Chapter 195: The Grand Hunt
One week later.
All the fierce men and women on Emerald Star received a BOSS skill guide.
In addition to the previously discovered 【Claw Attack】, 【Tail Sweep】, 【Plasma Dragon Breath】, and 【Pear Blossom Storm】, the Radiant Dragon later used three more skills.
【Dragon Dance】: Activates a zero element field around its body, greatly enhancing its flight capabilities, and performs a dazzling melee combo consisting of charges, claw attacks, and bites during flight.
Being hit by this is almost certain death; in short, it's an ultimate enhanced version of the 'Dragon Charge'.
Due to the BOSS's extremely pure control over the zero element field and its four forelimbs, its attack frequency is quite demonic, and its speed and maneuverability even surpass those of power armor flight packs, making it extremely difficult to dodge.
Counter-strategy: Hide in narrow passages and use architectural cover to evade the skill.
【Gravity Trap】: The Radiant Dragon selects a spherical space with a diameter of about 30 meters, greatly increasing the weight of all objects within it, causing players' movement speed to decrease, and those with insufficient strength may even find it impossible to move.
Often used in conjunction with Plasma Dragon Breath, causing heavy casualties.
Counter-strategy: The skill release is very sudden, but it requires active maintenance. Striking the BOSS's head has a chance to interrupt it.
【Mouth Cannon】: Stiffens its body and tail, forming a bio-electromagnetic rail that runs through its entire body, then ejects large bone needles from its throat.
During the third crusade, players in heavy power armor attempted to form a dense formation, which unexpectedly triggered this skill.
Afterward, a large number of unidentifiable power armor parts and human tissues remained at the Bombardment site.
Counter-strategy: No crowding of personnel on the field! The BOSS's Mouth Cannon is extremely powerful, comparable to a ship's cannon. Single-soldier armor cannot withstand it. Fortunately, the wind-up before release is quite obvious; pay attention and remind each other.
In addition to popularizing the guide, the weapons and equipment used for dungeon combat were also upgraded.
Players were even more enthusiastic, continuously engaging in high-intensity pioneering. The average level of the first echelon rose to 16, with a total of 160 people reaching level 10.
Among these people, except for Lu Yuan, most of the others had experienced dying from the Radiant Dragon's skills.
However, after resurrection, many high-level players emerged who had survived multiple crusade and safely withdrawn before the party wipe.
Cao Yuan and Ye Xing were among them, with records of successfully withdrawing 6 out of 7 missions and 7 out of 8 missions, respectively.
The appearance of such a large number of players indicates that the time for the BOSS to fall is approaching.
Most players returned to Li Star in the past few days to respec their skills, choosing abilities like 【Autonomous Adrenaline】, 【Super Reflexes】, 【Concentrated Blood Supply】, and 【Hydraulic Muscle Fibers】 which enhance reaction time and G-force resistance.
The essence of skill respec is actually to re-create a player clone, continuing to use the previous attribute point genome on this clone, while coding new skill genes from scratch.
This means that skill respec services require at least 5 days' advance booking, and players must think carefully before making a decision.
It wasn't a bad thing, though.
In addition to this, Lu Yuan secretly accelerated the experience gain rate for elite players.
He allocated a large amount of computing power to elite players by assigning difficult tasks such as command and assault, providing them with a large number of attribute points and increasing the total number of skills in a short period.
To support these respec and accelerated leveling actions, the supercomputer in Li Star's cave not only lit up all carbon-based core blocks but also ran at overclocked speeds for the first time in history.
The new Engineers on duty worked overtime to build a cooling device spanning thousands of square meters, continuously supplying liquid nitrogen and cold air to the 'server room' day and night.
Finally, Nan Guo de Xue worked tirelessly at Emerald Outpost, collaborating with indigenous scientists, and finally completely solved the problem of lossless race conversion for old players.
35 players gave up their Earth human identity and transformed into Emerald Star mutants.
Guo Li Cheng was the first to complete the transformation. After the transformation, her height increased from 176 cm to 189 cm, making her a true tall girl. Her agility and arm span also greatly improved, making her more suitable for melee combat.
In terms of appearance, this transformation even surpassed the previous beauty queen, Sister Xue! Her long legs made even real-life supermodels pale in comparison, causing Guo Li Cheng to secretly rejoice.
With all preparations complete, Lu Yuan knew that the time for the official crusade was ripe.
The next morning, 3 PM Earth time.
Countless workers opened small windows or secretly propped up their phone screens in front of computer monitors, waiting for the show to begin.
Those whose bosses were too strict quietly put on headphones.
Online, many professional streamers were already fully focused and extremely excited.
Although they did not get internal testing access, they knew that internal test players would not be able to say much during live streams due to intense mental focus during BOSS challenges.
Thus, these people came up with the idea of providing off-screen commentary, just like major esports events, hoping to become popular through this method.
It is said that the internal test players have partially solved the problem of EMP interfering with communications, allowing this unprecedentedly scaled and realistic BOSS battle to be broadcast live to millions of cloud players.
“Have you heard? Cang Yuan is launching a full assault today! Not the previous probing 40-person group, but six groups going in together, a total of 240 people!”
“Then this must be the largest dungeon battle in game history, right?”
“Excluding those open-world BOSSes with no player limits, it's definitely the largest!”
Many people who hadn't played sci-fi games before also came to watch the excitement.
There was no other reason.
The magic of the five words “real dragon slaying” was simply too powerful.
What amazed everyone the most was that many universities actually held events in their auditoriums, broadcasting the entire game event live on giant screens, even giving a half-day holiday and inviting faculty and students from various departments in aerospace and natural sciences to watch.
Before entering, there were even free snacks to claim!
The school's reason was “to stimulate students' interest in exploring the universe.”
“The reason is valid, but 'Star Sea' is just a game, right? Can the plot inside be taken seriously?”
Many students felt confused, even dismissive.
What they didn't know was that, outside of public view, there were far more “strange” things happening.
At this moment, in astronaut training bases and various air force stations serving as aerospace talent reserves, hundreds of astronauts and excellent pilots had already sat neatly in front of large screens.
They looked forward with anticipation, their hearts filled with hope for the future of aerospace.
Across the ocean, at NASA headquarters, a certain intelligence agency building, and a certain Pentagon building, a total of over a thousand screens were currently displaying game live stream footage, appearing absurd and comical at first glance.
A large number of intelligence officers, operations staff, military scientists, and astronauts were all intently watching the screens, focusing on the excited and eloquent commentators, carefully listening to every word from their simultaneous interpretation headphones.
Today, perhaps the 240 players in the game themselves were still unaware, but they had already become the focus of the entire world.
10 minutes later, the armed transport planes began warming up.
Around the take-off and landing platform, all Emerald Star natives came to send them off.
They were even more excited than the spectators on Earth, their chests heaving violently, their pupils gleaming with fervent light.
This battle, for them, held meaning beyond everything.
It was both the end of a vigil and destiny, and the dawn of a new life.
Emerald Life Science's field team stepped forward and drew unique facial patterns symbolizing good hunting fortune on the faces of every warrior about to depart.
This small ritual symbolized that the natives had completely accepted Cang Yuan on a cultural level.
“Depart!”
Lu Yuan's command was short and powerful, and the armed transport planes were immediately filled to the brim with combat personnel and equipment.
Half an hour later, the six teams arrived at the six tunnel entrances of the Great Dome, making their final preparations.
Lu Yuan quietly poked his head out from the highest tunnel entrance and looked down.
Ye Xing followed suit, and the Radiant Dragon's body appeared on all players' helmet displays, as well as in the online live streams on Earth.
This tireless, incredibly resilient beast was still, as before, leisurely lying in the center of the arena, exuding dominance and fearlessness.
“Uh, for some of our new viewers, let me explain: this giant Radiant Dragon we're seeing is the BOSS we're going to crusade this time! Its length from head to tail tip has been re-measured at 83 meters, with a wingspan of 139 meters!”
The streamer began to explain.
“As we can see, some of the wing casings on the Radiant Dragon's back look 'newer' because they were previously injured by players and have now regenerated. It was sighted emerging from the Great Dome once in the past few days, returning two hours later, likely to hunt for sustenance.”
At this moment, Lu Yuan gently raised his right hand.
“Begin!”
At his command, a large number of drones flew out of the tunnels and towards the central Great Dome.