Zuo Lin'an casually tossed his phone aside, got up to take a shower, and then went back to bed.
First, sleep.
As for the rest... he would deal with it later.
When he woke up, he felt completely refreshed.
Lying lazily in bed, Zuo Lin'an pulled out his phone to check his messages.
He checked his chat history with Xu Youyou and found that the guy hadn't sent him a single message from the moment the dungeon started until now, even though dawn had already broken.
Zuo Lin'an was a bit surprised.
However, figuring that Xu Youyou was probably doing his absolute best to play his role as an NPC, he decided not to disturb him with a message. In any case, once the guy was done, he would surely contact him immediately.
The sky outside was beginning to brighten.
Yet, because the weather here was perpetually overcast, the room remained dimly lit even after dawn.
Zuo Lin'an lay leisurely in bed, browsing through the forum.
As he did, a highly unusual post caught his eye.
【Official Announcement! Urgent! Urgent! Urgent! A must-read for everyone!!】
Not only was the post pinned to the top, but its title was also highlighted in bright red. In the month or so since he had become a dungeon boss, he had never seen a post like this.
“Did... something happen?”
Zuo Lin'an clicked on it to take a look.
【Urgent Notice!】
【To all dungeon bosses: Due to a mistake made by a certain dungeon boss, a secret regarding the specter dungeons has been leaked. We are now about to enter emergency mode.】
【During the run before last, the dungeon boss in question let their guard down and arrogantly revealed a dungeon secret to a player before killing them. Before succumbing to death, that player used a secret code to carve this information somewhere within the dungeon.】
【When the dungeon opened during the previous cycle, one of the entering players discovered and memorized the message. That player even successfully cleared the dungeon and brought the secret back to the outside world.】
【The secret is this: any dungeon that has already been cleared by a player will never open a second time.】
【The player who cleared the dungeon holds a prominent position in the Wuxia World. Upon their return, they immediately went public with this secret. In no time at all, the news spread like wildfire, and now almost everyone in the Wuxia World knows about it!】
【As a result, during this current dungeon cycle, a massive number of One-Star and Two-Star dungeons have seen high-level players accepting invitations from newbies to carry them through and clear the dungeons.】
Zuo Lin'an scrolled down and saw that people were already replying.
【No wonder! I'm a One-Star dungeon boss, yet I got absolutely demolished by a high-level player who had cleared Two-Star dungeons three times. I thought I was just having bad luck, but this explains everything.】
【Same here, I got wiped out too. It was a high-level player carrying a newbie in my dungeon as well.】
【Me three!】
【This is infuriating! Which idiot leaked the secret in the first place? Just because you have a mouth doesn't mean you should run it!】
As Zuo Lin'an read through the replies, his expression grew increasingly grim.
This was an incredibly severe situation!
If the supernatural world had enough energy reserves, it wouldn't have mattered even if the erosion and assimilation of the Wuxia World failed; they could have simply moved on to search for the next world.
But the current situation did not afford them that luxury.
If they failed...
Zuo Lin'an shuddered to even think about it.
He had only just become an immortal Human-Specter Symbiont with endless years ahead of him to enjoy, and now he was being told that he might go down with this world very soon?
Even though his emotions had grown cold and detached since becoming a Human-Specter Symbiont, Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but curse under his breath.
“I swear, if I ever find out who that dungeon boss is...”
But getting angry wouldn't solve anything. The damage was done, and now was the time to find a solution.
Suppressing the irritation in his chest, he continued reading the post.
【Therefore, to counter the influx of newbie players, we have unanimously decided that during the next Daily Dungeon cycle, all One-Star and Two-Star difficulty dungeons will be forcefully filled to maximum capacity! Furthermore, the overall strength of the players assigned will be completely randomized!】
Zuo Lin'an gasped in dismay.
If his One-Star dungeon was filled to maximum capacity, it meant twenty players would enter at once!
His main quest required them to survive for a full day, and while his rules allowed him to kill up to twenty-four on the hour, facing twenty players at once was a completely different story.
Twenty players!
Every single player had a talent. Put them together, and that would be twenty different talents!
Even if only one out of every five players possessed a specter item, that would still mean facing four specter items.
Not to mention that the players' strength would be randomized.
This meant a dungeon could easily end up with several high-level players at once, all equipped with formidable talents and a vast arsenal of specter items.
Zuo Lin'an felt a sudden wave of dizziness.
“Isn't this just a death sentence?”
Fortunately, there was still more to the post.
Zuo Lin'an continued scrolling.
【The main quest difficulty for all One-Star and Two-Star dungeons can be substantially increased! Any modifications will be approved, provided they remain within the limits permitted by the world rules.】
【This is an emergency measure. Once implemented, the energy consumed to open these dungeons will increase.】
【Therefore, if the assimilation of the Wuxia World fails this time, everyone should prepare themselves for the absolute worst-case scenario.】
【Lastly, we wish you all the best in completely wiping out the players.】
Reading up to this point, Zuo Lin'an finally breathed a small sigh of relief.
Thank goodness.
He could actually increase the difficulty of the main quest.
In that case, he wouldn't hold back.
However, before adjusting the main quest difficulty, he first needed to inspect his own dungeon.
It was true that once players were killed, their corpses and items would vanish.
However, the physical traces they left behind in the dungeon would not disappear on their own; he, as the dungeon boss, had to manually clean them up.
Things like lit campfires, burnt ashes, footprints, trampled ground, and severed tree branches all required his attention.
Zuo Lin'an closed his eyes and used his God's-eye view to inspect the entire dungeon.
He focused on the inner ring of the dungeon.
Zuo Lin'an examined the area with meticulous care, checking almost inch by inch. Only after confirming that there were no anomalous traces aside from some ordinary human activity did he open his eyes.
“It seems my dungeon is clear.”
Zuo Lin'an sighed with relief.
“But...”
According to the post, the secret had been leaked after the previous dungeon cycle. This meant the players who entered his dungeon during this current run must have already known about it.
Yet, why hadn't they discussed it even once during their time in the dungeon?
Zuo Lin'an wondered, Could they have been warned beforehand never to speak of it inside a dungeon?
He quickly brushed the thought aside.
The die was cast, and there was no point in overthinking it now.
He checked the date on his phone.
It was already early August, leaving about four or five days before August 8th.
This meant that before the next Daily Dungeon cycle began, he still had to visit Lingyang First High School to play his guest role as an NPC.
He hoped the upcoming National War Dungeon would eliminate as many powerful, high-level players as possible.
If it did, there would be far fewer veteran players left to deal with when the Daily Dungeons resumed.
Zuo Lin'an tapped on his phone to modify his dungeon's settings.
His gaze locked onto the main quest.
【Main Quest: Survive for a full day】
He wanted to modify the survival duration, extending it to somewhere between three to five days.
That way, even if he was temporarily repelled, he would still have plenty of time to recover and hunt down the players again.
Rate on N.U.
