Chapter 83 All Are Equal Before the Mirror
Dividing the story into two parts.

Let's set aside the outcome of Link's battle for now, and take a look at the battle situation on the Mirror Realm side...

At this moment, the members of Order finally understood what Feng Bujue meant by "All are equal before the Liuhe Mirror."

After several probes, the players discovered... that the Mirror Demon's main abilities were not complicated; they were actually "reflection" and "feedback."

The former could transmit the attacker's killing intent back completely intact, while the latter... was "damage feedback."

Note that it was "feedback," not "reflection."

Reflection meant that the defending party "bounced" all or part of the attacking party's released energy back; while the Mirror Demon's feedback was based on a different principle...

Let's take Ashura's Bawang Quan as an example... At that time, the skill undoubtedly hit the Mirror Demon, and the Mirror Demon completely absorbed the energy of the attack, without any of it being "reflected" back.

After being hit, the Mirror Demon was naturally injured. How serious was the injury? Expressed in numbers... it was about 21% of its total health; and this value was the damage difference produced by the interaction between "[Ashura Bawang Quan - Modified]'s destructive power" and the "Mirror Demon's survival value and defense."

The part that the Mirror Demon "fed back" was precisely this already calculated "damage difference." That is: the Mirror Demon was injured by a certain percentage, and the attacker received the same proportion of damage.

Why did the Mirror Demon say to Ashura, "If my body were as weak as yours, you would have died long ago?" What it really meant was... "If my defense wasn't high enough and my health wasn't thick enough, then you would have killed yourself while killing me."

Seeing this, some might think... the Liuhe Mirror Demon doesn't seem very strong, and at least this "feedback" ability is a bit of a liability.

But in reality... the reason for this "liability" is because it is inherently "too powerful," and the system had no choice but to turn its ability into this.

Just imagine, a monster that only lost 21% of its health after taking an [Ashura Bawang Quan - Modified] head-on, what kind of concept is its defense and survival value... If the Mirror Demon's "feedback" was changed to "reflection," or if "feedback based on damage ratio" was changed to "feedback based on power," then it basically wouldn't have to do anything; it could just stand there and be beaten to death and bounce all the opponents to death.

In short, the Mirror Demon's "divine" ability, or rather its design concept, is mainly reflected in the "defense" aspect.

It doesn't have much exaggerated destructive power, no particularly effective control skills, and no ability to suppress players' physical skills or body size...

The Liuhe Mirror Demon is a "defensive" monster that has an absolute advantage in "attrition warfare."

Aside from the anti-injury ability, its health is very, very high, its defense is very, very high, and the most outrageous thing is... it also has an amazing health recovery rate. It's like those late-stage Bosses that frequently appear in the Robot Wars series... its ability to withstand hits is obviously as smelly and hard as shit, and yet it can automatically recover 10% of its maximum health every turn. Anyway, it just drags on with you like this. If you can't handle it after all your team's spirit and ammunition are used up, then just give up... it will only become more and more hopeless as you continue to fight.

And what Ashura said earlier—"the method to defeat the Mirror Demon"—is roughly the same as the Boss battle strategy in Robot Wars.

The first step, including him, is for six people... all of them to step forward and surround the Boss.

The second step is to find their most comfortable output position and think about their means of output.

The third step is for everyone to simultaneously launch a continuous, rhythmic offensive against the Boss.

As for the method of attack, Ashura had also thought it through; there was no need to use very powerful moves, because those moves often had long cooldowns, consumed a lot of energy, and would increase the damage ratio of "feedback"; his strategy was... everyone should just use regular attack methods to hit, as long as they ensured that the intensity of the attack could break the Mirror Demon's defense.

Ashura's idea was indeed theoretically feasible: Assuming... he and the five members of Order could each deal 1% damage to the Boss every second (taking the average), then there would be 6% damage in one second; and assuming... the Mirror Demon's health recovery rate was between 2% and 4% per second; extrapolating from this ratio, the Mirror Demon would definitely die in half a minute at the fastest and one minute at the slowest. And at that time, the survival value of their six attackers, on average... each person would only lose about half their health at most; if all went well, they would only lose less than 30%.

It must be said that this was indeed a rather brilliant tactic, at least the tactical thinking was very correct.

Unfortunately, he ultimately miscalculated one thing...

"What's wrong?" After fighting for nearly five minutes, the Mirror Demon saw that the players were gradually slowing down their offensive, and asked, "Everyone... are you already unable to fight?"

"Stop talking nonsense! Can't I take a breath!" Gui Xiao replied in a fierce tone.

"I'm just... hiccup~" Meng Jingchan said with a wry smile, "I drank too much wine, I'm just a little drunk."

"Stop pretending, I think you used too much force and were injured too much by the feedback..." Sheng Yu Pian chose to remind Chan-ge to pay attention to controlling his health in a sarcastic way.

"Stop saying useless things..." Wu Si Can Xuan was more pragmatic; in the gap between his moves, he turned his head and glanced at Ashura, "I said... did you miscalculate something?"

"Haa... no... impossible..." Ashura's face looked very bad; the double pressure of physical and mental energy made him sweat profusely, "It should have died long ago!"

"I don't know when it will die, I only know that my health potion is the last one left... Counting the decline effect of multiple blood replenishments in a short period of time, I should burn incense if this last bottle can recover 10%." Zui Wo Chang Ran didn't pant much when he answered.

This guy was truly amazing... from the moment he entered the Mirror Realm, he was basically responsible for clearing the mobs for the entire team; not long ago, he also released a [Dragon Fist - Eruption] when besieging Feng Bujue; but right now, when everyone else's offensive was starting to slow down, only Zui Wo Chang Ran's rhythm hadn't been disturbed at all.

Perhaps outsiders couldn't see anything, but any professional player with a little skill could understand... this was the perfect demonstration of the skill of "controlling physical energy."

For example... for a standing jump, the average person might consume between 3 and 5 points of physical energy; only by deliberately adjusting one's breathing and movements would it be possible to complete it with only 2 points; and for Zui Wo Chang Ran, it would naturally be 2 points. The average person would consume about 4 physical energy points for ten such jumps; while Zui Wo Chang Ran would consume 2 points every time he made ten such jumps...

Taking this as an example, from small to large, accumulating little by little, even without counting recovery, the difference is considerable.

And this... is not some kind of talent; it is purely a skill learned through hard training. They are all professional players, so why are some able to reach the top and be revered by many players like gods? And why can some only muddle along in the second or third tier, substituting for others and leveling up for others? Of course, talent is very important, but to reach the peak, one must have the realization that "I don't even treat myself as a human being when I train," only then can one touch the realm that ordinary people cannot touch.

"Hehe... how ridiculous..." Listening to everyone's conversation, the Mirror Demon laughed, its eerie laughter sending chills down people's spines, "You clearly don't know anything, and yet you are confidently talking about some 'plan'."

At the beginning of the battle, Ashura was explaining the tactics to the Order members while fighting, anyway, he wasn't afraid of being heard by the other party.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, this became the Mirror Demon's capital to mock them...

"You few... should be considered extremely strong among your kind, right?" The demonic aura in the Liuhe Mirror was rising with the Mirror Demon's tone, "So, when you discerned some of my abilities, you took it for granted that you could kill me." It sneered, "Hmph... but have you ever thought about what else, besides abilities... affects the outcome? "What is the basic factor that determines 'strength' and 'weakness'!"

Hearing this, Gui Xiao was the first to react, and muttered, "Strength...?"

"Hahahaha... you got it right!" The Mirror Demon laughed loudly, and turned the mirror towards the four Drunken Dreamers, "You should have noticed it too, right? In fact... when I hadn't been freed from the 'seal' yet, I was already testing your strength."

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the four changed. Their reactions were all very quick, and they immediately understood... why they kept encountering blocking monsters along the way, why the combat power of the blocking monsters gradually increased, and... why when they decided to stop, the Mirror Demon would actively transform into a black ball, forcing them to move forward.

"Unfortunately... I didn't observe too much either, because you are very strong..." The Mirror Demon continued, "The demons that I released in my state at that time simply couldn't make you use your true abilities." It paused, "Of course, that doesn't matter. After the seal is broken, it's the same for this seat to test you personally."

During the process of the Mirror Demon saying these words, the players' attacks had stopped. Looking at the demonic aura that was surging out of the mirror, they all instinctively felt danger...

"On the other hand, you few... hehe... know almost nothing about this seat, and only glimpsed some superficial things, so you thought you could win against me." The Mirror Demon's words continued, "You really don't know the immensity of heaven and earth, and you deserve to die..."

Having said this, the Mirror Demon's tone returned to calm, and the demonic aura that had spread out from the mirror actually gradually materialized, becoming tangible demons and monsters.

"I might as well tell you clearly..." The Mirror Demon raised its disheveled head, "The kind of insignificant attacks you were doing just now will never be able to kill me..." Its next line could be described as terrifying, "This seat can recover 30% of its strength in one breath..."

The players understood as soon as they heard it that this monster's health recovery rate per second far exceeded their estimated figure... its actual value was as high as 30% or more.

"You..." And at this time, the Mirror Demon had almost finished speaking, "You should obediently accept your death and let your souls return to my wonderful mirror realm!"