Lu Xiu finished the rest of her egg custard, wiped her hands, and hurried over to sit on the sofa, ready to carefully study how to launch the Instance.
Since all the prerequisites had already been met, Lu Xiu had assumed launching the Instance would be simple.
But in reality, actually putting it online... involved quite a few steps.
"Public Type? Designated Type? What does this mean?"
"A Roleplay Instance can set forgetting as a completion condition?"
"You can even designate an offline location for the Instance and its entrance?"
"..."
Lu Xiu looked at the instruction document that had popped up on the Instance launch page and felt a slight headache coming on... but she still patiently began reading.
In fact, even the final step of launching an Instance involved quite a few things that needed to be considered.
First of all, player-made Instances weren't like System Instances.
Although some System Instances had entry requirements, they generally didn't discriminate between players.
Player-made Instances, however, could be made private, allowing only designated players to enter.
These were Designated Instances.
Furthermore, because the 【Resident Evil】 Instance Lu Xiu had created was a pure Roleplay Instance, the System would introduce as much variation as possible without deviating from the original progression, ensuring each player's experience remained fresh.
However, the overall progression of the Instance was essentially fixed.
No matter how much it changed, the degree of variation would still be limited.
That meant if someone cleared the Instance and selflessly shared a complete walkthrough along with all their insights, then any player with sufficient psychological fortitude would be capable of clearing 【Resident Evil】.
That clearly wasn't in the Dungeon Architect's best interests.
Therefore, for Roleplay Instances with limited variation, the Dungeon Architect could add 'forget all key Instance content' as a completion restriction, ensuring that everyone who entered would remain in a 'first-time experience' state.
This effectively preserved the Instance's uniqueness.
Finally, the so-called option to designate an offline location for the Instance and its entrance was even easier to understand.
It simply meant selecting a physical location in the real world.
The area where the Instance was placed would seemingly undergo a certain degree of mutation, and the final rewards for clearing it would also improve.
This was also a feature of many System Instances.
Basically, the entrances to high-difficulty System Instances were all located offline.
However, once an offline entrance was designated, the Instance's daily online-entry quota would be restricted.
So Lu Xiu immediately rejected the idea of placing 【Resident Evil】 offline.
As for whether to make it a Designated Instance, that choice was even easier.
Lu Xiu didn't have a single friend.
So naturally, it had to be a Public Instance.
However, whether she should add 'forget all key content' as a completion restriction...
That left Lu Xiu somewhat conflicted.
She stared at the option for a long time, her finger hovering over the screen without pressing it.
To be honest, Lu Xiu rather wanted to enable it.
After all, if someone wrote the entire process into a guide, clearing the Instance would become no different from memorizing the answers beforehand.
The more she thought about it, the more dissatisfied Lu Xiu became, and her mischievous streak began growing like wild grass.
I got soaked in the rain when I cleared it back then, and now you guys want to carry umbrellas?
Not a chance...
I'm definitely tearing every last one of your umbrellas apart...
But then she remembered that this was her first Instance, and that she was launching it with a loan—
Survival Points borrowed from the authorities, no less.
Lu Xiu was genuinely afraid that once the Instance went online, people would see the memory-wipe condition and assume her Instance was just like all those other player-made ones—nothing but trash—and wouldn't dare enter.
After all, she had heard there were indeed plenty of player-made Instances that used this mechanism to trap people.
Some Dungeon Architects even specialized in exploiting it to fleece players.
Lu Xiu had no such intentions, but other people had no way of knowing that.
If the Instance went online and she couldn't even earn back the borrowed Survival Points, that would be far too embarrassing.
"Forget it."
Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then gently shook her head.
Her long black hair was loosely tied into a ponytail. As she moved, a few stray strands slipped free from behind her ears and fell against her cheeks.
She tucked them behind her ear, then disabled the 'forget all key content' completion restriction.
Soon afterward, Lu Xiu finished filling out all the required information and formally submitted the application to launch the Instance.
【Instance information submitted】
【System is performing final structural scan...】
Lu Xiu leaned back against the sofa and waited patiently.
A few seconds later, a new prompt appeared.
【Detected that this Instance is a fixed-flow Roleplay Instance】
【For Roleplay Instances, full rewards can be obtained upon the first completion; rewards for subsequent completions will gradually decrease, and no rewards will be granted after three completions.】
【Detected that a clear optimal solution exists for the Instance flow】
【If players obtain complete Instance information, the estimated completion rate will increase significantly】
【Detected that the 'Completion Forgetfulness Mechanism' has not been enabled】
【To ensure the long-term fairness of the Instance, the System will automatically apply 'Blurring Treatment' to players' completion memories】
【Treatment details are as follows:】
【After clearing the Instance, players will retain a general memory of their completion experience】
【However, specific key processes, event trigger points, puzzle-solving details, etc. will be automatically blurred】
【This mechanism will not affect the player's personal experience and exists solely to preserve the fairness of the Instance challenge】
【...】
"Well, you can't blame me for this."
Lu Xiu looked at the latest prompt and chuckled.
It seemed that for Roleplay Instances with an optimal solution, even if the Dungeon Architect chose not to impose restrictions, the System would still intervene to some extent for the sake of fairness.
And just then, the final System prompt appeared.
【Instance evaluation complete】
【Launch?】
Lu Xiu casually pressed confirm.
***
After the world became datafied and gamified, countless people were forced to change the way they lived.
Everyone had gone through a painful process of accepting reality.
But Lu Xiu didn't have that problem.
She was an outsider, and she also had the original owner's memories to help her.
That allowed her to skip the painful adjustment period...
Of course, physical adjustment didn't count.
However, this wasn't entirely beneficial.
There were disadvantages as well.
For example—
Before her Transmigration, Lu Xiu had already grown accustomed to the relentless bombardment of the short-video era.
So she had never expected that in this datafied world, everyone's System interface contained an entrance that was almost impossible to ignore.
The forum.
It was a communication platform built directly into the System, with each country having its own independent forum.
The domestic forum had a very straightforward structure.
At the top were several permanent sections, such as—
Domestic Instance Zone, Overseas Instance Zone, Trading Zone, Intelligence Zone, and so on.
There was also one section that was always bustling with activity.
The Shitposting Zone.
A massive number of new posts appeared there every single day.
Someone who had just come out of an Instance would immediately make a post complaining about it.
Someone else would show off an item they had just bought.
Others were simply bored and came online to chat.
Among all the topics discussed, however, information related to Instances always drew the most attention.
After all, Instances were now the most important resource in the world.
The appearance of a new Instance, the discovery of a new mechanism, the clearing of a newly discovered high-rated Instance...
Any of these could cause a major stir on the forum.
And at that very moment, the System forum's Shitposting Zone was as lively as ever, with new posts appearing one after another.
All kinds of information were mixed together, with fresh discussions popping up every few seconds.
【Coordinates Chenjing. Is the Coordination Bureau preparing to open the offline S-rank Instance in the West City New District?】
【Who has entered the A-rank Instance 【Ashen Station】? How exactly is that broadcast mechanism triggered?】
【Has anyone counted how many new System-generated Instances appeared over the past month? It feels like there's been a clear increase.】
【Does the second floor of the B-rank Instance 【Deep Sea Storage Tank】 have a 'certain death' mechanism? Looking for confirmation!】
【Is it true that someone is selling A-rank Instance items in the Trading Zone? That price is ridiculous!】
These posts were constantly being bumped upward, only to be buried moments later beneath newer ones.
Some people were discussing Instance mechanisms.
Others were analyzing the Coordination Bureau's recent movements.
There were even people who specialized in keeping track of newly appearing Instance entrances across the country.
The entire forum resembled one enormous intelligence marketplace.
All kinds of information flowed through it without pause.
And among all those posts, one stood far above the rest, pinned firmly at the very top of the forum.
Its view count had already surpassed seven digits.
The title was simple—
【S-rank Instance "Mist City Corridor" — Cleared!】
The poster used a rather famous ID on the forum.
Zhao Heng.
Beside his ID was a conspicuous verification tag:
【Longsword Guild Core Member】
Zhao Heng was considered something of a celebrity pro player on the forum.
Not only because he was strong, but also because his personality was flamboyant enough that he enjoyed jumping into discussions and shooting the breeze with ordinary players.
After all, most players capable of clearing high-difficulty Instances tended to keep their distance from ordinary people and rarely appeared on the forum at all.
And every era, every world, had its own 'Heavenly Palace'.
This game world was no exception.
To the vast majority of ordinary people still struggling through C-rank Instances, Zhao Heng was precisely that 'Heavenly Palace'.
So it was no surprise that he was popular.
Zhao Heng's post wasn't very long, but its tone was extremely high-profile.
【S-rank Instance "Mist City Corridor" has been cleared. I've already figured out the mechanism. To be honest, the difficulty of S-rank Instances is quite a bit lower than expected. It's actually pretty simple. When I have time, I'll organize a complete guide. Anyone interested can join the Longsword Guild.】
Below the post, a huge number of players flooded in to congratulate him.
"Holy crap, he really cleared it?"
"An S-rank Instance!"
"Brother Zhao is awesome!"
"Another S-rank completion record for the country."
"That's seriously impressive."
Of course, in a place like a forum, sarcastic comments were never absent.
Soon enough, other voices began appearing as well.
However, those replies were quickly drowned beneath the flood of discussion.
After all—
Clearing an S-rank Instance was, in itself, more than enough to prove someone's strength.
And Zhao Heng seemed to thoroughly enjoy the attention.
He even added another sentence to his post.
"S-rank Instances are indeed a little more complicated, but they're nowhere near as exaggerated as everyone makes them sound. They're actually quite simple. S-rank Instances can no longer challenge me. Next, I'll be challenging SS-rank Instances. Wait for my good news."
The moment that sentence appeared, the comment section was once again flooded with cries of "Brother Zhao is awesome!"
Although Zhao Heng spoke about it dismissively, four years had already passed since the world became gamified.
By now, everyone knew exactly what an S-rank Instance represented.
A top-tier Instance.
Perhaps to a dedicated walkthrough team, or to someone like Zhao Heng, it was nothing extraordinary.
But the vast majority of ordinary people had never even cleared an A-rank Instance once in their lives.
Let alone an S-rank one.
And while everyone was still chatting, a new post quietly appeared on the forum.
Its title was utterly ordinary.
【Did anyone else see this while browsing the Instance library?】
At first, almost no one clicked on it.
But before long, someone bored enough wandered in and saw what the original poster had written.
"I was just refreshing the Instance library, and I think I saw a player-made Instance rated S-rank."
The thread went silent for several seconds.
Then someone replied.
"You saw it wrong."
"How could a player-made Instance possibly be S-rank?"
"It must've been a System Instance."
"..."
Every reply insisted that the OP had simply misread it.
But the OP quickly responded again, firmly stating that it definitely hadn't been a System Instance.
The Instance was called 【Resident Evil】, and the Dungeon Architect's name was clearly displayed beneath it.
Once the OP said that, someone finally began taking the matter seriously.
"Where's the screenshot?"
"No picture, no proof."
The OP disappeared.
Just when everyone started assuming the whole thing had been a troll post—
One minute later, the OP returned.
This time, he uploaded a screenshot.
In the image, the Instance's basic information was written clearly.
【Instance Name: Resident Evil】
【Instance Rating: S】
【Instance Type: Horror/Survival/Puzzle】
【Dungeon Architect: Lu Xiu】
The moment that screenshot appeared—
In less than ten minutes...
The thread exploded!
"???"
"Wait."
"Is this for real?"
"An S-rank player-made Instance?"
"Bro, is this picture photoshopped?"
"I just went to the Instance library to check..."
"It looks like it really exists."
The next second, a new reply appeared—
"Holy crap?????"