181: We have a traitor among us

Chapter 181 We have a traitor among us

With 50 less attack and half the health, the power of this boss was immediately greatly reduced.

“The boss still needs a few more rounds to reach the front line. During this time, we should eliminate the other minions as quickly as possible. Be careful not to lose any more members.”

Pakto began to direct and coordinate again.

“If we lose any more members, I’m afraid we won’t be able to defeat the boss.”

“Cutea, Kairala, Shi Li, the three of you go and block the boss first to buy us some time.”

He called out three people.

Cutea controlled a Rage System damage-absorbing Chess Piece.

Its warning range was slightly smaller, but it had a lot of health and could take a beating.

Plus Kairala’s Healing and Shi Li’s square-blocking.

It wouldn’t be a problem to block the boss for one or two more rounds before joining the field.

“Received.”

Shi Li, who was the first to get the right to act, controlled the [Escape Ink].

He was more cautious and did not rush directly towards the boss.

Instead, he chose to bypass the current front line and cut in from the side.

Although rushing straight through was the most efficient and could block the boss for more time.

But the 50-health [Escape Ink] crossing the front line might be attacked by those minions, risking being sunk.

Under his leadership, Cutea and Kairala also chose to go around.

Pakto had some thoughts when he saw this, but he didn’t say anything.

Next, he directed the other team members to clear out the minions, while Shi Li’s trio fought and retreated.

By the time all the minions were cleared, the boss had just arrived at the front line.

“Everyone, listen up, I’ll take the brunt of it alone.”

Pakto began to direct again.

“All support cards, protect me from a safe distance.”

“Those with an attack range of 1 should not participate in the output, so as not to be hit by the boss’s AoE and increase the Healing pressure.”

“Those with an attack range of more than 2, come behind me to output.”

“Those with a skill range of more than 2, accumulate enough energy before attacking.”

“Momentum cards can appropriately attack their own side to exchange for Charge to cast skills.”

“Shi Li, come and cooperate with me to block the position.”

Clear coordination instructions were issued one by one, and everyone proceeded in an orderly manner.

As a roadblock-type support, Shi Li didn’t have much else to do at this time.

He just sprayed ink every round, blocking the boss’s Movement.

One MT, one block, the boss would need to go a long way around to attack the back row.

However, being within the warning range, it couldn’t go around and still attack the back-row Chess Pieces.

It seemed that as long as the healers could keep Pakto alive, it was only a matter of time before the boss was worn down.

As they slowly wore it down, the boss’s health finally dropped below 500, less than 1/10 of its maximum health.

Then, as the new round began, an enemy Chess Piece suddenly appeared in the adjacent square directly behind the boss.

Its projection was like a long worm, with an eyeball at the top.

Everyone looked at its detailed panel, but found it to be abnormal.

[Strange Meat]

Balanced, 0, 0/0

Movement Distance 0, Attack Distance 0

[Appearance - Passive]: It, lurking, was attracted here by the smell of blood medicine. “What is this thing.”

“I’ve never heard of this boss having such a setting.”

“Is it a random element of the dungeon?”

Everyone expressed great confusion.

“Don’t panic, everyone, we must adapt to whatever situation arises!”

Pakto calmed their emotions.

Subsequently, the first turn of the new round arrived.

Unlike before, he did not give this round’s turn to Shi Li, but to himself.

[—]

The strange meat worm on the opposite side moved first in this turn.

It suddenly burrowed in, actually Got in the fur of the Beast Dragon.

[Roar!!!]

Then the Beast Dragon let out a cry of intense pain, and a noticeable large lump began to bulge under its skin.

“What’s going on?”

“Is this guy an ally? Helping us attack the Beast Dragon?”

“But it looks so scary.”

Under everyone’s gaze, the Beast Dragon immediately began to roll on the ground.

After a long time, it slowly staggered to its feet again.

Its appearance had also undergone obvious changes.

Large chunks of fur fell off, revealing a pinkish-white flesh.

Like a dog that had been shaved.

Its two eyes seemed to have lost focus, each turning independently.

Some tentacles grew on both sides of its body, waving wildly, and then converged to form strange extra limbs and organs.

Its panel also changed.

[Parasitic Meat Beast Dragon]

Berserk, Attack 100, 5000/5000

Movement Distance 7, Attack Distance 2

[Tentacle Search - Passive]: Parasitic Meat Beast Dragon attack range + 1

[Parasitic Meat Devour - Passive]: Parasitic Meat Beast Dragon gains 100 maximum health for every target it kills.

[Fearful Pressure - Passive]: After Parasitic Meat Beast Dragon finishes moving, targets entering or passing through its attack range receive the [Fear] effect.

[Devour Cowardice - 50 Health]: Parasitic Meat Beast Dragon attacks a target, ignoring [Defense].

([Fear]: Only [Defense] can be performed during the action phase)

“What kind of monster is this?!”

“Forcibly make targets within attack range [Defense]?!”

“That means targets close to it will all perform [Defense], with no chance to output damage.”

“Only Chess Pieces with an attack or skill range exceeding 3 can continuously output damage to it, right?”

“With such a long range, how can we continuously output damage? Just Charge skills will be difficult enough!”

“It still has 5000 health, and killing others can also replenish its maximum health. Can our Chess Piece lineup wear it down?”

Everyone’s faces changed drastically.

After the worm merged with the Beast Dragon, its turn ended.

At this moment, everyone realized that Pakto, who was in the same turn, had already manipulated his Chess Piece to flee backwards.

“Leader?”

“What are you doing?”

Everyone was very confused.

To be honest, if, as they imagined, the damage-absorbing cards held on and the other Healing cards healed vigorously.

The output cards slowly wore it down from behind, it wasn’t as if they truly had no way to deal with the boss at all.

At least there was still a glimmer of hope.

But now that Pakto was fleeing in battle, the situation was completely different.

Because his Persistence Chess Piece stood in front, it could at least use its warning range to limit the boss’s Movement.

As a result, without this restriction, the boss could rush into their formation and slaughter them.

And the first to bear the brunt would be the Healing cards standing in the second position.

If the Healing cards were eliminated, they would completely lose the basis for engaging the boss, and could only become lambs to the slaughter!

“Hahaha, I’m sorry, everyone.”

However, facing everyone’s questioning, Pakto just smiled: “Actually, my mission is different from yours.

My mission is to lead you here and feed you to the meat master.”

“Holy crap, there’s actually a mission to betray teammates like this?!”

“Pakto, may you die a horrible death!”

“I knew why you had an item to weaken the Beast Dragon!”

“Sacrificing an entire team for your own mission, I can’t believe you would do that!”

“Damn it, you black-hearted leader!”

Everyone suddenly understood and cursed him out.

However, what made them sober was a team notification.

[Someone initiated a leader impeachment, applying to become the new leader.]

Since Pakto was a traitor, impeaching him was definitely the right thing to do.

Continuing to let this guy be in power would intentionally mess up the action turns.

So most people subconsciously chose to agree.

[18 votes in favor, 1 vote against, 6 abstentions.]

[Application successful.]

Although a few people didn’t react in time, the number of votes in favor still exceeded half, so it was successful.

And the person who became the new leader was — Shi Li.

“Wait a minute, how did the leader position go to him?”

“Ah, as long as it’s not that annoying Pakto continuing to be the leader, it’s fine.”

“But even if we change leaders, it won’t make a difference, right—”

“After we get out of this dungeon, I’m definitely going to settle scores with him, damn it!”

Everyone immediately realized that changing the leader was useless.

“Thank you, teacher, it’s because of your good teaching.”

Shi Li couldn’t help but sigh.

Xiu Qingshan: ?

It was all because of Xiu Qingshan’s books that he further learned how to read micro-expressions.

From the very beginning of forming the team, Shi Li had noticed something was off with Pakto.

So, from beginning to end, he held back.

Otherwise, when playing support cards, [cloud river], [Lotus Succubus], [Snail Walking Lady] might have been better choices.

Choosing [Escape Ink] was just in case.

He didn’t expect it to actually come in handy now.

Regardless of the commotion among the others, Shi Li gave the second turn’s action right to himself.

[Escape Ink] left the field, [Red Blade Maiden] deployed.

Whoosh!

[please teach!]

Accompanied by a green light descending, the red-clad, sword-wielding woman stood upright on the chessboard like a mountain peak.

[Red Blade Maiden]

Berserk, 40 points, 3-star attack 40, 200/200

Movement distance 6, attack distance 1

【Tenacity - Trait】: Red Blade Maiden has 【Unyielding】 effect. 【Abundant - Passive】: Red Blade Maiden gains 10 points of 【Healing】 and 10 points of 【Healing】 each turn.

【Abundant - Passive】: Red Blade Maiden's maximum health +50.

【Crimson Blaze - 40 Health Points】: Red Blade Maiden attacks 1 target, dealing 【Fixed Damage】 equal to 20% of the target's maximum health.

Rage System cubic chess pieces inherently have an additional 50 health points, plus the excellent 【Abundant】, which directly brought her health to 200 points.

"What?! This card!"

"It's too good! Holy crap! An extremely powerful explosive output card!"

"【Unyielding】 perfectly counters the BOSS's fear, 200 health can even tank a BOSS attack without dying, and then there's 20% 【Fixed Damage】!"

"The BOSS has 5000 health, 20% is 1000!"

Seeing the panel of this battle chess piece, everyone was shocked.

But it wasn't over yet; someone clicked to reveal the title of the 【Red Blade Maiden】.

"Three-star title!!"

"Dragon Chess Special Attack!!"

Upon clicking, a line of text clearly appeared above the 【Red Blade Maiden】's head.

【Dragon Hunter ☆ ☆ ☆】: Increases damage dealt by the battle chess piece to dragon targets in the Chess Domain by +100%.

This way, the damage of 【Crimson Blaze】 was no longer 40+1000.

Instead, it was (40+1000) * 2 = 2080!

3 strikes, only 3 strikes were needed to take down the BOSS!

"What?!"

Pakto's face instantly turned pale.

His plan had been ruined by this kid!

"There's hope! Hahahahaha!"

"Wow! What a turn of events!"

"This is possible!"

Everyone cheered and looked at Shi Li.

Shi Li didn't say much, just coolly uttered two words.

"Heal me."

That's right, without Healing, he couldn't do anything.

The 【Red Blade Maiden】 only needed 3 turns to slash the BOSS, but the BOSS only needed 2 turns to slash her.

Fortunately, as a 25-person team, there was no shortage of Healing battle chess pieces on the field.

As long as the 【Red Blade Maiden】 wasn't instantly killed, raising her health to full was a matter of minutes.

Thus, the final BOSS couldn't withstand 3 turns and fell under the 【Red Blade Maiden】's blade.

The BOSS stage ended, and there was still a bonus stage left.

The so-called bonus stage was filled with loot, with each square containing cubic coins or material items.

By stepping on a square, one would receive the corresponding reward.

As the first clear of the 【Dragon Beast Valley】, the rewards this time would be relatively generous.

Everyone in the team was grateful and let Shi Li take nearly half of the squares by himself.

Pakto, that guy, shamelessly tried to grab a few squares as well, but his turn was put last by Shi Li.

His battle chess piece was deployed but hadn't even had a chance to move before it was ganged up on and beaten to death by several indignant players.

He got nothing.

After clearing the dungeon, everyone returned to the dungeon exit.

Pakto naturally drew the collective condemnation of the crowd.

However, taking a reverse quest to trick teammates was not an isolated case.

It could only be said to be a moral issue, not something that would escalate to a higher level.

It was just that Pakto's reputation in Glory City would be ruined for at least several years, and it was unlikely anyone would team up with him again.

"The harvest is pretty good."

Shi Li didn't participate in the public denunciation but found a quiet place to tally his gains.

This dungeon trip alone brought him 150,000 cubic coins.

Then there was a pile of material items.

After checking them one by one, he found no materials that could be used by his deck.

Selling them at A-Qing's Material Shop brought in another 150,000.

The main reason was that in the bonus stage, with the concession of his teammates, he received half of the rewards, otherwise it wouldn't have been that much.

Adding the rewards from the quest card 【Brave the Dragon Beast Valley】, he collected a total of 50 Dragon Blood Ganoderma, which was another 50,000.

His current funds reached 550,000.

If it were during the time of 【Platinum 6】 or 【Platinum 7】, this money might still be enough to refresh a 2-star to 3-star Star Ascension quest.

However, now that the refresh fee had risen, he couldn't say for sure that he could make the 【Lotus Succubus】 Star Ascension.

"A single dungeon trip yields 350,000, which is quite a lot.

It's a pity that entering a dungeon incurs a DEBUFF, so I'll have to wait a few more days before entering a new dungeon.

Moreover, the original intention of this quest was to find clues about the evil dragon, but it turned out to be a mere worm, which was a bit disappointing."

Shi Li thought that next, he should take some wilderness quests and simultaneously grind Star Ascension quests for the 【Withering Dragon】.

As he walked out of the material shop, he bumped into Kairala.

"I wondered why you disappeared as soon as you left the dungeon, so you were here."

Kairala seemed to be specifically looking for him.

"Excuse me, let me reintroduce myself."

Before Shi Li could speak, she handed him a badge: "I am Kairala, the 34th Talent Officer of the Crimson Mercenary Group, specifically responsible for recruiting capable strong individuals for the team."

"What kind of organization is the Crimson Mercenary Group?"

Shi Li clearly didn't know.

"Uh—"

Kairala didn't expect anyone to not have heard of their mercenary group's existence.

The Crimson Mercenary Group is the 10th-ranked mercenary group in Shi Lei Country.

Their main business includes assisting with quest commissions, dungeon exploration, gold team services, and more.

It should be known that there are tens of thousands of mercenary groups in Shi Lei Country, and being able to rank in the top 10 definitely makes them a leader in the industry.

Currently, the Crimson Mercenary Group has over five hundred official combat members, all of whom are top-tier elites.

With this strength, they could even clear hundred-person dungeons.

"There are still hundred-person dungeons?"

Listening to the introduction up to this point, Shi Li was a bit curious.

"Yes, but there aren't many hundred-person dungeons.

And the requirements for personnel are also extremely high; if you want to participate, you have to pass the internal screening within the group.

If you're interested, you're welcome to join and participate in the next selection for the hundred-person dungeon."

Kairala extended an olive branch.

"Hmm—"

Shi Li didn't agree immediately.

He believed that the proportion of time he spent in the Chess Domain would not be much, and joining such a team might not allow him time to participate in activities.

Additionally, his current main task was still to search for the evil dragon.

The first stage of the quest alone gave him such a good title; he dared to believe that Ashiro was definitely not as simple as he seemed.

Or rather, this quest chain should not be that simple.

"It's fine, the biggest advantage of a mercenary group is that it doesn't restrict personal freedom.

If you want to participate, you can; if you don't, you can go busy yourself with other things.

The only condition is that you need to sign a contract, not allowing you to join other mercenary groups."

Why was Kairala so serious about recruiting him?

Because she believed that with Shi Li's 【Red Blade Maiden】 + 【Dragon Hunter ☆ ☆ ☆】 alone, he would definitely become a highly sought-after assault member in dragon-type dungeons.

If their Crimson Group didn't recruit him, he would sooner or later be recruited by other groups and become a competitor.

"As for the evil dragon matter you mentioned, I can help you post information within the group.

So many people searching together would be more efficient than you doing it alone, right?"

Facing Shi Li's request, she was also willing to accommodate.

However, the way she said it made it sound as if the entire group listened to her, a mere 【Platinum 13】 girl.

Her tone was quite big.

However, Shi Li didn't intend to agree so easily. Since it involved signing a contract, he stated that he needed to consider it.

He would go back and ask Chi Ou to see what kind of quality this mercenary group truly was.

"I'll send you the terms later; this is my magic communication card."

Kairala was not disappointed by Shi Li's temporary refusal.

Instead, she expressed understanding, as this was the norm.

After they parted ways, Shi Li quickly received communication from her.

"This treatment—it's not bad."

After reading it, Shi Li gained a higher understanding of the financial strength of this so-called mercenary group.

Putting other things aside, just the salary alone was 10,000 cubic coins a month.

One must know that this was without doing anything; if attendance in dungeons, dungeon commissions, and gold team commissions were included, the income would be far more than 10,000 cubic coins.

After temporarily putting this matter aside, Shi Li once again went to the quest tavern.

He accepted two convenient wilderness quests and then left Glory City, beginning his monster-grinding journey.

After diligently grinding for several days, he finally completed the quest.

The 【Withering Dragon】 Star Ascension.