Chapter 201: Chapter 201 – Broken Free From the Game Character
[Caroline North, a member of ‘Watchmen’, the newly-established Extraordinaire department of the Federation. Her Awakened Ability is represented by ‘Desolator’, which rips apart any physical entity to cause severe damage, regardless of the weapon used. It is suspected that such an effect is caused by the invoked disruption of the arrangement of physical particles.]
[Victor Cavill, a member of ‘Watchmen’, the newly-established Extraordinaire department of the Federation. Details: None.]
Ren Suo searched for information on the intranet about the Extraordinaires from the Federation he encountered in the third checkpoint. He found that, although the Intelligence Department of Xuan Nation had begun to infiltrate the Federation to gather intelligence, in most cases only the names of the members of ‘Watchmen’, the Extraordinaire department of the Federation, were known. The amount of known information about the members in the department could not even compare to the information Ren Suo found out in the third checkpoint.
Even the detailed information about Caroline was supplemented by a hyperlink—indeed, it was a link to the video “The All-Devouring Soul” uploaded by Naisser Ren. Information about Caroline’s ability was also completely deduced from scenes of the fight between Monkey King and the Federation Extraordinaires.
“The combat capabilities of Extraordinaires are not fully developed yet, and everyone is hiding and concealing them… Or rather, is it because there are no opportunities for the Extraordinaires to showcase their combat capabilities, even if they do possess such powers?”
Ren Suo did some research and found that apart from sending Extraordinaires to take part in special operations in various regions, other real-life battles involving Extraordinaires within the nation were either duels between Extraordinaires or an Extraordinaire taking on an entire army. How peaceful the world was.
“Nonetheless, after all of the arenas turn into a free stage to spar with monsters, they would have plenty of opportunities to showcase their battle capabilities…”
Ren Suo returned to the game and continued to infiltrate the arena with the Watchmen.
Undeniably, the mages’ advance into the arena was truly made easier with the help of the Federation Watchmen.
Most of the monsters were shot with a barrage of bullets before they ran over to the mages, where they would be completely subdued by Elain, Lumpena, and Red Hood with their skills of Storm and Stress.
Lastly, it was the black-haired mage’s turn to shine and grant the monsters salvation.
Unexpected situations would occur occasionally, but the mages’ Holy Light bullets could save everyone on the battlefield. The Watchmen also had sufficient firepower—it appeared that they had made arrangements with those outside the portal, to send Extraordinaires in at fixed intervals to replenish their resources. As such, they consistently had sufficient ammunition.
However, even so, the speed of advancement into the arena was not considered fast.
Firstly, that was because there were a large number of monsters in the palace. Secondly, the deeper they progressed into the palace, the stronger and more terrifying the monsters grew.
Due to the fall of the previous two arenas, the monsters in the present, third arena were all strengthened. All of their strengths were also enhanced: Goblins were equipped with stone armor, the poisonous Queen Bees now moved as quickly as lightning, and the Ghost Crows attacked in flocks…
It was only after six whole hours when the mages and the Watchmen finally cleared all the monsters in the arena—the Watchmen even ate a meal during that time.
In the process, Ren Suo did not believe in heresy and relied on wearing the Jade Pendant to practice again. After all, the monsters were stronger, so… the Jade Pendant of the River of Goddess Luo should also be activated, right?
However, the dull green mark on his hand told him: that’s BS, dream on!
The unorthodox path Ren Suo discovered was still unorthodox, after all. The Jade Pendant of the Goddess of River Luo would only be perfectly activated after defeating the boss in each checkpoint, and only then would Ren Suo’s talent score rise gradually.
Before clearing the last wave of monsters, the dark-haired mage told Caroline: [After this last wave of monsters is cleared, the Evil Demon of this arena would appear. The Evil Demon is much, much stronger than ordinary monsters. Without the teleportation skills of the mages, it would be best if you just supported the battle from afar.]
Caroline asked instead: [Do you know where the Evil Demon would emerge? We brought landmines and hand grenades too, so we are fully capable of setting up a trap.]
Ren Suo hesitated for a moment before controlling the black-haired mage to reply: [It will appear in the center of the palace.]
After spending ten minutes clearing up the last wave of monsters, an earthquake suddenly struck the palace. Following which, the Evil Demon of the arena quickly appeared in front of the Watchmen and the mages.
All of a sudden, countless rays of light were reflected off the glass windows of the palace, and a strange, absurd-looking monster appeared right in the center of the ranged troops of the Watchmen—
About two meters tall, the monster wore a beautiful, pure white dress. However, emerging from its head was a highly-reflective silver mirror that was twice as large as it. At the same time, seven mirrors with heads appeared on the ground, looking like dwarfs in the shape of apples that had limbs!
The Watchmen reacted extremely quickly and immediately turned to shoot at the monster!
[Ahh—]
[Jesus!]
However, a bright light suddenly shot out from the mirrors of the Mirror Princess and its dwarves. All of the bullets which were aimed at the Mirror Princess and its dwarves were reflected back instead! As a result, the Watchmen troops who were positioned close to the Princess and its dwarves were instantly hit by a barrage of bullets and suffered major injuries!
Victor shouted: [Didn’t you say it would appear in the middle? Why did it appear right behind our cover—]
Reload savegame!
The scene turned back in time, and the black-haired mage said confidently: [It will appear in the open space near the entrance of the arena, right there. In addition, do not shoot at it with your weapons, as it has the ability to reflect all physical ranged attacks!]
Caroline and her troops followed the instructions of the black-haired mage once again. They gathered the entire army of troops to the center of the palace in preparation. This time, however, the Mirror Princess and its dwarves appeared in the center instead!
The Watchmen remembered the mage’s instructions and did not fire their weapons, but the Mirror Princess and its dwarves still shot out bright light again. The Princess shot thick beams of light and instantly wiped out a dozen of the Watchmen who were positioned right in front of it. The thin rays of light shot by its dwarves also penetrated the bodies of a dozen other Watchmen!
After reading the savegame several more times, Ren Suo finally figured out the mechanics of the Mirror Princess.
The mode of attack of the Mirror Princess was extremely simple. It would shoot beams of light from its mirror to kill the enemies in front of it. However, before it shot out beams of light, it would have to accumulate power, which was represented by a glowing mirror. During that time, all physical damage (including the kinetic energy from fired bullets) would be reflected. Only when it was attacking, which was when the mirror was dim, could it be attacked using physical means.
However, the movement speed of the Mirror Princess was extremely slow, and the speed at which it turned its head was not fast either. Its firing (attack) speed was very slow as well, so it was actually not difficult to deal with it.
Rather, it was the seven Mirror Dwarves that were harder to deal with. They had the same mode of attack as the Mirror Princess, but their firing (attack) speed and movement speed were both extremely fast. They might not suffer any damage when they were attacked, but at the same time, they dealt high amounts and frequencies of damage if they were left alone.
In the reloaded savegame attempts, it was extremely challenging for the Watchmen to evade the high damage output of the Mirror Dwarves. Eventually, the Mirror Princess would deal a final blow to the Watchmen that would certainly kill them. Only the mages were able to evade the attacks of light beams with their Screen Shield and Teleport skills.
The right way to conquer that checkpoint was undoubtedly to disregard the Mirror Dwarves. By evading the attacks of light beams to delay time and attacking the Mirror Princess when it was also attacking, its health would be depleted gradually. The tolerance for mistakes was low, but it was nonetheless a plausible strategy.
After Ren Suo attempted that strategy, he found that, with his skills, almost all of those in the arena would be on the brink of death despite the Mirror Princess still having 80% health remaining. Apart from Elaine, the other two mages would also be close to death and would require the main character Mage to perform ‘salvation’, to revive them by permanently decreasing their maximum health.
Ren Suo estimated that it would take at least seven to eight days before there was some hope that the mages were strong enough to defeat the Mirror Princess.
Ren Suo pondered for a long time. He reloaded the savegame and told the Watchmen about the Mirror Princess and its Mirror Dwarves. He said: [The Evil Demon would appear where there are the most people. No matter where you position yourselves, you would not be able to escape from it, nor would you be able to set any traps.]
[The group of you should stand beside me.]
[Red Hood, Lumpena, and Elaine, attempt to use your attribute spells to quickly eliminate the Dwarves!]
After their respective roles were assigned, the battle began once again. As expected, the Mirror Princess appeared in the center of the crowd. Following Ren Suo’s command, the three mages used their attribute spells to kill the Dwarves. At the same time, however, the Mirror Princess took aim in Caroline’s direction and began to gather its energy!
The black-haired mage teleported in front of Caroline and activated the Screen Shield, blocking the light from the mirror. He said emotionlessly: [I’m here, don’t worry.]
Piu!
With a crack, light beams shot out from the mirror of the Mirror Princess. The Screen Shield of the black-haired mage was destroyed, and he suffered severe injuries. All five fingers on his left hand instantly broke and blood oozed out. Then, the fingers joined together to form an iron chain that wrapped around the Mirror Princess!
The attacks from the Mirror Princess stopped momentarily, but the surface of its mirror remained dim, still in an attacking state!
The black-haired magician yelled: [Fire!] and the Watchmen immediately picked up all kinds of firearms and rained down a barrage of bullets at the Mirror Princess!
Seeing that his strategy was effective, Ren Suo was relieved. However, at that moment, Caroline, who was standing behind the black-haired mage, suddenly huddled closer to him. Then, she leaned in, and imprinted her lips on the mage’s weary face.
Caroline announced in a domineering tone: [If we make it out of this place alive, I will definitely go to bed with you!] Finishing her sentence, she ran towards the Mirror Princess and beat the Princess with her whip.
Behind the screen, the expression on Ren Suo’s face was none other than (╯‵□′) ╯. He muttered to himself in exasperation, “How is a game character able to break free of singlehood faster than me!”