"Thirty percent in the early stage and twenty percent later is fine too, mainly because I'm broke right now…" Receiving Ji Huaichu's look, Dramatist lady's expression gradually became humble.
"For now, let's go with thirty percent. Whether we can make a profit is another matter."
Just like that, they hastily decided on their cooperation. The specific dungeon planning would be up to Dramatist to figure out herself, including communicating with Miss White and Mr. Black about how to create the illusionary world—all of it was left to Dramatist. Ji Huaichu provided the funds, Mu Anqi provided ideas, and that was it.
Even so, Ji Huaichu still felt a little displeased: Mu Anqi had become busier. Although the little money tree still came to her on time every day to practice her swordsmanship and basic skills, Mu Anqi also squeezed out time to meet with the female ghost, constantly keeping track of the game's creation progress and offering Dramatist some ideas that came to her in a "flash of inspiration."
With sufficient funding and Ji Huaichu providing part of her territory, Dramatist's game development speed was astonishing. The game's story background was still set in that same village. While continuing the previous plot, she appropriately strengthened the villagers' abilities and, after seriously discussing with Miss White based on the otherworldly depictions shown in the "Occultism" book, created a setting where if a player entered a villager's home [without permission] [alone], they would inevitably be pulled into an illusion, see those unknown terrifying creatures, and then die instantly—resetting afterward.
To make a profit as soon as possible, the game naturally couldn't be limited to just one player at a time like Mu Anqi's session. Each villager's home could have an "identity" prepared for players. After all, it's the Mountain God taking a bride—no one said how often he must marry, or whether he must marry a man or a woman, right?
Ten players, seven days of survival. Aside from the first day, the Mountain God would take a spouse every day, regardless of gender! Then design a location that appears to be a "clue" but is actually a marker, any player who enters that place would be tagged with a "contamination" mark. A "contaminated" player would get a weakened debuff and, whenever they sleep, dream of unknown terrifying creatures. The contamination could only be cleansed with the divine water at the Mountain God's altar.
This way, whether they're chosen or not, players might still receive the quest requiring them to find the Mountain God!
As for players who are neither contaminated nor chosen… one has to admit, in games, the luckiest players always have a different experience from the others! Mu Anqi thought, if such a player really appeared, well… when she played an NPC, she'd just give them a little extra attention.
On the fifth day of Mu Anqi's rest, Dramatist's game was basically completed and ready for use. Since Mu Anqi's next game was still going to be clearing the black mirror vortex together with General Ji, she wasn't in any hurry. When Dramatist's application was approved and the game was allowed to start a trial run, Mu Anqi couldn't wait to volunteer herself to join in as an NPC!
The game's area could be limited to the village, but since the village was close to Ji Huaichu's main city, they simply included the main city in the plan as well, though it wouldn't be open to players. The players wouldn't be able to see any buildings outside the village, but Ji Huaichu and the others could view the game's progress from within the main city and could enter the game at any time.
Because it was a test run, only five players were accepted for the first round.
When the five players were teleported into the game area by the Nirvana Space, its power enveloped the village, the mountain, and surrounding regions—the game officially began!
"Fate Drama… what kind of dungeon is it this time?"
The players woke up one after another in their assigned villagers' homes. As they began to observe their surroundings, they received the "character backstories" that Dramatist had created for them. Meanwhile, Mu Anqi sat outside the village area with General Ji, watching the large display screen and the several smaller windows that the Nirvana Space had generated to show individual feeds.
"When I played the game before, was the General watching me like this too?" Mu Anqi asked. It was her first time encountering this kind of setup, and she found it rather novel. Wasn't this just like a livestream? Except the players weren't aware they were being streamed, and there were no live comments.
"Mm. When it involves privacy, the Nirvana Space blocks it out," Ji Huaichu explained, reassuring her.
That was true—the Nirvana Space handled that aspect quite well. Mu Anqi thought this as she wrapped herself tightly in a large black cloak and put on the [black-and-white mask] from Inverted City's outskirts. "General, can anyone tell who I am?"
"They can't."
"Sigh, if only I could fly. If I could float around like that, the players definitely wouldn't guess I'm one of them," Mu Anqi said wistfully, then slightly modified the actions in her action list.
She changed "do squats until you loudly shout out your ten biggest fears" to "randomly approach a player and perform a singing-and-dancing version of Drunken Butterfly," and changed "stand at attention until you list five lies you've recently told" to "kneel and kowtow thirty times while shouting 'Dad, I was wrong!'"
As for the one where you spin around with your head on the ground, Mu Anqi thought about it and decided that move triggered quite a lot of emotional value, so it was worth keeping.
If only the action list had more moves—or better yet, a whole new set of them. One list could be filled with socially mortifying actions, and another with singing and dancing performances she wanted to see… although, in a way, those two categories could probably be considered the same.
Mu Anqi didn't act immediately. The players were still exploring the background, so there was no rush. From the game's backend, she could not only view the whole map but also see each player's real-time emotional values… So this was what it was like for those monsters who used to sit in the control room, watching everything.
——
"Damn it, why the hell do I have to marry into the Mountain God's family?! And the Mountain God's a woman?! What kind of decent Mountain God makes a player marry her?!" The unlucky player paced back and forth inside the house, fuming in helpless rage. He clenched his teeth, completely unable to understand why his luck was so bad. Besides… wasn't this kind of story supposed to be about the Mountain God taking a bride? How did he end up as the one marrying in? Did Nirvana Space approve of his qualifications as a kept man or something?!
No—he couldn't just sit here waiting to die!
Thinking about the system prompt, he recalled that there were five players in total for this game, and the duration was seven days. But there was no clearly defined win condition, nor any mention that surviving for seven days would mean victory… He was going to be offered to the Mountain God tomorrow, and the other players were probably going to run into trouble too. They had to unite, had to cooperate!
The player used a buff skill and escaped directly out of the yard. He glanced at the bright red Mountain God mark on his own gate and felt sick. What was going on in this village—how did the Mountain God deal with people?
He tried to find the other players to exchange information. The others weren't chosen so they weren't in a hurry, but he was due to be married the day after tomorrow—he couldn't wait!
"Why did you run out?" a young man asked when he saw the player, puzzled. "The bride… the groom shouldn't be out of the house waiting to be married—pah! Married into the family, running all over town?"
The player froze, eyes shifting as he leaned in mysteriously and whispered, "Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger?"
"?" The young man was full of question marks. "What are you talking about?"
"…Kid, I rolled off the bed last night and hit my head, I've lost my memory. Look… what's your name?"
"Even with amnesia, just remember you're getting married into the family the day after tomorrow." The young man wasn't buying it; he gave the player a look. "You always called me Huzi before, so just keep calling me that. If you don't go back, I'll have everyone tie you up and drag you back."
"…" The player curled his lip. Suddenly, he activated his ability—his hands glowing as he grabbed Huzi by the throat in an instant, slamming him hard against the wall. Lowering his voice, he hissed, "Cooperate with me. Answer what I ask! Otherwise don't blame me for, what the hell, why are you biting your tongue to kill yourself!?"
Huzi's eyes bulged, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth. He stared straight at the player, but the corners of his lips curved into a perfect, eerie smile—
Black mist burst out in that instant, spreading to cover the entire game area. In the next second, the player found himself back inside his room.
The "marrying-in" player: "…Damn it, it resets too?"
So, was it that NPCs couldn't be killed—or that important NPCs couldn't be killed?
The other players, who had still been exploring their backgrounds and trying to get information from their in-game family members before suddenly being reset: "?"
Mu Anqi, watching from the screen, was also puzzled. "Huh? That part wasn't changed? Even if an NPC dies, it still resets?"
"…I forgot to turn that off," Dramatist muttered weakly from in front of the console, trying to make herself as small as possible. "But burning down houses doesn't trigger a reset anymore."
Mu Anqi looked thoughtfully at the spike of emotional value caused by the reset. With resets happening this often, it seemed that… although it was a bit inhumane, the profits were pretty good, weren't they? No, no—she still had to show some proper care for the players.
"Set the probability of a world reset upon NPC death to 50%," Mu Anqi said cheerfully. "And send that message to the players too~ Just remind them that their final rating is linked to their completion time."
The Dramatist quickly made the adjustments.
Sure enough, the players immediately generated another wave of emotional value:
"Which unlucky idiot just entered the game and already dared to kill an NPC?!"
"…Something's changed in my mindset," Mu Anqi suddenly said. She watched the players in the game and then thought back to her own past experiences… those competitive battle games like [Ancient Tomb Apartment] and [Forest of Eternal Night]…. She must have provided a lot of emotional value to the monsters in those games, huh? After all, every player she'd used her skills on had been on the verge of mental collapse. And now, in other games, Mu Anqi could finally understand those deliberate moves by the monsters—they just wanted emotional value!
Sitting in the control room and watching the emotional values rise little by little… Mu Anqi actually felt a strange sense of accomplishment.
"One of the players just found the hidden compartment with the Mountain God's statue," Mu Anqi murmured. "If, before he touches it, I have an NPC commit suicide and trigger a world reset—then when he comes back, furious and impatient, only to find that the statue isn't a clue or an item at all but corruption… what would happen, I wonder?"