Chapter 150: The Tin Man and Sugar Mountain Bourne

Liu Zong did not have much objection to his ragdoll subordinate, which looked as though it had just been fished out of the water. At the very least, it had not turned into a block of ice or a ghost, and its attributes as a meat shield remained undiminished. That was already enough.

Bai Qi, who understood nothing about undead minions, felt somewhat puzzled. "Why didn't you keep those two items for the other undead minions? This battle went so smoothly, so the upcoming fights will surely go well too."

Liu Zong explained, "No, if I'm not mistaken, the subsequent bosses will become increasingly difficult to fight. If we don't continuously enhance our combat power, we might not make it to the end."

Bai Qi looked at Liu Zong with lingering doubt, but seeing the serious expression on Liu Zong's face, he decided not to ask any further. Besides, in his view, none of the undead controlled by Liu Zong made any sense to him, nor was there any need to pry.

After bidding farewell to the scarecrow, Liu Zong and his companion headed toward the candy forest not far away. Their starting location was about thirty kilometers from the candy forest, which would take roughly an hour of walking at their pace.

Along the way, however, they encountered numerous gummy bears. As these little bears crawled out of the ground, they would run in a single direction, and the soil where they appeared grew noticeably paler, as if drained of some vital power.

After trying a few, Liu Zong and Bai Qi lost interest in eating any more gummy bears, as they provided no sense of fullness. The shepherd doll, on the other hand, was delighted, happily devouring the bodies of the gummy bears while stringing their severed heads onto the hair behind her back.

Liu Zong had no intention of commenting on such a hobby; as long as it did not affect combat effectiveness, it was fine.

Soon, however, Liu Zong noticed that the corpses of those gummy bears melted very quickly, eventually dissolving into pools of liquid sugar syrup carrying a faint trace of undead aura.

At first, Liu Zong paid little attention. But as the heads of the gummy bears melted one by one, forming a thick layer of sugar syrup on the back of the shepherd doll, Liu Zong realized that the undead aura was growing stronger, and this aura was actually enhancing the quality of the shepherd doll.

That was right—it was neither increasing its strength nor raising its level, but rather reinforcing its overall quality.

Though only by a fraction, Liu Zong saw the hope of upgrading the shepherd doll to the purple tier.

This discovery filled Liu Zong with a hint of awe toward the mastermind behind the invasion of this miniature world. It was evident that this mastermind must be a master of the undead arts.

Regardless, they soon arrived at the edge of the candy forest. It was only upon reaching this place that Liu Zong understood why the forest was called a candy forest.

Everything in this forest was related to candy. The trunks of most trees were made of rock candy, the leaves were crafted from sugar paper, the fruits were various types of hard candies, maple syrup flowed beneath the bark, and even the layers of sand on the ground were a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar.

In the middle of the forest, a massive robot standing three and a half meters tall was wielding a chainsaw, felling candy trees one by one, crushing them into powder with its feet, and packing them to be sent off toward the candy house.

This was the guardian of the place, Mr. Tin Man. Upon seeing Liu Zong, he waved his hand and said, "You must be the ones who came to help me. I heard from the scarecrow that you've arrived just in time. In another half hour, Byrne will appear and try to seize my forest, so go take him down."

"Byrne?" Liu Zong asked with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, that disgusting creature pieced together from the corpses of countless gummy bears. He's covered in lumps all over, looking just like a giant mountain of flesh. That's also what I hate most about him—my chainsaw can't even scratch him."

With the Tin Man's explanation, Liu Zong and the others finally understood the background of this Byrne.

According to the Tin Man, Byrne was the first native monster originating from the distant Gummy Bear Colosseum. In that Gummy Bear Colosseum, countless gummy bears gathered to collide and bite each other until they fell in battle right where they stood.

Byrne was the first gummy bear to walk out of the Gummy Bear Colosseum alive. Having consumed the corpses of too many of his own kind, his body had swelled into a small mountain. He needed to continuously devour massive amounts of candy every day to maintain his vitality. At the same time, his sheer mass of flesh posed a troublesome problem—it was practically another manifestation of physical immunity.

A powerful robot like the Tin Man could drop a two-meter-thick tree with a single swing of his chainsaw, yet he could not saw through the layer of sugar syrup on Byrne's body, leaving him utterly unable to harm Byrne's core.

Other players who had visited previously had tried alternative methods and discovered that only fire was Byrne's nemesis. Cold temperatures at most made his outer layer stiff, but once those hardened outer layers were shattered, the underlying flesh was just as frustrating.

Hearing these accounts gave Liu Zong a headache. He was a Yin-attribute player, so he naturally did not know any fire-based spells. As for Bai Qi, while he possessed Level 3 strength, he was clearly a Water-attribute player, meaning mastering fire was something for his next life.

If the two of them went all out, they could certainly take Byrne down, but trying to reduce him to his last drop of health to trigger a transformation, as they had done with the Evil Ice Troupe, was virtually impossible.

What caused even more headaches was not just this. Bai Qi estimated that after Byrne transformed, although his health would not be fully restored, the gummy flesh that Liu Zong had worn down might regenerate. Bai Qi lacked the confidence to land a one-hit kill on Byrne after his transformation.

When that time came, Bai Qi would have to choose whether to fight the transformed Byrne or protect Liu Zong so he could escape safely.

While the two of them were pondering, the sound of the ground shaking echoed from afar. The Tin Man shouted loudly, "I'm going to fight! I'm going to defend my forest, don't try to stop me!"

With a mighty roar, the Tin Man took flight, lunging in the direction from which the sound came.

Liu Zong and Bai Qi exchanged glances and quickly sprinted toward the source of the noise. Liu Zong brought his subordinate, the shepherd doll, running faster and faster, while Bai Qi followed closely at a distance.

Soon, Liu Zong spotted a red mountain of flesh standing four meters high and nearly seven meters wide. On this lumpy mountain of flesh were two rather large eyes, and a pair of arms grew from its midsection, looking so thick and short that they could not even touch the ground.

Beneath the mountain of flesh, four short, thick legs supported its forward movement, making it obvious that they truly could not accelerate any further.

[Candy Mountain Byrne]
[Race: Candy-man]
[Level: Level 1 (1-Star) Boss Template]
[Attributes: Strength 8, Agility 2, Constitution 11, Spirit 6]
[Description: Byrne is a candy-man pieced together from the corpses of countless gummy bears. Beneath his body lies a pool of slime-like sugar syrup; until this layer of sugar syrup defense is breached, no one can harm his true body.]