That screenshot was like a lit fuse, instantly detonating the entire thread.
In just a few minutes, a lukewarm post with an utterly mediocre title that no one had cared about saw its reply count surge from a few dozen... to more than ten thousand, like a wild horse breaking free.
The post was instantly pushed onto the homepage, where even more people saw it.
And everyone who did was completely dumbfounded.
"Civilian Instance."
"S-Rank."
Putting those two terms together was no less shocking than seeing a state banquet chef cooking at a roadside stall.
Because in everyone's general perception, Civilian Instances were basically synonymous with trash.
There was even a widely circulated saying on the forum:
"Out of ten Civilian Instances, nine are total deathtraps, and the last one is on its way to becoming one."
As for why their reputation was so awful, the reason was simple.
There were no barriers to becoming a Dungeon Architect...
But the invisible barriers were extremely high.
The vast majority of ordinary people simply lacked the ability to design Instances with any real depth.
Back when the world had first become game-like, most Civilian Instances created by Dungeon Architects—simply to make sure they themselves could clear them—were so clumsy they were painful to watch.
As the hot-tempered guys on the forum put it:
"Being bad is one thing, but you're also insulting my intelligence. Insulting my intelligence is one thing, but the rewards are a pile of crap. Fuck you!"
However, to some extent, this could also be considered a case of 'the deeper the love, the deeper the hate.'
Because in the beginning, everyone really had placed high hopes on Civilian Instances!
System Instances were excellent in every respect, but the fact that most high-difficulty Instances with good rewards required players to enter them offline...
That was something many people simply couldn't accept.
Where there are people, there is conflict.
It was only in the past two years that the Coordination Bureau had managed to suppress many of the monsters and freaks running rampant.
Two years earlier, plenty of people hadn't even dared approach offline Instance entrances...
For fear of getting killed.
So naturally, many people had once placed their hopes on Civilian Instances that could be entered directly online.
But as mentioned before, the early Civilian Instances had been far too crude to endure.
And just when some Dungeon Architects finally started improving...
Great.
The scumbag Dungeon Architect guilds appeared.
Some Dungeon Architects actually began forming groups, using their advantage in creating Instances to constantly scheme around ticket fees and completion conditions.
There had even been one Civilian Instance where the clear condition forced players to hand over ninety percent of their Survival Points.
Can you believe it?
And its theme was actually—
'Only after losing everything do you realize how strong you truly are.'
Fuck you!!!
People went from looking forward to Civilian Instances, to being disappointed by them, and finally to spitting on them whenever they saw one.
Civilian Instances became extremely unpopular.
As a result, even fewer people were willing to go through the trouble of constructing Instances.
It was only recently, after the Coordination Bureau deliberately began providing support and many Dungeon Architects found a new path—imitating the mechanics of System Instances—that Civilian Instances once again entered the public eye and recovered some of their reputation.
Although the rewards from those imitation Instances were mostly degraded versions of System Instance rewards, they were still useful to the majority of ordinary people.
Even so, their reputation had only just begun to recover, and Civilian Instances were still viewed quite poorly.
Aside from those Dungeon Architect guilds, not many people were willing to put in all that thankless effort to become Dungeon Architects.
Let alone create genuinely good Civilian Instances.
That was precisely why the appearance of 【Resident Evil】 was so shocking.
Because under circumstances like these—
A highly rated Civilian Instance had actually appeared!
And it was S-Rank!
People hadn't even seen an A-Rank Civilian Instance before, let alone an S-Rank one!
So the moment the screenshot was posted, the forum practically exploded.
"Is this screenshot real?"
"S-Rank Civilian Instance??? It really says S? How is that possible?"
"Did the System review bug out?"
"Was this Instance made by the Coordination Bureau?"
"Did some Dungeon Architect guild find a bug? 666, finding a bug and not telling the bros! Treating us like outsiders, huh?"
"That's impossible."
"???"
"Holy crap, it really is S!"
"Who's Lu Xiu? Sounds like a girl's name. How did she pull this off?"
"..."
All sorts of speculation appeared beneath the post.
Some suspected there had been a System error.
Some suspected the Coordination Bureau had secretly created it.
Others wondered whether some Dungeon Architect guild had discovered a bug.
The discussion became more and more heated.
Just as the reply count was about to break fifty thousand, a new comment appeared in the thread.
The ID belonged to someone everyone on the forum knew.
Zhao Heng.
Obviously, everyone was curious about an S-Rank Civilian Instance like this, including players whom ordinary people considered top-tier experts.
The moment Zhao Heng appeared, he was immediately recognized.
After all, he had just been showing off in another post about clearing an S-Rank Instance.
【It's actually not impossible for a Civilian Instance to receive a high rating. The Coordination Bureau has released quite a few high-difficulty System Instances lately. Someone probably cleared one, was deeply impressed by it, and then created their own version based on that Instance's structure. I checked, and this Dungeon Architect hasn't released any Instances before. They probably spent a long time polishing this one. Pretty persistent... But if you're after good rewards, don't bother with Civilian Instances. Just go clear System Instances. It's not like they're impossible to beat.】
Zhao Heng's reply immediately drew countless people over.
"So that's how it is."
"I knew it couldn't have appeared out of thin air."
"Imitating a System Instance makes sense."
"But this is still amazing—the first S-Rank Civilian Instance!!!"
"Even reaching S-Rank through imitation is ridiculous!"
"I wonder if it's a trap. I'm kind of interested."
"Same."
"Brother Heng, Brother Heng, is this one hard to clear?"
"..."
Although Zhao Heng seemed to look down on the rewards offered by this Civilian Instance, not everyone was capable of entering high-difficulty Instances offline.
The rewards from imitation Instances were degraded versions?
So what?
This one was already S-Rank.
Even if the rewards were degraded, they should still be useful, right?
So before long, people started asking Zhao Heng how difficult it would be to clear.
Meanwhile, the thread's reply count continued to climb.
At first, everyone had simply been shocked that an S-Rank Civilian Instance existed.
But the direction of the discussion quickly shifted...
Almost everyone began asking how difficult it was to clear and which System Instance it had been modeled after.
Clearly, there were a huge number of interested people.
Under these circumstances, many eyes were fixed on Zhao Heng's next reply.
And they didn't have to wait long.
Zhao Heng responded quickly, in his usual style.
【I don't know how difficult it'll be for you guys, but if you're asking me, let's put it this way: after clearing 'Fog City Corridor,' no S-Rank Instance has been able to stop me, let alone a Civilian Instance... All I can say is, it'll be a piece of cake!】
【I'll go in and check it out when I have time. Wait for my good news.】
***
The number of replies beneath the post continued skyrocketing.
Zhao Heng's comment was like pouring fuel onto the fire.
Players immediately started shouting that they would wait for Brother Heng's good news.
But Zhao Heng didn't reply again.
At the same time.
Chenjing.
Inside a high-rise apartment.
A man around thirty years old was leaning back against a sofa chair, constantly swiping across the semi-transparent screen in front of him with his right hand.
He wasn't tall, and there was nothing remarkable about his appearance.
Although he was lean and solidly built, his proportions weren't particularly good, and his cheeks were slightly sunken.
He couldn't really be called handsome, nor did he possess any unusual temperament.
He looked extremely ordinary...
Only his eyes could barely be considered distinctive.
They were as sharp as a hawk's.
Even when he glanced around casually, there was always a hint of careless sharpness in his gaze.
It was the habitual look of someone constantly scrutinizing everything around him, a habit developed from spending a long time immersed in Instances.
He was Zhao Heng.
At that moment, he stared at the semi-transparent screen before him.
After scrolling through the replies for a while, he returned to the top of the post and once again examined the information on the 【Resident Evil】 Instance.
After a brief silence, he couldn't help blurting out:
"...What the fuck? How the hell did they pull this off?"
Although he had spoken lightly on the forum just now, in reality, when he first saw the S-Rank Civilian Instance, his reaction had been no different from that of any ordinary player.
Only one thought had remained in his mind—
Holy crap?
What the hell is this?!
Zhao Heng had personally cleared a System S-Rank Instance and had once considered constructing an Instance of his own.
Because of that, he understood something far better than the ordinary players on the forum.
An S-Rank rating was really not easy to obtain.
Those S-Rank Instances were extraordinarily strong in terms of theme, structure, mechanics, logic, and the precision with which their entire narrative tied into their rules.
Zhao Heng also knew several high-level members of Dungeon Architect guilds.
As far as he knew, even when imitating System Instances...
None of the major Dungeon Architect guilds had a Dungeon Architect capable of producing an S-Rank Instance.
Even A-Rank was extremely difficult.
So Zhao Heng was genuinely curious.
How on earth had this Lu Xiu done it?
Which System Instance had she imitated?
It couldn't be...
An SSS-Rank Instance, right?
Zhao Heng's eyelids suddenly twitched.
But he quickly shook his head.
Impossible.
The top players capable of clearing 3S Instances were almost all part of the Coordination Bureau, and there were fewer than a handful of them in total.
There was absolutely no way any of them would go off and become a Dungeon Architect.
Then how had she done it?
The more Zhao Heng thought about it, the less sense he could make of it...
In the end, he simply gave up thinking, sat up straight, and slapped his forehead.
"Screw it! I'll just go in and see for myself!"
As for the difficulty, Zhao Heng hadn't been worried about that at all.
After all, this was a Civilian Instance.
He could clear official System S-Rank Instances.
Was he really going to stumble over a Civilian Instance?
The only thing that made him slightly cautious was—
The completion conditions.
He had seen far too many dirty tricks in Civilian Instances.
Thinking of that, Zhao Heng hesitated for a moment, reopened the System interface, and deposited his nearly sixty thousand Survival Points into the bank.
That's right.
The System had a savings-bank function.
Generally speaking, Survival Points deposited there couldn't be deducted, so it served as a form of insurance.
As for why one had to say 'generally speaking'...
Well.
Let's just say that many of the dirty tricks used in Civilian Instances had originally been learned from System Instances.
Zhao Heng was confident, but he wasn't reckless.
After finishing all his preparations, he said:
"Let me see just what level this S-Rank Civilian Instance is actually at."
Zhao Heng flexed his wrists, opened the Instance library, quickly found 【Resident Evil】, and clicked straight into it.
He paid the ticket fee and entered the Instance.
The next second, white light flashed.
Zhao Heng's figure vanished.
As time passed, more and more people on the forum noticed the 【Resident Evil】 Instance.
At the same time, more and more people began taking action.
For a time, in countless corners of the world, behind one closed door after another, cold white System light began to shine.
And among those entering...
Were two members of the Coordination Bureau's Strategy Group.