Cheng Jie was an expert at stirring the pot. Afraid they might miss it, he tagged Azure Mist's captain and vice captain by name.
Half a minute later, neither had responded, and only then did the others dare to start chiming in.
Someone knocked on the door. Cheng Jie called, "Come in," and the door creaked open as a small head peeked through.
It was Tao Xueqing.
"Brother Cheng, are you up? Brother Xiao asked me to show you the second team's training schedule. I've finished adjusting it."
"Okay, let me take a look."
The two went out and sat on a sofa in the hallway. Cheng Jie asked Tao Xueqing if she had watched Zheng Xun's livestream.
"Y-yes..." Tao Xueqing had gotten up early and caught it just in time. "Did he open Azure Mist's marked dungeon? Should we... tell Brother Zheng about it?"
Cheng Jie flipped through the training schedule with one hand, his tone mysterious.
"Brother Zheng knows what he's doing."
"Huh?"
Tao Xueqing was exceptionally sharp and immediately realized there was something fishy going on.
Zheng Xun and Cheng Jie had definitely planned this mischief together.
"Then... will Azure Mist target Brother Zheng?"
Cheng Jie curled his lip in a disdainful smile.
"Zheng Xun's such a troublemaker, they should count their blessings if he doesn't go after them."
Besides, this time he was deliberately going after them.
"Don't worry, Azure Mist won't make a move this time. You can't blame someone who didn't know, after all."
At the Azure Mist Guild, the team members' complaints were growing louder. At a word from Xu Guan, they would charge straight into District 179.
But Xu Guan didn't do as they expected.
"Quiet, all of you."
Captain Xu was highly respected in both the team and the guild. His rebuke wasn't particularly loud, but everyone obediently shut their mouths.
"No one is to make a move."
Cheng Jie was right. Even with Zheng Xun openly provoking them, Azure Mist didn't dare act rashly.
Marked dungeons were an unspoken rule between guilds and players, not something they could openly acknowledge. That didn't make them legitimate.
No person or guild could claim a dungeon as private property.
Even if someone told Zheng Xun this was Azure Mist's marked dungeon, he would have an answer.
Who said only Azure Mist members could open it?
If this were between two guilds, it would be easier to handle. But Zheng Xun was on his own. If Azure Mist sent more than twenty people to "reason" with him, they would obviously be bullying him.
A top guild couldn't focus solely on winning; its public image was also at stake.
If fan support declined and players formed a bad impression of it, the guild's operations would suffer severely.
The higher-ups would come demanding answers when that happened.
Xu Guan was considering the bigger picture, but the team members couldn't swallow this insult.
"Captain, are we really going to let him run wild on our turf?"
"Yeah, Captain, it'll make our guild look so spineless."
"Exactly!"
"..."
The team members started discussing it again, and Meng Yijia took a deep breath.
"Calm down! Zheng Xun started a livestream because he's waiting for you to lose your tempers and rush out to settle the score. There are almost a million people in his stream right now. Do you want all million of them to tear our guild apart online?"
After the vice captain's explanation, the team members understood and fell silent.
"That Zheng Xun is way too sneaky..."
Someone muttered under their breath.
Huo Ziyan stood at the edge of the crowd. Aside from the captain and vice captain, he understood better than anyone why Zheng Xun was doing this.
No wonder God Zheng had told him to prepare to be scolded...
Whether Zheng Xun was doing it to borrow him or simply wanted to give Xu Guan some trouble, Huo Ziyan found a little comfort in it.
But... could Zheng Xun really come out of this unscathed?
By now, Zheng Xun had entered the first floor of the White Tower and was preparing to enter the dungeon.
Many star players liked to interact with their fans on stream before entering a dungeon, but Zheng Xun didn't. If he hadn't wanted to rile up Azure Mist's people, he wouldn't have bothered saying a word earlier.
Now that he'd achieved his goal, Zheng Xun shut his mouth and kept his words to a minimum.
He had already simulated the dungeon he was entering today.
By the time he'd finished discussing it with Cheng Jie, it was already one in the morning. Zheng Xun had hurried to bed, entered the dungeon in his dreams, and simulated it dozens of times.
This was an S-rank dungeon. The puzzles were a little difficult and very mentally taxing.
By the time he reached the final combination lock, Zheng Xun was fed up.
He tossed the wooden box onto the ground in exasperation and brought his inflatable hammer down on it to vent.
Click.
The lock opened.
Zheng Xun, sitting on the floor: ...
That works too??
It was as if a door to a whole new world had opened, and Zheng Xun's mind suddenly opened up.
He ran another four or five simulations and got everything completely sorted out before heading out.
Now Zheng Xun rested his hand on the "Enter" button. His wristband vibrated twice, alerting him to a message.
He switched away from the livestream screen to the message interface.
It was from Cheng Jie.
: Old Zheng, Azure Mist's people are all watching your stream. Don't just focus on chopping up the boss-throw a few taunts their way and show them what's what!
Zheng Xun thought he had a point. He was already here, after all.
He decisively pressed the button, and virtual cubes with a pale glow began to rise around him.
Zheng Xun's consciousness sank, and the scene abruptly changed.
It was an enormous maze named "Alice's Horror Corridor."
It looked like a series of long art corridors winding around one another, with abstract paintings hanging at intervals on both walls.
Every one of these abstract paintings used bold, intense colors. They depicted twisted human bodies, deformed animals, mysterious patterns, and words written in blood.
A casual glance could make one uncomfortable. Staring at them for a long time produced an even stronger sensation that a strange power was dragging the viewer into the world inside the paintings.
As the dungeon opened, the viewers in the livestream got a clear look at the scene.
: What's this? An art exhibition?
: A maze, I think. Didn't you see there were three paths to choose from at the entrance?
: What masterpieces are those up there? They look disgusting.
: Which of the three paths do you take? Is only one of them right?
: Where's the NPC?
: Roll for the dungeon difficulty first.
Zheng Xun walked to the right, where a long table stood covered with blue velvet. Beneath the cloth was the lottery machine.
"Welcome, welcome! Welcome, welcome!"
This time, Zheng Xun couldn't be bothered to pull out its wires. He let it finish its noisy spiel, the strange, shrill synthesized voice echoing through the empty corridor and making the surroundings feel even more deserted and cold.
The lottery machine slowly came to a stop, and an orange ball rolled out of the chute.
It bore the letter S.
: One?
: One.
: Only S-rank?
: It feels a little strange not seeing three balls come out.
: Don't let Zheng Xun give you the wrong idea! Not just anyone can breeze through an S-rank dungeon!
: Yeah, didn't District 685 open an S-rank dungeon yesterday? Only two people survived, right?
: The General Association should ban newcomers from watching Erchui run dungeons. He's giving them all the wrong idea.
: Speaking of which, I saw a newcomer post on the forum a couple of days ago, asking if they could open a triple-S dungeon after clearing two. Did they think they were Sanchui?
: What's a Sanchui? Hahahahahaha.
: Azure Mist's marked dungeon should have something to it, right? It's S-rank, but can Erchui really just charge straight through it?
: I don't think so. There are three paths at the entrance. Looks like a three-person dungeon.
The chat was buzzing with discussion, and Zheng Xun had finished gearing himself up.
"Ahem." He grabbed a passing raven camera and held it in his hand. "Today's dungeon is S-rank. As you can see, the difficulty isn't low."
The Azure Mist Guild members were also watching Zheng Xun's stream, keeping a close eye on his every move.
"You know it isn't easy, so why don't you hurry up and get out?" one team member sneered. "Even if we sent our first team's elites into this dungeon, it would take at least three hours!"
The moment the team member finished speaking, Zheng Xun's voice came through the speakers.
"We agreed to take it easy this time, so let's do this: we'll finish in thirty minutes."