Chapter 157: The Big Belly Zombie
Its forelimbs had become almost as powerful and dependable as a tiger’s legs as it swung viciously at the Boss, striking so hard that the layers of fat covering its body visibly caved inward.
It even managed to tear out a section of intestines from inside the creature.
"ROAR!"
The Big Belly Zombie let out a furious roar.
The layers of flesh covering its body shook violently like waves of meat rolling across the surface of the sea as one massive hand slammed heavily into the ground.
The earth trembled.
Sharp stone spikes suddenly burst out from the ground where its palm had struck and surged rapidly forward.
The spikes stood over a meter tall, resembling an earth dragon awakening beneath the soil.
Joo Joowon leapt into the air and immediately fired another three bolts toward the eyes on the creature’s face.
Bullseye!
Yet the Big Belly Zombie behaved as though it felt absolutely nothing.
The quivering flesh covering its body behaved like jelly, directly spitting the bolts back out as if rejecting them.
Even the wound Hwi had torn open disappeared without leaving a trace.
"ROAR!"
The Big Belly Zombie’s powerful roar seemed to proclaim just how insignificant Joo Joowon and his companions’ attacks truly were in its eyes.
Even the spider webs covering its body failed to hinder its attacks in the slightest.
The Big Belly Zombie planted its hands on the ground and pushed itself back up.
The incredibly sticky spider silk dug deeply into its flesh, yet it was obvious that the creature did not care in the slightest.
Joo Joowon’s heart sank.
Aside from the ability it had used earlier, which clearly did not seem to be an innate skill of the Big Belly Zombie itself, this Boss had behaved exactly as he had expected.
Its attack power was low, but its defense was absurdly high.
Even so, it remained an extremely difficult opponent to deal with.
If he really chose to slowly grind down its health little by little, the lack of ammunition was only one part of the problem.
The other issue was that the speed at which he reduced its health might not even be faster than the speed at which it recovered.
Ordinary bolts possessed no damage bonus.
Relying purely on the destructive power of the crossbow itself was nowhere near enough to seriously threaten the Big Belly Zombie.
Did he have anything else in his inventory that could be useful?
Joo Joowon quickly swept his eyes across his inventory.
The moment he did so, however, a shadow instantly covered his heart and a powerful sense of danger surged through his mind.
Without hesitation, he immediately used spider silk to pull himself to another location.
Almost at the exact same moment he moved, four or five stone spikes over a meter long suddenly pierced down from the ceiling where he had been standing moments earlier before disappearing into thin air.
However, it was not over yet.
Less than a second later, another wave of stone spikes shot toward Joo Joowon’s new position.
They pierced straight through the location where he had originally stood before vanishing once again.
The only evidence that anything had happened at all was the ceiling that had been riddled with holes.
Joo Joowon frowned tightly.
The Boss’s skill seemed to have no cooldown at all.
It fired continuously like a machine gun without the slightest pause.
After thinking about it for a moment, however, his expression relaxed once more.
After all, wasn’t he exactly the same?
As long as his Mental Power had not been exhausted, the Spider Web Launcher also had no such thing as a cooldown period.
After realizing that, Joo Joowon stopped trying to flee.
Instead, he continued creating opportunities for Hwi to attack while narrowly brushing past the incoming stone spikes over and over again, deliberately creating the illusion that if the Boss only tried a little harder, it would finally succeed in skewering him.
At that moment, Joo Joowon truly experienced the overwhelming suppression that Big Belly Zombie possessed against ordinary players.
If he had not possessed the Spider Web Launcher, he would have had absolutely no ability to resist this Big Belly Zombie whatsoever.
Unlike now, where he could at least kite it around and slowly wear it down.
He firmly believed that there was no way this Boss’s Mental Power was as ridiculously high as its health pool.
However, while repeatedly baiting the Big Belly Zombie, it was not as though Joo Joowon had managed to avoid every attack entirely.
The durability of the Pigskin Armor had been reduced by another point, while the Dogskin Belt had been completely destroyed after the last remaining point of durability was consumed, forcing him to switch back to the Beginner Belt.
Fortunately, the system did not have any rule preventing equipment changes during combat.
Otherwise, losing even that single point of Strength would not have been without consequences.
After all, Joo Joowon had already grown accustomed to the enhanced physical abilities provided by his attribute bonuses.
Losing even a single point created a slight sense of imbalance throughout his body and forced him to adapt all over again.
A tiny mistake could become a fatal one.
In life and death combat, it was entirely possible for a moment of carelessness caused by that difference to result in his death.
After failing to land several attacks in a row, the Big Belly Zombie seemed to realize that if things continued like this, it would eventually be worn down and killed.
It suddenly let out an enraged roar.
Joo Joowon immediately sensed danger and instinctively increased the pressure on the spider web through Mental Power in an attempt to restrain it.
It was useless.
Even though Joo Joowon pushed his Mental Power to its limits to control the web, the Big Belly Zombie’s strength was simply not something he could compete against.
More importantly, under the natural pressure emitted by the Big Belly Zombie, Joo Joowon constantly felt as though a negative status effect had been placed upon him.