First Battle, Unbelievable Boss

The previous manor demons couldn't completely eradicate these crows, which shows how difficult it was.

However, it was also true that those crows bullied the weak and feared the strong.

After suffering significant losses, they no longer dared to provoke the demons and learned their lesson, only tormenting the slaves on the mountain and the spirits in the manor below.

The demons wouldn't stick their necks out for the slaves and were too lazy to come out of seclusion to deal with it.

Sword Forging Manor, a tower defense fortress.

Through a small, palm-sized window, Jiu Cai Rong stared intently at the flock of crows in the sky, incredibly nervous.

He maintained a calm facade, and about ten minutes ago, he had hurled a stone at the crows, firing the first shot of the war, and shouted, "Major Main Storyline Expansion Pack—"

"Crow Calamity, activate!"

Jiu Cai Rong was both excited and uneasy.

As an ordinary working stiff, he had never had such a moment in the spotlight.

But regrettably, he lacked the experience of those wealthy players who took down raid bosses first and directed team battles via voice chat.

As everyone knows, a team battle with a commander and one without are like night and day.

Talent alone isn't enough; extensive experience is required.

Some wealthy players even paid a hefty sum to hire experienced individuals to lead their team battles.

"How about you take the lead?"

Jiu Cai Rong knew Su Yu Niang was a battle maniac.

She had commanded all sorts of team battles, whether in shooting games or traditional MMORPGs, often while slacking off, cursing, and leading the charge.

Seeing Jiu Cai Rong's pained expression, Su Yu Niang kindly offered comfort:

"I don't need to. You should trust these blacksmiths. Everyone has a first time. You'll gain experience, and you don't need to worry about your poor command because they won't listen to you anyway."

"..."

Jiu Cai Rong felt a pang of hurt. If you're so good with words, can't you just shut up? I'm already anxious enough.

There were now over twenty defensive structures in this area, with an average of four to five people per team.

The layout was a grid, allowing for mutual cover.

The war began!

As soon as the crows darkened the sky above the manor, a large group of players peered through the shooting ports, raised their bows and arrows, and unleashed a synchronized volley into the sky.

In wartime, accuracy wasn't a primary concern.

The main objective was suppressing firepower.

After all, during wartime, it took an average of over 20,000 bullets to kill one person.

They hadn't built crossbows either, as after making two, they found them to be too cost-inefficient.

Complex to produce, low precision, easily damaged. A simple bow was just iron and hemp rope; the production efficiency was incomparable.

The actual loading speed was far inferior to that of a bow and arrow. Trained individuals could shoot one arrow per second, not considering stamina, making for a very rapid rate of fire, regardless of accuracy.

"Fire again!"

Whoosh!

A second wave of arrows surged towards the sky.

Since this area had the most Magic Bronze ore, what appeared to be a luxurious volley of Magic Bronze arrows from an outsider's perspective instantly struck down scattered crows.

A large number of arrows also fell to the ground.

However, the ground's terrain was no longer uneven; it was shaped into unique, curved funnel-like depressions.

The surface of the funnels was coated with a small amount of excavated extraterrestrial lubricant ore, a liquid known as No. 95 Oil. The ground was very slippery, and most of the arrows that fell to the ground slowly flowed into the funnel-shaped pits.

Beneath the funnels.

A player in an underground tunnel was responsible for collecting arrows, working in an orderly fashion.

"Sort them, sort them."

"This marker belongs to the Legendary Eye team."

"This one is for the Cat Litter team."

The arrows were sorted and then delivered by a courier team through the extensive underground tunnel network back to the various towers.

After a few minutes of this.

The effect of several volleys was surprisingly good. The Money Boys were slow-moving and dull-witted; even a well-trained ordinary hunter could easily toy with them in close combat.

Their only advantage was their immense strength, which, precisely because of its magnitude, allowed them to draw powerful bows.

With the current density of crows, a mindless barrage of several powerful arrow volleys had actually taken down over a thousand crows.

At this moment.

Inside an arrow tower.

The blacksmith named [Yan Hua] continuously analyzed.

"These crows are indeed like the data indicated; a portion of the physical bodies of demons in the Five Bodies Realm are indestructible."

"Shooting their flesh and blood does nothing. Their skin is tough and can regenerate; their recovery is too strong. We can only aim for the parts they haven't tempered."

Demonic beasts and humans are different.

The bodies tempered by humans have a pattern—the head and limbs, which are called the Five Bodies.

But the body tempering of demonic beasts is random; it could be a hand, a wing, or a claw.

Most demonic beasts don't cultivate techniques. They merely absorb spiritual energy according to their instincts to temper various parts, slowly increasing their cultivation over the years.

Therefore, their weaknesses are random.

This depends on the experience of the cultivators hunting the demonic beasts, requiring them to probe and attack bit by bit, observing where the weaknesses lie.

However, most of the crows before them seemed to be only in the early stage of the Five Bodies Realm. Only one wing and one claw had been tempered. The rest were ordinary flesh and blood, equivalent to having weaknesses all over their bodies.

Furthermore, the blacksmiths didn't need to consider where the weak points were.

Because they were just shooting randomly, relying entirely on luck.

At this moment, their teammate [Yan Xia] suddenly shouted, "Holy crap, some crows are attacking our archers' shooting holes! They're pecking furiously at the windows of the opposite tower!"

So fast?

Their intelligence is quite good!

Everyone's expression changed as they saw a flock of crows surrounding the shooting holes of the opposite tower.

They were tearing at them furiously!

The shooting holes were small windows wrapped in metal, but even so, they couldn't withstand the assault. If this continued, the opposite tower would definitely be breached, and the crows would soon be eating their brains.

"Cover, cover!! We need to cover them."

With a loud shout, they shot arrows at the shooting holes of the opposite tower, bringing down the furiously gnawing crows one by one.

Everyone watched with delight.

Amazing.

Absolutely amazing. The combat command center had predicted the enemy's moves.

They had instructed everyone to specifically reinforce the defenses of the shooting windows' railings; otherwise, they would have been finished by now.

The animal science majors and various psychology experts outside had predicted that the crows' first reaction would be to attack the windows that were attacking them. Therefore, they landed in a square formation, covering each other and protecting their counterparts from being breached.

Soon.

A flock of crows also arrived here and began pecking at their shooting holes, but the opposite tower was also smart and provided cover for them.

"Hahaha, we don't need their help! Attacking them is one thing, but attacking us?"

"Exactly, exactly! Our tower has a guillotine!"

"Chop!"

They cheered with joy and released the ropes.

The large cleavers on the shooting holes fell, instantly beheading the flock of crows, cutting them in half. Blood stained the ground.

They had modified their shooting holes into guillotines. Anyone who dared to poke their heads out to peck would be chopped off.

In this wave, they felt they had occupied the high ground of intelligence!

All of the enemy's offensives had fallen within their predictions.

In the underground war report office.

"What's the situation?" Su Yu Niang's hands were a bit tired, so she put down her bow and arrow to rest.

"Dao Jiujiu has rehearsed how to forge iron in his mind several times. The bodies have been sent over, and he's leading the blacksmith team in trying to forge the first magic artifact," Jiu Cai Rong said.

Even if it was the lowest-tier magic artifact, one that cultivators might not even get a second glance at if they tried to sell it at a roadside stall.

But for them, it was a huge step forward.

"I'm asking about the battle situation," Su Yu Niang said.

"The second wave of archers has rotated in. We're having the delivery personnel shoot arrows, and those who are tired from shooting are also becoming delivery personnel to pick up arrows," Jiu Cai Rong said, his expression not very happy. "Although the results seem fruitful, they are far from my expectations. The hit rate is only three out of ten, and that's with a large swarm of crows."

The arrow consumption rate was not low.

Some arrows stuck in the ground in non-flowing pits. Those closer to the tower could use a long stick to nudge the arrows into the pits, but there was nothing they could do for the ones further away.

If this continued, even with maximum recovery efforts, they would likely run out of arrows within another hour of shooting.

At that time.

Without firepower suppression, they would inevitably be at a disadvantage, and the tower being breached would be only a matter of time.

Melee combat?

The Money Boy had already sparred with himself.

The low-level demon beasts were theoretically evenly matched, but the Money Boy, despite its strength, was slow to react and stiff in its movements.

Fighting the agile crows in close combat would inevitably be like a cat playing with a mouse; they wouldn't even be able to land a hit, being toyed with to death.

"The speed at which these arrows are depleted is too fast, too fast. I underestimated the wastefulness of these blacksmiths," Jiu Cai Rong took a deep breath, and suddenly, even more dire battle reports came in.

"This is bad! These crows have suddenly stopped attacking the shooting holes collectively. They're now attacking in groups between buildings, in blind spots where they can't protect each other!"

"Even some of the towers, they're undermining the walls, as if trying to dig tunnels in."

As these words fell, Jiu Cai Rong and several blacksmiths in charge of command turned pale and shot to their feet.

How is this possible!?

Attacking the blind spots of the mud walls of the towers?

Their walls were just mud, gravel, and leaves for reinforcement; they couldn't possibly afford to build them with Magic Bronze, and naturally, they couldn't withstand bird beaks digging for long.

They had only reinforced the shooting holes.

According to normal logic.

Beasts would attack where they are attacked, so the constantly firing lookout windows would naturally be the primary target.

Not bypassing the lookout windows to attack blind spots.

For humans, dodging the front and attacking the walls is normal.

But for beasts, it's abnormal, like someone shooting arrows at you, and you suddenly turn to attack the floor next to you that isn't attacking you.

This goes against animal nature, against animal instinct.

And if they had only managed to do this much, it would at most mean they weren't unintelligent.

But what was happening before them.

Made them feel utterly absurd:

The towers had no blind spots!

They defended each other, and some so-called blind spots were covered by fire through the [Manhole Design Window] in the tunnels.

The current building towers were the crystallization of the wisdom of countless great minds outside.

They had even built a 3D model in reality and performed simulations to derive the optimal building model.

"How can there be blind spots!"

"Are those big shots just experts, all talk and no substance?"

Everyone started discussing.

At this moment, Su Yu Niang looked at everyone and said, "No, it's not that the buildings have blind spots. The buildings are perfect. It's our actual attacks that are creating blind spots."

"Are you saying..." Jiu Cai Rong also thought of it.

"Yes, there are only a hundred of us."

Su Yu Niang's voice was low, "With so few people, defensive blind spots have appeared. But these blind spots are constantly shifting with the movement of our archers, and the enemy can always find them..."

Her voice grew somber, "Is this really possible?"

Don't think this is a simple matter.

Even a national-level strategic expert with a high-IQ brain, if they were to command the crows, might not be able to achieve this under these circumstances!

Only by being adept at troop deployment and overall coordination, using a small number of crows to probe the current distribution of archers, could one find the temporary blind spots and attack the weak points.

The blacksmiths weren't stupid either.

They quickly changed positions, shifting the blind spots, but the enemy, with macro-level control and feedback from all the towers, immediately found new temporary blind spots.

"Although it's incredible, it's the only explanation... The enemy understands military strategy?"

At this moment, everyone felt a chill!

It was as if they were seeing a great general, who had planned and strategized, deploying these crows as chess pieces for battle.

"It's the boss, it must be the boss of the crow flock that has appeared!" someone suddenly shouted.