214: Tower Defense Bureau

Chapter 214: Tower Defense Game

After Shi Li spent some time adapting, everything went smoothly.

"It doesn't seem that difficult."

At this point, he had already ascended to the 99th step, and the final BOSS was right before his eyes.

High in the sky, at least thirty to forty meters above the ground.

Looking left and right, he could see some tall Moonlight Stairs.

The highest step looked to be about three to four hundred steps.

Then he looked at his Red Blade Maiden.

Along the way, he tried his best to kill monsters, leveling his character to max level.

With the Moon Coins he obtained, he bought many cards.

Red Blade Maiden

Berserk, 500/500, LV10

Tenacity - Trait: Red Blade Maiden possesses [Overlord] and [Resistance] effects. There's no need to mention normal attack and Defense cards; the values of the other cards are very powerful.

Heart of Abundant - Equipment 2: Max HP +50

Rage System Belt - Equipment 2: When consuming HP, gain 5 Recovery.

Humble Pendant - Equipment 2: When taking damage, gain 5 Recovery.

The Characteristic of the Ladder mode is that equipment card effects can stack.

Six equipment cards gave her 100 max HP, 10 Recovery when consuming HP, and 10 Recovery when taking damage.

This was absolutely powerful; she could just stand there and let the opponent attack, and it would still take them a long time to defeat her.

As for Blessing cards, he had also collected three.

Attack Maniac: When playing [Attack ☆☆☆], play 1 additional [Attack ☆☆☆].

Blood Grant: Gain 50% Lifesteal.

Shop Around: Have a free refresh opportunity in the Shop.

There were even more Behavior cards.

Drinking Poison to Quench Thirst - Behavior: Consume 10 HP, draw 2 cards.

Self-Inflicted Harm - Behavior: Consume 40 HP, next attack card's damage is doubled.

Surging - Behavior: Recover 30 HP.

Crimson Release - Behavior: Cancel the HP cost of your cards, max HP +100.

And a series of various support cards.

"Let me see what this BOSS is all about."

Shi Li confidently clicked on the BOSS option.

Before the moon, one must remain humble.

A long-haired woman in a long veil appeared on the opposite side of the battlefield.

Moonlight Emissary

Persistence, 1000/1000, LV10

Moonlight Protection - Trait: Moonlight Emissary has 50% Damage Reduction.

Moonlight Radiance - Trait: At the start of Moonlight Emissary's turn, gain 3 action points.

Explosive Moon Art - Trait: Every 3 turns, Moonlight Emissary destroys all enemy equipment cards.

"Huh?"

Shi Li was stunned at first glance.

The most important part of the deck he collected was the equipment cards.

Now that they were directly destroyed, how could he play?

As expected, at the start of the battle, Shi Li was at a completely one-sided disadvantage.

This BOSS could not only destroy equipment cards but also had special attack cards that came with [Healing Inhibition].

Moreover, another powerful aspect of Red Blade Maiden was her strong Recovery ability.

But this guy also had [Healing Inhibition]—

In a short while, she was directly defeated.

Although Ladder mode offers unlimited retries, even if you are defeated, you can challenge the current BOSS again.

But Shi Li knew that his current deck had no chance of winning.

"It seems I can only reset and challenge again from the beginning."

Helplessly, he walked down the stairs.

As he returned to the ground, the Moonlight Steps also retracted, becoming just a single step again.

"It seems I need to switch characters; Red Blade Maiden is too heavily countered by Healing Inhibition."

Having realized this, Shi Li decided to change characters.

As he became more familiar, he had a very smooth run after restarting the challenge.

Only after clearing these 100 floors did he realize that the challenge might have just begun.

It turned out this was merely Normal mode; there were also Nightmare difficulties, specifically Nightmare 1 to 9.

After a night's time, Shi Li had only just managed to clear Nightmare 2.

"It's fine, I have a month anyway, so I can take my time exploring."

He checked his pocket.

Each difficulty's first clear gives rewards; Normal, Nightmare 1, and Nightmare 2 all gave materials.

These materials weren't valuable, so Shi Li directly sold them to Ashiro.

He earned about 200,000.

From the reward list, the Moon Crystal Essence needed for the quest would only be obtainable at Nightmare 7 at the very least.

Of course, he could also buy it with money.

Certainly, many veterans would reach Nightmare 7 and obtain Moon Crystal Essence.

However, Shi Li inquired about the price from Ashiro, and while this item had very little practical use, it was very expensive due to its rarity.

One piece would sell for about 1,000,000.

For Shi Li, this was definitely not worth it.

This broken quest didn't even state its reward, yet it required him to spend so much money.

Spending about 600,000 in the previous stage was already his limit.

Now, the Ladder mode still had other substantial rewards; obtaining Moon Crystal Essence while getting these rewards was something he could accept.

"I'll run dungeons during the day and continue challenging the Ladder at night."

Shi Li had already planned his next steps.

However, just as he teleported back to Tianshan City, before he even had time to go to the Plaza Dungeon, he received a private message from Leo via the mercenary group system, requesting a meeting.

Soon after, the two met.

"Wang Defa brother, you're finally here."

As soon as Leo met him, his face was full of relief and joy: "You level up so fast, you're already Jade 4?"

There were many outsiders from other worlds in the Chess Domain, and Shi Li's typical on-and-off presence had long confirmed his identity.

However, the entire Chess Domain was relatively tolerant and accepting of outsiders.

As long as they weren't here to harm the local world, even the Blacklight Society was allowed to exist; otherwise, where would the Blacklight Mercenary Group come from?

"Hello, Brother Leo."

Shi Li smiled.

In fact, he wasn't surprised that the other party came looking for him.

His interactions and transactions with the poster yesterday could be noticed by anyone who paid attention.

"Our entire group in the City of Chaotic Corpses is waiting for you."

As he said this, Leo's smile was a bit awkward.

He actually didn't want to rush Shi Li so much, but he couldn't stop the other captains from constantly urging him.

After long-term research and team composition, they believed they had the possibility of clearing District 6 of the City of Chaotic Corpses.

But without Shi Li, they simply couldn't get through District 5.

So for the past few CDs, they had cleared Districts 1-4 immediately after the CD refreshed, and then waited for Shi Li to return.

Today, they finally waited for him.

"Let's go."

Shi Li didn't refuse, waving his hand and walking ahead.

The City of Chaotic Corpses could definitely be done.

If he remembered correctly, the BOSSes in the first 4 districts might not be, but the BOSSes in District 5 and 6 should be Overlord-level.

What's more, he still had a quest to clear this dungeon.

It was still early morning, and most people had just finished their first day of Ladder mode.

However, as soon as Leo spoke, the entire group immediately responded.

In less than half an hour, all the main members of their group had arrived.

Upon entering the dungeon, the progress was already at District 5.

They cleared it the same way they did last time, without any difficulty.

When they reached District 6, new challenges arose.

"Although you've been here before, it's been a while.

Let me reintroduce it to you."

To prevent Shi Li from forgetting, Leo proactively introduced: "The Chess Domain of District 6 is a rather special Chess Domain, a Tower Defense game. We need to deploy our defensive forces in designated areas along these winding city thoroughfares.

Prevent zombie enemies from entering the central area and interrupting the activation ceremony of the Soul-Soothing Crystal."

As he introduced it, the win-loss conditions for this stage also appeared in text form before Shi Li's eyes.

Victory Condition: Protect the Soul-Soothing Crystal to activate within 30 turns and not be destroyed.

Failure Condition: Soul-Soothing Crystal is destroyed / Soul-Soothing Crystal fails to activate on time / All allies are defeated.

At least 1 of the four map entrances will have new enemies appear each turn.

The Soul-Soothing Crystal was the final checkpoint device of this dungeon.

Once activated, the entire city would be Purified.

And 30 turns was the time required for activation.

"In this game, our battle chess pieces are mainly divided into four types of roles."

"The first type is the sacrificer.

They need to stand on designated squares around the Soul-Soothing Crystal and will have energy drained each turn.

These roles are mainly undertaken by Listen to the Wind battle chess pieces and Wisdom battle chess pieces with high energy limits.

While energy is being drained, HP will also be drained.

If they are Berserk battle chess pieces or Balanced battle chess pieces, more HP will be drained instead of energy.

Therefore, energy transporters need to be paired with sustainable Healing.

"The second type is the outputter.

On both sides of the passage are high-rise terrains, with a height difference that cannot be normally crossed between them and the passage.

Outputters need to stand on the high ground on both sides of the passage and deal damage to enemies passing through the passage.

This position mainly requires Momentum System battle chess pieces that naturally have an advantage in attack range.

Of course, if they are other system battle chess pieces, it doesn't matter, as long as they can ensure they can hit the opponent.

Additionally, it's important to note that enemies passing through the passage may also have the possibility of long-range counterattacks, and there are also flying enemies that can directly ignore terrain and will attack outputters as they pass by.

Therefore, to ensure the survival of outputters, Healing also needs to be arranged.

"The third type, blockers.

The task of these battle chess pieces is to stand in the passage and block enemies with their bodies.

Generally, Steadfast System battle chess pieces with high alert range and Damage Reduction, and Rage System battle chess pieces with high HP, are required for this role.

Their task is the most dangerous and most crucial; once they fail, a tide of zombies may break through.

However, the zombie battle chess pieces here all have one Characteristic: they possess displacement-like keywords.

Once too many battle chess pieces block the front passage, they can directly cross over, so to deal with this situation,

multiple lines of Defense must be set up in the passage."

"The fourth type, healers.

The three types of roles mentioned earlier all need Recovery replenishment.

However, there are many defensive points, but the quota for healers is not much.

Therefore, when necessary, healer battle chess pieces need to move back and forth, so the most suitable are Wind Chasing System battle chess pieces."

After Leo's introduction, Shi Li had already decided on his position.

A 50-person group, 1 person has 60 points for 2 chess positions.

In this tower Defense map, every battle chess piece is very important, so it's best not to lend quotas, which would lead to a decrease in total value.

"Then I'll take two blocker positions."

Shi Li felt this position was the best, easy and with less work.

"Alright, then I'll entrust the most important strategic choke point to you."

But Leo didn't think that way; he naturally wanted Shi Li to play as big a role as possible.

"Hey, hey, that's not what I meant."

However, unable to argue with the other party, Shi Li still followed the team's arrangement.

The defensive point assigned to him in the end was an extremely narrow passage.

It was only 2 squares wide, allowing only 2 battle chess pieces to be deployed.

Moreover, the terrain on both sides prevented battle chess pieces from being deployed, meaning it would be difficult to get support from his own side here, whether it was output or Healing.

In the strategy for this stage, output battle chess pieces and healer battle chess pieces were not suitable to stand in the passage.

Because once enemies crossed the blockers, they could easily attack them.

Furthermore, in this stage, the passage and the high ground were two different terrains.

Unless it was a flying chess piece that could ignore terrain and cross over, once deployed in the passage, it would be difficult to get out.

"This position is the most difficult, we can only rely on you."

Leo was true to his word, giving the most difficult task to Shi Li.

Before this, several captains had pulled strings to get the strategy for District 6 from the Blacklight Group.

After studying it, they unanimously agreed that Shi Li's defensive point was the hardest to defend and frequently fell.

However, Leo and the others didn't care too much.

Strictly speaking, it was their group's first clear of District 6, so if they failed, they failed; it was nothing.

The main thing was to let everyone adapt and practice first.

"Alright, then you go busy yourself, I'll take care of this."

Shi Li was unaware of the other party's thoughts and began to scrutinize the terrain.

Thinking about how to deploy and react later.

After the Chess Domain officially started, he still borrowed 20 points of quota from someone, which became his 10 points, and then he placed his battle chess pieces.

First was Red Blade Maiden, carrying [Abundant] + [Surging] + [Vast] + [Vast].

200 HP, with 20 Recovery per turn, and under the effect of HP special attack, one skill could deal 90 True Damage.

Then came Jumping Dragon Guard, carrying [Little Jump] + [Big Jump] + [Jumping Girl].

Because Jumping Girl comes with 1 keyword, it made exactly 4 keywords.

Although level two summons do not have the effect of blocking attacks on the card table, it is different on the chessboard.

They actually occupy their respective chess pieces and, of course, have the effect of blocking others' steps.

However, as level two summons, they cannot enjoy the alert range bonus of the Steadfast System.

Sending out Jumping Girl to be killed by others could also restore HP to Jumping Dragon Guard, which was simply perfect.

With these two unique four-star battle chess pieces deployed, Shi Li immediately felt much more confident.

He had output when he needed it, and survival when he needed it.

Finally, he could also place an additional Fox-Eared Mengmei, which did not occupy a position.

Using its large alert range to affect the enemy's Movement, and also having [Weakness] and [Dispel], he could better handle situations.

"If I can't defend it with this, then there's no logic."

Although he only had three chess pieces, Shi Li was quite satisfied with his lineup.