Chapter 58: Monster Summoning: Group

Thirteen Ghosts.

The name was "Thirteen," not referring to thirteen ghosts, but rather a single proper name.

Anchored in the thirteen sinkholes, it gathered dense, malevolent slaughter-qi. Gloomy, fierce, and terrifying, it looked like a gigantic ghost-deity stepped straight out of a mythological era. With a mere gesture or step, it possessed the strength to topple high-rise buildings and snap overpass bridges in half.

'I must summon them now.'

Qian Gu merely weighed the balance of power between the enemy and himself, and a conclusion formed instantly in his mind.

He couldn't beat it!

At least, not in his current state.

"How can this be!"

Ye Yiyi found it somewhat unbelievable. "How could something go wrong with this instance dungeon?"

"Quite normal."

Qian Gu remained completely unperturbed. "Since Zero possesses the ability to interfere with source code and create 'Taixu Genesis,' it's entirely ordinary for it to interfere with and disrupt your 'Necromancer' game to a certain extent."

The enemy was covert and resourceful.

Though he had only gathered a few words from Ye Yiyi, a preliminary profile had already been sketched out.

A mastermind hidden behind the scenes, treating the world as a chessboard. Even ancient deities were merely chess pieces in their grip, dropped to form a grand layout and forge a brand-new world of their own.

It made one only think...

"Why do all these masterminds behind the scenes love tearing everything down and starting over?"

Resident Evil was like this.

The real world was also like this.

It was as if any mastermind behind the scenes who wasn't dedicated to demolishing the old to build a new century failed to qualify as a good boss, making the trope feel almost like a cliché.

"Mr. Long, what should we do now?"

Ye Yiyi couldn't help but turn to Qian Gu for help. The current situation had somewhat exceeded his plans.

"Me?"

Qian Gu clicked his tongue. "The answer is simple, encapsulated in just one word—

"Fight!"

The ritual array for summoning monsters unfolded before him. Dragon power surged within Qian Gu's body like a sluice gate opening, flowing away at a terrifying speed and quickly depleting by more than half.

Swish, swish, swish!

The ritual array flew up into the air, manifesting outside the apartment. It split and intertwined, transforming into five giant arrays radiating a brilliant white light.

"Roar!"

Five roars—both familiar and alien—burst forth from the white light.

Jet-black, spiked, and berserk giant bears stepped forward, sprawling on the ground. Pairs of cold, tyrannical eyes glared as if they intended to tear the world to shreds.

'Five of them? Is this the current limit of my parsing?'

Qian Gu panted, steadying himself against the wall as a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

These days, he certainly hadn't just followed instructions mechanically. Relying on the analytical power of arcane energy and his own enhanced intelligence, he had barely managed to perform certain spell analyses and even preliminary optimizations.

However, this optimization came at the cost of expending considerably more energy.

The very first spell Qian Gu parsed and optimized was "Monster Summoning," his trump card of trump cards.

Yet it had taken far too long.

Up to this point, the ultimate effect he could achieve through parsing was "mass summoning." The summoned entities were no longer "one," but a plurality greater than one—anywhere from two to nine. However, once the number exceeded "nine," the price would be the complete draining of Qian Gu's life force.

His energy was insufficient.

For every additional entity summoned, the consumed energy did not scale through simple addition or subtraction, nor through exaggerated multiplication and exponential growth, but it was undoubtedly a quantity he could not currently sustain.

'Five is just about enough.'

Rip—

The sound of scrolls tearing echoed continuously.
Without enough dragon power for direct supply, Qian Gu naturally had his own methods: the standard spell-flinging technique beloved by archmages and sorcerers who hated parting with their wealth.

Scrolls!

Spell scrolls that could be utilized with just a tiny sliver of energy as a trigger!

Backed by the Main God Space, the prices of raw materials had dropped drastically. Even the inscription of certain rune structures could be outsourced to the Main God, maximizing cost-effectiveness and making Qian Gu's wealth-splurging technique far less painful to execute.

Bull's Strength!
Mage Armor!
Grace of Agility!
Heroism!
Enlarge Person!
Stoneskin!

Spell scroll after spell scroll was torn apart, layering wave after wave of magical effects onto those five berserk giant bears.

This time, Qian Gu ripped open over thirty spell scrolls. The colossal stacking of magical effects nearly churned the magical elements in the surrounding area into a chaotic primordial soup, erupting with marvelous magical might.

"Enough!"

Qian Gu slowly exhaled, looking at the berserk giant bears whose bodies had expanded severalfold to over ten meters in height, along with their terrifying musculature whose mere existence was enough to stir the wind and clouds. He smiled faintly.

"Tear it apart."

Bang!

Crash!

For an invisible fraction of a second, the five berserk giant bears vanished from their spots, leaving behind only five craters the size of prone adults. The asphalt road surface was entirely shredded, the windows of nearby high-rise buildings were shattered by the generated shockwaves, and the entire street was swallowed by the gale-force winds of their movement.

The Thirteen Ghosts, which had been wreaking havoc, paused mid-stride and abruptly collapsed, crushing the elevated highway beneath its weight.

"Awoo—"

"Roar!"

Completely different roars. Completely different power.

Under the enhancement of multiple buffs, the strength of the berserk giant bears reached an even more astronomical level. All five charged together, slamming into the hundred-meter-tall ghost-deity and knocking it down. A single sweep of a bear paw tore apart the asphalt road, exposing the earthen strata tens of meters below.

"S-So terrifying!"

Ye Yiyi swallowed hard. Even though he was the designer of the "Necromancer" game and could be said to have spearheaded its descent into reality, he was still struck with dread by this sheer might.

Ancient deities, truly...

When power reaches a certain threshold, it acquires mass.

And that mass was enough to crush a person, even grinding them into a pulp of flesh and mud.

Clearly, the five berserk giant bears summoned by Qian Gu had reached this level. With every casual movement, they could unleash destruction across a radius of hundreds of meters, shattering high-rises, trampling asphalt roads, and engaging in a brutal brawl with the Thirteen Ghosts.

"Interference code."

"What?"

Ye Yiyi startled, staring at Qian Gu.

"Hand over the interference code, and I guarantee your safety for twenty-four hours."

Qian Gu tapped his fingers lightly against the table. Behind his lenses, his pupils were devoid of sorrow or joy, as mechanically indifferent as a machine. He looked at Ye Yiyi not as a fellow human being, but rather as an NPC—a low-tier entity from a different dimension.

"You..."

"I understand your concerns, but I will not inflict a devastating blow upon humanity."

Qian Gu played a subtle game with words.

It wouldn't inflict a devastating blow, but what exact degree of devastation counted as a devastating blow?

Ye Yiyi was a clever man; he could read between the lines of that subtext. Yet he had no alternative—control of the situation did not rest in his hands, and he possessed no right to choose whatsoever.

Therefore...

"Deal."

Ye Yiyi let out a breath. "I can hand over the interference code, but I left the code inside my personal computer."

When they fled, Qian Gu had only taken the person, leaving personal belongings behind.

Moreover, the entire room had suffered severe damage.

Even if he wanted to retrieve it, it was practically impossible; the place had been basically destroyed.

However...

"I see."

The corners of Qian Gu’s lips curled upward in a faint smile.

Destroyed?

As if!