[These two talking is scarier than the creepy shrine itself!]

Everyone suddenly saw the light—players who die instantly in the dungeon can’t be revived, but if they’re left with a sliver of HP, the healers in this team can still pull them back up.

They could actually do that!?

But the lines were incredibly fragile. After tanking the damage from the mist thread, two of the four lines snapped instantly.

The four players were standing too far apart. The already fragile lines couldn’t withstand the strain of the distance.

“Seriously, why are these things so easy to break? Even rice noodles are tougher,” Frog said in shock.

Fierce Tiger, who had just started to feel confident, instantly wilted and hurried to cut a new mist thread for some sense of security. “It’s the middle of the night, could you not mention food?”

The reconnected mist threads were even weaker than those between two players. The mainframe must’ve anticipated this possibility. With more players linked, the mist threads’ weaknesses became even more pronounced—just a few steps would snap them. This severely limited player movement.

“It’s going to severely restrict our positioning,” Ragdoll Cat pointed out. This boss was already strange—mist threads basically tethered players. There were benefits, but drawbacks too. Four-player shared damage lines locked everyone’s positions.

Zhou Sui: “Then just don’t break the lines.”

Don’t break the lines? Players were all thinking the same thing—how exactly do they manage that?

Haba Dog said, “Disengage first.”

Little Bunny said, “Give me the team lead.”

Everyone quickly ran back to the shrine entrance, and the team lead was handed to Little Bunny 123.

Zhou Sui glanced at him thoughtfully—he was already swiftly adjusting everyone’s positions within the team.

Zhou Sui had merely demonstrated the idea, and Little Bunny instantly understood what he was going for—

Since movement snapped the lines, then just stop moving.

Most teams couldn’t form damage-sharing chains like this, but their group had a level spread. Out of the five in 3145, three had differing levels: Mage-Assassin Frog was level 39, Slack Bro, Rich Bro, and Little Bunny were level 37, and Zhou Sui was level 35. In the Wonder Zoo group, only five players had a one-level difference; they had originally just paired off for two-person chains. But now, they could form new shared-damage chains.

Wonder Zoo’s setup: two tanks, two warriors, two Daoists, two formation masters, one beastmaster, one asssassin, and one physician and one apothecary.

3145’s setup: swordsman, beastmaster, mage-assassin, weapon master, and apothecary.

After disengaging from combat, Little Rabbit immediately began making adjustments. In a short time, the group members were swiftly reorganized into the new damage-sharing chains. The team instantly became a full grid of shared-damage lines. The setup was optimal—it considered not only attribute variance within chains but also players’ attack ranges.

Melee Team 1: smqw555888 – Little Panda – Tank
Melee Team 2: Slack Bro – Warrior – Ragdoll Cat
Ranged Team: Rich Bro – Fierce Tiger – Formation Master
Healer Team: Little Bunny – Apothecary – Black Bear

Flexible Sub-Team: Cycle of Eternity, plus Wonder Zoo’s remaining Daoist, Beastmaster, Formation Master, and Haba Dog.

The reorganization led to the formation of four full chains, strategically divided into ranged and melee roles. This split maximized the survivability of each 3-player unit by significantly tightening their effective range and optimizing group HP sustainability. Beyond these new chains, only Cycle of Eternity, a Weapon Master, remained. The four other players, each with independent professions, seamlessly formed two new two-person chains: Daoist-Formation Master and Beastmaster-Haba Dog.

The Weapon Master’s playstyle is quite unique; their mid-to-long-range attacks make them ideal for a central position. Cycle of Eternity, being the lowest level, could always serve as a support for the other two two-person chain groups. If all else failed, the Physician and Tank’s shields significantly increased flexibility.

The newly designated positions immediately resolved the issues with range and movement, forming three perfectly coordinated small squads. As soon as the fight began, everyone took their assigned spots. Melee Team Two, composed entirely of high-HP professions, positioned themselves directly in front of the boss. Melee Team One stood at the back, dealing damage, with their high-HP Tank boosting the health of the two squishier Assassins.

The Ranged and Healing Team maintained an optimal mid-range distance. Zhou Sui was linked to the damage reduction chain of Haba Dog and Beastmaster, while the remaining two-person chain adjusted their positions based on distance.

With a total of 17 players, the probability of a “named target” ability hitting a solo two-person chain was only 4/17. This adjustment quickly boosted the players’ output. They no longer needed to dodge “named target” abilities or negative effects, and the healers’ pressure was greatly reduced. Everyone watched as the boss’s health rapidly dropped, falling below 80%!

“This boss doesn’t seem so scary now,” Slack Bro said, confidence swelling.

Rich Bro: “Something feels off. Wasn’t this thing supposed to be an evil god or something…”

As that comment landed in team chat, the boss’s HP dipped below 75%.

Suddenly, the boss perched high in the shrine lowered its head. Something stirred in the shrine—mist rapidly spread from every mirror, engulfing the area. Within five seconds, visibility inside the shrine dropped to near zero—players couldn’t see more than three meters ahead.

“We’ve lost vision,” Ragdoll Cat said urgently.

With no visibility, players couldn’t see where the boss was, and their skill accuracy plummeted.

At that moment, something seemed to dart out from the mist. Zhou Sui heard a sound and quickly turned his head. As he followed the sound, he heard a series of low chuckles, like something was whispering beside his ear, with a luring, sinister undertone.

“Don’t pull me!” Frog exclaimed, his back going cold with fear.

Slack Bro, who was also near the boss: “No one’s pulling you?”

Frog: “Damn, then who’s the pervert grabbing my ankle—AHHH!!!!”

[Got you, my sacrifice.]

Before anyone could react, something flashed through the mist—*whoosh!*—a line was yanked taut!

When they snapped to attention and looked over, they saw the magic-assassin Frog being dragged into a mirror by a giant hand formed from the mist!

Holy shit!!!

The mirror ate someone!

[Little Panda, delicious food.]

The mist rapidly dissipated, and the boss’s targeting attack came again. Zhou Sui reacted immediately, severing his link to his teammates and filling the gap left in the three-person damage-sharing chain caused by Frog’s death. The mist line attack landed instantly, and three team members were left with slivers of health!

While Zhou Sui was repositioning, Little Bunny instantly applied a buff and forcefully pulled the low HP members back to mid-health.

The boss’s mechanics had changed. The intervals between target marking and debuffs had shortened, and two new mechanics had appeared: vision-obscuring mist and player grabs!

“Who got grabbed?!” Fierce Tiger shouted.

Rich Bro: “The magic assassin got taken. No clue where he went. He’s not responding in the voice channel!”

Everyone turned to the team’s magic assassin slot and saw that Frog’s icon had gone gray at some point. Not even a peep from him in the voice chat.

Less than ten seconds later, Frog’s HP bar dropped to zero.

“Looks like he died there.” Little Panda pointed toward something.

At the brightly lit atrium behind them, Frog’s corpse appeared.

Everyone: “!!!”

What a confusing death!

“Two mark mechanics in a row!?” Ragdoll Cat’s expression turned grim. It’s rare for the same boss to use two such abilities within a minute. This means they not only have to endure the high damage from the mist thread piercing but also constantly worry about someone suddenly disappearing from the team, just like what happened a moment ago. If Cycle of Eternity hadn’t reacted in time, the combination of grab+mark mechanics would have wiped two members simultaneously.

Haba Dog: “The mist is also hard to deal with. Our hit rate is dropping.”

Black Bear added: “Healing pressure is rising too. My cleanse cooldown might not keep up!”

The boss’s HP had dropped to 65%. The team now had to face not just the three original mechanics appearing more frequently, but also two new ones: vision-obscuring mist and grabbing. The mist made it difficult to locate the boss, lowering skill accuracy, while grabs would increase pressure by randomly removing players.

That made it five mechanics—five high-difficulty mechanics intertwined and overlapping!

What made a boss fight tough wasn’t the number of mechanics, but when those mechanics overlapped and interfered with each other.

Handling one mechanic alone was vastly different from juggling several at once—the chance of a team wipe increased dramatically.

Originally, target marking and debuffs happened every 30 seconds, now it was every 25. AoE damage was every 10 seconds. Mist confusion appeared every 30 seconds and lasted 20 seconds. The grab mechanic triggered every 30 seconds… Which meant players only had 10 seconds of clear visibility—just 10 seconds to burst DPS. At this rate, even if their DPS output was fine early on, they’d get worn down or forced into an enrage phase.

Not to mention, with intervals this short, 3–5 mechanics could potentially occur at the same time in the later stages.

Can’t see clearly, can’t predict accurately—the boss was everywhere and nowhere. The difficulty had clearly taken a leap.

As the complexity of the dungeon solidified in Zhou Sui’s mind, time ticked on.

[Got you, my sacrifice.]

Someone else was grabbed again.

Five seconds later—

[Fierce Tiger 123, delicious food.]

Another wave of pressure hit the team. The healers quickly brought people back up, but everyone’s nerves were stretched thin.

“Who got grabbed this time?” Haba Dog asked.

Black Bear: “The healer!”

The grayed-out name in the party list was Little Bunny 123. He wasn’t speaking in the voice channel either. Everyone’s hearts jumped into their throats. Anyone else getting grabbed was fine, but a healer being taken was deadly. The three healers handled both the cleanse chain and revives. Losing any one of them could break the damage-sharing chains.

Zhou Sui quickly looked over at that ID’s status—but this time, after more than ten seconds passed, Little Bunny’s body still hadn’t appeared in the atrium.

Black Bear, who was always ready to rescue and patch the cleanse chain, froze. “Why hasn’t he respawned yet?”

Yeah—why hadn’t he appeared after so many seconds?

Zhou Sui was silently counting the seconds. So were Ragdoll Cat and Haba Dog.

“No second grab,” Zhou Sui said.

The mist spread out again, but this time, no second player in the group was pulled into the mirror—the mechanic had changed!

As seconds ticked by, the team’s apothecary spoke urgently: “No one’s being grabbed!”

Everyone tensed up, and just then, a new corpse appeared in the atrium.

“Rez me, ^[1] MMO shorthand for resurrection requests.” said Little Bunny.

Black Bear quickly revived him. The moment he came back, he immediately reconnected the chain, stabilizing the team. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief—that was way too close!

Zhou Sui glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. This person had deliberately waited until this precise moment to come out. He remembered the Single-target Mist Thread strike window precisely and reappeared five seconds before it hit, giving the team enough time to react “What’s it like in there?”

Little Bunny replied, “Not certain death. You can stall.”

So going in wasn’t instant death—it was more like being pulled into a special space to wrestle with the mist. As long as you quickly cut away the mist wrapping around you, you could maneuver inside the mirror space. In other words, his actions confirmed a potential mechanic: the mirror could only digest one person at a time. If the previous person hadn’t been consumed, no one else would be grabbed.

“Then it’s simple,” Zhou Sui said. “If the Healer or Tank gets grabbed, they just sacrifice themselves.”

Zhou Sui added, “Can’t others just kite ^[2] You “kite” them around the map, leading them away from allies, into traps, or simply buying time for cooldowns or other objectives. it in there?”

Little Bunny replied, “Yeah. Shouldn’t be hard for them.”

Everyone else: “?”

They all turned to look at Frog, who had only lasted a few seconds inside.

Frog stubbornly insisted, “I’ve figured it out now!”

Everyone has a rough first time!

Just as everyone finished mocking Frog, they suddenly realized—this terrifying mechanic might be coming for them next. Little Bunny had kited the thing inside for nearly two Single-target Mist Thread Strike cooldowns.—if a healer could last that long, then a DPS with multiple mobility and attack skills doing worse would just be… pathetic, right!?

But time wasn’t going to wait for them to mentally prepare. Just as Little Bunny revived, the mist rolled in again.

This time, the one grabbed was Assassin Little Panda!

Little Panda was the central point in the original damage-sharing chain. Once he was taken, it meant two people lost their damage link. Zhou Sui instantly reconnected with Frog, who caught on quickly and rushed to link up with the tank specialist—just in time before the targeting mechanic hit. They barely made it, cold sweat running down their backs.

“Cycle of Eternity will fill the gap,” Little Bunny said simply. “If the middle player in the damage-sharing chain gets grabbed, the two end players should link up. Just remember the two players in your chain—this small task, everyone should be able to handle it, right?”

This was the benefit of having a lowest-level player in the team—someone who could fill in for any chain at any time, and do it with ease…

Compared to Cycle of Eternity’s smooth handling, everyone else suddenly felt an immense pressure. He could deal damage while watching and covering the nearby situation. If they couldn’t even recognize teammates or link the chain correctly, that’d be shameful—seriously shameful.

After Little Panda was pulled in, everything went silent. The other players grew tense. Someone asked nervously, “So… how long do we have to kite it inside?”

Zhou Sui replied, “Hold out for the revive cooldown. Physician revives when you’re out, Apothecary’s revive is the backup.”

Little Bunny: “Yeah. That should be no problem for the Wonder Zoo team.”

Everyone else: “……”

Revive cooldown?? Known cooldowns: Apothecary revive = 5 minutes; Physician revive = 2 minutes.

So every player pulled in had to kite the mist for at least 2 minutes!?

Slack Bro: “I can run. No worries.”

Rich Bro: “I’ll try not to drag everyone down!”

Haba Dog: “Don’t worry, everyone in our team plays well.”

One comment after another… they were raising the Wonder Zoo players to an unreachable standard.

‘Leader, please stop talking! We beg you!’

Little Panda lasted one and a half minutes before dying inside. After being revived, he noticed the silence in the team.

An invisible pressure had fallen over the Wonder Zoo players. And just then, the next grab happened—this time it was the unlucky Fierce Tiger.

Fierce Tiger: “……!”

As they watched Fierce Tiger get dragged off, the whole team let out a collective breath of relief. Good, good—they had a two-minute break now.

“Mist’s coming again,” Zhou Sui said.

With the grabbing mechanic handled, what about the other issues?

“Should we use water-type skills to dispel the mist?” asked Slack Bro.

Ragdoll Cat replied, “Using only one element will severely reduce our damage window.”

“Our output time is already limited.”

Inside the ancestral hall, the tension hanging over the players grew heavier. The boss’s HP had dropped to 55%.

The mist problem remained unresolved, player hit rate was still dropping, and the boss’s HP was now falling much more slowly. Zhou Sui tried to locate the boss within the mist. The agile boss had taken position atop the shrine; aside from the moonlit atrium, it now moved freely throughout the entire space. Its constant movement not only made it hard for the tank to keep aggro and positioning, but also forced DPS to constantly reposition.

The players were all experienced and careful—they were minimizing their movements because of the mist thread mechanic. So far, no unexpected chain breaks had occurred.

But this didn’t solve the core issue: it was obvious that as the boss’s HP dropped, the intervals between its mechanics were continuously shrinking—from 30 seconds to 25, and likely even shorter soon. They couldn’t afford to drag this fight out. The longer it went, the more mechanics they’d be hit with, and the greater the risk of team wipes.

The boss’s HP dropped to 50%, and the timers for its five mechanics shortened once again.

Little Bunny said, “You’d better keep an eye on the time. The mechanics don’t seem to be tied to the boss’s HP phases.”

“We’ve been in the fight for 20 minutes, and the interval has shortened by 5 seconds.”

That wasn’t good news. This boss wasn’t adjusting its phases based on HP thresholds—it was on a time-based mechanic.

Every 20 minutes, the interval between mechanics shortened by 5 seconds. Zhou Sui suddenly realized what that meant. This boss might not go into an overwhelming berserk phase at the end—it would just layer all its mechanics together. As of now, the debuff mechanic was triggering every 20 seconds, meaning they only had 80 minutes left. After that, every mechanic would trigger at once, resulting in a guaranteed team wipe.

No wonder the boss was stalling in the mist. It was trying to wear them down until they died!

Other players: “……!”

No way—just when they’d finally figured out how to kite the mechanic, another huge problem shows up!?

Was this boss some kind of sadist!?

“I can only tell you the direction it’s moving. It’s still targetable, unlike the other mist monsters.”

Ragdoll Cat was the main tank and the closest to the boss, keeping eyes on it at all times. He could catch a lot of its subtle cues. But all he could do was determine its general direction. The intelligent boss didn’t move at a fixed speed. It adjusted its speed based on player behavior, playing a sort of hide-and-seek in the mist. Its body, blending into the mist, let it hide almost effortlessly.

Even if players briefly locked onto it, it could disappear again the moment the situation changed.

This put a huge strain on players’ visual tracking, not to mention they were still dealing with targeted attacks, grabs, and health-draining debuffs. The required reaction time was brutal.

“Damn it, this thing’s way too fast!”

“Left side, right?”

“Why does it feel like it’s on the right?!”

“Stop using AoE fire spells! There’s too much steam—I can’t see anything!”

While the team scrambled to manage mechanics, the grabbing and mist returned again. The Physician quickly pulled up the dead Fierce Tiger.

By the time they handled that, the boss had vanished once more into the mist—impossible to track, impossible to lock on.

In simple terms: no target.

Without a clear target in the mist, the team’s damage output slowed to a crawl.

Zhou Sui heard a faint noise in the mist. His ears twitched slightly as he tried to make out the boss’s direction. He caught a glimpse of movement—but that wasn’t enough. This wasn’t a solo holographic game. He swept his gaze across the entire battlefield and suddenly glanced at the minimap.

There was no boss marker—just the blue dots representing teammates.

If he wanted to boost the team’s hit rate… he’d need to create a target.

Little Bunny was scanning the whole group when he suddenly noticed Zhou Sui moving. He realized Zhou Sui was rapidly closing in beneath the boss. The mist only lasted 20 seconds. As it cleared, everyone caught sight of the boss again. And in that moment, something shot up from the ground, hooking onto the airborne boss!

Slack Bro was startled by the move. Looking closer, he saw that it was Brother Zhou’s grappling claw, now latched onto the boss.

The grappling claw had two ends. While it could latch onto the boss, it definitely couldn’t pull it down—the retraction force wasn’t strong enough for that!

“Tank, catch,” Zhou Sui said.

The Wonder Zoo’s tank was already used to Zhou Sui’s spontaneous commands. As soon as he heard the call, he reflexively reached out—only to realize what he grabbed wasn’t a mist thread, but a thicker grappling rope. The moment he grasped it, the grappling hook locked tightly around his waist.

Before he even figured out what was happening, Cycle of Eternity let go of the other end, already calibrated for the exact stretch.

The mist surged again. Nearby melee players suddenly saw something fly into the air—looking up, they saw the tank being yanked upward by the grappling hook!

Tank: “!!!”

All the players stared as the Wonder Zoo’s tank was launched into the sky. While he dangled up there, the off-tank panicked and triggered every damage-reduction skill he had. In the mist, the flickering light of those abilities barely showed through—but on the minimap, his position became perfectly clear. And with it—so did the boss’s.

Even the normally composed Ragdoll Cat was stunned. “You… what are you doing?”

Zhou Sui looked puzzled. “Isn’t he the off-tank?”

Little Bunny suddenly smiled. “Yes, he’s the off-tank—he’s in charge of pulling the boss.”

Other players: “…………”

‘So this is your idea of an off-tank?!’

The one being pulled up had to have insane damage mitigation, and had to survive without the damage-reduction chain!

From high above, the Wonder Zoo’s tank watched in awe as his teammates’ skills flooded toward him from all directions.

Even if the skills wouldn’t cause friendly fire—did they really need to go all out like that?!

“!!!”

“Physician, focus on shielding the Assassins—their damage reduction chain is missing a link.”

Little Bunny’s voice followed immediately with more commands. “Whoever gets dragged into the mirror, try to run longer, hold out a bit more.”

No one had expected such a trick to create a new target. With the grapple’s short enough range, wherever the shield tank was pulled to, the boss’s position became visible on the minimap. Black Bear, the team’s physician, scrambled to keep the airborne, overwhelmed tank alive while also watching for mist-targeting and applying shields in time.

Zhou Sui couldn’t go up himself—he was the lowest-level player in the team and needed to be ready to fill in any missing links in the damage-reduction chain. If he could go up, it would’ve been easy. No grappling hook needed—he could’ve been the target himself.

The tank felt disoriented and weightless when he finally broke free from the grapple’s control.

This method might be hard on the tank, but it was a very effective solution.

Slack Bro asked, “But the boss still targets players and grabs them, right? What if it picks the tank next?”

Others: “?”

Zhou Sui said, “Watch the targeting distance. Melee, you’re up.”

And just like that, his prediction came true—as if the game’s AI deliberately wanted to mess with them.

Right after everyone agreed this was a great solution, the mist came back—and the next person dragged into the mirror was… the off-tank user.

Everyone looked around, confused. Zhou Sui quickly grabbed the middle of the rope and flung the other end—originally supposed to be attached to the tank—into the melee pile. The others backed off quickly, and the grapple latched onto the magic assassin, Frog. In an instant, he was yanked up.

And not just yanked up—the mist thread’s attack also targeted him. Both the mechanic mark and the boss lock-on appeared on the same player!

[smqw555888, a delicious treat.]

The panicked Frog, scrambling to activate his damage-reduction skills midair, was pierced through—and died, becoming a corpse hanging from the grapple.

Frog: “?”

Frog: “……”

Is the game’s AI sick or something?!

Others: “!”

What kind of next-level bad luck is this?!

Zhou Sui commented, “He ate two mechanics at once ^[3] Attacks from the shrine’s mist thread and the boss’s single-target mist thread..”

Little Bunny looked up. “Actually, dragging a corpse works too. The coordinates are still visible.”

Up in the air, Frog’s corpse swayed as it was dragged along by the boss—his glowing teammate marker clearly showing his position.

The whole team fell into an eerie silence. Everyone felt like the next one to be strung up could be them.

Why does this duo’s calm conversation feel even more terrifying than the creepy shrine?!