197: There is no hope of passing the level

Chapter 197: A Stage Without Hope of Passing

Led by Captain 21, the entire 50-person squad advanced majestically along the ruined city streets.

Soon, a portal-like glow appeared before them.

"This is the trigger point for the first area. As soon as everyone in the squad enters, the first combat scenario will be activated."

Leo began to explain to Shi Li: "The main characteristic of this scenario is that there are many monsters."

"A lot of them. If you don't use map-wide AOE skills, it's hard to clear them all. However, their health is very low."

"Map-wide AOE skills—"

Shi Li thought of Fleeing Ink.

Fleeing Ink possesses an AOE attack skill, Water Wave Impact.

Water Wave Impact (Passive): When Fleeing Ink is deployed, it releases a shockwave with 10 attack points (range 2).

Range 2 can cover a total of 12 squares excluding itself.

"Your Squid Girl won't work."

Leo seemed to read his thoughts: "Did you forget the dungeon rules? All attack damage received by these undead is reduced by 20.

"Its Water Wave Impact only deals 10 points, not even enough to break through their Defense."

Unless this skill can benefit from Encouragement, but based on experience, Leo knew that Water Wave Impact was unlikely to receive buffs.

"You're right," Shi Li nodded.

However, if that was the case, he didn't have many options.

Map-wide AOE was not his strong suit; few cards in his Chess Domain possessed such an ability.

"Any bosses who don't plan to participate in the battle can lend me their Chess Piece quota."

At this moment, Captain 21 spoke to the bosses.

"Everyone's quota in this dungeon is 2 Chess Pieces + 60 points," Leo explained to Shi Li. "If you lend your quota to someone else, it's divided by 2, so 2 Chess Pieces + 60 points lent to someone else becomes 1 Chess Piece + 30 points, and the lender cannot deploy any Chess Pieces in this battle."

"It can be done like that? What if fewer than 50 people enter the dungeon?" Shi Li asked curiously.

"If there are fewer than 50 people, it's still calculated according to these rules.

Theoretically, if someone enters this dungeon alone, their final quota would be 50 Chess Pieces + 1500 points."

"Shouldn't it be 2 Chess Pieces + 60 points, plus 98/2 + 2940/2 points?"

"The dungeon rules are like this; there are no remainders, only exact divisions," Leo shrugged.

"But those are just theoretical values. Who would be so bored as to challenge a 50-person dungeon alone?

"Leaving aside the quality, just gathering that many Chess Pieces would be a challenge."

He laughed: "However, for a 10-person dungeon with 2 Chess Pieces, some people do that.

They use 10 Chess Pieces to challenge a battle originally designed for 20 Chess Pieces.

The advantage is that one person gets all the loot; the disadvantage is that the difficulty of fighting with half the Chess Pieces is too great.

"Aside from our Squad Leader, I haven't heard of anyone else in our squad being able to do it."

While the two chatted, Captain 21 had already found two bosses willing to lend their quotas.

This way, she now had a quota of 4 Chess Pieces + 120 points.

Subsequently, the first stage's combat scenario was triggered, and Shi Li could only say that what he saw was truly shocking.

Approximately 70% of the squares on the entire map were filled with enemy Chess Pieces, dense hordes of zombies that looked very easy to cause panic.

However, their stats were not very impressive.

Confused Zombie

Persistence, Attack 10, 10/10, 0/10

Movement Range 3, Attack Range 1

Fearless (Passive): Confused Zombies receive -5 damage from all attacks.

Corrosive Gas Diffusion (Passive): When Confused Zombies use Defense, their alert range +2.

Stiff Flesh (Passive): Confused Zombies default to Defense for the first 3 turns of each round. This entry does not conflict with the dungeon rules, meaning they have a total of 25 points of Damage Reduction.

Even a normal 30-attack Chess Piece would not be able to inflict much damage on it.

In addition to Steadfast System zombies, there were also zombies from the other six systems.

Some even possessed attack skills with a range of 3 squares.

Then, the rules for this stage popped up.

Victory Condition: All enemies eliminated.

Defeat Condition: Enemies occupy more than 90% of the Chessboard.

Every 3 rounds, the number of enemies on the field will increase by 5%.

This meant that not only did they need to clear monsters in this stage, but they also needed to do it quickly.

If they were slower than the enemy's growth rate, the enemies would accumulate more and more until they met the Chess Players' defeat conditions.

However, as a team with rich experience in this dungeon, the first stage was not difficult for them.

The strategy for this stage was to use damage-absorbing Chess Pieces to form an impenetrable circle around their own camp.

Then, the damage-dealing Chess Pieces and support Chess Pieces were all placed inside the circle.

Shi Li was not the main character in this stage; his assigned task was to provide 2 Recovery Chess Pieces.

Although Lotus Succubus was more efficient at healing/killing zombies, she suffered from insufficient attack range.

So she could only act as a healing Chess Piece, and Fluorescent Vine was the same.

Captain 21 played a very important role in this stage.

She deployed a Listen to the Wind Chess Piece worth a full 60 points, possessing highly efficient energy Recovery methods beyond ordinary Listen to the Wind Chess Pieces.

More importantly, this Chess Piece had an AOE group healing method.

The Recovery amount was not high, only 10 points.

But it was just enough to instantly kill these low-health zombies.

And the range was very wide, covering up to 13 squares at once, with a maximum casting range of 3.

This meant that while healing their own damage-absorbing Chess Pieces, she could also instantly kill large groups of enemies.

For Captain 21, this stage was definitely a blast.

After all, even when just healing allies, there wouldn't normally be targets arranged so densely.

Thus, under the bombardment of several AOE map healers, the first stage was successfully passed.

As a large 50-person, 100-Chess Piece dungeon, the loot dropped was naturally abundant.

Materials, Tactical Cards, and even Chess Pieces dropped.

According to the rules, damage dealers could also participate in the gold squad auction.

After all, the biggest difference between damage dealers and bosses was their positioning in the squad: whether they needed to contribute effort.

A boss could help fight monsters if they were in a good mood, but they were still a boss.

A damage dealer raising the price if they were in a good mood was also an unspoken rule among everyone.

Anyway, everyone could spend.

The quality of the dropped Chess Piece was actually quite good.

Zombie Sheriff

Berserk, 30 points, Two-star Attack 30, 150/150

Movement Range 5, Attack Range 1

Professional Habit (Passive): When Zombie Sheriff uses a skill on an undead Chess Piece, damage +20.

Slam (30 Health): Zombie Sheriff attacks 1 target, dealing an additional 30 damage. This was a typical anti-undead Chess Piece, and the key was that it could be used immediately in this dungeon after obtaining it.

However, Shi Li naturally didn't care for it; now, only unique cards and unique Chess Pieces could catch his eye.

He was quite interested in those few Tactical Cards, as he currently had very few Tactical Cards, only 2.

Although in PVP Chess games, only 1 Tactical Card of each star rating is allowed, it's always better to have more Tactical Card reserves.

However, what he considered precious, others also considered precious.

One two-star and two one-star Tactical Cards caused everyone to fight over them.

Finally, the two-star card was bid up to 450,000 cubic coins and taken by a boss.

This left Shi Li, participating in a gold squad for the first time, a bit speechless, meaning each damage dealer would get 10,000 cubic coins from this.

But what surprised Shi Li the most was the anti-zombie Chess Piece that he didn't think much of.

It sold for a high price exceeding 1,000,000 cubic coins.

Regarding this, it was due to Shi Li's lack of understanding of the Chess Domain.

Compared to the outside world, in a world like the Chess Domain, which has many dungeons and is easy to enter, special attack type Chess Pieces are very popular.

For example, the Chess Player who bought this anti-zombie Chess Piece could, if they wished, challenge different zombie-type dungeons every day.

Adding in the auctions for other miscellaneous loot, the loot from this stage alone sold for over 2,000,000 cubic coins.

The subsequent stages allowed him to further experience the charm of gold squads.

Bosses spent, damage dealers spent.

Even several captains each bought some items.

Shi Li didn't have much money at the moment, so he didn't buy anything.

By the time they finished 4 areas, he already estimated he would receive 200,000 cubic coins.

Money came quite quickly.

"Everyone, bosses, we'll stop here for today."

After clearing the fourth area, Captain 21 said to everyone.

"I say, Squad Leader, why don't we go check out the fifth area?"

But at this moment, a boss suggested.

"That's right, we won't slack off; we'll participate with full effort."

"Even if it's just to see the world, Squad Leader, please take us."

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately received responses from several other bosses.

It wasn't easy for them to get in; they had paid money.

Moreover, as long as the dungeon passed the first stage and dropped loot, there would be a cooldown.

During the cooldown, they could not re-enter this dungeon.

Alternatively, they could look for teams whose cooldowns were at the fifth area's progress.

But teams capable of raiding the fifth area were fixed teams, so how could they give them a spot?

"Hmm—alright."

Captain 21 thought for a moment and finally decided to agree.

Because their original plan was to recruit a few more squad members later and continue raiding the fifth area.

"However, the fifth area is quite special, so let's talk about the strategy first."

Leo suggested.

Besides the five bosses, several squad members, including Shi Li, had not participated in the fifth area's raid.

So the captains began to explain to everyone.

"The most difficult part of this fifth area is the presence of a very special enemy, the Sentinel Zombie."

"It can trigger the dungeon's alarm mechanism, causing a large number of enemies to instantly appear on the field."

"The only way to prevent it from alarming is to kill it within 1 turn."

"Note, it's a turn, not a round."

"Actually, this thing's health isn't that high, just 80 HP. The problem is that killing it within 1 turn sets an extremely high threshold for damage output."

"If it were just that, it wouldn't be completely impossible. With various buffs, many teams can manage to deal 80 damage with a single Chess Piece, even with the dungeon rule's 20 Damage Reduction, which is essentially 100 damage output."

"The biggest problem is that there isn't just one such Sentinel; there are 8 of them."

"They are evenly spaced. After clearing one, the next one must be cleared immediately in the next round, otherwise, it will also trigger an alarm."

"Achieving 100 burst damage in 1 round is possible, but achieving 100 burst damage for 8 consecutive rounds is very difficult."

"Crucially, the dungeon also has a time limit, so slowly grinding is impossible."

After the captains finished their explanation, the squad members who had participated in the raid before all showed expressions of lingering fear.

"Moreover, we also need to consider the interference from other enemies. Our best achievement so far has only been clearing 3 Sentinels."

Leo sighed beside Shi Li: "Among all the teams that participated in the raid, only the Blacklight Group has the highest progress. I heard they've managed to clear the fifth area twice out of 5 cooldowns, which can already be considered stable passage."

Although unwilling to admit it, the Blacklight Group indeed performed better than them in this dungeon.

Some Fel Energy Berserk Chess Pieces possess very strong one-for-one capabilities, able to eliminate the Sentinel Zombie in the triggered turn in a near-suicidal manner.

No other team has been able to pass the fifth area.

At this moment, the bosses also showed expressions of losing interest. This fifth area sounded too abnormal; with the current configuration of their gold squad, it was impossible to clear.

However, they had already spoken, and backing out now would seem a bit undignified.

So no one suggested leaving now.

"Alright, today's gold squad performance was also good. To thank all the bosses, let's still go in and take a look."

So Captain 21 made the decision, and everyone set off on the path to the fifth area.

After a while of walking, the trigger point for the fifth area was in sight.

Everyone stepped forward to trigger it, and the surrounding scenery quickly transformed into a Chessboard.

Shi Li noticed that the map for this stage was very different from the previous few stages.

The map for this stage was narrow and constricted, only 30 squares wide.

It was a 100-Chess Piece Chessboard, and 30 squares couldn't even accommodate half of the Chess Pieces side-by-side.

Victory Condition: A Chess Piece reaches the endpoint within 15 rounds / All enemies eliminated.

Defeat Condition: All allies eliminated.

When an alarm is triggered, 60 enemies are added to the field.

"60 enemies—"

Shi Li frowned slightly.

That was too many.

Then he looked at those guys everyone was wary of.

Sentinel Zombie

Balanced, Attack 0, 80/80

Movement Range 5, Attack Range 0

Dungeon Protection (Passive): Sentinel Zombies possess Unyielding and Magic Immunity effects.

Caution Ahead (Passive): Sentinel Zombies do not move. If an enemy enters their Movement Range or passes beyond them, they trigger an alarm.

Live Person Here (Passive): Sentinel Zombies enter an action turn after triggering an alarm. If they survive this turn, they trigger an alarm.

Alarm Transmission (Passive): After a Sentinel Zombie is removed from the field, it causes the nearest next Sentinel Zombie to trigger an alarm in the next round. Passing beyond its horizontal line will also trigger an alarm, so bypassing them is completely impossible.

Then, with Unyielding and Magic Immunity, attempting to forcefully kill them with negative effects like Silence was also impossible.

"Alright, let's start assigning tasks."

Captain 21 was preparing to go through the motions and casually distribute tasks.

Anyway, they had seen it, and there was no way they could clear it, so they might as well get it over with quickly.

"Wait a moment, I think I can solve this stage."

However, Shi Li suddenly spoke, attracting everyone's attention.

"But I need to borrow some Chess Piece quota."

A plan quickly formed in his mind.