The One Suffering Was Me???

As Lu Xiu pushed the game's progression forward as a Dungeon Architect, she did get driven crazy at times, but honestly, it was far from boring.

On one hand, constructing a dungeon was actually pretty interesting.

On the other hand, imagining the suffering players would endure when they entered the dungeon was also rather interesting...

No wonder some game producers were so malicious when making games.

Honestly.

It really did bring a certain thrill.

Hehe...

Lu Xiu grew more and more enthusiastic. Although she knew the plot and the progression... whenever she saw those iconic scenes, she would wonder how the players would react when they encountered them in the dungeon.

That gave her even more motivation.

For example, the Hell Dining Table at the beginning of Chapter Two.

Lu Xiu felt it was not disgusting enough, so she gave it a proper makeover...

People did not get tired when they were doing bad things.

Anyway.

Lu Xiu had a lot of fun afterward... No, she worked very hard. She spent almost all her waking hours in the Construction Space.

Since she was only running through the process, it did not require much effort.

Under those circumstances, Lu Xiu progressed rapidly.

Of course.

Although Lu Xiu had a bit of a wicked sense of humor, she was not deliberately making things difficult for the players. As long as they could overcome their fear and respond calmly, the entire dungeon was absolutely beatable.

After all, this was Lu Xiu's first time making a dungeon, so she had not dared to add too much. That meant that while the dungeon had death conditions, every single one of them could be avoided.

But if the players became too frightened, ran around everywhere, or lost their composure, that was another matter.

Lu Xiu practically lived in the Construction Space for two days.

At that moment.

She only had 17 Survival Points left.

Fortunately, she had also completely checked the dungeon.

Lu Xiu stood in the area where the final boss appeared, watching the monster formed from the final boss get struck by Ethan's neurotoxin rounds. It finally lost all activity, collapsed, and dispersed into dust. Then Chris's team appeared, taking Ethan and Mia, the protagonists, onto a helicopter and away from the demon's lair.

All that remained now were the opening and ending CGs.

They were not troublesome, but they were important. Without a recap of the previous events, the players would not even know what they were supposed to do.

As for the ending, she might as well add it too. It would not make much difference anyway.

Oh.

There were also plenty of scenes that needed adjustment.

This was also a problem Lu Xiu had discovered while advancing the process. Mainly because controlling a character through a screen was completely different from personally entering the game and playing that character. Some scenes did not feel strange when controlling a character, but once someone physically entered a horror world, they became a little immersion-breaking.

They needed some adjustment.

Some key events were bound to trigger, such as Ethan losing his hand.

But the process could be made smoother and more logical.

Still, no matter what, the dungeon was basically complete overall.

Lu Xiu looked at the dungeon world, which had abruptly come to a halt, and slowly let out a breath. Then she crouched down, looked at the calcified final boss, stretched out a slender finger, and lightly touched it.

A strange sensation came through.

Because Lu Xiu had been an observer throughout the entire progression, merely controlling Ethan as he charged into danger, it really felt as if she had played through the game all over again.

That caused a subtle change in her mindset. She even started to feel that tormenting players was fun.

Lu Xiu felt that mindset was not right. She always felt as though she had overlooked something, and vaguely felt that it would come back to harm her.

Besides.

Even putting those concerns aside, she only had a little over ten Survival Points left—barely more than ten days to live. She did not even know how the dungeon would perform after launch, so what was she so happy about?

That was why she touched the dungeon's tangible product now, hoping to adjust her mindset.

And it worked fairly well.

At the very least, after touching the seemingly real Ember, Lu Xiu finally remembered that what she was making was not a game, but a dungeon that required Survival Points—or, more accurately, lifespan—to enter.

If players died inside, they would not die in reality as well, but she had heard the Survival Point penalty was quite severe.

It shortened people's lives.

She had better not be so happy.

Thinking that, Lu Xiu lightly patted her fair hands, stood back up, stretched, and continued working.

The opening and ending CGs.

The scene issues.

Still not fully reassured, Lu Xiu used the Visual Mindscape to control Ethan through the process once more. This time, she did not focus on the map, only on the overall flow.

Two hours later.

Lu Xiu stood on the stage of the story's ending again.

The sound of the helicopter rotors gradually faded into the distance, while the wind pressure swept up the dust on the ground.

Then everything returned to dead silence.

The sky was grayish white.

All that remained was a mess left behind by the battle.

And at that moment.

The system interface before her suddenly lit up, and a notification window slowly unfolded.

[The dungeon's overall structure is complete]

[World logic loop established]

[Plot progression verification passed]

[NPC behavior trees stable]

[Core gameplay verification complete]

[Dungeon status: Can be sealed]

[Is the dungeon complete?]

[Seal the dungeon?]

Lu Xiu froze for a moment.

Honestly, she had been so immersed in adjusting the process and running tests over the past two days that she had barely felt that it was truly finished.

But now.

The system had given its final confirmation.

She could not help taking a deep breath.

"Submit."

She reached out and tapped confirm.

The next second.

The entire dungeon world trembled slightly, and countless tiny streams of data emerged in the air once more.

Those thin lines pulled free from the ground, walls, trees, and buildings, gathering in the sky into a slowly rotating sphere of light.

It was as if the entire world was being packaged.

The process was not slow and was completed quickly.

Once it was finished... the system displayed another notification.

[Packaging in progress--]

[Dungeon packaging complete!]

[Construction complete. Beginning inspection of dungeon scene structure and scale. Rule Stabilization Cost being generated...]

[Rule Stabilization Cost: 3000 Survival Points]

[Congratulations, Architect. You have taken your first step.]

[The dungeon is about to go live. Notes before launch:]

[1. Before the dungeon officially goes live, the Architect must conduct a live verification.]

[2. The verification method requires the Architect to personally enter and complete the dungeon.]

[3. During verification, all of the Architect's memories related to this dungeon will be temporarily removed.]

[4. The Architect will enter the dungeon as an ordinary player, but will not need to pay Survival Points as an entry fee. After clearing it, the memories will be restored. Once the Architect clears the dungeon, they may receive the normal clearance rewards. You will be the first player of your own dungeon.

5. If the Architect cannot complete the dungeon, it cannot go live and will enter the system dungeon pool as a discarded project.]

[The dungeon's system rating, clearance rewards, and Architect rewards will be issued after the Architect clears the dungeon and the dungeon becomes eligible for launch. Some rewards will be affected by the Architect's clearance performance.]

[Enter the dungeon for live verification?]

Lu Xiu: "?????"

Her beautiful eyes widened sharply, and then everything before her went black.

Huh???

I have to play it first?

Wait! Wait!

This was even possible? No wonder she had kept having a bad feeling. So the Dungeon Architect was the unlucky bastard who had to experience the dungeon first!

Not long ago, she had been gloating over the players' suffering!

So the Dungeon Architect was the first one to suffer!

The one suffering was me?

And they were going to remove her memories of the dungeon?

Was that reasonable?

What was this supposed to be?

A bullet fired two days ago hitting her right between the eyebrows?

Lu Xiu became a little anxious and immediately raised a hand in protest. "I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with the dungeon I made! I demand that it go live immediately!"

There was no response.

Very clearly.

This was a mandatory process.

"..."

Lu Xiu stood there for a while with a dazed expression on her pretty face. Then she covered her face, crouched down on the spot, and let out a mournful cry.

At that moment, she was like a girl who had been trafficked into the mountains and had fallen into complete despair, only to discover that the person who bought her was also a woman... The woman said she had come looking for relatives, and just when the girl believed her, the woman turned around and said it was all a lie—she had actually come to buy a wife!

What kind of joke was this?!