Descent

"The Construction Club is back again?"

Jiang Qiu asked in disbelief, "It won't be like last time, will it?"

It's not clear yet.

Zhang Fenghua gently shook his head. "But this rating seems to be lower than the last Resident Evil copy, only an A."

"A----It's not as good as last time."

Jiang Qiu shook her head, instinctively wanting to say that there was no need to pay attention to it.

But as she was about to speak, she suddenly remembered Lu Xiu's words from the Training Ground.

At the same time, it seemed as if a girl's voice was ringing in my ears.

Can you please stop being so arrogant?

moment.

The words that were on the tip of my tongue just wouldn't come out.

Lu Xiu's beautiful face, slightly flushed with anger, appeared in Jiang Qiu's mind.

Jiang Qiu silently swallowed the disdain that was about to slip out.

Then, after a moment of silence, she reached up and tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear. "But let's go and see, who knows, maybe they'll really make a name for themselves. Haven't you been complaining that [Sifu] is too difficult? Let's see if the dungeon for Construction Club can become a lower-level alternative."

If possible, then the Construction Club has done a good job in personnel matters. If not, then let's temporarily suffer in Lu Xiu's dungeon, even if it's just to familiarize ourselves with the moves of the first enemy. The Strategy Group's budget is very high this year, and I can add more if it's not enough.

If things go as expected—even if the Construction Club fails this time, others will come up with a lower-level alternative, and if that doesn't work, Lu Xiu will probably have to step in personally.

"Lu Xiu personally got involved in creating a lower-level alternative instance?"

Zhang Fenghua was somewhat surprised.

Jiang Qiu didn't answer, but simply waved his hand and turned to leave the training ground.

Before leaving home.

She reached up and smoothed her ponytail, suddenly feeling a little worried.

It feels like Lu Xiu has become his inner demon—but surely that can't be?

At the same time.

Zhang Fenghua received the information so quickly because he knew that the Construction Club had created a lower-level alternative dungeon.

A large part of the reason is that—although Jin Yi doesn't think it's shameful to learn from towering mountains, he adopts an attitude of wanting to build roads for the players.

But when the actual instance was released, they were incredibly adept at using the tactic of piggybacking on the hype.

Their new instance is called -- Simple Sifu.

I have no idea how the system approved it.

It would be strange if the players didn't notice this!

Wow, this move by the Construction Club is the most shameless in Nine Provinces! Calling someone "Simple Sifu" directly?! And they even approved it?!

[This is hilarious! They've completely dropped the pretense, haven't they? At least last time with Resident Evil they knew to change the name to Mutation, but this time they're just going all out?]

[Wow! This is even possible! So the Construction Club is starting to poop everywhere again, huh?]

[Upstairs, don't take offense, but did you even try to complete Lu Xiu's [Sifu] dungeon? How long can you last in the Squats? If you can't last long, I suggest you stick to the [Simple Sifu] dungeon, if the quality of that dungeon is actually up to par.]

[But the problem is that the requirements have to be met! Do you think that's possible? Such shamelessness, and such speed, it's basically confirmed to be Construction Club, and where is their credibility? I still get angry and laugh when I think about the Architect influence rankings from the last special event, it was really too embarrassing.]

Let me put it this way, if this dungeon actually meets the requirements, I'd run it even if it were called "[I'm Lu Xiu's Dog]"! But I don't believe the Construction Club can create a normal dungeon! Not even a little bit!

[This instance's rating is even lower than the Resident Evil instances that our Construction Club imitated last time—it doesn't seem very reliable.]

[Let's have a rational discussion. Although the tactic of "baiting" (exploiting loopholes to exploit weaknesses) is despicable, if it truly is a perfectly weakened, lower-tier alternative, it's definitely something that most players need. Has any experienced player tried it out? Give us a definitive answer: what's it like?]

[Damn, I'm giving this Construction Club one last chance. If they still can't handle it, they can forget about ever Construction Club Constructed Instance again. They might as well just die.]

[----]

On the other side.

Jin Yi stared at the discussions among players on the forum, at the overwhelming mockery and insults, and the undisguised distrust. A layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his hands unconsciously clenched tightly under his desk.

He was very nervous, even anxious.

The moment the new dungeon was released, he felt as if a fire and a block of ice were simultaneously raging within him.

It was truly a case of extremes, like fire and ice.

On one hand, he aspires to become a top Architect like Lu Xiu, whose every move can change the landscape of the Nine Provinces.

On the other hand, he was terrified. The painful lesson he learned from forcibly imitating Resident Evil last time still haunted him.

Jin Yi took a deep breath, forcing himself to look away from the insults.

----It's no use saying anything now. The instance has already been launched, the dice have already been rolled, and the outcome won't change just because he glances at the forum a few more times.

He stood up and walked around twice, trying to distract himself.

But it was completely useless.

He quickly sat back down and continued staring at the forum.

This dungeon isn't bad at all! It's definitely qualified as a lower-tier alternative!

This was the most meticulous copy he had ever made. From the framework to the details, he referenced Lu Xiu's copy in every aspect and polished it repeatedly. The difficulty curve was indeed being made more progressive, and the margin for error was significantly higher than that of his Sifu.

Real!

But only he knew this.

Players neither know him nor trust him, nor do they trust the Construction Club.

This is a fact; it's the bad reputation they built Construction Club, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Jin Yi looked at the forum, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the comment that gave the Construction Club a final chance.

This is the last chance!

What will the outcome be?

Jin Yi was in a state of utter confusion, and then suddenly felt a little dazed as scenes from the past began to flash through his mind like a revolving lantern.

In the early days of World Gamification, everything was chaotic and unknown.

Back then, he was also a passionate young man.

When he first learned about the Constructed Instance gameplay, he was excited for an entire night.

At that time, he seemed to be an idealist.

What he wanted to do was to create, even if small, a stunning world for players struggling to survive in the gamified world, and for himself, in this cruel new world!

At that time, he longed for the players' amazement, for the heartfelt praise they would give him after completing the game; he wanted to become a hero.

When he first created the dungeon and logged in, he felt the same way he does now.

I felt both fear and anticipation.

---- Restless and uneasy.

But slowly, as time went by...

He changed because he found it too difficult; creating an original instance was incredibly difficult.

So many problems!

No matter how hard he tries, the dungeons he constructs always have problems: either the process is flawed, the numbers are incorrect, the theme doesn't match, the rating is ridiculously low, or the rewards are a mess.

He constantly wanted to make his copy better.

But he found that his efforts were in vain. He didn't even have a place to study, so he could only keep trying and then keep failing.

Player feedback is getting worse and worse.

What started as "I'll give this a try with a fan-made copy" gradually turned into "How can it be so rubbish?"

Anger, anxiety, resentment—a mix of emotions swirling together.

He realized he couldn't hold on any longer, and it was then that he discovered a shortcut.

Players have absolutely no idea about unofficial dungeons.

He watched the players' curses, and one angry night, he used the system's various mechanisms to create hype and exploit information asymmetry—his first attempt to harvest players' Survival Points.

And he succeeded.

Although he received more criticism, he gained a massive amount of Survival Points in the early stages of the game.

Next, he founded Construction Club, which grew larger and larger.

Slowly.

Each time he logged into the dungeon, he no longer had those complicated thoughts.

Player feedback? Complaints? Dungeon quality?

That's not important at all!

He told himself, "Making money is nothing, it's a gamified world, there's nothing shameful about it."

Since I can't achieve anything significant even if I try my best, and everyone else is doing it, why should I be expected to be a saint?

Even if we create a good dungeon, what good will it do!?

Until Lu Xiu appeared.

A new game called [Resident Evil] suddenly appeared.

Jin Yi still remembers how he felt when he saw on the forum that the Resident Evil dungeon had such a high rating, yet players were full of complaints.

His thoughts at the time seemed to be...

Look.

Sure enough! Even if you create a good copy, it's the same!

But later, when the rewards for Resident Evil were revealed, countless low-level players got a chance to rise to the top, and they went wild praising what it was like to play a community-run dungeon.

But he forgot—

At that time—he seemed to sit there motionless for most of the day.

Then he decided to find Lu Xiu. He gave many reasons, wanting to recruit Lu Xiu into the Construction Club, wanting to stand in the spotlight, and wanting to walk in the light.

But actually, aside from the reasons given...

He still had another idea in his mind—to find Lu Xiu and ask her about this issue.

But that question will probably never be asked.

Speaking of which----

I think I was praised for the copy I made with enthusiasm during the early stages of the game.

The player praised him at the time.

Unlike the Construction Club that are now all criticizing ditches.

He was absolutely certain that his memory was accurate! He really had been praised!

But what exactly were the players praising back then?

He couldn't remember anything.

What exactly is being praised about?

Jin Yi sat blankly in the chair, his eyes gradually losing their luster, lost in thought.

The time coin slowly ticks away, second by second.

I don't know how long it will take; it could be a few hours, or it could be two hours.

Jin Yi's eyes, which had gradually lost their luster, finally began to focus again.

He seemed to snap out of a long, tiring dream in the market, suddenly snapping back to reality, then realizing what he had been waiting for.

He suddenly raised his head and stared at the window in front of him.

Let's calculate the time.

The first batch of coins was used to enter the dungeon, and the players who were given the final chance to Construction Club should have a chance to win. Something should have happened.

What will their feedback be?

Jin Yi took a deep breath of the cold air and vigorously wiped the cold sweat from his palms on his trouser legs.

Then, he extended his somewhat stiff index finger and hovered it over the beggar's side of the refresh island button.

The pause lasted a full three seconds.

He closed his eyes and went down the island.

When he opened his eyes again, the forum page had already been refreshed.

And on the next page—there's a post with his new copy.

Jin Yi's breath hitched, his gaze fixed on the screen.

[The Construction Club's dungeon test is complete—to be honest, the Xiangqi Lu Xiu dungeon is still a joke; the enemies inside are utterly devoid of any spirit or skill! The Construction Club clearly doesn't understand martial arts at all!!]

Upon seeing this, Jin Yi's heart sank to the bottom, and his face turned ashen.

So, it still didn't work? Even though I tried my best to break things down...

He was stiff all over, and it took him a long time to finally click on the invitation to read the details of the uprising.

However, the details of the post made him suddenly widen his eyes.

The monster attack logic in the Construction Club dungeon is outrageously bad. Unlike the enemy in the Sifu's dungeon, it doesn't adapt its attacks to intercept the monsters' moves. Instead, it insists on completing the pre-set set of actions! It's clear that the actions were never carefully designed!

Furthermore, the Construction Club reduces the difficulty of the event by extremely crudely modifying the event's action parameters and forcibly lengthening the enemy's attack animation. Fighting them is less a life-or-death struggle and more like practicing against a machine that only knows how to throw punches according to a fixed program.

It completely lacks the fluid, dynamic, and suffocatingly powerful techniques of the original; it's utterly disappointing.

[but.]

[Although the dungeon created by the Construction Club this time is still clumsy, it's actually quite decent as a transitional Yukishiro dungeon, at least it serves as an excellent practice channel! It's much better than those completely unrelated melee dungeons in this system!]

Many enemies are indeed like rigid machines, but this time the Construction Club actually forcibly pieced together the underlying framework of the Prison Rock dungeon with the core energy Neutralize and cut-off mechanism of Lu Xiu [Sifu] dungeon. Although the design is not very good, the Neutralize mechanism is too excellent and the difficulty is not obvious.

But once you see how easy the difficulty is, you'll understand how fun this mechanism is! Many aspects of the dungeons Construction Club are difficult, but the Neutralize mechanism is a really good imitation. And because their enemies are so weak, the window of opportunity for Neutralize is stretched extremely high, making the success rate incredibly high—it's really satisfying to Neutralize!

[And it's actually a great practice opportunity! Because ultimately, the Neutralize to this dungeon is also about cutting off momentum. The enemy's movements may differ, but the underlying logic is the same. Players who can clearly see how the enemy attacks in [Sifu] but don't know what to do should definitely try this dungeon.]

[It really teaches you how to see the precursors of a movement and how to pinpoint the right moment to cut off kinetic energy!]

[The Construction Club is indeed shameless, but they've finally figured things out with this Lower-Rank Yukishiro dungeon, because it's definitely a qualified Lower-Rank Yukishiro item! A perfect training dummy! Anyone wanting to clear the Sifu dungeon, go for it. After all, the entrance fee is only 150, the rewards are mediocre, but it's still worth it for clearing the Sifu dungeon and using it as Training Ground. The Construction Club is getting their money back—of course, this doesn't mean the past is history. Objectively speaking, this time they did something decent, at least for all the mess they made up before.]

After reading the entire post, Jin Yi stopped breathing.

He stared blankly at the words "Indeed a qualified lower-grade snow substitute," and then all the strength in his body seemed to be completely drained in that instant, causing him to slump heavily against the back of his chair.

He just stared blankly at the post.

For a long, long time.

He seemed to have regained control of his body, and reached out his finger to scroll down the page.

[Holy crap? Is the poster seriously dragging this out? The Construction Club has actually come up with something fun?]

[Although it's still surprising, it's true. The enemies in the dungeon are rigid and lack any strategic depth, but you really can learn to Neutralize.]

[Artistic Sense can be considered a stepping stone in the dungeon—and because of the Prison Rock dungeon framework, there wasn't a situation where Artistic Sense failed miserably; the Construction Club actually added some clever ideas.]

[Really?]

Amidst countless responses of skepticism, amazement, and confirmation.

Jin Yi's gaze suddenly fixed on an extremely brief reply.

I don't know if that's a genuine feeling or just an expression of amazement.

[Awesome!]

Awesome.

As Jin Yi looked at those two words, those memories that had been blurred and deliberately forgotten by him surged forth like a flood breaking through a dam.

He finally remembered what had happened.

In the early days of gamification, in that simple rented room.

When he, with red eyes, had endured three rounds of thievery, he finally finished the original, flawless copy of the beggar's storyline.

At that time, some people on the forum praised themselves as beggars.

[Awesome! Despite all the problems, they actually managed to create a dungeon like this!]

That was the first heartfelt compliment he had ever received as Architect.

He jumped up in excitement.

At that moment, he truly felt that he would become the savior of the new world—to create a world, however small, that would be amazing enough for the players struggling to survive in the virtual world.

He finally remembered—what the players had praised him for back then.

It was so simple!

Thinking of this, Jin Yi couldn't help but raise his hand to cover his face.

No need to ask about Lu Xiu's affairs----

So this is the Qi Jue who was praised.

So this is what recognized artistic sense looks like.

Even if it's met with criticism and recognition, even if it's relentlessly trampled into the mud, players only rely on the fact that the instance is valuable and that the path it has paved is traversable.

That immense surprise and sense of accomplishment could actually make one's soul tremble.

Although it is still just an inconspicuous stepping stone for the coin block at the foot of that high opening.

But at least this time, he could actually let people step on his shoulders and take more steps towards that majestic peak called Lu Xiu.

Instead of simply being scolded.

It's just a small change.

He was genuinely delighted.