Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 152 - 143 Sain-style Meat Pigeon!

Chapter 152: Chapter 143 Sain-style Meat Pigeon!

Roguelike, colloquially known as ’Meat Pigeon,’ is a genre of games.

In simple terms, its gameplay is about training a unique character in a randomly generated setting to challenge deeper levels and ultimately battle the final boss.

Centered around this core mode, various Meat Pigeon games have derived plenty of play styles, adding new systems and invigorating new life.

Wouldn’t introducing Roguelike to the people of the otherworld be like bringing a reduce-dimension strike?

Gong Qiying did not harbor such grand ambitions; for now, his plan was to develop a simple and easy-to-understand Meat Pigeon game. After all, people in the otherworld had never seen such a thing, and it was better to start with a simple Meat Pigeon to get to know it.

The complex mechanisms would be added slowly in the future.

The Meat Pigeon system designed by Gong Qiying went like this:

Every time the adventurers win a battle, they can randomly receive a "blessing" from different factions.

Upon unlocking three or more blessings from the same faction, they could unlock the faction’s profession and obtain a unique ability called "blessing," and each profession would also provide some kind of bonus to the adventurer.

The levels are roughly divided into "battle levels" and "event levels." Battle levels need no explanation—just enjoy the fight.

At event levels, adventurers would encounter a series of events fabricated by Gong Qiying. They would make various choices, receive various rewards, and sometimes even get negative ones.

These events were all written by Gong Qiying alone, some to expand the world view, others to introduce characters that would appear later, and some...

Then there were just pure pranks.

After seriously writing a dozen or so events, he got so headachy that he needed to inject some pranking elements to relax, both for his own sake and for the adventurers.

Regardless of the level the adventurers challenge, after experiencing three levels, there is a chance to encounter an Elite Monster, and after a maximum of five levels, they will definitely encounter one. Defeating it will yield generous rewards.

After encountering three Elite Monsters, there is a chance to trigger the final boss battle at every subsequent level, with the probability increasing the further one goes, until it reaches 99%.

In theory, if someone is lucky enough, they may never encounter the final boss. When they obtain all the blessings and instantly defeat the boss, they should feel an ultimate thrill.

After achieving victory in battle and obtaining rewards, they will be teleported back to the starting point, and all previously gained blessings, professions, and negative statuses, etc., will be reset to start over.

This is roughly what Gong Qiying has designed so far.

There’s still a lot that could be added, such as reward levels, rest levels, various unique mechanisms, etc. In the future, if it could be perfected, it would definitely be an enormous system.

But right now, what he needs to do is to test the reaction of the people of the otherworld with the simplest form to see how they receive it.

So far, the response isn’t bad.

Including Leon and the others, there are thirty-seven adventurers currently in Meat Pigeon mode today. These people are elites capable of finding hidden paths amid volleys of arrows, and are perfect for testing.

Some have received good combinations of blessings and are quite happy.

Some have obtained items sufficient to handle situations, brimming with self-confidence.

Some have encountered unfavorable options in random events and are currently in frustration.

There are also those who simply can’t beat Elite Monsters and are forced to delete their account and restart time and again, eventually running out of spiritual power and dying.

Whatever the reaction, it is exactly what Gong Qiying aims for as long as the adventurers are excited.

It’s not the criticism of Sain he’s afraid of, but the lack of any reaction.

Gong Qiying flipped to the next page, which listed the currently designed blessings.

Tomb King, Sun, Abyss.

Dark Moon, Chaos, Ancient Dragon.

These six blessings are tentatively set as the mainstream, with the highest probability of encounter.

Apart from these six, Gong Qiying has also prepared other blessings that adventurers might encounter during exploration. Currently envisaged are:

Hunter, Ninja, Canglan Star, Trainer, Holy Nest, Blood Code.

And more will be added in the future.

These can be referred to as hidden blessings, yet in certain areas, they could turn into the mainstream.

For instance, when in a Monster Hunter themed scene, Canglan Star’s blessing could become the mainstream.

For testing purposes, Sain Dungeon currently has only one Meat Pigeon route, and only the Tomb King’s blessing appears, mixed with a few others.

Gong Qiying plans to make the Meat Pigeon mode a specialty of Val Underworld, hence not undergoing massive transformations here.

How to integrate Meat Pigeon mode with a life-oriented Underground City is a problem.

After all, Meat Pigeon aims for a fast-paced thrill, whereas life must go on second by second unless the Crimson King deletes time.

Luckily, he has plenty of time to think, with a promising future and substantial room for progression.

"You’ve really been a great help."

Gong Qiying stroked the Knowledge Crystal, muttering to himself.

In front of him, the City Lord panel showed the following text:

[Sain Dungeon, Level Three Authority]

[Val Underworld, Level Two Authority]

Opening the bottommost Val Underworld, one would find that its authority is completely different from Sain’s.

[Authority: Rogue]

It was relying on this newly acquired authority that Gong Qiying was able to build the Meat Pigeon mode within the Underground City.

This authority allows him to freely add Meat Pigeon elements in the Dungeon, but sometimes it also imposes restrictions.

When he composes blessings, the authority limits the content he writes. The effect cannot be too miraculous, creating blessings that turn adventurers into gods in one step or into trash is absolutely impossible to write.

When he wants to write some powerful blessings, he must impose limits on them, just like how Jia Pael becomes offensively strong but fragile.

And when he writes events, the authority can reproduce a series of incidents that occur after an adventurer makes a choice, but these are only incredibly realistic illusions.

The most obvious manifestation is that adventurers can’t control their actions within the illusion and can only watch from a first-person perspective.

The advantage, however, is that the Monsters that appear in the illusion don’t require him to consume spiritual power, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to summon Midir even if it drained him dry.

The various injuries and negative states contracted by adventurers in it are reflected on their bodies in the form of life damage, reduced movement speed, listlessness, etc., rather than actually infecting the adventurers with certain states.

Otherwise, the Sword Saint infected with Crimson Corruption would already have blossomed.

Now, Gong Qiying can add all sorts of highly dangerous things to the events without any scruples.

Perfect!

The more Gong Qiying looked, the more he felt that this authority was tailor-made for him, and in reality, it was.

He had just gained the City Lord Authority of Val Underworld and discovered that the authority levels of the two Dungeons were actually separate, and he had to start from Level 1 to level up Val Underworld again!

At the beginning, he thought it was a lame setting, but after a deep dive into the Knowledge Crystal, he realized it was a great deal.

Because it gave Gong Qiying more opportunities to obtain additional authorities.

All this time, Gong Qiying had a misunderstanding—he thought that all Underground City Lords gained the same authorities, after all, Teleportation and Mimicry seemed too common.

Not at all!

Each City Lord’s authority is unique!

Each time they level up, the Dungeon generates new authorities based on the unique characteristics of its City Lord, just like with the ability [Rogue], which is impossible to find on other City Lords.

Now leveling up is like opening a mystery box; Gong Qiying will always be full of anticipation for what the new authority will be.

Additionally, the Knowledge Crystal mentioned one more thing—

Authorities can be plundered.

After a fight to the death, the victor can choose to take away one authority from the vanquished’s Dungeon.

However, by doing this, one cannot take over the opponent’s Dungeon. The defeated will die, and their Dungeon will enter a dormant period.

Whether to choose the authority or the Dungeon is a matter worth considering, as sometimes a good authority can be more valuable than the Dungeon itself.

Gong Qiying began to anticipate what authorities the Evil Nest Dungeon would have.

The day of the death match was approaching, and he just checked the [Unity Seeker]; Sword Saint Jia Pael’s portrait had already appeared, albeit with low Bonds value.

"Let’s see if we can kill the Sword Saint a few more times in the next few days, and have him go fish blasting among the bugs."

Gong Qiying felt he was so bad.

Looking back at the adventurers, the exploration was still unfolding energetically.

But someone had already been killed back to the starting point.

It was Maru and Tal, who both unfortunately contracted negative effects in an event stage, and then died at the hands of an Elite Monster.

To their surprise, after they died, they didn’t return to the Bonfire, but to the Teleportation Treasure Box in front of the dead end where the dream started.

They originally thought if they returned to the Bonfire, they would leave the Dungeon.

After all, there’s quite a distance from the Fire Transmission Ceremony to the Grave Meat Pigeon, and running that far is too much of a hassle.

But now they’ve been sent back to the starting point of the stage, so...

"Another round?" Maru looked at Tal, who nodded back, his eyes shining with the will to fight.

He believed that if he went again, he would definitely not make the wrong choice again, and he was determined to take down the Monster that killed him!

"Charge!"

Sometimes, addiction happens in an instant.

Now, let’s look at the most powerful Sword Saint among all the Meat Pigeon players; surely he must be smoothly clearing through, right?

No, he now feels like he’s dying.

"There’s no way to cure corruption yet..."

Jia Pael’s complexion visibly paled, and the Crimson Corruption had already taken away half of his Life Force.

If he doesn’t find a way to cure Crimson Corruption in the next stage, he’s going to regretfully exit the scene.

So frustrating, it’s just too frustrating.

The first death was due to curse death, the second death was due to Crimson Corruption, and the third?

He suddenly coughed, showing a confused expression.

Why do I need to speculate that I will die again!?

Have I been in Sain Dungeon for too long, and my mind has also become abnormal?

"This Dungeon really makes one feel uncomfortable."

Jia Pael glanced at his slightly damaged Longsword and eventually opened the Teleportation Treasure Box.

Hopefully, the next level will have a cure.