without looking back.

The surrounding players finally snapped back to reality, and the World Channel exploded instantly—

"Holy crap! Xiguang is here?! The Iceberg Empress came to Ergous Stall in person to buy something?!"

"What did she buy? shrinking cookies? She bought all three?"

"What does Xiguang want with shrinking cookies? Is she going to crawl inside a BOSS's body?"

"The Iceberg Empress shrinking... I don't dare to imagine that scene."

"Ergous Stall hit the jackpot this time! 15 gold coins! Xiguang visited in person! This advertising effect is stronger than any World Channel announcement!"

"But don't you guys find it strange? Why did Xiguang come to the Novice Village to buy things? Shouldn't she be in a high-level map?"

"Who knows? We don't understand the minds of big shots."

Chen Ergou looked at the discussion on the World Channel, but he couldn't feel happy.

He hadn't dared to mention the side effects just now.

The side effect of the shrinking cookie was—during the shrinking period, there is a possibility of being chased by small animals such as cats and chickens.

Shen Ruoxi bought the shrinking cookies, nine times out of ten, to use in a dungeon. Where would there be cats and chickens in a dungeon? It should be fine, right?

But what if?

What if there really is a cat in the dungeon?

The more Chen Ergou thought about it, the more uneasy he became, but he didn't dare to send a message to Shen Ruoxi. She was the Iceberg Empress, the president of the top guild in the entire server; as a small street vendor, how could he have the qualifications to bother her?

Forget it, stop thinking about it.

Whatever happens, happens.

...

Meanwhile, Shen Ruoxi had already returned to her guild stronghold.

The [Dawn] guild's stronghold was located on a small hill north of the Novice Village, a simple guild fortress. Although its level wasn't high, it had the advantage of a good location and a wide field of view.

As soon as Shen Ruoxi returned to the stronghold, the guild vice-president, "Dawnbreak," came to greet her.

"President, where did you go just now? Everyone has been looking for you. The fourth challenge of the Shadow Nest starts tomorrow, and the tactics still haven't been decided—"

"The tactics are decided." Shen Ruoxi interrupted him and pulled a shrinking cookie from her inventory. "I've found a new breakthrough."

Dawnbreak took the cookie and looked at it: "This is... a shrinking cookie? Where did you get it?"

"Bought it from a stall called 'Ergous Stall' in the Novice Village."

Dawnbreak looked shocked: "Ergous Stall? That one that sells regret potions and scarecrows? The one on the World Channel?"

"Mm."

"President, you believe him?" Dawnbreak frowned. "That guy's items all have side effects. The regret potion makes people speak their true feelings, the scarecrow gets scared off by the BOSS... This shrinking cookie definitely has problems too."

Shen Ruoxi said indifferently: "So what if there are side effects? As long as the core function is real, that's all that matters. The regret potion can rewind five seconds, the scarecrow can attract aggro—the core functions are all real. The shrinking cookie can shrink [the user] to the size of a mouse, and that's enough."

Dawnbreak thought about it and felt it made sense.

"Then... for tomorrow's fourth challenge of the Shadow Nest, how do you plan to use it?"

Shen Ruoxi looked at the shrinking cookie in her hand, her eyes cold: "The Shadow Lord's armor has a fatal weakness—the Shadow Core in the very center of its chest. But this core is wrapped in three layers of armor, so external attacks can't hit it at all."

"So you plan to shrink, crawl into the armor gaps, and attack the Shadow Core from the inside?"

"Yes."

Dawnbreak gasped: "That operation is too extreme, right? Crawling into a BOSS's body, what if the BOSS has some internal attack method..."

"That's why I need you all to distract it from the outside." Shen Ruoxi put the cookie back into her inventory. "Tomorrow, you all go all out on output and attract the Shadow Lord's attention. I will find the right moment to shrink, crawl in, and destroy the Shadow Core from the inside."

"Understood." Dawnbreak nodded. "Then I'll go notify everyone to prepare."

Shen Ruoxi gave a hum of acknowledgment and walked to the highest point of the stronghold, looking at the distant sky.

The sun was setting, and golden light spilled over her platinum armor, beautiful as a painting.

But she wasn't thinking about the scenery at this moment.

She was thinking—about the player called "Ergous Stall."

The items he sold were indeed interesting. regret potions, substitute scarecrows, shrinking cookies... Every single one carried unexpected effects. Moreover, he was clearly feeling guilty in front of her.

He was definitely hiding something.

The corners of Shen Ruoxi's mouth curled up slightly.

It didn't matter; she liked smart opponents.

As for the side effects... she, Shen Ruoxi, never believed in superstitions.

Early the next morning, Shen Ruoxi led the [Dawn] guild's ten-person elite squad into the hidden dungeon "Shadow Nest."

The Shadow Nest was located deep underground in the Novice Village, a dungeon in a completely dark environment. Shadow Creatures were everywhere, and the air was filled with the scent of decay.

The ten-person squad fought their way through, taking an hour to clear all the mobs, and arrived in front of the final BOSS—

The Shadow Lord.

A three-meter-tall giant knight, wrapped in pitch-black armor, revealing only a pair of blood-red eyes. It held a giant shadow sword, with purple-black mist swirling around the blade.

[Shadow Lord (Lv.25 Hidden BOSS)]

[HP: 100%]

[Weakness: Shadow Core in the chest (wrapped in three layers of armor, immune to external attacks)]

Shen Ruoxi gripped the longsword in her hand, watching the Shadow Lord coldly.

Three times already.

This was her fourth time standing in front of this monster.

The previous three times, they got stuck at the last 10% of its HP. When the Shadow Lord's HP fell below 10%, it would enter a berserk state, with double attack power and double speed, making it almost impossible to dodge.

But this time, she had the shrinking cookie.

"Start." Shen Ruoxi commanded in a low voice.

The ten-person squad attacked simultaneously, the various classes coordinating with tacit understanding, firing on all cylinders.

The Shadow Lord roared and swung its giant sword in a sweep. The tank "Iron Wall" raised his shield to block, the priest "Starfall" healed, and the DPS classes poured out damage like crazy.

The battle was intense yet orderly.

Shen Ruoxi observed the Shadow Lord's armor while dealing damage. Sure enough, at the chest position, there was an extremely thin gap between the three layers of armor—only about the size of a mouse.

Enough.

When the Shadow Lord's HP dropped to 20%, Shen Ruoxi knew the time had come.

She stepped back a few paces, took out a shrinking cookie from her inventory, and swallowed it in one bite.

The next second, her body began to shrink rapidly.

Her platinum armor shrank, her longsword shrank, and her whole body shrank from 1.7 meters down to the size of a mouse.

The teammates saw this scene and were all stunned for a moment.

"The president shrank?!"

"Holy crap, she really turned into the size of a mouse!"

"Don't just stand there! Keep attacking!" Dawnbreak roared.

Shen Ruoxi ignored her teammates' surprise. She gripped her shrunken longsword—which now looked more like a needle—and charged toward the Shadow Lord.

The Shadow Lord couldn't notice a "mouse" at all.

Shen Ruoxi nimbly jumped onto the Shadow Lord's boot and climbed up along the patterns of the armor. The armor's surface was cold and slippery, and the shadow mist constantly eroded her HP, but she gritted her teeth and persisted.

Climbing to the chest position, she saw the gap.

It was narrower than she had imagined, but just enough for her to crawl inside.

Shen Ruoxi took a deep breath and crawled in.

The inside of the armor was pitch black, with shadow energy surging everywhere. She fumbled her way forward and finally saw the Shadow Core—a fist-sized purple-black crystal, floating in the very center of the armor's interior, emitting an eerie light.

This was it.

Shen Ruoxi raised her shrunken longsword, aimed at the Shadow Core, and thrust with all her might—