The blinding white light gradually softened.
Lu Xiu blinked and realized she was standing in a pure white space.
There was no sky, no horizon, and no shadows here.
Above her was as bright as day, beneath her feet was as bright as day, and in every direction, the empty space stretched endlessly onward with no end in sight.
It was like an infinite film studio.
"Welcome to the Construction Space."
"Dungeon Architect Level: Level 1 Dungeon Architect"
"Maximum Constructible Instances: 1"
"Current Survival Points available to invest: 23"
"Newbie tutorial loaded."
The next instant.
Countless pale blue rays of light intertwined in the air, and a simplified model of an instance gradually appeared before her.
It had the structure of a two-story house.
Rendered as a wireframe.
Just like an untextured 3D model.
At the same time, explanations of the rules related to constructing instances appeared.
The contents were extremely complex.
The table of contents alone was already a long list, covering every aspect: scene structure, hostile units, mechanism events, emotional nodes, settlement conditions, and so on...
Lu Xiu skimmed the table of contents and felt her vision go dark.
"Wait... is this really something I can finish in 23 days?"
What made her scalp tingle even more was the final supplementary note—【After the instance construction is complete, depending on the scene structure and instance scale, Survival Points must be consumed as a "Rule Stabilization Fee."】
"It's over."
All that effort, only to fail before she had even begun.
Upon seeing that note.
This was the only thought left in Lu Xiu's mind. She completely broke down, covered her face, squatted on the spot, and let out a wail.
"I'm a pauper right now!"
"Where am I supposed to get Survival Points to pay the Rule Stabilization Fee?!"
"Wait, this costs money too?!"
"I..."
Lu Xiu started cursing inwardly, and she cursed rather viciously.
After cursing for quite a while.
She finally lowered her hands from her face, leaned slightly forward, half-hugging her beautiful thighs, and continued staring at that note... but she was still furious.
At that moment, she felt like a girl who had been trafficked into the remote mountains and fallen into complete despair, only to discover that the person who bought her was a woman... and that woman claimed she was searching for long-lost relatives.
"Are you kidding me?!"
Lu Xiu leaned forward, stretched out her slender, porcelain-white fingers, and repeatedly scrolled through the window, reading the note about the additional fee again and again, as though she could make it disappear just by glaring at it hard enough.
But obviously, that was impossible.
She had no choice but to frantically search through the original owner's memories, hoping to find a solution.
But just as an idea came to her... her attention was drawn to a tutorial.
"...Visual Mental Image construction method?"
Lu Xiu's scrolling fingers paused. She temporarily put aside the fact that being a Dungeon Architect cost money and curiously clicked on the tutorial to view the details.
"Visual Mental Image construction method: In addition to conventional means, a Dungeon Architect can reproduce or create visual information within their mind; by relying on memory or imagination to conceive specific objects, scenes, or vistas, they can then project them into an instance. Both memory-based mental images and imagination-based mental images are acceptable."
"Advantages: Saves time on material splicing, allows the brain to see or experience things that do not currently exist, and relies solely on the individual's memory or creative imagination."
"Disadvantages: The deviation between imagination and reality can be significant; unless the Dungeon Architect knows every detail of the imagined scene by heart, it is not recommended."
"Recommendation: Dungeon Architects can use this function to build the initial framework of an instance."
Looking at the explanation for the Visual Mental Image construction method.
Lu Xiu briefly shook off her frustration.
Mainly because this function... seemed tailor-made for her.
If it were the original owner, she certainly wouldn't have been able to use this function. After all, she had never played games from another world.
But she had. And because she liked it, she had played through the PS5 version once and the VR version once. She could confidently say she knew the entire game by heart.
So.
Lu Xiu said almost subconsciously, "Enable Visual Mental Image construction method."
As soon as she finished speaking.
The complex rule explanation window instantly shrank and moved to the upper-left corner of Lu Xiu's field of vision.
Then a new prompt appeared.
"Enabling... Please prepare, Dungeon Architect, and use your Visual Mental Image to imagine the instance scene."
Seeing this prompt, Lu Xiu could no longer be bothered to remain frustrated. She quickly stood up and closed her eyes.
She didn't rush to think through the entire game flow.
Instead, she chose the game's most classic and shocking segment to test it out: the world-famous scene—the Baker family's "dinner."
That famous dining table...
That loving family...
Lu Xiu calmed herself and began forcing herself to recall the details of the game.
But she soon realized there was no need to force anything at all. The moment she closed her eyes, the images flowed out like water, terrifyingly clear.
Even many details she had barely noticed while playing back then were now exceptionally vivid.
Why?
Lu Xiu found it strange. Was this some sort of bonus brought about by Transmigration?
No.
Now wasn't the time to think about that.
Lu Xiu quickly stopped her wandering thoughts and focused her attention on the game scene from Resident Evil 7.
Dim candlelight.
Rotten food.
The irritating buzz of flies.
The insane, eccentric Baker family.
The helplessness of the protagonist Ethan, tied to a chair and nearly forced to eat something unspeakable.
Lu Xiu's breathing gradually slowed.
At the same time, the pure white space began to change, and ripples spread across the ground like water.
Then.
Behind Lu Xiu, a wall suddenly rose from the ground; mottled wooden boards covered in scratches, with mold spreading across them.
Immediately after—
The second wall.
The third wall.
The fourth wall.
Then.
The ceiling pressed down from above, sealing off the space and enclosing Lu Xiu within it.
The pure white light was replaced by dim illumination.
The enclosed space gradually transformed into an old dining room. The wallpaper had long since yellowed and blistered, its corners curled and peeled away, exposing the damp wooden boards underneath. An old-fashioned chandelier hung from the ceiling, its lampshade coated in grease and dust, casting only a dim light across the room.
At the center stood a round wooden dining table with a candle burning atop it. The tabletop was covered in knife marks and dark stains, and the edges showed obvious signs of long-term wear.
And the table was piled high with unspeakable food.
Iron plates, pottery bowls, and glass jars were scattered messily across it...
Then, Lu Xiu caught a powerful stench of decay.
Her eyes flew open, and she realized she was already standing inside the game scene.
The round table stood directly in front of her. Its surface was sticky, piled with unspeakable things resembling intestines. Cockroaches crawled through the food, while flies circled above the disgusting heap.
Her breathing faltered slightly.
Lu Xiu observed the scene for a moment, then closed her eyes again and continued adding details.
Soon, the sound of chairs shifting rang out.
Immediately afterward came the scraping of fingers against plates, along with chewing, swallowing, and conversation.
Blurred human silhouettes gradually appeared in the chairs.
That insane family sat around the round table.
"...Wake up, little sleepyhead, it's time for dinner."
The mother-in-law's voice rang out, speaking the line from Lu Xiu's memory.
Lu Xiu opened her eyes again and saw a scene almost identical to the one from her previous life.
The father-in-law.
The mother-in-law.
The brother-in-law.
The three members of the Baker family, whom players in her previous life jokingly referred to as father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law, were seated around the round table.
And Lu Xiu was currently standing in the exact position where the protagonist, Ethan Winters, had sat in the original game.
Exactly the same!
...Her heart nearly stopped.
This was even more immersive than she had imagined.
For a moment, she even forgot that this was the Construction Space and thought she had somehow Transmigrated into the world of Resident Evil 7 again.
"Determining... Dungeon Architect detected to have completed a scene. Do you wish to designate this scene as one of the core emotional nodes?"
Lu Xiu took a deep breath, forcing her pounding heart to calm down.
"Yes."
"Node marking successful: Extreme Oppression Dinner Scene"
"Scene stabilized."
"Entering manual editing mode."
Accompanied by the prompt, everything in the scene froze, including the buzzing flies.
Only then did Lu Xiu slowly let out a sigh of relief. She couldn't help it; those dead memories had suddenly come back to haunt her... She truly had never experienced a scene like this before. It was far more immersive than VR.
It was simply too real. Feeling a little flustered was perfectly normal.
But once everything froze, she finally truly felt that she was creating an instance.
"So... I can just imagine it directly."
Lu Xiu observed the scene, which was identical to the original game yet somehow even more realistic, and raised a hand to support her snow-white, rounded chin, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.
This was far more efficient than any kind of manual splicing. It seemed constructing an instance wasn't actually that difficult after all.
To be honest, it was pretty fun...
With a shortcut like this, finishing the instance in a short period of time shouldn't be a problem.
But could an instance of this level earn Dungeon Architect rewards?
And could an instance created this way really grant players who cleared it certain skills or items?
Hmm... she wasn't quite sure.
And then there was the Rule Stabilization Fee.
Lu Xiu furrowed her beautiful brows, a vague idea forming in her mind...