Perks

【An Wen: Class was originally scheduled for 9:00 AM tomorrow in Classroom One on the top floor of the academic building, but we've just been notified that a new batch of students is arriving tomorrow, so we're changing locations.】

【An Wen: I'll come straight to your dorm room at 9:00 AM tomorrow for class. It's a double anyway, so we won't be bothering anyone else.】

【Zuo Lin'an: Got it.】

【Xu Youyou: Got it.】

Having class in the dorm meant they didn't have to wake up early and climb stairs. It was indeed much more convenient.

Zuo Lin'an stretched, lay down on his bed, hugged his soft blanket, and prepared to sleep.

Even Xu Youyou temporarily gave up on training his ability to restrain his specter aura.

The two of them quickly fell asleep, even though it was only early evening.

This was perfectly normal.

After all, during their four days or so in Sin Hunter City, their rest had been sporadic at best. They hadn't had a single night of good sleep.

Xu Youyou had it slightly better.

But Zuo Lin'an had suffered terribly. Even if he wanted to sleep, he had to wake up once every hour.

His mind was exhausted to its absolute limit, and he fell asleep barely two seconds after lying down.

Time slipped away silently.

The two of them were awakened by a knock on the door.

Zuo Lin'an woke up groggily and fished his phone out from under his pillow.

【09:15】

It was already fifteen minutes past nine.

What time did they go to sleep yesterday?

It seemed to have been around six in the evening, which meant they had slept for a full fifteen hours.

He stretched, feeling his bones pop and loosen up, instantly feeling completely refreshed.

Another knock sounded on the door.

Zuo Lin'an knew it had to be Instructor An knocking outside.

He got up to open the door.

Sure enough, An Wen was standing outside.

“Instructor? Come on in.”

At this moment, besides An Wen, there were many other people walking around outside, making the place look much livelier than yesterday.

Their faces were filled with a look of pure, innocent cluelessness.

They had to be the new students.

Just like he and Xu Youyou had been a few days ago, completely clueless about everything...

An Wen shut the door behind him, then went over to wake up Xu Youyou, who was still sleeping like a log.

“Wake up!”

“The things I'm going to teach today are very important. Listen up!”

“And once we're done, there's urgent business to attend to!”

Only then did Xu Youyou groggily sit up. “Huh? Instructor, you're here?”

“Is it that early?”

He casually picked up his phone. “Wait, it's past nine?”

An Wen casually pulled over a chair.

“Alright, eat some breakfast first.”

He placed the items in his hands on the table; he had brought them back from the cafeteria.

“Thanks, Instructor!”

The two of them happened to be starving, and they devoured the massive spread of food in just a few minutes.

Now, holding warm cups of soy milk, they sat quietly on their beds, ready to listen.

An Wen pulled two pitch-black smartphones from his pocket and handed them over.

“One for each of you. Keep them safe.”

Zuo Lin'an took one of them. After unlocking the screen, he found that it was completely empty except for a single app.

The app's icon was a door.

The door was surrounded by carvings of countless malevolent specters, each unique and bizarre. In the center was a black-and-red vortex.

In the middle of the vortex was the word "BOSS."

“This phone is a work phone dedicated to dungeon bosses. Open up that app.”

The two obediently tapped on the app and found that they needed to log in first.

“Just log in with your real details. The moment you became Human-Specter Symbionts, the system automatically registered your accounts on the backend.”

Sure enough, using their own information, they successfully completed the first step of logging in.

And then came the second step.

“Input specter aura?”

An Wen said, “Control your specter aura and channel it into the phone.”

Zuo Lin'an tried to control his fully restrained specter aura, releasing just a tiny bit into the phone. Sure enough, the login succeeded.

The interface that appeared before him wasn't as complicated as he had expected.

First was his personal profile.

【Name: Zuo Lin'an

Specter Type: Human-Specter Symbiont

Number of Rules: One

Rule Content: Unknown (Editable)

Dungeon Difficulty: One-Star

Dungeon Type: Daily Dungeon

Dungeon Location: None

Contribution: 0】

Below that, there was also an "Apply" button.

However, this button was currently grayed out and unclickable.

Zuo Lin'an took a general look and saw that there were also tabs for a Shop, a Forum, and a Trading Hall.

He tapped on them one by one, but none of them would open.

【Can only be viewed after acquiring your own dungeon】

Seeing this message, Zuo Lin'an gave up on exploring for now.

“Instructor, what is this...”

An Wen said, “Let me give you a brief explanation.”

“The ones at the top are just your basic details, so I won't go over those. The number of rules is directly correlated with the dungeon difficulty. I mentioned this in class before, so I won't repeat myself.”

Zuo Lin'an naturally knew this. For specters in Daily Dungeons, the number of rules they possessed determined the star-level of the dungeon they managed.

Since he and Xu Youyou were both rookie bosses with only one rule, they would definitely be managing the lowest difficulty, One-Star Daily Dungeons.

“The rule content is editable. Do we have to write our rules down?”

An Wen shook his head. “Not necessarily. Some dungeon bosses don't like to make their rules public, so they leave it blank. You can do as you please.”

“However, if you do edit it, you must write the truth. Absolutely no falsification is allowed.”

Zuo Lin'an let out a sigh of relief. He didn't like the idea of making his rules public either.

“That's good. Oh, and what's the deal with the dungeon location? How do we prepare for that?”

An Wen replied, “The dungeon locations are already prepared. I'll take you to pick them out in a bit.”

“You guys got lucky with your timing. In the past, rookie dungeon bosses had to take out a loan to acquire a territory to use as their dungeon location.”

Zuo Lin'an asked, “We have to pay for it?”

An Wen clarified, “Not with money, but with Contribution.”

Zuo Lin'an looked at his zero points. “What is Contribution? How do we get it?”

An Wen explained, “Every time you open a One-Star dungeon, wiping out a group of players will earn you one Contribution point. Two-Star gets you five, Three-Star gets you ten, Four-Star gets you fifty, and Five-Star gets you a hundred.”

“Of course, that's the income for Daily Dungeons. For large-scale dungeons like Regional Dungeons, there's a different, more complex calculation system for Contribution points.”

Zuo Lin'an nodded.

“Then what does this 'Apply' button do?”

An Wen said, “It's to apply to open your dungeon and welcome players. This button will only light up after you've confirmed your dungeon location.”

Zuo Lin'an asked, “So how much Contribution does it cost?”

An Wen smiled. “Normally, it requires ten Contribution points, but right now, it's being given out completely for free.”

Zuo Lin'an was slightly puzzled, but he quickly recalled what his homeroom teacher had said before: there was a severe shortage of dungeon bosses right now, especially Human-Specter Symbionts.

So this was the perk?