Hearing him say this, Xu Youyou breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sure, let's use our real names. As for my younger brother, let's just call him Xu Youyun. Keeps it simple.”
Zuo Lin'an grunted in response.
“In that case, should I submit the application?”
“Yeah, go ahead and submit it,” Xu Youyou replied. “By the way, how many players did you set it for?”
Zuo Lin'an thought about the number of guest rooms in the old residence.
“Even twenty could easily fit.”
Xu Youyou waved his hand dismissively.
“Alright, let's go with twenty. Since you have the gold hairpin specter item, Brother An, never mind twenty, even thirty wouldn't be a problem.”
Zuo Lin'an entered "20" in the player count field.
He then clicked submit, and soon received a notification confirming that the dungeon would open next Monday.
“When the dungeon opens next time, have Xuan Jiu come over as well,” Zuo Lin'an said.
Xu Youyou nodded in agreement.
“Will do.”
“But now that there are two specters in the dungeon, do we need to change the location of the path of survival?”
Zuo Lin'an opened the system's mall and started messaging the construction team. These people seemed to operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
“There's no need to change the path of survival's location.”
“When a dungeon has more than one specter, there will be a primary and secondary relationship between them. The path of survival's location is directly related to the specters, but only to the primary one.”
Primary and secondary?
Only then did Xu Youyou remember that if a dungeon had multiple specters, they were indeed categorized into primary and secondary.
And in Zuo Lin'an's specter dungeon, Zuo Lin'an was naturally the primary one.
“Alright, I got it.”
He watched as Zuo Lin'an messaged the construction team about setting up a stone archway.
He only just remembered the stone archway. If the path of survival's location had changed, they probably wouldn't have needed it anymore.
After a brief thought, he pulled out his phone and began browsing for corpses.
The corpse for Zuo Lin'an's younger brother was already prepared; they just needed to move it to a different spot later.
However, he hadn't bought a suitable corpse for himself yet.
After inputting details like his own height and appearance, he added keywords like "skin disease," "skinny," "sickly," and so on.
“Search...”
Soon, a list of items matching his criteria appeared before him.
“Hmm, this one is a bit too chubby...”
“This one is too decomposed. No.”
“This one is too ugly, no... Wait, actually!”
Xu Youyou's eyes lit up.
“An ugly one is exactly what I need!”
He handed his phone to Zuo Lin'an. “Brother An, what do you think of this one?”
Zuo Lin'an glanced at it.
“This person must have suffered from a very severe skin disease when they were alive. Just looking at the corpse is terrifying. Not bad, buy this one. It's just a bit pricey.”
Zuo Lin'an remembered that the corpse he had bought cost fifty thousand red coins.
But the price tag on this one was ninety thousand.
Xu Youyou didn't hesitate and purchased it immediately.
“Bought it. It should be delivered soon. By the way, how long will it take to set up your stone archway?”
“Can it be finished before the dungeon opens?”
There were about seven days left, so it should be fine, right?
Zuo Lin'an looked at the messages sent by the construction team.
“They said they have ready-made ones in stock. Apparently, many dungeons use this. Also, because the players in the recent two worlds have been quite strong, they occasionally cause some damage.”
“Because of that, they need to keep backups ready so they can quickly replace, repair, or maintain things for other dungeon bosses.”
“So this stone archway I'm buying should be ready in about three or four days.”
Of course, the price was still eye-watering.
It cost one million.
Xu Youyou's eyes widened when he saw the price.
“That expensive?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
“It is expensive, but there are cheaper options. This million-dollar one just looks better, it's larger, and it has a high-class feel to it.”
“Most importantly, it's very wide.”
“This way, no matter how many players reach the end of the path and see this stone archway, they will walk straight through the middle instead of taking a detour around it.”
Xu Youyou paused.
“Would players really run along mountain paths for hours, and at the very moment they finally see hope while completely exhausted, still think about taking a detour to avoid a stone archway?”
Zuo Lin'an was noncommittal.
“What if?”
“What if there is one? If that happens, a tiny oversight like that could get the dungeon shut down.”
Xu Youyou thought about it and found himself unable to argue.
“Fair point.”
The next morning, Xu Youyou received his "brother's" corpse.
Meanwhile, Zuo Lin'an also welcomed the arrival of the construction team.
They had shipped the materials by air again.
Zuo Lin'an led them to the spot where the stone archway was to be built.
“Mr. Zuo, is it here?”
He looked at the somewhat familiar man before him, remembering that when they built the old residence at the top of the mountain earlier, this person had also been in charge.
“Yes. See that path stretching over? This path needs to align perfectly with the center of the stone archway.”
“Alright, no problem. Are there any other requirements?”
Zuo Lin'an waved his hand.
“No, you can get started.”
“Understood.”
Soon, the workers began construction.
It had to be said that although the fees were exorbitant, the quality of their work was impeccable, and their speed was incredible.
After all, everything had been prepared beforehand.
The stone archway stood at an estimated height of over ten meters and was crafted from white marble.
Supposedly, it featured fully hand-carved openwork and large-scale scenic reliefs.
He didn't know much about stonework and couldn't tell if it was genuine, but since the construction team claimed so, it was bound to be high quality.
From start to finish, the construction of the stone archway took only three to four days.
“Mr. Zuo, are you satisfied with the result?”
Zuo Lin'an walked around it twice.
“I am.”
“It's a good thing you had everything ready in advance, even the carvings. This saved a lot of time. If we had to custom-order this from scratch, it would have taken at least two or three months.”
The man smiled.
“That's indeed the case. Most dungeon bosses who contact us are rarely willing to wait several months, so we keep inventory ready in advance.”
Zuo Lin'an didn't waste any time. He paid the remaining balance on the spot and saw them off.
Then, he headed back to the old residence at the top of the mountain.
Earlier, he had messaged Xu Youyou to let him know the stone archway was finished. Xu Youyou had replied saying he was waiting for him in the old residence's underground secret room.
Pushing open the front door, he entered the old residence and walked to the room he had designated for his younger brother. From a hidden corner in the room, he entered the underground secret room and found Xu Youyou inside.
Xu Youyou was currently crouching in a corner, studying the corpse he had purchased.
Seeing Zuo Lin'an, he pointed to the space beside him.
“Brother An, I brought your brother's body over from the cliff crevice for you.”
Zuo Lin'an glanced at the corpse lying on the other side.
“Good.”
“We can begin now.”
As he spoke, he slowly walked toward the corpse. At the same time, his skin turned deathly pale, and his normal eyes shifted into crimson slit-pupils.
With a flick of his fingers, a cold, gleaming boning knife slowly materialized in his hand.
Zuo Lin'an crouched down, adjusted the corpse's posture, and then began to dismember the body before him using his method of execution.
Rate on N.U.
