Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Shop”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xiao Fan reaches the final unexplored room on the first floor of the secret realm, hoping it is a shop where he can use the twenty Beast Cores he has collected.
• Before entering, he uses his probing skill and detects a faint, gentle glow rather than the danger or emptiness found in previous rooms.
• The room is revealed to be the Secret Realm Shop, confirmed by a system notification.
• Inside, Xiao Fan finds an ancient dark-iron chest covered in mysterious markings. When he touches it, a shop interface appears.
• The shop offers four items for the upcoming Boss battle:
  • Bodyguard Spirit Shield – 8 Beast Cores; blocks one fatal attack.
  • Ailment-Breaking Pill – 5 Beast Cores; temporarily increases strength and counters suppression.
  • Keen Edge Rune – 6 Beast Cores; allows a weapon to pierce the Boss’s armor.
  • Flicker Jade – 9 Beast Cores; provides one short-range invincible teleport.
• Xiao Fan considers the usefulness and limitations of each item. He decides the Spirit Shield offers the greatest chance of survival.
• He spends eight Beast Cores to obtain it. The shield automatically forms beneath his skin and will activate if he suffers a fatal attack.

Character Development

• Xiao Fan demonstrates caution by probing the room before entering rather than acting recklessly.
• He remains practical and strategic, carefully evaluating how each item might help against an unknown and powerful Boss.
• His priorities shift toward survival and defensive preparation, showing that he understands the danger of the upcoming confrontation.
• His confidence increases after obtaining the concealed shield, giving him greater security before entering the Boss room.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: Xiao Fan must prepare for an enemy whose abilities and strength are unknown.
• Resource management: With only twenty Beast Cores, he must choose carefully rather than purchase every useful item.
• Survival and strategy: The chapter emphasizes defensive planning and the value of a single opportunity to avoid death.
• Progress and reward: Xiao Fan’s earlier efforts to collect Beast Cores finally pay off through access to the exclusive shop.

Character Interactions

• There are no direct interactions with other characters in this chapter.
• Xiao Fan interacts with the secret realm’s system and the shop mechanism, using his judgment to select the item best suited to the coming Boss battle.

Plot points and events

• After redeeming the Bodyguard Spirit Shield, Xiao Fan has 12 Beast Cores left. The shop offers an Ailment-Breaking Pill, a Keen Edge Rune, and a Flicker Jade.
• He weighs buying the pill and rune—safer choices that preserve his options—against the Flicker Jade, which costs nine cores but can teleport him instantly while making him temporarily invulnerable.
• Knowing the shop will vanish when he enters the final Boss room, Xiao Fan follows his instinct and redeems the jade, leaving him three cores. Unlike his previous rewards, it appears as a physical stone at his waist.
• Before he can inspect it, the chamber shakes violently. Xiao Fan recognizes the disturbance as a likely beast-awakening event. When the shaking stops, two Mysterious Horn Beasts appear, each with 8,000 HP and high magic damage.

Character development

• Xiao Fan struggles between prudent resource management and securing a powerful escape tool. He ultimately trusts his own instincts rather than continuing to calculate the risks.
• The new Flicker Jade gives him a potential emergency defense, though its usefulness has not yet been tested.

Character interactions

• No direct conversation occurs. Xiao Fan’s immediate interaction is with the system shop as he redeems the jade; he then faces the newly appeared beasts.

Significant themes

• Risk and preparation: Xiao Fan must choose between several useful items with limited resources and incomplete knowledge of what lies ahead.
• Instinct versus calculation: He sets aside cautious deliberation to choose what feels most valuable.
• Uncertainty and escalating danger: The shop’s deadline and sudden beast encounter reinforce how quickly his circumstances can change.

Plot points and events

• Xiao Fan is interrupted just before the first floor’s final challenge by a special event that spawns two spellcasting beasts.
• He uses his Shield Puppet to draw their attacks and protect himself, then attacks while the puppet holds them in place.
• The coordinated fight ends quickly. The beasts die, leaving two Beast Cores; with three previously collected, Xiao Fan now has five, still insufficient to trade for an item.
• Having prepared his defensive and escape abilities, Xiao Fan leaves the Shop Room and approaches the bronze, twin-dragon door.
• The door opens with a rumble, releasing a powerful, ancient presence and marking the opening of the guardian Boss’s domain.

Character development

• Xiao Fan shows composure and tactical judgment under time pressure: he recognizes the risk of being weakened before the Boss fight and chooses a swift, controlled strategy.
• His confidence grows as he reviews his preparations, but he remains focused and alert rather than reckless.

Character interactions

• Xiao Fan and the Shield Puppet work as a coordinated team: the puppet defends and pins down the beasts while Xiao Fan deals damage.
• The beasts’ magical assault tests their defense, but the puppet withstands it with Xiao Fan’s support.

Significant themes

• Preparation and teamwork: Xiao Fan’s tools and cooperation with the puppet let him overcome enemies without wasting much strength.
• Risk management: He balances the need to defeat the beasts quickly against the greater challenge ahead.
• Rising suspense: The oppressive aura and opening door signal that the final confrontation is imminent.

Xiao Fan faced the first floor’s ultimate Boss, the Void-Erosion Behemoth, after it locked its aggro onto him. Its traits forced him to abandon his plan to use the Shield Puppet as a tank and prepare to kill the Boss quickly.

• A system notification marked Xiao Fan as the target as the Dungeon doors burst open and the Boss emerged.
• Xiao Fan ordered the Shield Puppet to stand between him and the approaching monster.
• Xiao Fan identified the monster as the Void-Erosion Behemoth, a Boss with 100,000 HP.
• Xiao Fan learned that the Boss permanently locked aggro onto him and steadily reduced nearby targets’ defense and energy recovery.
• Xiao Fan decided he had to fight the Boss directly and kill it as fast as possible.

Xiao Fan fought a Boss whose relentless attacks threatened to overwhelm him and his Shield Puppet. He dodged the Boss’s corrosive breath, but the red targeting mark remained fixed on him.

• The Boss struck the Shield Puppet with a claw, leaving it critically low on health and sending force back through Xiao Fan’s mental link.
• The Boss charged another attack aimed at Xiao Fan, who activated Half-Blood War God mode and summoned a Big Iron Pot with [Wine of Blood Brewing].
• The Boss briefly paused at the Iron Pot, then resumed its assault and ignored the Shield Puppet’s attempts to draw its attention.
• Xiao Fan dodged the Boss’s corrosive black fog, which ate into the stone wall behind him.

Xiao Fan fought the first-floor Boss, whose corrosive attacks overwhelmed his defenses and destroyed his Shield Puppet. He escaped the black fog with Gift of the Saint, but the Boss’s magic attacks left the battle far from over.

• The Boss struck Xiao Fan with corrosive black fog, dealing 6666 damage and applying its defense-reducing, energy-draining Void-Erosion Corrosion trait.
• Xiao Fan sent the Shield Puppet to attack and block, but it dealt only 120 damage to the Boss.
• The Boss swept the Shield Puppet into a stone pillar, destroying it.
• Xiao Fan ran from the Boss and used Gift of the Saint to escape the black fog’s range.

Xiao Fan concluded that the secret realm Boss had low defenses and launched his Demon God Mage’s strongest single-target attack. The Boss’s black mist swallowed the spell without effect, leaving Xiao Fan stunned.

• Xiao Fan replaced his purple longsword with his Demon God Mage’s Twin-Headed Staff and assessed the Boss’s likely weaknesses.
• Xiao Fan decided the Boss had very low defense and that the fight would come down to who could deal damage faster.
• Xiao Fan charged and fired a powerful single-target spell at the Boss.
• The Boss’s black mist spread around its body and absorbed the attack without a ripple or damage numbers.
• Xiao Fan stared at the Boss’s crimson eyes in shock, wondering what kind of bugged enemy he faced.

Xiao Fan suspected the first-floor guardian Boss had unusual defenses and watched as its protective black fog receded. He fired a rocket launcher at the exposed Boss to test whether it could be damaged.

• Xiao Fan noticed the Boss’s powerful attacks and black fog could absorb players’ skill damage, and suspected something was wrong with its abilities.
• Xiao Fan considered whether the Boss had high magic resistance, but realized its dense fog also prevented him from landing physical attacks.
• The black fog withdrew, exposing the Boss, and Xiao Fan guessed its defensive skill might be on cooldown.
• Xiao Fan took a rocket launcher borrowed from Shen Long and thought Shen Long and Cannon had likely been killed by level 300 magic beasts.
• Xiao Fan aimed at the exposed Boss and fired a rocket at it.