Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six: The Boss Battle

The street was shrouded in mist, the streetlamps transformed into eerie, withered trees, and the concrete road turned into a path of black soil.

The scene before them seemed to teeter between illusion and reality.

Chen Qi’s eyes shifted, observing his surroundings and the coachman burning with blue flames right in front of him.

This was the first boss monster he had ever witnessed with his own eyes in reality!

Unlike other players, he had very few missions in the real world, having participated in only a single Kin-Eater Base mission.

The coachman of the phantom carriage bowed his waist and flicked the reins.

"Would the two of you like a ride? It only costs a little bit of coin."

The other party’s tone and demeanor were extremely humble, yet they radiated an intangible sense of oppression.

Some black flames flickered over Chen Qi’s body, preparing him to activate the Black Fire Walk at any moment to evade sudden damage.

Protected by the Garment of the Circuit, even without activating the Domain of Black Fire in advance, he could quickly execute the Black Fire Walk.

Chen Qi checked the stats of the phantom carriage.

[Phantom Carriage:
Level: 13
Description: Long ago, during a harsh winter, a coachman who had just lost his child endlessly recounted his sorrow to the passengers behind him, yet those passengers paid no mind to his grief.
Eventually, consumed by sorrow and unable to resist the temptation of the Path of Void, he drove his carriage into the Black Forest, heading toward the River Styx to search for his child.
Aspect: Void.
Health: 600.]

Chen Qi looked at the stats. Unlike the intelligence report, the level of the phantom carriage before him had risen from level 11 to level 13, and its health had increased as well!

The mist drifted over the two of them.

Lin Yuxing broke out in a cold sweat, looking like a student caught cheating by their teacher, her voice trembling slightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Nightwalker. I didn't think I would end up summoning a boss monster..."

She kept blaming herself; she actually managed to lure out the phantom carriage!

What if the two of them were instantly killed? Wouldn't that be her fault? How could she ever compensate for that?

Chen Qi glanced over and noticed some ghostly blue flames flickering in Lin Yuxing’s eyes.

The Void signifies the meaninglessness of all things, and traits of certain Void-aspect disasters tended to induce confusion and plunge people into sorrow.

Once a certain critical threshold was reached, these Void-aspect disasters would unleash their corresponding attacks.

Clearly, Lin Yuxing had fallen victim to it.

The coachman’s withered, cracked lips moved as he stared directly at Lin Yuxing.

"Please, noble young miss, business is terrible right now, and my mother has been sick at home lately. It only costs a tiny bit of coin."

Chen Qi ignored the entity, stepping back to put some distance between them first.

"Lin Yuxing, stay calm! Watch your sanity!"

His main objective for this trip was the "Black Fire Armor." As for this minor boss, they could deal with it after securing the armor.

"Got it!"

Lin Yuxing slapped her cheeks, shook her head, and snapped out of the sorrow that had just gripped her!

In that fleeting moment, the coachman before her had magnified her emotions, causing her to unconsciously doubt herself.

Lin Yuxing took a deep breath, rapidly retreated, drank a bottle of Inspiration Potion, and said, "Void-aspect monsters are often unpredictable. The phantom carriage hasn't shown any intention to 'attack' just yet.

As long as we don't provoke it, this monster shouldn't focus its fire on us."

Seeing the two of them refuse, the coachman let out a long sigh.

"Taxi business is hard to run these days."

With that, the coachman drove away from the spot.

A taxi?

Chen Qi was momentarily stunned, watching the departing phantom carriage in the distance.

Clearly, this phantom carriage had undergone some form of fusion with Earth.

Eerie winds kept sweeping across their faces.

Chen Qi couldn't help but marvel that this was merely a level 13 monster.

The phantom coachman gripped the reins, and the carriage began to gallop across the street once more.

As the carriage moved forward, dust swirled in its wake, and this dust, mingled with blue sparks, filled the air, transforming into a ghostly blue fog that obscured the entire canopy of clouds.

And within the fog, bone-chilling whispers could be heard, along with the low growls of various monsters!

Seeing this, Lin Yuxing gripped her staff and emphasized, "The danger level of this carriage is extremely high. According to the records of the Calamity Messengers, the phantom carriage once dragged five hundred people from a tower down to the River Styx!

Nightwalker, we need to stay safe."

Although calamity monsters suffered a level reduction when manifesting on Earth, dropping from level 20 to 10 versus dropping from level 15 to 10 were completely different concepts.

Clearly, the phantom train belonged to the former; the power it wielded was quite complete.

Precisely because of this, the phantom carriage before them earned the qualification to be called a "boss."

To ensure safety, Lin Yuxing opened her phone and notified the group about the phantom carriage's status!

"Everyone, the boss has appeared! I've shared the location!"

With the appearance of the phantom carriage, all the bickering in the chat group instantly ceased! Everyone began preparing for battle.

"All right, tanks go in first, and ranged players get to the upper floors and prepare to fire!"

"By the way, you need to be fast at looting gear! If someone steals your kill or snatches your drop, consider yourself unlucky!"

"Someone keep an eye on the Eclipse Society players. According to intelligence, the Saint Disaster Association's Eclipse Society has also joined this mission."

In the distance, torches could be seen lighting up.

Nearly a hundred fully prepared players came running over!

All of them were brimming with excitement, eager to hack this phantom carriage to death with a combined assault!

To everyone, a monster with 600 health points would only take a few minutes to deal with.

Yet, in a split second, upon spotting the crowd, the phantom carriage emitted a sorrowful wail!

[You have suffered from the area-of-effect attack "Wail." You successfully resisted the mental attack.]

The text popped up in the game interface once more.

[The sorrowful entity trapped by the carriage is spreading across this land!]

Chen Qi gazed at the speeding carriage.

Nearly a hundred pitch-black monsters of various shapes and forms emerged from the heaven-obscuring fog trailing behind the carriage, letting out ferocious roars.

The boss fight had begun!

The players were dumbfounded!

The intelligence was completely wrong! Compared to the reports, the phantom carriage before them was at least a tier stronger!

The first to enter the phantom carriage's attack range were the tank and warrior players, most of whom had high health pools and self-preservation gear!

Boom!

In a mere instant, the tank players holding the front line froze, one after another, as sorrow began to consume them.

"My health isn't even high! How am I supposed to survive this?"

"How could we ever win against the boss when paired with trash like you?"

"Where is the damage? DPS, follow up! I'm about to get kicked to death by the enemy! I knew I shouldn't have joined this mission, help!"

Chen Qi stroked his chin. Many players had fallen victim to mental attacks.

However, thanks to his racial trait, he possessed mental resistance at night, making the phantom train's mental attacks completely ineffective against him.

Even though the tanks holding the front line were radiating negative energy, those behind them still had to press the attack.

Seeing everyone forming ranks and preparing to find a suitable vantage point, Lin Yuxing formulated her combat plan:

Search for low-health monsters, wait for the right moment, and unleash the right moves!

In other words, find a way to steal kills and farm some experience.

In such chaotic conditions, ranged units often had the worst luck; while they could deal damage, the monster's drops were almost always snatched away by melee units.

Chen Qi picked up the Bow of Lamplight and prepared to find a spot to act as a ruthless sniper.

He formulated a simple combat plan.

He would use the Bow of Lamplight to kill enemies while simultaneously commanding the Shadow Soul to act as a loot-grabber and pick up all dropped items!

"Eye of the White Dove!"

With a single thought, the white dove transformed into a water-like bird, soaring out from his right eye to survey the land below and search for traces of the Black Fire Armor.

Immediately afterward, empowered by the Black Rain Boots and Nimble Leap, Chen Qi executed a sprint followed by a dynamic stride, heading toward the roof of the stadium.

Beneath the stadium rooftop, the field of view was exceptionally broad.

Looking down from above, Chen Qi found the vantage point perfect for ranged attacks.

Through the dove's field of vision, however, the "Black Fire Armor" monster was nowhere to be found.

"Morning Star, come forth!"

Chen Qi attempted to use the Morning Star to track down the Black Fire Armor.

On a chaotic battlefield like this, most people had no idea what kind of drops these monsters would yield.

By relying on the Morning Star, he could instantly pinpoint rare items.

"The Morning Star is reacting, which means the Black Fire Armor does exist."

The Morning Star flew out from his hand.

Chen Qi instructed the white dove to fly alongside the Morning Star in search of the Black Fire Armor's whereabouts.

The white dove fluttered along in the direction of the Morning Star.

However, the very next second, he was startled.

The Black Fire Armor was currently under siege!