Chapter 118: The Wild Map Boss

[System Message: A field boss has spawned near Aegiochusmon Town. Players, please proceed to eliminate it as soon as possible.]

A field boss—this was something that had been promised ever since the game updated, and now, it had finally arrived. A field boss, also known as a world boss, or at least a world boss for the time being.

It would not spawn in fixed leveling zones, nor would it appear outside fixed cities. Fortunately, to accommodate the players, the game ensured that the spawn point would be in the vicinity of a small town.

"Looks like I need to head to Aegiochusmon Town as soon as possible," I-mon muttered. He immediately set off with Paildramon.

Shortly after, I-mon returned to Tyrannomon Town. Unfortunately, Witchmon had not yet finished identifying that indescribable item. Shaking his head, I-mon decided not to wait any longer and headed toward the teleportation array that led from Tyrannomon Town to Aegiochusmon Town.

At this moment, the area housing the teleportation array to Aegiochusmon Town was not very crowded. After all, a large number of players had already rushed over to Aegiochusmon Town earlier. Consequently, only a small group of people remained, like I-mon, preparing to head over.

Since this remaining group was quite small, they didn't really bump into each other unless they tried. In any case, there was no one else at the teleportation array when I-mon arrived.

Upon reaching Aegiochusmon Town, I-mon exited the town and, carried by Paildramon, soared into the sky. He scanned his surroundings, and his gaze finally settled on a valley nearby from which a tremendous noise was emanating.

"Let's go," I-mon said while looking in that direction. "Let's go meet this so-called field boss."

Upon arriving closer, I-mon realized he had significantly underestimated the appeal of this field boss.

Looking down from high above, he could see that the valley was circular, surrounded by towering cliff walls, with only a single path leading in. It was a place naturally easy to defend and difficult to attack—a perfect natural arena.

At the center of the arena stood a DeathMeramon. Whenever it faced incoming players, a single swing of its chain was enough to wipe them out. If it weren't for the fact that some players could attack from the air, the boss would likely only need to stand at the valley's entrance to hold them all at bay.

DeathMeramon is a Flame-type Data species, a Perfect-level Digimon. Its signature move is "Heavy Metal Fire." It is an evolution of Meramon, its entire body enveloped in high-temperature blue flames. Because the flames are hotter than those of a standard Meramon, the fire it spews appears blue. With its attack and defense boosted by several levels, combined with the power of its flames, it became a Power-type Digimon with overwhelming destructive capabilities.

However, like most flame-type Digimon, it is countered by Water and Ice-type Digimon. Yet, that only applies to opponents of the same level; against low-level Water or Ice types, DeathMeramon has nothing to fear.

Furthermore, the overall combat power of this DeathMeramon reached 6,000 points. Most importantly, every player who looked at the DeathMeramon saw a system panel appear before them, which stated something to the effect of:

[Given that this is the first field boss encounter, death penalties for accounts are waived for this instance. Additionally, to avoid accidental friendly fire, a temporary player invincibility status has been activated.]

From this message, it was clear that players who died would likely respawn at the Aegiochusmon Town checkpoint.

It was likely that the game developers were letting players experience the strength of a field boss so that they wouldn't rush in blindly in the future and have the entire server emptied out. If that were to happen, there would be a massive wave of players quitting, and the developers wouldn't just lose their bonuses—they would likely be told, "The world outside is so beautiful; why don't you go out and take a walk?"

Moreover, the invincibility status was intended to prevent the players from suffering too heavy a loss. Otherwise, with so many people crammed together, the players would likely have killed each other off in the chaos.

However, based on the system prompt, this invincibility status would likely only be available this one time. The next time a field boss appeared, if the players didn't plan properly, the developers wouldn't care about the consequences.

The players at the very front, seeing a DeathMeramon with 6,000 combat power, were already feeling the urge to retreat. But despite the developers granting invincibility, they hadn't granted the ability to pass through walls or other players.

In other words, the people in front wanted to run, but they were being pushed forward by those behind them, forcing them into the DeathMeramon. They were then promptly eliminated and sent back to the respawn point in Aegiochusmon Town.

I-mon watched this silently, not yet intervening. The DeathMeramon’s combat power was higher than Andromon’s, and its attack power seemed to far exceed it as well. With I-mon and Paildramon’s current strength, even if they could defeat it, it would likely be a pyrrhic victory.

However, with so many players currently wearing the boss down, I-mon had nothing to worry about. Individually, these players posed no threat, but their numbers were overwhelming.

Even if there were ten million pigs that didn't fight back, and one person killed one every second, it would take 166,667 minutes—about 116 days—to finish them off. And that was just a mechanical calculation, not accounting for the exhaustion of stamina and energy. In other words, even if the players were no match for the DeathMeramon individually, if they just let it kill them, the boss’s state would eventually decline, allowing I-mon to land the killing blow.

This was the standard tactic in other resurrection-capable games: if you can't win, throw bodies at the problem. But I-mon knew full well that this was likely a one-time thing. The next time a field boss appeared, there wouldn't be so many reckless players.