After reaching a population of five, Mike’s strategy became increasingly clear:
George was placed at the front, with ECA right behind him, and Stone guarding Ced. This setup ensured that as soon as the battle began, George would trigger his invincibility trait. After five seconds of invincibility, he would be taken down.
Once ECA died, Stone would gain the resurrection trait. This way, Mike’s team could die six times in total, allowing Nine Shadow to gain a 150-point boost in combat power!
Under Mike’s management, Nine Shadow’s power skyrocketed, quickly surpassing 1,000, making it the strongest piece in Mike’s lineup! With Nine Shadow leading the charge, Mike dominated the following battles, climbing the ranks with ease.
In the Gold promotion match, Mike faced his first mini-boss of the early game, and it was the most suspenseful battle yet.
Mike’s team had less than 5,000 combat power, while the enemy boasted over 10,000!
Before the battle, the Eye of Truth predicted an 85% win rate for Mike. With no other choice, Mike had to grit his teeth and go for it.
Within a minute of the fight, Mike’s pieces were dropping like flies. But when all the others had fallen, Nine Shadow made his move! Now a four-star piece, Nine Shadow did not disappoint Mike.
“Promotion successful!”
The joy of winning the promotion match exceeded Mike’s expectations! As a reward, Mike poured all the spoils of war into Nine Shadow, upgrading him to five stars-Mike’s first five- star piece!
**Piece: Nine Shadow**
**Class:** Blade Master
**Star Level:** 5 stars
**Combat Power:** 4,500
**Traits:**
– **[Lone Wolf]:** Nine Shadow only fights alone. If any allied pieces are still alive, Nine Shadow will not act. If Nine Shadow does not act during the entire battle, his tier will increase significantly.
– **[Rage(Grieving Fury)]:** Every time an allied piece dies, Nine Shadow’s combat power increases by 100.
– **[Protector]:** Nine Shadow designates one piece as his protector target. When that piece is near death, Nine Shadow will strike. If Nine Shadow successfully kills the enemy and the protected piece survives, both will fully heal, and all traits will reset.
*Note: Strikes triggered by [Protector] do not count toward [Lone Wolf] calculations.*
The five-star Nine Shadow was incredibly powerful, undoubtedly the strongest piece in Mike’s lineup, now worthy of being called Shadow Nine. Mike glanced at his team and keenly spotted a bug exploit opportunity!
Shadow Nine’s [Protector] had very strict activation conditions. Normally, even if Shadow Nine killed the enemy, the protected piece would likely still die, preventing the full effect from triggering.
But Mike had an invincible piece: George! If Shadow Nine protected George, who became invincible when near death, Shadow Nine could strike, George would survive, and the
[Protector] effect would trigger successfully.
Both would fully heal, and George’s invincibility would reset. The next time George was near death, [Protector] would trigger again!
“An infinite loop!”
In fact, ECA was also a good match for Shadow Nine. ECA’s resurrection could also be used to exploit the bug.
However, ECA had one flaw-he was too strong! George, with only 1 combat power, was a fragile piece that could trigger [Protector] immediately, allowing Shadow Nine to strike. ECA, on the other hand, needed to fight for a while before reaching a near-death state.
In a single battle, if Shadow Nine protected George, he could strike dozens of times. With ECA, it would only be two or three times. In terms of kill efficiency, George was the clear winner!
The best part was that Mike could exploit the synergy between George and Shadow Nine to get a free tier boost from [Lone Wolf]! As long as George and Shadow Nine survived until the end of the battle, [Lone Wolf] would trigger, giving Nine Shadow a tier boost.
After reaching five stars, each tier upgrade required a massive amount of resources, and [Lone Wolf] solved Mike’s resource shortage problem perfectly. This was why Mike had been focusing on boosting Nine Shadow’s strength early on. The later the game went, the more valuable [Lone Wolf] became!
With his strategy clear, Mike began a new round of rank climbing. ƒrēewebnovel.com
**[Enemy Combat Power: 15,000, Win Rate: 100%!]**
**[Enemy Combat Power: 27,000, Win Rate: 100%!]**
**[Enemy Combat Power…]**
Victory after victory, Mike’s rank soared from Gold to Platinum in no time! Nine Shadow had truly become Shadow Nine!
Now a seven-star piece, Shadow Nine’s combat power had reached a staggering 200,000!
To trigger [Rage] more often, Mike increased his population to seven and created two new pieces.
**Piece: Musk**
**Class:** Tycoon
**Star Level:** 5 stars
**Combat Power:** 1,888
**Traits:**
– **[Good Fortune]:** After each victory, open a treasure chest to receive loot. The more consecutive wins, the better the loot.
– **[Return on Investment]:** After killing a demon creature, convert it into equivalent cloud coins or a piece of equipment of the same tier.
**Piece: Idiot**
**Class:** Blacksmith
**Star Level:** 5 stars
**Combat Power:** 2,222
**Traits:**
– **[Forging]:** After each battle, gain one equipment upgrade opportunity.
– **[Suicidal]:** At the start of the battle, craft a piece of equipment for the enemy based on their star level. This equipment cannot harm Idiot, and once the enemy is killed, the equipment will automatically drop.
Musk’s traits were exactly what Mike expected. But Idiot? What the hell was that? A spy?
Regardless, with Musk and Idiot, Mike’s lineup became even stronger!
Idiot might be a bit of a liability, but as long as Mike’s team was strong enough, the equipment Idiot crafted for the enemy would eventually end up back in Mike’s hands.
After upgrading to a population of seven, Mike continued his rank climb!
Platinum IV… Platinum III… Platinum II… Platinum I… Promotion match!
With an eight-star Shadow Nine, Mike breezed through the competition, winning match after
match. Messages kept popping up on his screen:
“Promotion successful!”
“Congratulations, your piece Nine Shadow has upgraded to a nine-star piece. Population
limit +1!”
Mike had reached Diamond, and Shadow Nine had ascended to nine stars. He eagerly opened
the information panel:
**Piece: Nine Shadow**
**Class:** Blade God
**Star Level:** 9 stars
**Combat Power:** 999,999
**Traits:**
– **[Lone Wolf]:** Nine Shadow only fights alone. If any allied pieces are still alive, Nine Shadow will not act. If Nine Shadow does not act during the entire battle, a random allied piece’s tier will increase significantly.
– **[Rage]:** Every time an allied piece dies, Nine Shadow’s combat power increases by
9,999.
– **[Protector]:** Nine Shadow designates nine pieces as protector targets. When any protector target is near death, Nine Shadow will strike. If Nine Shadow successfully kills the enemy and the protected piece survives, both will fully heal, and all traits will reset.
*Note: Strikes triggered by [Protector] do not count toward [Lone Wolf] calculations.* – **[Inheritance]:** When all protector targets die, Nine Shadow automatically gains all their traits until the end of the battle.
After upgrading to nine stars, the fully evolved Shadow Nine had become the pinnacle of piece combat power. The number of protector targets increased from one to nine! With Mike’s population limit now at nine, Shadow Nine could protect the entire team. If the
team didn’t die, Shadow Nine could strike infinitely. If the entire team died, [Lone Wolf] and [Inheritance] would activate simultaneously, causing Nine Shadow’s power to skyrocket! With a nine-star Shadow Nine, Mike dominated the Diamond rank, becoming unstoppable! Meanwhile, the quality of his other pieces was also improving rapidly.
On one hand, thanks to [Lone Wolf], a random teammate’s tier would increase after each battle. On the other hand, Musk’s trait allowed Mike to reap huge rewards from his winning streaks!
By the time Mike reached Diamond I, his team’s combat power had surpassed 10 million:
Nine-star Shadow Nine, eight-star ECA, eight-star Ced, eight-star Stone, seven-star Idiot, seven-star Musk, and three-star George. Mike also had enough materials to upgrade another piece to nine stars!
After some hesitation between ECA, Ced, and Stone, Mike ultimately chose ECA.
Stone couldn’t recognize Shadow Nine as his Godfather, and their traits conflicted. One piece needed to stay alive to maximize damage, while the other needed teammates to die to maximize output. In a way, they were two sides of the same coin.
As for Ced, his offense was stronger than his defense. But with Shadow Nine’s blade, Mike’s
offense was already maxed out. Ced’s role in the team overlapped with Shadow Nine’s, so upgrading him to nine stars would be a waste.
ECA, on the other hand, had no such concerns. He could tank, absorb damage, and still deal
decent damage!
“Congratulations, your piece ECA has upgraded to nine stars!”
Only the first nine-star evolution rewarded a population limit increase. Mike opened ECA’s
attribute panel:
**Piece: ECA**
**Class:** Barbarian
**Star Level:** 9 stars
**Combat Power:** 666,666
**Traits:**
– **[Resurrection]:** Can fully revive twice after death.
– **[Unstoppable]:** Ignores all negative effects and is immune to all crowd control.
– **[Headless]:** Losing his head won’t kill him. Injuries do not affect his combat power,
and damage taken is reduced by 33.3%.
– **[Taunt]:** Upon entering combat, automatically taunts enemies within ten tiles. Triggers every five seconds. Each taunt increases combat power by 6,666.
After reaching nine stars, all pieces gained an Infinite Growth-type trait. Mike couldn’t help but notice how similar ECA’s traits were to Calderon’s. Taunt, unstoppable, damage reduction, and growing combat power-ECA and Shadow Nine together made Mike
invincible!
With two nine-star pieces, Mike tore through Diamond I and easily reached the Master rank.
“Three more ranks to conquer…”
After reaching Master, Mike found that the battles were not getting easier-in fact, they were
getting harder!
The corruption at this level was severe, causing the enemies’ strength to exceed Mike’s
expectations, growing exponentially stronger!
Mike’s team, with a total combat power of just under 20 million, faced an enemy with 32
million combat power in his first Master-level match!
[Current Win Rate: 45%!]
The Eye of Truth highlighted the “45%” in red. Even without Mike’s math skills, it was clear
that the odds were not in his favor this time!
His top-tier nine-star pieces, Shadow Nine and ECA, were fully equipped with god-tier gear
and had no room for further upgrades. However, thanks to his previous winning streak, Mike had accumulated a massive amount of materials. He had two options: Option 1: Upgrade two pieces to nine stars. According to the Eye of Truth’s simulation, upgrading Stone and Ced to nine stars would push the team’s combat power past 20 million.
[Estimated Win Rate: 76.2%]
A win rate of just under 80%, but still a significant improvement over the previous 45%. Option 2: Use all the materials to create a brand-new nine-star piece.
The thought of this made Mike’s heart race. He had already been playing recklessly this run,
creating pieces either related to Shadow Nine or the most powerful human factions. The weakest piece he had created was the nine-star Lord Joseph. “If I’m going to chase the thrill, I might as well go all the way!”
A bold idea formed in Mike’s mind. He took a deep breath and decided to take a gamble!
With his mind made up, Mike threw all his materials into the creation table. After working for
half a day, under Mike’s eager gaze, a brand-new piece was born! “Creation of nine-star piece [Mars] successful!”