"Holy moly, it has 37 billion HP? Is this something that really exists?"
"So what if it has 37 billion? There are 40 million residents in Dawn City! If you average it out, each person only needs to deal a thousand points of damage. That’s enough to kill it in two hours. Are you telling me you can’t deal a thousand points of damage?"
"Well, that may be true, but isn’t this thing’s ability too terrifying? You have to die once every ten hits. How many people can withstand such a drain on their lives?"
"Exactly, and there’s the issue of experience penalties. It’s not a big deal for players below level ten as they won’t lose experience upon death. But for players above level ten, the experience penalty doubles with each consecutive death. If you die a few times, you’ll quickly drop back to below level ten... We’ve all worked hard to level up. I’m willing to defend the city and even die a few times, but I can’t possibly drop an entire tier just to defend the city!"
After these words were spoken, silence fell on the forum discussion for a few seconds.
The last person to speak expressed the concerns of most players: everyone is afraid of losing too much for defending the city.
"Didn’t it mention in the announcement that attacking the Shadow God will reward many high-value prizes, in addition to experience and prestige, including titles and even permanent life points?"
"These rewards sound tempting, but I’m unsure about the specifics. If the rewards can offset the experience lost upon death, I won’t mind participating..."
"So, has any of the top players tried it yet? What if the rewards are really good?"
While endless debates raged on the forum, atop Dawn city, Mu You, in his Mecha form with cannon in hand, began his attack.
Initially, Mu You was worried if two hours would be enough time to defeat the Shadow God. After all, an individual’s strength is insignificant in the face of such a powerful entity. A strategy involving the entire city would be necessary to stand a chance.
Indeed, as long as a boss has an HP bar in the game, players will eventually overcome it regardless of its strength, given that the rewards are sufficiently enticing!
As long as the rewards are highly valuable, players can indeed find various ways to slay even a deity. But if the rewards are unimpressive and players lack motivation, their inability to attract enough participants could lead to everyone failing to defeat the boss.
So, whether we can overcome this crisis depends on whether the rewards for attacking the deity are attractive enough!
Prior to posting the announcement, Mu You had discussed intel with Lin Xue. He then felt assured that the rewards would be enticing enough for other players to get involved.
During a previous battle with Lin Xue who equipped the Grim Reaper skin, her scythe caused tens of thousands of points of damage to the Shadow God. The feedback from that attack demonstrated that the rewards for slaying this god were indeed very high and enough to lure other players.
As the cannon charged for ten seconds and fired, a bright beam directly impacted the enormous Shadow Ghost, but it seemed to be absorbed like a drop in the ocean, causing no ripple.
But Mu You knew that his attack had the intended effect. The moment the cannon fired, several notifications appeared in his mind.
[Your attack inflicted 902 points of damage to Shadow God’s Shadow! Earned 1173 points of True Experience Value, and a permanent increase in HP by 902 points (cap at 5000 points).]
[You have gained 90 Fool Prestige points (cap at 5000 points).]
[God’s Devouring has been activated, 10% of your HP is forcefully deducted!]
[Since you inflicted more than 100 points of damage to the God of Shadows, you have been awarded the special title ’Proof of Courage’.]
[Proof of Courage: The Fool’s praise is a song of courage, a proof that dares to challenge a deity with a mortal body! Earned by inflicting 100 HP damage on any deity. When equipped with this title, your damage to deities increases by 10%, and the effect of God’s Devouring is decreased by 10%. No experience penalties are applied when killed by a deity in battle. (Non-transferable, only one title can be equipped at a time.)]
That’s right, doing damage to the Shadow God gives you corresponding experience and life points.
The "life points" here are similar to the remnants acquired previously by killing Shadow Ghosts. After all, it seems that the Shadow Ghosts of the Undead meet were made by the Shadow God. Directly attacking the Shadow God yields similar spoils to killing Shadow Ghosts, but the cap is at 5000 points, beyond which no more can be obtained.
Next, there’s a new title, Proof of Courage, which specializes in dealing with deities. Once equipped, it enhances damage against deities and weakens the effect of God’s Devouring.
Players normally lose 10% of their HP bar with each attack, a total of ten attacks will result in death. However, God’s Devouring can now only deduct 9% of the HP with each attack, taking twelve attacks to deplete a player’s life. This means every player gets two additional no-consequence attack opportunities.
Moreover, the most useful aspect of this badge is the last explanation: players will not be penalized experience points when killed in battle with a deity.
Just this bonus alone significantly eases the worries of mid to high-level players. When attacking the Shadow God, all they need to consider is whether their life span is sufficient. They don’t have to worry about leveling down, and with the permanent HP increase and prestige among other rewards for attacking the Shadow God, it is definitely a profitable endeavor for mid to high-level players!
Beyond all this, the truly exceptional prize for average players in this quest, is the unassuming experience bonus.