Chapter 198: Dungeon Lottery, Acting Test

【Challenger Notice: Congratulations, Player, on completing the hidden dungeon quest "Death Space". The quest ended midway... Settlement reward: 112,392 points of Shou Shou Jili.】

"Hahaha, this was a huge profit. Pity Old Dog and the others died early; otherwise, we would have become Echoers and fought our way back to the Monster World."

"Truly the Lord of Benefits. Five trials and he gave me a strengthening reward of 110,000 Shou Shou Jili. This profit came too fast."

"Note the time. In the Illusion woven by the Lord of Benefits, it seems three months have passed, but in the Monster World, less than three days have elapsed. This Illusion technique is truly awesome."

"After all, the Illusion is the Lord of Benefits' livelihood. Last time, I heard an Explorer say he seemed to experience a long duration within the Illusion, yet only seconds passed after he purified and woke. This is clearly one application method of the Bliss Rules."

"This benefit was originally for elite warriors, yet we snatched it. I estimate the Lord of Benefits is currently furious."

……

Listening to the idle chatter of the Veteran Corps members in the guild chat channel, Qi Sheng's lips curved into a smile.

When players unexpectedly discovered a Bliss Node in the Di Ku Shi Jie, the Guide also investigated the current situation of the Lord of Bliss along the network lines.

The result was the discovery of the Death Space Plan.

After learning the details of this plan in depth, Qi Sheng thought of the vast resources and wealth in the Lord of Bliss's inventory.

Thus, the idea of "secretly passing through" arose.

He issued a hidden quest to the Veteran Corps members who discovered the Bliss Node.

He then sent them from the Bliss Palace to Death Space to participate in the brutal Gu Competition in the manner of Bliss Players.

To prevent the Lord of Bliss from detecting the anomaly, he also modified the situation of the Veteran Corps.

In the Challenger Notice received by the Veteran Corps, once they confirmed participation in the hidden quest, all strengthening abilities would be revoked, and they would participate in the hidden quest progression as ordinary people.

If they had participated in the Death Space competition at full strength, the Veteran Corps would not have needed to exert so much effort and could have easily become Echoers.

But the Notice also clearly stated:

After the quest ends, all sealed powers are released, and all strengthenings from Death Space will be converted into Shou Shou Jili and distributed.

That is to say, the Veteran Corps became Bliss Players with the identity of ordinary people, receiving no special treatment.

As for the method of participation, it was very simple.

He had Yan Ming use spatial power to replace several ordinary creatures who were originally supposed to be captured for the Bliss Space, substituting them with the 27 members of the Veteran Corps.

Thus, a dramatic scene appeared.

The Veteran Corps actually topped the leaderboard for Team No. 12 in this round of testing within Death Space.

Originally, upon completing the Ultimate Trial, the Veteran Corps would become Echoers in the eyes of the Lord of Bliss.

Next, they would be sent by the Lord of Bliss to the Monster World to participate in resource struggles across various regions.

During that period, they would certainly enjoy various benefit strengthenings supported by the Lord of Bliss.

But the Veteran Corps is a whole.

The massive death of teammates during the Ultimate Test made them abandon the idea of continuing to fight, handing over victory.

This is also the reason why the Bliss Warrior "Lin Xia" within Death Space was able to complete the Ultimate Trial.

This is also why Li Tie said:

"Perhaps we will have a chance to meet again."

After the Veteran Corps members returned, Qi Sheng fully restored their sealed abilities.

He drew thirty percent of the rewards, ruthlessly scooping up a sum from the Lord of Bliss's hands.

After all, it is normal to ask for a return gift after sending a benefit gift package to the Lord of Bliss for the New Year.

If Bliss does not give, he takes it himself.

Last time, the average level of the Yulu Council members sent over in bulk exceeded one hundred, granting the Lord of Bliss continuous income.

According to the Guide's feedback, the Lord of Bliss was obviously stunned at that time.

He did not expect that dozens of powerful elemental lives would suddenly descend upon his entertainment city without any warning.

But for the freely given resources, the Lord of Bliss had no thought of giving up.

Even without his intervention, the Bliss Scene had already dragged the members of the Yulu Council into the Abyss of Desire, beginning to continuously produce Bliss Power.

This process will likely last for 3 months, until the members of the Yulu Council die.

The produced income is far higher than the income the Veteran Corps skimmed off.

And the income from the Veteran Corps is nothing to the Lord of Bliss.

After all, the income from entertainment cities across the Monster World is very high; massive resources flow in every minute and second.

But in Qi Sheng's eyes, it is a considerable income.

For the members of the Veteran Corps, it is even more so.

Old Dog, who received the highest income, got 130,000 Shou Shou Jili, truly a sudden windfall.

After this round of testing, Qi Sheng felt he had found another growth path for the players.

That is to send them to the Death Space created by the Lord of Benefits for tempering.

They can freely plunder resources and also gain technical tempering from it, killing two birds with one stone.

The players' biggest shortcoming is the significant gap in combat awareness compared to true warriors.

Death Space is simply the ideal training ground.

He does not need to pay for the resources to build the scene, yet he can earn strengthening point income from the training, which can be converted into Shou Shou Jili income upon completion.

More importantly, the training within the scene is conducted with the identity of an ordinary person.

Players start with no external forces to rely on; their strength is even inferior to those true Bliss Players fighting for their lives.

To obtain more point income, they must strive to grow.

Otherwise, it is difficult even to survive one round of the Death Trial.

With this idea, Qi Sheng immediately contacted Yan Ming, asking him to help forge a hidden spatial line connecting to Death Space.

On this basis, he still had a problem to solve.

Opening a teleportation line connecting to the Death Space is not difficult, but every time a player is teleported, they must be disguised, replacing the Bliss Player who was supposed to be sent into the Death Space.

He must turn this setup into a stable, running mode and connect it to the Challenger System.

From now on, no active operation is needed; as long as teleportation occurs, one can enter the Death Space and automatically replace a recruited player.

Secondly, how to control the volume of teleportation is a problem.

With mass teleportation, all the Bliss Players cultivated by the Lord of Bliss would become his own players.

That would be quite fun.

For example, create a Death Space dungeon node in the Di Zha Village.

As soon as the dungeon appears, players will naturally sign up in large numbers to go.

When the Lord of Welfare discovers this, he will likely cry and faint.

Imagine such a scene.

On some future day, the Lord of Bliss steps out of the Bliss Space, deciding to make a grand display and compete with the powerful races.

With a wave of his hand, countless light pillars rain down behind him, summoning the Bliss Players.

But if the vast majority, or even all, of these players are his own players, that scene... is too cruel.

Just doing this would not be a problem.

The problem is that when players die, they will eventually return to the Di Zha Village space.

If players are occasionally lost, even if the Lord of Bliss cannot find the reason, he will choose to continue advancing the plan.

But if it happens frequently, the problem becomes huge.

The Lord of Bliss's choice would inevitably be: since the reason cannot be found, then simply stop looking and completely abolish the plan.

So, one must have limits when shearing the sheep.

One cannot exploit without restraint, nor can one affect the normal advancement of the Death Space plan.

How to solve this problem, Qi Sheng fell into deep thought.

Opening a space teleportation array in the Di Zha Village is feasible, but the number of participating players must be restricted.

The best method is obviously to distribute the limited qualifications to the strongest top-tier players.

They can create more enhancement returns in the Death Space; after each dungeon experience ends and they return, he can also extract a substantial tax from them.

But this method has drawbacks.

For example, if the Veteran Group participates every time, their combat experience makes it easy for them to enter the top of the rankings.

Other top-tier players are the same.

If top-tier players keep disappearing, the Lord of Welfare will likely be so angry he jumps up and down.

So the best method must combine the ratio of top-tier players and ordinary players, making the strength of the lost Bliss Players appear to the Lord of Bliss in a random manner.

This way, he will think there is a problem with the Death Space's architecture, just like the random losses in the space tunnel before, implying some undiscovered uncertainty.

But if top-tier Bliss Players are lost steadily, given the Lord of Bliss's vigilance, it would be strange if he didn't suspect.

Even with this random method, the Lord of Bliss might still become suspicious.

But at least the random method will not shake the core foundation of the Death Space.

As long as the core issue is not wrong, the Lord of Bliss will continue to advance the Death Space plan.

After much thought, Qi Sheng decided to distribute qualifications by lottery to increase randomness.

Let players with strength and ordinary players both rely on luck to draw Death Space qualifications.

As for the quantity, he decided to temporarily set the daily distribution at 100 slots.

The number of infiltrating players at this quantity is completely within the acceptable range of the Death Space plan.

Although 100 qualifications are just a drop in the bucket compared to the current total number of players.

But right now, it is only the fourth round of testing for the "Bliss Player Legion".

The scale has not yet been expanded.

When the Lord of Bliss expands the recruitment scale and builds more Death Spaces, he will also synchronously increase the number of Death Space dungeon qualifications distributed.

Exactly how many to distribute still depends on following the Lord of Bliss's plan.

With an idea formed, Qi Sheng immediately began formulating a detailed plan process.

He let Yan Ming, who possesses space rules, and Chao Wei, who can strip player abilities, be responsible for creating this aspect of the settings.

At 3 PM that afternoon, a full-channel notification rang in the players' minds:

【Challenger Notification (Full Channel): New functional building added to Di Zha Village space: Dungeon Teleportation Zone.】

Dungeon Teleportation Zone Introduction: Players can travel to specific dungeon scenes via the Dungeon Teleportation Zone.

This time, the opened dungeon is: Death Space.

Death Space Introduction: An Illusion dungeon constructed by the Lord of Bliss. Time flow in the Illusion is unequal to the outside world. Players participate in missions issued by the Lord of Bliss as Bliss Players. Each completed built-in Illusion dungeon yields Bliss Points, which can be used for strengthening physical attributes and other abilities, increasing the probability of completing missions in the next built-in Illusion. After the dungeon ends, players will be sent back to Di Zha Village to enter resurrection cooldown; the obtained points and enhancements will be returned to the players in the form of Shou Shou Jili.

Dungeon Hint 1: After players enter the Death Space dungeon, all enhancements such as Star Vein and Body Tempering cannot be used within the Death Space; they must participate in the Death Trial with normal attribute values. Enhancements are limited to using Bliss Points at the Enhancement Stone Tablet.

Dungeon Hint 2: This opened dungeon is in the testing phase. 100 Death Space dungeon qualifications are distributed daily. Players can draw them via the "Dungeon Qualification (Non-Tradable)" added to the functional panel. Qualifications reset daily from 0 to 1 o'clock; players can sign up during this period. At 1 o'clock, the list of qualified recipients is confirmed. All players who win the draw will receive: Dungeon Key.

Dungeon Hint 3: If a player dies during the first round of missions in the Death Space dungeon, they will not receive any rewards. Rewards are distributed each time based on dimensions such as mission completion, combat performance, and team cooperation.

Dungeon Hint 4: Players cannot reveal any player information within the Death Space scene. During the dungeon, there is perception detection by the Lord of Bliss (random). If discovered to not be a Bliss Player, they will be forcibly killed. Players needing the Dungeon Key must act out their role positions.

Accompanying the update notification, Di Zha Village trembled.

In the empty field to the west, a circle of pale blue halo suddenly exploded.

Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, the halo rapidly expanded, outlining a circular shape over a hundred meters in diameter on the ground.

Countless glowing characters emerged from the void, quickly written by an invisible hand, embedding themselves into the ground one by one.

Like living creatures, they wandered on the ground, rapidly arranging and combining along complex trajectories. Golden light gushed out from the runes, weaving into a net in the air.

At this moment, the Jin Guang released by the runes suddenly contracted, condensing into an oval portal with blue arcs flickering at its edges.

The space within the portal spun like a vortex.

Finally, a pale blue halo rose from the bottom of the portal, encircling the dungeon teleportation gate like a guard.

The new function building "Dungeon Teleportation Point" officially generated.

However, it is not yet open for use; even if players enter the portal, they will only pass through.

Only players who obtain a "Dungeon Key" through the lottery will be sent to the Death Space to participate in the cruel competition.

But the "cruelty" here refers to the Extreme Joy players.

For the legitimate players possessing immortality, it is merely a wonderful journey, or rather, a training trip.

In the future, Qi Sheng does not intend to teleport players in teams like the Veteran Corps, letting players randomly combine with Extreme Joy players to jointly participate in the dungeon.

How much dungeon benefit is obtained depends entirely on the player's specific performance in the Death Space scene.

But based on his judgment of the players' overall quality, he fears most will not pass the first three Death Trials.

But as long as they can pass the first Death Trial, they can obtain considerable rewards.

Similar to the Ancient God Arena, exactly how much reward is obtained is decided by strength.

The launch of the new function immediately sparked heated discussion among forum players.

Sleepy Gang: Laughing to death, the lottery pool probably only has the four words "Thank You for Participating"; hundreds of thousands of players fighting for 100 dungeon keys. Suggest renaming the game "Unlucky Simulator".

Lin Hai: I thought of the brother still outside fighting for qualification. Last time he participated in the New Year event, all the red envelopes he got were blessings. Don't say game qualification, he didn't even encounter a single red envelope with 1 point of Shou Shou Jili. After snatching dozens of red envelopes, his mindset exploded. Last time on the phone he complained to me, constantly "blessing" the Moon Eclipse Clan, making him work in vain for so long. Laughing to death.

Didi Di: The Moon Eclipse Clan is truly baffling when it comes to stinginess. They give out game qualifications stingily, and the resources in the game are also incredibly stingy. Why not just change the resources with one click and give everyone one million Shou Shou Jili to enjoy? I don't think one million Shou Shou Jili per person is too much. When it really reaches the late stage, I guess one million Shou Shou Jili would only be enough to open a Star Pulse Slot. I think ten million Shou Shou Jili could be used up very quickly.

Moon Under Autumn Wind: After my rigorous calculation and proof, the probability of snatching a key is even lower than the probability of the cafeteria lady not shaking her hand (Draft paper photo. jpg).

Bright Candle South: Good heavens, life is getting more and more interesting. Every morning I wait for the bus at Colorful Mist Coast, and now at dawn there are 100 dungeon qualifications to snatch. The opportunity to get rich is getting closer. By the way, the previous round distributed 300,000 qualifications. Now there are probably over 500,000 players. Damn, over 500,000 players fighting for 100 dungeon keys. Look, is this a setting a human could think of? Oh, this is a game developed by beings from the Upper Realm (Teeth grinding. jpg).

Dark Land is Really Fun: I don't care about anything else, I just want to ask one question: when will the name change card be launched? Because I've been mocked several times for this name when joining random teams (Crying loudly. jpg).

Qi Sheng directly ignored the players' complaints on the forum.

He actually wanted to distribute unlimited qualifications at once, allowing players to go to the Death Space to participate in the Gu Competition and obtain rewards anytime, anywhere.

But the problem is, the Lord of Extreme Joy does not allow it.

During the fourth round of player mode testing, the Lord of Extreme Joy recruited only ten thousand Extreme Joy players per day.

Occupying 1% of the ratio is not a big problem.

But if hundreds of thousands of players flood in at once, the Lord of Extreme Joy would probably think he's seeing ghosts.

Most importantly, these hundreds of thousands of Extreme Joy players all die, take the money, and run.

If dungeon qualifications were distributed without limit, the Lord of Extreme Joy would probably modify the settings overnight, and the Death Space plan would be cancelled the next day.

Qi Sheng naturally understands the principle that you cannot cut the leeks by digging up the roots.

As for the players' thoughts, they are not within the scope of consideration.

The next day at dawn.

Dungeon qualifications began to be distributed.

Players opened the function panel one after another, clicking "Dungeon Qualification" at the very bottom from the numerous function options.

The dungeon qualification interface was very simple, containing only a red silk pouch.

After players clicked, a prompt would pop up:

【Challenger Prompt: Successfully participated in the dungeon qualification lottery. Results will be announced in 59 minutes and 59 seconds (1 AM). Number of dungeon qualifications distributed this time: 100.】

Choosing to distribute at this time point was also to adapt to the approximate time of Death Space recruitment.

After players enter the Death Space, matching will occur.

Only when the Lord of Extreme Joy recruits Extreme Joy players will they be matched and then enter.

There may be a matching duration.

But generally it does not take too long; the average time is about 20 seconds.

At this moment, the cries of countless players rang out in the world chat channel:

"Frantically tapping the electronic wooden fish, accumulating merit for me. Star Net Bodhisattva, Lord Guan, Buddha, Jesus, Beneath Di Zhao God. This devout maiden is willing to trade her roommate's ten years of singlehood for the win."

"Sacrificing teammates' ten years of romantic luck, only asking for a flash of Jin Guang to get the qualification. Ancestor of the Star Net, protect me to win. After watching the Veteran Corps' livestream, the Death Space seems quite interesting!"

"I absolutely won't draw the dungeon qualification. Star Net, please prove me wrong. Please, prove me wrong quickly."

"The last time I was this devout was when drawing for Monster World qualifications. Now I just hope for good luck to come again!"

"Everyone, stop snatching. This time the qualifications distributed are actually a game virus. I guarantee I'm telling the truth. Everyone, don't click. Trust me once."

The chat channel became exceptionally lively during this period.

Time reached 1 AM. Qualification distribution finished. The list of winning players was listed in the "Dungeon Qualification" interface.

The world chat channel immediately launched round after round of condemnation, blessing that these players would not pass the first Death Trial.

And in the backpacks of the players who obtained qualifications, a purple dungeon key automatically appeared.

They hurried from different regions to the Di Zhao Village space.

Players at a farther distance generally chose the easiest and simplest method to teleport back; it was just that the teleportation time was a bit long, requiring them to browse the forum for an hour while waiting.

Before long, the first batch of players arrived at the dungeon teleportation point of Di Zhao Village.

After they passed through the dungeon teleportation gate, the dungeon key in their backpacks automatically disappeared, and they were transported by the space node to the Death Space scene.

A Challenger Prompt also rang in their minds; all functions on the players' bodies, such as Star Pulse, Painful Painful Minghun, Body Tempering, etc., were sealed.

What presented itself before their eyes was a dreamlike patchwork scene.

On the square, there were many recruited beta testers setting up stalls to sell various equipment and props obtained from the Death Trials, earning Extreme Joy Points through trading that could be used for strengthening.

After descending into the Death Space, the players' hearts were incredibly calm.

Although the Monster World is the main battlefield, players generally have experience fighting across spaces.

The Ancient God Arena, the Doomsday Small World, the Shu Yan Space... and now the newly launched Di Ku Shi Jie, they are all familiar with independent spaces.

But even if their hearts remained calm, the fear on their faces was evident.

They all turned into method actors, beginning their performances.

This update explicitly stated that the Lord of Extreme Bliss might observe the recruited Extreme Bliss players.

So acting skills are extremely important in the dungeon.

Dungeon qualifications are incredibly precious; this time luck allowed them to draw one, but who knows when the next time will be.

So they all thought they must maximize the value of the dungeon experience.

They had to pass several rounds of death trials and earn a sum before leaving.

Before that, they absolutely could not expose anything that made them stand out.

Videos of the Veteran Group participating in death trials topped the forum's popularity chart; players entering the Death Space had all watched related videos in advance, knowing what state they should be in to participate.

Shortly after, following the prompts in their minds, they arrived before the stone stele.

They were then teleported to the scene of the first round of death trials.

Viewers watching the livestream and tourists were instantly laughed out of their minds by the performances of these method actor players.

Inside the Death Forest Illusion.

A player hugged his head, crouched on the ground, buried his face in his knees, gripped his hair tightly with both hands, and let out a sob:

"I want to go home, I want to go home, I don't want to participate in the death trials."

Inside the Dark Despair Illusion.

A player's expression was dazed, his lips trembling:

"What do we do? Are we going to die? I'm really so scared."

Inside the Terrifying Castle Illusion.

A player curled up in the corner of the dimly lit, dilapidated starting room, tightly hugged his own body with both arms, his whole body shaking like a sieve, his teeth chattering, his voice carrying a cry:

"This... what place is this exactly? I don't want to die here. Who can save me?"

Inside the Mutated Tunnel Illusion.

In a corner of the dark passage, a player trembled and backed away several steps, muttering to himself:

"It's over, it's over. We definitely can't get out. We're probably going to die here."

The players' arrival caused the already desperate Extreme Bliss players in the various Illusion scenes to have their mental states collapse.

Driven by their emotions, sadness spread, and cries rose and fell.

Discovering that the Extreme Bliss players participating in the trials with them were crying louder than themselves, the players decisively increased their own crying volume, trying to blend into the environment and make themselves seem more normal.

(End of Chapter)