Adventurers and Dungeons

This was a dilapidated Dungeon, its earthen walls stretching roughly five hundred meters in both length and width. It contained only a crude Lord's Mansion and a plain hall.

"My territory was finally about to open for business!"

Qi Ji stood in the hall and let out this sigh.

He had once been an office drone fresh out of college, only to somehow transmigrate into the game world of "Dungeon Lord." After years of struggle, he had finally become a lord and gained a Dungeon of his own.

This world was very unusual.

It had two professions: "Adventurer" and "Lord."

"Adventurers" were a group of immortals living on the surface. Year-round, they ravenously searched for all kinds of Dungeons. Ever curious, they craved excitement, loved courting death, and challenged Dungeon secret realms in pursuit of treasure, fame, and even simple enjoyment!

"Lords" were the creators of Dungeons. They could use Mental Strength to create all kinds of secret realms to attract Adventurers. When the latter died in a secret realm, they produced Soul Crystals, the core resource for building Dungeons.

The two sides were closely intertwined, yet their relationship was full of rivalry.

The main gameplay of "Dungeon Lord" was playing as either a "Lord" or an "Adventurer" as they tried to outwit each other. Its strategy, management, sandbox, Roguelike, and other elements made it incredibly addictive.

Qi Ji had long accepted the reality of his transmigration.

He had even resolved to become the greatest Dungeon Lord!

He dared make such a grand vow not only because he understood this world well, but also because he had discovered that his awakened Sea of Inspiration had somehow fused with all kinds of popular games, anime, and film and television works from his previous life.

From it, he could draw uniquely abundant materials.

This was undoubtedly the strongest lord talent!

Adventurers were extremely similar to players from his previous life. They might challenge secret realms for practical reasons, but they were also drawn in by interesting secret realms. Even without sufficient material rewards, as long as it was fun, they would keep coming back for more without tiring of it!

If creating secret realms were compared to making games,

then this world's standards were undoubtedly terrible!

Ninety-nine percent of secret realms were essentially mazes, differing only in theme, elements, and structure.

Why was that?

Because building secret realms was no easy task!

First, one had to awaken a Sea of Inspiration and condense Inspiration Crystals.

And "Inspiration Crystals" were the Asset Packs used to build secret realms, containing materials such as monsters, scenes, and items.

The materials available to lords were generally scarce and repetitive. Only a tiny number of exceptionally talented lords could awaken distinctive special materials, but limited quantities still made it difficult for them to create rich game content.

Qi Ji was different.

His Sea of Inspiration was extraordinary.

His materials were ten thousand times richer than those of ordinary lords!

He could not only perfectly reproduce and manifest the most classic and entertaining games from his previous life, but also fuse and innovate with elements from different games to create content that was more creative, crazier, and better suited to this world!

He was confident that he could bring the most interesting and entertaining secret realms to this world!

To Adventurers and other lords alike, this would be a Dimensional Strike!

Qi Ji activated the Dungeon Core, and a control panel appeared before his eyes. It offered Information Management and Territory Management, and he first checked his Personal Information.

----

Name: Qi Ji.

Rank: First Order.

Mental Strength: 5/1000.

Soul Crystals: 0.

Inspiration Crystal: Left 4 Dead.

Current Secret Realm: None.

Territory Capacity: 0/100.

----

Qi Ji had spent nearly twenty years accumulating Mental Strength to awaken his first Inspiration Crystal from the Sea of Inspiration.

It was none other than "Left 4 Dead," the apocalyptic zombie-themed game that had once swept across his previous world!

Back then, it had been the favorite of countless college dorms pulling all-nighters and rows of gamers in internet cafés!

When he activated the crystal,

the materials appeared.

--

Monster Materials: Common Zombie, Boomer Zombie, Hunter Zombie, Charger Zombie... Tank Zombie, Witch Zombie!

Location Materials: Urban District Asset Pack, Forest Valley Asset Pack... Park, station, subway, Airport, Port!

Item Materials: Melee Weapon Asset Pack, Firearm Asset Pack...

Character Materials:...

--

This Inspiration Crystal encompassed all content from both Left 4 Dead games.

He could reproduce the entire game exactly as it was, down to every last detail.

The zombie-themed shooter genre might have been commonplace in his previous life, but its unique Worldview and monster elements had never been seen here. It would definitely hold enormous appeal for Adventurers and stir their desire to explore!

Every Adventurer who experienced it would surely consider it a work of genius inspiration and design!

However, Qi Ji would not reproduce the original work one hundred percent.

When Dungeon Lords built secret realms, whether placing monster materials, setting up scenes and locations, or creating special items, they had to consume Mental Strength.

The current cost of monster materials was:

--

Common Zombie: Costs 0.

Hunter: Costs 3.

Boomer: Costs 3.

Charger: Costs 5.

...

Tank: Costs 20.

Witch: Costs 20.

--

Secret realm materials

could only be used to create secret realms.

Qi Ji had only five points of Mental Strength left. For now, he could not create many Special Zombies, but that was not a problem. Secret realms could be continuously improved, adjusted, and expanded with more content.

He would first build a basic framework.

For the setting of this secret realm, he chose the "Urban District," with a total area of roughly one hundred square kilometers, equivalent to a small-to-medium-sized city. It happened to consume five points of Mental Strength.

Deploying Common Zombies

required no Mental Strength and had no quantity limit.

He stuffed hundreds of thousands of them directly into the setting and every nook and cranny.

Some of the zombies would wander fixed areas, while the rest would respawn randomly according to the time.

Qi Ji added an infection threat to the settings. Even a single zombie bite or a tiny scratch that broke the skin would cause continuous damage, increasing the game's difficulty and realism.

To conserve resources,

he would adopt a single-player survival mode in the early stages.

Anyone who had played this game surely knew

that teammates were often needed for rescue. The solo difficulty was extremely high, especially in Realism Mode.

When Adventurers entered the game, they would have only ordinary human physiques. One could easily imagine how difficult survival would be. There was no need to worry about running out of leeks to harvest!

Besides, as a designer, he had to have his own creativity. The Left 4 Dead material library had enormous development potential. In the future, he could build Story Mode, Team Mode, Versus Mode, Chicken Dinner Mode, and more around shooting and Biohazard gameplay.

Why did Dungeon Lords work so hard to create secret realms for Adventurers to play?

Was it because they loved Adventurers?

Of course not!

The sole purpose of any Dungeon Lord creating a secret realm was to harvest players. How to drain the pond without killing the fish was a profound art.

The game could not be too easy!

Those crafty Adventurers would stop coming once they got bored!

Unless enticing completion rewards were offered, but generating rewards consumed the lord's resources. Many Dungeons had gone bankrupt because of this.

The game could not be too difficult or boring either!

Adventurers were not fools. A secret realm game that maliciously overwhelmed them, offered no hope of clearing it, and obviously existed only to harvest them could at most trick one wave of Adventurers. Once it ruined the Dungeon's reputation, the losses would outweigh the gains.

This secret realm was designed to be utterly sinister, with an extremely high difficulty.

But with its unique Worldview, unique monsters, and fresh gameplay, why worry that it would not attract Adventurers to become wave after wave of willing leeks, rushing forward to be harvested?

After working for three days,

he finally finished building it!

Although the secret realm drew material from "Left 4 Dead,"

it could already be considered a remade original game.

Considering that Team Mode, Story Mode, CS, survival, Chicken Dinner, and other new gameplay modes would be developed in the future, using the original name was naturally unsuitable. Thus, he named this secret realm "Doomsday Frenzy"!

His first secret realm game had been successfully created!

"Hehehe, everything is ready!"

Qi Ji rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Let me first show these innocent Adventurers the shock of a Zombie Tide!"