No More Giggles

Soon.

Lu Xiu became immersed in the pure thrill of a max-level veteran returning to the starter village.

She had originally thought that advancing the dungeon's progression this time would be a rigorous inspection, only to discover that it was a one-sided slaughter.

General Naomori Kawarada.

The famous Refund General.

The man who had once taken Lu Xiu four hours to defeat.

...This time, he had not even lasted a minute.

"My fighting spirit... seems to have returned."

After stomping some noobs.

The exhaustion in Lu Xiu's eyes instantly vanished, replaced by eager excitement.

She turned to look into the distance and thought of the dungeon's final destination: the Sword Saint at the height of his power. A powerful urge surged within her.

...Should she just keep going and take that old man out too?

But after thinking it over carefully, Lu Xiu suppressed the impulse.

No.

What if she got mentally broken again... She should verify the dungeon first.

Lu Xiu took a deep breath, forcibly restraining her desire to fight a powerful opponent as she continued advancing the story.

And after being baptized by the blade-light of peerless masters, the formidable enemies that had once tormented her to the point of wishing for death now seemed as weak as a bunch of rabble.

But it was not boring, because a max-level veteran returning to the starter village was just that satisfying!

Lu Xiu eagerly continued through the dungeon.

Then...

The first day.

Hee-hee, happy.

The second day.

Hee-hee, happy.

The third day.

No hee-hee. Not happy.

"I shouldn't have made so many items and endings!"

Lu Xiu stood in the construction space, on the verge of collapse... At first, she really had been happy. That very day, she ran through the entire game flow and defeated every minor boss.

Other than Ashina One Mind, she cleared every peerless master on the first try.

After all, she had already fought them while constructing the dungeon.

It really was not difficult.

But the problem was, once she had finished the main flow... she discovered that there were still many side quests she had not done. And since she had relied entirely on swordplay throughout, clearing it without the Shinobi Prosthetic, she had not tested the Shinobi Prosthetic or many of the items at all.

She had no choice.

On the second day, she could only re-enter the dungeon and start over from the beginning, from the initial dungeon where Miss Emma had left behind her letter.

This time, she used the Shinobi Prosthetic and every item.

But that actually slowed her clear time... because Lu Xiu always wanted to solve everything directly with her sword. The habit had taken root too deeply; it was not easy to change.

Yet things like the Shinobi Prosthetic had to be tested, so she could only fight against her instincts. Added to that were all those side quests—it was downright agonizing.

After finally getting used to it, she finished the run.

The third day.

Lu Xiu had originally wanted to go straight to fight Sword Saint Ashina One Mind, but then she remembered there was also the completely different Shura storyline, skills that had yet to be tested, collectibles that had not been checked...

The first time was stomping noobs.

The second time was entertainment.

By the third time, it had become cyber screw-turning.

This third time.

Lu Xiu felt utterly dead inside... but she still had to fight.

With that thought in mind, like an office worker heading back to work, she listlessly opened the system panel again.

She was completely numb.

However.

Even numb, she was still a godslayer when gods stood in her way, a Buddha-slayer when Buddhas stood in her way.

It was just that, in the midst of killing enemies...

She would occasionally hide in a dark corner and mutter to herself, "Wasn't there a collectible here?"

Although the enemies generated by the system varied to some extent, they generally still acted according to Lu Xiu's memories.

Take Genichiro Ashina, for example.

After becoming a dungeon character, many of his moves might change, but no matter how they changed, there was no way he could suddenly pull out his grandfather One Mind's secret techniques.

That meant the combat instincts Lu Xiu had honed were still there, so she would definitely be able to clear it.

She might have been a little nervous when fighting Lu Xiu for the first time, but by the second, third, and fourth runs...

Forget nervousness... she was practically becoming a cyber factory worker tightening screws.

Lu Xiu was nearly fighting herself into hallucinations.

And by the time Lu Xiu came to her senses, another day had passed.

She exited the dungeon once more.

Lu Xiu sat in the construction space, staring blankly into nothingness. Three straight days of cyber screw-tightening had turned her into an assembly-line worker.

Faced with what had once been a tense and thrilling dungeon, she now felt neither nervous nor excited—only empty.

She could count how many bricks Ashina Castle had with her eyes closed! She could tell which direction an attack came from with her ears closed! How the hell was she supposed to get excited?!

She was practically a deflection machine.

At first, such extreme familiarity had brought her a sense of accomplishment, but now it only made everything feel mechanical.

"...No."

Lu Xiu suddenly spoke, muttering to herself.

This was far too boring!

She needed some new stimulation, some uncertainty—something that could make her heart pound and her blood race backward.

And that something was out in the countryside blanketed with reeds, on the man who had crawled out of hell at the height of his strength.

Thinking of this, Lu Xiu stopped hesitating. She rose to her feet, the flames of battle reigniting in her eyes.

She would challenge Sword Saint Ashina One Mind.

No more tightening screws!

However, to keep herself from breaking down if she failed... for this final boss, she decided she would no longer stick to her previous rules of pure sword clashes, no items, and no prosthetic tools. This time, she was going to use everything!

"Come on! Let's have a glorious battle!"

Lu Xiu descended into the reeds and cleanly dealt with Genichiro Ashina.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Genichiro Ashina drew his blade and slit his own throat, using his life as the price to drag Sword Saint Ashina One Mind, at the height of his power, back from the underworld!

Lu Xiu looked at Sword Saint One Mind in the distance, and her heart, numbed by all that cyber screw-tightening, finally began to beat again.

First phase!

The Sword Saint mainly used Ashina Arts swordsmanship, unleashing moves such as Ichimonji, Dragon Flash, and spinning sword waves. His offense and defense were both formidable.

Sword clash—cleared!

Second phase!

The Sword Saint pulled out a long spear, whirling it with tremendous force. He combined sword and spear attacks, occasionally pretending to sheathe his blade for an iaijutsu strike before suddenly pulling out a gun and shooting Lu Xiu.

The two phases were distinctly different, each with its own unique traits.

The battle against Sword Saint One Mind truly deserved its reputation as Sekiro's final exam!

Lu Xiu grew increasingly excited. She nimbly dodged the wide-area attacks, accurately used Mikiri Counter when the danger mark appeared, massively reducing his posture and building up his posture gauge. Or she took advantage of the long opening after he landed to keep striking him.

Cleared!

Third phase!

The Sword Saint gained Lightning of Tomoe and a double diagonal Dragon Flash.

But because Lightning of Tomoe was now in the mix, the difficulty actually dropped instead.

Cleared!

Wait—

As she fought, as she kept clearing phase after phase...

Lu Xiu suddenly realized something was wrong.

But as the words "Deathblow" appeared, Ashina One Mind at the height of his power—the Sword Saint who had made countless players tremble—had already slowly fallen to his knees before her.

"..."

Looking at the scene before her, Lu Xiu raised a hand and slapped her forehead, utterly despondent.

The fiery excitement she had imagined never came. Lu Xiu had not even been particularly nervous.

She had cleared it far too casually...

Sword Saint Ashina One Mind really was Sekiro's final exam.

But the problem was, she had already gone through the real exam questions for this course countless times. She had even figured out the thought process of the teacher who wrote them.

She could answer them with her eyes closed.

Forget passing—she could even write mock exams for this test herself.

Once someone had memorized the question bank so thoroughly that they truly understood it all, the exam itself was no longer an exam.

"..."

Lu Xiu fell silent for a long while, then suddenly raised a hand and summoned the system panel. Her slender fingers swiftly swiped through the air before her.

[Overall instance structure complete]

[World logic loop established]

[Plot progression verification passed]

[NPC behavior trees stable]

[Core gameplay verification complete]

[Instance status: ready for packaging]

[Package instance?]

"Yes!"

Lu Xiu quickly reached out and tapped confirm.

The next second, a brief but intense wave of dizziness struck her, followed by the disorienting sensation of space being displaced.

She left the instance and returned to that boundless construction space.

At the same time, countless tiny streams of data emerged in the air.

Those thin lines peeled away from the entire instance and gathered in the sky, forming a slowly rotating sphere of light.

Once it was complete... the system displayed another prompt.

[Packaging in progress--]

[Instance packaging complete!]

[Construction complete. Detecting instance scene structure and scale. Generating rule stabilization cost...]

[Rule stabilization cost: 21,000 Survival Points]

[The instance is about to go live. The constructor must strip their memories and conduct a live verification. Please refer to the attachment for detailed rules.]

[The instance's system rating, clearance rewards, and constructor rewards will be issued after the constructor clears the instance and the instance reaches a launch-ready state. Some rewards are affected by the constructor's clearance performance.]

[Enter instance for live verification?]

"Yes!!!"

Lu Xiu hit confirm again.

If... if she absolutely had to do cyber screw-turning!

Then Lu Xiu would rather do it this way! At least clearing it came with rewards!

She did not want to keep checking it! She would just verify the instance directly! She could inspect it while going through the verification process!

Sekiro had four endings anyway! She would just play through it three times! One for each of the three endings—she would skip the Shura route!

The first run would be a pure swordfight run! The second would use every random item she could get her hands on! The third would fill in any gaps!

She would claim all three rounds of rewards.

At least that gave her something to look forward to!

She really did not want to do cyber screw-turning anymore! Most importantly... there was no pay!

[Entering instance...]

[Instance mode: Roleplay Mode]

[Playing role--Wolf]

[Constructor Verification Mode activated]

[Beginning memory stripping]

[Loading instance...]

The construction space before Lu Xiu's eyes began to change.

The entire world seemed to turn into something like water, and everything began to flow.

The sky spun.

Space folded.

Then a faint sensation of weightlessness washed over her, like an elevator suddenly dropping a floor.

Lu Xiu instinctively closed her eyes.

And when she opened them again.

The familiar scene appeared before him.

Lu Xiu slowly rose to her feet and picked up the letter Emma had left behind, the resentment around her seeming to solidify into something tangible.

Soon.

Ashina, Reservoir Castle Tower.

A wolf wreathed in resentment leaped out of the dungeon.

Then... the slaughter began, as she charged at everyone without distinction!