It was only natural for Yan Fushou to be shocked.
Although it was a civilian dungeon, he hadn't simply gone through the motions. The two people he had sent were top-tier players, and one of them even possessed a Heaven-Chosen Talent, making him far stronger than Zhao Heng.
Yet two people like that had actually failed to clear a single civilian dungeon?
Hearing the Director’s shocked question...
Of the two men standing in front of the desk, one, who looked like a typical corporate drone, lowered his head in shame.
The other, however, was of an entirely different sort.
He had a round, babyish face and looked like an underage high school student. His long hair was tied into a ponytail, giving him the air of a chuunibyou teenager.
At that moment, his face was full of arrogance, and even though he was clearly in the wrong, he remained completely defiant.
"It's not my fault! There's something wrong with the designer!"
"...I just couldn't stand the way that dungeon played out. I can understand being chased around nonstop by a crazy woman, and I can even understand nearly having to eat raw intestines that still had feces in them, but hide-and-seek is just torture. How old are we? Why are we still playing hide-and-seek!"
"It disgusted me! It's not that I couldn't win."
"And I'm not afraid of that huge, burly old man either. I'm eighteen. Why would I be afraid of some old man? He just appears out of nowhere. He's only a little troublesome to deal with."
"..."
He rattled on without pause, constantly coming up with excuses for himself.
Yan Fushou was already accustomed to this subordinate's personality. From his stubborn attempts to defend himself, he more or less pieced together what had happened inside the dungeon.
During this time, the other man also spoke up from time to time to fill in some of the details.
As he listened...
Yan Fushou's expression gradually became strange. "What's the situation on the forum?"
The baby-faced high school boy was still stubbornly arguing and hadn't paid any attention to what Yan Fushou had just said.
The other man, on the other hand, had clearly been following the forum after leaving the dungeon and answered Yan Fushou's question.
After listening, Yan Fushou leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowing. "So it isn't an imitation, but an original S-class civilian dungeon. And the difficulty is actually high enough that even Zhao Heng and the two of you couldn't clear it. I misjudged it..."
Only then did he realize that the civilian dungeon named 【Resident Evil】, as well as the Dungeon Architect who had created it, were far more outstanding than he had initially imagined.
"It's not that I can't clear it."
At that moment, the baby-faced high school boy couldn't help retorting again.
"Enough, Wei Yidong. I know you can clear it. Now shut up."
Yan Fushou raised his head and pointed toward the door. "And get out."
Wei Yidong muttered a few words under his breath, turned around, and prepared to leave.
But after thinking for a moment, Yan Fushou called out to stop him. "Wait. Go tell Jian Li to come over."
"What if she refuses? I can't beat her."
"Then drop dead in front of her!"
"No way!"
"Tell her the Director is looking for her! It's a matter of life and death! Scram! Go, quickly!"
"Oh."
Ten minutes later.
The sound of the door opening rang out. Yan Fushou shifted his gaze away from the forum, rubbed his temples, and looked up.
A girl who appeared to be around the same age as Lu Xiu, roughly eighteen or nineteen, slowly walked into the room.
Her face was extraordinarily beautiful, her features so exquisite that they seemed to have been meticulously carved. Her profile was soft, her nose slender and straight, and her lips pale and clean. Silver hair, as though condensed from moonlight itself, fell past her waist and draped smoothly down her back, swaying slightly with every step she took, making her clear black-and-white eyes appear even more translucent.
The girl had a slender figure without seeming frail. Her curves were already well defined, and her waist was remarkably thin. She wore a simple white short-sleeved shirt made of clean, crisp fabric. Her black pleated skirt was neither too long nor too short, reaching the middle of her thighs. Beneath the hem, a pair of long, snow-white legs reflected a faint sheen beneath the lights, gleaming like the finest jade.
"What is it?"
The girl stopped in front of the desk, looked at Yan Fushou, and asked.
Her voice was ethereal, yet her tone was like a pool of stagnant water, completely devoid of emotion.
Yan Fushou was clearly long accustomed to her temperament and went straight to the point. "Jian Li, there's a mission..."
Before he could finish...
The girl named Jian Li shook her head directly. "Not going."
"Let me finish. I'm not asking you to enter the SSS-class dungeon 【Island】. It's this one."
Yan Fushou somewhat helplessly ran a hand through his hair, then slid the forum window in front of him over to her and explained, "It's a new dungeon, and a civilian one at that, called 【Resident Evil】. Most of the players who've entered it say that difficulty isn't the only issue. See if you're interested."
"..."
Jian Li gave no response. She quietly stared at the semi-transparent screen in front of her, its glow reflected in her clear black-and-white eyes. Her expression remained blank, making it impossible to tell how much she was actually reading.
After a long while.
Her slender fingers swiped twice through the air before tapping on a post with an extremely high number of replies.
Yan Fushou waited quietly, gazing at the girl's snow-white silver hair as he sighed inwardly.
To be honest, in his eyes, both Jian Li and Wei Yidong were still just children.
If the world hadn't become gamified...
Jian Li suddenly looked away from the screen and said two words.
"I'll go."
"Hmm?"
Yan Fushou's train of thought was interrupted just as he was about to say something else.
Jian Li, however, directly pushed the forum window aside and opened her own System panel. Her fingertips moved rapidly across it as she skillfully opened the Dungeon Library, paid the Survival Points, and entered the dungeon.
The entire process was crisp and efficient, taking less than five seconds.
In the next instant, her body transformed into a cluster of white light and disappeared from the office.
"..."
Yan Fushou stared at the empty office and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
These problem children... On one hand, they made his heart ache, but on the other, they gave him a headache. When they didn't want to go, nothing he said could make them budge. But once they decided they wanted to go, they would leave immediately without making even the slightest preparation.
She could have at least asked Wei Yidong, who had failed to clear it, about the dungeon before going.
Forget it.
Yan Fushou lowered his hand and stopped dwelling on it.
He had great confidence in Jian Li. If it was only an S-class dungeon, clearing it would definitely not be a problem for her.
Her personality was the only real issue.
Had she agreed to go because 【Resident Evil】 was a dungeon with especially strong emotional stimulation?
...She really was just a child.
The more Yan Fushou thought about the problem children in the Raid Team, the worse his headache became. In the end, he simply stopped thinking about them. He reached out, pulled the forum window Jian Li had pushed aside back in front of him, glanced once more at the forum filled with complaints, and murmured, "I really didn't expect such a powerful Dungeon Architect to appear... To think they could create an original S-class dungeon. I'll have to send people to contact them a few more times. At the same time, I'll have someone search through the ID Database and see whether there's any record of them. It would be best if we could locate the person directly."
With that said...
He shook his head, closed the forum window, and picked up the documents on his desk once again.
There was no rush.
Although a Dungeon Architect capable of creating an original S-class dungeon was certainly impressive, it was still unknown what kind of rewards the original dungeon they created would provide. There was no reason for him, the head of the Raid Team, to frantically rearrange everything just for that.
Right now, there were many things more important than finding that Dungeon Architect.
For example, the clearing progress of SSS-class dungeons, or the dungeon assignments for the Front-line Soldiers.
There were countless matters demanding his attention.
Compared to those, searching for that Dungeon Architect really wasn't urgent.