Would It Be a Crude Imitation?

After the world had become datafied, if they were only talking about system dungeons, Su Miao had seen every rating there was—from the lowest F-rank dungeons to the very best SSS-rank dungeons.

After all, since dungeons existed as a game mechanic, the game system had to generate enough of them.

And they had to exist at every level, from low to high.

Because of her work, Su Miao not only knew the names and ratings of all the top system dungeons, but even which top-tier dungeons had already been cleared.

But that only applied to system dungeons.

As for privately created dungeons... Su Miao had never paid attention to them at all.

She had never even seen a privately created dungeon rated A. Under such circumstances, there was simply no need to pay attention to them... Of the private dungeons currently circulating on the market, 99% hovered between C-rank and D-rank. Anyone who created a B-rank dungeon could already be called a genius architect.

And S-rank?

Su Miao had only ever seen that in system dungeons.

Yet such a rating... had now appeared on a privately created dungeon!

"Are you kidding me?! A private architect made an S-rank dungeon?"

Throwing all concern for her image aside, Lin Xiao lunged in front of Su Miao and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Give me access! Let me see! Let me see!"

Su Miao swiped her right hand across the light screen and set her system window to visible to everyone.

Soon, Lin Xiao saw the application form Lu Xiu had submitted. "Resident Evil? A horror stealth survival dungeon? And a solo survival dungeon at that?!"

"Yeah... and not just that."

Su Miao swallowed and pointed at the description at the bottom of the application. "According to the dungeon's architect, there's also a good chance of obtaining skills in this dungeon."

"Seriously...?"

Lin Xiao found it hard to believe. "Wasn't the [Lone Ranger] dungeon only A-rank? Should we report this?"

"..."

Hearing that—

Su Miao snapped out of it as if waking from a dream. Realizing something, she turned and ran.

Ever since reality had become datafied and game-like, society as a whole had undergone tremendous changes.

The old management system had struggled to cover this entirely new field.

So, after two chaotic years... a new organizational structure emerged to deal with the threats.

The National Committee for Abnormal Space Response and Survival.

It came into being in response to the times.

The committee's core executive department was the National Strategic Dungeon and Abnormal Space Affairs Coordination Bureau, abbreviated as the Coordination Bureau... a typical dual-track system with a dual-leadership structure.

Its main responsibilities were to screen, analyze, research, and clear all existing dungeons, formulate clearing strategies, and deeply integrate with the military system to turn dungeon resources into frontline combat power.

The Coordination Bureau had several divisions under it.

Su Miao worked in the First Division, the Dungeon Resource Management Division. Its primary duties included registering and screening privately created dungeons, distributing architect funds, and strategically stockpiling items dropped from dungeons.

Very quickly.

Su Miao passed that application up to her superior.

Then... her superior was quite shocked as well and submitted it further up, and it continued upward like that.

In less than ten minutes, the application form had arrived at the director's office.

At that moment, an old man was looking down at the application on a translucent screen.

The old man had dark skin and graying hair cut extremely short. He was dressed plainly in an old short-sleeved shirt washed nearly white and a pair of dark, old-fashioned slacks. He looked rather advanced in age, yet he stood perfectly straight, and his eyes were clear rather than clouded—brighter even than those of some young people.

He was the director of the Coordination Bureau.

Li Bao.

"Yan Fushou, what do you think?"

The old man shifted the window toward his side.

A man stood beside him, around forty years old. He was tall—truly tall—visibly close to two meters. Though he was not particularly muscular, that height alone made him immensely imposing... except his hairline was a little high, which slightly undermined his air of authority.

His name was Yan Fushou, and he was the head of the Combat Strategy Division of the Coordination Bureau.

The Combat Strategy Division was the most important department within the Coordination Bureau, as well as the place with the greatest number of top-tier players.

Internally, it was generally called the Strategy Group.

"Very impressive."

After hearing this, the middle-aged man with the somewhat high hairline considered his wording before replying, "It's extremely rare for a privately created dungeon to receive an S-rank rating... But honestly, Director, everyone in the Strategy Group, myself included, has already lost hope in private dungeons. Take the last B-rank dungeon, for example—it was nothing more than a crude imitation of a system dungeon... and the rewards it ultimately gave were completely useless, because they were all things system dungeons could provide, only inferior versions.

"If that's the case, why don't we just clear system dungeons directly?"

Obviously.

The leader of the Strategy Group wasn't particularly interested in player-created dungeons... not even S-rank player-created dungeons.

On one hand, previous player-created dungeons had been too disappointing.

On the other hand, the Strategy Group was severely understaffed, yet they had to tackle a large number of S-rank and above system dungeons, including several SSS-rank ones. And the top players in the Strategy Group weren't soldiers. Every one of them had a strong personality, making them difficult enough to manage—some even dared to hit him, their leader.

The most painful part was that Yan Fushou couldn't beat them.

He had been going a little bald lately... He really didn't want to deal with any player-created dungeons. Even if this was an S-rank one, and even if its Architect was indeed a genius, the Strategy Group had already cleared more than thirty S-rank system dungeons. The rewards were nothing special.

"You're saying this dungeon is something similar too?"

Director Li Bao raised his head. "A downgraded version of a system dungeon?"

"Yes, most likely."

Yan Fushou nodded. "You should know that although system dungeons have become more difficult recently, the player base has also been growing stronger... There are so many people in the country, and quite a few have exceptional talents. The number of people clearing high-difficulty dungeons has been steadily increasing, and a large portion of those players actually come from outside official organizations."

"Many Architects had never even considered building dungeons before. A lot of them cleared some high-difficulty system dungeon and were deeply impressed by it... so they turned around and imitated it. After all, there are no requirements to become an Architect."

"To put it bluntly, that's the only way many Architects can clear the dungeons they build themselves... After constructing a dungeon, an Architect has to have their memories stripped and personally clear it once before it can go live. Most players—if you ask them to create an original dungeon and simply pile on the difficulty, who can't do that? Just because you haven't eaten pork doesn't mean you haven't seen a pig run, right?

But the problem is, they can't clear dungeons that just mindlessly pile on difficulty themselves.

And if they don't pile on the difficulty, the dungeon becomes too easy. Its rating won't be very high, and it can only hover around C-rank or D-rank.

So many Architects can only use their experience clearing high-difficulty system dungeons to reconstruct them, provided they don't involve the details of dungeon construction... After all, memory stripping doesn't remove irrelevant information. They can completely rely on their prior clearance experience to get the dungeon approved.

But the problem is, such dungeons... all their rewards are downgraded versions. They all have superior alternatives, and the original system dungeons offer better rewards. They're honestly not very useful."

"..."

Li Bao listened quietly, his gaze falling on the application form again.

That was true. At present, it was standard practice for player-created dungeons to imitate system dungeons.

It could even be said that—

The vast majority of Architects were that sort.

It was just that the things most Architects imitated only reached C-rank or D-rank.

Reaching B-rank already counted as being a genius.

As for S-rank...

Li Bao looked once more at that rating.

Yan Fushou saw what the director was thinking and smiled again.

"But then again, this person is still extremely impressive."

"After all, even if it's imitation—being able to achieve an S-rank rating is an extraordinary accomplishment in itself."

"Among Architects, only a small handful in the country can imitate system dungeons well enough to produce B-rank ones. As for A-rank... there are almost none, let alone S-rank."

"She really is a genius, and she's probably spent a long time polishing this dungeon."

Yan Fushou paused before continuing.

"So I think there's no need to discuss the loan. Give it to her. If someone like this gets held back because of funding, that would be a real waste."

"I'll discuss it with Old Li and immediately have someone contact this Architect, sincerely invite her to join the Central Planning Bureau."

"This... Resident Evil dungeon is most likely an imitation dungeon."

"But that's fine."

"If she's willing to join, we can provide firsthand strategies for other high-difficulty dungeons and let her learn more."

"Imitate, understand, then innovate."

"Right now, it may only be an imitation dungeon."

"But if she continues to grow—"

"Maybe one day, she really will be able to create an original dungeon with truly one-of-a-kind rewards."

"..."

Li Bao slowly nodded and sent the application form to Yan Fushou. "Then make the arrangements... Also, once this dungeon goes live, have the Strategy Group send people in to clear it."

"..."

Yan Fushou wasn't too pleased inwardly, but he didn't show it. He simply nodded. "Understood. Although this is an imitation dungeon, if it can reach S-rank, its rewards may be different."

"Mm... By the way, which dungeon is that girl Jian Li in right now?"

Before Yan Fushou left, Li Bao seemed to recall something and asked one final question.

Yan Fushou paused, then answered with a bitter smile, "She hasn't entered a dungeon. She said dungeons are boring and she doesn't want to go."

Li Bao fell silent for a moment. "Arrange some psychological counseling for her. The front lines are becoming increasingly difficult... We desperately need the Strategy Group to provide more skills or items capable of changing the situation."

Yan Fushou's expression turned serious, and he nodded. "Understood."

But...

Got it.

After leaving the director's office.

Thinking of that little girl who had dared to hit him, Yan Fushou couldn't help touching his hairline... He felt that a receding hairline was already beckoning to him.

Evening.

Seven o'clock.

Lu Xiu bit down on her spoon and sat down, exhausted in both body and mind.

On the dining table, a small white porcelain bowl held pale yellow steamed egg custard that trembled slightly. A few drops of sesame oil had been drizzled over it, along with a sprinkle of chopped scallions. Wisps of steam drifted upward, and it smelled delicious.

She scooped up a spoonful of egg custard, lowered her head to blow on it, then slowly put it into her mouth.

"Mmm..."

Lu Xiu let out a long breath, and her expression immediately turned content.

Sure enough.

Food was the best cure.

After everything that had happened today, she was truly exhausted. More than anything, the pressure of clearing the instance dungeon had been overwhelming.

After all, that had been Resident Evil—the Resident Evil that returned to its horror roots.

Now that she was sitting at home and enjoying her food, that lingering tension finally began to slowly fade away.

Lu Xiu scooped up another spoonful of egg custard.

Just as she was about to continue eating.

Suddenly—

Ding.

A system notification sounded.

Lu Xiu froze. She subconsciously looked up as a translucent window popped up before her.

[Loan application review complete.]

[Review result: Approved.]

That fast?

Lu Xiu blinked, then opened the window and discovered that the survival points had already been issued to her account through the system.

Along with them came a friend request and an email—from the National Strategic Instance Dungeons and Anomalous Space Affairs Central Administration Bureau.

However, Lu Xiu decisively ignored the email.

For the time being, she didn't really want to deal with the authorities...

Lu Xiu put the email out of her mind, then looked at the survival points that had arrived in her account. "I can finally log into an instance dungeon."