The sizzle—!!
A flash of red light, and a crimson gravitational field suddenly appeared around the Watcher.
Mo Zhi's attack was immune due to the invincibility frames of the force field. Simultaneously, because she was too close to it, she lost a significant amount of health from the burning.
"Ow ow ow!!"
Mo Zhi immediately slid to create distance, then popped a health potion to max out her status.
At this moment,
She began to miss her shield and crossbow. It was at times like these that parrying and ranged attacks were most useful.
Otherwise, she could only trade blows with the red force field.
"It's over, guys, what should I do?"
Mo Zhi's face was a picture of misery, finding herself in a dilemma.
'You can do this first, then that, and then this and that.'
'Hearing your words is like reading ten years of books in one go!'
'I saw Old Man Yin pass through using a ranged weapon.'
'Streamer, you can try to face the boss head-on. Its red force field is definitely not permanently invincible, otherwise, it's an unsolvable problem for players without ranged weapons.'
The viewers offered Mo Zhi advice one after another.
"I'll trust you guys this time."
Mo Zhi hesitated for two seconds, then charged forward with her blade, "I'm going to fight you to the death!"
...
Meanwhile, 'Lian Po' Tuantuan also arrived at the black bridge.
"Huh?"
"Where did the monster go?"
Flap flap!!
"Oh my god!"
"You scared me!"
"Why are there a bunch of fluttering moths on this bridge?"
Tuantuan steered her slightly clumsy cell-like character forward. She was going for a sturdy, high-HP, high-defense build.
Although not agile, she prioritized a sense of security.
"So that's what's going on, it's you, you little runt, blocking the way."
Seeing the Watcher, Tuantuan wasn't intimidated. She was thick-skinned and could afford to let the boss hit her a couple of times.
"Your grandma is here."
"I parry!"
"I parry!"
"I parry again!"
Tuantuan's keyboard clattered, and her mouth was just as active. "Huh, it turned red?"
"Yaya yaya!"
"That stings a bit, that stings a bit!!"
Even with her thick skin, she couldn't withstand the continuous discharge from the red force field.
"Numbness, numbness!"
"What should I do if I can't get close?"
Just as she was fretting, the foolish, self-sacrificing Watcher came charging with his iron fists.
"Haha, here's my chance!"
It took Tuantuan five seconds to go from numb from the electricity to numb with laughter.
With her shield, she feared the enemy attacking first the least, especially such clumsy enemies.
Maxed-out parry meant hitting him was like hitting herself.
"I parry!"
"I parry again!"
"Wuwu, I parried them all!"
Soon, the boss's health was reduced to less than half. In contrast, Tuantuan's green health bar, which occupied most of the screen, had only dropped by a third, remaining very healthy.
Moreover, she still had a few health potions left unused.
Hoo hoo hoo!!
In its second phase, the Watcher unleashed several fireballs from its body, and fire pillars erupted from the ground.
The fire pillars couldn't be parried. Caught off guard, Tuantuan suffered a heavy blow.
"Ouch ouch ouch!!"
"It hurts, it hurts, I need to drink some milk to recover."
Tuantuan hopped around, scalded by the flames, and then she bizarrely discovered that jumping prevented her from taking damage.
Thus,
An amusing scene unfolded on the stream.
A headless figure bounced around on the bridge covered in fire, like a mischievous monkey.
The audience roared with laughter.
'Hahaha, this is fun!'
'But jumping really does reduce flame burn damage.'
'There's unburnt ground to step on, yet they insist on bungee jumping in the fire.'
'This creates good viewing material.'
...
After spewing flames, the Watcher was almost at its limit.
It used its final move—the crow dive.
With a stomp of its legs, it leaped forward, then accelerated in mid-air and smashed down onto the ground.
Boom!
Tuantuan maneuvered her cell-like character's bulky body, and with a wobbly roll, easily dodged it.
Then, she swung her shield directly into the boss's backside.
"Little flying shield, here I come~~~"
Bang—
Thump—!!
As its health dwindled, the boss instantly exploded into fragments, dropping a pile of blue cells.
[Obtained: Cells]
[Obtained: Gold Coins]
[Obtained: Golden Tooth (A golden tooth, worth 100 gold coins. This is ill-gotten gains...)]
[Obtained: Blueprint - Flint]
[New Item Unlocked: Challenger's Rune]
"We're rich, we're rich, everyone's rich!"
Tuantuan's eyes sparkled with gold, and she frantically gathered her loot. "The Nutcracker... sell it!"
"Flint... sell it!"
"The big golden tooth... sell them all, I want to sell all these items and replace them with the thickest shields."
Having tasted the benefits of shields, Tuantuan became even more engrossed.
Being a high-HP, high-defense warrior here was much easier than in Dark Souls. And although the pixel art style was dark, the colors were relatively richer.
It suited players like her who couldn't handle Dark Souls.
'As expected of the 'White Giveaway', quite friendly to newcomers.'
'I believed your nonsense, saw how smoothly you played, and excitedly bought it. Damn it, I died ten times in the first level, and immediately refunded it!'
'No, you guys don't think these streamers who can clear content have no skill, do you?'
'This game heavily relies on micro-manipulation. Little Tuantuan also died for an afternoon before finally choosing this tactical approach, and it's not even certain if it will work.'
...
The viewers were in a heated discussion. Although the "turtle shell" playstyle was a bit ugly, the details were all there.
Just to talk about parrying, the timing for that wasn't something anyone could learn immediately.
Furthermore, each monster in the game had a different attack pattern and speed, and the timing for raising the shield also needed corresponding fine-tuning.
"Wuwuwu... finally, someone understands my detailed play, I'm so touched."
In Tuantuan's stream, the bouncy character realistically made a gesture of wiping away tears.
She understood the importance of viewer engagement.
After clearing the stage, Tuantuan continued to guide her cell-like character towards the other side of the bridge.
[Proceeding to Misty Harbor and the Sleeping Sanctuary: The island's terrain is complex...]
In the rest area, Tuantuan encountered a new NPC and became incredibly excited. "It wasn't easy. Besides the old lady at the start and that blue-eyed uncle carrying a medicine pot, no one else has spoken to me."
"It was so lonely. Fortunately, I finally met another NPC uncle, even though he doesn't look very human..."
Approaching the NPC with red eyes, he indeed initiated the greeting: "Hey there, little one."
He seemed a bit surprised. "Oh, you actually made it here alive."
"Is that something a person would say?" Tuantuan was displeased. "Oh, you're not a person, then it's fine."
"I am the blacksmith. The collector over there and I have a cooperative relationship," the blacksmith said, pointing to the blue-eyed uncle not far away. "If you have cells, I can upgrade your items."
Clicking open the blacksmith shop, Tuantuan unceremoniously consumed all her cells to upgrade her level 4 spiked shield to lv4+.
Don't underestimate this '+'; while it might not be a qualitative leap, it was close.
Carrying the newly crafted shield, Tuantuan happily stepped onto the teleportation gate to Misty Harbor.
...
On the other side,
Mo Zhi, as expected, was defeated by the Watcher. Dual-wielding blades required decisiveness, decisiveness, and more decisiveness!
The moment she saw the red force field appear and pause, she knew her run was over.
Because she had mentally prepared for it, she didn't explode.
Embarking on her journey once more, she found a teleportation rune on the Avenue of the Guilty, which unlocked a new map—[Ossuary]!
Just as she thought its difficulty was comparable to [The Bulwark], another map in the third stage.
A skeleton cloaked in grey, wielding a purple longsword, appeared...
...