Faced with the C+-rank Reaper Queen, Gao Gong had settled on his fighting style from the very start.
Don't get greedy for hits. Just keep up the combo.
Relying on his footwork skills, he would combo the enemy to death.
In fact, "Rainy Night, Blade in Hand, Murder Mode" was precisely a combat mode built around this style.
"Darknight Warrior," meanwhile, kept stacking damage, building up power for an explosive finish later.
It looked dangerous, but was actually as steady as an old dog.
If NPCs had built-in cameras, then posted this on a gaming forum, it would absolutely be considered a high-level match.
He would receive comments like "Big Boss 666," "Dad, carry me, I'll support," and "Mom, come kneel with me and watch this video."
Rainy night. Curtain fall.
The "Special Effects Generator" had already stopped caring about quality and focused only on quantity.
Amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, one Gao Gong after another emerged from the pouring rain that had transformed into streams of data, surrounding the Reaper Queen completely.
One, two, three, four—on the ground, on rooftops, and even floating high in the sky.
Most of them could be identified as fakes at a glance. Some had mosaics over their faces, while others had mosaics over their crotches.
In gaming terms, high-poly models filled the screen.
The Reaper Queen, however, began to hesitate. A trace of fear even surfaced in its eyes.
During their brief ten-minute exchange, it had confirmed the enemy's location at least ten times.
It had been wrong every single time.
The frenzied sound of rain, the hypnotic electronic music, the enemy's elusive true body, and its bizarre, unpredictable fighting style—
This time, it was genuinely starting to panic.
When the number of high-poly models—or rather, Gao Gongs—reached around five hundred, the splitting finally stopped.
Everyone twisted their necks and gripped their once-again battered red blades with both hands.
Rainwater covered everyone's faces.
Some raindrops bounced off the blades, while others passed straight through them.
"Old Wang only knows how to feel sorry for you. Once I start feeling sorry for your husband, watch Old Gao next door avenge him for you."
The next moment, the roar of electric motors erupted, like the nodes of a super-engine scattered throughout the area.
The Reaper Queen hardly hesitated. It released a wide-area energy shockwave and the "Radiation Storm" once used by the Reaper Lord at the same time, effectively unleashing two ultimate moves simultaneously.
The mental storm came crashing in like a tidal wave, slamming the "Gao Gongs" in the front ranks away like paper dolls. Some turned into snowflake-like specks of light on the spot.
Yet the next moment, even more Gao Gongs squeezed in from behind, one after another.
At this point, there was no need to worry about whether the graphics card would burn out. In any case, Gao Gong was planning to overhaul his equipment again once he returned.
If he couldn't even make decent sound effects for chopping people, how could he make special effects?
Compared with the Reaper Commander's Radiation Storm, the Reaper Queen's covered a smaller area and was far more controllable.
It was like three high-compression energy whips as thick as thighs. They covered a hundred-meter radius and lashed back and forth repeatedly, wiping out the fake "Gao Gongs" one by one.
Tree after enormous tree was whipped down, clearing away obstacles from the battlefield by force.
The enemy might have been unable to shake its bestial nature, but it certainly lacked no combat intelligence.
If Gao Gong did nothing—or tried to wait until the enemy had finished using its ultimate move before harvesting it—
then this creature would definitely flee first, just as it had last time.
Only by defeating the enemy at its strongest could one truly hunt a radiation beast.
In the dim, heavy rain, resembling a black night, all the "Gao Gongs" surged forward, charging from every direction.
The Reaper Queen's spirit snapped taut. It could feel that strange, unfathomable sense of danger returning.
Its six blade-limbs extended once more, preparing to unleash "Sixfold Execution" again.
This time, however, amid more than a dozen red blades slashing in from every angle, an inconspicuous blade flash, like a venomous snake, precisely caught at the joint of one blade-limb.
It was like a tiny pebble jamming a rapidly spinning propeller. The remaining five blade-limbs instantly lost their rhythm, transforming from a storm of blades into a chaotic flurry of great slashes.
One Gao Gong abruptly raised his head, a ruthless glint flashing through his eyes.
He charged into the ring of blades.
The combat power stacked by "Frenzied Drinking" did not appear from thin air. Every bloodthirsty combo against an enemy made the urge to kill boiling inside him grow stronger. The force behind his blade, the angles of his stabs, the changes in his techniques—every aspect of his killing skill rose dramatically.
It was like a cold-blooded assassin whose instincts had been ignited.
Every move went straight for a vital point. The enemy was no longer a living being, but a candle about to go out, extinguished in this dark night.
[Your attack dealt 112 damage to the Reaper Queen, inflicting Severe Limb Damage] [Your attack dealt 121 damage to the Reaper Queen, inflicting Laceration] [Your attack dealt 109 damage to the Reaper Queen, inflicting Bone Fracture]
Blades grazed Gao Gong's flesh, and steel claws swept past the corners of his eyes, but Gao Gong no longer had the attention to care about the health draining from his status panel.
The damage he inflicted was even more devastating. Blood sprayed, fluids churned wildly. It was as though this was not the work of one person, but the result of countless "Gao Gongs" slaughtering the enemy.
Including the damage it had already suffered, the Reaper Queen had lost two-thirds of its health in a matter of moments.
The reality of this "game" lay in the fact that the more health one lost, the worse one's condition became.
In truth, the Reaper Queen now had no other thoughts in its mind. It had only one desire: to get farther away from this humanoid monster. Farther and farther.
Its enormous blade-limbs spread once more, but this time it took flight.
Yet hundreds of Gao Gongs pounced at it almost simultaneously, each using a method that violated the laws of physics.
The Reaper Queen was wrapped in a thick sphere of bodies.
Its consciousness was hazy. It could no longer distinguish between real and fake Gao Gongs, and could barely even tell whether the pain was real or not. It only knew that amid countless flashes of blades, claws seemed to seize its flesh, while blade-light seemed to peel open its shell.
With its last sight, it saw the forest constantly disappearing beneath the curtain of rain. In its place, data trees grew lush and strong, sending out new roots and sprouting new buds, simulating every aspect of a real environment. As the data rain flowed, it finally gathered into a flood that surged toward it.
[You dealt 141 damage to the Reaper Queen] [You killed the C+-rank Reaper Queen. Experience +1420] [Regional Reputation +150] [Obtained Aura: Humanoid Reaper]
Humanoid Reaper: You defeated the most powerful Reaper. From today onward, all mechanical bio-beasts below the Reaper tier will tremble beneath your hand.
Gao Gong practically crawled out from inside the Reaper Queen's body.
He had soaked himself thoroughly in a bath of blood.
He could clearly feel something in the enemy's blood burrowing into his body and fusing with his genes.
Gao Gong wiped his face. This was probably the cleanest part of his body.
He had lost three-fifths of his health.
That was within his expectations.
Although it had gone somewhat beyond the intended level, bosses below Rank B were still within the scope of his killing mode.
"The solo-kill reward is the Reaper Aura? It's not a specialty, but it'll do."
Gao Gong thought greedily.
However, he had no intention of resting after the battle. Without his help, who knew how many people had died over at the Cable Tribe?
Don't let them all get wiped out!
Before you continue