Tower Defense: Public Enemy

Chapter 51 Challenge Hall

The 11th wave of wild monsters has begun in Leichi.

Soon, goblin warriors appeared from the [Time-Space Wormhole]. They appeared in a row of four in the center of the [War Corridor]. They had green skin, thin arms and legs, pointed chins and ears, wore grass skirts, and their legs seemed to be perpetually unable to stand straight. They held a small knife in their hands and were only 1.2 to 1.3 meters tall.

As soon as Lei Chi saw their appearance, he knew he had it all figured out.

This short, stocky fellow, even with a small knife, is no match for the big tiger. Once he enters Jingyang Ridge, he'll never get out.

As Lei Chi had predicted, he remained calm and composed during this wave of monster invasion.

"Ding! Congratulations on successfully defeating the 11th wave of monster invasion. Rewards have been calculated, your level has increased to LV5, and your level cap has been increased to LV11!"

"Ding! You have defeated the 11th wave of monster invasion. Your gold mine has been upgraded to LV4, the mining location has been increased by 1, and the mining efficiency has been doubled (you can get 8 copper coins for completing one mining action)."

"Ding! You can start the 12th wave of monster invasion at any time. The 12th wave of monster invasion is Goblin Spearmen. Four goblins will spawn every second, for a total of four thousand. Please start with caution."

Upon hearing the system notification, Lei Chi thought to himself, "They're all goblins, how much harder can it get?"

He immediately initiated the 12th wave of monster invasion.

In fact, Lei Chi had some understanding of the monster invasion at this stage. If nothing unexpected happened, the Goblin Spearmen's health would be 1200 points, so the difficulty of the 12th wave of monster invasion was only slightly higher than the 10th wave, and he could easily defeat it.

After initiating the monster invasion, Lei Chi stopped watching the camp square and entered the gold mine. The gold mine didn't look any different from the outside, but once inside, it felt like a completely different world. First was the hall, with four treasure chests in the hall. Behind the treasure chests were four mine shafts, corresponding to the first to fourth gold mining positions.

Now, the skeleton miner is at the No. 1 gold mining position. He swings his skillful pickaxe, mechanically repeating the same digging motion. With each dig, a number appears above his head: "Copper Coins +4.8"!

The orc laborer at the second gold mining location is just digging the ground without contributing any gold.

"At the skeleton miner's gold mining efficiency, 4.8 per two seconds, that's 144 per minute, 8640 per hour, and one gold coin every 70 minutes. Not bad. If only there were four skeleton miners, they could dig up more than eighty gold coins a day just from digging..."

After confirming the skeleton miners' gold mining efficiency, Lei Chi picked up a pickaxe and went to the third gold mining location to dig the ground himself, treating it as a way to exercise his body.

Shortly after, a system notification sounded in Lei Chi's mind: "Ding, congratulations on successfully defeating the 12th wave of monster invasion. Rewards have been calculated, your level has increased to LV6, and your level cap has been increased to LV12!"

"Ding! The [Challenge Hall] building has been unlocked. You can challenge powerful bosses in the Challenge Hall and receive generous rewards upon completion. Please explore the hall for details."

"Ding! You can initiate the 13th wave of monster invasion at any time. The 13th wave consists of Goblin Lizard Knights, spawning four per second, for a total of four thousand. Please activate with caution!"

"It's the goblin lizard rider's turn..."

Lei Chi didn't dare to directly start the 13th wave of monster invasion this time. He had previously read a lot of players' walkthrough tips and strategy tutorials online. He vaguely remembered that the Goblin Lizard Riders were goblin warriors riding goblin lizards. Their health and the lizard mount's health were stacked together, reaching as high as 2000!

Therefore, this wave of monster invasions is quite difficult, and many players have suffered losses here, ending up having to delete their accounts.

"Jingyanggang only deals a little over a thousand damage to multiple targets. I reckon it's just a big tiger grabbing its throat and slapping its claws a few times. Even Wang Daochang could get past it, so we can't make it too mythical. I'd better play it safe and postpone this 13th wave of monster invasion. I can use this time to research the Challenge Hall!"

Lei Chi ran towards the back of the Gem Hall, where a new building had appeared. Above this building were flashes of sword and axe light, which was the Challenge Hall.

From what Lei Chi understands, this Challenge Hall seems to be a place that players both love and hate.

The reason I say "love" is because the rewards for successfully defeating the BOSS are very generous.

The reason for the "hatred" is that the BOSS is too strong. You have to spend gold coins to challenge it, and you can only challenge it once. If you fail to challenge it once, you will miss it forever and you will never be able to challenge it again.

In addition, the bosses available for challenge in the challenge hall appear randomly, and each challenge hall is different. There is no fixed challenge order or refresh pattern. It seems that even if the boss is exactly the same, the rewards after different players kill it are different, which has a lot of randomness and is related to the type of defense towers of the players.

While this randomness enriches the gameplay, it also causes countless players to complain, since there are no guides or strategies to refer to, and if they fail to complete the challenge, their money is wasted and they suffer a huge loss.

When Lei Chi arrived at his own challenge hall, he saw an LCD screen displaying three bosses that could be challenged. The first two had accompanying descriptions, while the last one was marked with a large question mark, indicating it was a mysterious boss.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Challenge Hall

Current number of challenge attempts remaining: 12

Challengeable Boss 1: [Lava Behemoth], LV20 Silver Boss. Limited to a six-hour challenge period; it will respawn and disappear after six hours. Challenge fee: 10 gold.

Second boss available for challenge: [Beastmaster], a human beast tamer, hero unit, LV6 Gold Boss. Limited to a 12-hour challenge period; it will respawn and disappear after 12 hours. Challenge fee: 10 gold.

Challengeable BOSS 3: [Mysterious BOSS], ? ? ? ? ?, from the Tata World Hall of Fame. Daring to challenge him means you've already won half the battle.

The challenge is limited to three hours. It will refresh and disappear after three hours. The challenge fee is 10 gold.

Note 1: After selecting to challenge the BOSS, the BOSS will appear in the [Time-Space Wormhole] after three minutes. Defeating the BOSS before it arrives at the camp square is considered a victory and you will receive a challenge treasure chest.

If the challenger enters the camp square, the challenge is considered a failure, and the player will not receive any rewards.

Note 2: Bronze BOSSes have ten times the attributes of players of the same level, Silver BOSSes have twenty times the attributes of players of the same level, Gold BOSSes have forty times the attributes of players of the same level, Diamond BOSSes have eighty times the attributes of players of the same level, and God-level BOSSes have at least one hundred and eighty times the attributes of players of the same level.

Note 3: Each BOSS can only be challenged once. Regardless of whether the challenge is successful or not, a new BOSS will be available for challenge in the challenge lobby after the challenge process is completed!

Note 4: The maximum number of times a player can challenge a BOSS is the same as the number of waves of monster invasions they can defeat. Some special items can increase the number of challenges; please explore them on your own.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Lei Chi faced the challenge panel and began to ponder it seriously.

"The LV20 Silver BOSS, Lava Behemoth, has about 40,000 HP, which is quite difficult! The LV6 Gold BOSS, Beast King, has only 24,000 HP, so there might be a chance against that one. As for that mysterious BOSS... what the heck is the Tata World Hall of Fame? Daring to challenge it means you've already won half the battle, what does that mean? Does it mean this BOSS is weak?"