[Warning! Warning!]
An urgent, piercing alarm exploded in Lu Fang's ears.
[Challenger detected clearing the first 15 stages within 100 seconds. Conditions for unlocking the hidden stage met.] [Asura Hidden Stage unlocked.]
A scarlet dialog box popped up before Lu Fang, its letters seeming to drip blood.
[Notice: The Asura Hidden Stage is extremely difficult and poses an extremely high risk to your life.] [Option 1: Abandon the challenge and proceed directly to settlement. You will receive this dungeon's highest rating, "SSS," and be teleported out.] [Option 2: Enter the challenge. If you clear it, all rewards from this dungeon will be doubled. Failure may result in death.]
Lu Fang's gaze skipped straight past the red warnings and locked firmly onto the words "rewards will be doubled."
An SSS rating?
That was already a sure thing.
For Lu Fang, who now possessed hundreds of millions of gold coins and stats that crushed anyone at his level, retreat simply wasn't in his vocabulary.
"Fortune favors the bold. Besides..."
Lu Fang glanced at the ten Money Ghosts beside him, each like a demonic god, and his lips curved into a confident smile.
"This hardly counts as a risk."
Without the slightest hesitation, he pressed his finger hard onto "Confirm entry."
Hum!
The instant he made his choice, the ground beneath him collapsed. An enormous blood-red vortex appeared out of thin air and swallowed him in an instant.
An intense sensation of weightlessness washed over him.
When Lu Fang opened his eyes again, his surroundings had changed completely.
He was no longer in that cramped space of gray mist, but on a desolate, boundless ancient battlefield.
The earth was scorched black, littered with broken weapons and enormous beast bones. Fierce winds swept past with sand and gravel, howling like weeping ghosts.
Before Lu Fang could get a clear look around, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.
Rumble!!
Dull pounding footsteps came from every direction, like muffled thunder rolling across the earth.
Countless pairs of eerie green eyes lit up at the horizon.
They were wolves.
Pitch-black all over and as powerfully built as calves, they exuded black demonic energy.
[Abyssal Demon Wolf (Level 10)] [Quantity: 500] [EXP per kill: 100]
Lu Fang swept his gaze across the densely packed wolves surging toward him like a black tide.
A beast tide of this scale could instantly engulf a well-equipped, hundred-strong squad of class holders and devour them without leaving so much as a bone fragment.
Facing this terrifying onslaught, Lu Fang remained calm. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets.
"Go."
He gave a slight mental command.
The 10 Money Ghosts guarding his side moved instantly.
They didn't form up. Instead, they turned straight into ten golden storms and charged into the black tide of wolves.
[Money Ghost's current strength: 1,400] [Money Ghost's basic attack damage: 2,800+]
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!
The instant golden light collided with the black tide, countless Abyssal Demon Wolves burst apart.
It was an utterly one-sided slaughter.
The Money Ghosts were too fast, so fast that the demon wolves couldn't react at all. Before their sharp claws and fangs could even touch the Money Ghosts, golden fists blasted them into mangled flesh.
Not a single demon wolf could break through the defensive ring formed by the Money Ghosts or get anywhere near Lu Fang.
The system notifications in Lu Fang's ears almost merged into one continuous tone. Their frequency grew so high that they eventually became a peculiar hum.
[Abyssal Demon Wolf slain. EXP +100.] [Abyssal Demon Wolf slain. EXP +100.]
Enormous amounts of EXP flooded into Lu Fang's body like water bursting through a floodgate.
Golden light flashed over him again and again.
[Congratulations! You have reached level 6!] [All stats +100!] [Money Ghost stats updated in sync: Strength 1,500]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 7!] [All stats +100!] [Money Ghost stats updated in sync: Strength 1,600]
Standing amid the sea of monsters and piles of corpses, Lu Fang felt the strength within him rise steadily. In just one short minute, his level rocketed all the way to 7.
All his stats soared again!
At last, as the final Abyssal Demon Wolf fell with a howl, the clamorous ancient battlefield sank into a brief, deathly silence.
Wolf corpses covered the ground, and blood flowed in rivers.
Before Lu Fang could catch his breath, something suddenly changed.
Crack!
A massive fissure suddenly split the earth of the ancient battlefield, and roiling lava erupted from it.
An enormous, charred-black hand gripped the edge of the fissure. Then a terrifying figure ten meters tall climbed out of the lava.
It wore heavy, dark-red armor over its entire body and dragged an enormous sword wreathed in flames. Every step left a deep crater in the ground.
[Final BOSS: Hell Demon General (Level 50)] [HP: 2,000,000/2,000,000] [Physical defense: 3,000] [Skills: Hell Roar, Blazing Flame Slash, Demon Armor Protection]
The moment the BOSS appeared, a terrifying, suffocating pressure swept across the battlefield.
"Roar!!!"
The Hell Demon General threw back its head and roared.
Visible sound waves spread outward, carrying a mental shock. The remaining wolf corpses around it burst apart in the roar.
Had ordinary new students been standing here, that roar and its mental shock alone would have been enough to knock them unconscious, or even shatter their heart meridians outright.
Lu Fang frowned slightly. This BOSS's aura was indeed far stronger than that of the small fry before it.
"Attack!"
He gave a low shout.
Utterly fearless, the 10 Money Ghosts flickered into motion and instantly appeared around the Hell Demon General. Their golden fists rained down on the BOSS's seemingly vulnerable joints.
The Money Ghosts' strength had now reached 1,600, and their attack power exceeded 3,200.
Bam, bam, bam, bam!
A dense barrage of impacts rang out like thunder.
Yet the next second, Lu Fang's pupils contracted slightly.
Those terrifying attacks, powerful enough to instantly kill ordinary monsters and even elite monsters, struck the Hell Demon General's heavy, dark-red armor and produced nothing but a shower of sparks.
-200!
-180!
-215!
-500 (Critical hit)!
A string of damage numbers floated above the BOSS's head.
A few hundred, with the highest no more than five hundred.
Although the Money Ghosts attacked extremely quickly, landing dozens of punches in the blink of an eye, to the Hell Demon General with its full two million HP, it was practically... scraping.
The level 50 BOSS's physical defense of 3,000 created a perfect defensive suppression against the Money Ghosts, currently only level 7 with attack power barely over 3,000.
They had barely chipped its health bar!
Watching this, Lu Fang didn't feel the slightest panic at his ineffective attacks. Instead, the corners of his mouth lifted into a teasing smile.
"Physical defense too high to hurt it?"
He looked at the arrogant Hell Demon General and murmured to himself.
"Then I'll kill you with money."
Before his words had faded, Lu Fang slowly raised his right hand and pointed his index finger at the enormous demonic figure.