MMORPG: Divine Mech Hunter

"Not really, are we starting the boss battle now?" Although Daimeng Tongtong was always bold, she was startled when Li Yao said they were starting the boss battle right away. "But we aren't prepared for anything yet."

"We are preparing right now, aren't we? How would we know what it's like if we don't fight the boss once?" Li Yao, while keeping his eyes on the boss, said, "Let's just try it out first. You have ropes on your side that slide down, be ready to escape at any moment. After all, it's our first battle, so don't think about succeeding in one go."

Daimeng Tongtong widened her eyes and asked innocently, "Didn't you say you were all prepared? Why do we still need to run away?"

"Please, I'm not a deity. I've never fought this boss before. Who knows what could happen? I've just come up with a plan. It's simple, just stay by a rope each, and if I say transfer, you switch platforms through the rope. If I say run, use another rope to get to the ground. Maybe we could escape and fight another time after evading the battle."

"Alright, alright, we got it," Tongtong waved her hand listlessly.

"By the way," Li Yao turned his head again and asked, "I heard hundreds of people were betting ingots just now. Have the ingots been credited yet?"

Several people were instantly at a loss for words, and the viewers still watching the livestream couldn't help but laugh and cry.

"Prairie Fire, are you planning to run away with the money?"

"Packing up now, just waiting for the boss to chase them, and then they'll run away. The livestream for today will then end."

"Since it's impossible to win anyway, they might as well not attempt the battle at all. Let Xiayao upgrade during the livestream."

"Yes, don't turn off the livestream, it's hard to catch a glimpse of Sister Xiayao."

"Strongly protesting."

"Prairie Fire is out of tricks, assessment complete."

"Alas, the legend can't continue."

Seeing the flood of comments on the screen, Feng Yi helplessly stated, "A thousand ingots have been credited, you won, but well, go ahead and direct appropriately."

"Hmph, these guys know nothing. Who ever defeats a boss on their first attempt? Why do they have to speak ill of big brother?" Daimeng Tongtong pouted, clearly dissatisfied with how the viewers spoke about Li Yao.

"It's fine as long as the ingots are credited; who cares what they say? If they had confidence in us, would they foolishly bet ingots?" Li Yao pretended to lament.

"Boss, you're unparalleled," Shadow Dance remarked in retreat.

"Big brother, what you said seems quite reasonable," Daimeng Tongtong realized suddenly.

Feng Yi was speechless, not knowing what to say.

However, the viewers were furious, clamoring loudly. Initially, these people had lost interest in betting, but now they were urging Feng Yi to set up a betting pool, clamoring that they would stake more ingots if Prairie Fire could overcome this boss.

Reluctantly, Feng Yi set up the betting pool, and instantly hundreds bet their ingots.

Daimeng Tongtong was also stunned and privately messaged, "Big brother, this is like scamming money."

Li Yao defended himself righteously, "I'm just arguing a few points for myself. If others don't have confidence in me, shouldn't I have confidence in myself? Don't you think?"

Daimeng Tongtong tilted her head and thought for a long while but was still confused; despite being smart, she was still just a child now.

"Okay, get ready, the boss has finally patrolled into my attack range."

Li Yao started getting serious, aiming with his heavy crossbow.

The boss was very tall, at least four meters high, and very wide, wide enough to fit two Li Yaos, not to mention its huge feet.

Because its entire body was condensed from arcane magic and metal, it was incredibly heavy. Each step it took resulted in a loud clanging, sounding very heavy.

Crack...

A Steel Arrow struck the boss's body, which merely emitted sparks from the impact before the arrow was sent flying. An awkward number flashed on the corner of the screen as well.

-12

For his crossbow, which normally dealt nearly two hundred damage against a level five boss, only a dozen points of damage were inflicted.

"Detecting intruders, executing the will to destroy."

The boss's gaze swept across, its eyes locking onto Li Yao as it started clanging heavily toward him.

Li Yao saw the boss quickly approaching the second platform, aiming for the dome, and he didn't hesitate.

Grasping both broken ends of the climbing pick, he hung on the slanted rope.

Li Yao slid quickly across to the dome of the first platform, just like taking a cable car.

"Start attacking, and pay attention—if the boss passes through the spiral corridor and triggers the elite, don't focus on the boss but deal with the elite first. These elites are too high-level, we can't withstand them all at once, and if it feels dangerous, immediately slide down to the ground."

Li Yao cautiously stabilized his body, with a Fire Gun appearing in his hands. It was a double-handed Fire Gun, long and extravagant.

Li Yao had used these Fire Guns to boost his engineering skill to an intermediate level, making all of them green, of superior quality.

However, he had used a superior-quality Fire Gun that was quite decent and upgraded it to exquisite blue quality using the chief warchief's soul from the last velociraptor boss they had defeated.

Self-made Fire Gun

Quality: Exquisite Blue

Attack: 15-22

Strength: 10

Agility: 9

Piercing Shot: A small chance to ignore the opponent's armor during attacks and cause a piercing shot effect.

Level: 5

Equipment Requirements: Hunter, Warrior

Manufacturer: Prairie Fire

"Big brother, when did you change your weapon?" Dumb Meng Tongtong asked in confusion, but her hands didn't stop, she started arranging the totems.

Especially the Earthbinding Totem, placed in a dead angle—if it went out of control, it could greatly restrict the monsters from climbing the dome.

Li Yao quickly loaded his bullets and began to aim, shooting while saying, "It's hard to leverage on the dome, steadying the body is already the limit, using guns and crossbows is fine, but bows definitely won't work."

Everyone suddenly understood, especially some Hunters; they thought they should prepare more weapons.

The three of them attacked quickly: Lightning Arrow, Bone Spear, Aging Curse, Arcane Shot, all swiftly landed on the boss marching clang-clang out of the platform, attempting to move through the spiral corridor to the first platform.

On such a dome, it was also disadvantageous for Feng Yi, after all, he was a Necromancer. Without his Undead Pets assisting, he was basically a full-time support.

The damage from the group once again amazed everyone, although they had anticipated that their attacks would do little damage to the boss, no one expected such an effect.

-2-3-1-7-2-8...

A string of numbers made some spectators start to gloat, knowing this boss had long-range skills, and they began to look forward to the boss instantly taking down Prairie Fire. Seeing a master return to the level of a mortal was a pleasure to many. Only Li Yao's damage was high, but not by much; after all, the boss had over seventy thousand health.

Li Yao stared intensely at the boss, seeing its arm aiming at him, shimmering with an Arcane glow.

"Xiayao, remember to seize the chance to summon a Skeleton when you see the boss shoot the Arcane Explosion," he said. "Whether I'll survive depends on you."

At this moment, Li Yao had no other choice. He could barely stabilize himself on the dome, but trying to quickly dodge or use Shadow Roll was simply suicidal—it would definitely lead to a deadly fall.

"Don't worry."

Biu...

As the light screen shot out, all viewers held their breath—if Li Yao died, then the whole pioneer attempt would indeed fail.

The Arcane bullet was extremely fast, although it was over several dozen yards away, it flashed by in a blink of an eye. Just as the Arcane bullet was about to hit Li Yao.

A Skeleton was perfectly summoned in front of him.

Boom...

Without any suspense, the newly summoned Skeleton was instantly shattered by the Arcane bullet.

Despite this, Li Yao didn't even dodge; he continued to load, shoot, load, shoot.

Feng Yi did the same, summoning a Skeleton and without even looking at Li Yao, he quickly recited the spell for the Bone Spear, not wasting a single moment of output.

"Man, this is amazing, this play could go into the weekly highlights," KB stood up again astonished, "Didn't expect it, Xiayao's performance is now absolutely comparable to top professional players."

"Can you explain a bit, many viewers don't understand and think this operation isn't that amazing," Tian Na asked.

"It's all about timing, using a Skeleton to block the boss's skill requires precise timing, without any margin for error. You see, this is the first time the boss used the skill, the trajectory's speed needs quick judgment, plus summoning a Skeleton also takes time. Only if the bullet is hitting right when Prairie Fire is about to be struck, the Skeleton appears exactly in time to block the skill."

"Why not summon it earlier? It looks like the boss's skill isn't targeted," Tian Na wondered.

KB pointed to the dome, "Even standing up there needs extreme caution. The Skeleton would slide off the moment it appears on the dome, and if it appeared even a moment later, Prairie Fire would be finished. The process is also incredibly brief; computational skill, judgment, mental strength, and control of action are all demanding. It's tough even for regular professional players to achieve."

Tian Na signaled to replay and slow down the footage just then, people watching cheered, enjoying the thrill of life and death hanging by a moment.

"That operation by Sister Yao is too sleek," Shadow Dance yelled excitedly, wishing she could also join in the output.

"Don't get distracted, the critical moment is coming," Li Yao continued attacking as he spoke.

The small bits of damage were almost negligible against the boss's health bar.

The boss unleashed a skill, again clanging as it charged, moving closer to the first wave of corridors where the Mindless Ones patrolled.

Everyone held their breath, if the elite Mindless Ones joined the boss in attacking Li Yao and others, the difficulty of the battle would multiply significantly, and the chance for a wipe increased greatly.

When the boss and the patrolling Mindless Elite brushed past each other, time seemed to freeze.

Then Li Yao and others sighed with relief, while the viewers and fans cheered—although many hoped for Prairie Fire and his team to fail, even more hoped they could create a miracle.

Now, it seemed, they were witnessing a dawn in conquering this boss.

Although they had output for a long time, the boss's health bar was barely reduced, but at least the difficulty hadn't increased. What remained to be seen was whether the plan Prairie Fire had made would work, and if the team would face any issues.

"Don't get cocky, Tongtong, be ready. If I tell you to retreat, you immediately climb the rope to the second platform, don't greed for damage."

Dumb Meng Tongtong was outputting on the platform, the boss could spot her the moment it reached the platform; Li Yao warned her out of concern she might be tempted to continue dealing damage...