Rewards

Lu Xiu only felt the ground vanish beneath her feet.

Then, by the time she reacted, her vision had already been swallowed by a vast expanse of pure white.

She had returned to the familiar construction space.

There was no sky here, no boundary to the ground—only endless white... and the instance that had already been sealed in midair.

Compared to the instance, this place was far too quiet.

Lu Xiu was still in the pose of throwing wild punches. Noticing the change in her surroundings, she froze for two seconds before slowly lowering her hands.

But soon—

She remembered the system's evaluation again. "...Who are you calling a coward?!"

Thinking about it carefully.

She was still angry and indignant.

That was a normal reaction, okay?!

Who wouldn't be scared the first time they picked up an axe and chopped someone?! If you're so capable, you do it! Besides, she'd been affected by another set of memories, okay?! She hadn't cried!

She cursed a few more times, but gradually, her voice grew quieter.

Her anger had come fast and faded just as quickly.

Although the clear rating was a little subtle, she had cleared the instance in the end. Overall, the rating was quite high. Now she could use that rating to get a loan and launch the instance.

And... Lu Xiu felt that she had been pretty impressive. Though the process was hard to put into words, she had cleared a real-life version of Resident Evil 7 in just over four hours.

The sense of accomplishment was immense.

The exhilaration of winning after finishing a marathon finally came, though it had arrived late.

And along with it came a powerful urge to share.

Lu Xiu couldn't help straightening her back, planting her hands on her hips, and looking at the system panel before her. "Wasn't I amazing? Wasn't I?"

...No one answered her.

The white space was silent.

Of course, the game system would not answer her.

And there was no one else in the construction space with whom she could share the fear, anger, and joy of clearing the instance.

Lu Xiu paused, then slowly lowered her hands and sat down.

The pure white floor was cool and clean.

She drew up her beautifully shaped long legs, wrapped her arms around her knees, rested her chin on them, and smiled softly.

After quite a while.

Lu Xiu had sorted through her emotions. She raised her head and reached out, pulling open the window that had kept popping up earlier, only to be shoved into the upper-left corner by her flurry of wild punches.

Let's look at the rewards.

[Instance verified!]

[System rating generated—]

[Instance Name: Resident Evil]

[Instance Rating: C→S]

[Instance Type: Horror/Survival/Puzzle]

[Ticket Price: 200 Survival Points]

[Instance Description: One day, Ethan Winters received a message from his wife Mia, who had been missing for three years. He traced her to an abandoned estate in Louisiana, only to find the Baker Family living within that mad house. He was forced into a twisted and brutal escape struggle against the malicious Baker Family...]

[Instance Feature Tags: When players face the Baker Family's extreme terror, physical torment, and inhuman monsters, they must demonstrate mental endurance and a will to survive beyond that of ordinary people. Yet the reason the player ventures alone into this demon's den is merely to find his wife, who has been missing for three years.

This conviction is the root of the player's resistance against fear.

It is also an ordinary person's courage to face fear for love.]

[Possible Rewards: "Ordinary Person's Courage"; valuable items; attribute point rewards.]

[Creator: Lu Xiu]

S-rank?!

The instance she had copied from memories of her past life was actually S-rank?!

And clearing an instance really did award skills! Ordinary Person's Courage... wasn't that the theme she'd written for the instance?

So clear rewards really were tied to the instance's theme?

Then didn't that mean...

Thinking of something, Lu Xiu's beautiful eyes lit up.

Also, with the rating already at S, a ticket price of 200 felt a little low.

But Lu Xiu quickly came to her senses. It was still too early to think about that. She hurriedly gathered her stray thoughts and opened the next window.

[Construction rewards being calculated—]

[Instance Rating: S. Instance Clear Rating: SSS—]

[Construction Experience +480]

[Mental Attribute Points +7]

[You have advanced to Level 3 Constructor!]

[You are the first Constructor to create an S-rank instance! Calculating special reward... Congratulations! You have obtained the special skill [Reverse Visual Imagery]!]

It was here!

The self-defense ability she had been longing for had finally arrived!

Lu Xiu was excited.

But.

Wasn't this a skill for constructing instances? What did adding "reverse" to it mean? Could it even be awarded to players? Had she used it too many times, so it had been given to her as a reward?

Or was there some other evaluation criterion?

Excited but slightly puzzled, Lu Xiu opened the skill.

A new window popped up.

[Special Skill: Reverse Visual Imagery]

[Rating: SS]

[Type: Perception/Passive Trigger]

[Ability Description: Close your eyes. As your mental power spreads, your brain will automatically construct a mental image of the surrounding environment. Within the range of this mental image, you can perceive all lifeforms with strong life fluctuations, unaffected by ordinary obstructions.]

[Perception Range: Base Radius: 15 meters

Mental Power Bonus: +12 meters (Current Mental Power: 12)

Final Perception Range: 27 meters (radius)]

[Recognizable Targets: Humans, animals, anomalous creatures, and other individuals with strong life fluctuations]

[Cost: None]

[Note: Now close your eyes and imagine the outline of an orange... Even if there isn't an orange beside you, the image of an orange will still automatically appear in your mind, right? Though it's blurry and unclear, it still appears. That is visual imagery. Isn't the human brain amazing?]

After reading the skill description, Lu Xiu's eyes abruptly lit up.

Wasn't this an absolutely god-tier scouting skill?!

Not only did it ignore obstructions, its range was huge. The base radius alone was fifteen meters, and it was boosted by mental power! And Constructor rewards just happened to grant mental attribute points.

Wow.

Looking at the range description, Lu Xiu subconsciously measured it out in her head and felt that it was a little outrageous.

She had only created one instance, yet she had already received seven mental attribute points. If she kept developing, just how outrageous would this skill's detection range become?

Unfortunately, the skill did not seem to have a filtering function. In a city, there were living things everywhere... Lu Xiu could not think of a use case for it yet, but that was fine. It was only for now. She would find a use for it eventually.

Besides, it was good enough that it could prevent ambushes.

Satisfied, Lu Xiu closed the skill description and continued reading.

The Constructor rewards were great.

Next, it was time to see what rewards she had received for clearing the instance herself.

[You have cleared the "Resident Evil" instance!]

[Instance Completion: 100%]

[Overall Clear Rating: SSS]

[Experience Gained: 1150. Survival Points: 2400]

[Items/Equipment Obtained: Hand Sanitizer ×10, MPM Pistol ×1.]

[Special Rewards Obtained: Agility +2, Strength +2, Mental Power +4]

[First clear of the instance. SSS rating reward obtained: Atypical Courage]

[Settlement complete.]

Lu Xiu: "..."

Wasn't it Ordinary Person's Courage? What did Atypical Courage mean?

She opened the description.

[Skill Name: Atypical Courage]

[Rating: SSS]

[Type: Mental/Attribute Enhancement (Special Variant)]

[Effect Description: 1. Passive: When the player suffers severe injuries such as dismemberment or impalement, or is in a state of extreme fear, emotional collapse, or near death, rational restraint will be broken and Survival Instinct will enter an overloaded state. Pain is reduced by 50%, while your [Mental Power] attribute is converted into an equal amount of [Agility] and [Strength].

2. Active: The skill may be activated manually. Once activated, the player loses 1% of their current health per second.

When facing terror, bloodshed, and hopeless situations beyond reason, ordinary people have no superpowers. All they have is an obsession that refuses to retreat.

But you, coward, are different. You will begin to enjoy battle. You will begin hunting monsters. You will no longer try to understand fear—instead, you will intend to physically send fear to its salvation.]

[Skill Passive Duration: 300 seconds]

[Note: At first, you were scared to death. Later, you felt that even hell was nothing special. Since monsters don't reason, be even less reasonable than they are. This courage does not come from love, but from your nerves, which are about to burn out, and that faint... inexplicable taste for cruelty.]

"..."

Lu Xiu fell silent.

This felt incredibly powerful.

Although she still lacked a systematic understanding of how this gamified world worked—the Constructor system, skill system, attribute point system, instance system... she was still muddled about all of it.

She did not even have a clear understanding of prices.

But she could understand the phrase, "[Mental Power] attribute is converted into an equal amount of [Agility] and [Strength]."

Put plainly, didn't that mean losing SAN to gain strength and speed?

...She would turn directly into a berserker.

Not to mention that the skill could reduce pain.

No matter how she looked at it, this was not a bad deal.

After all, the conditions for triggering this buff were suffering severe injuries like dismemberment or impalement, or being in extreme fear, emotional collapse, or a near-death situation.

In such circumstances, the player was either about to go insane or about to die. Who cared about reason then?

When you're about to die.

How am I supposed to be reasonable?!

If mental power could be converted equally into strength and agility at that moment, it really would be extremely practical.

But... Lu Xiu had not expected the skill to be actively triggered as well. And that description was a little subtle too. It felt like the system had tailored it specifically based on how she had cleared the instance.

She had let loose too much in the later stages. It seemed the system had mistaken her for a psychopath...

But whatever.

Having an active trigger was a good thing. After all, who went around losing a hand for no reason? A misunderstanding was a misunderstanding.

As for whether she would have a use for it.

At the moment, Lu Xiu really did not seem to have one, unless she went exploring system instances or headed directly to the front lines...

But that was fine. It never hurt to have more skills! This was a god-tier self-defense skill!

Besides.

There was another point worth noting.

This "Atypical Courage" seemed to be a special variant.

Was the original skill this powerful too?

As she thought, Lu Xiu sifted through the disorderly notification windows before her... After busying herself for a while, she finally found what she was looking for.

[Skill Name: Ordinary Person's Courage]

[Rating: S]

[Type: Mental/Attribute Enhancement]

[Effect Description: When the player suffers severe injuries such as dismemberment or impalement, or is in a state of extreme fear, emotional collapse, or near death, rational restraint will be broken and Survival Instinct will enter an overloaded state. Pain is reduced by 50%, while 35% of your [Mental Power] attribute is converted into [Agility] and [Strength].

When facing terror, bloodshed, and hopeless situations beyond reason, ordinary people have no superpowers. All they have is that obsession that refuses to retreat.]

[Cost: None]

[Duration: 300 seconds]

[Note: I'm just an ordinary person. I didn't come here to save the world. I only want to bring my wife home. This ordinary love allows me to face the abyss.]

"..."

Lu Xiu rested a hand against her rounded chin, wearing a thoughtful expression.

This was probably the skill normally awarded to players by the instance.

The two skills were broadly similar, but in terms of effect... the latter was a completely weakened version of Atypical Courage, and it lacked the means to activate it manually.

But it still seemed quite strong. As she'd said... when you were about to die, who cared about reason?

It should be quite appealing to other people too, right?

The allure of becoming a berserker.

Come to think of it... even without considering this skill.

The survival point reward for this instance was so generous too—2,400 points!

The reward for clearing it was almost enough to cover the rule stabilization fee!

Just 600 points short!

With survival point rewards this generous... it felt like she did not even need to put instances online.

She could simply keep creating instances herself, clear them herself, earn survival points, then create more instances...

Wouldn't that make it a perpetual motion machine?

No expenses, just endless survival points!

Wasn't that faster than charging players admission and waiting for ticket dividends?

Lu Xiu suddenly felt like she had found a bug... and was itching to try it.

But just as Lu Xiu thought she could do that... she saw the instance's S-rank evaluation and felt it would be a shame.

After all, she had worked so hard to make this instance, and worked so hard to clear it and earn a rating. It was even the first S-rank player-made instance. It felt like a waste not to put it online.

What if lots of people played it?

What if the ticket dividends were huge?

What if this skill could help the domestic frontline situation?

Hmm...

Lu Xiu ran a hand through her soft, smooth hair.

Forget it.

She should take out a loan and put this instance online first.

If it did not perform well, then she would give up on putting instances online in the future.

...She could just make them and play them herself.

As for the ticket price... 200 it was.

She had originally priced it based on [Lone Walker]'s instance. Though it was a little low, she had a fallback now, so she would not raise the price.

Mm.

Having made up her mind, Lu Xiu checked the other windows again. Once she confirmed that she had not missed anything, she closed them all and began reviewing what she had gained.

The instance had finally received a rating and could be put online.

And she had finally gained the ability to protect herself... though she still seemed to lack offensive means. [Atypical Courage] could only give her a buff; it could not serve as an attack.

Perhaps she could try making an action game for the next instance and see whether she could learn some offensive techniques...

After all, she could not exactly fight people with her fists, could she?

Hmm... actually, maybe she could. Although she had worn Ethan's skin suit in the instance, her body had still been this body when all was said and done... Yet she had still cleared it. She could still run and jump, wield an axe, hold a gun, kick down doors, climb through windows...

She could not be throwing heavy punches in the instance, only to become timid in reality, right?

It was the same body...

At that thought,

Lu Xiu clenched her tiny fists and lightly threw one forward... then froze mid-motion.

She lowered her head to look at her impressive chest trembling from the punch, then at her slender, fair arm.

Fine, not quite the same.

At least, it did not look the same.

Lu Xiu flopped backward and lay down, her pretty face faintly red. "I'm such a hassle."