Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

As the white light faded, the pungent smell of engine oil and rust filled the air.

Liu Nian stood beside a broken conveyor belt, his feet covered in sticky black grease.

The workshop was extremely spacious, with a towering metal dome overhead, from which hung giant, long-extinguished lighting tubes.

All around were rusty mechanical arms, mountains of discarded gears, and twelve steel constructs slowly turning around.

【LV.99 Rust Golem】

Their appearance is rough, like a cobbled-together tin can, with dark red rust spots growing at the joints, and their eyes are two dull red crystals. When they move, they make a teeth-grinding metallic scraping sound.

Deep inside the workshop, an exceptionally tall golem slowly rose to its feet. In its right hand it held a giant forging hammer comparable in size to a city gate, while its left arm was equipped with a multi-barreled launcher-like structure.

【Lv.99 Giant Hammer Overseer Golem BOSS (Regional Boss)】

The head, made of multiple layers of riveted steel plates, turned slightly, and two blazing orange-red flames, like those of a furnace, ignited in its eye sockets. It looked down at the intruder Liu Nian as if examining a defective product that was about to be crushed.

At that very moment, a system notification sounded:

[Hint: You have entered the 'Nine-Layered Corridor'—First Corridor: Resilience.]

[The current enemy strength, health, and skill effects have been dynamically adjusted based on the combined strength of the trial participants 'Liu Nian' and 'Shi Ri'.]

[Clearance condition: Completely eliminate all golem units on this floor within the time limit.]

[Synchronized timing: Now begins. If you exceed the opponent's completion time by more than 30 seconds, or your own battle time exceeds 15 minutes, you will be considered to have failed the trial.]

[WARNING: During the trial, all external communication channels and team voice chat will be forcibly blocked.]

[The trial begins!]

The moment the word "Start" was written, Liu Nian checked the channel.

Sure enough, he couldn't access any channel and was thrown into a closed arena.

Almost at the same moment the countdown began, the dark red crystals in the eye sockets of the three closest rusty golems suddenly lit up!

The thickest, rusted armor plate on their chests suddenly made a crisp "click!" sound, as if a rusted spring had snapped open and sprang outwards!

"laugh--!!!"

Thick, asphalt-like toxic fog, emitting a pungent, acidic, and metallic odor, surged forth from hidden nozzles beneath the armor, instantly enveloping Liu Nian within a ten-meter radius. It mixed with the existing oily smell in the air, creating a dizzying chemical reaction.

The moment the poisonous mist touched Liu Nian's skin, eerie dark green rust appeared on the surface of his skin at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then eroded deeper into the skin!

[You are affected by 'Rusty Mist'! You are taking true damage equal to 0.5% of your maximum health per second.]

[Additional: Physical armor and magic resistance reduced by 5%, movement speed reduced by 10%.]

Liu Nian frowned slightly.

"Starting with a high-stat percentage-based true damage?"

What's even more troublesome is that this poisonous fog can accumulate!

Liu Nian felt a chill run down his spine.

In the brief two or three seconds it took him to frown, because he was still in the fog and hadn't immediately moved away, a series of notifications appeared:

【The "Rusty Mist" effect has been stacked to 2 layers! Damage per second is increased to 1% of maximum health!】

【The "Rusty Mist" effect has been stacked to 3 layers! Damage per second is increased to 1.5% of maximum health!】

……

One layer is added every second...

"No wonder Devourer's subordinates couldn't withstand it."

This sustained high percentage of true damage is the bane of tanks!

"It stacks automatically every second... As long as you stay in the fog, it will keep stacking indefinitely," Liu Nian quickly judged in his mind.

We can't just tough it out; we have to take action.

Without further hesitation, he pushed off with his feet, stepping on the sticky oil and scattered parts, and sped sideways along the broken conveyor belt!

This action naturally attracted the attention of all the monsters.

"Creak! Creak! Boom!"

The twelve rusty golems' eyes blazed red in succession! They let out low, indistinct metallic roars and took heavy steps, closing in on Liu Nian from all sides! Each step caused the ground to tremble and splatter dirt.

And the real behemoth deep inside the workshop—the Giant Hammer Supervisor Golem—was also fully activated!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

It took a step! Heavy and slow, yet carrying a terrifying power that seemed capable of crushing everything!

With each step, the entire workshop vibrated, and mountains of discarded parts tumbled down.

The giant forging hammer in its right hand, comparable to a city gate, was slowly lifted with one hand. On the hammerhead, a dark red energy luster, like congealed blood, began to appear, yet it also emitted a scorching high temperature!

Its orange-red "gaze" was like a searchlight, fixed on Liu Nian, who was speeding near the conveyor belt.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The giant hammer overseer golem let out a deep, whistling roar and suddenly accelerated!

Its massive body unleashed a ferocity disproportionate to its size, charging forward like a runaway steel train! The giant forging hammer, glowing with intense red heat, was raised high above its head, its head trembling slightly from the infusion of energy, causing visible distortions and ripples in the air!

The next instant, the giant hammer, carrying the power to shatter mountains and split the earth, crashed down! Its target was the very area Liu Nian was about to step into!

This strike covered an extremely large area! Not only the point where the hammer landed, but also the area of ​​more than ten meters around the hammer's wind seemed to be imprisoned by an invisible force field, with the air as thick as a mountain, greatly limiting the space for dodging!

Liu Nian looked up at the terrifying hammerhead burning with dark red energy that was rapidly enlarging in his field of vision, his eyes cold.

Just as the hammer was about to touch the tip of his hair—

[Shadow Strike]!

His figure suddenly blurred and dissipated on the spot, like a wisp of smoke blown away by the hammer wind.

The next second, he appeared out of thin air on the back of the giant hammer overseer golem!

A broad and generous heart!

A silvery-white light enveloped his fist as Liu Nian unleashed a powerful punch!

"Clang—!!"

- 4,158,771!

A crimson damage number popped up above the head of the Giant Hammer Overseer Golem!

"The armor is very high." Liu Nian glanced at the damage and knew what he was getting.

Under normal circumstances, his attack after activating [Vast Mind] can deal at least five million damage, which shows that this golem has excellent physical damage reduction.

A constantly flashing dark red dot appeared on the giant hammer overseer golem.

Liu Nian followed up with another punch!

"Duang~!"

- 4,158,771!

[Heart of Steel effect triggered! Health +360000!]

Liu Nian seemed to feel a warm life energy flowing back into his body through his fist, but of course, this was just an illusion.

"This thing has a base health of... about 1200 million."

Liu Nian instantly estimated the BOSS's health based on the damage ratio.

"This nine-tiered corridor..." A hint of excitement flashed in Liu Nian's eyes, "It should allow me to significantly increase my attributes!"

The higher the enemy's health, the greater the benefit to him!

He then tested the rust golems, which had around 400 million health points. This meant that each trigger of [Heart Steel] would plunder 12 health points!

He glanced at the synchronization timer.

Less than a minute has passed since we entered.

"Hmm... I can brush for a while."

Although the poisonous fog was troublesome, Liu Nian was fully capable of handling it, and he began to consciously control the pace.

The sound effects of "Duang~Duang~Duang~" started to rise and fall again.

……

As the timer is about to jump to exactly three minutes—

Liu Nian, who had been playing around, suddenly turned sharp as a knife!

He stopped abruptly and stood steadily in the center of the workshop. He had been prepared for this moment. He had deliberately led the twelve rust golems and the giant hammer supervisor golem to a relatively concentrated area!

Although the fighting spirit value is not full, it is close to one-third.

Liu Nian slowly brought his right fist back to his waist, concentrating all his strength, fighting spirit, and killing intent into this single punch!

The surrounding air began to collapse wildly in front of him, distorting the light and forming a miniature energy black hole!

"Deliberate—Boom Punch!"

Throw a punch!

A concentrated burst of fist energy shot out from his hand! It swept across the area in front of him in a fan shape!

Wherever the fist's energy passed, the space itself groaned under its strain!

And those twelve rusty demon statues, and the giant hammer-wielding overseer demon statue that was precisely at the edge of the fist's energy path and was attempting to raise its hammer, were about to touch the fist's energy at the very moment...

"Bang——!!!"

- 10,558,724! (True damage)

A terrifying damage number popped up.

The massive bodies of the twelve rusty golems turned into iron dust and dissipated into the air.

The massive body of the Hammer Supervisor Golem suddenly stiffened, the orange-red light in its eyes abruptly went out, and the raised hammer fell limply to its side. Then, with a deafening roar, it fell backward and crashed heavily into the ruins, raising clouds of dust before falling silent.

[Hint: Liu Nian, Shi Ri, you have successfully passed the first level of the corridor: 'Resilience'.]

[Comparison of completion times: Liu Nian - 3 minutes 01 seconds; Shi Ri - 2 minutes 58 seconds.]

Synchronization rate...97%

[Second-level corridor: "Precision" will open in 10 seconds. Please prepare.]

The notification sound rang out simultaneously in Liu Nian's mind and in the mind of Shi Ri, who was in another space.

Liu Nian glanced at his own attributes.

In those three minutes, he plundered a total of 716 million health points! That's more efficient than when he was farming level 100 monsters in the Ruins of Ascalon!

"Pretty good." Liu Nian's face showed a satisfied smile. "This Nine-Layer Corridor must have at least nine BOSSes, right? If the bosses on the later levels all have this much health..." He was already looking forward to the rewards on the later levels.

Ten seconds have passed in the blink of an eye.

hum-

Another wave of intense spatial shift brought a sense of dizziness and pure white light.

When his vision of the sun-devouring beast returned to clarity and the dizziness subsided like a receding tide, he found himself standing on a metal platform about five meters on each side, suspended in the endless void.

The platform was made of an unknown dark silver alloy, its surface as smooth as a mirror, reflecting his enormous figure.

The platform is surrounded by countless giant gears of varying sizes that are slowly and steadily rotating!

The diameter of the gears ranges from several meters to tens of meters, and their thickness varies.

They are not arranged randomly, but rather nested, interlocked, and slowly rotated in an extremely complex and precise manner, much like the internal structure of a clock, forming a boundless, three-dimensional, multi-dimensional metal gear maze!

As far as the eye can see, there is only the slowly rotating, cold, curved metal surface and sharp teeth, with no end in sight.

Each gear gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, its edges sharpened to the point of being razor-sharp, and under the dim, cold light that seemed to come from nowhere, it flashed with a chilling glint.

They are not completely silent when they rotate, but rather emit a deep hum, the hum of millions of gears coming together to form a background noise that can drive anyone mad.

The platform beneath his feet swayed and tilted as the giant gears around him rotated, giving him the feeling that it might collapse, fall, and be shattered by the endless vortex of gears below at any moment.

[Hint: You have entered the 'Ninefold Corridor' - Second Corridor: Precision.]

[Completion Condition: Find the only exit and defeat the guardian at the exit before the maze structure automatically resets every 5 minutes.]

[Synchronize Timer: Restore. If you exceed the opponent's completion time by more than 30 seconds, or your own time lost exceeds 25 minutes, the trial is considered a failure.]

"A maze... and it resets..." The amber-colored bear eyes of the Sun Eater narrowed slightly, and his brows furrowed.

He hates levels that require puzzle-solving and path-memory, as it's not his area of ​​expertise at all.

He looked around and forced himself to analyze the situation calmly.

Within his line of sight, the "path" extending from the edge of the suspended platform where he was located was the suffocatingly narrow gap between the adjacent giant gears!

The width is only enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. In some places, you even need to accurately calculate the gear rotation cycle and squeeze through in the instant the gear teeth pass by!

Unsurprisingly, once the Sun Devourer gets stuck in the gears, it will surely die!

Each of these "dangerous paths" meanders deeper into the gear maze, only to be obscured by even more rotating gears a dozen meters away, disappearing into the shadows of the complex structure, making it impossible to tell which path leads to safety and which leads to a dead end.

There was no map, no markers, no hints.

"Hoo..." Shi Ri took a deep breath, suppressing the irritation in his heart.

He is the chieftain of the Demon Bear Clan, a warrior who has experienced countless life-and-death battles. How could he be intimidated by a maze?

Just then, his sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a swift, fleeting metallic gleam deep within the shadows of a gear array in the distance.

Something is watching us; it looks like there are enemies here too.

We can't hesitate any longer.

"Roar..." A low, muffled roar came from the throat of the Sun Devourer.

He leaned forward slightly, his fingers curled, and his nails grew longer and thicker at a visible speed, the tips gleaming with a metallic cold light, transforming into sharp claws that were even more suitable for climbing and tearing!

His size did not increase significantly, but his muscle lines became more defined, exuding an explosive sense of power and beast-like agility—this was a partial activation of the Demon Bear Clan's talent "Berserk," which greatly enhanced his basic physical attributes and beastly instincts while retaining most of his rationality and combat skills.

He chose the relatively "wide" gear gap directly in front of him as his starting path.

Without a running start, the massive body of the Sun Devourer displayed astonishing lightness and explosive power! He pushed off the edge of the platform with both feet and leaped down like a heavy cannonball!

He landed precisely on the edge of the giant, slowly rotating gear below, his claws lightly touching and pressing against the sharp teeth. Using friction and reaction force, he sprang up again as if weightless, tracing an arc, and accurately shot into the depths of the narrow passage he had chosen!

With its beast-like intuition, superb dynamic vision, and exquisite control over its physical strength, Sun Eater navigated the gear maze relatively smoothly.

He danced on the edge of a knife, sometimes daringly gliding across the surface of a high-speed rotating gear, sometimes precisely calculating the fleeting safety window between two opposing gears and darting through like a fish; sometimes, in the void where there was nowhere to hold on, he used his claws to fiercely pierce the side of a slowly rotating gear, forcibly "pulling" himself toward another path.

But soon, the real test came.

A three-way intersection appeared ahead.

The three channels, their width, orientation, and the speed and size of the gears on both sides all look exactly the same!

Each path leads deeper into a more complex and dark labyrinth, exuding the same aura of the unknown and danger.

"Damn it..." Devourer stopped on a relatively stable gear protrusion, his brows furrowed in a frown.

He closed his amber bear eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm his boiling fighting spirit and anxiety.

As the chieftain of the Demon Bear Clan, he not only possesses ferocious power, but also has an extraordinary sensitivity to natural elements, which is another aspect of his racial talent.

With intense concentration, perception, like invisible tentacles, slowly extends into the depths of the three channels, capturing the extremely faint energy flow and air disturbances that are imperceptible to ordinary people.

One second, two seconds...

Suddenly, his tightly closed eyelids trembled slightly.

"To the left... deep within the passage, there's a very faint but continuous airflow disturbance? Like... wind? No, more like a directional flow generated by some kind of energy cycle..." The Sun Devourer suddenly opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing within them. "The exit might be in that direction!"

Without further hesitation, he roared and chose the leftmost passage. Using all four limbs, he accelerated again, darting into the depths of the passage like a dark brown lightning bolt!

Just as his body fully entered the passage, a sudden change occurred!

"Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!"

From the seemingly seamless shadows of gears on both sides of the passage, dozens of palm-sized, incredibly sharp metal flywheels suddenly shot out without warning!

The flight trajectories of these flying wheels are extremely tricky and unpredictable. They seem to have some kind of invisible coordination with each other. Some thrust straight ahead, some circle around in arcs, some strike from above, and some spiral and cut along the ground... Instantly sealing off all possible angles and spaces for dodging in front, behind, left, right, and even above the Devouring Sun!

The Sun Devourer's pupils suddenly contracted!

There's no escaping it!

"Roar!! Earth Barrier!"