Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

"Peak Golden Core stage!" Yang Chen grinned. "That's impressive!"

Li Xianyu paused with his staff, and grayish-white smoke billowed out. Three ancestral phantoms lunged at the sides of the hellhound; Tie Dan's manhole cover flew out with a whoosh and smashed into the hellhound's right eye; Kong Wenbin chanted, and a golden shield enveloped everyone.

Cheng Cheng drew his sword and joined the battle.

One minute later, the hellhound collapsed.

"Experience +600"

Keep going.

The second monster was a writhing mass of flesh and blood, like an aggregation of countless hands—another mass of limbs, but much smaller than the Elbow Strike Demon, only at the early Silver rank.

After the others restrained it, Cheng Cheng rushed forward and killed it instantly with a single sword strike.

"Experience +100"

The third monster was a group of rabbits.

Cheng Cheng's eyes lit up, and he charged forward with his sword in hand.

"Leave all these little dancers to me!"

Three minutes later, dozens of rabbits turned into corpses, while the others screamed and ran away, disappearing without a trace.

"Experience +30" "Experience +30" "Experience +30"...

Li Xianyu looked at him with a strange expression: "Sister, why are you more excited about killing rabbits than killing demons?"

"The thought of me indiscriminately killing Xiao Wu while Tang Shenwang could only watch makes me incredibly happy!"

Cheng Cheng flicked the blood off his sword, and Sylvia sighed softly in her mind:

"It's starting again..."

Keep going.

Turning a corner, Tie Dan suddenly stopped and pointed to a building on the side of the road:

"That room looks like we can go in?"

It was a three-story building with gray-white exterior walls, faded posters pasted on the windows, and a half-open door revealing a dark crack.

Kong Wenbin made a gesture, and Tie Dan pushed open the door, observed for a moment, and after confirming that it was safe, the group filed in.

The building was dark, with only one room containing an ordinary wooden box covered in dust.

"Treasure chest!"

Tie Dan rushed over, lifted the lid, and a flash of lightning stung everyone's eyes.

Inside the box lay a row of transparent glass jars, each containing leaping blue arcs of electricity, like trapped lightning.

“Bottled Lightning…” Kong Wenbin muttered to himself, “I’ve found something good. This is a one-time use weapon. Once released, it’s equivalent to a full-force attack from a Gold-tier weapon, capable of penetrating a hundred-meter-tall building.”

The group carefully divided the jars equally, put them into their backpacks, and continued on their way.

The streets remained empty, and the buildings remained silent.

They encountered several more waves of monsters—a group of early-stage Silver Shadow Hunters, a carnivorous plant disguised as a trash can, and a nest of multi-rabbits hiding in an underground parking lot, and so on.

The experience bar slowly rose, and Cheng Cheng's level went from 22 to 24, eventually reaching 25.

The sky remained gray and unchanged.

"Looks like the eighth floor isn't too dangerous for us," Li Xianyu breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought the kingdom's dungeons would be terrifying—"

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt a shiver run down her spine!

"No, no way..."

An invisible sense of oppression instantly descended upon everyone, and they all froze at the same time. Cheng Cheng turned his head with difficulty and looked at the end of the street.

There--

A monster has taken over the entire street!

It has a tiger's head the size of a truck, with golden fur covered in black stripes, each stripe writhing, and a sharp beak and a blood-red comb on its head; a black bear's body, as tall as a hill and as wide as a city wall, with bulging muscles under its black fur, and sharp, knife-like claws that are deeply embedded in the asphalt of the ground.

"Roar--!!!"

It let out a roar, and the sound turned into a real shock wave that spread in all directions, causing the glass of buildings on both sides of the street to shatter at the same time, with shards falling like rain!

Tie Dan bled from all seven orifices and immediately fainted.

The illusory image of Li Xianyu's ancestor instantly dissipated;

Kong Wenbin's shield was torn to shreds like paper. Paul immediately activated his Golden Sanctuary, shielding Cheng Cheng behind him, and drew his longsword.

"Damn it! What bad luck! I actually ran into the gatekeeper boss today!"

"What kind of monster is this?!" Li Xianyu's hand gripping the staff trembled. "This aura... I feel it's even more terrifying than the crashed demon..."

“You’re right,” Paul gritted his teeth, his hand gripping the sword stiffening slightly. “According to the survivors who encountered the boss, its combat power has surpassed the Gold rank, but because it hasn’t reached the Legendary rank, it’s called ‘Platinum’!”

"And the kingdom named it—"

"Chicken, tiger, bear, wolf, dog!"

Chapter 32, Slaying Bears, Wolves, and Dogs, Ascending to the Platinum Throne

Amidst the horrified gazes of the crowd.

The chicken, tiger, bear, wolf, and dog slowly lowered their heads, their blood-red vertical pupils sweeping over the crowd on the street, like a cat sizing up a group of mice trapped in a corner.

Then--

It pounced.

The mountain-like body moved incredibly fast, the streets trembled beneath its feet, and the buildings on both sides were smashed to pieces by its massive body, with debris flying everywhere and dust filling the sky.

"spread!"

Before Kong Wenbin's shout had even finished, the bear-wolf-dog had already rushed in front of him!

Paul stepped forward, standing at the very front of everyone, arms outstretched—

Behind it, countless thick arms grew wildly!

Elbow strike to the spark!

Each arm was bulging with muscles and veins, which emerged from Paul's shoulder blades, spine, and ribs, densely packed, like a tree of flesh and blood blooming in an instant.

Paul pushed off the ground with both feet, and his whole body soared into the air!

"Man—!!!"

He roared and swung out more than a dozen arms at the same time, each elbow carrying the force to split mountains and shatter rocks, raining down on the heads of the bears, wolves, and dogs!

"Man! Man! Man! Man——!!!"

The dull thud of elbows hitting flesh was like thunder. With the blessing of Paul's Gold Rank, the power of the elbow strike was many times stronger than the original demon's. The truck-sized head of the bear wolf dog was hit and it staggered back half a step!

"All birds have vanished from the mountains!"

Cheng Cheng raised his hand, and orange light spread from his palm, instantly enveloping the surrounding hundred meters.

The bear, wolf, and dog's limbs, which were about to leap up, suddenly sank and were forcefully pressed back to the ground!

"It can't jump anymore!" Cheng Cheng shouted. "Attack it from the air, suppress it!"

Paul soared through the air, his dozen or so arms striking in rapid succession, each elbow leaving a deep indentation on the bear-wolf-dog's body. He moved with lightning speed, striking from the bear-wolf-dog's head to its back, and from its back to its side. The power of his elbow strikes surged within him, allowing him to shatter the bear-wolf-dog's defenses with every blow!

"Use Bottled Lightning!"

Kong Wenbin gritted his teeth, took out the bottled lightning from his backpack, opened the cap, grabbed a bottle and smashed it hard against the bear-wolf-dog!

"boom--!!!"

Paul quickly took off, keeping his distance from the bear-wolf-dog. Then, countless black arcs of electricity exploded, and lightning bolts as thick as telephone poles struck the bear-wolf-dog, scorching its fur black!

"Again!"

The second bottle, the third bottle, the fourth bottle—

Lightning bolts struck one after another, blasting the bears, wolves, and dogs backward, their bodies billowing thick, acrid smoke!

"There's hope!" Yang Chen's eyes lit up. "Brothers, charge with me—what are you going to do about it?!"

He roared, and with the enhancement of his pupil technique, his physical strength surged. He grabbed his giant axe and charged forward!

"Yang Chen, goodbye—"

Before Kong Wenbin could even utter a shout, Yang Chen had already reached the bear-wolf-dog's feet. He leaped up, his giant axe cleaving towards the bear-wolf-dog's forelegs—

The bear, wolf, and dog lowered their heads, and raised their massive wolf claws.

Then I snapped a picture.

"Bang--!!!"

Yang Chen's body was slammed into the ground, the street pavers shattered, creating a crater three meters in diameter. He coughed up blood, his ribs broken, and struggled to get up—

The bear, wolf, and dog retracted their claws and lifted him out of the pit.

"Yang Chen!!!" Li Xianyu screamed.

The bear-wolf-dog opened its huge jaws, revealing a dense array of sharp teeth, and then threw Yang Chen into its mouth!

"Click".

Yang Chen's upper body still tried to struggle, waving his arms and kicking his legs, but the huge mouth had already closed, and sharp teeth pierced through his waist and abdomen. Blood gushed out like a fountain, flowing down the corners of the bear-wolf-dog's mouth.

Then release.

Yang Chen's upper body fell from mid-air and crashed to the ground with a "bang".

The lower half was still in the bear's, wolf's, and dog's mouth, being chewed on like a cartilage.

"No—!!!" Li Xianyu's eyes reddened.

She waved her staff wildly, and grayish-white smoke billowed out. Ten, twenty, thirty—all the ancestral phantoms she could summon surged forth and pounced on the bear, wolf, and hound!

Swords slashed, spears pierced, and spells bombarded—the attacks from those phantoms landed on the bears, wolves, and dogs, leaving only shallow white marks.

The bear, wolf, and dog didn't even bother to look at them. They simply raised their paws and swung them like swatting flies, and the three phantoms instantly dissipated.