Secret Technique: One Mind

"Why was that so fast?"

"This is ridiculous!"

"The style is completely different this time too. How did she even do this?"

"She improved again with just her second instance. I thought Resident Evil was just a flash in the pan."

"Have we still not found this Architect?"

"Send more people to screen for her, now!"

At the Coordination Bureau, in a conference room.

Li Bao sat at the head of the table while the directors and heads of other functional departments below him discussed and exclaimed without pause.

Meetings like this were actually quite rare. Most of the time, so many directors and department heads were only summoned when something went wrong on the front lines.

Yet no one had any complaints about holding such a meeting over a civilian instance.

Because after seeing the application form for the [Sekiro] instance, they had not reacted much better than Lin Xiao and Su Miao.

They were merely maintaining their composure because of their positions. Otherwise, they would have long since leapt to their feet.

Knock, knock.

Li Bao tapped the tabletop.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Li Bao lowered his hand. "Don't waste time on pointless amazement. Look at the rule stabilization cost for the [Sekiro] instance below."

Everyone in the conference room lowered their heads, and the room instantly fell into deathly silence.

Someone drew in a sharp breath. "Resident Evil only required three thousand, but this new instance is seven times that—twenty-one thousand points. Does that mean this instance's complexity will grow exponentially?"

"Yes."

Li Bao nodded. "So our previous assessment of Architect Lu Xiu was completely wrong. Resident Evil wasn't a painstaking work polished over three years. It may have merely been a trial run... That means every strategic judgment we made based on the assumption of 'three years to forge one blade' must be overturned and redone.

"Finding this Architect is now the Coordination Bureau's highest-priority matter. At the same time, our strategy must change. Don't just think about recruiting her. No matter the cost, find her, make contact with her, and then protect her."

"Director... where are Yan Fushou and Li Shengkai?"

After hearing Director Li Bao's words, Hu Duo, director of the Internal Security Response Division, instinctively looked around. When he realized that the directors of the two divisions most closely connected to instances were absent, he could not help asking.

"They went to Four Continents."

Li Bao replied, "There are leads suggesting that Architect Lu Xiu is in Four Continents."

Everyone immediately looked up at the director.

"The civilian construction organization, Spirit Pivot Construction Group, found a lead by screening the visitor lists for civilian instances."

Li Bao raised a hand to quiet them, then continued, "This is also what I wanted to discuss next. How many people can currently be pulled back from the front lines?"

He looked at the military representative seated diagonally opposite him.

The military representative considered for a moment. "From District Seven, District Nine, and District Thirteen, at most ten thousand can be deployed."

"Deploy them all. Send half to Four Continents to cooperate with Yan Fushou, and have the other half cooperate with the Internal Security Response Division to strike at every gray-market group."

Everyone shuddered.

"I don't care how many survival points those gray-market groups have earned. I can tolerate their little schemes. I can tolerate them operating in gray areas. Compared to letting more people survive, those are trivial matters."

"But if they want to make it impossible for others to survive, if they want to destroy ordinary people's hope of living..."

"Then they can die."

At the same time.

Lu Xiu was clearing the instance for the second time, beginning to farm rewards.

This time, she was using the complete version of Wolf, and the fight went incredibly fast.

Lu Xiu treated it purely as a game.

Before long, she arrived once again at that familiar field of reeds.

Sword Saint Isshin quickly dropped to his knees again, kneeling amid the reeds without rising. He merely roared in fury once more.

He had lost again.

Even if the system altered his moves to a certain extent, it could not possibly bring the true Sword Saint Isshin into the instance—the man who had spent his entire life absorbing experience from countless deadly battles, repeating those battles day after day, greedily taking in every kind of lethal technique.

The system was not Genichiro Ashina, after all.

It was mainly based on Lu Xiu's memories. With Lu Xiu starting to play dirty in her second playthrough and even using Shinobi Prosthetic tools, he lost even faster.

Still, Lu Xiu did not know whether it was merely her imagination.

She felt that Sword Saint Isshin's furious roar this time seemed even more unwilling than it had been in her first playthrough...

Lu Xiu shook her head and did not dwell on it. She continued the sequence, slowly drawing the crimson Mortal Blade from her back once more.

She swung her blade.

Sever Immortality!

"Nicely... done..."

Isshin Ashina left behind those final words and slowly fell.

Hmm? Wasn't that missing a few words?

Lu Xiu flicked the blood from her blade and put away the Mortal Blade. It felt a little strange, but she quickly dismissed the unnecessary thought and continued the story.

After the little femboy master took Dragon's Tears and Everblossom, she cleared the second ending, Return to Humanity.

The CG finished playing.

A window immediately popped up.

[Dear Builder! You have cleared the dungeon you constructed. Congratulations!]

[The system is generating your clear rating—]

[Rating:...]

Once again, the system gave her nothing but an ellipsis.

Lu Xiu simply stopped waiting and closed the window. Clearing it was enough—who cared about the rating?

With the Shinobi Prosthetic this time, she had fought quite comfortably. She even felt like she had not had enough.

After a brief pause.

Lu Xiu returned to the construction space and saw the settlement screen for clearing the dungeon.

[You have cleared the "Sekiro" dungeon!]

[Dungeon Completion: 100% (Return to Humanity)]

[Overall Clear Rating: SSS]

[Experience Gained: 760, Survival Points: 1600]

[Items/Equipment Obtained: Rice*5, Shinobi Tool: Loaded Umbrella]

[Special Rewards Obtained: Agility +1, Strength +1]

[Special Rewards: Dodge Step, Secret Technique: Dragon Flash]

[Settlement complete.]

"It dropped!"

Lu Xiu's beautiful eyes lit up slightly as she looked at Dodge Step among the special rewards.

What was strange, though, was why Secret Technique: Dragon Flash was there too?

Lu Xiu remembered that this skill should have been removed before the dungeon was packaged.

After all, there was no need to add it as a clear reward... Was it granted because she had made it before, even though the skill did not appear in the finalized dungeon?

And the Shinobi Prosthetic had dropped as well, though not the entire prosthetic arm—just one of its functions.

What a pity.

Still, Lu Xiu was already very satisfied.

She had heard that the rewards for clearing a dungeon the second and third times would decrease, and the experience and Survival Point rewards had indeed been reduced considerably.

Under those circumstances, getting this many items was already very good.

She immediately opened the special rewards.

[Special Skill: Dodge Step]

[Rating: A+]

[Type: Active/Movement]

[Ability Description: After the skill is activated, when the user forms a clear intention to evade or change direction and makes the corresponding shift in center of gravity, the skill enhances that movement, allowing actions such as sidesteps, retreats, or diagonal cuts to be completed in an extremely short time. It also grants a momentary burst of speed, allowing the user to evade attacks or regain an advantageous position.

Dodge Step itself does not cause action stiffness, but there is a posture-transition window at the instant the movement ends. During this period, the user must stabilize their center of gravity on their own before seamlessly linking subsequent movements. Skilled users can compress this window until it is nearly imperceptible.]

[Side Effect: Each activation places a slight burden on the vestibular system, which naturally fades with normal intervals between uses. If activated more than 6 times within 10 seconds, the accumulated burden will cause brief dizziness, impaired balance, or a sense of spatial displacement. Forcing the use of Dodge Step during this period will worsen the symptoms.]

[Cooldown: 1 second.]

[Cost: Extremely low stamina]

[Note: As long as I dodge fast enough, the word "Danger" can't catch up to me!]

Although its rating was not especially high and it came with restrictions.

Lu Xiu was already very satisfied. This was the familiar movement technique she wanted. She continued on to the next skill.

[Special Skill: Secret Technique: Dragon Flash]

[Rating: S]

[Type: Active/Burst]

[Ability Description: The user assumes a sheathed-blade stance to charge power, then draws and unleashes a high-speed vertical slash infused with their full strength. At the same time, a straight vacuum slash wave approximately 0.5 meters wide and with a range of 15 meters is released along the blade's trajectory; the close-range blade strike and slash wave deal two separate instances of damage.]

[Attribute Requirement: Strength ≥15]

[Cost: 5% of maximum HP (dynamically changes according to the player's Sequence level)]

[Restrictions: 1. Can only be activated while wielding a sharp bladed weapon capable of slashing.

2. If the Strength attribute does not meet the requirement (<15), forcibly activating it will result in fractures to both arms.

3. If weapon quality is below C-rank, there is an 80% chance that the weapon will be destroyed immediately after activation.]

[Side Effect: Can be used at most 3 times per hour. Forcibly using it a 4th time will cause both arms to enter the [Severe Tearing] state for 30 minutes or until the wounds are healed. (Dynamically changes according to the player's Sequence level)]

[Cooldown: 10 minutes (dynamically changes according to the player's Sequence level)]

[Note: During those days of repeated deathmatches, all you did was swing and slash without pause. How should one cut? How should one kill...? Amid such bitter contemplation, before you realized it, the blade had already been drawn.]

Hmm...

Compared to the game, it had quite a few more restrictions, and the number of uses per hour was limited too.

But unlike other completely fixed skills, this one seemed to change accordingly with the player's level.

Lu Xiu had never planned on farming this skill in the first place, so this was an unexpected bonus.

...As for its actual power, she would know once she tried it.

Lu Xiu closed the window before her and pulled out the straight sword she had bought earlier from her backpack. Holding it one-handed, she lowered her body slightly and first tried Dodge Step.

She pushed off the ground, exerted force, and shifted her center of gravity.

The next second.

Her previously heavy body suddenly became light.

Lu Xiu instantly dashed sideways, and it felt exactly like it had in the dungeon.

With this plus [Perfect Deflect], Lu Xiu could basically replicate the way she fought in the Sekiro dungeon.

Lu Xiu tried it a few more times, only stopping once she felt a little dizzy. Then she turned to look at her other skill—Dragon Flash.

Her Strength stat did not meet this skill's requirement.

Lu Xiu thought for a moment, directly activated [Atypical Courage], stripped away every distracting thought, and activated the skill.

The next instant.

Without any warning, she stepped forward and pressed in. Her center of gravity abruptly sank, her body turned sideways, and the long sword drew back to her side as though slipping into an invisible sheath.

The previously still air instantly became violent, currents of air spiraling madly toward the blade like a vortex.

Gathering energy, condensing it.

The air around the blade compressed into a nearly tangible, semi-transparent fluid.

"Open!"

Lu Xiu twisted sharply and drew her blade.

The edge carved a piercing arc from upper left to lower right, its shrill howl stabbing through the eardrums.

At the same time, the force compressed to its limit completely erupted in that instant, transforming into a straight, visible trail that shot out along the blade's path.

Sshhk—

The slash streaked across the ground like a line of flowing light, striking far into the distance.

Its lingering force took a long while to disperse.

"Cool!"

Lu Xiu straightened up, deactivated [Atypical Courage], and briefly checked her HP. Seeing that it had not dropped below fifty percent and could recover automatically, she stopped worrying about it.

She simply praised it.

One Mind's secret technique was still cool, and being cool was an advantage too!

So it was worth it.

After praising it, Lu Xiu was about to put the sword back into her backpack when a faint cracking sound suddenly came from the blade.

Starting from where it connected to the hilt, countless dense, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the straight sword she had bought earlier.

Bang!

With a crisp burst of metal, the entire blade could no longer hold together. It shattered midair into dozens of fine metal fragments, which finally clattered onto the floor of the constructed space.

Lu Xiu looked down at the bare hilt in her hand, then at the pile of utterly ruined ordinary steel on the ground. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

"I forgot about that..."

She helplessly tossed the hilt aside. It seemed that without a good weapon, she could not use this skill casually.

She needed to find herself a better weapon.

"Continue."

After trying out the two rewards, Lu Xiu took another look at the Loaded Umbrella's attributes. Seeing that it functioned just like it did in the game and was the most basic Loaded Umbrella, she did not test it. Instead, she opened the system interface again.

She was preparing to enter the dungeon one final time. She had farmed Dodge Step.

And she had farmed one Shinobi Prosthetic tool as well.

What would the final dungeon run give her?