"Is it strong enough..." After hearing Qin Lu's words, Zach paused, deep in thought.
For now, this statement could only be accepted as a temporary belief.
As for why low-level zombies don't experience fear, while higher-level monsters do, it could only be attributed to their inherent intelligence.
[Successfully killed the three wolves! Congratulations on getting the customs clearance treasure chest! 200 kill points!]
[Successfully killed the Goblin Commander! Congratulations on getting the customs clearance treasure chest! 210 killing points!]
[Successfully killed the Ice Lion King! Congratulations on getting the customs clearance treasure chest! 230 killing points!]
[Extracting...]
[Calling...]
...
In the blink of an eye, Zach and Qin Lu had reached the tenth floor. There were still ten minutes left before midnight.
Shock was evident on Qin Lu's face, as she was clearly still trying to process the previous shocking scenes.
Zach hadn't even moved; he had simply summoned the five-headed dragon and had it kill their foes time and time again. In Qin Lu's eyes, Zach's overwhelming strength—so powerful it could only be described as abnormal and invincible—rendered his opponents powerless to fight back!
Although Qin Lu had seen Zach in action, the targets he had killed—zombies and low-level mobs—didn't really convey the true extent of his power. They were far weaker than the gatekeeper bosses, so they hardly served to showcase Zach's full capabilities.
Qin Lu was intensely curious about this.
She observed him carefully, so engrossed that she didn't even notice her surroundings.
"Ah!"
Before Zach could offer a warning, she bumped directly into the stone door of the boss room on the tenth floor.
It didn't seem serious—just a small scratch on her forehead.
"Focus," Zach warned, "The atmosphere on this floor is different from before. Be careful not to lose your life."
"Oh, I understand now."
In truth, Zach didn't even need to remind her. Despite the door being tightly sealed, Qin Lu could already sense the overwhelming danger emanating from it!
The oppressive aura felt so strong it was as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping her neck—firm yet just enough to keep her from suffocating, not fatal, but deeply unsettling.
It was unlike any other BOSS room she'd been in before!
Before, there had never been such a strong sense of impending doom before entering. It felt as if every inch of her body was screaming at her to turn back, to escape, to save herself!
Rumble!
Then...
Qin Lu watched in disbelief as Zach casually pushed open the massive stone door, as though it were a door to his own home, and all her concerns seemed to evaporate.
With a sigh, she turned her attention to the task at hand, equipping her weapons and gear from the system's fifth-level storage. If there was truly a foe that even Zach couldn't handle, she needed to contribute in some way. She refused to stand idly by and die without doing anything!
Making up her mind, she began opening the treasure chests she had acquired, hoping to use them before it was too late.
From her expression, though, Zach could tell that the treasure had bolstered her confidence.
Boom! Boom!
Zach, losing his patience, pushed the thick stone door with all his strength, smashing it against the wall with a loud crash.
The wall crumbled, and debris scattered around.
Unlike the earlier rooms illuminated by torches, the light in this tenth-floor room came from gemstones growing directly on the walls.
Were they worth anything? Zach couldn't care less.
Scattered, irregularly growing on the walls, directly above them was a cluster of gemstones that could rival any chandelier in extravagance.
Qin Lu, having worked with gems in the past, could immediately tell that these stones were far superior to anything on Blue Star, their transparency rivaling that of the purest glass.
But now, none of this mattered—no one would willingly pay for these when bread or water were of more pressing concern.
Wait! Why was she even focused on this?
Qin Lu snapped out of her thoughts.
Boom!
A sound from behind startled her as the stone door slammed shut.
Shaking herself into focus, she looked around. "Strange... why haven't I seen the boss yet?"
Just as she finished speaking, three portals suddenly opened before them at a distance of thirty to forty meters!
Each portal was different in color.
In the black portal, blood-red lightning flickered as it swirled.
In the gray-white portal, blue lightning danced in the same swirling motion.
And in the dark purple portal, mesmerizing purple lightning crackled.
It was... different...
The bosses Zach had faced on the fourth floor hadn't been like this.
Bang! Bang! Bang...
"Something's coming out!" Qin Lu raised her guns, her brows furrowed in anxiety as her heartbeat quickened.
Zach remained silent, his focus locked on the three portals.
Armor? Warriors?
No, the texture didn't seem like metal—it was more like bone.
As the three figures emerged, the lightning became more intense and dazzling.
When they fully materialized, Zach instinctively muttered, "Dragon men?"
It wasn't random naming; their blood bars confirmed it.
Zach immediately recognized them as dragon men, but with a twist—these were not the typical dragon men. One, a white dragon man, had gray hair and a chest adorned with an X-shaped, blue crystal pattern that glowed with a rainbow-like brilliance.
The joints of his limbs were also lined with this glowing crystal, sparkling with multiple shades of blue and fiery colors that gleamed like diamonds under the sunlight.
On top of his head, he bore a single, fierce horn.
Their body structure resembled that of humans—at least in terms of arms and legs—though their outer bone armor was segmented and layered smoothly, mimicking muscle lines. Especially their abdomen, which was a set of perfect ten-pack abs.
Rather than toes, their feet ended in tapered legs with contact areas no bigger than Zach's pinky finger.
Each of these dragon men possessed wings, but the white dragon had four wings. When unfurled, they bent upwards like the main bone of a whip, with secondary bones branching out to connect the membranes. These wings were lined with intricate, circular patterns that glowed with diamond-like fire.
Zilongren, the largest of the group, stood out with his broad face and six symmetrical purple eyes, exuding an eerie, otherworldly presence. His face was also adorned with bony mandibles, and his dragon horns resembled a trident.
The chest and waist of this being were decorated with fiery purple crystals, which, together with other sporadic crystal markings on his body, completed the picture of an otherworldly creature.
The four wings that grew from his back were as long as his body, and compared to the white dragon men, they resembled bird feathers, thick and clearly defined.
But the most disturbing was the Black Dragon. Its eight red eyes and the bone-like armor that lined its body made it impossible to tell whether the creature was a head or a neck.
Crowned dragon horns curled menacingly on top of its head, and on its back were tiny wings, with larger, more grotesque wings sprouting from its waist.
The red gemstone on its chest, shaped like a grimace, was a chilling detail.
In short, these dragon men were unlike any dragon beings Zach had encountered before. They were terrifyingly unique, more like demonic entities than any dragon he'd ever seen!