Chapter 15: Chapter 15:- 90 vs 1
After their recent victory, the players were more confident in Steve's leadership and immediately followed his instructions.
Soon, they had spread out into teams of two or three, positioned throughout the interior of the walls.
Each team kept a safe distance from the others. Even if one group of players was blown up, it wouldn't affect the rest.
Just after the teams had finished their setup, a sudden scream pierced the air.
"Ah!!!"
The scream had barely died down when it was followed by a thunderous explosion.
The players immediately turned toward the sound of the blast.
By then, there was nothing left but two corpses and a deep crater in the ground where the explosion had occurred.
"???????"
"What just happened?!"
"Is it him?! Is he here?!"
"…"
Everything had happened so fast that no one really knew what was going on.
After a brief silence, a nearby group of players, who had been closest to the explosion, finally spoke up, trembling as they did.
"It's him... He's here... I saw him!"
"I don't even know where he came from! He just appeared out of nowhere!"
"And then, right after the explosion, he vanished again!!!"
This group of players, having been the closest, had caught a glimpse of everything. They had seen the monster appear, explode, and disappear in less than two seconds.
Their brains hadn't even fully registered what had happened before the monster was already gone.
The scene had an overwhelming impact on the nearby group of players.
Coincidentally, one of them had been livestreaming the whole thing.
The players watching the stream were equally shocked.
"What was that just now?!"
"What kind of skill is that?! Teleportation? Invisibility?!"
"Damn… with power like that, even if we had 900 players, it would just be a massacre!!"
"Game designers, come out here! You really designed this monster?!"
The players' brief victory against those low-level minions had inflated their confidence quite a bit.
Some of them even began to feel that maybe, just maybe, they could stand a chance against the White-Eyed Monster.
But as soon as that monster appeared, two players were gone in an instant.
It had happened so fast that no one even saw how it was done.
In less than a second, two lives were snuffed out.
And this was while the players were spread out.
If they had been clustered together, the remaining 90-something players wouldn't have lasted even a minute. Most of them wouldn't have even known what hit them.
In that moment, the players realized just how arrogant they had been.
Facing such a powerful and cunning creature, sheer numbers meant nothing.
All having a large group would do was delay their inevitable annihilation.
After this sudden attack, panic quickly spread among the players.
The monster was in the shadows, while they were out in the open.
Even though they all knew deep down it was just a game, there was no denying the fear.
Anyone in their situation would feel terrified.
"Damn it! Where's he hiding?!"
"What kind of skill is that? Invisibility?"
"White-Eyed Monster! If you've got guts, come out and fight us head-on! Stop sneaking around like a coward!"
"…"
Steve, hearing the players' accounts, furrowed his brows.
The White-Eyed Monster's power seemed unfathomable.
In just that one brief encounter, the creature had used at least two different abilities.
Steve wasn't sure where the monster had gone, but he suspected it was using some kind of stealth ability.
Thinking this over, he quickly issued a command to the players.
"It seems like he's using some kind of invisibility skill. Everyone, swing your weapons in front of you!"
If the White-Eyed Monster was really using stealth, it would have to get close to the players before attacking. Maybe if they swung their weapons randomly, they'd have a chance to hit it.
Upon hearing Steve's command, the players immediately began swinging their weapons through the air.
They thought this strategy might actually work.
But less than half a minute later, another scream rang out, followed by yet another explosion.
Another team of players had been wiped out!
This time, the players nearby hadn't even seen the monster.
It was like a ghost, appearing and disappearing without a trace.
"Damn it! How does he keep showing up like that?!"
"I've been swinging my arm until it's sore, and it's useless!"
"Could he be immune to sword damage?! That's just absurd!"
"…"
The death of that team only confirmed that Steve's strategy was worthless.
Even if the players swung until their arms fell off, it wouldn't make any difference. The ones marked for death would still die.
A sense of dread began to spread within the city walls.
The players' confidence was now at an all-time low.
They were finally starting to grasp just how enormous the gap between them and the monster truly was.
Forget hurting it—they didn't even have the right to catch a glimpse of it.
Realizing this, the players' morale began to collapse.
Many of them were already thinking of giving up.
At this point, all eyes were on Steve.
After all, Steve was the leader of this battle. The players had been able to defeat the low-level minions only because they had followed his orders.
If even Steve couldn't turn the tide, then there was no hope for them.
Seeing the looks they gave him, Steve could only sigh in frustration.
In truth, this battle had never been winnable. The fact that the players had even managed to defeat those low-tier monsters was already an achievement.
Even though he had known this outcome was inevitable, Steve still felt a deep sense of defeat.
He had never anticipated that the situation would turn so dire once the White-Eyed Monster appeared.
Forget fighting back—the players who had died hadn't even known what hit them or what the enemy looked like.
The difference in strength was just too overwhelming to overcome with numbers alone.
As Steve was deep in thought, another loud explosion echoed across the battlefield.
Another team had been wiped out.
This explosion was like a death knell for the remaining players, shattering whatever confidence they had left.
"Shit!! If you're gonna kill us, do it already! Stop dragging this out!!"
"Damn it!! I can't take it anymore—I'm digging a hole to hide in!"
"What good will that do? You'll still get blown up…"
"Then I'll dig deeper! Maybe if I stack enough layers, I'll survive!"
"…"
By this point, most of the players had given up resisting. Some just wanted to die quickly, while others were trying desperate measures to survive.
Meanwhile, the players watching the livestream were equally suffocated by the tension, even though they weren't physically there.
"Damn it! Why is the monster so strong, but it's still taking its sweet time killing them?! Can't it just get it over with?!"
"Some predators toy with their prey before finishing them off… get it?"
"This is pure despair. They can't even die quickly…"
"He definitely has a mind of his own... otherwise, why would he be tormenting them like this?"
"This monster's got a twisted sense of humor. Does it really enjoy watching people squirm in fear like this?"
"…"
Steve felt utterly powerless at this point. It was clear that the players could no longer provoke the White-Eyed Monster into revealing more of its abilities.
The players weren't capable of threatening it in any way.
And judging by the way it was killing them off at intervals, it almost seemed like the creature was toying with them.
That was what stung the most.
Steve had already resigned himself to his fate.
Just then, a series of wolf howls echoed across the battlefield.
The sudden sound startled the players, making them jump.
Looking toward the source, they saw that it was coming from a wolf owned by a player named Li Wei.
The wolf was sniffing at a pile of rocks and barking furiously.
"Ergou, what are you barking at?! You scared the hell out of me!"
"Sit down, now!"
Li Wei tugged at the wolf's collar, trying to get it to sit.
But no matter what commands Li Wei gave, Ergou wouldn't obey.
In the original Minecraft, wolves could be tamed and would follow players' commands to sit or stand, even attacking targets alongside them.
In this game, the wolves had been tweaked a bit.
They now had a monster detection ability.
If a monster got within five blocks of a player, the wolf would alert them.
This small change had made the game's mechanics more logical.
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