But in the end, Lu Xiu didn't dwell on it any further. After all, she had only built one scene; it was still too early to worry about things like that.
There hadn't been any cost so far, so she might as well continue perfecting the instance and see how things went.
Lu Xiu shook her head lightly, temporarily clearing away the jumble of thoughts in her mind, and looked around at the Hell dining room before her.
She hesitated for a moment.
This time, she didn't close her eyes. Instead, she simply raised her snow-white arm and pointed forward.
Sure enough, even without closing her eyes, her memories still surged forth like a flood.
As she imagined it, the entire space seemed to come alive, and a low rumbling sound echoed from outside.
The wall on the left suddenly shifted outward by more than ten centimeters.
Then, a doorframe appeared.
The corridor beyond the door began to form.
The room and corridor gradually connected into a single structure.
Lu Xiu lowered her hand, walked around the dining table and the motionless NPCs, and reached the doorway. She cautiously poked her head out for a look before stepping outside.
Beyond it was the familiar corridor, the floorboards creaking beneath her feet.
The rooms on either side were tightly shut.
However, both ends of the corridor were pitch-black.
That was because Lu Xiu hadn't constructed the scenes there yet, so beyond those points there was only empty void.
Even so, the existing Hell dining room and corridor alone were enough to stir Lu Xiu's memories from her previous life... She remembered that when she played Resident Evil 7, she had genuinely been terrified. Although Donna Beneviento's house in Resident Evil 8 had also made her break out in a cold sweat, the seventh installment had left an even deeper impression on her.
She couldn't help wondering what kind of experience it would be if a player from her previous life had to physically take on the role of the protagonist, Ethan Winters, and enter the Baker Farm to survive.
It would definitely be far more despair-inducing than simply sitting behind a screen.
After all, Ethan Winters wasn't Leon, nor was he Chris. In the eighth installment, he was the "Hand-Washing War God," but in the seventh... at least in the beginning, he really was just an ordinary person.
Because of a video, he traveled thousands of miles in search of his wife, only to plunge headfirst into a demon's den.
He struggled, fled, and solved puzzles within that demon's den, and after finally finding his wife... he was confronted with even more horrifying scenes.
As she thought about it, Lu Xiu recalled how she herself had felt while playing the game and couldn't help putting herself in the shoes of her past self as she stood in that corridor.
She really had been terrified back then.
And she would probably be just as scared if she played it now.
...Afraid of what ghost or monster might suddenly appear around the corner, afraid of what might be lurking in the darkness, afraid of the environment itself.
As she thought, Lu Xiu walked forward, following the increasingly vivid Visual Mental Image... She began to immerse herself in the mindset of the protagonist, Ethan Winters, and materialize the Baker Farm, that demon's den.
As Lu Xiu moved forward, the details of the corridor became richer.
Nodes connecting different areas began to appear.
The Main Hall, the second floor, the Old House, the courtyard...
It was a highly enclosed yet intricately interconnected box garden.
The different areas were linked through keys, mechanisms, specific components, or ladders, creating a strong sense of vertical exploration.
As the game progressed, players were forced to pass through previously explored areas again; this structure compelled them to maneuver around enemies within narrow maps.
Lu Xiu remembered it very clearly...
Memories surged forth.
Those familiar scenes from the game began appearing one after another as Lu Xiu walked.
She moved forward slowly, the ground extending beneath her feet, while the claustrophobic, oppressive, terrifying Baker Farm gradually took shape behind her... walls pieced themselves together, corridors stretched outward, staircases emerged, followed by cramped rooms, deep passageways, dilapidated furniture, and worn-out decorations.
The stench of decay mingled with the damp air.
Since it was an Immortal Master entering the instance rather than someone playing a game through a screen, smell was naturally important as well.
However, this part relied entirely on Lu Xiu's imagination.
Lu Xiu continued walking forward.
The young girl had a beautiful, striking face, with well-defined features and a pair of bright, lively eyes. Her figure was slender yet shapely. She wore a fitted white T-shirt beneath a dark denim jacket, paired with light-colored slim-fit jeans. Her appearance was simple and clean, brimming with youthful vitality that formed a stark, almost jarring contrast with the decay surrounding her.
Her skin was snow-white, and even in the dim surroundings, it still seemed to glow with a delicate luster.
Even in such a filthy, chaotic environment, not a single speck of dirt stained her.
She was like a deity who did not belong to this world... strolling leisurely through it while creating an entirely new world from nothing.
And clearly, this deity was very skilled at her work.
"Whew..."
Three hours later, Lu Xiu subconsciously pressed a hand against her full, soft chest. After straightening her back and taking a deep breath, she looked back at the scene she had just constructed, then pushed open the door and walked outside.
Beyond the door was the pure white Construction Space.
The instant she opened it, soft white light poured in.
Lu Xiu instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes, then let out a sigh of relief.
Although there was a certain sense of nostalgia to it, to be honest, staying in the Baker Farm for too long was extremely oppressive. After all, it was the setting of a horror game and was hardly a pleasant place to linger.
It was much better outside.
Still, she wasn't quite used to it because everything out here was simply too clean.
Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then raised her hand again. As memories from her previous life surfaced in her mind, the scenery surrounding the main house began to appear.
Under the setting sun were swarms of mosquitoes, deep hidden passages, rusty iron fences and gates, an overgrown yard, an abandoned trailer, and the chains that prevented players from exploring the main house immediately...
The scene gradually took shape.
Lu Xiu raised a hand and rubbed her forehead, feeling slightly dizzy.
She didn't know whether the Visual Mental Image construction method consumed an enormous amount of Mental Strength.
Not long ago, she had suddenly begun feeling dizzy while walking, and as she constructed more and more scenes, she had even started to feel nauseous... Now that she had finished constructing the area around the house, the urge to vomit had grown even stronger.
"This doesn't actually consume Mental Strength, does it? If that's the case, it looks like finishing everything in one day is impossible."
Because she really was feeling unwell, Lu Xiu no longer cared about maintaining her image and simply sat down on the steps connecting the main house to the courtyard.
As she sat, her jeans clung tightly to her round, jade-like legs; the mid-rise waist and fitted cut made the curves of her figure stand out even more clearly. Her hair hung loose, with several strands sticking to the sides of her cheeks from sweat, giving her a faintly athletic look, though she still seemed completely out of place in the surrounding environment.
However, Lu Xiu couldn't care less about herself right now.
Sitting on the steps, she temporarily exited Visual Mental Image construction mode and began resting while reviewing the scene she had just completed.
At the same time, she estimated how long it would take to finish the instance.
The conclusion was quite optimistic.
As long as nothing unexpected happened later, the instance should continue taking shape very quickly.
Thinking this, Lu Xiu let out a sigh of relief.
But immediately afterward, the thought she had temporarily suppressed earlier resurfaced in her mind.
That was... could an instance of this level earn a Dungeon Architect reward?
And could an instance created this way really grant certain skills or items to players who cleared it?
Judging from her own perception, the impact of Resident Evil 7 really was extremely strong, especially once its scenes had been materialized.
But she was still somewhat worried...
Wait.
Something wasn't right.
Lu Xiu slightly knitted her beautiful brows.
She seemed to have fallen into the "Wallenda Effect." Perhaps because her body was different, combined with the influence of the original owner's memories, she had unknowingly become more anxious and emotional. She understood things rationally, but the worry she felt was still real.
After all, two completely different sets of memories were intertwined in her mind and influencing each other... Many of her habits simply weren't Lu Xiu's own. For example, when she had seen the "rule stability cost" earlier and immediately squatted down in despair, that was something she still instinctively did whenever she became frustrated. It was almost like being possessed...
"A grown man—no, a grown person like me, what the Hell am I worrying about!"
Lu Xiu hurriedly raised her hands and slapped her soft cheeks hard, forcing herself not to think according to the original owner's mindset. At the same time, she couldn't help complaining, "Damn it, why am I so troublesome..."
At this moment, Lu Xiu had countless thoughts running through her mind... her sense of identity, earning Survival Points, constructing instances, ways to protect herself, and she had even thought about what she should eat for a late-night snack.
But she had overlooked the most important thing.
And that was—she had never cleared even a single instance.
If the number of instances she had cleared could currently be displayed above her head, then looking in a mirror would show— System instance clearance count: 0. Civilian instance clearance count: 0.
Yes.
The original owner had never entered a single official instance, and the only civilian instance she had ever visited had left her with nothing but memories of being scammed.
In other words, Lu Xiu possessed no actual information about the instances of this world. More precisely, she had never personally experienced an instance from this world.
As a result, Lu Xiu had absolutely no concept of what the instances in this game world were really like.
She was merely relying on imagination to guess what System instances and other civilian instances might be like, and the opponents she imagined were roughly equivalent to games released around 2017, the year Resident Evil 7 came out.
And the games released that year included The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, NieR: Automata, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Nioh...
So the fact that she felt worried couldn't really be blamed entirely on the influence of that other set of memories...
All that could be said was that a civilian instance created by someone who knew absolutely nothing about the current state of instances would either be completely out of its depth, showing off one's incompetence before an expert and making a laughingstock of oneself, or... it would descend like a monster.
While everyone else was still making wooden swords, she had suddenly dragged a cannon onto the battlefield.