IRM Chapter 58

When Chloe heard Ji Chi’s words, it scanned the summoned creatures on the field again—146 undead, not one more, not one less.

It knew its calculations were absolutely correct, but noticing Ji Chi’s confident expression, it still felt somewhat confused and subconsciously doubted itself.

Of course, at this moment, Chloe didn’t yet know that humans had an emotion called trust.

Ji Chi stood up and slowly walked to a crystal, asking Chloe, “You don’t seem to have restricted who can break the crystals, right?”

Chloe understood. It turned its head, removed the undead labels from its calculations, and after expanding the range, the number 146 began to fluctuate—

The necromancer, the 147th; Ji Chi himself, the 148th; Bard and Tang who had approached at some point, 149th and 150th.

150 light bubbles were picked up by 150 individuals from different races. Bard was the most hesitant, looking down at the weightless crystal in his arms and asking uneasily, “Can we two really count?”

Chloe also emphasized to Ji Chi at this moment: “All crystals must be broken at the same time.”

This was something only a summoner could do—the right to command allowed the master to control everything, including every movement and every moment in time.

Ji Chi held the crystal, leaning against Chloe’s leg. His entire field of vision was now illusory, as his critically low health made everything appear chaotic. “I know, but Chloe, have you forgotten again? What I can command now isn’t just summoned creatures.”

With only a few seconds left on the countdown, Ji Chi’s weakened fingers gripped the crystal as he spoke slowly and clearly, “Crush it.”

The command shot out like an electric current, connecting all the summoned creatures. Their every move was under their master’s control, following his orders.

Now all that remained was… Chloe’s gaze swept toward Bard and the others, only to see their eyes vacant and their movements identical to those summoned creatures, clearly in a controlled state.

“Crack—” The simultaneous sound of shattering was like a final bell, ending this grueling trial.

The shattered crystals immediately turned into transparent fine sand, blown into the sea by the wind and quickly dissolved.

Bard and Tang suddenly snapped back to their senses, clenching their fingers and looking toward Ji Chi with complex expressions.

Tang picked up a handful of glittering fragments from between his fingers, gazing down at them and muttering to himself: “Mermaid songs can bewitch the mind—this was something emphasized in our mercenary group’s training manual. I was sufficiently wary of this, so why was I still controlled?”

Bard vaguely heard some of this. Not being combat-oriented, he didn’t understand how deadly this could be and didn’t feel much about it, saying casually, “Maybe it’s because we trust Ji Chi.”

Tang smiled. “That’s also possible.”

He looked up toward Ji Chi, who was not far away drinking a potion with his head tilted back, his black eyes deep in thought.

Tang was very clear that he would never entrust himself to something as illusory as trust, even if the other party was a teammate he’d fought alongside for years.

That left only one reason—the controller was far stronger than him.

Although he’d had such a premonition early on, when it was truly confirmed, Tang still chuckled softly and sighed. “So we’re the mascots after all…”

Ji Chi only drank the health potion after recalling the necromancer. With one potion down, his empty health bar instantly filled up.

He could feel his weakened body rapidly recovering, reaching peak condition in the blink of an eye. The heavy dizziness from before felt like an illusion.

Potions really were wonderful things. Ji Chi’s eyes lit up as he thought this more than once.

Chloe stared at his recovery before speaking in a muffled voice. “Abnormal status detected in your warrior, ranger, and mage classes. Do you wish to continue the trials?”

Ji Chi flexed his wrists, adapting to his body that had become light and strong again: “Of course. Having come this far, I should at least try to continue.”

Chloe observed him motionlessly, remaining silent for a long time before saying, “Abnormal status detected. Chloe will customize a special trial plan for you.”

After Chloe finished speaking, it stood up. Ji Chi’s gaze followed its movement upward, and only then did he realize why Chloe’s arms were extraordinarily long—it had been keeping its legs folded. Once it fully stood up, the proportions of its body parts became much more normal.

Though it was still quite frightening.

Chloe rose more than ten meters into the air. Ji Chi appeared increasingly small in its eyes as it spoke, “Trial initiated. Current trial classes: warrior, ranger, mage. Trial requirements: The trialist may not use carried potions, summons, or equipment. Trial objective—”

Chloe’s muffled tone sounded cold for the first time. “Kill Chloe within ten minutes.”

The smile faded from Ji Chi’s lips, and his expression changed for the first time in this trial as he stared intently at the massive and silent Chloe.

No matter how difficult the previous trials had been, he had only wanted to complain about them. But this time, he felt anger toward the Forging God.

This trial was trampling on his bottom line.

However, Chloe didn’t give him time to think. Blood-red light blazed in its eye sockets, and its body began constantly transforming. Its knees, legs, arms, chest, abdomen, neck, and other parts all moved, producing teeth-grinding metallic scraping sounds.

Within seconds, Chloe had transformed from a clumsy, frightening hulk into a collection of killing instruments.

Chloe aimed its dark cannon muzzle at Ji Chi.

Only now did Ji Chi witness what the “ballista bolt” that Tang had explained earlier actually was.

Bang! Wisps of smoke rose from above the cannon muzzle, and a metal arrow as long as a person shot out from within, with an iron chain trailing behind it, chasing straight toward him.

Ji Chi was still hesitating at this moment. He glanced at the direction the arrow was coming from and nimbly dodged to the side, ensuring he could completely avoid the arrow’s damage.

But just as he dodged aside, he was shocked to realize the arrow’s direction had shifted, and its gleaming tip was still aimed at his body.

Ji Chi thought this was bad. As an early main storyline boss, Chloe’s attack patterns were actually quite simple—its difficulty lay only in its extremely thick health bar.

But these characteristics only applied to Chloe before transformation. As for Chloe after transformation—Ji Chi couldn’t help but look up at its head.

[Name: Chloe (Attack Form)] 

[Level: lv.99] 

[Health: 50000/50000] 

[Skills: ??? (Information displayed after defeating monster)]

Tsk, this was troublesome.

Ji Chi used his maximum speed to dodge the arrow’s pursuit, narrowly avoiding it several times. The airflow generated by the massive arrow’s passage stirred his soft black hair at his temples.

Most of his attention was focused on dealing with the continuously fired ballista bolts, while the rest of his mind worked at high speed.

Somehow, Chloe had calculated and sealed off all his trump cards—potions, summons, equipment. If he could freely use any one of these, he was confident he could quickly defeat Chloe.

But now, Ji Chi listed out his remaining advantages in his mind.

Health—over ten thousand health points could at least withstand a dozen or so attacks.

Speed—his speed was somewhat faster than the ballista bolts; if he concentrated, he wouldn’t be hit by Chloe’s attacks.

Damage—his base damage without skills or equipment was 500 points, which could one-shot most people on the continent, but to wear down fifty thousand health points while dodging within ten minutes was still somewhat difficult.

No matter how difficult, he had to charge forward. Ji Chi hadn’t been in such an intense combat state for a long time. A trace of nostalgia inexplicably appeared in his eyes as he turned and rushed directly toward Chloe.

Chloe seemed to anticipate his intention. Just before Ji Chi approached, it retracted the ballista bolt into the cannon. Seeing Ji Chi getting closer, large patches of magical circuits suddenly appeared on its body, with warm yellow light enveloping its surroundings.

Ji Chi felt this light was somewhat familiar. He frowned suspiciously and, halfway through his punch, still reduced the force by half, testing as he struck toward Chloe’s sturdy leg.

Bang! The metal on Chloe’s leg dented into a shallow pit. At the same time, Ji Chi couldn’t control himself as he staggered backward several steps, with some blood seeping from the knuckles of his right hand.

Ji Chi turned his hand away, wiping the sticky blood on his clothes and sulking. “I hate damage reflection skills so much! Are you an enlarged version of Evan?”

He hadn’t suspected wrong—this warm yellow light was indeed Evan’s 100% trigger rate [Divine Protection], though it was a simplified version without the invincibility effect, and the damage reflection wasn’t as terrifying as five times.

Although Chloe was obviously inferior to the bug-like Evan, with a damage reflection ratio of only 1:1, Ji Chi still felt uncomfortable, as this undoubtedly added another layer of constraint.

This wasn’t right. Ji Chi thought about it—by definition, trials must leave a certain probability for people to pass. With his unequipped, naked stats, his health couldn’t compare to Chloe’s. If all attacks triggered damage reflection, he had no chance of winning!

So this damage reflection should only trigger on direct contact…

Then at least give me a weapon!

Ji Chi was very angry and threw a large fireball at Chloe.

The massive fireball worth 100 MP was dodged by Chloe, but Ji Chi clearly noticed that the part of its body closest to the fireball showed extremely subtle changes in the smooth metal, as if it had been melted slightly.

Ji Chi’s dodging movement faltered, and a flash of understanding crossed his eyes. He knew how to pass this trial.

Having made up his mind, Ji Chi retreated into the distance.

Chloe didn’t lift its foot to pursue. It calculated the distance between them and without hesitation aimed the ballista bolt and fired.

Ji Chi turned around, facing the massive arrow breaking through the air toward him. He stood motionless, showing no intention of dodging.

The huge arrowhead came closer and closer. Ji Chi took a deep breath, and just as it reached him, he lightly shifted his body to the right.

Thud! The arrow, thick as a wrist, instantly pierced his thin shoulder. Just as it was about to penetrate completely, it was grasped by a hand bulging with veins.

Ji Chi endured the pain in his shoulder and pulled it out bit by bit. He looked up at Chloe with a smile that carried a hint of gritted teeth. “I should be the first to figure out your mechanics.”

Chloe was stunned, just as it was about to retract the arrow through the iron chain.

A huge fireball landed on the iron chain, and like explosives ignited by high temperature, intense flames burned along the chain, with bright fire racing toward Chloe.

Chloe immediately calculated the damage the flames would cause and decisively severed the part connecting to the arrow. The chain, already softened by the fire, clattered to the ground.

Ji Chi gripped the long arrow, flames igniting in his hand once again. He said to Chloe, “The trialist cannot use carried equipment, so if I use your parts to forge a weapon on the spot, that should be acceptable, right?”

Chloe neither agreed nor disagreed. In attack form, it seemed to have lost its soul, with none of its previous lively performance visible, like a machine that only knew how to attack.

Ji Chi walked toward Chloe step by step, the flames in his right hand wrapping around the arrow. Under the high temperature, the arrow melted and was reshaped, gradually taking on a familiar form.

He finally returned to Chloe’s feet. This time, he held a pitch-black longsword in his hand—plain and unadorned, yet flickering with sharp light.

Chloe lifted its massive foot, intending to stomp on Ji Chi.

This time, Ji Chi didn’t dodge either. He held the longsword horizontally, allowing himself to be shrouded in shadow. “I won’t dodge anymore. Now it’s my turn.”

The sharp longsword combined with extreme speed cut through even the sea breeze. The air tore slightly, and even the afterimages left by the blade’s passage carried sharp intent.

The massive foot split down the middle, and Chloe, unable to maintain its balance, knelt down on one leg.

The longsword didn’t stop moving. The persistent afterimages formed a black ribbon that wound around all of Chloe’s joint connections.

Chloe’s health dropped rapidly. It tried to raise its weapons to counterattack, only to find it no longer had any means of attack. While dodging, Ji Chi had already identified all its attack methods and severed these parts one by one, leaving them scattered on the ground.

Ji Chi finally stopped. He pressed the sword tip against a certain spot on Chloe’s chest, breathing slightly hard as he said, “You put so many restrictions on me that I almost forgot you’re also restricted.”

He moved his left arm, which was somewhat stiff from the shoulder injury. “I almost forgot that in reality, everyone feels pain when injured, including you—”

Ji Chi raised the longsword and sliced off a piece of metal skin from Chloe’s chest. “You can also be dismembered.”

“And as long as I can attack your core,” Ji Chi pushed the longsword an inch into its chest, the blade entering like cutting tofu, “no matter how much health you have left, you’ll still die, just like a person without a heart.”

The red light in Chloe’s eyes dimmed slightly. After a long pause, it finally spoke, “Remaining trial time: 30 seconds. Please kill Chloe within the specified time.”

Ji Chi smiled sarcastically. “So you can speak again? You showed no mercy when attacking me just now.”

“Remaining trial time: 20 seconds. Please kill Chloe within the specified time.”

Ji Chi pushed the longsword another inch inward, seemingly touching a harder core. He stared directly into Chloe’s eyes. “Then let me ask you—do you want to live?”

“Remaining trial time: 10 seconds. Please kill Chloe within the specified time.”

Ji Chi’s probing expression faded. He pressed his lips together and suddenly exerted force with his right hand—

The red light in Chloe’s eyes flickered for an instant.

Ji Chi withdrew the longsword and threw it to the ground with a clang. He jumped down from Chloe’s chest and said without looking back. “You calculated correctly before—I might still abandon the trial. Let the trial end here. Someday I’ll tear down that damn thing’s temple!”

Ji Chi was in an extremely bad mood now. For this inexplicable component, he had been running around everywhere, even cross-dressing as a mermaid, abandoning all dignity. Having finally reached the last step, it still wanted to touch his bottom line.

He walked past Bard with a cold face. “Sorry, I can’t help you with this favor.”

Bard sighed, looking at the temple with regret. “It’s okay… To be honest, without you, I probably wouldn’t even know where it was. But now, at least… at least I’ve had the privilege of seeing machinery in such a state.”

Ji Chi stood at the island’s edge, gazing at the distant sea.

It wouldn’t be difficult for him to escape this Divine Domain. He just had to wait until dark when the moon rose—the token the Demon King had given him would directly teleport them to the Demon King’s castle.

This was a rule belonging to another god, and even the Forging God couldn’t violate it.

Just as Ji Chi sat at the island’s edge with low spirits, planning to wait until nightfall, Chloe’s characteristic muffled voice suddenly came from behind. “Why didn’t you kill Chloe?”

Ji Chi didn’t want to see it and said indifferently with his back turned. “To me, life is far more precious than that damn component. This isn’t worth it at all.”

Chloe asked in confusion. “Does Chloe count as a life?”

Ji Chi remained silent for a long time without answering. Only when a seabird that had landed on the island was startled away by an incoming wave did he slowly say, “That depends on you. If you feel reluctant to die, then you can be considered a true life.”

Chloe also fell silent for quite a while. Ji Chi didn’t hear it respond and could only hear a series of clicking sounds.

He turned around to find that Chloe had already returned to its original appearance and was skillfully picking up the parts from the ground and installing them on itself.

After it finished installing everything, it looked up at Ji Chi and said, “Congratulations, trialist. You successfully killed attack-form Chloe within the specified time. Warrior and ranger trials passed.”

Ji Chi was shocked for a moment—partly surprised by this inexplicable reversal, but more surprised that he had only passed two trials?!

Ji Chi became even more unhappy. He jumped up on the spot and ran angrily to Chloe. “Wait, what about the mage trial? Why doesn’t that count as passing?!”

Chloe stated reasonably, “Based on combat statistics, the trialist’s magic usage was only 5.8%, below the 15% threshold, therefore not passed.”

Ji Chi argued incoherently, “Didn’t you see my fireballs?! How could I have forged a weapon without them? How dare you say they weren’t important?!”

Chloe remained impartial. “The trialist’s magic usage was only 5.8%, therefore not passed.”

Ji Chi was furious. He spun around in place for a while, then irritably looked up at Bard and Tang.

“Hey, do you two know magic?”