Unreliable Sword Immortal.

The defense mini-game embedded in Chapter 193

【Precious Dragon Technique: Due to a unique physique, a special body is formed, allowing cultivation of the Precious Dragon Technique. A special map, Precious Dragon Profound Heaven, has been born within your body, considered your inner world. Complete the difficulty level and save your progress to advance your Precious Dragon Technique realm.】

Currently, the Treasure Dragon Technique is at the beginner level, and the [Difficult Trial] can be unlocked.

Upon completing the [Difficult Trial 1], the Treasure Dragon Technique's cultivation level can be raised to the entry level.

宝龙诀入门可提供属性加成为：10000点生命值、1000点攻击力、100点防御、10点韧性、1点速度。

Note 1: Dragon Trial is a small-scale save defense game that allows multiple players to team up. After starting the trial, make good use of game resources to resist the invasion of wild monsters. Successfully defending against a certain number of waves is considered passing the level.

Note 2: Completing the Treasure Dragon Trial will upgrade your Treasure Dragon Technique level, providing more attribute bonuses and special abilities. Please explore on your own for details.

Note 3: During the defense process, there is a small chance of dropping save items. Save items can affect the player's defensive strength or actual ability. Please explore on your own to find out more.

Note 4: In the defense game, you can participate in various challenges through the equipment shop, gold coin shop, experience shop, dragon demon shop, and spirit energy shop. Please explore on your own for details.

Note 5: The defense game features numerous random settings and hidden easter eggs; please explore them on your own.

Lu Chao frowned as he read the description of the [Precious Dragon Technique] on his attribute panel.

He was a little confused.

I don’t understand!

"Developing a special body through drug use is acceptable, and it's normal for a special body to be able to cultivate the Dragon Treasure Technique. But is cultivating the Dragon Treasure Technique just playing a simple defensive game? That's outrageous..."

Lu Chaoding now understands that the Hongchen Sword Realm is a real game world. He had a fleeting fantasy that the Treasure Dragon Technique was a real cultivation method. Now he fully understands that a game world is just a game world, and improving one's cultivation level doesn't rely on arduous training, but on playing mini-games.

"Fine, a mini-game it is then. Let's see what kind of setup it is."

Lu Chao brought up the cultivation interface of the [Treasure Dragon Technique]. This interface displayed the [Treasure Dragon Technique]'s realm information, save information, attribute bonus information, difficulty clearance records, save items, N1 (Difficulty 1) introduction, and so on.

There are also options such as "Invite Players" and "Start Game".

Lu Chao felt like he was facing a computer game interface, and he began to study it silently.

According to the description given on this interface, for the [Difficulty 1] level, you only need to defend against 10 waves of monster attacks and defeat the final BOSS to pass the level.

Lu Chaoding could choose to defend alone or invite other players to defend. He clicked on the "Invite Players" option and found that he could only invite two players: "Spiritual Chef Niu Daren" and "Alchemy Master Lingqi Guo".

"What kind of weird setting is this? Why can I only invite these two players? Can't I invite real players?"

Lu Chaoding studied it for a while and found that he really couldn't invite real players. It was probably because "Master Chef Niu Daren" and "Alchemy Master Lingqi Guo" were AI players installed in his cultivation cave and were natural friends, so he was able to invite them.

He now limits the number of players he can invite to a team defense to a maximum of one.

"It's not very meaningful to just study these descriptive details; I'll experience it for myself first."

Lu Chao selected the "Start Game" button, and then, after a brief moment of darkness followed by a flash of light, he found himself in a strange environment.

"Ding! You have entered the Mysterious Dragon Heaven!"

"Ding! Please select the game difficulty!"

"Difficulty 1!"

"Ding, game difficulty confirmed!"

"Ding! You are both the guardian and the protected in this defense game. Your ability is set to [Balanced]. If you are defeated, the game is lost!"

"Ding! Creating a random game character for you!"

"Ding! You have obtained the game character [Macaque], possessing the skill [Monkey Fist]. You can gain powerful attributes and more skills through leveling up. Please explore on your own!"

"Ding, Narrator: Cultivation is defying the heavens, like rowing against the current. Your body is as strong and healthy as a dragon. To advance, you must resist the invasion of external demons. The game will begin in one minute. Your initial resources are: 100 gold coins, 10 spiritual energy, 1 dragon blood..."

Lu Chao looked around and saw a bright void a hundred meters high opposite him. A stone path connected him to the bright void. He then found that he could only move within a small square of one square meter. His attribute information had also changed. He was now a defense game character with the words "Macaque" in white above his head. His level was only LV1, with 100 health points, 1 attack power, and zero experience points.

As for his various skills as a sword immortal, they are all gone now, except for [Monkey Fist], which is a passive skill with a 5% chance to trigger a double attack when attacking.

"So I'm a macaque now, and the game starts, monsters appear from the other side and attack me, the macaque? If I get killed, I lose the game; if I survive ten waves and defeat the final boss, I win?"

Using what he had learned, Lu Chaoding continued to observe and soon discovered five orbs of light—gold, red, green, white, and black—on one side of the road.

These five orbs are shops: Gold Shop, Equipment Shop, Experience Shop, Dragon Demon Shop, and Spiritual Energy Shop!

The game has not yet started, and these five shops are not yet open, but their attribute information can already be viewed.

[Gold Coin Shop (Difficulty 1): Consume 10 gold coins here to challenge the Gold Coin Monster. Defeating the Gold Coin Monster will reward you with gold coins. There is a 10-second cooldown period for challenging the Gold Coin Monster.]

[Equipment Shop (Difficulty 1): You can challenge an Equipment Monster here for 100 gold coins. Defeating the Equipment Monster will reward you with a low-grade equipment chest. There is a 30-second cooldown period for challenging the Equipment Monster.]

[Experience Agreement (Difficulty 1): You can challenge an experience monster here by spending 1000 gold coins. Defeating the experience monster will reward you with a small experience book. There is a 60-second cooldown period for challenging the experience monster.]

[Dragon Demon Shop (Difficulty 1): Spend 10000 gold coins here to challenge the Dragon Demon. The Dragon Demon appears randomly, and its strength is uncertain. Defeating the Dragon Demon gives you a chance to obtain various items such as gold coins, spirit energy, experience books, equipment, equipment chests, and save items. Please explore on your own for details. The cooldown time for the Dragon Demon challenge is five minutes.]

[Spiritual Energy Shop (Difficulty 1): Spend 10000 gold coins here to challenge a Spiritual Energy Monster. Defeating the monster grants a large amount of Spiritual Energy, which is crucial for player advancement. The cooldown for the Spiritual Energy Challenge is five minutes.]

"These five are all challenge shops... which means that in addition to fighting regular monsters, you can also spend resources to challenge these special monsters?"

Lu Chao muttered to himself, but before he could figure out the specific uses of the various game resources, the game started.

With a hum, a flash of light appeared in the sphere opposite, and then a green toad jumped out.

"Ding! 100 green toads are attacking!"

A system notification sounded.

Lu Chao looked ahead and saw that the green toad was only the size of a fist, green in color, with 10 health points and 1 attack power, looking quite pathetic.

It croaked and hopped forward, and a second later, a second green toad jumped out.

"So the first wave of monsters is these green toads? I'm a dignified sword immortal, the leader of a sect, cultivating the Treasure Dragon Technique, and I'm starting by fighting toads?"

Lu Chaoding was ready to fight the toad, but then thought he could easily take one down with a single punch, so he immediately opened the gold coin shop and spent 10 gold coins to challenge the gold coin monster.

Quickly, a large group of glittering gold coins appeared from the light sphere opposite. These coins were as big as washbasins and floated forward. They were the Gold Coin Monsters, with 20 health points and no attack power.

"Wow, how many gold coin monsters are there! Thirty of them!"

Lu Chaoding's spirits lifted. The gold coin monsters were much faster than the green frogs, and they swarmed together, quickly approaching Lu Chaoding.

"I'll beat you to death!"

Lu Chao swung his fist and attacked the coin monster. He killed one of the coin monsters with the first two punches and got a coin with a ding.

"You get one gold coin for every gold coin monster you kill?"

Lu Chao didn't have time to think too much. The gold coin monsters didn't stop and just kept moving forward, but he couldn't move. Judging from the situation, he couldn't eliminate them all. He just wanted to kill as many as he could. You know, he bought these gold coin monsters for 10 gold coins, so he had to kill at least ten to make it worthwhile.

"I'll hit, I'll hit..."

Lu Chao attacked with both hands, even using his feet.

This is probably the busiest moment I've had since entering the game world.

However, the coin monsters, like passersby, had no interest in him and continued at their own pace. Finally, about ten seconds after leaving Lu Chao's peak, they suddenly disappeared.

"Don't run! Don't run!"

Lu Chaoding shouted loudly. At this moment, the first green toad hopped in front of him. This green toad was different from the gold coin monster. It was like a tiger and actually jumped up and hit Lu Chaoding's knee. With this jump, pounce and ram, Lu Chaoding lost some blood.

"What a brave toad! Prepare to die!"

Lu Chao stomped the green toad to death with one kick, and two seconds later, he stomped the second one to death. By the time the third green toad jumped up to attack him, there were no more gold coin monsters left in the area. Lu Chao had killed thirteen and seventeen had run away.

He grinned and muttered, "Only three dollars? That's too risky! And if this keeps up, each hit from the green toad will whittle me down, they could wear me down to death. I might not even survive the first wave. No, I need to practice dodging!"

Lu Chaoding was starting to panic. If he were to be killed by a hundred green toads, or even perish together with them, it would be quite embarrassing.

Suddenly, a green toad that had been killed dropped a treasure chest.

"A treasure chest appeared!"

Lu Chao immediately spotted the only dropped item and picked it up. Then, a golden light flashed around him, and he actually leveled up to LV2 with full stats: 120 health points and 12 attack power.

"Haha, we've upgraded! We'll definitely get through this first wave!"

Lu Chao breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon after, he opened another treasure chest. With a thought, the chest lid opened, and a system notification sounded, indicating that Lu Chao had gained ten points of "spiritual energy".

Before long, a third item appeared, also a treasure chest. After Lu Chao opened it, he found a white piece of equipment inside, named [Beast Hide Gauntlets], which had the attribute of increasing the wearer's attack power by 1.

Are the dropped items random?

Lu Chao equipped himself with animal hide gauntlets and continued fighting. After defeating 100 green toads, his body flashed with golden light again, and he leveled up to LV3.

"That's it? It doesn't seem that difficult. What are the monsters in the second wave?" Lu Chao looked towards the bright passage opposite him.

A system notification sounded: "Ding! 100 steel-needle hedgehogs are attacking!"

"Holy crap, a steel-needle hedgehog! This little monster probably has a damage reflection ability, right?"

Lu Chao muttered something to himself, and soon he saw the Steel Needle Hedgehog, a small monster with an attack power of only 2 points.

Three minutes later, Lu Chao, filled with resentment, died under the siege of the steel-needle hedgehog.

His first defense game ended in failure. He didn't save any game, and his character automatically exited the game map and returned to his original position.

At that moment, Lu Chaoding received a system notification: "Ding, the Occasionally Unreliable System has activated, issuing a mission: Clear the Treasure Dragon Trial on Difficulty 1. Mission completion reward: Unreliable item +1!"

"That unreliable system is at it again!"

Lu Chao raised an eyebrow. He understood that with his current strength, he would not be able to pass the lowest difficulty level of the Treasure Dragon Trial if he defended alone.

"Looks like we'll have to form a team. We can only team up with one person right now. Should we team up with the spiritual chef Niu Daren, or the alchemy master Lingqi Guo?"

Lu Chaoding made a quick decision. A moment later, he pulled the Spirit Fruit over and said, "Master Ling, come on, let's team up and play a game!"

"What game are you playing? I'm studying alchemical formulas!"

Lingqi Guo is usually quite busy, but at Lu Chaoding's insistence, she teamed up with him and entered the Treasure Dragon Trial game scene together.

This time, Lu Chaoding's game character has changed. Although it is still a balanced type, it is no longer the [Macaque], but has become the [Little Tiger], with the skill [Critical Strike] and a passive chance to trigger a double attack effect!

The Spirit Fruit is positioned as a "support" character, named [Toad], whose ability is "Activation," providing one point of health regeneration per second to the entire team.

Of course, he also has offensive capabilities, and he can even attack from a distance.

In addition, the two can adjust their positions.

"With two people, the pressure will be much less!" Lu Chao thought quickly for a moment and said, "Master Ling, you stand behind me, I'll take the brunt!"

"All right!"

The Spirit Fruit observed its surroundings, clearly showing curiosity about this game space.

After the defense game started, Lu Chaoding immediately bought a wave of gold coin monsters. This time, the two of them fought together and intercepted all 30 gold coins.

"30 gold coins have arrived! Haha, I've got it now, let's continue!"

Lu Chaoding then bought another batch of gold coin monsters and easily cleared them out.

The first wave of green toads didn't put enough pressure on Lu Chao, who could continuously challenge the coin monsters. He quickly accumulated 100 coins and challenged another wave of equipment monsters.

There was only one equipment monster in a wave, a level 3 [Big Fat Bear]. This [Big Fat Bear] had attack power. It slowly climbed up to the top of Lu Chao and then began to mercilessly slap the top of Lu Chao.

Lu Chaoding and Lingqi Guo were in a flurry of activity and almost lost their lives. After killing the [Big Fat Bear], Lu Chaoding had less than ten health points left.

"Oh no, am I going to fail again? Ugh, I shouldn't have challenged the equipment monster so early!"

Lu Chaoding sighed. [Big Fat Bear] dropped a low-grade equipment chest. Low-grade equipment chests can only contain low-level equipment. Lu Chaoding didn't have high hopes for this chest. But after opening it, he found a [Blood Drinking Sword] inside.

This [Blood Drinker Sword] adds 5 points of attack power and also has a 50% life steal effect.

Lu Chao was overjoyed. He held the Blood-Drinking Sword in his hand and said, "Low-grade equipment is this powerful?! Damn, this is so exciting! This time, I might be able to clear the level!"

(End of this chapter)