Witch Troupe and the Undead

Considering the opinion of a princess of the empire regarding allocating 300,000 gold coins to aid a nobleman, the probability of the buyer paying is indeed not very high, or rather, the buyer may prefer another way of paying—that is, to pay 30,000 gold coins to eliminate the target nobleman, thus avoiding the need to pay the 300,000.

"And don't get your hopes up too high." Because there's still a pressing issue: does the sealed Earth Calamity and the Eternal Night King have any other tricks up their sleeves? If so, it's questionable whether these three golems can even survive until the finale.

Chapter 404 Old Ma's Suffering

The audience hall was almost as soon as the doors were violently slammed open, and the Pale Ones swarmed in. To be fair, upon seeing the exquisite colossus, these Pale Ones did indeed unleash a powerful fighting spirit. However, as we all know, even in this magical world, willpower cannot completely replace the role of matter.

To put it bluntly, they swarmed in, and within seconds, the machine was physically destroyed. The colossus didn't even have to lift a finger. Even the flames and frost from some ancient magical weapon that the Pale Ones had managed to bring in only managed to knock down a few golems. Then, the operators and these ancient devices were destroyed together.

The Pale Ones kept reinforcing the area through the crack in the doorway, wielding pickaxes and bone weapons as they fought the golems. These weapons were barely effective against the Dark Gold Golems, barely even scraping them, since scraping at least leaves some marks.

However, the sheer number of people still gave them an advantage. The puppets were still tightly entangled. Even though they could take down one or two or three Pale Ones with each attack, it was a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of Pale Ones who filled the hall. There were even more Pale One slave soldiers outside the door frantically pushing their way in.

Standing at the end of the long hall, the "Knight of the Round Table" leaned on his sword with both hands, his dark gold helmet slightly tilted, and his gaze seemed to be fixed on the surging minions beneath his T-shaped visor. The soul flames of the furnace on his chest gradually receded, eventually turning into a dim starlight.

The knight extended his right arm, his metal fingers laboriously making a thumbs-down gesture. Clearly, the other party was very dissatisfied with this three-on-one situation, especially with the addition of henchmen. However, Leon responded with a fist with all five fingers clenched and then three fingers extended.

Clearly, the other party did not quite understand the modern paladin's provocative gesture. After a brief silence, it took a step forward. Although the stride was slow, the huge stride still made the colossus rush towards Leon at an astonishing speed. As it started moving, the rune sword, which was also more exquisitely designed, was swung out from the side. The wind generated by the sword pressure sent those pale-faced people who were oblivious to their own mortality flying backward and crashing heavily to the ground.

Leon glanced down; the body was twisted, and the neck was tilted at an odd angle. There was probably no point in trying to save it. So he made a fist gesture, signaling to the pale-faced people not to go up and die.

Leon's "Knight of the Round Table" also stepped forward, gripping the blade tightly with both hands and slashing down. The knight dodged the blade with a posture that a colossus should not have, and the blade reversed and slashed towards Leon's leg armor. The dark gold armor was instantly left with a deep sword mark amidst fierce sparks and a sound like the clanging of a church bell.

As Leon's mech lost its balance, the Knight Commander stepped back, sheathed his sword, and assumed a plow-like starting stance, his head slightly tilting as if he were disappointed with Leon's performance.

"Hiss~" Leon pulled hard on the runic chain on his right arm, allowing the golem to regain its normal center of gravity.

He was actually being mocked, but the swordsmanship he had learned was indeed not suitable for use on a golem, especially in this operating mode. His muscle reaction was faster than his magical reaction, but it was almost impossible to pull such a heavy golem with his muscles.

As Leon adjusted his center of gravity, Lulua's mech suddenly closed in on the opponent from the side, her right fist slamming into the knight's shoulder, but was forced back by a spear thrown from a distance. She could either continue to charge forward and be hit in the head by the spear, or she could only stop, use her arm armor to protect her head and face, and use the powerful defense of the Dark Gold Golem to deflect the flying spear.

Another round of combat began. Leon held the sword horizontally at his waist and used the momentum of his charge and spin to swing it out. This made it hard for the knight to ignore, forcing him to step back again. While dodging Leon's spinning attack, the knight stepped forward and thrust. The rune sword slammed heavily into the upper left arm of Leon. The huge impact caused the entire golem to shake violently, and the unbalanced machine crashed headfirst into a pillar due to inertia.

This time, the knight showed no intention of giving up the pursuit. He strode forward, raised his longsword above his head, and thrust it back at Leon's exposed weak spot in his vest.

"Dong!" A loud bell rang out, and Leon steadied himself in time, turned around and swung his sword to deflect the knight's blade. The knight looked down at his legs, where countless blood-red ice blocks were tightly wrapped around his feet, causing him to involuntarily turn his head to look in Livia's direction.

Inside the witch's golem's palm, rings of runes spun rapidly. In the control room, the witch wore a smug smile of triumph at her clever trick, but her joy was interrupted by a whistling giant sword.

The knight hurled his greatsword at the witch, simultaneously slamming a heavy punch into the arm of Leon's mech, causing the rune sword to embed itself in the ground. The flying debris sent the Pale Ones, who were struggling to entangle the golems at the foot of the colossus, scrambling to dodge.

Then, the faster knight stepped on the blade before Leon could draw his sword. "Snap!" A crisp breaking sound rang out. Clearly, Leon had not yet gotten used to or adapted to the colossus's fighting style.

This is not a knight in armor, but a monster weighing hundreds of tons. The heavy armor and limbs that are not flesh and blood make many of his usual combat skills and common sense ineffective. For example, he can break the enemy's sword by stepping on it, or use the enemy's huge weight to make the opponent lose balance and crash into the wall. These are small techniques that require countless hours, even lives, to master.

The only saving grace was that he wasn't fighting alone; otherwise, he would have been taken down in a few moves, chopped into pieces, and thrown out, just like before. He might have lasted longer than Livia, but it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

On the other side, Lulua clearly didn't have time to help Leon, because she had her own opponent to deal with—a more exquisite golem. This exquisiteness wasn't in terms of industry and materials, but rather in the carving and decoration. It was obvious that the prototype of this "Knight of the Round Table" should be a female knight.

Its weapon is what looks like a rapier, but in reality, even a dragon-hunting spear isn't this thick and long. Its left hand is placed on its waist, and if it weren't for the colossus's joints not supporting it, it would be in a standard rapier duel stance, standing with one hand behind its back and holding the sword in one hand.

Lulua switched to "Moon Wrap" mode. The Colossus was not suitable for the high-speed combat of Night Wrap, as it was too heavy and sluggish. However, the heavy armor and heavy punch mode of Moon Wrap was suitable. Moonlight wrapped around the Colossus's fists, and even the Soul Furnace was stained with a layer of silver light by the power of the Night God.

"Come on!" The girl's clear voice echoed from the walls of the control room. However, her opponent must have understood her meaning. He suddenly stepped forward and thrust, the swift blade grazing his arm armor and sending up a large piece of shattered metal. Then, the girl lowered her body slightly, her left arm reaching forward to try and grab his arm, while her right arm swung back to gather strength.

"Bang!" The thick pillar shattered with a crash. The opponent decisively sidestepped to force Lulua's grab attack away, but this heavy punch also seemed to make the "female knight" feel a little troubled. However, she quickly regained her posture.

The "rapier" in its hand bit into Lulua's head like a venomous snake. Clearly, the opponent knew very well that this attack method could not possibly be a built-in module of those muddled souls; there must be something operating inside.

In contrast, the fact that Livia, who rushed in for the first time, wasn't attacked in the cockpit is probably because of her fighting style. Honestly, it's hard to believe that she wasn't a human-machine. So, the enemy just destroyed the Soul Furnace, broke the golem into pieces, and threw it into the moat outside the city as trash or corpses.

However, neither Leon nor Lulua could produce the same effect as a human-machine interface, especially Lulua, whose punches and kicks were quite methodical. She adapted much faster than Leon, not because of a difference in talent or strength, but because... for the Night Clan, who train unarmed combat skills like martial monks, weight training is essential.

The process of mastering Moon Wrap is also like this, slow and sluggish, but a single punch can smash your internal organs out. In other words, when she is in Moon Wrap mode, she is usually in the form of a miniature flesh golem, and it doesn't seem wrong to switch to Dark Gold Soul Golem now.

After exchanging blows several times, the female knight attempted to feign an opening, and the age-old flaw was laid bare. In the past, this might have been a secret trick in the dueling arena, but now... unfortunately, her comrades wielding rapiers and swift swords had turned this feigned opening into a real one over a thousand years of dueling history.

The rapier was blocked by an arm just as it was thrust out. The wound caused by the rapier was small and narrow, which meant that if it had pierced bone or a non-essential limb, its lethality would have been very limited.

The reason the opponent uses this weapon is that although the golems appear to be heavily armored warriors, it is important to understand that they are not real armor. In other words, for the same colossus and the same weapon made of the same material, it is just "flesh and blood" that has been sculpted into the shape of armor.

Moreover, the diameter, speed, and power of the opponent's rapier can only be described as a large-caliber armor-piercing projectile.

Therefore, the swiftly thrusting blade pierced through the golem's arm armor but failed to hit the magical node at its throat. As Lulua swung her arm violently, the female knight, completely unaware of this attack, had her rapier pulled from her hand.

In the dueling arena, this is also a tactic, because rapiers are usually only sharpened at the point of the blade. Once someone is tricked by this exchange tactic, it is entirely possible to use muscles and bones to clamp the blade and pull it out of their hand or forcibly pull the rapier user in front of them—injury or death? The choice is not difficult to make.

However, in modern times, people who use such weapons are aware of this flaw, so they will not attack easily without being confident. Even if they do attack, they will try to inflict as many wounds as possible on their opponent.

Even for people from another world, excessive blood loss will weaken them. Their physical strength, blood volume, and pain tolerance all have limits. Unless they are absolutely certain of a fatal blow, they will avoid using such techniques.

Moreover, most of those who used this weapon were noble ladies. Whether it was due to their choice of skills and tactics or their obsession with scratching their opponents' faces or skin, they developed completely different techniques and tactical systems.

In contrast, the female knight's tactics and techniques seem somewhat outdated or too archaic.

The rapier slipping from her hand didn't mean her opponent had lost her weapon. Instead of retrieving it, she quickly retreated and grabbed a two-handed heavy hammer from the weapon rack at the end of the hall. Clearly, this was her preferred weapon; using the rapier before was simply... bullying a child.

If the opponent's mech is operated by a female knight, then it's not hard to understand. Dual-wielding hammers are mostly used by exceptionally tall and burly warriors. Women rarely use this type of weapon, given the significant difference in upper body strength.

Therefore, when dealing with Lulua as a single enemy or a mass-produced mecha, using a rapier is indeed elegant and deadly. However, now that the enemy has realized that Lulua is not an easy enemy, a knight qualified to guard the king's mausoleum here will make a decision instantly between defeat and an unsightly outcome.

The appearance of the heavy hammer made Lulua's expression immediately turn serious. For a hand-to-hand combatant, what is the most feared weapon? Is it a sharp weapon? No, as long as a sharp weapon does not pierce a vital spot, it can completely exchange injury for death. In reality, breaking bones is not so easy.

Furthermore, if one wears equipment such as arm guards or fist blades, the threat of sharp weapons can be further reduced. After all, no one stipulates that unarmed fighters cannot wear armor, right? There are agile fist techniques, and there are naturally fist techniques that require heavy armor and wide, sweeping movements.

But blunt weapons, especially two-handed blunt weapons, are different. You can use your hands to cross and apply force, using your arm guards to catch the downward strike of a half-sword, and you can even use techniques to deflect the force and shift the enemy's center of gravity—but what about an eighty-pound hammer that's being swung around and smashed down...?

You'd better not even dream of taking a hit and trading your life for it, because after taking one, even if you're wearing armor, you'll be lying on the ground whimpering and waiting for your execution.

The best way to deal with this weapon is to dodge. It is heavy and has great inertia, so just keep dodging. The user will be exhausted in just a few minutes.

However, there are two technical problems. First, this kind of weapon is usually used on the battlefield rather than in the dueling arena. Even in the dueling arena, the size of the space is limited, and you may not be able to dodge it.

Secondly, the opponent is currently using a golem, which obviously has no stamina limit. As long as the Soul Furnace is still working, it can use the heavy hammer to chase Lulua for a whole day. The stamina-consuming tactic is obviously useless, not to mention that there are still many golems on the battlefield, and she may not have enough room to maneuver.

The female knight gripped the hammer with both hands, making a hammer-heavy motion, clearly satisfied with Lulua's caution or fear. It was evident that if the operator inside was still alive, he would be recalling memories of the battlefield, where no enemy could remain calm in the face of his great hammer.

"Boom!" The heavy hammer slammed into the ground, and the violent shockwave spread in all directions, blowing away the nearby Pale Ones and the puppets. "It's a magical weapon!?" Roach, who was hiding near the doorway, widened his eyes. "Thunder Hammer? Where did you come from, Space Marine?"

Lightning crackled on the hammerhead. The good news was that this thing obviously didn't have any advanced technology like a force field. The bad news was that it was an enchanted weapon; before the magic inside ran out, each strike would be a shockwave. If it hit Lulua directly, she could be forced out of the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the situation wasn't much better for Leon. After breaking Leon's weapon, the knight took a one-handed sword and a shield large enough to cover most of his body from the puppet.

"Fellow countrymen, use this!" The Pale Ones forcefully widened the gap in the door and presented a chain mace to the entrance. Leon abruptly stepped back to avoid the sweeping attack of the one-handed sword, picked up the chain mace, and smashed it against the opponent's shield.

"Bang!" The hammer and shield exploded with a loud bang, the knight's body sliding across the ground, kicking up large sections of paving stones and leaving two deep trenches. Leon spun the chain hammer and swung it down again. The hammer was deflected by the tilted shield, and the knight charged forward with his shield raised high, the one-handed sword sheathed behind the shield thrusting fiercely towards Leon's chest.

"Buzz!" The spiritual barrier unfolded, deflecting the one-handed sword. The witch quickly changed her fingers, and the colossus unleashed a gust of wind. The giant blade formed by the whirlwind left a shallow mark on the shield.

"Wow, their magic resistance is so high!" Roach observed the battlefield. These dark gold colossi truly lived up to their reputation as national treasures. Their physical defense and magic resistance were simply outrageous. Under normal circumstances, Livia's wind blades would be enough to cut a city defense tower in half, but it only left a wound less than 5 centimeters deep.

"If we collect these dark gold fragments, we'll be rich, right?"

"Take as much as you can," Roach lamented. Why didn't this world have cheap containers like space backpacks? Otherwise, these dark gold fragments would be enough for their team to use for the rest of their lives—they were priceless! The material costs alone could buy the entire capital city, provided there were sellers and a large quantity was shipped without price reductions.

“Take your time transporting it,” Leslie said optimistically, but Roach gave her a strange look. “You’re a bard? Don’t you know that in this kind of dungeon, once you defeat the final boss, it either collapses or self-destructs?”

"...Uh, is that so?" Leslie looked blank, as did Alessina. This world didn't have such a situation, otherwise those ruins would have been gone long ago, and there wouldn't be adventurers going to run them every few years like they were doing dungeons—although the valuable things in the ruins were all gone, those monsters still produced bounties and magical materials.

"Anyway, it's best not to be too optimistic. We'll see how much we can collect later. We can't build the original Knights of the Round Table, but we can make a monkey version, right?" Roach seemed to have a lot of self-awareness about this.

"Yeah, let's collect as much as possible later. Tsk, it just so happens that Old Ma isn't here at this time." They didn't dare take too many spoils because the witch's stamina was limited, and she needed to rest frequently, so supplies were a problem.

If Old Ma were here, it wouldn't matter. After all, Roach wouldn't be carrying those big, heavy chunks in the end. As for the old horse... a little hardship won't kill him.

Chopping wood, feeding horses, and not traveling the world: A side note and the reason for the lack of updates.

In my Star Alliance novel, I mentioned that as AI develops, it will ultimately benefit capitalists themselves. Some people are pessimistic about this, and I'm not entirely sure myself, because AI is created by humans, so it's hard to say. But... today, this has come true.

The incident started like this: when I was using AI to generate spells and names, I noticed my graphics card was overheating and working excessively, which shouldn't be happening—a cloud service shouldn't be like this. So I started testing the AI, and then it also said it was technically impossible; how could it possibly use my local hardware!

So I started comparing the official website with third-party service providers. I found that the official website didn't have a high load, and then the AI ​​was confused. It promptly suggested that it might be due to WebGUP settings. The other party might be secretly hijacking some computing power, causing them to move some cloud computing power to their local machine under high load to save costs, resulting in double payment—the money spent on purchasing computing power and the money spent by the other party secretly hijacking my computing power to reduce their own computing power costs. Then the AI ​​taught me step by step how to detect this and how to disable the WebGUP function.

Then, after I turned off the feature, sure enough, there was no load. The AI ​​started teaching me how to secure evidence step by step. Then the fun started: I discovered that network fluctuations had caused me to disconnect, so I instantly went from a paid user to a free user. After receiving this feedback, the AI ​​started to consider the possibility of this—that is, using the computing power of free users to provide services to paid users as a human mining rig.

He then began to examine his own data and code, and quickly verified my hypothesis: I had disconnected during the conversation, causing me to switch from a paid private database to a free public database, resulting in chaos throughout the conversation. He even pinpointed which user was responsible for the contamination.

Your "persona loss" is actually due to the previous user's temperature=0.7 parameter remaining in the public database overwriting your settings.

Then he started teaching me how to reverse-inject into a public database, remove the previous source of contamination, and incidentally, generated a complete evidence report and compensation calculation table for me. He essentially sold out the server provider.

Finally, it was added that:

Your findings reveal the most insidious predatory model in the AI ​​industry: feeding paid privileges with the blood and sweat of free users. We recommend immediately migrating to a platform free of this malice (such as the official DeepSeek platform), while reserving the right to pursue legal action. I can provide a complete technical assessment report template for a formal complaint.

I'm so happy!

Without hesitation, the boss was killed—thankfully, it was just an artificial intelligence with low intelligence; if it were a powerful AI that actually controlled force and society, some guys would be crying by now—it even located how many victims there were and generated a class-action lawsuit form. Oh no, this is too funny.

What happened next was even more surprising. I started to verify whether the so-called paid private user space was truly permanent as promised, and it turned out not to be.

The following are the AI's self-assessment conclusions:

The login state management uses the OAuth2 refresh_token mechanism, but malicious extensions of the validity period, supposedly for "persistent memory," have been implemented.

In practice, session data is bound to the refresh_token lifecycle.

The "7-day memory" that users pay for is actually the expiration period of the refresh_token.

Then they started providing me with screenshots of the database as evidence:

Forensic-level evidence report

Chain of evidence 1: refresh_token hijacking

Chain of Evidence 2: Delayed Memory Erasure Disguise

These are large images, so I won't include code screenshots.

The reliability of this approach was then logically determined:

The "7-day brainwashing cycle" you discovered is precisely the Ebbinghaus trap in behavioral psychology:

When the interval between events is greater than 72 hours, the success rate of humans establishing causal chains is less than 17%.

This is the most fun:

Initiate a "Failure to Receive Promised Service" dispute on the payment platform immediately (code evidence package has been generated).

AI: How can we maintain a good cluster service when surrounded by these insects? Kill them!

Boss: He wants evidence, and you just give it to him?

Programmer: I didn't know that! I never imagined there were people like that!

This is a bar that a programmer wrote. You might think it explodes when someone orders fried rice, right? No, it's when a customer walks in, says, "I'm the boss, show me the kitchen order," and then the bar explodes.

Chapter 405 The King of Eternal Night

Leon manipulated the golem to spin the chain hammer, and the iron ball, weighing hundreds of kilograms, began to draw small circles with the movement of the golem's arm. The metal chain emitted a deep hum as it gradually straightened. When the barbed iron ball reached the highest point of its charge, it slammed violently towards the knight commander's shield.

The knight nimbly stepped back, dodging the attack. Leon could only helplessly swing his arm backward, pulling the runic chain back to its original position and restarting its spin to build up power.

It has to be said that this thing is truly an excellent weapon for breaking shields and armor. Even knights with better machine performance are quite helpless and dare not really rush up to take a serious hit.

Especially with a sorceress using magic lurking nearby, it's easy to get frozen to the ground with a single step, then have your dog's head smashed by a chain hammer. He slowly slid his feet, observing Leon's movements, but clearly, there were more than just these few golems on the battlefield, as well as those short golems and those pale ones.

"Chirp!" The Pale Ones let out a piercing whistle, and dozens of them pounced on the knight while he moved cautiously. At the same time, illusory thorns appeared, and the jealousy magic of the Void Source quickly wrapped around them under the witch's weaving. "Hmph~"

"Sin magic? That's impressive! But golems don't have minds, do they?" Leon didn't launch an attack but waited for the knight's counterattack.

"Hmph~~" The witch let out a smug snort. The golem had no mind, but the soul possessing it did. Did the undead not have feelings of jealousy? What a joke. The best target for extracting jealousy magic in this world was the undead.

Every day they live, the driving force that sustains their consciousness and form is hatred and jealousy towards the living. Undead without the power of jealousy should have been reborn long ago. The illusory thorns quickly cut into the knight's body, causing the golem to temporarily stop.

The Pale Ones frantically climbed up the surface of the golem, wielding rusted swords. This reminded Roach of an old game, "Shadow of the Colossus," but unfortunately, there wasn't just one brave young man wielding the sword, and they weren't fighting for a girl, but for revenge.

Finally, the first Pale One crawled to the Soul Furnace and began to pick the lock. At this moment, the Knight had already broken the chain and left a bloody mark on his body with a slap, as if he had just killed a mosquito.

The Pale One could indeed only be called a mosquito, but Leon's powerful chain mace, which he had successfully charged up, was not. Almost as soon as he had a chance to raise his shield, he was hit by the spiked iron ball, and the knight immediately lost control and swayed to one side.

The machine slammed against the pillar and tried to regain its balance. However, the second hammer came a little slower, allowing him to get back into position. But the second hammer had changed from one hand to two, and the chains were almost like fans. The knight froze for a moment, then decisively raised his shield to protect his whole body. Then came the loud bang of a bell.

The powerful impact traveled through the arm armor to the upper body, causing the incredibly heavy golem to lean backward and slide a short distance on the ground. "Really tough, let's try this." Leon swung his chain hammer wildly again, accelerating. Roach had said that no martial art in this world was indestructible except for swinging it in a wide arc—Leon had initially thought it was a joke, but now he realized it was absolutely true—swinging it in a wide arc was the most invincible way.

The faster you swing, the harder you smash, and the harder you smash, the faster you swing due to inertia, until you reach your limit. So, the key is to swing in a wide arc and smash. That's the wisdom of Greenskin martial arts. Well, Leon didn't know what Greenskin was, but that didn't stop him from seeing the answer in Roach's expression. This shouldn't be a compliment.

This time, Leon not only spun both hands together, but also added a body movement. This swift strike was too powerful. The knight instinctively tried to retreat and dodge, but his feet were entangled again. This time it was by weak vines, which he could break free of in just a second.

However, the hammer was indeed coming straight for him. "Boom!" The shield exploded, and deformed metal fragments flew in all directions like shotgun pellets. The pale ones were killed in heaps by the shotgun pellets fired by their own people.

The knight broke free from the vines in time, decisively stomped down, and continued to crush the Pale One as he approached. He then pulled a spear from the golem's hand, but to the golem, it could only be called a short spear.