At this time, in the central control room that manages the test dungeon at the Adventurers' Association.
A balding middle-aged man, wearing an indigo formal suit that stands for the United Nations, rushed into the room in a panic.
Beside him followed a girl quietly licking a lollipop.
The girl was quite petite, but in contrast, her curves rose and fell, and the light pink cloth top could not hide them at all.
The girl said nothing, but when the guards near the man glanced at her, they all looked very alert and serious.
After all...
Players of the Heaven Hunt Squad, even if their level is not high, still mean scary potential and backing!
And a strange, moody temper!
As the middle-aged man rushed into the room, he shouted, "How is it? What is going on?"
"Have those Goblins been dealt with?"
"Has the Smith family's eldest young master been saved?"
The balding middle-aged man's aura was like he would eat someone.
"Which mirror dungeon did that group of level-10 Elite Goblins go to first?"
In the end, he even grabbed an unlucky staffer by the shoulders and shook him hard.
The string of questions left the nearby Adventurers' Association staff at a loss.
They only murmured,
"City Lord Hamilton, this..."
"We are also trying our best to check."
"As for the one from the Smith family, we can only confirm he entered mirror dungeon No. 6."
Hearing this, the middle-aged man lost his temper at once.
"Damn it! Still checking!"
Smack!
After a crisp sound, a red mark appeared on the face of the staff member grabbed by City Lord Hamilton.
"If something happens to someone from the Smith family, all of us will be buried with him!"
The middle-aged man took out his embroidered handkerchief and kept wiping his sweat.
He felt numb all over!
Who could have thought that the deadly Heaven Hunt Squad would run into a disaster-class boss's young form near Starling City.
Who could have thought that, to get bigger gains, they kept pressuring the BOSS and were not in a hurry to kill it, which made the BOSS release the special power of a disaster-potential monster —
Scarlet Tide.
This move makes a wide range of monsters go berserk, and is a special ability that disaster BOSSes use to trigger a monster siege.
Of course, Scarlet Tide also has benefits.
The drop level of monsters and the drop rate of rare items would rise.
The Heaven Hunt Squad wanted to use the tide's power, finish the disaster boss's young form, then clear another wave of monsters for extra gains.
In the end, the plan only half worked.
Scarlet Tide was released, but the BOSS ran away, and the range of Scarlet Tide from this disaster boss was abnormally large. The summary report from the Heaven Hunt Squad also said this tide seemed different from the normal version a BOSS releases.
As a result, Starling City was also within the tide's range.
The test dungeon mutated.
On floor five of the dungeon, there was only one Elite Goblin before, but for some reason it became dozens like this, and these Goblins were extremely berserk and could fight together!
Worse, the dungeon's own mechanics also mutated.
The test dungeon had 16 entrances and could have 16 mirror spaces at the same time, not affecting each other.
But the place where those more than ten Goblins were could lead to every mirror space of the dungeon.
Put simply, as long as they had enough time, this group of Goblins could kill everyone who entered floor five across the sixteen mirror dungeons!
After the dungeon mutated, if you die, it's a true death. You won't respawn!
At first, this wasn't a big deal. The test dungeon has a limit: players above level 10 can't enter.
Players under level 10 are all over Starling City. If some die, the city lord wouldn't feel much pain.
Who could have known that the young master of the Smith family, which controls the United Nations' Casa State, happened to pass by Starling City and, on a whim, went into the test dungeon.
When City Lord Hamilton heard, he went numb and rushed over nonstop.
But...
These staffers only told him they were trying their best to check.
In other words...
The rescue hadn't even started yet?
Isn't that game over!!
Given the strength of the berserk Goblins, that young master by now...
Is probably already clubbed to death!
"We're all done for!"
City Lord Hamilton roared!
"Reminder: it's you all, not me." The girl licking the lollipop suddenly shot back.
She looked calm.
"Still, you don't need to rush."
"Because rushing won't help. To break the dungeon's level cap, you need at least a legendary-grade item."
"Do you have one?"
"Right now, the most any country or force can do is observe what's happening inside a dungeon."
"For example, in this test dungeon, at most we can check whether that group of Goblins is still alive, and the players' survival."
"Yelling at these people won't help."
"In short, you're doomed."
This cute-looking girl spoke the cruelest words.
At once, City Lord Hamilton turned pale, cold sweat pouring, and he nearly blacked out.
But suddenly someone cried out.
"Holy crap!"
"That group of Goblins all lost their life signs at the same time."
"Our monitoring shows they took a single extremely powerful hit and were all one-shotted!!"
Huh??
What did you say??
A second ago the staff's noise only made City Lord Hamilton more irritable.
But when he heard those last two lines,
his expression twisted in confusion!
What did you say?
The Elite Goblins are dead??
And then you say they were even killed in one shot—do you hear yourself!
Isn't the test dungeon capped at level 10? A level-10 player facing an Elite Goblin—don't even talk about a one-shot—can they even take one fifth of its health with one move??
The staff also looked full of disbelief, but they stepped aside and revealed an LCD screen to the city lord.
It replayed the data changes from just now.
Before, the dozens of Elite Goblins showed on the monitor as green moving dots.
But suddenly, a red glow of being attacked flared around them!
In the next moment, the green dots all went out.
This meant the Goblins were wiped out!
"They're really dead??"
"Could the monitoring data be wrong?"
City Lord Hamilton kept a bit of reason even in his wild joy.
But...
Suddenly, a player in leather armor shouted with great joy from outside the door.
"City Lord!"
"Young Master Smith came out!"
"After I went into the dungeon, I found that group of Goblins. In mirror dungeon No. 8, they were burned to death by some kind of fire."
"I don't know which big shot did it!"
"Young Master Smith never even ran into the Goblins and returned safely!"
Holy crap!
Really!
That group of Goblins really got taken care of??
This player was exactly the one who, after seeing Richard's attack, saw the Goblins wiped out.
"Tell me in detail what really happened?"
Before the city lord spoke, the girl licking a lollipop crunched the candy to pieces and walked forward.
Her once indifferent face suddenly became much livelier.
The player in leather armor did not dare to slack and described in detail what he saw.
He included how not even the Goblins' bodies were left, and how under that scary fire the ground was blasted into a pit, charred black all around...
"It felt like a strong expert made the move!"
"Could it be that someone has been protecting Young Master Smith and went into the test dungeon with him?"
"Big families really have deep backing."
...
As the leather-armored player spoke, everyone present also accepted this idea.
The Elite Goblins were killed in one shot by someone.
There was both the monitoring data and the city lord's trusted man's story. The proof was solid.
They all started to come up with a reasonable explanation for this.
But the girl suddenly spoke.
"Are you idiots?"
The girl slowly took another lollipop out of her bag and put it in her mouth.
"The dungeon's level limit is impossible to break."
Once she said this, the happy looks on everyone's faces froze.
"Then how did the Elite Goblins die?"
A staffer looked puzzled.
To his surprise, the girl really did explain.
"For players under level 10, soloing one Elite Goblin is something many of our Heaven Hunt Squad rookies can do."
"But one-shotting more than ten is impossible."
"No matter what gear and skills you have, it won't work. The buff cap of gray quality is there."
"But there is one case that can explain that scary damage..."
It can be explained??
Hearing the girl, everyone was confused again.
Before, you said so much to say that the instant kill of the Elite Goblins was not reasonable.
And now you say it can be explained?
Come on, that's nonsense. How do you explain it?
"An S-rank damage talent can achieve this result!"
The girl's tone was calm, but the whole control room's mood instantly froze!