novelraw Chapter 331: If You Dare Show Your HP Bar, You Have to Die
Chapter 331: If You Dare Show Your HP Bar, You Have to Die
Under Lin Xun’s relentless attacks, the game text kept showing the BOSS screaming in agony.
But for a long time there was still no prompt saying that ‘Crawler Broodmother has taken some damage.’
This clearly showed that the BOSS before him had an extremely thick HP bar and belonged to the ultra high-difficulty top-tier BOSS category.
The good times did not last. Not only did Lin Xun fail to wait for the Broodmother BOSS to reveal its HP bar, he instead ran into an unexpected situation.
[…]
[At last, the Crawler Broodmother seems unable to endure your attacks. The labyrinth passages writhe violently.]
[The passage you are in keeps shaking, shrinking, and squeezing. You cannot resist the crushing force and are involuntarily forced out of this passage…]
[After the Crawler Broodmother squeezes you into an entirely new passage, the writhing does not stop. It continues to writhe very rapidly, forcing you on into yet another passage…]
[In this way, you move inside the Crawler Broodmother’s body in a strange manner…]
[Very soon, the Broodmother will regurgitate you from its body and vomit you out through its mouthparts…]“I’m done for, I’m about to be spat out!”
Thoughts spun rapidly in Lin Xun’s mind as he tried to find a countermeasure.
He tried to keep attacking to stabilize his position, but found that struggling was useless.
With no way to stay inside the Crawler Broodmother any longer, he had no choice but to face the utterly terrifying BOSS.
“Damn it, if you don’t ask for death, you won’t die…”
Lin Xun could only scroll back through the earlier game text, hoping to find some way to tough it out head-on against the BOSS.
As time ticked away bit by bit, the hellish game’s text kept prompting that he was about to leave the labyrinth.
Lin Xun let out a long sigh, feeling powerless and unwilling.
“A BOSS like this basically isn’t something you are meant to kill at all.”
Just as he was reading through the game text and sighing in despair, his eyes suddenly caught an earlier line.
“Crawler Broodmother keeps roaring and bellowing. It seems your earlier forcible penetration of its body caused it immense pain.”
“It twists and struggles nonstop, but the portion of its body buried underground cannot move at all. Only the thick tentacles above its head can flail about wildly…”
Lin Xun slapped his thigh hard. “I get it!”
[…]
[As the writhing grows more and more violent, you realize you are about to be regurgitated from the Crawler Broodmother’s body…]
[You take out the Refined Copper Sand Maraca and shake it…]
[The Battle Angel – Valkyrie steps out of the void… Just as she is about to spread her wings, she, like you, is also forcibly carried along by the closing, writhing passage…]
[The Valkyrie blinks at you, her gaze seeming to ask what you plan to do next.]
[At your command, a lantern of flesh appears in the Valkyrie’s hand, shedding a warm light…]
[Looking into the distance, you can already see a dense row of mountain-thick jaws and teeth. That is the Crawler Broodmother’s ferocious mouthparts…]
[You possess the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Heartless Ninja master!]
[You twist your body with difficulty, open a pair of dim eyes, and your figure vanishes without a trace.]
[Only the Valkyrie remains, holding the Abyss Lantern…]
[…]
[Although you maintain your stealth state, you still cannot avoid being squeezed out as the passage writhes…]
[At last, together with the Valkyrie, you leave the giant maw, spewed out by the Crawler Broodmother along with a huge mass of foul, reeking mucus!]
[A thick tentacle suddenly lashes toward you, and once more that terrifying, ferocious head of the Crawler Broodmother fills your vision.]
[Only this time, what the tentacle is wrapped around is not you, but the Valkyrie holding the Abyss Lantern…]
[The Valkyrie is quickly dragged up to the surface, wrapped by the tentacle. You, still in a stealth state, seem to be ignored by the Crawler Broodmother.]
[Will you launch an attack on the Crawler Broodmother, or immediately run away?]
Lin Xun decisively hit the escape option.
[You maintain your stealth state, the energy in your body called Qi surges rapidly. With a light tap of your toe on the ground, you abandon the Valkyrie and flee alone…]
[You get farther and farther from the Crawler Broodmother, gradually leaving the range of its tentacle attacks.]
[Looking back, you see the Valkyrie wrapped in a tentacle. The tentacle tightens and squeezes more and more, yet it refuses to toss her into the maw to be chewed as it did last time.]
[The Crawler Broodmother’s massive compound eyes are filled with the light of hatred, as if it is going to crush the Valkyrie in the very next moment…]
[You take out the Brass Whistle and blow it softly!]
[The Corrupted Three-Headed Lion roars loudly, its roar carrying an unstoppable, domineering momentum. It strides toward you with a king’s returning steps and comes to your side…]
[The thick tentacle suddenly exerts force, but the Valkyrie wrapped within it vanishes.]
[You cancel your stealth state and are exposed to the Crawler Broodmother’s gaze.]
[Strangely, the Crawler Broodmother does not attack you. Instead it opens its ferocious maw, and a mature woman’s voice rings out…]
[Mischievous child, cease your nonsense.]
[With a broad heart, it is willing to give you one last chance and forgive the crimes you have committed. As long as you come closer and, under its witness, make an oath and throw yourself into the Wet Nurse’s embrace…]
[Loyal Apostle, will you approach the Ascended Crawler Broodmother, betray your oath to the Primordial Firefly, and instead swear an oath to the Desire Wet Nurse?]
“Fuck you and your grandpa!”
Lin Xun decisively pressed ‘No.’
[The Crawler Broodmother roars furiously, its eyes filled with rage. It swings its tentacles, trying to attack you…]
[But you are already outside the tentacles’ attack range. As it keeps smashing the ground, the entire underground space rumbles, yet it still cannot hit you.]
[It twists and struggles nonstop, but the half of its body buried underground cannot move at all. Only the thick tentacles above its head can flail about wildly…]
[The Crawler Broodmother ultimately gives up struggling, its massive compound eyes glaring at you viciously.]
[Stubborn child, why do you insist on continuing this mistaken behavior?]
[Stop now, child.]
[Hurry and come closer, throw yourself into the Wet Nurse’s embrace, and join the great Ascension. Only then can you attain transcendence!]
Lin Xun treated everything it said as complete nonsense.
[You possess the shell of the Desire-Bearing Greedy Wolf Star Lord!]
[You rouse all your true essence, point your sword seal at the Crawler Broodmother, and the tiny flying sword turns into a greatsword, rapidly striking at the colossal monster.]
[The flying sword leaves a huge scar on the thick carapace. The Crawler Broodmother roars in fury and again swings its tentacles, attempting to attack you.]
[But you are already far outside the tentacles’ attack range, hiding safely to one side. No matter how far it stretches, the tentacles cannot smash you.]
[The Crawler Broodmother struggles for a while, then suddenly speaks again in that mature female voice…]
[Detestable child, this is your last chance!]
[If you still refuse to come forward and throw yourself into the Wet Nurse’s embrace, only death will await you!]
Lin Xun could not help but laugh out loud. “I thought you were some kind of super BOSS. Turns out you’re just an immobile target dummy.”
[The Corrupted Three-Headed Lion lets out a roar, its majestic bellow echoing through the underground space. It charges forward together with your attacks, wanting to assault the monster…]
[You take out the Brass Whistle and blow it again.]
[The Corrupted Three-Headed Lion’s roar cuts off abruptly. It looks back at you with a resentful, slightly aggrieved gaze, then the mighty lion’s figure disappears.]
“What are you charging in for, Three-Headed Lion? To be served up as an extra course?”
He kept attacking, dealing continuous, uninterrupted damage.
As time passed, Lin Xun confirmed that the colossal monster called the Crawler Broodmother truly could not move.
Its only apparent method of attack was to swing its tentacles. As long as he stayed outside their range, he could kill this BOSS without taking any damage.
Although the Broodmother BOSS could not move and could only be beaten on, its HP bar and defense were outrageously high.
Using normal flying sword attacks, he needed several hits just to break through the Crawler Broodmother’s carapace.
The Star-Shifting Celestial Sword possessed the weapon trait One Sword Chills Fourteen Prefectures.
This trait not only turned a single-target attack into an area attack, it also carried a formation-breaking effect that gave extra damage against thick-skinned monsters like this.
But even though he kept using the weapon trait to attack the monster, the hellish game still never displayed the line ‘Crawler Broodmother has taken some damage.’
Seeing that the Greedy Wolf Star Lord’s true essence was nearly exhausted while the BOSS’s HP bar had not even lost a sliver, Lin Xun could tell that this Broodmother BOSS most likely belonged to the class of monsters that were not meant to be killed during the normal game flow.
For an ordinary Apostle facing the Crawler Broodmother, even if they figured out the weakness that the BOSS could not move, they would probably run out of stamina before ever getting the BOSS to show its HP.
But Lin Xun was different. He had many shells and several powerful summoned beast babies. He could grind the BOSS down even if he had to.
“So you think you’re the only one who can cheat, huh?”
Lin Xun made his move without hesitation.
[You possess the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Palace Master of Iya Palace!]
[You wave the purification wand and summon shikigami…]
[A thin boy’s figure appears at your side. The Origin-Tracing Nurarihyon responds to your summons!]
[The temperature in the underground space suddenly plummets. Frost and snow form on the ground, and a graceful woman’s figure appears. The Origin-Tracing Snow Woman of the Mountain responds to your summons!]
[Purple lightning surges as a peerless beauty steps through the air. Her sleeves billow, and raging purple thunder surrounds her like a sea. The Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox responds to your summons!]
[You take out the Refined Copper Sand Maraca and give it a gentle shake. The Battle Angel – Valkyrie steps out of the void!]
[At your command, Nurarihyon spreads his arms as if embracing the world…]
[The scenery around you suddenly undergoes a world-shaking change!]
[The sky is dark and overcast, heavy clouds churning with lightning and thunder. A torrential downpour falls from the heavens like a waterfall.]
[Under your feet is an ancient, unmelting layer of thick ice, its white expanse ending at a surging sea.]
[Several enormous icebergs float upon the sea. On the largest iceberg, the Ascended Crawler Broodmother is frozen in ice, with only its head and a small part of its body exposed.]
[The shikigami Snow Woman chants and casts a spell. An extreme cold blizzard forms a tornado that sweeps toward the colossal monster…]
[The Valkyrie takes down the longbow on her back. Brilliant sunlight gathers into an arrow as she takes aim at the iceberg…]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox raises the Purple Lightning Soul-Guard Orb in her hands. The weapon trait Purple Firmament Divine Thunder Tribulation activates!]
[A heavy, oppressive tribulation cloud suddenly appears in the sky…]
[Thunder booms continuously, and deep purple lightning flashes ceaselessly within the Divine Thunder Tribulation Cloud, like countless frenzied lightning serpents rolling and coiling.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox holds up the orb and points at the Crawler Broodmother sealed in the iceberg!]
[Resplendent purple lightning descends upon the world!]
[A bolt of heavenly tribulation thunder falls from the sky and strikes the monster’s enormous body!]
[The Crawler Broodmother lets out a scream of agony. It is enraged beyond measure and keeps lashing its tentacles wildly, struggling violently, but it cannot break free of the iceberg’s restraint.]
[…]
Under the Palace Master shell’s talisman buffs, the shikigami went all out, bombarding the Broodmother BOSS in a wild barrage while it could do nothing but take the hits.
Even the shikigami Snow Woman, who had not appeared for a long time, finally had the chance to show her skills, casting one ability after another.
Of course, her dozens of spells together might still not match the damage of a single bolt of heavenly thunder from the Nine-Tailed Fox.
While the tribulation cloud persisted, the Nine-Tailed Fox could repeatedly unleash divine thunder without any cost.
For a while, purple thunder swept across the ground. Her damage output accounted for at least eighty to ninety percent of the total.
Since the Greedy Wolf Star Lord shell’s true essence was nearly depleted, Lin Xun switched to the shell of the ‘Mightiest Mage’ and acted as a long-range spell turret from afar.
Soon, under a single legendary-grade Radiant Light arrow from the Valkyrie, the hellish game finally gave a prompt.
[The Crawler Broodmother howls in pain. It seems to have taken some damage…]
Lin Xun’s spirit surged.
“Once you dare to show your HP bar, you’re not far from death!”
Killing a BOSS that the game flow is clearly not designed for you to defeat would not only grant extremely generous rewards, it would also greatly boost the interpretation rating after clearing the stage.
He suddenly felt like he was exploiting a bug.
It was just like getting stuck in a corner in some game where the BOSS cannot hit you, and then attacking or shooting arrows at it from afar, slowly grinding down a BOSS you normally could never beat. This kind of cheating, skipping-class operation had a particularly satisfying feel to it.