Corpse Rebirth Technique

The ingredients were quickly snatched up. Even the grill racks still carrying the scent of food were bought at a price.

Gold, silver, and copper coins piled up before him like a small mountain. There was no need to question whether these ingredients were worth so much money—so long as they were rare things produced by a dungeon, people in this world would absolutely be willing to buy them.

Before Jack had even decided on a price, the customers had already started bidding on their own.

The commotion naturally drew even more people over, but the ingredients were limited. In the end, most people went home empty-handed.

So, someone approached Jack and tried to find out where in the dungeon he had found these things.

Jack merely smiled without saying a word.

Because all he could do was smile without saying a word. Gong Qiying had never told him where the hidden map that produced ingredients was.

Everyone assumed he was deliberately keeping quiet so he could make more money later. Quite a few people immediately ran off to find companions, forming groups and preparing to search the dungeon for the place that produced those miraculous ingredients.

Many ordinary people present looked on enviously. They envied adventurers for having the strength to explore dungeons and search for ingredients. Other than doing odd jobs around the dungeon's outskirts, they did not dare venture deeper inside. They usually watched adventurers emerge with new hauls and make a fortune, and their jealousy was beyond description.

If the source of those miraculous ingredients was somewhere less dangerous in the dungeon—

Half the city would probably be willing to give it a try!

That number was not exaggerated. To the people of this world, dungeons had already become part of everyday life.

There were more than three hundred confirmed dungeons across the continent. Nearly a hundred had become barren dead cities, where neither monsters nor rewards appeared anymore, and cave-ins could even occur. The other two hundred or so dungeons still operated normally. Unless the geographical environment was too extreme, intelligent beings would always build cities around them.

After all, there had never been a case of dungeon monsters appearing on the surface to attack people. As long as one did not enter a dungeon, one was absolutely safe. To put it more extremely, if foreign enemies invaded, people could even temporarily hide inside a dungeon.

It was said that at least dozens of dungeons on the Western Continent, occupied by the demon race, remained unexplored. But that was not something humanity needed to consider. Miasma covered the Western Continent, making it impossible for ordinary people to survive there. No matter how good the dungeons there were, how many people would dare go?

Night had fallen. It was time to sleep, but Jack stared at the pile of gold coins before him, too excited to sleep.

He had never seen this much money in his life!

How wonderful would it be if all this were mine!

Wait. Do I need to give this money to my master—that monster? He lives in the dungeon, so he has no use for money, right?

Jack swallowed, his hands trembling slightly.

But in the end, his fear of Gong Qiying overcame his greed. He sighed and gathered up the coins, only to realize that he had no container large enough to hold them all.

Not only had the grill been sold, but even the bundle used to carry the ingredients had been bought. According to the buyer, he intended to use the bundle as a medium to cast some kind of tracking spell.

Like hell he'll find anything, Jack thought.

What he did not notice was that several furtive gazes were watching him from afar, seemingly plotting something.

Yet those gazes instantly disappeared upon seeing someone. Whether they had abandoned their plans or merely retreated for the moment was unclear.

"Hey, sir, please wait."

Just as Jack was planning to buy some bags, a rough voice called out to him.

He turned around and saw a muscular man over two meters tall. It was the Silver Rank adventurer, Te Er, known as "Iron-Willed."

"Is there something you need?" Jack asked politely.

Te Er revealed a friendly smile, though it looked rather frightening on his face.

"Interested in joining the Strategy Team?"

While the outside world was bustling, Gong Qiying was designing the dungeon map.

"Where should I put the Gourmet Area?"

In his plans, the Gourmet Area would be a map less difficult than the other regions, with rewards more appealing to the majority of ordinary people.

There would be no rewards like powerful weapons with Weapon Skills, magic, or items. Instead, it would contain things closely related to people's food, clothing, housing, and daily lives.

The first thing that came to his mind was the ingredients from Toriko.

The ingredients in that manga were not only attractive and distinctive, but many of them were also somewhat dangerous. Take the Lobster Fish, for example. An ordinary Lobster Fish was seven meters long, and one snap of its claw could crush an adult's head. The creature known as the Roasted Whole Pig was not only covered from head to toe in steaming roasted meat, but was also a giant creature the size of a small hill. Crushing three or four people beneath one foot would be effortless for it.

Putting these things together and designing a dedicated area around them as an enticing gimmick would be quite fitting. Absolutely fitting.

"Let's put it beside the Swamp Area. I'll add a shortcut too, but the shortcut will have one of those toilet doors that can only be opened from the inside, like the one Hidetaka Miyazaki encountered when he had diarrhea as a child. You'll have to run through the proper route once before unlocking it."

To reduce the difficulty, he had even moved the monsters near the Gourmet Area farther away, hoping that once ordinary people died a few times and gained some experience, they would be able to reach the Gourmet Area without taking any damage.

After finishing everything, he checked today's Spirit Power income. Neither much nor little—it was still a four-digit number.

"Another half month, one month at most," Gong Qiying muttered to himself. "Then I'll be able to upgrade my permissions."

"I hope I get permission to go outside. Staying cooped up in here every day is too boring."

The next day.

The moment Zane Dungeon opened, Gong Qiying noticed a sharp increase in foot traffic—more than one or two times greater than at the same time yesterday.

Don't underestimate my information network. You're here for the ingredients, right?

It was not just adventurers. A considerable number of ordinary people had entered as well, hoping to try their luck.

Their outcome could not quite be called a total wipeout, but there were hardly any survivors.

The morning passed quickly. Several fairly capable adventurer teams lingered near the hidden door to the Gourmet Area. Gong Qiying estimated they would definitely discover it before the day was over.

However, Gong Qiying's attention was not on those teams. He was watching somewhere else.

In the Swamp Area, a fierce battle was underway.

"Senior, surrender peacefully. You should never have stolen our teacher's research results. Hiding in the dungeon won't save you," said a woman. She was tall but not alluring, skinny as a rack of ribs, with skin carrying the pallor of a corpse. She tapped her staff against the ground, and red light flared in the eyes of several Skeleton Monsters hidden underground. They actually obeyed her commands.

It was the first time someone had controlled dungeon monsters. Gong Qiying sensed the situation and discovered that if he wanted, he could seize control of the Skeleton Monsters at any time. A Dungeon Lord's control over monsters was absolute, supreme authority.

"Lina, you should know what our teacher was researching this for. You should also understand that he only raised the two of us for the sake of his research."

A weathered man clutched his chest, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. He looked as though he did not have long left to live.

Gritting his teeth, he said, "That old bastard wants to take our bodies!"

"Shut up! You're not allowed to speak of our teacher like that!" The woman's face twisted with fury. She held her staff horizontally and shouted, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Then come at me! Do you think I'm really about to die?"

A flurry of flashy special effects collided, churning the swamp.

A moment later, Gong Qiying teleported beside the two corpses and began looting them.

Neither of them had brought a Teleportation Crystal. It seemed they were not professional adventurers and had merely entered the dungeon by chance.

He rarely saw people truly die in dungeons. Even children knew they needed to bring a Teleportation Crystal when entering one.

The woman was clean—poorly clean. She only had a few Silver Coins and copper coins, several opened bottles of medicine, and a magic staff.

Its rating was worse than the Meteor Staff.

"What's this?"

The man was equally clean, but he had tightly protected a thick stack of manuscripts against his chest, now stained with quite a bit of blood.

Several large words on the first page were still barely legible.

Corpse Rebirth Technique.

Since everyone disliked her, it was time for someone to log off. Anyway, she wasn't a cute girl character. ()