Second, even if the Meat Mountain Monster was stumbled upon through investigation skills or items, getting anywhere near it would mean navigating the hordes of the dead infesting the Minami-cho Shopping Mall. With Luo Jie's ability to one-hit kill cannon fodder, he'd only managed to clear less than four thousand corpses in a night. For others to break through that outer ring of death? It would take days, no question.
Third, even if a player team somehow overcame the first two obstacles and managed to engage the Meat Mountain Monster, they'd quickly face a maddening reality—it heals. Luo Jie had firsthand experience with its absurd regeneration speed. Nearly 3,000 points of accumulated damage vanished in the blink of an eye, as if it had never happened. A war of attrition against this thing would leave any team lacking in firepower tearing their hair out in frustration.
Combine that with its 360-degree omnidirectional tentacle attacks, both close-range and "sniper" style, plus its ability to summon tens of thousands of corpse minions at will, and it was clear: without a large, highly coordinated team, this hidden boss, the Meat Mountain Demon King, was essentially unkillable.
Finally, and this was the most critical point. The Meat Mountain Monster's mutated prototype was a Vomiter. And Vomiters, besides their signature "vomit" attack, possess a final, ultimate skill: "Self-Destruct." When a Vomiter takes damage and its health drops to a certain threshold, it will often choose to "Self-Destruct," taking its opponent down with it.
"Self-Destruct" not only instantly sprays all the mucus stored in its body in a 360-degree radius, triggering a massive corpse riot, but, even more infuriatingly, Vomiters that die this way aren't counted as player kills—no treasure chests drop at all. As a higher-level existence than a mere Vomiter, there was no way that Meat Mountain Monster had evolved and somehow lost such a spiteful, mutually destructive ultimate trump card.
Just imagine: a player team, after fighting tooth and nail, struggling desperately, finally on the verge of taking down the Meat Mountain Demon King, their hearts filled with joy as they anticipated opening the treasure chest and stepping onto the peak of their lives... when suddenly, the thing explodes in a glorious burst of... well, explosion.
That "screwed by a dog" feeling would be indescribably "what the hell..." And then there's the even more "what the hell" corpse horde stampede that follows. That spectacular scene, like a tidal wave in reverse, still made Luo Jie's scalp tingle just thinking about it. He could only say he was lucky enough to have a sudden brainstorm, remembering his poison [True·Smiling Half-Step Madness] that he used for harmless suicide. And the Meat Mountain Monster's Constitution attribute just happened to be below the 500-point threshold for the instant death effect. That's how he'd managed to seemingly effortlessly one-shot kill the Meat Mountain Monster in an instant, killing it in frustration before it could even unleash its "Self-Destruct" ultimate. If not for that, the story's ending would have been very different.
All things considered, if Luo Jie hadn't already far surpassed players of the same rank in strength, plus that crucial bit of dumb luck, this deeply hidden boss, the Meat Mountain Monster, would have remained unknown for another seven years, just like in his previous life. Let alone the earth-shattering secret of the rare EX-rank item it concealed.
Storing the [Mutated God's Blood] in his inventory, Luo Jie took a few deep breaths to calm the excitement churning inside him. He could suddenly understand why, in his previous life, the stronger players grew, the faster their power seemed to snowball. It was the so-called "Matthew Effect"—the strong get stronger, the weak get weaker. This rule was clearly reflected in a more naked and brutal way among Phantasm Realm players, who adhered to the law of the jungle.
Luo Jie's points had now exceeded 100,000. It was time to think about upgrading and enhancing. Of course, when he said "think about," the options actually available to him were quite limited: weapons and skills. To be more specific, the E-Gold weapons [Maid·Pufferfish Poison] and [Maid·Plum Oriole Poison], and the E-Purple skills [Secret Technique·Whirlwind Slash] and [Secret Technique·Steel-Cutting Flash].
[Maid·Plum Oriole Poison] could be immediately ruled out. Both of Luo Jie's weapon attack skills were exclusive to [Maid·Pufferfish Poison]; upgrading the former would be tantamount to crippling his own martial prowess. So, what remained was essentially a simple choice between two options—upgrade the weapon or upgrade the skill?
After careful weighing of the pros and cons, Luo Jie ultimately chose to upgrade his weapon, [Maid·Pufferfish Poison]. For him, upgrading the weapon offered greater versatility, especially suited for a cheater like him who often snuck into groups of cannon fodder monsters to go on a killing spree and farm points. Upgrading a skill was too situational; bosses, those walking treasure chests, weren't encountered every day, so the cost-effectiveness was really not high. What's more, an increase in weapon power would also boost the power of his skills to some extent. In this Tier 1 Phantasm Realm, as long as he didn't run into another outrageously overpowered hidden super boss like the Meat Mountain Monster, the power of an E-Gold weapon paired with E-Purple skills would be more than enough to handle any normal boss-level creature.
On his main interface, the 100,000 points flowed away like receding tidewater. The sheathed [Maid·Pufferfish Poison] transformed into a blue-white grid of data, rapidly beginning to recombine. Moments later, when the upgraded [Maid·Pufferfish Poison] reappeared in physical form, its appearance had changed from before. The originally ancient and simple black wooden scabbard seemed to have been reapplied with a layer of clear lacquer, radiating a new luster. The mouthpiece and pommel were adorned with exquisite gold-gilded cloud patterns, understated yet luxurious. The tsuba (handguard) also featured the same gorgeously shining gold-gilding, and the black cloth wrapping the hilt had been replaced with more comfortable and fitting black leather strips.
In contrast, the changes to the blade itself were minimal. It was still as bright as a mirror, as smooth as water. However, the moment he drew it from its scabbard, one could distinctly feel a howling gale, carrying a chilling murderous intent, roar out.
[Maid·Pufferfish Poison] Type: Katana Quality: E (Gold) Level: MAX Power: 500 Skill 1: Seven Torso Cuts (Passive) – +100% Power against living targets. Skill 2: Swift Wind Blade (Passive) – +100% Attack Speed, +30% Attack Range, can damage spiritual targets. Skill 3: Swordmaster's Heart (Passive) – Greatly increases resistance to mental-type spells, immune to Fear status, and has a chance to reflect. Skill 4: Shikigami Sealing (Active) – Can extract a creature's soul and seal it within the blade, making it a Shikigami to assist in battle. The higher the soul's compatibility with the blade, the higher the success rate, and the stronger the Shikigami after sealing. Conversely, the success rate decreases, and the Shikigami's strength is greatly reduced. Description: The treasured blade of an ancient Japanese swordsman of the Swift Wind. Legend has it that a wisp of the Wind God's remnant soul is sealed within the blade.
Luo Jie's eyes lit up slightly. Even though he'd had similar expectations, he hadn't anticipated that the fully upgraded [Maid·Pufferfish Poison] would receive such a substantial boost; it was practically a different sword from before. The fixed base power doubling aside, the "+30% Attack Range" from Skill 2 meant that this nearly meter-long katana now effectively had a reach of around 1.3 meters, comparable to a no-dachi used for horseback warfare. And the "+100% Attack Speed" was a massive compensation for Luo Jie's slow physical attack speed, a weakness resulting from his focus on Mental attribute allocation. Just this one aspect alone would allow him to go head-to-head in attack speed with Constitution-type players who had double his Constitution attribute without falling behind. In necessary situations, he could even disguise himself as a pure Constitution-type player, catching opponents off guard.