The Tone Starts Going Off the Rails!

With skeletons ahead and an iron ball behind, Hai Nisi felt like she was about to die.

Although Fei Li could unleash sword energy to cut apart the Skeleton Monsters, doing so would inevitably slow her down. The iron ball behind them was getting faster and faster, so—

She suddenly understood. The recesses along both sides of the tunnel had a purpose!

"Over here!"

She hurriedly pulled Hai Nisi into a recess beside them. The next instant, the iron ball roared past, crushing the Skeleton Monsters into pieces with a loud clatter!

Sweat streamed down Fei Li's forehead as she panted uncontrollably. She had been scared out of her wits.

The young lady in her arms was trembling all over. Suddenly, she looked up at Fei Li with tear-filled eyes and stammered:

"My... my pants are wet."

Fei Li was speechless.

After standing there in a daze for quite a while, she finally calmed the panicked Hai Nisi down, and the two of them stepped out of the recess.

But after only a few steps forward, the sound of an iron ball rolling came from above again!

"You've got to be kidding me. Again?"

After what felt like an eternity, the two finally appeared at the end of the tunnel. They both looked utterly bedraggled, especially Hai Nisi, who looked like she was about to shut down completely.

"Finally... finally, we're out."

Fei Li's eyes brimmed with tears. God knew what she had just been through.

Every few steps, another iron ball would roll toward them from ahead. They had to keep darting into new recesses without stopping. Being even a moment too slow meant getting crushed into paste.

Even more messed up, some of the recesses hid Skeleton Monsters waiting to ambush them!

What bastard had designed something this sinister?!

This was absolutely not a place for beginners! If Fei Li hadn't at least been an Intermediate Swordsman, she would have been killed by one of those ambushes already.

She swore that as soon as she left the dungeon, she would chop up the bastard who had sold her false information.

After leaving the tunnel, they entered an open area. There was only an iron door ahead, but when they pushed it open, they found—

"A cliff?"

Fei Li's expression turned extremely strange. There were upward steps some three or four hundred meters away on the other side, but beneath her feet was a pitch-black abyss. How were they supposed to cross? They couldn't possibly cross!

"Wait, Fei Li, I think there's something here." Hai Nisi suddenly slipped out from between her legs, picked up a stone, and tossed it forward.

Astonishingly, the stone did not fall. Instead, it bounced several times as if it had struck the ground, then hovered in midair.

"An Invisible Bridge!"

Fei Li immediately realized what it was. She kept using whatever she could find to test it, finally confirming that there was an Invisible Bridge about half a meter wide in front of them.

"You're amazing, young lady!"

Holding Hai Nisi's little hand, the two carefully shuffled along the bridge step by step, not daring to take large strides. As it turned out, their caution was justified, because the bridge curved several times.

After inching along for ages, they finally reached the halfway point.

"I really hope we can get out soon." Hai Nisi no longer wanted to explore the dungeon at all.

Fei Li gave a wry smile, patted her little head, and comforted her. "Young lady, once we get out—"

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle cut through the air. Fei Li twisted aside, and a huge arrow roared past her waist. With that kind of force, if it hit her, it could have knocked her straight off the Invisible Bridge!

Where had that arrow come from?

"Fei... Fei Li."

The weak call made her look down. Then her mouth fell open.

A short arrow had pierced through Hai Nisi's chest, its twisted arrowhead dragging out strands of shredded flesh.

Hai Nisi looked at Fei Li in confusion, stumbled beneath her feet, and fell straight off the Invisible Bridge.

"Ah—"

Fei Li's mind went blank. A huge arrow followed close behind, violently piercing through her abdomen and pinning her to the bridge.

Before darkness swallowed her vision, she finally saw where the hidden arrows had come from.

On the ceiling, two Goblins whose skin had been painted to blend into the rock wall chittered with laughter.

"The eighty-eighth and eighty-ninth."

In the City Lord's room, a Crystal Ball as large as a millstone floated before Gong Qiying. Dozens of scenes appeared upon it, all showing people who had entered the maze.

When he saw Fei Li's "corpse" suddenly turn into a streak of light and vanish, he could not help but smile.

"Everyone entering the dungeon carries a Teleportation Crystal. The moment they die, their corpses are sent to the Resurrection Room for revival. Great. Now I can set traps without feeling guilty!"

But revival did not come without a price.

Being revived multiple times in a short period would cause the Humanity Loss state. In mild cases, it caused headaches and fevers; in serious cases, it left people muddleheaded and robbed them of memories. They had to rest for a while before recovering.

It was said that too many revivals could lead to something terrifying.

On the first morning after the newly born Zane Dungeon opened, the death toll had reached an astonishing two hundred. That was no lower than the mortality rate of those popular, dangerous dungeons.

Most people who entered the Zane Dungeon had heard that it was supposed to be the easiest dungeon, unaware that it had already changed. Gong Qiying had therefore reaped a massive wave of Spirit Power through first-time kills.

Zane Dungeon
Remaining Spirit Power: 8436
Spirit Power required for daily operation: 77

An ordinary person gave off roughly one point of Spirit Power for every full hour spent in the maze. Death produced at least fifty points, while adventurers gave even more, generally above seventy.

Fei Li had yielded around one hundred and thirty points when she died. That suggested she was quite strong. She clearly could have easily avoided the huge arrow that ambushed her. What a pity.

Gong Qiying had also noticed that most of those who died in the dungeon were ordinary people carrying Mining Picks. They had probably come for the minerals unique to the Zane Dungeon.

"There are still plenty of areas that need improvement. No wonder games need beta testing before release."

When designing the dungeon, he had overlooked a very important factor.

"People in this world can use magic, and there are all kinds of strange races too."

Birdmen with wings on their backs easily leaped over the Poisonous Swamp he had carefully prepared. A five- or six-meter-tall Muscle Guy kicked open the door that Cannot be opened from this side through brute force. A mage's holy light directly reduced Skeleton Monsters to ash.

A game was a game, and reality was reality. In a game, if you encountered a door that could not be opened, you had to obediently look for the Key. In reality, you could just kick it down.

There were far too many things to improve, enough to give Gong Qiying a headache. But fortunately—

Spend 5000 Spirit Power to upgrade City Lord authority?

"Yes."

You have obtained Level 2 City Lord authority.

Authority successfully unlocked: Teleportation. You may leave the City Lord's room and appear in any area of the dungeon at any time.

Authority successfully unlocked: Mimicry. Spend Spirit Power to alter your appearance. The amount of Spirit Power spent determines Mimicry's combat ability.

Continue upgrading to unlock more authorities.

Available buildings and monsters can be updated.

Gong Qiying let out a long breath. This felt great.

He could finally leave this gloomy City Lord's room!

Because his predecessor Godwyn belonged to the Living Dead race, his intelligence gradually wore away over time until he eventually became mentally disabled.

As a result, he often forgot to maintain the dungeon, and even his City Lord authority had fallen to the lowest level.

Available Monster (can be updated): Skeleton Monster, Minotaur, Slime, Rotten Wild Dog, Blood Mosquito, Wraith, Goblin Group, Low-level Snake People, Mad Living Corpse

Gong Qiying rubbed his chin. From his predecessor's memories, he knew that the types of Available Monster in a dungeon depended on the City Lord's knowledge.

The more monsters a City Lord had seen, the more types of monsters he could use.

But merely seeing them was not enough. He also needed an extremely deep understanding of them, which was why every dungeon City Lord was a monster expert.

As for why Godwyn could use so few? All he could say was that the traits of the Living Dead race had ruined him.

"Update."

Gong Qiying spoke impatiently. He was very curious about what monsters he could update.

Everything he knew about this world came from Godwyn's memories, so there should not be too many new things.

Update complete.

New monsters: Curse Frog, Giant Curse Frog

"Hm?"

Gong Qiying looked surprised. This world should not have creatures called Curse Frogs, so why—

New monsters: Black Knight, Silver Knight, Crucible Knight, Death Knight

New monsters: Wheel Skeleton, Giant Skeleton Ball, Self-detonating Skeleton

New monsters: Zinogre, Mizutsune, Arzuros, Aknosom, Great Jagras

New monsters: Pikachu, Gengar, Haunter, Weezing

New monsters: Demon King Muzan, Upper Moon One Kokushibo, Upper Moon Two Doma, Upper Moon Three

New monsters: Peashooter, Potato Mine, Fume-shroom

New monsters.

Gong Qiying stared at the long chain of over a hundred update notifications, stunned for a second or two.

A moment later, he muttered to himself:

"What the hell is all this?"

"The tone's starting to go off the rails, isn't it?"

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