Instance Theme

After forming a rough idea of how to survive from here on out, Lu Xiu prepared to leave the riverbank.

The reason she had run outside in the first place was mainly to confirm the differences between this world and her previous life—to make sure she was not dreaming... Anyone who arrived in such an inexplicable world and became something so inexplicable would want to confirm whether they were really living in a dream.

In fact.

Lu Xiu even suspected that she had transmigrated into some Matrix-like world... Perhaps she was just a bundle of data right now, while her physical body was generating power in some cultivation tank.

But she had no proof.

Come to think of it, if her body really was in a cultivation tank, then what exactly did she look like right now?

Thinking all sorts of nonsense, Lu Xiu stood up, put on her baseball cap, and left the riverbank.

As evening fell, the city lights gradually came on. Neon signs and bridge lights reflected across the river, while a patrol boat slowly passed in the distance.

The streets remained bustling.

Ads played across the glass curtain walls of shopping malls.

But they were not traditional ads. Most were ads placed by the system, impossible to regulate, though there were also some official ones—

[Class A Instance Lone Walker slots open today: 47 remaining]

[Beginner-recommended Instance Scavenging clear rate increased to 62%]

[Frontline Report: Northern Seventh Defense Line secured; thirty-two medium-sized mutants eliminated yesterday]

People came and went along the streets.

Some carried shopping bags.

Some lowered their heads to browse their system panels.

Some discussed the instances they had just cleared as they walked.

Everything seemed unchanged.

Yet everything also seemed completely different.

Lu Xiu walked slowly.

She deliberately slowed her pace, because her chest was swaying... Her center of gravity was completely different.

Her presence was overwhelming.

But she did not want that kind of presence.

Adapt.

That was part of survival too.

Lu Xiu pursed her lips and continued forward, still observing as she went.

When she crossed the street.

She noticed a notice board in front of the crosswalk, covered with official public-service ads:

[Abnormal energy fluctuations detected within the city. Please report them immediately.]

[Low-risk instance recommendation rankings updated.]

[Beware of those who recommend unofficial instances to you.]

Meanwhile, two middle-aged men at the intersection were arguing.

"I'm telling you, Lone Walker is definitely the most profitable instance right now. It pays way better than the beginner-recommended ones, and most importantly, it isn't that difficult!"

"No shit. Even the military is farming it. Can you tell me something I don't know?"

"I want to go too... but unfortunately, all the slots have been taken by the military."

"Are you fucking going to the front lines? They're going to the front lines. If you are too, then go apply!"

"..."

Lu Xiu stood to one side and listened for a while before looking away.

Clearly, although reality had become gamified and the world faced enormous upheaval, some people were still trying to patch things together.

The notice boards, the soldiers heading to the front lines to fight monsters, and this relatively peaceful city—all of them were proof.

But things had indeed become more chaotic. Those messy loan ads and unofficial instances that scammed people out of survival points, for example. Although players posted them through the game system, they also proved from another angle that the authorities' control was no longer as strong as before.

The light turned green.

Lu Xiu continued onward. The electronic screen above the subway entrance continuously played footage from the front lines.

There was nothing bloody.

Only distant shots—

Defense towers beneath a gray sky.

Occasional flashes of light in the distance.

Lu Xiu glanced at it, then looked away.

The front lines were far too distant from her.

She was not even qualified to think about next month yet.

She continued onward, passing through a commercial street. Besides things common in her previous life, the display windows held all sorts of strange items, clearly instance rewards. One was an "adaptive suit," said to automatically regulate body temperature and energy loss.

It cost 300 survival points.

Most of the other goods were also priced in survival points. Three hundred survival points had been nothing four years ago, but now it was a luxury.

Lu Xiu walked while secretly observing her surroundings.

What she did not know was that while she was secretly observing others, others were observing her too.

After all.

Lu Xiu was rather conspicuous herself. Though she was dressed conservatively, wrapped up tightly, and even wore a hat, the lovely profile beneath its brim, her fair rosy skin, and her impressive figure that could not be concealed no matter how tightly she wrapped herself still drew plenty of eyes.

She was not ostentatious.

But precisely because she was not, that fleeting glimpse left people with even more room for imagination.

However, Lu Xiu had little awareness of this.

She walked and looked around, and before she knew it, she had returned to the residential complex where the original owner's home was located.

The motion-sensor light in the corridor clicked on. Its cold white light fell over the old tile walls stained with grime, carrying a chill with it.

Lu Xiu climbed to the fourth floor, took out her key, and opened the door. A standard one-bedroom apartment appeared before her.

It was not large, around fifty square meters, but it was exceptionally tidy.

A light gray rug lay in the entryway. The shoe cabinet was low and wood-colored, without a speck of dust on its surface. A small ceramic dish for keys sat on top.

The sofa was fabric and light gray, with two cushions—one printed with a cat pattern, the other with simple geometric lines.

The coffee table was a small round table. Several supermarket receipts were pressed beneath its glass top. The television was not large and faced the sofa. On the cabinet beneath it sat a pot of succulents, their plump leaves especially lovely beneath the light.

The place was full of traces of everyday life.

Lu Xiu stood in the doorway and looked around for a while.

She felt somewhat strange.

Deep down, she kept thinking that this was someone else's home, yet after closing the door, a sense of security kept welling up inside her.

Well, it is a place to stay, so it is normal to feel safe.

It is not because I've adapted to this identity.

Lu Xiu comforted herself as she raised her right hand. Pressing her slender index and middle fingers together, she lightly swiped downward.

The familiar game panel appeared before her once more.

Rather than checking her pitifully low attributes, Lu Xiu directly opened the ad she had just seen—

[System Announcement—Welcome, Instance Architect!]

She intended to gamble. She would stake all her remaining survival points and use everything she understood about games from her previous life... to create an unofficial instance.

If it succeeded, she could turn her life around in one stroke.

If it failed, then she would watch ads for three hours every day, cling to life for a while, and then enter instances herself.

This was the most likely way she could think of to quickly earn survival points and stay alive while also gaining the ability to protect herself.

Yes.

The ability to protect herself.

That was important. Survival points alone could keep her alive, but living in such an inexplicable world, no one knew when an accident might happen.

Lu Xiu felt it would be better to have some ability to protect herself... But she was not used to entering instances with her current body yet. She truly had no confidence.

So she could only find another path.

As Lu Xiu searched through the original owner's memories, she discovered that aside from instance rewards, players who became architects could also receive rewards if the unofficial instances they created were good enough.

Rumor had it that these were rewards that could never be obtained inside an instance.

Though so far, she had never heard of anyone receiving one...

But that was fine. Lu Xiu mainly wanted to survive first. Gaining the ability to protect herself was only a bonus. If all else failed, she could earn survival points first.

Unofficial instances also required survival points to enter, and instance architects could receive a share of the ticket revenue. If an instance was good enough and its clear rate high enough, the system would also grant a large number of additional survival points as a reward.

Although Lu Xiu did not yet know how different creating instances here was from making games in her previous life, at the very least... her experience from that life should be somewhat useful, right?

Surely she could make a decent-looking instance somehow?

"...Anyone can sign up."

Lu Xiu opened the announcement. After it redirected, she found herself directly on the application page for becoming an instance architect.

Just as expected, there were no requirements whatsoever.

Thinking of the state of this world and the survival points she herself had been scammed out of by an unofficial instance, she could not help shaking her head. Yet her hands did not stop moving, and she soon registered as an architect.

Less than five minutes later.

An additional identity appeared under her game identity.

[Game Identity: Player; Level 1 Architect]

[Would you like to begin constructing an instance immediately?]

At the same time, a prompt popped up.

Rumor had it that architects needed to enter another space to construct instances.

Lu Xiu took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself before pressing the [Yes] button.

However.

After pressing [Yes], she was not thrown into another space.

Instead, a new window popped up.

[Please enter the instance's basic information first.]

[Instance Name: (Name displayed publicly)]

[Self-Rating: (The architect's rating of the instance; the system will take it into consideration as appropriate)]

[Ticket Price: (Survival points required to enter the instance)]

[Style Type: (The type of instance)]

[Instance Theme: (Summarize what players will experience in this instance and confirm a theme. This affects the system's clear rewards. It must closely match the instance's content, so please fill it in carefully.)]

Lu Xiu paused slightly, then summoned a virtual keyboard and fell into thought.

She had given the other details some thought while walking, so she had a fairly clear idea of them.

But the final item was somewhat troublesome.

A theme.

Lu Xiu's hands hovered in midair. After hesitating for a long while, she finally entered those six words—Ordinary Person's Courage.

Then she thought for a moment and added another sentence.

[Players will take on the role of an ordinary person. When facing the Baker Family's extreme horrors, physical torture, and inhuman monsters, they must display psychological endurance and a will to survive beyond that of ordinary people. The reason players are willing to venture alone into this den of demons is simply to find their wife, who has been missing for three years.

This conviction is the source of the player's strength to resist fear.

It is also the courage of an ordinary person facing fear for love.]

After that.

Lu Xiu moved the virtual cursor to the first line and entered the game's name—Resident Evil.