Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The deafening sound of colossal footsteps echoed across the sky, striking like war drums against every player's heart.
Everyone turned to look—
On the distant horizon, a towering black figure steadily approached…
It was an orc warrior clad in tattered chainmail, wielding an enormous black iron warhammer. The beast stood as tall as a three-story building, exuding the presence of a living mountain.
With each step, the earth quaked beneath him. His blood-red eyes, like the gaze of hell itself, swept across the crowd of players.
The boss's entrance stunned everyone present.
[The Butcher Gonzalez] (Bronze-tier Abyssal Boss)Level: 30Attack: 1000Defense: 250HP: 1,000,000Skills: [War Cry], [Heaven-Splitting Strike], [Bloodthirsty Storm], [Last Stand]
His appearance sent shockwaves through the gathered players, and his overwhelming stats left everyone dumbfounded.
"Holy crap, a million HP! What does that even mean?!"
"Two hundred fifty defense—I can't even break that!"
"Are you guys serious? Focus! He's got 1000 attack! Who the hell can tank that?! Only the meat shield classes maybe…"
Before they could snap out of it, the monstrous shadow had already loomed overhead, and the suffocating pressure pressed down on everyone like a physical weight.
Facing such a massive boss, the players looked no different from ants.
Boom!
Gonzalez had no interest in idle banter.
Before anyone could react, his giant warhammer crashed down from the sky, instantly crushing dozens of players in a single blow.
And that was just a regular auto-attack.
"Damn it! What are you waiting for?! Charge! If nothing else, we need to get on the damage ranking!"
With a shout from the Yun City Guild commander, thousands of their members rushed forward in a frenzy.
The Xiaoyao Guild followed close behind.
Starfall Guild had fewer members, but they bravely joined the charge. With the three major guilds leading the way, solo players and small guilds followed suit and threw themselves into battle.
Another brutal fight had begun.
Jiang Bai noticed a rectangular damage leaderboard panel had appeared on the left side of his interface, displaying the top 100 damage dealers.
But the rankings changed incredibly fast—players constantly moving on and off the list in real time.
The tension this little panel created was almost tangible.
Each swing of Gonzalez's massive hammer wiped out swaths of players, and the damage players dealt in return was pitiful.
"-1""-1""miss""-5""-12"
…After one round of abilities, the highest damage dealt to the boss was a mere 56.
Fortunately, sheer numbers made up for it.
Tens of thousands of players, even if each dealt just 1 damage, still managed to chunk out tens of thousands of HP per round.
The boss's health dropped quickly at first—nearly 50,000 HP gone in just the first wave.
That got everyone fired up like they were on a stimulant—forgetting one crucial detail: players were dying continuously.
As casualties mounted, the boss's HP dropped more slowly.
The first 100,000 HP went down in just 3 minutes—pretty fast.
But once his health dropped to 800,000, the pace slowed dramatically, and Gonzalez began cycling through his skillset.
With a deafening roar, the rampaging orc unleashed a visible shockwave that rippled across most of the newbie camp.
Thousands of players within the blast radius were stunned instantly—including Jiang Bai.
The [War Cry] skill didn't deal damage, but its terrifying crowd control effect—stunning all players in range for 3 seconds—made it a nightmare of a move.
As soon as they were stunned, Gonzalez spun with his massive warhammer in hand.
He turned into a tornado of steel and rage, cutting through everything in his path.
Screams erupted across the battlefield. Jiang Bai watched in horror as he took 1100 damage from the spin attack—he had to chug a rare potion just to get back above 50% HP.
"This is insane!"
He looked back—just two attacks, and the boss had already wiped out at least 3000 players!
Until now, Jiang Bai had barely lifted a finger.
He'd noticed that the Yun City Emperor and a few of his core members, as well as Xiaoyao Qingfeng's team, had been lurking in the shadows.
They were probably saving themselves for the final blow, or just poking the boss enough to stay on the rankings while minimizing risk.
So Jiang Bai stayed back too. With his damage output, getting into the top ranks wouldn't be hard.
He continued hiding among the crowd, sniping damage from a distance—a huge perk of ranged classes.
Two-thirds of the top 100 on the leaderboard were ranged players, after all.
From 90% to 80%, it took nearly five minutes—1.5 times slower than before.
And it would only get slower from here.
Once the boss's HP dropped below 60%, about one-third of the players were already dead. The field was visibly thinning.
"This won't do…"
Jiang Bai carefully observed the battlefield, quickly realizing what the Yun City and Xiaoyao Guilds were up to.
As the fight dragged on, both guilds were clearly holding back, only pretending to be on the front lines. Most of the casualties were from solo players and the Starfall Guild—completely unaware they were being used as fodder.
Jiang Bai spotted the soft-voiced girl who had invited him earlier—Starfall Momo—working hard to heal a knight on the frontlines named "Starfall Zuo'an," the Starfall Guild's leader. Judging by his gear, he had nearly 1800 HP.
"Is everyone in Starfall this straightforward? Can't they tell Yun City and Xiaoyao are conserving their strength? Even their guild leader is up there fighting…"
He couldn't help but admire her.
Starfall Momo's healing techniques stood out, clearly surpassing other priests nearby. The healing rankings confirmed it—she was number one by a wide margin.
With the players' relentless efforts, the boss's HP finally neared 50%, but over half the players had died, especially the disorganized solo players—they were little more than cannon fodder.
Jiang Bai glanced at the leaderboard. The top player was "Yun City Afei," a level 9 mage, with 1400 total damage.
Starfall Guild had suffered heavy losses, even losing half its core players.
Meanwhile, Yun City and Xiaoyao still had most of their main forces intact.
"Bastards!"
Jiang Bai spat in disgust. "Shameless, underhanded cowards."
He drew his longbow and prepared to go all out.
With more players dying every second, the boss's HP was falling slower than ever.
Raising his bow, Jiang Bai activated his strongest single-target attack—[Explosive Shot]!