At the same time.
The Oolacile arena.
Lu Xiu had just given the other Nine Provinces players a brief rundown of Oolacile's two other bosses.
She was facing the speechless stares of Cheng Xiu and the others.
Suddenly.
A system announcement rang out.
The core Nine Provinces players, who had just finished resting, heard the announcement that Zane was being hunted. They looked up, then turned their eyes to Lu Xiu.
Lu Xiu was surprised too.
But after a moment's thought, it made sense.
Of course.
Of the two Core Bonfires in the Painted World, one was with Sister Friede, and the other was with Crossbreed Priscilla.
The Prison Rock players couldn't beat Sister Friede, but taking down Priscilla was easy enough.
When Lu Xiu built the Constructed Instance, she had pushed most bosses in Dark Souls to their limits, changing them beyond recognition.
Priscilla was the one exception. Lu Xiu had barely changed her, apart from raising her damage a little.
To Lu Xiu, the character living all alone in the Painted World wasn't even a boss in the traditional sense. She was more of an NPC.
Of course.
Lu Xiu hadn't expected killing Priscilla in the collective battle to bring Gwyndolin down on them, much less carry such a severe penalty for everyone involved.
She noticed every horrified, strange look around her settling on her.
"Don't look at me like I'm the mastermind. You don't think I set this up, do you?"
Lu Xiu was speechless. "How could I? I had nothing to do with where any of the Core Bonfires were placed. All I did was add two new bosses. And once the instance became a collective battle scenario, it was completely beyond my control as its Architect. Don't assume Architects can do anything.
"If I could,