Volume 4 Chapter 28 Fantasy and Mystery
In fantasy, there are three types of mirage monsters: mirage boy, mirage demon and mirage dragon. These three monsters will not be separated, or it is better to say that mirage boy and mirage demon are mixed with mirage dragon, and they only move in the illusion created by mirage dragon.
The Mirage Dragon is a very strange monster. As a super powerful A-level Boss, it has no attack power. Its ability is to create mirages that are so realistic that people are lured into them, and then the mirage boys and mirage monsters will kill the invaders.
But this does not mean that the Mirage Dragon is not powerful. From a certain perspective, its scariness is even far greater than that of the Bi'an. This is reflected in two aspects. First, the number of Mirages it commands is in the hundreds of thousands, while other super bosses, except in special circumstances such as sieges, usually have only a few subordinates; second, the Mirage Dragon is extremely intelligent, and its mirage is not a simple illusion, it has many special functions, such as the inability to communicate and transmit in the mirage. The Mirage Dragon is good at reading people's hearts, and then uses the characteristics of its mirage that can change at will to confuse the enemy and attack the weaknesses in the player's mind. This is even more terrible than an attack on the body. For example, I was attacked by "Xiao Yi". If I hadn't seen through the false appearance and mistakenly believed it to be true, wouldn't I have suffered serious mental damage? Because after experiencing Yu Rou, what I fear most is my lover's betrayal of me. Although I was able to clear up the misunderstanding with Xiao Yi afterwards, the pain at the time was probably unbearable, and it inevitably left a shadow. In this regard, the New Era Group seemed to be using their brain wave-digital signal conversion technology to steal players' privacy and cause psychological harm to players. I really couldn't understand how the setting of this mirage dragon was approved by the relevant departments - until I later understood the whole story, I understood the reason.
Now, I don’t know so much. After killing a mirage, I immediately rushed to the palace gate, wanting to find a way to retreat. Of course, I didn’t want to give up Xiao Yi, but I wanted to figure out the environment I was in first.
As expected, the huge palace gate that was more than ten feet high disappeared, leaving only a bare wall!
Damn, it looks like this monster is planning to trap me to death in the palace!
But on the other hand, if it didn't let me out of the palace, does it mean that it was also an illusion, but its control over the palace was tighter than over the mountain scenery, and the palace was a more favorable fighting environment for it?
I have gradually figured out some of the characteristics of the mirage monster. Fighting it is not only a test of strength, but more importantly, a test of wisdom! Otherwise, how could there be only one mirage pretending to be Xiao Yi and attacking me, and then no other monsters appeared? It seems that if I want to escape, I must keep thinking and find the "truth" hidden in the "illusion"!
I raised Tiger Soul and chopped with all my strength at the location of the palace gate in my memory. No matter whether it is real or fake, I will break it under the sharp edge of Tiger Soul!
The knife fell, but it neither made the illusion disappear and let me rush out of the palace, nor did it cause the usual recoil force of chopping on a hard wall. This knife was like chopping on a ball of extremely flexible rubber. The "wall" sank deeply inward, completely absorbing and decomposing the power of the tiger soul, and then emitted a rebound force, bouncing the blade back, and the wall surface was as smooth as before!
I was horrified. I had experienced this situation once before, when Er Qiao and I went to capture the Golden Silkworm King. The cocoon shell produced by the Golden Silkworm King had this characteristic. This showed that the "wall" was not an illusion, but was actually made of a flexible material with super defensive power!
There is reality hidden in the illusion, and truth in the fantasy. This is the scary thing about mirage!
What I couldn't tell now was whether the palace gate was "closed" or I was transferred to another dimension by the mirage monster after entering the palace? If it was the former, I would have to find a way to break the door; if it was the latter, I would first have to find the exit!
So I swung my knife at the walls all around, but the result was disappointing. It was the same everywhere. Hu Po was unable to leave a single mark on them.
I swung my knife at a decorative statue as if to vent my anger, but unexpectedly, the statue "came to life" and pounced at me viciously. I was shocked and took two steps back, wielding the knife to block the statue. Only then did I see clearly that the "statue" turned out to be a mirage!
There were more than thirty statues in the main hall, some in the shape of humans, some in the shape of animals and birds. They were all startled by my knife and turned into their original forms of mirages and attacked me!
I was horrified. I first canceled the "Love Guardian" skill of the Oath Ring, then used the "Starlight Sword Technique". The tiger soul turned into streams of light and continuously stabbed the mirage in front of me, cutting it back again and again. I couldn't count how many times I was hit. I didn't stop attacking until it retreated close to the wall. The mirage was already seriously injured. I stabbed it again and it fell to the ground and turned into a pool of black water. At this time, the other mirages had just caught up with me. I turned around and leaned against the wall, free from worries. Facing more than 30 mirages, I started a hard fight.
It was a tough fight! Each of the mirages was stronger than an E-level boss. They took away 200 or 300 HP from me. Their acid was a long-range attack, and unlike arrows, it was liquid. How could I block it? I could only dodge! But more than 30 monsters surrounded me. Where could I hide? The worst thing was that although Coco followed me into the hall, I walked in with Xiao Yi. After that, a series of accidents happened, and I never got on a horse. Now I have no chance to ride one!
My HP kept dropping, and even the Life Water and Small Rejuvenating Pills couldn't replenish it in time. I relied on the blood-sucking function of the Tiger Soul to hold on for a while, but it finally reached the bottom!
Just when I was about to die, suddenly a light flashed on my body, and my defense increased greatly. The damage caused by the mirage to me dropped to dozens or hundreds of points. With the replenishment of various medicines, my HP quickly increased again!
I was suddenly excited. It was Xiao Yi! She activated her love protection on me! Although we couldn't communicate with each other, we were connected in spirit. She must have realized that I was in a critical situation because I cancelled my protection on her, so she came to support me!
How powerful is her Moon Shadow Robe's defense? Although it only adds 25% of the effect to me, I also benefit a lot. These mirages in front of me can no longer be a problem for me, so I took the opportunity to swing my sword and attack fiercely, killing three monsters in two minutes, breaking through the encirclement. With a whistle, Coco ran towards me, and I jumped on the horse. With a mount, the knight can exert the greatest combat power!
This completely turned the situation around. Man and horse became one, the sword flashed, and my sword skills were as smooth as flowing water. I rushed left and right in the group of mirages. Due to the high speed of the unicorn, I could use mobile warfare and constantly move positions. The mirages' hit rate on me dropped significantly, making it more difficult for them to pose a threat to me.
After a fierce battle of nearly half an hour, I finally wiped out the monsters and launched the Love Guardian again.
When both parties use Love Guardian at the same time, they both reduce their own defense by half and gain 25% of the other party's defense. It is actually not cost-effective, but my purpose is to convey a message to Xiao Yi: The crisis here has been resolved, and I don't need your help for the time being. You should protect yourself.
So I activated it and then immediately cancelled it. Sure enough, Xiao Yi understood what I meant and she also cancelled the love protection. Hehe, my wife is really a smart girl!
I took a breath and thought for a while. There was no way out now, so what I should do was to find a way to meet up with Xiao Yi and escape together.
My eyes turned to the only passage in the hall: the spiral staircase.
I gritted my teeth. The place this staircase leads to must be even more dangerous and unpredictable. But if I don't leave this hall, I won't be able to look for Xiao Yi. I have no choice but to rush in even if it means I have to take risks!
I rode my horse slowly up the stairs - once your riding skills reach a certain level, you can perform this difficult maneuver - and I arrived at the second floor of the palace. In front of me was a corridor. I didn't know how long it was, but I couldn't see the end at a glance. There were doors to rooms on both sides of the corridor, a bit like the architectural layout of a hotel or school dormitory.
I pushed open a door tentatively, and a dozen mirages rushed out at once. I was on guard, and I didn't even get off my horse. I rode my unicorn to block the door. The mirages were huddled together, and at most two could rush in front of me. Isn't this easy to deal with? I swung the tiger soul and chopped them all into black water.
Although I easily eliminated this group of mirages, I frowned. There are so many rooms. If Xiao Yi is in one of them, how long will it take for me to kill them one by one? And if all the mirages in these countless rooms rush out at once, how can I handle it?
While I was thinking carefully about how to solve this problem, I went into two more rooms, and the situations in both rooms were exactly the same as the first one.
I gave up this futile search. I realized that this palace was not just an illusion. Since the walls were made of solid objects, that is to say, each room here was a space of fixed size. As far as I was concerned, the mirage could not break through the "real" space at will. All its changes were within the space. So if you want to create a scene that can confuse people, it is difficult to play tricks in a too small space. The rooms here are not big enough for the mirage to display its transformation methods at will. They are more like the residences of the mirages. For example, the mirage illusion is like filming a movie. The hall downstairs is the studio, where there is enough space to make various backgrounds, and the rooms on the second floor are like the actors' dormitories.
It can be speculated that Xiao Yi’s experience should be similar to mine, that is, she was teleported to another "studio". I don’t know how many of these "studios" there are, where they are located, and how far apart they are from each other. It is unrealistic for me to search for them without any clues. The only way is to find the "shooting control center" directly!
After figuring this out, I no longer hesitated and galloped along the corridor on my horse. I wanted to see where the mirage was going to lead me.
I ran about a hundred meters, and suddenly a , and a dark shadow rushed towards me. I blocked it with Tiger Soul in time, and it hit a piece of metal with a "clang". I turned my head and asked in surprise, "Lonely?"
It was the lonely watcher, holding a giant sword five feet long and one foot wide. After being pushed back two steps by my Tiger Soul, he swung his sword and killed me.
I was both angry and amused, thinking: "This kind of trick, it's fine if you play it once, why do you repeat it in front of me? And even if I didn't experience the incident with Xiao Yi, it's really weird that Lonely would appear here. Even an idiot wouldn't believe that this is a real person, right?"
So I chopped it with my sword without any hesitation, and sure enough, the "Loneliness" turned back into its original form after being stabbed. A small monster was no match for me, and I killed it after three or five slashes.
But since then, Ah Wei, Bad Bad, Shi Zhongyu, Fatty, Shui Jing... one by one, my brothers and friends appeared in front of me. Damn, even a guy like the profiteer who had no fighting power appeared? After these closest people were transformed, the next ones were my subordinates in the Jinglei League, and my acquaintances such as Bage and Uncle Zhang were "killed by my own hands" one by one!
I laughed in anger and said, "Haha, Shen, is this all you can do? Are you just letting these rubbish of yours come to die? Come out if you have the guts! Come out! Fight me face to face!"
In fact, it is not a pleasant feeling to chop your brothers and friends with a knife, even though you know it is fake, it doesn't matter once or twice, but after repeating it N times, I finally couldn't bear it anymore, so I used this roar to vent my anger. Of course, I know it is useless to roar, after all, the mirage is just a monster in the game. Can I still expect it to have self-esteem and rush out after hearing my challenge?
Before I knew it, I had reached the end of the corridor, and in front of me was another hall. I rushed in, and saw a person running towards me. When I looked closely, it was Xiao Yi!
I'm speechless. Are you annoying? You always use this trick!
He raised his knife and chopped "Xiao Yi" on the neck. Blood splattered and "she" flew out sideways. I was just letting out a breath of anger when I suddenly heard a scream!
It’s Xiao Yi’s voice!
I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. Oh no, could this be the real Xiao Yi?
Looking at "her" again, it was true that if the mirage was stabbed and injured, it would reveal its true form. But this time, Xiao Yi was still Xiao Yi, without any change, and fell straight to the ground!
I was so frightened that I quickly dismounted and rushed forward, wanting to hold her in my arms to see how badly she had been injured by the knife.
Unexpectedly, before I got close, Xiao Yi on the ground suddenly turned over and waved his hand to throw a Five Thunder Curse at me!
Instead of being surprised, I was happy, as this meant that Xiao Yi didn't suffer a fatal injury. Haha, the Moon Shadow Robe is indeed a divine weapon, it can withstand a blow from Tiger Soul!
I swayed my body and dodged three out of the five lightning bolts. The remaining two hit me, causing immense pain and deducting over 1,500 HP from me. Ha, this further proved that the opponent was the real Xiao Yi. How could an ordinary mirage have such power!
While dodging, I said, "Xiao Yi, stop it! It's me! I'm the real A Tian!"
Xiao Yi on the opposite side showed no mercy and cast meteor showers, tornadoes, hail, and other advanced magic at me one after another.
I smiled bitterly. This time there was a big misunderstanding. Who asked me to hit her first?
"Xiao Yi, it's really me! Stop and say something! Jing Xian!"
I called out Xiao Yi's real name, and sure enough, Xiao Yi stopped immediately after hearing it, but there was still doubt in her eyes when she looked at me.
"Are you the real A-Tian? Then why did you attack me?"
I touched my nose and said, "Xiao Yi, this isn't the first time you've been attacked by me, right? I was also attacked by you when you turned into a monster. Just now I thought..."
After listening to my explanation, Xiao Yi humbly said, "I'm sorry, A Tian, if you are the real A Tian, I apologize to you first, but I still need to confirm it. If it is really you, please activate the love protection."
Good idea, the effect of this skill will be reflected on the opponent, which cannot be faked.
I raised my left hand and smiled, "Okay, watch." After that, I activated the skill and a faint light flashed on the ring.
A sudden change occurred!
Xiao Yi's most powerful single-target attack magic "Thunder Break" hit me at the moment when I was most relaxed!
I had no time to dodge, and I didn't try to dodge at all, but my knife had already penetrated Xiao Yi's heart before the thick lightning reached my body!
The blue lightning hit me, but the damage was not even as great as the Five Thunder Curse, and it only deducted less than 1,000 of my HP.
"Xiao Yi" let out a sharp scream, and then asked viciously: "How did you find out?"
I smiled at it mockingly and said, "Your disguise is flawless, and you can talk. You should be a higher-level Boss than Mirage, right? Maybe you are Mirage? It's a pity that you are a computer-generated NPC after all. Although your AI is so high that it breaks through the conventional understanding of humans, you still don't know what love is. If it is the real Xiao Yi, even if she has doubts about me, she will never use this method to identify me in such a dangerous environment, because it will reduce my safety factor. You want to trick me into using skills and kill me instantly when my defense is halved, right? But as soon as you said this, I knew you were fake!"
I didn't need to explain the rest to the NPC - I used the same trick on him, and activated Absolute Guardian instead of Love Guardian (I had already wasted more than an hour in the corridor). The appearance of these two skills was a flash of light on the Oath Ring, with no difference. At the same time, I had already stabbed him!
The knife injured the monster severely. After it transformed into a human form, its vital parts were located in the same positions as those of humans. This knife hit the heart, and the previous knife on the neck were both fatal. "Xiao Yi" was seen bleeding from the corners of his mouth and his face was distorted.
I slowly pulled back the Tiger Soul, then released the Starlight Sword Technique with full momentum. The blade light transformed into starlight, leaving streaks of blood on the monster's body!
It is a mirage monster, the boss of Mirage Dragon. Its camouflage skills are far superior to those of Mirage Boy, so it can be so lifelike. It can also pretend to speak like Xiao Yi, and it can maintain the illusion even after being injured. Its strength is almost that of a C-level Boss. It is unknown who will win in a head-on fight with me. Unfortunately, it relies too much on illusions. After I saw through it, I set a trap and severely injured it. At this moment, its strength has been greatly reduced, and it is no match for me!
I did not miss the opportunity. I kept using my sword to strike it without stopping, not even giving it a chance to escape. Ten minutes later, I had it chopped down by my sword!
The mirage monster dropped a lot of gold coins and equipment, which I hurriedly put into the treasure pot, then mounted the unicorn, intending to move forward to find a way out.
There was no spiral staircase in this hall, but on the wall I was facing, there were three identical archways. I was hesitating which door to choose to enter when suddenly a figure rushed out from the door on the left.
When I looked, I was shocked. It was Xiao Yi again!
Now I really want to say hello to the mother of the Mirage Dragon, the designer who developed it. How many times will this trick be played?
Without thinking, I swung my sword with all my strength. The person opposite me was stunned for a moment, but her reaction was extremely fast. She used the staff in her hand to block upwards, but her strength was far less than mine. The Tiger Soul was only blocked a little, and the tip of the sword still passed through her right arm.
Huh? There was no bleeding, and the system indicated that this strike only took away more than 500 HP from the opponent.
Wow, this guy is even more powerful than the previous “Xiao Yi”!
After being stabbed, the opponent did not retreat but advanced, rushing to the place close to the unicorn in two steps, and raised his hand to shoot a big fireball. Magicians are not good at close combat, but knights are close combat professions. When riding on horses and using two-handed long weapons, it is actually not convenient for close-range melee combat. Professions such as swordsmen usually use this to restrain knights. In the situation just now, I took the initiative. If the opponent retreated, it would just leave me space to launch a charge, and then I would have to face my violent attack. However, she leaned forward, which was in line with the principle of "fighting the short with the short".
But I'm not an ordinary player, and my fighting skills are top-notch in Fantasy . Other knights may find this kind of close combat awkward, and their moves are very inflexible. But I have my own set of clever swordsmanship, which is as lingering as silk and flowing like water. It is what I created after seeing Xiao Qiao's Tai Chi swordsmanship, and it is most suitable for close combat!
"Lovesickness?"
As soon as I started to use my sword skills, I knocked the fireball away (it was extremely difficult to do this at such a close distance), and then slashed at the opponent. Before I could reach him, this word came out of "Xiao Yi"'s mouth.
I was stunned, the momentum of the sword stopped abruptly, and the tip of the Tiger Soul Blade rested on the opponent's shoulder.
