Chapter 676 - 427: I am the approaching storm

Chapter 676: Chapter 427: I am the approaching storm

Zhou Chen felt like he’d just had an indescribable Nightmare. Even after waking, a groggy sensation still saturated his Soul, slowing his thoughts to a crawl. It was as if his mind had been dragged into a swamp, leaving him unable to think.

After his brain had been offline for a while, he gradually regained his senses. Almost subconsciously, he made a wish to clear the negative effects and restore himself to a perfect state.

[Wish Value -500]

The connection in his Soul was severed. A cool sensation spread through his mind and Soul, dispelling the chaos and confusion, and clarity slowly returned to Zhou Chen’s eyes.

The Nameless Ghost waved a hand in front of him. "Awake?"

Zhou Chen let out a long breath, feeling a deep, lingering fear.

"What just happened?"

"You got blindsided by the Magma Giant Beast’s new Ability. You formed some kind of spiritual connection, a shared brain, and turned into a complete moron. Then, SPLAT, you fell to your death right on top of it..." The Nameless Ghost chuckled. "The good news is, the Magma Giant Beast doesn’t seem to have much of a brain."

’A shared brain...’ Zhou Chen finally remembered. He’d sensed something was wrong at the time, but before he could do anything about it, his brain shut down. His thoughts turned to mush, and then he was dragged into a Nightmare.

In that Nightmare, he felt his intelligence drop below that of a three-year-old. He was like a newborn infant, with no awareness of the World, acting purely on instinct.

Looking back, that Nightmare was probably the consciousness of the Magma Giant Beast.

"What the hell kind of Ability is that..." Zhou Chen rubbed his face, at a loss for words.

"The bad news is, the Weapon’s gone."

The Nameless Ghost reminded him. "You remember, right? The Magma Giant Beast shattered that Weapon."

Zhou Chen sighed and nodded.

On his quest panel, the quest "Only a Storm Can Topple a Great Tree" was marked with a red ’X’, indicating failure.

This meant the Weapon capable of killing the Magma Giant Beast had truly been destroyed.

"It may not have high intelligence, but its instincts are strong. It must have sensed the Weapon was a fatal threat and came to destroy it."

Zhou Chen sat down cross-legged, falling into deep thought.

Without the Weapon that countered the Magma Giant Beast, the difficulty of defeating it increased exponentially. Unlike Ktuous, the Magma Giant Beast had almost no weaknesses. Even a Spiritual Attack would barely affect it.

Even using Cyan Flame to burn away what little Spirituality the Magma Giant Beast had left wouldn’t provide much of an advantage. The creature had practically no reason to begin with and acted purely on instinct; having that little bit of Spirituality was irrelevant.

"What’s your Level now?" the Nameless Ghost asked.

Zhou Chen checked his Level. After killing Ktuous, he had gone from Level 19 to Level 26.

Ktuous’s strength must have reached the "King" tier; otherwise, it wouldn’t have awarded so much experience.

"Level 26."

"Your Level is still too low."

The Nameless Ghost shook his head in regret. "Based on my many years of experience, the minimum Level for Players to take on a King is 50, and the optimal Level is 70. Geniuses can ignore the Level gap, of course, but a higher Level means a greater margin for error. If you were Level 100, you wouldn’t need any special Weapon. You could just brute-force it to death."

"Isn’t that just brute-forcing it with high Attribute Values..." Zhou Chen trailed off, a thought striking him.

’That’s right. In games, it’s not unheard of for Players to miss a special Weapon and still find ways to kill a boss. Besides chipping away at its health, cheesing the fight, or exploiting bugs, the most common method is simply to steamroll it with overwhelmingly high Attribute Values.’

’Do normal Attributes deal low damage to a boss? No problem. As long as my Attribute Values are nine or even ten times higher than normal, I can crush anything with absolute Power.’

Zhou Chen immediately allocated all the Attribute Values from his level-ups into Intelligence. After the allocation, his Intelligence Attribute reached a staggering 61 points. This met the requirements for the various powerful Magic spells he had managed to get for free from the Magic Academy.

Super Ultimate Magic Torrent, Sunlight Spear, Doomsday Dusk, Oath of Void Thunder, Meteor Shower, Thorn Prison...

But this still wasn’t enough.

An Intelligence Attribute of just 61 points was hardly enough to be considered "steamrolling."

Zhou Chen activated his Body of Steel Melting and immediately transformed into the Spirit of the End. A pale, fiery ring slowly rose behind him, and his Attribute Values instantly skyrocketed.

What surprised him was that even though the dregs of the Abyss pouring out of the Book of the Dead had significantly eroded his Soul, he felt no discomfort whatsoever. His mind was clear, free from the frenzied, violent urges that had plagued him during previous corruptions.

’Is it because this is a Game World?’

Zhou Chen wondered, a new curiosity stirring within him. ’If I become fully corrupted, would I return to normal after dying and reviving?’

’Normally, someone who becomes completely corrupted is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The Soul residing in their body is no longer them, and total corruption is irreversible... although perhaps Miracle Light could reverse it.’

’But this isn’t a normal World. This is a "Game World."’

’The strategy guide said that the game’s save system is incredibly powerful. The ability to revive infinitely after death would be considered a divine miracle in the outside world. Plus, reviving clears all negative status effects. My Spiritual Attack from the Magma Giant Beast must have been severed because I ’loaded a save’ by dying...’ After mulling it over for a long time, Zhou Chen realized that allowing himself to become fully corrupted might actually be a viable strategy.