Zuo Lin'an lowered his head in thought. Although his mood was somewhat heavy, he had no intention of regretting his decision.
“I don't regret it,” he said.
“Even if my Death Rule doesn't undergo a qualitative leap to become a Domain Rule in the end, this is still my own choice.”
Bai Yuan nodded in satisfaction.
“Good. I knew you wouldn't regret it.”
With that, he turned his gaze back to Xu Youyou.
“So, what about you?”
“Do you still want a Domain Rule now?”
Just as Xu Youyou was about to speak, Bai Yuan interrupted him.
“If obtaining a Domain Rule were really that simple, then basically every Human-Specter Symbiont like you would have one.”
“But in reality, very few actually succeed.”
“As for how many, I can only say it's less than one percent.”
“Most of them actually fall at the final step.”
“Qualitative leap. These words look simple, but putting them into practice is extremely difficult.”
“There are too many chaotic factors involved, so chaotic that it's completely impossible to control them manually.”
Bai Yuan picked up his drink. “That's why the instructors at the training base basically never talk to the students about Domain Rules during class.”
“They usually only explain it privately to students with decent talent and potential.”
“Brother An was one of them.”
Song Yangxia looked at Xu Youyou with a mischievous grin.
“Well?”
“If you give up now, you can still have five Death Rules.”
“You have to understand that acquiring rules is irreversible.”
“If you insist on a Domain Rule and end up failing, you'll be left with only two Death Rules and three auxiliary rules.”
“While that's not exactly weak, it's still a far cry from other Five-Star bosses.”
Zuo Lin'an had been observing Xu Youyou the entire time.
Seeing him frown in deep thought, Zuo Lin'an knew he was torn.
“You don't have to decide right now.”
“Gather one hundred Contribution points first. You still have plenty of time to think it over.”
Xu Youyou snapped out of his thoughts.
“Oh, right. Why am I in such a hurry?”
He immediately shifted his focus, suddenly remembering something.
“By the way, Brother An, you're already a Two-Star dungeon boss, right? Does that mean your dungeon needs to have a complete storyline set up now?”
“And you'll also have to renovate your dungeon based on the plot.”
“For example, some necessary buildings, and... NPCs. Those are definitely a must.”
Zuo Lin'an, of course, knew this.
“Now that the dungeon has been upgraded to Two-Star difficulty, I can use that gold hairpin.”
After all, a Two-Star Daily Dungeon could feature one permanent specter item.
“My gold hairpin just happens to be a permanent specter item.”
Bai Yuan nodded inwardly.
“I remember that gold hairpin.”
“It can indeed be brought into the dungeon, but you have to think it through. In a One-Star difficulty dungeon, there was no storyline, so you could set up the specter item's effects however you wanted.”
“But once there is a storyline, the specter item's special effects must be related to the plot!”
“If you want to bring the gold hairpin into the dungeon, the storyline you set up must revolve around this gold hairpin, or rather, it can only have this gold hairpin as its core.”
“Also, a Two-Star difficulty dungeon can only have one permanent specter item at most.”
“Since you have this gold hairpin, you can't design another exclusive permanent specter item, though a consumable specter item is still mandatory.”
“The special effects of the consumable specter item you set up for your One-Star dungeon will also likely need some modifications to fit the new storyline.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded in agreement.
“I understand.”
By now, he had belatedly realized something.
Bai Yuan and Song Yangxia probably hadn't come here just to celebrate his success.
The most important reason was likely to explain some details he needed to watch out for in the future.
For instance, the qualitative leap of the Domain Rule they discussed earlier, and the current issue of the storyline.
He didn't point it out, silently committing their help to memory instead.
Xu Youyou carefully recalled the specific effects of the gold hairpin.
“I remember it was... Yao Qianhe and Lin Deshuang?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded. “Yes, that married couple.”
Xu Youyou asked, “Then is your plot going to revolve around them? Are you going to hire a construction team to build some ancient structures inside the dungeon later?”
Zuo Lin'an pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
“There's no need to go to all that trouble.”
He glanced at everyone present and carefully repeated the description of the 【Gold Hairpin Token of Love】.
“The Gold Hairpin Token of Love is a token of affection given by Yao Qianhe to his wife, Lin Deshuang. It was also the weapon he used to kill them both in a hopeless situation, sparing the couple from suffering further torment.”
“Living, they shared a bed; dead, they shared a grave.”
“Can be bound to the most important person in one's life, requiring the other party's consent. Once bound, it cannot be changed.”
“Attached special effect one: Shared damage, shared life! Only by killing both simultaneously can they truly be killed.”
“Attached special effect two: Contains the lingering specter souls of Yao Qianhe and Lin Deshuang. Lin Deshuang can absorb one instance of fatal damage, while Yao Qianhe can double the damage and return it. Cooldown: three days.”
His recitation was completely word-for-word.
“I can set Yao Qianhe and Lin Deshuang up as tragic figures who died a hundred years ago, and the location of the specter dungeon will be their former residence.”
Xu Youyou silently grumbled in his head.
So, after all that talk, doesn't it still mean building an ancient structure?
Zuo Lin'an continued.
“As for me...”
He paused, then changed his wording.
“No, it's me and my twin brother. A hundred years later, we inherited our ancestors' estate and became the new owners of this former residence.”
The more Zuo Lin'an thought about it, the more he felt this plot was quite good.
“Because my younger brother was terminally ill and beyond cure, I, as his older brother, brought him here, planning to accompany him through the final moments of his life.”
“After we brothers moved in, nothing unusual happened at first. But suddenly one day, my brother vanished.”
“No sign of him alive, no corpse of him dead!”
“As his older brother, I searched this place for a very, very long time, but I could never find him.”
“With self-blame, I stayed here, persisting in my search every single day.”
“And when the players enter the dungeon, this is the situation they will face.”
“This way, to the players, my identity will undoubtedly be that of a dungeon NPC.”
Zuo Lin'an looked at them.
“What do you think if I just set my two main quests to 【Find the Brother】 and 【Find the Path of Survival】?”
Hearing this, Xu Youyou blinked.
“Well... putting everything else aside for a moment.”
He pointed to their surrounding environment.
“Brother An, what I mean is... would anyone really bring their terminally ill, dying relative to a place like this to spend their final days?”
Rate on N.U.
