The werewolf, startled, threw the obsidian tablet straight away. The skeleton scrambled forward, stumbling, and managed to catch the tablet just before it hit the ground.
"Ouch, I almost rattled myself to pieces!" The skeleton clutched its pelvis, stood up with difficulty, and "glared" at the werewolf with its empty eye sockets in silent condemnation.
Silas also looked at the tablet in his own hands. He fumbled along the edges for a while until he pressed a small switch. The tablet lit up immediately, displaying the same image of mountain peaks and flocks of birds as the one held by the skeleton.
"I can feel the mana flowing within this tablet; it seems to be linked to the Dungeon Core."
As one of the highest-ranking monsters in the dungeon, Silas's perception of magic was far sharper than that of ordinary folk.
"I understand now!" the skeleton shouted. "The Lord Demon King must intend to release these tablets among the humans! This way, the tablets can absorb human emotions and transmit them to the Dungeon Core!"
"Oh!" the monsters exclaimed in unison.
Serina turned to the werewolf, lifting her chin. "What did I tell you? The Lord Demon King is brilliant; he definitely has a plan!"
The werewolf looked embarrassed, but he kept his neck stiff and sneered. "It's just a glowing stone tablet, no different from a human wizard's crystal ball! Humans won't care for such a thing! I think you're all wasting your effort!"
He wanted to throw out a few more sarcastic remarks, but the other monsters weren't paying him any attention. Everyone was staring intently at their tablets.
"What happens if I touch it again?" Silas cautiously extended a finger and tapped the surface of the stone.
Then, he gasped. At his touch, the soaring mountain peak on the tablet began to shake violently. The birds nesting in the mountains panicked and scattered. The sky, which had been clear just a moment ago, turned dark with storm clouds and lightning. A second later, the peak snapped off with a thunderous roar, and torrential rain fell as if the heavens had inverted. The lush green plains below were swallowed by rushing floodwaters in the blink of an eye.
Silas quickly pulled his hand back and looked innocently at his sister. "I just touched it! I didn't do that!"
"Shut up!" Serina pinched his cheek, leaving Silas to make muffled "wu-wu" sounds.
"I heard humans invented something called a 'movie'—moving pictures. Don't you think this is very similar? Listen closely, there's even sound!" she said.
The images on the tablet changed rapidly, and lines of text appeared. Simultaneously, a deep male voice recited in a steady, monotonous rhythm:
"In ancient times, the Water God Gonggong fought with the Fire God Zhingzhong. Defeated and enraged, Gonggong struck Mount Buzhou with his head. The mountain collapsed, the pillar of heaven snapped, and the corner of the earth crumbled. Nüwa then refined five-colored stones to mend the heavens..." (Just go With it I'm Begging u)
The voice clearly belonged to Lorne. As a game designer, he wasn't particularly good at voice acting; the recitation was a bit stiff but the monsters didn't care about his lack of inflection. Their attention was entirely captured by the story of mending the sky.
Gonggong, Zhurong, Nüwa... these strange names were utterly foreign to Silas, sounding as if they came from another civilization or another land. Yet, the ancient aura emanating from the story drew him in uncontrollably.
"Fire God, Water God... our world doesn't have these deities. Did the Lord Demon King make them up?" Serina pondered, rubbing her chin.
"Maybe they come from the Lord Demon King's world!" The space beneath the skeleton's skull was empty, but its mental processing speed always left Silas in the dust.
Silas was bewildered. "I don't understand. Why would water leak from the sky just because a mountain collapsed? Is there an ocean in the sky of the Demon Realm?"
"It's utter nonsense!" the werewolf said coldly. "Even stories written by third-rate human authors are better than this!"
The siren, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly interjected. "What's so strange about that? In the legends of us sirens, the world was originally a vast ocean, and all life was born from the sea. Land only appeared after the waters receded. Maybe the Lord Demon King's world is just like our sea world!"
The werewolf choked on his words, silenced.
While they didn't quite understand the connection between a mountain collapsing and the sky falling, as long as they accepted the premise, everything seemed to become reasonable.
After the flood scene, a charming little white fox appeared on the obsidian tablet. It had round, golden eyes and nine tails swaying behind it.
"Dear adventurer from another world, welcome to the Primordial World!" A speech bubble appeared next to the nine-tailed fox's small head. "I am your guiding spirit beast; you can call me Bai!"
"Look, Wolf, it's one of your kind!" Silas shouted.
"I am a wolf! That is a fox! Are you blind?!" the werewolf roared.
"What's the difference? You're both canines anyway," Silas shrugged.
The werewolf exploded with a series of artistically "elegant" words regarding Silas's parents, then turned to leave in a huff. The fur on his tail stood on end from anger, making it look like a fluffy bottle brush.
Bai, unaware of the dispute over its species, said with a smile: "Adventurer from another world, may I ask your esteemed name? Of course, you don't have to tell me your real name; you can give yourself a grand nickname!"
Silas thought for a moment and typed his nickname into the box: "The World's #1 Most Handsome Man."
Xiao Bai bowed. "So it is Mr. 'World's #1 Most Handsome Man'! Thank you for traveling so far! As you can see, because Mount Buzhou collapsed, the heavens have fallen and the earth has cracked. The creatures of the Primordial World are suffering. The Great Goddess Nüwa intends to refine stones to mend the sky. Mr. 'World's #1 Most Handsome Man,' coming from another world, you must possess great power, right? Please help Goddess Nüwa collect five-colored stones to save the world. You will not only earn the gratitude of all races but also receive rewards from Goddess Nüwa herself!"
Saving the world was something for Heroes; Silas wasn't very interested. But no one refuses a "reward," not even a monster.
"Then I suppose I'll do you the favor of helping!"
Silas tapped the tablet, and a pile of colorful gems fell from the top, lining up neatly in ten rows.
Bai said: "Look, these are the five-colored stones, divided into five colors: red, yellow, blue, green, and purple. All you need to do is align at least three stones of the same color in a row or column. Please try moving this green gem to swap places with the red one!"
Silas followed Xiao Bai's instructions. Three red gems aligned vertically, and with a "clatter," they turned into golden light and flew to the top of the screen. Simultaneously, the score bar at the top grew slightly.
"Well done, Mr. 'World's #1 Most Handsome Man'!" Bai beamed. "You have completely mastered the method of collecting five-colored stones. Now, please race against time to collect as many as possible to assist Goddess Nüwa!"
A three-minute countdown appeared in the top left corner. Silas couldn't help but gulp, his fingers twitching with nerves.
"Countdown—Start!"
Silas focused intensely, his fingers sliding rapidly across the tablet, swapping the positions of the stones. One stone after another turned into golden light and flew into the score bar.
It was a simple enough task, but the countdown kept making Silas restless. His eyes kept darting toward it, and he even messed up several swaps. Every half-minute, Bai would remind him that time was running out, which made Silas increasingly frantic.
Fortunately, he managed to collect enough stones before time ran out. By then, a thin layer of sweat had formed on the succubus's forehead.
"Great job, Mr. 'World's #1 Most Handsome Man'!" Bai hopped around. "As expected of an adventurer from another world, Xiao Bai is truly impressed! To honor your contribution, Goddess Nüwa has decided to grant you a treasure!"
With a light leap from Bai, the tablet emitted a dazzling light. When it faded, a dark green fragment appeared in Bai's fluffy paws.
"This is a fragment of the artifact 'Bronze Sundial.' Due to the cataclysm, the 'Bronze Sundial' shattered, and fragments were scattered everywhere. If you collect three fragments, you can synthesize the complete 'Bronze Sundial'! It can increase the time for collecting stones. From now on, you might dig up fragments of the Sundial—and many other artifacts—while collecting stones. Please make sure to collect them and synthesize the artifacts!"
Hearing that he could get benefits from collecting stones made Silas's fingers tremble with excitement.
He had no idea that he had already stepped one foot into the treacherous trap of the "dirty" game designer Lorne.
The items obtained in the game enhance the player's experience, encouraging them to keep playing, which leads to more items. This cycle is designed to increase "player retention time."
Silas was immersed in the joy of obtaining a treasure fragment, completely failing to see the "sinister" intent behind it.
He looked up, only to find the werewolf Wolf had returned at some point and was staring intently at the tablet in his hands.
"I thought you left?"
"The hallway doesn't belong to your family; why can't I be here?!" the werewolf snapped.
He actually hadn't intended to come back. But Silas and the others were shouting so excitedly that they could be heard from the other end of the dungeon. It seemed that the stone tablet really was strangely interesting, and it made the werewolf's heart itch with curiosity.
It's just going back for one look, just one. That shouldn't count as betraying the Lord Demon King, right? —The "Lord Demon King" in the werewolf's heart was, of course, the one who had temporarily left the dungeon, not the silver-haired pretty boy who was as thin as a hemp stalk!
Silas turned his back, cradling the tablet carefully, fearing the werewolf might sabotage it. Failing to collect stones was a small matter, but breaking the treasure granted by the Lord Demon King was a serious one!
"We've finished collecting here; let's head to the next location! You must collect even more stones there!" Bai said.
The words "Level 2" appeared on the tablet, and stones fell from the sky once again to fill the screen.
Silas was already familiar with the process and quickly collected enough stones this time as well. Amidst Xiao Bai's continuous praise, he entered Level 3, then Level 4 without stopping, then Level 5, Level 6...
Several times Silas thought about stopping to rest—after all, they were still standing outside the Demon King's bedchamber. But for some reason, he just didn't want to move. His eyes and fingers didn't want to leave the obsidian tablet for even a second.
It was just putting gems of the same color together, so why couldn't he stop?
After clearing ten levels in a row, Silas had collected three fragments of the "Bronze Sundial" and synthesized the artifact. He had also gained fragments of several other artifacts. Unfortunately, Bai said they were not yet "implemented" and could not be used.
Starting from Level 11, the difficulty spiked. Not only was the time limit shorter, but "Death Bombs" disguised as stones began to appear. If he accidentally collected one, the score bar would drop. Silas even used the "Bronze Sundial" rewarded by Goddess Nüwa, but even so, by the time the countdown ended, he hadn't collected enough stones.
"I'll try one more time!"
The result of the second attempt wasn't much better. Since the "Bronze Sundial" disappeared after one use, he collected even fewer stones this time.
Silas scratched his head in frustration.
But someone else was even more frustrated.
Wolf the werewolf was about to explode with rage.
He had been watching Silas collect the stones. At first, the kid was doing okay—though Wolf knew he could have done better—but at Level 11, Silas was a total disaster.
Wolf could see the key to the level just by looking: you had to avoid the "Death Bombs" at all costs. Yet Silas was completely clueless and had even wasted a precious artifact without clearing the level.
This guy only has a handsome face; his brain is useless! And he actually named himself 'World's #1 Most Handsome Man,' how thick-skinned!
After Silas failed for the fifth time, Wolf couldn't take it anymore. He let out a roar—"Move, let me do it!"—snatched the tablet from Silas, and began rapidly collecting the stones.
"You stupid dog! What are you doing!" Silas's scream echoed through the entire dungeon. "Give it back! This was given to me by the Lord Demon King! You're not allowed to—Whoa, how... how are you doing that? So that's how you do it? Why are you so skilled?!"
Before the countdown even ended, Wolf had collected all the stones and even earned two artifact fragments.
Silas's eyes were wide. Wolf tossed the tablet back to him and let out three loud, arrogant laughs. "Open your eyes wide and look well, Pretty Boy. This is my—Captain of the Guard Wolf's—true strength!"
Silas looked at the tablet, then at the smug werewolf, and asked, "Then, can you help me clear the next level too?"
"No probl—Wait! I wasn't going to play! I don't want to touch anything created by that silver-haired fake who calls himself 'Demon King'!"
"Uh, but didn't you already touch it?"
Losing his temper, Wolf shoved Silas out of the way and stomped off toward the end of the hallway, his heavy footsteps shaking dust loose from the ceiling. Silas made a face at his back and turned back to the tablet.
The next level was even harder than the last. Silas couldn't even beat the easy ones, let alone this one.
After failing several more times, he couldn't help but shout toward the end of the hallway: "Hey, Wolf! Can you come help me for a second?"
A moment later, the werewolf came stomping back, looking furious.
"I'm only helping because I pity you! I'm absolutely not interested in this stone tablet! Get that straight!"