A single-player post-apocalyptic game, but with an all-female teammate mod.

Aono stopped three steps away from the door.

The door frame was taller than any of the previous ones, and the sides were no longer rough stone walls, but two stone pillars carved with complete sandstorm totems.

The door itself was no longer a hidden door of the same color as the stone wall, but a real, heavy bronze door.

The facade is covered with dense reliefs, each depicting a scene of some enormous sandstorm creature ravaging the wasteland.

The lines of the relief are inlaid with gold material, which emits a faint golden light, as if someone had poured liquid sunlight into the lines.

The entire door exudes a heavy, undeniable sense of "the end".

Even without Aono's years of gaming experience, any normal person could tell that the enemy they were about to face was definitely different.

Gazing at the bronze gate, the hairs on the back of Qingye's neck stood on end, and his heart was beating even faster than when he was facing two elite monsters.

It's not fear.

Rather, it's the kind of almost thrilling anticipation you feel when you stand at the foot of a mountain and look up at it.

"Phew... I need to rest for a bit."

He took two steps back, sat cross-legged five steps away from the bronze gate, and took out the food and drinks specially made by Dudu with buffs from his system backpack, distributing them to Ying and Ika.

He was confident, but never arrogant.

In particular, it concerns the safety of those around them.

Neither Ying nor Ika made excuses.

They didn't expend much energy, but they weren't as relaxed as Aono.

If you're facing the boss of this level next, it's essential to restore your health and status to the best possible condition.

Ten minutes later, Aono stood up and collected all the tableware.

"Let's go."

He walked to the bronze gate and braced his hands against the door panel.

A purple-haired mature woman and a pink-haired girl followed him on either side, and the three of them pushed open the bronze gate together.

102. New NPC teammates

The bronze gate slowly opened with a heavy scraping sound, and a sweltering heat several times stronger than that inside the passageway rushed out, mixed with the dry smell of sand rubbing together.

Aono was the first to cross the threshold, pausing for a moment inside the doorway.

The space before them was far larger than any of the stone chambers they had been in before.

The dome was so high that its entirety was almost invisible. Huge wall lamps, long since extinguished, were embedded in the four walls. The floor was paved with a complete mosaic of stone slabs. At the very end of the center was a wide, stepped throne carved from a single block of yellow sandstone.

Beneath the throne stood a dense, dark array of sand soldiers.

Aono's gaze swept quickly across the area.

Two Sand Generals, their tattered brass armor gleaming with a dull metallic luster in the dim light, their spears pointing diagonally at the ground, the sand-laden blades at their tips undulating faintly.

Two sand wizards, their robes trailing on the ground, their staffs topped with crystals that emitted a murky yellow glow.

In front of them, nearly a hundred sand soldiers densely covered most of the stone chamber floor.

The scimitars hung neatly at their sides, and the darkness beneath the masks all faced the entrance, like a silent wall of sand.

But Aono's gaze lingered on them for only a second.

His gaze swept past all the regular soldiers and the elite monsters, landing on the throne.

A figure far larger than General Sha sat there.

Its dark golden, sandy body was covered with tattered yet magnificent pharaoh armor, with intricate sandstorm totems carved on its shoulder armor, and a crown inlaid with a large yellow crystal on its head.

Its face was not a mask, but a face formed by the slow flow and condensation of fine sand. Its features were blurred yet majestic, and a pair of sandy yellow eyes looked down at the intruder.

Above their heads, a line of bright red system labels stood out prominently.

Desert Emperor lv.40 (BOSS)

"Desert Emperor..."

Aono's lips twitched. The moment he saw the name and appearance, a game character almost reflexively popped into his mind.

He is a hero from a game that was once incredibly popular across China and was still active in the MOBA genre when he traveled through time.

It was also called the Tsar, but was more often referred to as the Yellow Chicken.

And he was also standing behind the sand soldiers, wielding a golden spear, in the form of a pharaoh.

"...Alright, they're all about desert themes and Egyptian mythology, so it's not surprising that they crashed into each other."

As long as this monster doesn't yell, "Shurima, your emperor has returned!"...

He muttered to himself.

Despite his muttering to himself, his body had already instinctively entered battle mode.

This is the earliest level where we encounter a boss so far.

The excitement goes without saying, but so does the trepidation.

A well-organized formation of about 100 people, with two elites in the front row, two elites in the back row, and a BOSS with a bright red tag on his head...

This level of boss battle intensity is also unprecedented.

Moreover, this lineup is not a setup that can be easily overpowered in any game.

"Shadow, Ika, do what you can."

Aono lowered his voice, holding the alloy battle axe horizontally in front of him, with the dual attributes of lightning and fire already faintly flowing on the axe blade. "Safety first. If all else fails, bring Tifa and the others next time."

Ying nodded slightly, holding her naginata at an angle, her long purple hair gently swaying in the breeze that seemed to seep in from nowhere in the stone chamber.

Ika silently spread her pink and white wings, hovering lightly in mid-air, looking down at the entire sand soldier formation, ready to provide support at any time.

The battle erupted the moment Aono took his first step.

The next two minutes were less a battle and more a one-sided massacre.

The moment Qingye charged into the sand soldier formation, his alloy battle axe unleashed a massive arc of lightning and fire.

Wherever the arc of light passed, the sand soldiers fell in swathes like harvested wheat.

With each swing of the axe, at least three or four sand soldiers were severed in the middle, and the sand grains at the cut were burned to ashes by the aftershocks of the thunder and fire before they could even recombine.

Shadow's naginata transformed into a purple serpent, weaving and slithering among the sand soldiers.

She didn't even need to move her feet much; she simply stood still, spun around, and swept her body horizontally, causing the surrounding sand soldiers to split in two and collapse into scattered sand.

Ika launched missiles with precision in the air, each one hitting the fish that had slipped through the net and couldn't be dealt with in time.

The aftershocks of the explosion wiped out the sand soldiers one by one.

Although they lacked means to prevent self-healing, the Sand Soldiers were completely annihilated before they could regroup and were finished off by the Shadow or Aono.

The three of them worked together with astonishing efficiency.

In less than two minutes, the densely packed sand soldiers had been mostly cleared out.

Small sand dunes rose up on the ground, with the shimmering light of gold coins and materials faintly visible within them.

As the last few sand soldiers were reduced to scattered sand by Qingye's axe, the three of them had already reached the two sand generals and two sand mages.

General Sha let out a low growl like the friction of sand and gravel, and thrust out his spear at the same time, the sand-flowing blade on the spear leaving two yellow afterimages.

Aono didn't even try to dodge; he swung the alloy battle axe upwards with a sudden, powerful motion.

boom!!

Both spears were cleaved into pieces at the same time, and General Sha staggered backward, a huge crack appearing in his brass armor.

Aono did not pursue, but stepped aside to make way, and Kage's naginata had already transformed into purple lightning and pierced through the mask of one of the Sand Generals.

At the same instant, Ika's Apollo also struck another Sand General in the chest, and a burst of black and red light erupted, causing the sandy body to disintegrate from the inside.

After dealing with the two front-line monsters, Aono and Kage's afterimages flashed by, and the crystal on the Sand Mage's staff was destroyed by the two of them almost simultaneously.

The two sand wizards didn't even get to complete a single spell before collapsing into two piles of loose sand like punctured balloons.

On the throne, the desert emperor's face, formed from flowing sand, suddenly contorted.

It suddenly rose from its throne and let out a deafening roar.

"Roar!!!"

An invisible sound wave exploded outwards from its center, causing the entire underground palace to tremble. Large amounts of sand and gravel fell from the dome, and the loose sand on the ground was shaken into a frenzy.

But the moment the sound wave swept over Aono and his companions, it was as if they had hit an invisible wall, and not even the hem of their clothes was lifted.

Aono shook the sand off his hair, looked up at the Tsar on the throne, and his fighting spirit burned even brighter.

"Come on, let me see if I can take on the BOSS one-on-one now."

The Tsar leaped from his throne, his massive body trembling as he landed.

It slammed its dark golden sand spear into the ground, causing the entire stone chamber floor to tremble violently.

Countless grains of sand converged from all directions, coalescing around it to form a rapidly spinning sandstorm shield.

At the same time, it waved its other hand forward, and three huge sand spikes burst from the ground, piercing straight into Qingye's face.

It's incredibly fast and powerful. The sand currents swirling around the sand spikes can even cut through the air.

I never expected that the boss, who looked like a burly warrior, was actually a mage.

Caught off guard, if it were the previous Aono, he might have been in a very awkward situation.

but now……

The alloy battle axe, imbued with compressed lightning and fire power, slashed down fiercely from above.

The moment the axe blade collided with the sand spikes, the sand spikes shattered like glass.

The axe blade continued its momentum, cleaving directly into the sandstorm shield.

The sand grains inside the shield surged wildly in an attempt to repair itself, but the high temperature of the lightning and fire attributes melted the sand grains directly, and the shield dissipated like a punctured bubble.

The Tsar let out an angry roar, and the dark gold spear swept across the air with a piercing sound.

Qingye neither dodged nor avoided, but instead held his axe blade horizontally.

clang!!!

The clanging of metal made the entire stone chamber vibrate.

The Tsar was thrown back two steps by the enormous recoil, and a crack appeared in his dark gold armor.

Aono's wrist was also slightly numb from the shock, and he silently weighed the situation in his mind.

It's at least one level stronger than elite monsters, and its self-healing ability is much stronger...

Even if Shadow and Ika team up, they might not be able to defeat him, but if everyone goes together, they can definitely take him down.

Of course, this "everyone" excludes his situation.

In terms of combat strength, the Tsar's fighting force was barely over two thousand.

And he already has a combat power of nearly 5,000.

A difference of more than two times cannot be made up for by self-healing abilities and fancy skills.

The outcome of the ensuing battle was a foregone conclusion.

Qingye's attack rhythm became faster and faster, with each axe swing carrying a ferocious output of both lightning and fire attributes.

The Tsar's self-healing ability was indeed astonishing.

The cracks that were split open can reform in the blink of an eye, and the shattered sand grains will quickly flow back into the body.

However, Aono's damage output is higher, and it also has a severe injury effect, so its recovery speed quickly cannot keep up with the speed at which it is destroyed.

Three minutes later.

The Tsar knelt on the ground, sand leaking from his dark golden, sandy body through cracks, and the crystals on his crown were dull and lifeless.

It raised its head, its sandy yellow eyes fixed on Qingye, as if it wanted to say something, but in the end it only let out a low howl.