Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 746 What you defeated was merely my illusion.
[Skill Stone Illusion: Golden Legendary, Skill Stone, Consumable. Use from inventory or crush directly.]

Based on the unique ability of Demon Lord Astaroth, which forces players to complete a second playthrough, it undergoes special evolution according to its own abilities.

[You can now see the special effects that will occur if you study this method.]

【Illusory Illusion: S-rank skill/Lv1, active skill】

Consumes 50% MP to create a false illusion based on oneself, which is difficult to detect and will immediately replace the current self. At the same time, the original self will enter the illusion and will be temporarily unable to interact with the real world. The original self's consciousness will be projected onto the false illusion.

This illusion will inherit 100% of the original body's attributes and equipment, and can use all of the original body's skills and carried items. However, the skills and items used will share the same cooldown time as the original body. The illusion lasts for a maximum of 480 seconds (5 times the original body's base spirit attribute) and can be dispelled by the user.

When the illusion ends or dissipates on its own, the original body will directly replace the illusion and return. During this period, all skills, items, mana bars, etc. will enter their normal cooldown and be consumed. Meanwhile, the illusion will enter a 60-minute cooldown period.

When the illusion's HP reaches zero during its duration, your main body will gain the right to choose to return to the real world at any time within 60 seconds. When you choose to return, the current area will undergo a small-scale pseudo-time rewind.

When you choose to activate Pseudo-Rewind, all skill, item, and mana costs incurred while using Illusion will be reverted to their state before the illusion was used. Only Illusion itself will be unusable for up to 7 days. Simultaneously, the damage and losses on all other units affected by Pseudo-Rewind will remain at the level they were at when Illusion was destroyed.

[Additional comment: It's an illusion!]

Cheng Tian stroked his chin, looking like he was possessed by a goblin.

Clearly, the skill stone in Cheng Tian's hand is a special skill derived from the Demon King Astaroth's forced second playthrough ability.

After a preliminary reading, Cheng Tian felt that this was a strange pseudo-time reversal ability, and that it required some special means to trigger.

For example, after activating the illusion, Cheng Tian's real body will hide, and the illusion, completely controlled by him, will appear directly.

If, during the illusion, Cheng Tian is killed instantly by Eileen's 200MP Storm Strike while he has consumed one bottle of Divine Dragon Ancient Water and used Hundred Demon Night Walk to put the skill on cooldown, then the current area will be slightly reverted.

Cheng Tian himself will be able to go back to the point where he has never used the Divine Dragon Ancient Water, and the Hundred Demon Night Walk has not entered the full cooldown period. Only the Illusory Illusion cannot be used for 7 days.

However, at the same time, the 200 MP that Eileen used with Storm Strike was actually consumed "prematurely," and the skill itself would go into cooldown, instead of being reverted.

This is clearly the first amazing technique used to draw enemy fire!
Furthermore, if you can accurately assess the opponent's damage output, or even self-harm to control your health, you can use the illusion to absorb the most threatening skill effects and massive damage from the opponent.

The only thing to note is that the rewind effect only works on yourself; it's a pseudo-rewind for teammates and enemies, and the consumed items cannot be recovered.

However, none of this is a problem. As long as you have Gold Skill Points, there will always be more possibilities.

This derivative skill reveals that the Demon King Astaroth should actually be more difficult to defeat. For ordinary players, the first encounter with the Demon King will inevitably trigger an illusion, and all the efforts made to clear the previous 6 stages will be wasted.

While his ability to successfully defeat Astaroth was partly due to his already sufficient strength, the most crucial factor was that Arthur and his group of human knights fought their way through the first playthrough and brought back the map of the Demon King's castle that could dispel illusions.

Without a map, the Demon King might still be no match for him, but he would inevitably have to do a third playthrough...

It's not difficult, it's just disgusting.

With six levels of scenarios to buy time, who knows what kind of trouble the Demon King Astaroth might cause during this time.

The skills were great, Cheng Tian liked them very much, but now he faced a bigger problem. He had no more empty skill slots...

Cheng opened his skill bar and glanced at the six skills in the innate skills section.

百魔夜行B级Lv7、主宰A级Lv4、泰坦之握B级Lv4、恶魔协奏曲B级Lv4、精神力战法起源Lv5、午夜赐福B级Lv1。

If you want to learn Illusion immediately, you'll have to forget one of your skills to free up a slot.

Of these six inherent skills, the most important to Cheng Tian are Hundred Demon Night Parade, Domination, and Origin of Mental Force Combat Techniques.

The most interesting and hardest to give up is Midnight Blessing, and in a sense, the reason why I was able to establish a relationship with the Root of Mars is because of this gender-bending ability, so from the perspective of the Legion, it cannot be given up casually.

That leaves only Titan's Grip and Demon Concerto.

Titan's Grip may seem insignificant at first glance, but it is an important passive ability that is almost always present on Cheng Tian.

Its existence not only gave Cheng Tian an extra weapon slot that he could switch between at any time, but also reduced the basic equipment requirements by 50%. Furthermore, it allowed Cheng Tian to use his magic book to cast spells while holding a two-handed greatsword in one hand when necessary.

Especially after obtaining the Key to the Golden City and being able to unlock the Gate of Babylon's ranged weapons, lowering the basic equipment requirements allows him to carry more weapons without reducing their base damage. This is because this usage method only calculates the weapon's own damage and is not affected by the "50% damage reduction when wielding a two-handed weapon with one hand" effect.

All things considered, only the Devil Concerto has a relatively low profile, or rather, it's not used very often.

Currently, Cheng Tian has two items that allow him to forget skills: one is the Tear of Lieblom, which comes once a month, and the other is the Essence of Styx Water obtained from the "King of Fighters '97 MUGEN" dungeon settlement.

However, the former can only delete skills; skill stones and invested skill points will also be deleted.

The latter, on the other hand, can refund the skill points or even skill stones consumed.

Of course, besides resetting skills, there is another way out, which is to change jobs a second time.

Unfortunately, the second job, which requires a perfect combination of killing intent and the power of Orochi to trigger, is obviously not so easy to obtain.

We still need to keep working hard.

"What did you get on your end?"

Having made his decision, Cheng Tian leaned forward and looked at Bazett, then saw another skill stone.

Whether it was intentional or not, Cheng Tian unleashed an illusion, while Bazett unleashed a "cycle curse," effectively squeezing out every useful thing from the Demon King.

As for its skill effects...

Do you know about Kunkka's "X mark" in Dota?

(End of this chapter)