Ever since the world was digitized, Su Miao had seen every possible rating for system instances, from the lowest F-rank to the absolute pinnacle of SSS-rank.
After all, since instances were a core mechanic, the game system had to generate enough of them.
And they had to span every difficulty level.
Due to the nature of her job, Su Miao not only knew the names and ratings of all the top-tier system instances, but she also knew exactly which ones had been cleared.
But that was strictly limited to system instances.
As for custom instances…
Su Miao had never paid them any attention.
She had never even seen a custom instance reach an A-rank.
Under those circumstances, there was simply no need to care.
Ninety-nine percent of the custom instances currently on the market hovered between C-rank and D-rank.
Anyone who managed to create a B-rank instance was already hailed as a genius Constructor.
But an S-rank?
Su Miao had only ever seen that rating on system instances.
Yet such a rating…
had actually appeared on a custom instance!
“Are you kidding me?!
A civilian Constructor made an S-rank?” Lin Xiao threw away all her professional composure and lunged at Su Miao, grabbing her shoulders.
“Hurry up and give me access!
Let me see!
Let me see!” Su Miao swiped her right hand across the holographic screen, setting her system window to public view.
Soon enough, Lin Xiao laid eyes on the application form Wren Lux had submitted.
“Resident Evil?
Stealth survival horror?
And it’s a single-player survival instance?!” “Yeah…
and that’s not all.” Su Miao swallowed hard, pointing to the description at the bottom of the application.
“According to the Constructor, there’s a very high chance of acquiring a skill from this instance.” “No way…” Lin Xiao muttered in disbelief.
“I remember the [Lone Ranger] instance was only an A-rank, right?
Do we need to report this?” “…” Hearing this, Su Miao snapped out of her daze.
Realizing what she had to do, she bolted from her desk.
…
Ever since reality was digitized and gamified, society had undergone a massive upheaval.
The old administrative systems were ill-equipped to handle this entirely new domain.
Thus, after two years of chaos, a new organizational structure emerged to counter the looming threats.
The National Anomalous Space Response and Survival Committee was born.
The core executive branch under this committee was the National Strategic Instance and Anomalous Space Affairs Coordination Bureau, simply known as the Coordination Bureau.
It operated on a classic dual-line system with a dual-leadership structure.
Its primary responsibilities included screening, analyzing, and researching strategies for all current instances, as well as formulating clearance plans.
At the same time, it was deeply integrated into the military system, tasked with converting instance resources into frontline combat power.
The Coordination Bureau oversaw several departments.
Su Miao worked in the First Department, also known as the Instance Resource Management Department.
Its main functions were registering and screening custom instances, distributing Constructor funds, and managing the strategic reserves of dropped items.
It did not take long for Su Miao to hand the application over to her superior.
Her superior was equally shocked and passed it further up the chain.
In less than ten minutes, the application form landed in the Director’s office.
At that moment, an elderly man was looking down at the application on a translucent screen.
He had dark skin and closely cropped, graying hair.
His attire was ordinary—a faded, old-fashioned short-sleeved shirt and dark vintage trousers.
Despite his advanced age, he stood perfectly straight.
His eyes were not clouded in the slightest; in fact, they were sharper and clearer than those of many young people.
He was the Director of the Coordination Bureau, Li Bao.
“Silas Vane, what do you make of this?” The old man shifted the window to his side.
Beside him stood a man around forty years old.
He was tall—incredibly tall, standing nearly two meters.
Though not particularly muscular, his sheer height alone gave off an imposing aura.
The only thing detracting from his intimidating presence was his receding hairline.
His name was Silas Vane, the Head of the Combat Strategy Department within the Coordination Bureau.
This department was the most crucial division in the Bureau and housed the highest concentration of top-tier players.
Internally, it was commonly referred to as the Strategy Group.
“It’s highly impressive.” The middle-aged man with the high hairline considered his words carefully before replying.
“It’s incredibly rare for a custom instance to achieve an S-rank.
But to be honest, Director, everyone in the Strategy Group, myself included, has given up hope on custom instances.
Just look at that B-rank instance from last time.
It was nothing more than a clumsy imitation of a system instance.
The rewards it gave were completely useless because they were just degraded versions of what you’d get from the original.
If that’s the case, why wouldn’t we just clear the system instances instead?” Clearly, the leader of the Strategy Group had little interest in custom instances, even an S-rank one.
The sheer disappointment of past custom instances was one reason.
The other was that the Strategy Group was severely understaffed, yet they were tasked with clearing numerous system instances ranked S and above, including several SSS-rank ones.
Furthermore, the top players in the Strategy Group were not soldiers.
They all had strong, eccentric personalities and were notoriously difficult to manage.
Some even dared to beat him up, despite him being their boss.
The most painful part was that Silas Vane couldn’t even win in a fight against them.
He was already starting to go bald from the stress.
He really didn’t want to bother with custom instances, even an S-rank one.
Sure, the Constructor was undoubtedly a genius, but the Strategy Group had already cleared over thirty S-rank system instances, and the rewards were nothing to write home about anymore.
“Are you saying this instance is something similar?” Director Li Bao looked up.
“A degraded version of a system instance?” “Yes, it’s highly likely.” Silas Vane nodded.
“As you know, although the difficulty of system instances has increased recently, the overall strength of the player base has also grown.
With so many people in the country, there’s no shortage of exceptionally gifted individuals.
The number of people clearing high-difficulty instances keeps rising, and a large portion of these players actually come from the civilian sector.” “Many Constructors never even considered creating instances at first.
A lot of them just cleared a high-difficulty system instance, it left a deep impression on them, and they turned around to imitate it.
After all, there’s no barrier to entry to become a Constructor.” “To put it bluntly, this is the only way many Constructors can even clear their own creations.
After all, once a Constructor finishes building an instance, they have to wipe their memories and clear it themselves before it can be published.
If you ask most players to create an original instance and just artificially inflate the difficulty, anyone could do that.
It’s not exactly rocket science.
“The problem is, they wouldn’t be able to clear those artificially difficult instances themselves.
But if they don’t crank up the difficulty, it becomes too easy, and the instance rating won’t be very high, leaving it stuck at C-rank or D-rank.
“Therefore, many Constructors can only rely on their experience of clearing high-difficulty system instances to reconstruct them, without getting bogged down in the finer details of the original design.
After all, the memory wipe process doesn’t erase unrelated information.
They can easily rely on their prior clearance experience to successfully publish the instance.
“But the issue is that instances like these…
only give degraded rewards.
They all have superior alternatives.
The rewards from the original system instances are always better, making these imitations practically useless.” “…” Li Bao listened quietly, his eyes falling back onto the application form.
It was the truth; custom instances imitating system instances was the current norm.
One could even say that the vast majority of Constructors were exactly like this.
It was just that the imitations produced by most Constructors were stuck at C-rank or D-rank.
Reaching B-rank already qualified someone as a genius.
As for S-rank…
Li Bao glanced at the rating once more.
Silas Vane saw through the Director’s thoughts and smiled again.
“But then again, this person is still incredibly skilled.” “After all, even if it is an imitation, achieving an S-rank is a remarkable accomplishment in itself.” “Among the Constructor community in this country, only a tiny handful can make a B-rank imitation.
Those who can make an A-rank are practically nonexistent, let alone an S-rank.” “This person is definitely a genius, and they’ve probably spent a long time polishing this instance.” Silas Vane paused for a moment before continuing, “So I think it goes without saying—approve the loan.
It would be a massive waste if someone like this was bottlenecked by funding issues.” “I’ll discuss it with Old Li and have someone contact this Constructor immediately to extend a sincere invitation to join the Coordination Bureau.” “Right now, this…
Resident Evil instance is highly likely to be an imitation.” “But that’s fine.” “If she’s willing to join us, we can provide her with firsthand strategy guides for other high-difficulty instances so she can learn even more.” “Imitate, understand, and then innovate.” “It might just be an imitation for now.” “But if this person continues to grow…” “Who knows, maybe one day she’ll actually be able to create an original instance with entirely unique rewards.” “…” Li Bao nodded slowly and forwarded the application form to Silas Vane.
“Then go make the arrangements.
Also, once this instance is published, have the Strategy Group assign someone to clear it.” “…” Silas Vane was internally reluctant but didn’t show it.
He simply nodded.
“Understood.
Even though it’s an imitation, reaching S-rank means the rewards might actually be different.” “Mhm…
By the way, which instance is that little girl Nova Quinn in right now?” Just as Silas Vane was about to leave, Li Bao remembered something and asked one last question.
Silas Vane halted his steps and let out a bitter smile.
“She didn’t enter an instance.
She said they were boring and refused to go.” Li Bao fell silent for a moment.
“Arrange some psychological counseling for her.
Things are getting increasingly difficult on the frontlines…
We desperately need the Strategy Group to provide more skills or items that can change the current situation.” Silas Vane’s expression turned serious as he nodded.
“I understand.” However, understanding was one thing.
After stepping out of the Director’s office, Silas Vane thought of that little girl who dared to beat him up, and he couldn’t help but touch his receding hairline.
He felt like male pattern baldness was already waving at him.
…
Evening.
Seven o’clock.
Wren Lux sat down, physically and mentally exhausted, biting down on her spoon.
On the dining table, a tender yellow egg custard jiggled slightly in a small white porcelain bowl.
It was garnished with a few drops of sesame oil and a sprinkle of chopped scallions.
Wisps of steam drifted upward, carrying a mouthwatering aroma.
She scooped up a spoonful of the egg custard, blew on it gently, and slowly brought it to her mouth.
“Mmm…” Wren let out a long sigh, her expression instantly shifting to one of pure contentment.
As expected.
Food was the best cure for the soul.
After tossing and turning all day, she was truly exhausted.
The main culprit was the immense pressure of clearing the instance.
After all, it was Resident Evil—a return to the roots of pure survival horror.
Now, sitting at home and enjoying a warm meal, that lingering tension finally began to dissipate.
Wren scooped up another spoonful of custard.
Just as she was about to eat it, a sudden sound interrupted her.
*Ding.* A system notification chimed.
Wren froze.
She instinctively looked up as a translucent window popped up in front of her.
[Loan application review completed.] [Review result: Approved.] *That fast?* Wren paused in surprise.
She opened the window and found that the Survival Points had already been deposited into her account by the system.
Along with the points came a friend request and an email—from the National Strategic Instance and Anomalous Space Affairs Coordination Bureau.
However, Wren bluntly ignored the email.
She didn’t really want to interact with the authorities just yet…
Pushing the email to the back of her mind, she looked at the newly deposited Survival Points.
“I can finally publish the instance.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Otaku_Senpaii Want more chapters?