[Successfully cleared the instance!]

The tank died and came out of the mirror; Frog was revived—two resurrection cooldowns were used up.

Frog: “The mainframe is absolutely sick in the head.”

Fierce Tiger: “I told you long ago, it’s a damn old scumbag—”

One second he was swearing in solidarity with Frog, and the next, Fierce Tiger was yanked into the mirror to kite the boss, his voice cutting off abruptly.

“Maybe keep it down,” said Little Panda. “The mainframe might be listening.”

Haba Dog: “It is a shrine. Show some respect.”

The players being pulled into the mirror now had to kite longer to wait out the healers’ resurrection cooldowns. On top of that, the pressure on the DPS grew heavier.

The melee fighters under the boss’s feet were struck with impending doom. If the tank got pulled again, who’d be next? Them?! Who wanted to be dragged around the sky by the boss?! Even if they were dead and it was just their corpse being flown around, if word got out that they got corpse-dragged by the boss, how would they show their faces again?

And then there was Cycle of Eternity—his accuracy with the grappling claw was terrifying. He could always predict the boss’s movement instantly, grab the midpoint of the claw, and operate it with perfect timing. Remember, one end of the grappling claw was attached to the boss, the other end was just dangling. To make the move work, he had to immediately grab the floating end and act within two seconds. And he kept doing it, over and over!

On top of that, he’d react in the same moment to the mist thread targeting and take over someone else’s damage mitigation link.

The Wonder Zoo players felt oppressed. And the worst part? There was nothing they could do about it.

Cycle of Eternity didn’t even say a word—but his presence put more pressure on them than the boss itself.

A single mistake from one person meant everyone else would have to shoulder more pressure. The more players died, the longer the person in the mirror had to kite the boss, just to give the healers’ cooldowns time to reset.

For a moment, the whole team just stared at each other—whoever screwed up next would make everyone pay.

Under that enormous pressure, the boss’s HP dropped rapidly thanks to the clear targeting point. In just 20 minutes, the DPS burst at record pace and brought it down to 35%!

But with time ticking on, the boss’s five-mechanic cycle grew more frequent. The healers’ dispel skills had entered a complete cooldown blackout. The DPS had to rely on their own control-breaking abilities to push through the debuffs, and their attack rate slowed again.

The more frequent the mechanics, the more resurrection cooldowns had to be spent.

Everyone stared at the boss’s remaining HP, feeling like they might not make it.

Haba Dog finally said, “If five people go down, we reset.”

Resetting would be exhausting for the team too—they’d been at max concentration for this entire run. Who knew if they could even keep this level of focus again?

Just then, the boss’s mirror grab targeted the swordsman—Slack Bro.

A flicker of hope crossed everyone’s faces.

“Holy crap, it finally grabbed him!” roared Fierce Tiger, who’d been pulled into the mirror multiple times—this was his dawn of hope.

Rich Bro mused, “If we count the Tiandi Temple, Slack Bro’s actually kited for hours before too.”

Damn! He’s the chosen one of the kiting world!

Once Slack Bro got pulled into the mirror, he fell completely silent—like a perpetual motion machine built for kiting. Five minutes passed, and he still hadn’t come out.

The players felt a wave of hope surge through them. One by one, they doubled down and unloaded everything they had—finally, a real window to burst the boss!

The boss’s HP dropped again—down to 10%!

By now, they’d been DPSing non-stop for another 20 minutes. The boss’s mechanics sped up again. Debuffs and mist thread targetings were now happening every 10 seconds, and the AoE damage was almost instantaneous. Ragdoll Cat had to reposition once more, calling the players with damage mitigation links to move to the safe side, away from the AoEs. Healer Black Bear could only focus-heal the main tank—he didn’t dare pause even for a second.

The whole team slowly clustered up, hugging close together. Both Apothecaries were stacking buffs on players as hard as they could, and even the Formation Master was forced to start layering defensive and mitigation formations. The rate at which they were losing HP had become absolutely brutal.

Their uptime for attacking kept shrinking. The boss’s HP dropped to 5%, and then—

A massive full-screen AoE came crashing down!

The explosion from that wave of damage instantly wiped 7 out of 17 players!

“Do we reset?” asked Ragdoll Cat, still keeping the boss faced the right way.

With only 5% left, the survivors thought—maybe we can YOLO ^[1] You Only Live Once: Going All-in this.

Zhou Sui spoke without hesitation: “No reset.”

Little Bunny added, “Healers aren’t reviving anyone.”

They hadn’t hit a full team-wipe yet—as long as one healer could reach the mural, it’d be fine. Zhou Sui looked at Little Bunny, whose health was still solid; the look in his eyes said he understood the plan. All three healers were still alive. No one dared use their resurrection skills now—they had to be saved for the truly critical moment.

Having fewer people wasn’t necessarily a difficulty—it just meant no hard enrage.

With the boss spamming AoE so frequently, fewer players actually made healing easier, and the team more stable.

At that moment, Little Bunny adjusted the damage-sharing links again. With fewer people, it was even more important to ensure that the mitigation chains stayed intact—those key players had to survive no matter what.

“Off-tank’s down,” Black Bear called out.

Zhou Sui responded instantly, “Leave him.”

Now wasn’t the time to brute-force damage. The tank user dying was a good thing—it meant his corpse would stay up there and wouldn’t get targeted anymore.

All remaining players adjusted their mitigation chains again. Zhou Sui’s eyes were locked in the direction of the boss through the mist. The shrine was completely engulfed; they’d lost all visibility and could only blindly attack by gauging where the tank’s corpse had been.

Boss HP dropped to 3%. Another full-screen AoE wiped two more people—only 8 players left standing.

Main tank Ragdoll Cat was on the brink of death. Black Bear quickly gigantified himself and ran to the front to take a direct hit.

Little Bunny revived the fallen Apothecary, stabilizing the team’s HP again. Only he and Zhou Sui were left from the lower-level players. Slack Bro was still kiting. The other two had died. Only two damage-sharing chains could be maintained—one person would be left unprotected.

Ragdoll Cat couldn’t die. Neither could Zhou Sui. If either went down, it was over—one tanked aggro, the other controlled the grappling hook.

Only three healers, main tank Ragdoll Cat, Zhou Sui, Warrior Haba Dog, and Daoist Fierce Tiger were left alive.

Plus Slack Bro—MIA ^[2] Missing In Action and presumed barely hanging on.

Haba Dog said, “My level’s high. Don’t include me in the damage chain.”

That meant he’d rely on his warrior shield and healing to survive on his own.

Black Bear asked, “Save?”

Zhou Sui and Little Bunny answered in unison: “No save.”

They couldn’t. They mustn’t.

Saving Haba Dog would require two more players for a mitigation chain. They only had one revive left, and it wasn’t fast enough to cover sudden incidents.

Boss HP: 1%. Progress stalled.

Every player had stacked debuffs. Healers could only prioritize dispelling themselves!

The downed players got tense. The HP spikes were like a rollercoaster. The three healers were weaving their cooldowns with extreme precision, juggling AoE and single-target heals, barely keeping the survivors alive. Daoist Tiger got instant-revived the moment he fell. Ragdoll Cat and Zhou Sui both hovered on the brink multiple times but were always pulled back.

Boss HP: 0.5%!

Suddenly—disaster. Slack Bro’s figure appeared in the open-air courtyard!

Everyone: “!!?!?”

Slack Bro: “…Guys, I’m toast! The mist attacks doubled in speed! I can’t outrun it anymore!”

Little Bunny used his instant-revive on him. Slack Bro rushed back to the group.

Just then, the mirror grabbed someone again—Zhou Sui!

“Slack Bro, take over.” Zhou Sui dropped the command as he vanished.

Slack Bro was just about to shout “Be careful!” but had no time—he rushed up to fill Zhou Sui’s spot in the damage-sharing chain. Everyone remembered what Slack Bro had just said—the mist inside had gotten faster. That meant whoever went in… was in serious danger.

And at that moment, the off-tank’s corpse finally fell from the sky. Zhou Sui was forced into the mirror realm. The grappling hook’s effect had worn off!

Zhou Sui had seen the “effect ended” notification as he was pulled in. He immediately severed the mist thread attached to him and blinked sideways to dodge the incoming mist attack. The mirror realm stretched infinitely in every direction. The only visible things were mist and those moonlit glimmering lines. He twisted his body, dodged again, and narrowly avoided the next wave.

The team interface went completely black. He knew what that meant: it was up to him now to buy time.

Outside the dungeon, within the mist, no one could see the boss anymore.

Not just the boss—even the mirror had subtly changed. Attacks outside had sped up—what about inside?

Little Bunny calmly said, “Blind-fire.”

His eyes locked onto the grayed-out name in the party panel. Even if they blindly attacked for a long time, Zhou Sui inside the mirror would buy them time.

Boss HP ticked down excruciatingly slowly—minutes for even 0.1% drops.

Everyone stared as it went from 0.5%, to 0.4%, then 0.3%, 0.2%…

Time stretched unbearably. Finally—when the HP hit 0%, everyone held their breath—

Another massive AoE landed. Three more people went down!

Then—the HP bar vanished completely.

The mist inside the shrine blew away like the wind. The candles at the central altar reignited—but this time with bright, warm flames, not the chilling blue fire from before.

Players all collapsed onto the ground. Little Bunny took a few steps into the moonlight. The mirrors on the ground had all shattered.

In the moonlight with the fading mist, a figure burst upward from within the mirror realm. As the environment shifted, Zhou Sui reappeared above the courtyard, searching for a landing spot. His gaze swept across the ground and caught sight of someone—Little Bunny—standing just at the edge of the moonlight, looking up at him.

Their eyes met—and in that moment, Little Bunny’s gaze felt strangely familiar.

Zhou Sui landed, stumbling slightly from the impact.

A hand reached out and steadied him, bringing with it a warm healing sensation.

“You okay?” Little Bunny asked.

Zhou Sui glanced down at the hand. “Yeah. Thanks.”

At that moment, a voice rang out in every player’s ears—

[Congratulations on clearing the dungeon. Boss ‘Mist God’ has been defeated. Calculating results…]

From the shrine entrance, the old man and the child spirit floated out and gave the exhausted players a deep bow.

All the dead players were bathed in a warm light—and resurrected.

“WE CLEARED IT!!!”

“How long were we in here!? It’s actually done!”

“Damn, that was badass!”

Everyone still felt dazed. That final 0.5% had dragged on longer than a whole century. It even got to the point where every mechanic had shown up—and yet they still held on.

In near-total blindness, they held out for 10 full minutes, slowly whittling the boss down to zero!

[Server-wide Announcement] Congratulations to players Cycle of Eternity, Little Bunny 123, Slack Bro, Ragdoll Cat, Haba Dog, … for clearing the six-star dungeon [Mirror Maze Town], earning 2000 team points, 4000 stability points, individual reward boxes, and the Gift of Liuli Town.

The elder spirit bowed again, showing his respect:
“To the gifted ones—thank you for releasing Liuli Town from its suffering. The spirits can now rest in peace… I have nothing left to offer but my gratitude…”

[Server-wide Announcement] The gifted ones have slain the Mist God, reclaiming Liuli Town and earning the villagers’ recognition. Players Haba Dog and Cycle of Eternity have successfully unlocked the special map [Mirror Maze Town]and received the unique items [Charter of Liuli Town] and [Power of the Mist God]!

Zhou Sui blinked, noticing a mysterious letter in his inventory had turned into a tradable voucher.

It was the deed for Mirror Maze Town in Liuli—

[Charter of Liuli Town – Grants the holder rights to resources and territory within the special map ‘Liuli Town.’]

“Holy SH*T, the rewards!!”

“Wait, wait—it’s a MAP reward?!”

Slack Bro: “Bro, you’re a landlord now! You and Haba Dog just became the new landlords of Liuli Town!”