A Mere 50 Floors? A Live Demonstration!

The smile froze on Ding Mingcang's face.

He had never expected such a response.

In his view, he was a dignified Sect Elder, and he had already taken the initiative to suggest that each side take a step back.

Lu Ze was merely a sect disciple, an Outer Disciple who had not even entered the inner sect.

Where did he get the nerve to speak to him like that?

Faint, imperceptible ripples continuously surged around Ding Mingcang.

If not for all the onlookers around them, he felt he would have attacked without hesitation.

Chao Wendao gave him a meaningful glance, and Ding Mingcang forcibly restrained his killing intent.

"What a fine 'accepting the outcome of a wager'... Fine!"

Ding Mingcang squeezed the words through clenched teeth, his eyes fixed firmly on Lu Ze.

"Then today, I'd like to see just how endless this Endless Mode really is..."

"And how exactly you cleared these stages!"

"If you can clear all fifty stages in front of every disciple here, then I will willingly admit defeat!"

Though he had not personally attempted Endless Mode, based on Qian Yutang's information, its difficulty was not something ordinary people could overcome.

Over the past three days, the highest record in the entire sect had only been twenty stages.

And that had ended in a crushing defeat!

No matter how he thought about it, Lu Ze must have deliberately made it impossible for everyone to clear the stages.

Even he himself would not be able to do it.

"Sure. Let's begin, then."

Lu Ze smiled faintly.

He had long guessed that Ding Mingcang would not let the matter rest.

He had expected things to reach this point.

What a joke...

A mere fifty floors?

For a seasoned problem-setter like him, who had worked with all kinds of netizens in his previous life, it was child's play.

Forget fifty floors.

Even a hundred, a thousand, or even an AFK lineup—he could come up with something for all of them.

"Wait!"

Seeing how calm Lu Ze was, Ding Mingcang stopped him with a suspicious expression.

"First, I'll have someone inspect whether you tampered with the Crystals or the Illusion Tower before you demonstrate anything!"

News that Lu Ze would demonstrate Endless Mode at Lingxiao Plaza quickly spread.

"I think Elder Ding has a point. If Junior Brother Lu deliberately made it impossible for us to clear the stages, that really would be unfair."

"Junior Brother Lu is really bold. He actually embarrassed the Second Elder in front of so many fellow disciples."

"A live demonstration all the way to stage fifty? That's impossible, isn't it?"

"I can't even clear the fifth stage..."

"Absolutely impossible! The firepower at the tenth stage is already inhuman! Stage fifty? There's no way anyone can clear it!"

"I even suspect this illusion doesn't have a fiftieth stage at all."

"Junior Brother Lu must've been drunk when he set the number of zombies. This time, I want to see how he clears it."

The disciples discussed the matter animatedly.

Even though Lu Ze was the creator of the illusion, no one believed he could reach stage fifty.

After all, the leaps in difficulty under Endless Mode were obvious to everyone.

With such an outrageous number of zombies, everyone felt that clearing it was simply impossible without cheating.

So when Ding Mingcang proposed inspecting the Crystals and the Illusion Tower, the disciples found it perfectly reasonable.

After an inspection confirmed that none of the items had been tampered with, Lu Ze's consciousness entered the Illusion Tower, ready to begin his performance.

He projected the illusion's display into the outside world.

Ding Mingcang and the Enforcement Hall disciples stood watchfully at the side, closely monitoring his every move.

The moment Lu Ze made any move that looked like he was altering the Crystal's information, Ding Mingcang would take him down without hesitation.

All the disciples watched Lu Ze's screen curiously.

Yet the moment Lu Ze entered, he stopped at the Endless Mode selection and did not move at all.

"Why isn't he moving?"

"Could he be scared...?"

"Maybe he's looking for a chance to adjust the stage difficulty?"

"That'll be hard... Elder Ding is watching right beside him."

The disciples were all curious.

At that moment, Lu Ze was frowning in thought.

He was considering two questions.

First, which stage he should play.

Second, which formation he should use.

If he were not "Live Streaming," then it would not matter what he chose.

Forget fifty stages.

Even five hundred or five thousand stages would be easy for him.

The problem was, he did not want to personally teach so many people how to clear Endless Mode at this point.

For one thing, it would reduce the players' time to think for themselves, thereby affecting the game's future longevity.

And for another...

if the players all knew how to clear Endless Mode, where would he earn Demonic Value?

Take the classic Eight-Cannon Corn Formation, for example.

It would not be an exaggeration to say

that if he demonstrated how to set it up on the spot, all the disciples would know how to AFK farm Endless Mode by that night.

Even if the difficulty had been raised substantially, the disciples could at least reach stage one hundred.

That would naturally greatly reduce their motivation to keep playing "Plants vs. Zombies" in the future.

Lu Ze felt that he absolutely could not choose such a simple, brainless AFK formation.

It would be best to leave formation development to the players themselves.

After some brief consideration, Lu Ze chose the third stage, Daytime Pool, and activated Endless Mode.

Because of the pool, the third stage put less defensive pressure on the two water lanes, making it the easiest overall and very convenient for teaching.

As for the formation, Lu Ze chose a rather classic No-Cannon Formation.

The No-Cannon Formation required more manual control, and he could deliberately adjust some other plants to mislead the players.

After swiftly selecting his Spirit Plant Cards, Lu Ze entered the game.

Below the stage.

Countless eyes closely watched Lu Ze's every move.

When they saw Lu Ze's card selection, confused murmurs filled the crowd.

"What does this mean? Why didn't Junior Brother Lu bring Peashooters?"

"It's one thing not to bring ordinary Peashooters, but he didn't even bring Ice Peashooters?"

"Forget Peashooters—Junior Brother Lu only brought one Puff-shroom and one Doom-shroom? How is he planning to clear the first stage?"

"Is he going to trade Potato Mines and Squash Daoists for zombies? Isn't that a pure waste of spiritual energy?"

"Wait... he didn't even bring Wall-nuts!"

"Isn't this just suicide?"

"Has Junior Brother Lu given up on himself?"

In the air.

Mu Yawen and Zhong Yi were likewise watching Lu Ze's actions closely.

"Senior Brother Zhong, isn't Junior Brother Lu a little too confident not bringing any nuts?"

Mu Yawen was puzzled.

He had a particular fondness for the tank plants in this game.

In every stage, he had to line up an entire row of Tall-Nuts and Pumpkin Shields; otherwise, he always felt like something was missing.

Now that he saw Lu Ze hadn't brought a single nut, he felt as though ants were crawling all over him, making him uncomfortable from head to toe.

"The first stage isn't very intense. The main focus is stockpiling spirit energy, so it's understandable not to bring nuts."

Zhong Yi had more experience than the others.

Frowning, he pondered the purpose behind every card Lu Ze had brought.

The Imitater copying the Sunflower was obviously to speed up spirit energy collection.

The Potato Mine and Squash were meant to trade the fewest resources possible for zombies in the early game, which was also acceptable.

But he couldn't understand why Lu Ze had chosen the 75-spirit-energy Puff-shroom instead of the Peashooter, which could work with Torch.

The former even required an additional Awakening Bean to wake it up!

If all of that could still barely be understood, then what confused him most was Garlic.

In his eyes, that card was complete trash.

Its effect was to stink zombies into switching to another lane.

It only changed their path; it could neither kill them nor deal damage. It was utterly useless.

Zhong Yi had only used it once in a story stage before tossing it into storage to gather dust, never using it again.

Watching Lu Ze select this pile of cards without hesitation, Zhong Yi grew even more curious.

With these bizarre cards, how was Lu Ze planning to hold steady until Stage 50?