Chapter 323: Broken Core, Centaur Blacksmith

Instantly, a wave of pain washed over his entire body. Even with the significant pain reduction from having come ashore, it was still incredibly agonizing.

And what came next was even worse.

Pinned down by the Painful Evil Ghosts, he was unable to cast spells and lost control of his body. His Candle Spirit Body let out two miserable cries before it was swarmed, torn apart, and devoured by one Painful Evil Ghost after another…

How could a squishy Pure Mage like Shore withstand that? He barely lasted a second.

[DEATH]

[Notice: Due to the special nature of this area, Resurrection is temporarily unavailable. The penalty for this death will be determined by the outcome of the current mission.]

“Huh?”

Shore’s Wandering Soul wore a look of utter disbelief.

‘Are you kidding me, dude? I got CC’d to death before I could even fire off a single Starlight?’

“I can’t believe it! You fucking noob, could you have died any faster?”

Seeing this, Li Miao, who was halfway to rescuing him, could only curse in frustration.

“Holy shit, what was I supposed to do? I didn’t even have time to react…” Shore’s Wandering Soul lamented, dejected.

“Alright, enough useless chatter. Let’s just hurry up and take care of this boss!”

Faraway spoke up.

Hearing this, the others stopped talking and focused their attention on the Painful Demon summoned by the Golden Sand Venerable Lord.

…

「Meanwhile.」

After having his alt help the players, Luo Ge shifted most of his attention back to his main body.

Then, he focused his attention on the space that had been the top floor of the Sand Castle.

A dim, hazy object floated there silently, wreathed in black and red Power of Painful. It hadn’t fallen when the top floor collapsed.

[Broken Core]

The feedback from the Spirit Candle told Luo Ge that this was, without a doubt, the item he was looking for.

It seemed the Golden Sand Venerable Lord had built the Sand Castle so high precisely for this Broken Core.

However, even though it was right in front of him, Luo Ge didn’t act rashly.

It wasn’t because of the Power of Painful wrapped around it.

After making contact with the Broken Core via the Power of the Spirit Candle, he had learned some information about it.

Simply put, the Broken Core was a product formed from the shattering of the Power that once maintained this world’s stability.

He didn’t know why it had shattered into its current state, but he did know that if he took the Broken Core now, this entire area would become like an instanced zone.

Everything within it would be affected.

Both the players and the Demon manifested from the Power of Painful would be affected.

Although Luo Ge could take the players’ Souls with him, it would undoubtedly seem very abrupt.

Besides, Luo Ge also wanted to take some other things from this place, so he decided to leave the Core for now and let the players fight their so-called “final boss.”

‘This Power of Painful is Flame Tier, but I can cut off its source and suppress it.’

‘Even though the players can’t revive immediately, they should still be able to handle this thing…’

‘But I’ll have to be careful with this Power of Painful.’

‘…They don’t seem to be under much pressure, do they?’

‘Perfect. I’ll just pull my alt out.’

Luo Ge thought to himself as he observed the battle between the players and the Painful Demon.

Seeing the players had a slight upper hand, an idea struck Luo Ge. He decided to up the difficulty for fun, and to reduce his own energy consumption as a side benefit.

…

The Painful Demon swung its claws, roaring as it launched a frenzied and swift Attack against Li Miao and Bu Long.

The others seized the opportunity to deal damage.

“Hah!”

With a loud shout, Wax Scrap slashed fiercely at the creature’s chest, Tearing through the Power of Painful.

Threatened, the Painful Demon focused all its attention on him, unleashing a mad torrent of pain.

But Wax Scrap, seemingly unable to dodge in time, was instantly turned to Wax Ash.

“Huh?”

Li Miao was stunned. He couldn’t believe Brother Jiao had just wiped right in front of him.

The other players’ hearts tightened as well. Wax Scrap’s damage output was very high. With him gone, the pressure on everyone else naturally skyrocketed.

“My bad, I messed up.”

Wax Scrap’s Wandering Soul said apologetically from the air.

“It’s alright, Brother Jiao. You win some, you lose some.”

Shore, feeling a sense of shared misery, drifted over to console him.

Little did he know, the other guy was just putting on an act for them.

“Ahem, something urgent just came up for me. I’m logging off first. You guys got this.”

After a cough, Wax Scrap logged off directly.

Shore was speechless.

‘And here I thought I’d get to kick back and watch the show with Brother Jiao.’

“Holy hell,” Black Mountain Little Demon grumbled as he controlled his Demons, a strange feeling creeping over him. “I get the feeling he intentionally fed because he had something else to do…”

As he spoke, his summoned minions, not as agile as the players, were attacked by Painful Evil Ghosts and ominous black birds, causing a stream of notifications to pop up.

[Your affiliated Demon “Golden Bull Guard” is being corrupted by pain. Anomaly progress accumulating…]

[Your affiliated Demon “Gray Wolf Follower Warrior” has entered a state of pain!]

With an agonized howl, Black Mountain Little Demon’s Gray Wolf Follower Warrior was overwhelmed with pain, went out of control, and was devoured by a pack of Painful Evil Ghosts.

This pain corruption was undeniably overpowered.

But Black Mountain Little Demon, being the big Krypton Gold spender he was, didn’t feel the sting. Without a second thought, he extravagantly pulled out another Magic Pearl and shoved it into his chest.

“Be more confident. He was totally feeding,” Niuniu, who was releasing Foul-smelling Feces Qi nearby, chuckled.

“Alright, focus up. This monster can’t last much longer. Let’s not lose anyone else,” Faraway interjected, cutting off their discussion.

In truth, even if a player intentionally fed, there wasn’t much to say about it. Everyone has emergencies, and besides, the guy had made a significant contribution.

It was just that the way Luo Ge’s alt “died” was a bit crude.

But Luo Ge didn’t care. He was providing a safety net anyway. There was no way he’d let the Painful Demon team-wipe the players.

…

Having freed up his attention, Luo Ge was now focused on stripping the Power of Painful from the Broken Core.

If he didn’t, the damage the players dealt to the Painful Demon probably wouldn’t even keep up with the rate it replenished its Power.

The situation was now clear, and Luo Ge breathed a sigh of relief.

Speaking of which, this Power of Painful was quite interesting.

Although it was an ominous Power, it didn’t react at all, even as Luo Ge stripped it away and destroyed it.

Logically, the source of such a Power should be an extremely powerful entity, yet it behaved like an inanimate object. He had no idea why.

All in all, this was a good thing.

After he had completely stripped the Power of Painful from the Broken Core,

the players finally worked together and eliminated the Painful Demon.

Seeing this, Luo Ge quickly summoned the Spirit Candle and had his main body Descend.

“Brave Warriors, you have seized the Broken Core for the Spirit Candle. Candle Island will not forget your proud achievements.”

The Candlekeeper nodded at the crowd, his tone flat but his speech quick.

[The special regional war has ended. War Contribution has been calculated. This death will not be penalized. Returning to Candle Island shortly…]

[The rewards for this mission will be distributed by the Candlekeeper later.]

[Returning to Candle Island…]

As the messages appeared, the players found their bodies moving involuntarily towards the Spirit Candle.

“Whoa, whoa, why am I moving on my own?”

“It’s the results cutscene, obviously.”

“Aw, I wanted to mess around a bit longer, see if there was any hidden content.”

“Yeah, the buildings here don’t respawn when you destroy them. Maybe we could’ve built our own houses and farmed.”

“…Why do I get the feeling we’re being kicked out?”

After watching the players disappear one by one next to the Spirit Candle, Luo Ge breathed a small sigh of relief, swapped out his main body, and took over his alt’s body.

‘Finally got rid of that bunch.’

To be honest, if the Golden Sand Venerable Lord hadn’t performed that last-minute sacrifice, this instance wouldn’t have even felt like one. The players had hardly faced a single challenging fight.

Luo Ge had only sent his alt in with them to be on the safe side. After all, he didn’t know what the situation inside was like before entering, and it never hurt to be cautious…

‘Alright, things are more or less sorted out now.’

The next things to deal with were the Sea Star Race and the… centaur in front of him.

“Prosthetic Limbs… are you from Gaelguda?”

Luo Ge asked, glancing at the brass device on its back.