Chapter 23 - Chapter 23

"Good, there's still 45 minutes left."

 

Qin Feng breathed a sigh of relief.

 

These special bosses all had a time limit for how long they would appear in one place before disappearing.

 

Now, with 45 minutes remaining, it was more than enough time for Qin Feng to take down the **Golden Ghost Ship**.

 

"Let's begin."

 

He glanced at his "Shadow Strike" skill, which had just finished cooling down, and launched his attack on the Golden Ghost Ship.

 

**Shadow Slash!**

 

**-549!**

 

**-549!**

 

**-549!**

 

...

 

Five consecutive damage numbers popped up from the ghost ship.

 

Qin Feng's figure flashed, and then appeared again, throwing a poisonous dart directly at the golden bell on the ghost ship.

 

**-621 (Weak Point Attack)!**

 

**-207!**

 

**-207!**

 

...

 

The weak point of the ghost ship wasn't the skeleton holding the oar, but that golden bell.

 

After using his two skills, Qin Feng immediately went into **Shadow Form** and retreated to a safe distance at his fastest speed!

 

Just then, the skeleton on the ghost ship creaked loudly, and ghostly flames flickered in its hollow eye sockets.

 

Suddenly, torrents of water surged in the surrounding swamp!

 

Dozens of high-pressure water jets erupted from the area around the ghost ship in an instant!

 

Qin Feng knew full well that with his fragile health, if he got hit by one of those water jets, he'd be dead for sure.

 

Luckily, he was prepared.

 

He retreated right after his ambush. Even so, the water jets erupted all around him, narrowly missing him.

 

"The closer to the ghost ship, the denser the water jets."

 

"Unless you're a warrior in full silver-tier armor, you won't survive a single hit from those jets."

 

Qin Feng remained calm and composed, using his anticipation and movement to dodge the water jets from a distance, avoiding each one.

 

At the same time, after the water jets subsided, rotten water spirits began crawling out of the swamp…

 

There were twelve of them, each one as powerful as a silver-tier boss!

 

And killing these rotten water spirits didn't grant any rewards.

 

This was the most frustrating aspect of the Golden Ghost Ship boss.

 

If you didn't kill the water spirits, twelve silver-tier monsters would be enough to wipe out any team.

 

But killing them yielded no reward and wasted a ton of time.

 

The worst part was…

 

The Golden Ghost Ship summoned twelve more rotten water spirits every three minutes!

 

If a team didn't have enough damage output, the number of water spirits would keep increasing, leading to an eventual wipeout.

 

As for the ghost ship's health…

 

Even with Qin Feng's high damage, his two skills had only managed to reduce its health by a tenth.

 

This meant the boss had at least 40,000 or 50,000 health points!

 

For players whose skills generally dealt around 20 or 30 damage, killing this Golden Ghost Ship was nothing short of a pipe dream!

 

"Xiao Hei, I'm going to die once in a moment."

 

While dodging attacks, Qin Feng opened a private chat with Lin Liyu and instructed her, "Don't worry about the boss, just wait for me to return."

 

Lin Liyu was dumbfounded when she saw the message.

 

She replied, "Who's Xiao Hei?"

 

Qin Feng responded, "Aren't you Xiao Hei?"

 

Lin Liyu almost lost it, but she had no comeback… after all, her in-game name was **Black Goblin Big Plum**.

 

[TN: I don't know what xiao hei mean, sorry.]

...

 

Meanwhile!

 

On the road leading from Shell Town to the swamp, several players were searching everywhere.

 

"Damn it, does he really think I'm easy to bully?"

 

A middle-aged man in heavy armor, with a cross-shaped scar on his face, was angrily searching for any sign of Qin Feng.

 

This middle-aged man's codename was Iron Man.

 

Earlier, the trackers Qin Feng had killed were his subordinates.

 

"Back when I was taking down one legendary city after another in games, this kid was probably still sucking on his mother's milk!"

 

Iron Man was very interested in Qin Feng.

 

He had been trying to track Qin Feng for a while, but Qin Feng kept going invisible after leaving the town, making him impossible to find.

 

Finally, Iron Man saw his chance.

 

Qin Feng had left town with a girl!

 

"Ah, these young people… can't resist bringing a girl along so soon?"

 

Iron Man chuckled.

 

He thought, even if Qin Feng could go invisible, the girl couldn't, right?

 

As long as he followed her, he could uncover Qin Feng's secrets...

 

But to his surprise, Qin Feng had turned back and killed his subordinates!

 

Now, Iron Man was leading a group of twenty people, searching in the direction Qin Feng had gone.

 

Along the way, several of his lackeys were killed by monsters, but Iron Man didn't care.

 

As long as he uncovered Qin Feng's secret, it would all be worth it!

 

Finally...

 

"Boss, we've found the girl! She's on a cliff!"

 

"There's a swamp ahead, and that Shadow is fighting a boss solo!"

 

This discovery made Iron Man incredibly excited.

 

He immediately gathered his men, and the group of twenty rushed toward the swamp!

 

...

 

At this point, Qin Feng was still dodging the various water-based attacks from the Golden Ghost Ship, carefully timing his strikes with **Shadow Slash** and **Poison Dart**.

 

Due to the frequent boss attacks, Qin Feng had few opportunities to strike.

 

By the time he had reduced the boss's health to half, about ten minutes had passed.

 

In other words, Qin Feng was only able to find an opportunity to attack roughly every two minutes.

 

When the Golden Ghost Ship's health dropped to half, the ghostly bell at the ship's bow suddenly rang... An invisible soul wave spread out, rippling over an area more than 100 meters wide!

 

When the wave hit Qin Feng, he was immediately stunned!

 

Even though he was in stealth mode, the soul wave revealed him.

 

In the next moment, a massive water jet erupted beneath his feet, engulfing him...

 

**-1059!**

 

He was killed instantly!

 

This was the Golden Ghost Ship's half-health mechanic: a 5-second, large-scale stun that couldn't be avoided.

 

But Qin Feng had anticipated this.

 

——

 

[You have died. You lost 326 years of lifespan (non-tradable).]

 

[You have died. You lost 1087 days of lifespan (tradable).]

 

——

 

He had just lost half of his tradable lifespan.

 

The loss was significant, but not a big deal. As long as Qin Feng returned, he could pick up the tradable lifespan that had dropped.

 

As for the non-tradable lifespan, even if he recovered it from a monster, he would still lose 50%.

 

Of course, this loss was insignificant compared to the item that the ghost ship would drop!

 

Just as Qin Feng was respawning, Iron Man and his crew arrived.

 

They witnessed Qin Feng's death and the lifespan he dropped.

 

"Hahaha, this is my lucky day!"

 

"That fool got too cocky, thinking he could solo a gold-tier boss?"

 

"Alright, boys, let's take over the boss and pick up that Shadow's dropped lifespan."

 

"That huge gray-white orb must be worth at least several hundred days of tradable lifespan, right?"

 

Iron Man led his lackeys as they charged toward the Golden Ghost Ship!

 

But in just a few moments...

 

In the swamp, more than 30 silver-tier rotten water spirits, combined with the water jets from the Golden Ghost Ship, wiped out all twenty-four of them on the spot!

 

They didn't even get close to where Qin Feng had died!

 

Gray-white lifespan orbs were scattered all over the swamp!

 

The special boss that even Qin Feng had to die once to defeat was clearly not one that could be easily taken down.

 

Iron Man and his crew, who had just respawned back in town, were utterly dumbfounded.

 

"Dammit… how is that boss so strong?"

 

"How the hell did that Shadow manage to get it down to half health? What kind of sorcery is this?!"