Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 192 - 170: The Battle of the Dungeon Begins!_2

Chapter 192: Chapter 170: The Battle of the Dungeon Begins!_2

This small part is the challenger’s base.

If the base is breached, Monsters killed to the last, spiritual power depleted, the City Lord perished, and so on, these would all be considered as defeat; the same applies to the challenged party.

Both parties exhaust their imaginations on the battlefield to deploy Monsters, striving for victory in combat.

Compared to Evil Nest Dungeon’s Underground City Lord, Ganago, who only had a small base to command, Gong Qiying could mobilize parts of Sain Dungeon that were connected to his domain.

When an enemy Dungeon fuses with one’s own, a certain rule would restrict the usable area according to the scale of the enemy’s base, usually twice to thrice the size of the enemy’s area.

Thus, the bases of both sides are divided.

Since he didn’t know where the enemy base would impact, aside from layering the City Lord’s room with protective measures, he hadn’t made many changes to the Dungeon’s structure.

His tactic was simple, summed up in three words—block the door.

The Evil Nest Dungeon’s troops consisted of insects that grew over time and battles; to counter these creatures, one must not give them the time to develop and should start killing right at the doorstep.

There is some finesse to the ’block the door’ tactic.

One can’t let low-level Monsters take the lead; otherwise, being eaten by the insects would still allow the enemy to evolve. It’s necessary to deploy C-grade or even B-grade Monsters, preferably those with area-of-effect damage skills, so as to not let any insect escape.

However, combining the Chimeric Worm’s approach of eating anything, Gong Qiying devised a more insidious and cost-effective strategy.

The core of this strategy was the adventurer, or rather, the Unity Seeker.

He opened the Unity Seeker module but went straight to the end, where the last ranks were all fighters with extremely low Bonds value and pitifully weak strength.

What did Gong Qiying want with these people?

Just then, he saw a piece of purple land drifting in the obscure void—not quite, it was land covered by a purple Fungal Blanket.

This was the base of Evil Nest Dungeon; Ganago was inside!

Observing through a telescope, he saw masses of insects tightly packed, a veritable sea of squirm.

And it drifted towards... Fran Fort!

[Evil Nest Dungeon has completed fusion]

Even from inside the City Lord’s room, Gong Qiying could still feel the trembling from the impact.

In his view, Fran Fort was forcibly adjoined with the base of the Evil Nest Dungeon, but an invisible barrier separated the dirty swamp and the purple Fungal Blanket, preventing mutual invasion.

The insects were roaring to break in, yet the barrier stopped them, signifying that the time for battle had not arrived.

Gong Qiying felt his location shift; by the time he regained his bearings, he was forcibly relocated inside Fran Fort.

The Fran Undead Team stood before him, posing stiffly like robots with dead batteries.

"So it is, I will be forcibly moved to the ’base’ defined by the rules."

He smiled; it seemed the efforts to fortify the City Lord’s room were in vain.

[You have received a call request from Evil Nest Dungeon’s Underground City Lord, Ganago]

Gong Qiying raised an eyebrow, wondering what the big insect on the other side might want—possibly a plea for surrender? Or perhaps it was the classic pre-battle trash-talking ritual?

Out of curiosity, he accepted the call.

The Crystal Ball displayed a huge mantis, its monstrous form the stuff of children’s nightmares.

The creature’s first words were obscenities so vile they couldn’t be written down.

And he was cursing!

"Snap."

Gong Qiying tapped the Crystal Ball, decisively shutting off the image.

"As expected of a Dungeon that grew with the Demon Clan, such filthy language."

He had actually thought the other side would have substantial words to say, even conjecturing that Ganago might propose some irresistible conditions for surrender to tempt him, but it turned out to be just trash-talking like in a pre-wrestling match.

Such behavior was truly too low-level.

[You have received a call request from Evil Nest Dungeon’s Underground City Lord, Ganago]

"Refuse."

[You have received...]

"Refuse."

Ganago was relentless in sending harassing messages, refusing to give up no matter how much he was rejected.

If he had grown up on Earth, he would probably be an adept at toxic internet trolling.

Inside Evil Nest Dungeon, Ganago, furious and frustrated, jabbed at the City Lord panel. Each of his call requests was denied, leaving him feeling the futility of punches landing on cotton.

"Coward!"

Ganago was enraged, his massive body trembling uncontrollably. It was far too lacking in etiquette for an Underground City Lord living in human territory!

Before slaughtering each other, they always need to ignite their emotions with passion and exchange insults. That’s the rule they, the Demon Clan, all follow.

"Vulgar, impolite, humans."

Ganago, trying to console himself with the spiritual victory method of Ah Q, suddenly—

[You’ve received a call request from Gedwin, the Sain Dungeon Underground City Lord]

"Have you seen the light?"

With a face that said "this kid finally gets it," Ganago cleared his throat, brewing his emotions and clicked to accept the request.

He aimed to become the king of verbal jousting!

[Trash, trash, the furious trash that’s utterly helpless]

However, a cardboard sign completely obscured the screen, covered with derogatory lines that he could perfectly understand.

Ganago was stunned.

Ganago was infuriated!

"You—"

[The call has been closed]

"I will kill you!"

"Hehe."

Gong Qiying smiled contentedly. What a pity that Ganago wasn’t inside his dungeon; otherwise, he should have been able to receive the spiritual power from the other party.

Surely he must be enraged to the extreme now.

"Trash, trash," such words weren’t particularly hurtful, but what really packed a punch was Gong Qiying’s action of shutting the call before Ganago could even speak.

Such behavior is commonly referred to as "hit-and-run" on the internet.

Clearly, this kind of tactic, which would be weak on the internet, seemed too advanced when used against the pure-hearted natives of the otherworld; Gong Qiying noticed that the opposite side’s worms had become agitated.

These worms were all in their base form, with no particular strengths besides their number; their combat capability was not high, they were just average. Only by devouring other creatures could they evolve.

Why would Ganago produce so many base-form Chimeric Worms? Could it be that he planned to evolve them by devouring the Sain Dungeon’s Monsters?

How could he possibly let that happen?

Compared to the ready-to-strike stance at Evil Nest Dungeon, it was quiet and peaceful on Gong Qiying’s side.

Not even a single Monster was in sight.

Was he brewing up some Big Move? But that didn’t seem right.

This quiet appearance made Ganago even more confused.

"Victory will certainly be mine."

He muttered to himself, speculating that his opponent must have learned about the Chimeric Worms’ traits, which is why he was hesitant to send Monsters over to battle.

He looked towards the fortress deep in the swamp, believing Gong Qiying definitely wanted to engage in a defensive battle using the buildings.

"Foolish."

Ganago’s mouth curled into a frightening arc.

"Thinking that I don’t have a way to evolve? Huge mistake."

[The battle is about to start]

A notification from the dungeon appeared in front of the two City Lords.

Gong Qiying sat atop the altar, propping his face with one hand, sporting a look of anticipation for the spectacle.

Ganago stroked his knife, letting out a string of sinister laughs.

The Fran Fort was peaceful as a millpond, not even a Curse Frog in sight.

While the land of the Fungal Blanket was teeming with restlessness, the swarm of worms moved like waves.

[The battle begins!]

The moment it started, countless streaks of light suddenly landed on the Evil Nest Dungeon’s domain, transforming into members of the Demon Clan, or rather, [Unity Seekers] from the Evil Nest Dungeon.

"Hm?" Gong Qiying pulled the Crystal Ball closer, feeling rather curious.

He thought Unity Seekers were a last resort for dungeons. Unexpectedly, the opponent had unleashed them so quickly.

Could he have guessed wrong?

Suddenly, the Fungal Blanket echoed with the screams of Unity Seekers; amidst the frenzy, the swarm of insects...

They were actually devouring the Unity Seekers!?