novelODS Chapter 1753 - 97: The Chime at Midnight
Chapter 1753 - 97: The Chime at Midnight
High above the heavens, the pink-haired man held a branch of flowers, overlooking the broken "Cat Box".In his hand, he clutched a piece of paper, softly reciting:
"...Yamada Machiichi should live until a hundred years later, passing away suddenly on a church bench. Subsequently, he was to be resurrected as the BOSS Cat, the power holder of the World Game, journeying through the vast universe until the far end of time."
"Now, he perishes within the year."
"...Mo Yan should witness the dawn of a New World; he would become a teacher in the New World, educating children about the history during the World Game, with students all over the world."
"Now, he perishes within the year."
"...Si Nian should become a war hero of Luowasha, enjoying flowers and blessings. He would return home, using the prize money to build orphanages and flower alleys, subsidizing orphans of many martyrs..."
"Now, he perishes within the year."
"...Yi Song should live to a hundred years, treating tens of thousands of mental illness patients, finally approaching the Demon Mother Goddess Isabel to heal Her disease for life."
"Now, he perishes within the year."
"Yang Changxu should live to a hundred years, enjoying family happiness. His great-grandson will become the person who points out the essence of the ’double slit...Yizhu Star Shield is a mirror.’
"Now, he perishes within the year."
"Joy..."
"Violet..."
"Isabella..."
"Wang Xingkong..."
"Su Qi..."
"Hui Chi..."
"..."
The pink-haired man paused suddenly as he recited, tearing the paper in his hand into pieces.
"Does Hermes expect me to read these to dissuade Su Ming’an? He must be crazy, especially since he knows what kind of madman that is."
"No one can interfere with his choices. Ultimately, it must depend on his own decision."
...
On the ground, someone was pushing a wheelchair, slowly approaching.
The Nest Master sat in the wheelchair, covered entirely in white cloth, lifted his head, and moved his lips, uttering hoarsely:
"Si Li, push me a little closer, I want to see more closely."
"Sure." The young man with long purple hair pushed forward a few more steps.
The Nest Master looked at the vast battlefield, saying softly: "When I played chess with Mr. Lical Bos, he confidently said that they would surely defeat the Radiant Mother God, so he asked me to lend the Nest’s armies to him. Unexpectedly, they really succeeded."
"You never make a loss deal," Si Li said, "You must have believed they would certainly succeed, which is why you collaborated with him."
The Nest Master gazed into the distance:
"The sky splits, deities fall."
"All united, to break destiny."
"As a life born in the box, it seems this should be the grandest scene I’ve ever seen in my life—a group of indomitable lives brandishing themselves as swords, overturning the lid, piercing high at the exalted deity."
Si Li chuckled, not saying a word.
...
"Dingdong!"
[Player (Su Ming’an) has initiated a world-level BOSS battle! All players present can participate, and participation will earn battlefield points.]
[BOSS (Radiant Mother God Kritchens) HP: 999999]
[Combat Power: 9999+]
[Enemy vs. Us Victory Comparison: 46%]
[（Detected BOSS position is extremely high and currently within "High Tower Invitation" duel domain, other players cannot attack.）]
...
"Swish—!"
The golden dome fell apart like melted sugar shell pieces, and light poured down through the fissures cleaved by the sword, like blood spilled from a deity, staining the war-torn earth in a silent deep azure.
Everyone saw the prompt for the BOSS battle initiation, instantly, a rush of blood and battle spirit surged into their bodies, wanting to charge forward with a roar.
Unfortunately, Kritchens clearly knows the players quite well, deliberately positioning herself in the extreme height, so the players couldn’t reach her to attack, thus they could only temporarily aim at the fractured firmament. Fortunately, they could monitor the status of the health bar in real-time.
In the extremely high altitude, there was only Kritchens and Su Ming’an.
"Swish, swish, swish—!"
Su Ming’an seemed to plunge into a dense navy-blue deep sea. The sound of blood flowing, heartbeats, and even the minute friction of bones and muscle fibers became clear.
In the nearly absolute zero cold, the pale flame constructed by divine power became the only thin shell, fiercely burning.
[HP-12819! (Critical hit! Divine power reduction!)]
[HP-21719! (Critical hit! Annihilation! Death Authority!)]
[HP-18291! (Devour!)]
...
One by one, terrifying numbers appeared, and Su Ming’an wielded the "Holy Sword"—now this "Holy Sword" was attached to the Sword of Yarman. The sword spirit in the form of Lunxue continuously pointed out weak points, almost every strike a critical hit.
Kritchens focused entirely on defense, rarely counterattacking.
Below, the broken golden firmament etched like a scar in the gigantic arc of Luowasha’s surface. The azure sky flooded like a waterfall, cleansing the battle-smoked land.
Above, the Radiant Mother God floated, like a small burning star against the cosmic backdrop.
The height was too great, the players on the ground couldn’t attack the Radiant Mother God, not even the divine-level players like Xiber and Aiden. No one, except Su Rin, could match Su Ming’an’s current altitude.
"Swish!"
Su Ming’an extended his palm outward, targeting Kritchens’ form.
—Sword of the Yellow Rose + Spatial Vibration + Devouring Authority + Death Authority!
...
[HP-102819! (Critical hit! Sure hit! Space! Annihilation! Death! Devour!)]
...
A terrifying number popped up that even startled Su Ming’an himself. In truth, his apparent HP was still 300 points, not increased along the journey, but all kinds of implicit attack reductions, divine power reductions were in effect, so his health bar seemed precarious and yet every drop of health was extremely difficult to deplete.
Kritchens still did not counterattack.
She was being forced back by him, completely gave up counterattacking, and devoted all divine power to defense...
Su Ming’an had long detected her intention.
—Waiting for the three minutes of the "High Tower Invitation" to end, it will use some kind of power. Otherwise, with the "High Tower Invitation" here, no outside force can interfere in the duel between the two.
Knowing this, Su Ming’an fought fiercely, determined to deplete its HP within three minutes. "Judgment," "Gravity Suppression," "Devour," "Annihilation"—all thrown out in one go, even less damaging skills like "Give You a Camellia," "Dragon Breath," "Stabbing" were used, as white tendrils around him grew frantically like suction cups, wrapping the Radiant Mother Goddess tightly, impermeable, with his whole being sticking to her, turning into a giant white octopus ball.
Clyde was very smart, aware of Su Ming’an’s "Devouring Authority," so he did not make his form large, only the size of a little golden person.
Even so, Su Ming’an’s Sword of Yarman paired with the Holy Sword still landed critical hits.
...
[True Damage: All your sword strikes deal true damage.]
[Destiny Cutting: You can use this weapon to sever the causal line.]
[Emotion Harvesting: The essence of this weapon is the "Life Disk Recycling System," allowing you to harvest others’ emotions when attacking.]
[Heart of Dawn: The enemies you attack will suffer from the emotional resonance you have experienced; the greater the resonance you experienced, the greater the attack effect.]
...
Every slash induced various negative effects, some effective, some not, as Su Ming’an went on a berserk slashing spree, maximizing the damage infusion!
...
[HP-18921! (True Damage! Spirit Disruption!)]
[HP-17291! (Critical Hit! Emotion Disruption!)]
[HP-21921! (Critical Hit! Devour!)]
...
Scarlet numbers kept popping out, but it did not lessen Su Ming’an’s grief in the slightest.
Divine power rapidly decreased, Mana Points quickly dropped, Emotion Value swiftly declined... All three values slid down in his vision, in exchange for the Radiant Mother Goddess’s HP collapsing.
One minute.
...
[Radiant Mother Goddess HP: 73%]
...
Two minutes.
...
[Radiant Mother Goddess HP: 45%]
...
Three minutes.
...
[Radiant Mother Goddess HP: 12%]
...
The moment the "High Tower Invitation" shield shattered—
Clyde’s faceless expressionless visage seemed to stare at him.
"...Coming alone to challenge me, reaching my sky domain, you are digging your own grave. Now, no one can see you, no one can support you..."
Light erupted around them, including Su Ming’an’s tendrils—
In the next moment, they found themselves in a vast blankness.
Most surprisingly... the ever-chatty live broadcast room in the upper right suddenly vanished. This was the first time Su Ming’an noticed the live broadcast room disappeared without warning when not due to spiritual issues.
System interface... can’t open.
Inventory slots... can’t open. Luckily, he had mindfully transferred some items into his tendrils.
System time... can’t be viewed.
Mission interface also can’t open...
Even the perpetually cold system "ding-dong" sound fell silent.
Su Ming’an quickly realized that there must be the power of the Lord of Dreams behind Clyde, fortunately, the double slit had already exploded, or else this battle might have been even harder.
A void, with no system, no tasks, no live broadcast room... his connection with Zhai Xing seemed abruptly severed, standing alone, here.
In an instant, it was as if he truly became a "High Dimension" wandering outside of his homeland.
"Now, your connection with the World Game has been severed." The golden figure gazed at him.
"Do you think I’d be panicked?" Su Ming’an still held his sword high.
Indeed, as the "Number One Player," all his power was granted by the World Game, but that was only true for before the tenth instance. He had long consciously mastered his own power, ensuring that even if the World Game was suddenly stripped away, he wouldn’t revert to his original form.
What belongs to him will belong to him.
The World Game is just a tool, it can’t take away the power he’s already mastered.
He let a sword fall.
This time, no numbers appeared.
The health value quantification was brought by the system; now that the system is gone, he couldn’t see the Radiant Mother Goddess’s HP, or even his own health and mana bars. However, he could roughly sense how much divine power he had left.
All this was trivial. Most importantly, he felt that his sword did not hit anything substantial, slipping weightlessly through.
"You can’t hit it." The Sword Spirit spoke, the weary semblance of Lunxue emerging, "It pulled you into its ’Creation Mode,’ in here it’s like being in creation mode. How many minutes left until the cooldown of your High Tower Invitation? Force it back here once it’s ready so its domain won’t be useful."
"...No." Su Ming’an said, "It wants to stall me to death."
His High Tower Invitation lasts three minutes, cooling down five minutes post-battle. As long as he can’t kill Radiant Mother Goddess within three minutes, it can recover its HP in the next five minutes. Concerning ways to heal, Radiant Mother Goddess ruled the world for aeons, well-prepared. It’s like he is confronting an ancient god with millennia of resources.
As long as it keeps dragging, always defending, while Su Ming’an continues his aggressive assault, its divine power can be exhausted first. However, with "Devour," it might turn into a war of attrition, where neither side’s divine power runs out, dragging on indefinitely. The Seventh Thrones and the Master of the End of All Things would then have a chance, and in the most extreme circumstances, it could drag until the World Game’s one-year period ends... literally dragging the players to death.
"Creation Mode is an S-Class Creator skill. Do you remember the card drawing reward ’three-minute stay in the Space-Time Hall’?" Lunxue said, "Back then, it referred to this, a blank space... That stingy fellow, making even a zero-cost situation a reward."
In the vast white space, the figure of the Radiant Mother Goddess had disappeared, obviously intending to drag things out.
"It’s too good at utilizing the world rules of Luowasha, essentially a home turf battle. Now your only way is to engage in a creation duel with it here, like your duel with Shen Xue in the Disciple Game." The Sword Spirit said, "Sigh... Considering its extensive experience, it’s really tough."
"Who said I am going to compete with it in creation?"
"Then what do you plan to do?" The Sword Spirit was a bit puzzled, unable to hit, with the world game’s system cut off, not following the rules here, what else can be done?
Su Ming’an pointed his sword forward, calmly counting down:
"Five, four, three..."
...
"Clang—!"
It hit zero.
The bell tower chimed, the sound of the clock.
In the sky above, Aiden, Derek, Anthony, Eleven, Lin Jiang, Sherry, Mei Yani, Anger, Angelica, nine player deities... facing one direction, all poised to attack.