57: If you have strength, you will be confident
“Welcome to the Zombie Town instance!”
“This is a multiplayer, normal-difficulty instance, with a total of 100 challengers. You will compete fairly with the other 99 Lords.”
“Friendly reminder: The Lord who delivers the final blow to the BOSS will be the clearer of this instance and will receive the clearance reward.”
“Below is the list of Lords participating in this instance with you: Wang Qiang [Eternal Nightmare], Zhou Yuan [Dream Unicorn]... Li Feng [Calamity Controller], Sun Cheng [Bloody Butcher]...”
Fang Song stood with his hands behind his back. Everything he lost in the novice assessment, he planned to reclaim in this instance.
He casually glanced at the list of Lords.
Just as he was about to look away, his eyes suddenly widened.
“Holy crap!”
At the last moment, he noticed Li Feng’s name.
Having the same first and last name, or even overlapping territory names, might be possible.
But for both to overlap was impossible.
The will of heaven would not allow it.
“Damn it, are you messing with me?!”
Fang Song’s mentality completely collapsed.
He could already foresee that this instance run was destined to be a fruitless endeavor… 100 Lords holding tokens entered the instance almost simultaneously.
While Fang Song’s mentality was collapsing, Li Feng had already ordered his army to advance.
From the instance map, it looked like a sun drawn by a child.
In the center was the core of the instance, a town full of zombies.
Additionally, one hundred canyons extended from all directions of the Zombie Town.
Each Lord’s spawn point was located deep within one of these canyons.
The instance rules were simple.
Clear out the instance monsters within the canyon before being able to enter the Zombie Town.
Finally, kill all the monsters within the Zombie Town, and the BOSS will appear.
The clearance standard was also simple: the Lord who delivered the final blow to the BOSS would be considered to have cleared the instance and would receive generous clearance rewards.
“An instance with 100 people competing? Interesting.”
Li Feng nodded, understanding the rules of this instance at a glance.
On the surface, this instance seemed like a speed-run instance.
Whoever cleared the monsters in their canyon first could enter the Zombie Town first.
However, the criterion for instance clearance was not how quickly one entered the town, but who delivered the final blow to the BOSS.
This made the instance more complex.
If you cleared all the monsters in the canyon a step ahead and were the first to enter the Zombie Town, would you be the winner?
No!
There were still a large number of monsters in the Zombie Town; they all had to be cleared before the BOSS would appear.
You painstakingly cleared all the monsters.
Just as you were about to kill the final BOSS and enjoy the fruits of victory,
a large group of Lords suddenly rushed out, wanting to snatch the BOSS from you.
And because you had just cleared all the monsters in the entire town, your Troops had suffered considerable losses, and your condition was not optimal.
Ultimately, this led to the Lords who passed through the canyon later snatching the final blow on the BOSS.
Everything done before became a wedding dress for others.
Thus, a contradictory point emerged here.
Is it better to prioritize speed and enter the Zombie Town quickly?
Or is it better to deliberately slow down and enter the Zombie Town later?
Going fast makes it easy for others to reap your rewards.
Going slow, if many people go fast, by the time you enter the Zombie Town, the BOSS might already be killed, and you might end up losing more than you gain.
Both choices had pros and cons.
For a time, the other 98 Lords were in a dilemma.
Only Fang Song and Li Feng were not troubled at all.
The former had already decided to give up and let nature take its course.
Even if he ended up getting the first clear of the instance, what then? Offending an Overlord-level figure would lead to trouble in the future.
In fact, if his elders found out, he might even get a good beating.
As for the latter, it was even simpler.
Li Feng had absolute confidence in his strength.
He believed he could clear this instance before the other 99 people and enjoy the fruits of victory alone.
Why did Li Feng have this confidence?
1000 Flying Mantises, 200 Corpse Explosion Bugs, collectively storing 2000 corpses of monsters of Tier 4 or higher.
And 100 Monkey Ants and 100 Explosive Flame Earthworms.
Such a number of Tier 6 Troops, each with the blessing of two War Treasures, and the amplification of Epic-grade heroes.
Even if directly facing the siege of the other 99 Lords, Li Feng could take everyone down.
With strength comes confidence!
“Kha'Zix, you lead the Flying Mantises to clear the way. You don’t need to kill monsters; mainly just alarm and lure out the instance monsters.”
“Bill, you lead the Explosive Flame Earthworms and Fire Centipedes to follow closely behind, clearing all monsters at the fastest speed.”
“Buzzwole, the Monkey Ants, and the remaining heroes will guard me, clearing any missed monsters and ensuring my safety.”
“Move out!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Kha'Zix flapped his wings, leading the fastest Flying Mantises to fly towards the front of the canyon.
“Roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar...”
Soon, chilling roars came from the front of the canyon.
Through shared vision with Kha'Zix, Li Feng saw the source of the sound.
They were zombies, with large areas of their skin festering, even revealing rotting flesh, decaying bones, and internal organs.
Some zombies had their eyeballs hanging, connected only by nerve endings, preventing them from completely falling off.
Some zombies had a completely rotten area on their stomach, with intestines hanging out, which was quite unsettling.
Other zombies had bodies twisted in irregular shapes, yet this did not affect their walking in the slightest; they even ran with powerful momentum.
Kha'Zix led the Flying Mantises, constantly flying forward.
Without affecting their own travel, they would deliver some attacks to the zombies below.
Their mission was not to kill monsters, but to lure them.
As they swaggered past, zombies approached from all directions.
They roared and howled, chasing after them.
However, some zombies were in a dormant state and took several seconds to wake up.
By this time, Kha'Zix and the Flying Mantises had long since departed.
Without a target for aggro, they were about to disperse.
Boom boom boom! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Fireballs rained down from the sky.
Beams of flame shot from afar.
Forming a barrage of fire that enveloped heaven and earth.
The development during this period had made Li Feng’s money bag much, much richer.
To cope with this hidden instance,
during the half-hour preparation phase, he spent 40,000 gold coins with a wave of his hand, summoning 800 Fire Centipedes in one go.
Adding to the 200 summoned previously, he now commanded a total of over a thousand Fire Centipedes.
This resulted in fireballs pouring down on the zombies, an incredibly spectacular sight.
Facing such terrifying firepower, the zombies bore a burden they should not have at this stage.
Tons of damage erupted, their health plummeted, and they were quickly wiped out.
【Your Troops killed a zombie, your Troops gained a small amount of experience, you gained 1 Gold Coin!】
【Your Troops killed a zombie, your Troops gained a small amount of experience, you gained 1 Gold Coin!】
【...】
In Li Feng’s mind, kill notifications rang out one after another...