Although "Lost a Leg" was among the very best players, there was no insurmountable gulf between him and professional players.
His character was simply overpowered.
When a Boss's capabilities far surpassed those of players, even the experts universally acknowledged by netizens had to practice hundreds or thousands of times and memorize the Boss's moves before achieving the feat of solo-killing it without taking damage.
Generally speaking, to defeat a powerful Boss on the first encounter, either your character had to be no weaker than the Boss, or you had to be able to challenge it repeatedly.
"Lost a Leg" had both.
Originally a top Kamen Rider player, "Lost a Leg" had stumbled into an opportunity that allowed him to advance into the one-of-a-kind Hidden Profession, Godhead Collector.
This profession's defining trait was that after killing a Boss above Lv150, he could seize divine power and store it by consuming the item God's Mark.
Once he used a God's Mark from his backpack, he could unleash power on the level of a Boss.
Although each Boss only dropped ten God's Marks,
it was still an absurdly powerful ability.
Because it worked on weekly respawning field Bosses as well as dungeon Bosses.
Moreover, when paired with the traits of his prerequisite profession, Kamen Rider, the two produced perfect chemistry, turning "Lost a Leg" into something even more terrifying than a Boss.
Because he could use a God's Mark to transform into Kamen Rider Final Form.
That way, after suffering a fatal blow, he would not die outright, but instead revert to his initial form with full health.
In other words, when facing a powerful Boss capable of instantly killing players on their first encounter, however many God's Marks "Lost a Leg" had in his backpack was however many lives he had to burn through.
He could use "trash cards" to figure out the Boss's patterns, then choose a countering God's Mark to activate Final Form and deal with it accordingly.
In both stats and mechanics, he was no weaker than those World Bosses.
Yet such a powerful Hidden Profession had appeared in an online game designed primarily to make money.
That was highly abnormal.
Thus, "Lost a Leg" hid his special profession, turned down high-paying offers from major guilds, avoided excessive interaction with other players, and quietly remained a lone wolf, making his fortune in silence and earning a few hundred W.
For that very reason, he still doubted whether this world was real.
Although everyone in the world spoke Chinese, its background culture and history only went back a little over two thousand years, and more than a hundred intelligent races with reproductive isolation had arisen from just a few continents.
But...
There were gods here, after all. Who knew?
With that thought, "Lost a Leg" looked toward the deity in the sky.
The Vermilion Bird's second phase was precisely the form that displayed the terror of a World Boss.
It possessed numerous evasion methods, immense fire-body damage reduction, a high chance of inflicting three pages of debuffs upon contact, high-damage AOE skills with every attack, Guaranteed Hit within a certain range, and the Soul Burn effect, whose damage increased over time and had to be cleansed regularly.
It could only be said that beings at the rank of gods could no longer simply be called "bullshit monsters."
"Lost a Leg" had a simple response.
He first used the Spirit Calming Needle to immobilize the Vermilion Bird and disable its evasion skills, followed with a Final Form Poseidon Rider Kick. Then he used the Shadowfolk's traits to widen the distance. If he got hit, he drank the premium crowd-control-cleansing item, the Regret Pill.
After that full combo, the players watching below did not know what to say. They only felt that this Vermilion Bird seemed much weaker than they remembered.
Under "Lost a Leg's" shameless barrage of items, the Vermilion Bird could not even unleash its ultimate at low health before the golden flames on its body burned out and it was forced into its final form.
As the flames covering the heavens dissipated, a humanoid figure slowly descended.
Its skin was fiery red, it wore wings, and a layer of black scar tissue stained its golden pupils.
It looked intimidating, but its attributes had already fallen to roughly those of an ordinary player.
Veteran players all knew that once the Vermilion Bird's second form was defeated, they could start popping champagne early.
"I'll use this to finish you off."
Ashes only had ten minutes left. "Lost a Leg" decided to have one last thrill, so he took out God's Mark Hou Yi from his backpack and inserted it into the card slot at his waist.
"Ten suns bring disaster, one arrow ends it all; nine suns fall, and light returns!"
"Hou↑ Yi↑ Form↓!"
As the Kamen Rider's announcement rang out, the sea-blue Poseidon armor on "Lost a Leg" transformed into Hou Yi armor, branded with nine suns and coiled with a true dragon.
He leaped into the air. Behind him appeared a longbow drawn to a full moon, which fired his body through midair toward the Vermilion Bird.
"Sunfall!"
Their bodies passed each other. "Lost a Leg" dropped to one knee and froze in place.
The humanoid Vermilion Bird slowly raised its head, and the black scar tissue in its eyes gradually faded away.
It looked at the sun in the sky and tried to reach out to touch it, but withdrew its hand halfway through. With a helpless, bitter smile, it said, "Thank you," to the Kamen Rider behind it.
The next moment, the Vermilion Bird's figure turned into three streams of incomparably dazzling light, flowing respectively into "Lost a Leg" and the other two players in his party.
"Lost a Leg's" Experience Points also surged from just over twenty thousand to 75.2 million in an instant.
If he did not spend any on skills and ignored advancement requirements, he could rise straight to level 88, leaving every other player far behind!
On the fourth day after the server opened, Blue Star time, they had killed the World Boss from the seventh major version.
That was the value of Ashes!
Golden Wind's original offer of three million for it might have been too low.
"Lost a Leg" disbanded the party and stood guard beside the drops from the Source of Evil Fire · Cursed Vermilion Bird (Incarnation).
His final choice to transform into Hou Yi Form had not merely been for show. Among the dozens of God's Marks he possessed, this was one of the forms best suited for "clearing trash."
He conjured a longbow in his hand and tried firing an arrow high into the sky.
Then—
Father-in-law, who had already fled beyond Iron Wall City, suddenly felt something and turned back, witnessing a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
At the edge of the sky, among the clouds, a dazzling golden "chrysanthemum" suddenly bloomed.
The countless "petals," formed from arrows infused with divine power, broke past the limits of the sky before gravity caught them and sent them falling across every corner of the Misty Forest below.
The arrows landed with perfect precision on every monster spawn point within the Misty Forest, erupting in brilliant light and blasting the entire region into the air.
Of course, "Lost a Leg" intended to spend the last ten minutes farming more Experience Points.
Other than leaving the map Boss in the central lake alone, he bombed every monster nest in the Misty Forest. Though he had not managed to kill them all, he still farmed over two million Experience Points.
The moment Ashes' effect ended, "Lost a Leg" immediately picked up the Boss drops beside him.
He had waited until the end to loot because he was worried that once Ashes' effect expired, the items in his backpack would be wiped away with it.
The next moment, the Shadowfolk melded into the shadows and vanished from where he stood.
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