Chapter 461: Deadly Silence! The Mad Second Phase! |
"Ya'er—! This Iron Man is insanely strong, holy crap!"
At the same time.
In Piao Teacher's livestream chat, Old Piao was sweating profusely.
Indeed.
Right after Golden Wind finished speaking as the main invited guest at this year's GDC and the promotional trailer was shown, the first day of GDC was essentially winding down.
Streamers and players from all over had thrown themselves into the game, diving into the freshly released, currently hot Dark Souls.
Naturally, Piao Teacher was among them.
In Piao Teacher’s stream, the heavily armored, massive figure swinging a gigantic two-handed axe — Master Gudda — was jokingly nicknamed "Iron Man" because he resembled the League of Legends champion "Mordekaiser."
"This is the seventh run, Piao Teacher, you must be sweating buckets."
Iron Man solo arena is so ridiculous hahaha...
No little hammer, only Sledgehammer Eighty
No little hammer is so realistic, one hit takes half your HP, every strike sets you on fire
I have one question — why isn't Iron Man banned?
Because Iron Man isn't on the ban list.
He’s just brutal, one hit takes half the bar
To be honest, they're all first bosses, but this difficulty feels higher than Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa, right?
Actually, purely from a difficulty perspective, it's not that bad. The key is this boss's oppressive presence.
"Exactly, his size is huge, and with Golden Engine's physical destruction effects, it's overwhelming."
"The presentation is fantastic."
Man, Piao Teacher must be drenched in sweat...
......
Watching the chat's endless teasing, Piao Teacher wanted to retort stubbornly, but felt embarrassed to open his mouth.
What could he say?
After all, he really was soaked in sweat!
At this moment he was even a bit breathless, looking nervous.
Keep in mind!
This was already his seventh clash with Gudda!
Terrifying.
This thing was far more frightening than Chained Ogre ever was.
Chained Ogre was only somewhat larger than a person and had two red eyes that were creepy, but his rigid stance and howling made him look not very bright.
At first sight he was intimidating, but you could still summon the courage to go pat him on the head.
After all, Piao Teacher considered himself a top-tier ninja, a formidable figure.
But Dark Souls was different!
He was essentially disposable garbage, wearing a loincloth as armor, holding a chicken leg like a weapon—purely pathetic.
And who was the other party?
The Ashen Adjudicator!
Every move was all dominance and ferocity!
Not only did he have explosive combat power, but more terrifyingly, his attack rhythm was disciplined, his tactics solid!
This thing looked like a demonic Lu Bu clad in heavy armor that could split the heavens and the earth—who wouldn't shiver watching him?
"Nope, nope, let me calm down first. Let's check on Old Ma over there."
Stepping out of the motion-sensing pod, Piao Teacher waved repeatedly, signaling he needed to settle his blood pressure.
He also wanted to see how his buddy was suffering, just to feel some psychological balance and laugh a bit.
Wolf-type games!
One big joy is watching others suffer.
With that said, Piao Teacher casually clicked into Ma Teacher's stream: "Come on, room check! See how busted Old Ma is!"
At that moment!
Ma Teacher's blade rose and fell!
He cleared two trash mobs in front of the fog gate and was lecturing in his livestream:
"Hey, don't panic when you play this kind of game, you know?"
"His attacks all have tells."
"If we can read his moves, taking him down becomes easy..."
While speaking, Ma Teacher took a deep breath.
Then he touched the fog gate and stepped into the arena again.
Watching Ma Teacher calmly talk in the stream, Piao Teacher couldn't help but chuckle:
"Lecture time again, huh Ma Teacher?"
"Let's see how this theory master puts it into practice, teehee!"
Ma Teacher was pretty lousy.
Especially at FPS and wolf-type games.
That was the consensus among most viewers.
What he usually did was come up with wild, clever tactics that his hands couldn't match—good awareness but poor execution.
This time!
As Ma Teacher reentered the fog gate, another one of his wild moves appeared.
Instead of retreating to observe like before, he ran straight at Gudda while the boss was slowly rising, then raised his chicken leg and smashed it into Gudda's body!
As Ma Teacher's chicken leg hit the Ashen Gudda, streams of black ichor burst out.
The viewers were stunned:
"What? Huh? What the hell kind of move is that? Iron Man's health bar hasn't even lit up yet. What's the point of running up and swinging?"
Faced with this, the viewers were delighted, roasting Ma Teacher as the king of inspiration.
However!
The next second!
As Ashen Gudda rose, a long health bar appeared!
The livestream viewers went silent in shock.
Because at that moment, Gudda’s health bar had actually been reduced!
"What the—?"
"What the—!"
Piao Teacher and the viewers shouted in unison.
So this shameless attack really did chip at Gudda's HP!
At this moment, Ma Teacher looked proud:
"See—? You must use your brain when playing games, understand? Only by using skills flexibly..."
Boom!
Gudda's heavy stomp as he rose interrupted Ma Teacher for a moment.
A quick roll and Ma Teacher dodged with ease, even slipping under Gudda's crotch and using the chicken leg to hammer his legs:
"Using prediction and understanding a boss's moves lets you easily..."
—!
As he spoke, seeing Gudda swing the great axe, Ma Teacher dashed aside:
"...control the tempo! Got it?"
While talking, he dodged and attacked!
Ma Teacher in the arena looked slimy, hiding under Gudda, using the difference in size and the boss's body to run harassment tactics.
He danced around with utter confidence and relaxed finesse!
Ah—
Those who came to watch for fun were dumbfounded!
Wait, did you hire a substitute?
This is too easy!
Under Ma Teacher's assault, Gudda's health bar vanished segment after segment, quickly dropping to nearly half!
The chat marveled—
Damn— Ma Teacher is awesome!
He's actually learning and summarizing
You can say Ma Teacher's reflexes are sloppy, but never call his awareness bad
He has something going on, those tiny steps are slick
Press for damage, Ma Teacher mainly focuses on endurance training
Goddamn endurance training...
Damn this is half HP already! Keep this up and it feels beatable!
"Pssh—"
"Maybe—"
"Ma Teacher—"
Could he really save the world—?
......
However!
Just as the situation became clearer—after having shaved off a full half of the boss's health while Ma Teacher remained near full health and seemed about to out-stamina the Ashen Gudda by wearing it down!
Bang!
Suddenly!
Without warning, Gudda staggered backward two steps, failed to steady himself, and with a thud fell to one knee!
"Eh—?!"
Ma Teacher’s swing missed and he froze.
The next second!
Creak—!
An indescribable sound came from the back of Gudda's head,
and Ma Teacher clearly saw strands of black, viscous liquid—like tentacles—sprout and spread from behind Gudda's skull.
In the blink of an eye!
That semi-fluid, tar-like substance coalesced into vine-like shapes that furiously grew out from Gudda's back!
Those vines converged, and at their forefront two red-glowing eyes opened!
The things had transformed into a pitch-black snake-shaped monster, parasitically attached to Gudda's back!
It was so enormous, towering far above Gudda!
It blocked the sky and shaded the sun!
A chilling, malevolent aura instantly erupted!
Human pus.
This was a disease spreading from the abyss, transferable between ancient dragons and humans.
It fused away sanity and humanity in the host, eventually bursting outward and consuming the host's mind until they went feral.
The telltale sign of infection was red eyes.
Of course,
These details would be revealed bit by bit in the game's official release.
Right now,
All players could see was a bizarre thing that had grown out of Gudda's back, occupying his upper body like a satanic serpent—twisted and black!
It blotted out the sky, as large as two Guddas.
The once intimidating great axe was now controlled by the dead, branch-like tendrils sprouting from the black snake.
The twisted Gudda, snake-headed and humanoid, rose slowly again.
At that moment,
The grand, solemn background music, accompanied by a high-pitched chant, turned manic and urgent!
[ROAR!!!]
Boom!
In an instant!
Before Ma Teacher could react for a heartbeat!
The massive black snake head opened its abyssal maw and lunged like a berserk draconic evil, snapping toward him!
Crash—!!!
The colossal serpent charged and smashed!
Brick and tile scattered everywhere!
The great axe slashed, the entire arena ruptured and collapsed!
A crushing force rolled over everything. Gudda—once all dominance and signature moves—became frenzied after this eruption!
Mad Gudda, in concert with the black human pus, slammed and pummeled across the arena!
Dust flew. Ancient sturdy stones crumbled like brittle porcelain, pulverized into dust!
Thundering charges severed the thick Roman columns at the arena’s edge; they toppled with thunderous crashes!
Thud! Thud!
Roar—
Boom! Boom!
Boom—!!!
[YOU DEAD]
Silence.
At this moment, Ma Teacher's livestream was utterly silent.
It seemed Ma Teacher had not recovered from the immense shock, even in death.
On the chat overlay, only overwhelming exclamations of astonishment remained—