Kill one monster, stack one poison, and I alone will poison my way across the world!

After clearing the battlefield, Su Chen looked towards the inner city gate, which was tens of meters high, in the distance.

"grown ups!"

Raine, dragging his injured body, quickly caught up.

He walked up to Su Chen, knelt on one knee, and held up a simple-looking brass key stained with dark red blood in his trembling hands.

"This is the Thorn Key leading to the inner city of the royal capital. When the calamity struck, Her Highness, to prevent the abyssal energy from spreading, ordered the inner city gates to be sealed off, trapping herself and the most elite royal guards inside..."

Renn's eyes were red and his voice was choked with emotion.

"My lord, you possess godlike power! We beg you, open the barrier and go to the inner city to rescue Her Highness!"

Su Chen didn't say anything, but reached out and took the key.

[Key of Thorns (Special): Can open the inner city barrier of the Fallen Royal Capital; a one-time use item.]

……

"Everyone, keep up!"

Without further hesitation, Su Chen headed straight for the city gate.

Forty-nine bosses quickly followed.

They fought their way through the battlefield.

The group arrived at the towering city gate.

The city gate was tightly sealed by a thick black barrier, its surface covered with chilling dark purple runes.

He walked to the barrier and inserted the key into the illusory keyhole.

"Click".

A crisp click of the mechanism engaging rang out.

The black barrier surface rippled like water before slowly tearing open a gap just wide enough for two people to pass side by side.

call--!

The moment the barrier opened, a torrent of abyssal poison, more than ten times denser than the surrounding area, mixed with bone-chilling cold, surged out from the breach like a flood.

"Ahem!"

"It's so cold!"

The group of senior students who were following Su Chen a few dozen meters away were instantly enveloped by the poisonous miasma.

[WARNING: You have entered an area with high concentrations of abyssal contamination!]

[Affected by environmental factors: All attributes reduced by 20%! Health regeneration speed reduced by 50%!]

A glaring red system warning flashed simultaneously on the retinas of fifty people.

"Damn! All attributes reduced by 20%?! Health recovery halved?!"

Looking at his stats, Chen Shan couldn't help but curse, "How the hell am I supposed to fight like this? My strength of over two thousand has been cut by more than four hundred!"

"This is like forcibly shaving a noodle board! A catastrophic negative aura is disgusting!"

"..."

The crowd, who had just relaxed a little after passing the first stage, instantly erupted into chaos again.

Su Chen glanced at the status bar, completely ignoring it.

Even after deducting the mental damage of over 3,000, the amount of harm he has suffered is still an astronomical figure that these people cannot comprehend.

"Stop dawdling, come in."

With his hands in his pockets, Su Chen was the first to cross the gap in the barrier and step into the black ashes of the inner city.

The forty-nine bosses quickly shut their mouths and followed closely behind.

Having just witnessed Su Chen's incredible abilities in the outer city, and with Baltu being instantly vaporized, these soon-to-be graduates actually had the illusion that "as long as they follow Su Chen, they will be absolutely safe."

Instead of forming a defensive formation immediately, they squeezed into the gap in twos and threes, like a tour group.

A pastor named Zhao Mengmeng was walking at the front of the group, holding a bottle of soda and happily drinking it.

The inner city was extremely dark.

Just a fraction of a second after Zhao Mengmeng stepped into the inner city, before her vision had fully adjusted to the darkness.

"Whoosh—!"

"Whoosh—!"

"Whoosh—!"

Without any warning, three extremely shrill sounds of air being torn apart suddenly erupted from the shadows of the collapsed ruins on both sides!

fast!

It's almost at its limit!

Three translucent, grayish-white blades, like the scythe of death, appeared out of thin air, forming a triangular shape, and directly slashed towards Zhao Mengmeng's neck, back, and ribs!

The angle was ruthless, completely sealing off all her escape routes.

"what!"

Zhao Mengmeng didn't even have time to react and release her shield; she could only let out a desperate and short scream.

The aura of death instantly enveloped her.

Chen Shan, Zhang Ming, and the others behind him had their pupils shrink, realizing it was too late to offer any assistance.

That speed is definitely that of a highly agile assassin-type monster!

Just as the three bone blades were less than a centimeter away from Zhao Mengmeng's neck.

"Bang!"

Several thick, dark purple totem poles suddenly emerged from the ashes beneath Zhao Mengmeng's feet!

Corrosive Serpent Guard!

These snake guards appeared in an extremely cunning position, almost rising from the ground close to Zhao Mengmeng's body, forcefully blocking the three fatal slashes with their pillar-like bodies.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

A sickening metallic scraping sound rang out.

The snake guard's body, formed from venom, was cut open with three deep gashes and shattered instantly.

But the remaining snake guards have begun to fight back.

"hiss--!"

The menacing mouth at the top of the snake guard suddenly opened wide.

"laugh!"

Several jets of thick purple venom shot out instantly, splattering the empty space in front of them.

next second.

"Squeak squeak squeak—!"

Three piercing screams echoed through the void.

Three ghost-like monsters were forced to reveal their physical forms from their cloaked state by the corrosive venom.

Their bodies seemed to be made of condensed mist, and their hands were sharp bone blades extending from pale white bones.

The [Highly Toxic] property was triggered.

The three monsters didn't even have a chance to retreat into the shadows before a string of green true damage numbers floated above their heads, and in the blink of an eye, they were melted into three pools of green pus.

"thump."

Zhao Mengmeng's legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground, the can of soda in her hand falling into the ashes.

Her face was ashen, she was breathing heavily, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

"What...what kind of monster is this?!"

Zhang Ming broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

He quickly sent the data panel he had just captured to the team channel.

Abyss Shadow Dancer (Elite Monster)

[Level: 58]

【Strength: 26210】

[Agility: 30810]

[Stamina: 29000]

【Spirit: 14000】

[Skills: Shadow Cloak, True Slash, Absolute Evasion]

[Shadow Cloak: Remains in stealth mode, becomes visible when attacking, and re-enters stealth after 3 seconds out of combat.]

[True Slash: All attacks ignore 30% of the target's physical defense and magical shield.]

[Absolute Evasion (Passive): Has a 25% chance to completely evade any non-targeted skill.]

……

Dead silence.

The slight relaxation that had just lingered in the group vanished instantly.

"Permanent invisibility...ignores 30% of armor and shields...and has 25% absolute evasion..."

The Assassin-type Grass looked at the panel, his voice trembling.

"This is an elite monster?! With these mechanics, it'd definitely be an epic boss!"

"Open the door and kill them!! They just let three of these armor-piercing, invisible monsters sneak up on the backline squishy heroes?!"

"If it weren't for Su Shen's quick reaction, Mengmeng would already be a corpse! This dungeon is terrifying! Is it even humanly possible to play?!"

"..."

Fear gripped the hearts of these forty-nine people once again.

They finally realized that they were in the inner city.

Without Su Chen's protection, this group of senior elites has already suffered casualties here.

Su Chen turned around, looked at Zhao Mengmeng who had fallen to the ground, and then glanced at the still-shaken crowd.

He offered no words of comfort, his face devoid of any expression.

"Just this once."

Su Chen's voice was calm, but it clearly reached everyone's ears in the desolate ruins of the inner city.

"It was agreed before you came in that I am not responsible for your lives or deaths; that's the rule of the trade."

"Don't think that just because I killed the BOSS, you can treat this place like a tourist attraction. This is a Calamity-level dungeon, and the monsters' aggro mechanism is random. I don't have time to clean up your messes every time."

"..."

He pointed to the dark street ahead.

"Form your own formation. We are not responsible for anyone who falls behind or runs off and gets killed."

After saying that, Su Chen ignored them and turned to continue walking deeper into the area.

These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over the heads of these forty-nine senior elites.

"Quickly! Form ranks! Quickly form ranks!"

Zhang Ming was the first to react and roared wildly.

Chen Shan pulled Zhao Mengmeng up from the ground and raised the tower shield to the front.

The warriors quickly formed an "Iron Wall Circular Formation" on the outermost perimeter, which was three times tighter than before.

Mages and priests used every buff aura and shield they had on themselves and their teammates as if they didn't care about money, and even hoarded rare potions that they usually wouldn't use.

The relaxed feeling I had just experienced has completely vanished.

Everyone had a solemn expression, and their fingers gripping their weapons were white from excessive force.

They walked cautiously, like a flock of frightened birds, following closely behind Su Chen, not daring to make a sound even when breathing.

Ahead, through the thick fog, the sound of increasingly dense metallic friction could be faintly heard.