Thirty minutes!
After Zheng Xun put that out there, an uproar broke out on both the forums and the livestream.
: Half an hour? How is that possible?
: Didn't Zheng Xun get his last A-rank clear down to under thirteen minutes?
: But that was an A-rank dungeon! Once there's an S in the rank, the difficulty multiplies no matter what dungeon it is!
That was the truth.
Currently, the highest rank for White Tower dungeons was SSS, but the difference in difficulty between one SSS dungeon and another could still be substantial.
Some dungeons were ranked SSS because that was as high as the scale went.
Players had suggested that the General Association add higher difficulty ratings, but it wasn't up to the association. Dungeon difficulties were drawn by a lottery machine, so there was no point in the association assigning them manually.
Dungeons with an S in their rank took around twenty-three hours on average. Those with large maps took longer, while those with small maps took less time.
But no matter how one looked at it, clearing one in half an hour was an extreme feat.
It wasn't just the chat and the forums. The other guilds watching the show were also a little surprised.
At the Eternal Guild, He Yuxing had just finished a round of training. He had his long legs propped up on a table as he drank water and watched the livestream absentmindedly.
When Zheng Xun said "thirty minutes," he sprayed all his water out with a puff.
A teammate across from him threw a sofa cushion at him and cursed at him a couple of times in disgust.
He Yuxing swatted the cushion away and hurriedly tapped the chat to check.
"Holy shit, I thought I'd heard wrong. Zheng Xun really is going to clear an S-rank dungeon in half an hour?"
"Who? Half an hour? What mental hospital did that lunatic escape from? What's that crazy talk?"
"Yuxing, you should watch fewer sci-fi movies. Your mind has gone way beyond the limits of current human understanding."
He Yuxing had wanted to discuss it with his teammates, but instead, they made fun of him.
He was thoroughly annoyed.
"Get lost, all of you. Why is it so hard to share a thought with you?"
Seeing that he was annoyed, one of his teammates came over with a grin.
"Who is it? Clearing an S-rank dungeon in half an hour-which overconfident rookie is it this time?"
He Yuxing dragged the virtual screen in front of him.
"Take a look. See which rookie it is."
"Holy shit." The teammate froze too when he got a clear look at the handsome face in the center of the screen. "Isn't that Zheng Xun? The one who became a god with two hammer blows!"
Zheng Xun had long since made a name for himself among the major guilds, especially within their teams.
Promising rookies like him were their future rivals. They had to pay attention, whether they wanted to or not.
"What's he doing? He poached a dungeon Azure Mist marked? And he's going to clear it in thirty minutes?" The teammate was shocked too. "Isn't that like slapping Azure Mist twice across the face?"
The people of the Azure Mist Guild were indeed already looking livid.
The one who had just said "three hours" in particular didn't dare lift his head.
Meng Yijia forced herself not to show too deliberate an expression and watched the livestream as calmly as she could, while also reassuring the team member who had embarrassed them.
"It's all right. Maybe he's just talking big."
Zheng Xun never talked big.
He did what he said he would. Afraid others wouldn't believe him, he even stepped onto the table and took the clock down from the wall.
"I'll set it to twelve. By twelve thirty, I'll have cleared it."
With that, he hung the adjusted clock back in its original place.
The second hand began ticking around the clock face, but Zheng Xun didn't rush to start. Instead, he first gave a brief explanation.
"This is an S-rank dungeon. If you solve puzzles and kill monsters, following the usual process, there's no way to get it down to half an hour."
The chat filled with question marks.
: ???
: Then what the hell are you talking about?
: Are you messing with us?
: Can you have a little patience? God Zheng said "the usual process."
: Yeah, yeah, just wait and watch Erchui show off.
: I hope he doesn't crash and burn. He poached someone else's marked dungeon and now he's bragging.
: People should be more humble. Otherwise, when they fall from on high someday, anyone can step on them.
The chat was lively now, with Zheng Xun's fans and haters tearing into each other.
But Zheng Xun himself was still talking to the raven camera, unable to see the turmoil online.
"Since the usual process won't work, we're going to use some unconventional methods."
A black, vortex-shaped shadow appeared on either side of Zheng Xun's feet.
The shadows were like two lumps of mud, slowly stretching upward and taking shape.
Finally, a short little girl appeared, along with a strange, misshapen flower thing that half wrapped around Zheng Xun's body.
: It's Erchui's subordinates!
: Sister Hong?! And what's that snotty-looking flower thing?
: Zheng Xun's new pet, called Xiaohua.
: Wasn't her original name Xiaoyin...?
Little Red Riding Hood didn't like to talk. She only liked to stay close to Zheng Xun, and immediately reached for his hand.
Xiaoyin had much more to say.
"Zheng Xun, Zheng Xun!"
"Long time no see, Zheng Xun!"
"Are we going out to play?"
Xiaoyin's voice was somewhere between male and female, more like that of a talking beast. She had no face, and her body couldn't be seen clearly either. The only way to describe her as a whole was indescribable.
Zheng Xun told her to quiet down. He had an important task for them.
"See those two entrances?" Zheng Xun pointed to the left and right. "Sister Hong, left; Xiaohua, right. Ignore any obstacles you see. If anything blocks your way, deal with it as you see fit."
Little Red Riding Hood's little leather shoes went tap-tap-tap as she started to run, and Xiaoyin was drooling as she prepared to fly away.
Zheng Xun grabbed one with each hand.
"Don't rush. I'll go in first."
He had simulated this dungeon and knew every detail of the situation. The chat was right: this was a three-person dungeon.
A three-person dungeon wasn't limited to three people. Rather, at least three people had to enter, setting out along the left, center, and right paths.
The Alice dungeon was characterized by its heavy emphasis on puzzles, along with a deadly chase. After entering through the three entrances, players would find looping corridors with several locked doors along the way.
Only by solving the puzzles in the paintings, opening the combination lockboxes in the corners, finding the right keys, and unlocking the doors of the corresponding colors could they finally clear the dungeon.
During this process, entering an incorrect code would activate the boss in the corridor, a monster called a "Painting Corpse."
The monster would chase players and bite them. The fate of anyone it caught was easy to imagine.
Players had to enter all three entrances. Otherwise, after fifteen minutes, the Painting Corpses in the corridors corresponding to the two entrances no one had entered would all pour into the occupied corridor.
Fifteen minutes was the time Zheng Xun had calculated during his simulation.
As long as he timed it right, there wouldn't be much of a problem.
Zheng Xun took a black whistle out of Cloud Space. He had bought it before setting out; it had no special function, but it was exceptionally loud.
He had Sister Hong and Xiaohua stand guard at the left and right entrances respectively, instructing them not to enter until the whistle blew.
Only after that was done did Zheng Xun walk alone into the middle entrance. Soon, darkness swallowed his figure.
The wall lamps inside the corridor lit up one after another.
Zheng Xun wasn't walking very fast, and the chat was urging him to hurry. He dawdled along until he finally reached the first lockbox.
"We passed four paintings on the way here from the entrance, so the corresponding code should be four digits." Zheng Xun fiddled with the box in his arms, looking as though he had no intention of solving the puzzle.
: The code is in the paintings?
: Crap, I didn't look at them at all.
: Why isn't Erchui solving the puzzle yet? This is so frustrating to watch.
: Is it the colors of the paintings? Or are there some special patterns on them?
: In a puzzle-heavy dungeon, half an hour is even less possible.
"I only got halfway through what I was saying earlier. We're going to take an unconventional approach to this dungeon."
Zheng Xun put the box back where it had been and opened his right hand. An inflatable hammer appeared in it.
"Everyone should change their way of thinking now and then. You can get the key without solving the puzzle, too."
Bang-
He brought the hammer down hard on the box!