Monsters Are Coming

One of the reasons why recent challenge groups have been dying off is that every Warband appears fully equipped, with a general participation of over a thousand players.

The Semi-independent Space is not like an outdoor battlefield; space inside is limited.

A Warband of a thousand players has limited space to manoeuvre, making it impossible to exert their full combat capabilities, with even dodging damage being difficult.

He drew the Space map on a virtual notebook, feeling that a challenge size of around 600 people was most suitable. Any more would result in mutual interference.

However, before starting the challenge, he needed to perfect his tactics.

The scene within the Semi-independent Space gradually became clearer under his pen, as he outlined the space contours with lines, followed by a set of precise movement paths.

Ding Xiao's pen tip lightly paused on the paper, drawing a striking red circle.

This is the Absolute Domain of Puppet No. 2; any player entering it will trigger its Frenzy mechanism.

Interestingly, after repeatedly studying the footage, he found that this seemingly terrifying guarding Monster was actually far simpler than those cunning, high-intelligence Monsters out in the wild.

Puppet No. 2 is more like a precision killing machine, operating according to a pre-set program.

Its every lift of the hand, every rotation, even pulling the thread, follows a pattern.

It's just that Puppet No. 2's behavior logic is fairly complex, making it seem like it's acting completely independently.

He recorded each of these pieces of information in the virtual notebook.

[Whenever a player approaches the Absolute Domain, a range attack is triggered.]

He marked this range with a red circle.

[Within 1.5 seconds after the appearance of crying sounds, there will be a brief delay in all string attacks...]

The video continues to play, with Ding Xiao's pen suddenly stopping.

He rewinds the footage, then pulls up recordings of seventeen different Warbands' destruction, freezing the frame as Puppet No. 2 performs a massive range attack.

He found that in all the footage, at this stage Puppet No. 2's right hand ring finger bent at the same angle, as if virtually grasping an invisible flower.

"I see."

The notebook now included a line of text:

[Before the massive range attack: Puppet No. 2's right hand ring finger curls inward in advance.]

These details were recorded one by one in his tactical notebook, gradually piecing together a peculiar answer.

All of Puppet No. 2's actions are like a choreographed dance.

By finding the rhythm, every dance move can be predicted.

Such Monsters are very rare in Monster World.

Earth Thought Bully, Lord of Jile, and a series of villain characters all possess extremely high intelligence, even surpassing the player's intelligence.

This kind of routine-bound Life, battling according to a program, resembles "dumb Monsters" from old games.

Or rather, like a low-intelligence robot.

He even found a fatal flaw with Puppet No. 2: when attacking, if the current action isn't completed, the next command can't appear.

In other words, its adaptability is slower than a player's.

With a Hunting Level of 179, yet so clumsy, even after a year and a half playing Monster World, this was the first time he encountered it.

Even Monsters created by weaker races have intelligence levels surpassing Puppet No. 2.

It's like handing over a divine weapon sharp enough to slice through iron as if it were mud, to a naive child; Puppet No. 2's strength and intelligence level are completely mismatched.

Theoretically, no race would make such a low-capability combat unit to guard a Treasure Vault.

The specific reasons he did not know.

But this discovery gave him more confidence in defeating Puppet No. 2.

The sound of rain outside gradually decreased, the weather system in Imperial Tomb Village began to change, as moonlight pierced through the clouds, shining on his just-completed tactical plan.

It was already filled with dense markings and arrows, woven into an invisible net,

with Puppet No. 2 becoming the trapped beast within this net.

...

Half a day remained before the opening of the Semi-independent Space.

Ding Xiao began organizing manpower, requesting guild members to gather in the Colorful Mist Coast Region.

The guild group usually challenges the adventurer dungeon difficulty. Upon receiving notification, they gathered at the Colorful Mist Coast Region to proceed towards the Semi-independent Space with Ding Xiao.

Along the way, Ding Xiao began deploying tactics through the guild chat group.

He reconfigured the guild members' Star Vein setups.

During this, through images, videos, and other content, like teaching a class, he detailedly explained a series of ability performances during Puppet No. 2's combat and the reasonable responses.

Next, different players were assigned different battle roles.

Compared to large-scale battles where combat plans must be devised for different sub-groups, the benefit of a small group is that tasks can be allocated to individuals.

He divided the space in the footage into 500 squares, assigning numbers 1-500 to each square.

Before the battle, he required every player to remember the specific location of each square for quick response during command mobilization.

The time came to late afternoon at sunset.

The team led by Ding Xiao arrived at the Bright Star Sea Area's map, into the golden-marked region, and then the members leapt off their Vehicles into the sea.

At the Semi-independent Space entrance, originally the array was now twisting.

As they waited, it transformed into a whirlpool-shaped Space entrance.

Ding Xiao led 512 members of the Stargazer Guild sequentially inside.

Before them presented a ring-shaped canyon, with Puppet No. 2 situated in the center of the scene.

The dozen-meter-high body seemed crafted from ceramic material, its surface covered with cracks, resembling a broken toy reassembled.