Chapter 37
Under the endless night, Nightmare University, which was bustling during the day, fell silent. The nightmare time was approaching midnight, and the first day of the open day was about to end.
Inside the Xuanri Bell Tower, Cen Xun sat in the principal's office and opened the system panel.
The Nightmare system will conduct daily settlements for all participating dungeons, and then rank them based on popularity, highest daily total points earned, and other criteria. Once the dungeons have been open for a week or a month, weekly and monthly rankings will be created.
The event page has entered the settlement countdown. Cen Xun's fingertips tapped the table casually, estimating the ranking of Nightmare University in his mind.
As a large ghost domain, Nightmare University's advantage over small ghost domains is that it can accommodate a large number of players at a time, but at the same time, it also has some disadvantages.
First, in order to ensure enrollment rate and playability and take a long-term development route, the player mortality rate of Nightmare University is not high. The points squeezed out by a single player are definitely not as many as those squeezed out by directly killing players in other ghost domains. In other words, if Nightmare University wants to defeat other ghost domains in point income, it mainly relies on the number of players to win.
Second, since the dungeon mechanism of Nightmare University tends to be a mission-based survival dungeon, if players can survive forever, they will always occupy the dungeon quota, and new students will not be able to enter, which will greatly affect the drainage effect.
The small ghost domain has one advantage: their copies are simple and the cycle is short. After the last round ends, a new group of players will quickly enter and start a new round of massacre.
Taking various factors into consideration, Cen Xun rationally guessed that Nightmare University's ranking today would not be too high.
Because today is only the first day of the open day, the number of players has not increased, and Nightmare University does not rely on slaughtering players to gain points, so it is destined to be inferior to those copies that start with a large-scale killing.
But Cen Xun believes that Nightmare University’s current weakness is only temporary.
Since the system does not force players to choose a copy, the human instinct of seeking profit and avoiding harm will definitely drive players to avoid high-risk copies and go to low-risk copies with high playability in large numbers.
What Cen Xun needs to do at this stage is to build a good reputation among the player community and publicize the advantages of Nightmare University on a large scale.
While he was thinking, the countdown on the panel returned to zero and the system refreshed to a new page smoothly.
The daily rankings are out.
Cen Xun did not look at the ranking of Nightmare University first, but first looked at the names of the top ten strange domains on the list.
The highest single-day points income is from Nine-Layered Heaven.
The bloody death rate is very obvious: 100%
Cen Xun raised his eyebrows slightly. All the players who went to this copy died?
It was named as a paradise to attract players, but it is so dangerous, no wonder it ranks first.
At this moment, there was a knock on the office door. Cen Xun withdrew his gaze from the panel and said, "Come in."
Tong Ming pushed the door open with a bag of documents in his arms. Da Ci Ci closed the door with his foot and placed the stack of documents on Cen Xun's desk. He patted it with his hand and said, "All the records of what I just found are here."
Cen Xun nodded slightly and told him to put it aside and look at it later.
Tong Ming didn't rush to talk about anything. He first went to Cen Xun's side to look at his dashboard and asked excitedly, "How is it? Are the daily rankings out? Where does our Nightmare University rank?"
Cen Xun said calmly, "I didn't see it."
Tong Ming was shocked: "Brother, are you a ninja? You can actually resist looking at it!"
"I know how my Ghost Domain is, so there's nothing to see." Cen Xun tapped the panel with his finger, narrowing his eyes slightly. "What's important is the opponent."
Tong Ming also saw the name and death rate of the top-ranked Ghost Domain at this time, and couldn't help but gasp in amazement: "Wow, this Domain Master is so cruel."
Cen Xun asked, "Have your Thousand Eyes observed anything about this strange realm?"
Tong Ming pondered for a moment. "Nine Heavens? I only know it's located in City B, a mysterious domain above the Orange Level. The domain's owner is experiencing unexplained interference. I can't find out anything about his past, but as for why this mysterious domain has a 100% mortality rate, I do have some idea."
Cen Xun: "Why?"
Tong Ming touched his chin. "It's also related to the Nine Heavens dungeon mechanics. There's a term in its rules called 'finding happiness.' No one can live their life to their fullest, right? Maybe those players chose to stay just to find some kind of 'happiness.'"
"Happiness" Cen Xun chewed on the word: "Well, it is indeed a good bait."
After briefly understanding the first place on the list, the Strange Domain, Cen Xun's gaze did not linger, and continued to scroll down to look at the second place on the list, the Ark of the World, which also had a mortality rate of 100%.
"Wow, I know that too!" Without waiting for Cen Xun to ask, Tong Ming excitedly revealed the news about this strange domain: "This strange domain is on an island in the sea, and it's a complete natural disaster dungeon! Players will experience major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, acid rain, tsunamis, and other disasters. Only by successfully building the Ark of Creation can players escape that sea area. Think about it, brother, after such a round of natural disasters, ordinary players are lucky to survive. This shows that this domain master is no slouch at all!"
Cen Xun: "Why do you know so much about this mysterious domain?"
Tong Ming folded his arms and said, "The first place is in a special situation. Something on him is interfering with the Thousand Eyes' observation. The second place is different. First, his strength is not as good as the first place. Second, he does not have any special shielding skills."
Tong Ming pointed at his eyes and said proudly, "As long as their level is not too high, or they don't have special skills or special items blocking them, generally speaking, no one or anything can escape my observation."
Ignoring Tong Ming's boasting, Cen Xun's expression remained calm. "The second-ranked player's special skill should be a natural disaster. Nightmare University happens to be by the sea. If this domain master lands from the sea, it will pose a huge threat to Nightmare University."
Tong Ming's expression froze. Thinking of this possibility, he frowned slightly. "This is indeed a problem. Speaking of which, brother, I think there's something strange about this Territory Lord. His power seems to be divided into three parts. When I observed him, I saw three different energies."
Cen Xun narrowed his eyes: "Three kinds of energy, natural disasters are interesting."
The third strange place on the list is called "Time Photo Studio", and its mortality rate is also 100%.
Regarding the Time Photo Studio, Tong Ming also expressed regret that there was interference around this domain master. He could only observe a little bit and vaguely knew that its core mechanism was related to "time".
Fourth on the list, Crazy Mechanical City, with a mortality rate of 100%.
Tong Ming was disgusted with this dungeon: "This is a pure survival dungeon. Players need to collect various metal elements to assemble firearms, so that they can fight against the mechanical monsters in the city. The worst thing is that teammates can't be trusted, because killing people has a chance of dropping treasure chests. Sigh, it's too bloody. This domain master doesn't understand the aesthetics of killing at all!"
The name of the fifth place on the list is a bit outrageous, 4148 mini-games, and the mortality rate is only 80%.
When talking about this instance, Tong Ming hesitated a bit: "This strange domain is very strange. It can move around everywhere, so I can only observe a little bit of its content each time."
Cen Xun held his chin in his hand and stared at the panel, looking intrigued. "4148 mini-game? It sounds like it's a virtual, mysterious domain hidden within the internet."
"Yes," Tong Ming replied in the affirmative, speechlessly holding his forehead. "Brother, can you imagine that? The way they deliver invitations is to push pornographic ads to users, and then design a fake red cross in the upper right corner of the ad. If users click on the cross, they will be directly pulled into the game. It's really deceptive."
Cen Xun: “”
That is indeed hard to guard against.
Cen Xun spoke slowly, "Logically, more players should choose this. After all, its Weird Domain Name looks like a casual game, so why is it only ranked fifth?"
"You don't know this, brother," Tong Ming raised a finger and said seriously, "You can't even imagine that this guy's Ghost Domain actually has certain computer configuration requirements! If the configuration is not enough, the game won't run. What can it do? It can only reluctantly give up the target player. Among the 20% of players who survived, many of them survived because their computers were not well configured, and they exploded after being overloaded, forcing them to quit the game."
Cen Xun was completely speechless.
Even a cooked duck can fly. This domain lord doesn't seem to be very smart.
Next, Cen Xun quickly flipped through the rest of the list.
List 6: Six Paths Ghost City, 100% mortality rate.
List seven: Tiandi Travel Agency, mortality rate 100%.
List 8: Love Town, mortality rate 99%.
List 9: A feast of wild delicacies, with a 100% mortality rate.
List 10: Fairy Tale Amusement Park, mortality rate 100%.
After watching it, Tong Ming sighed, "No, they really killed all the players on the first day. The Domain Master of Love Town was pretty good, even leaving a 1% survival rate. That's pretty good."
Cen Xun said calmly, "Perhaps he originally didn't even want to keep 1%."
Tong Ming said with a tut-tut sound, "How outrageous! It's all 100% fatality. How dare other players play it?"
Cen Xun pondered for a moment. "Is it possible that all the players who played these dungeons are dead, so they can't give bad reviews at all?"
Tong Ming laughed to death: "What a joke! Besides, can't these players be resurrected after being killed?"
Cen Xun said, "Not necessarily."
"How do you say that?"
Cen Xun pondered: "Whether the player can be resurrected depends on whether the domain master devours him whole."
Tong Ming asked doubtfully, "Brother, do you mean to swallow the whole body?"
"No, I'll call it the player's soul." Cen Xun tapped the table with his fingers. "You know, my puppet strings can control players, so I have a vague idea of this."
Tong Ming understood: "In other words, the player actually enters the nightmare world in the form of a soul. If they are killed normally, at most their soul will be damaged, but they can still return. But if they are eaten whole by the domain master, it is equivalent to the player's soul completely dissipating, and the player's body will die as well."
Cen Xun nodded. "That's what I mean. If those Domain Lords devour the players whole, leaving nothing behind, then the dead players won't have the chance to return to reality and clear the forums."
Tong Ming: "Well, that's the truth, but brother, you even know how to clear mines. How come you are so down-to-earth?"
Cen Xun didn't respond to his words, and said expressionlessly: "Although they can't clear the mines, we may be able to help them."
Tong Ming was stunned: "How can I help?"
"Isn't this easy?" Cen Xun gave a malicious smile. "Secretly hire players to clear minefields on the forums, incite fear among players, and drive down the rankings of these high-mortality dungeons."
He stared at the top ten on the list with indifference: "What kind of level dares to rank ahead of Nightmare University?"
"Tong Ming silently raised his thumb: "High-end business wars often adopt the simplest methods. You are worthy of being me, fourth brother." You can even think of buying water army.
As Cen Xun thought, Nightmare University is currently ranked 78th. With a total of 106 copies, the result is obviously not very ideal. However, the mortality rate following it is a very eye-catching 15%!
Amidst rows of 100%, 90%, and 80% mortality rates, it is so refreshing, like a clear stream in troubled times, firmly grasping everyone's attention.
Cen Xun's eyes remained steady. "Right now, the players can't see this single-day ranking yet. Make a table of the rankings, hire a player to pretend the table is official leaked information, and post it directly on the player forum. Then, find a few players to act as a "troll army" below. You know what I mean."
Tong Ming nodded with mixed feelings and started lighting candles for other domain masters.
His brother is full of evil intentions, and those domain lords only know how to kill people indiscriminately. How can they defeat him?
After looking at the rankings, Tong Ming talked about business with Cen Xun.
Cen Xun asked, "Have you found the crack?"
Tong Ming nodded, pulled a chair and sat down next to Cen Xun. He dragged the documents next to him over and pointed to the top document. "I have recorded everything I observed with the Thousand Eyes. Now I will briefly introduce the current situation."
After clearing his throat, Tong Ming asked with some ill intention: "Brother, do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"
Cen Xun didn't even raise his head: "Good news."
Tong Ming smiled and said, "The good news is, you guessed right. The rift does exist. It's located in the business district of downtown H City, right in the company where your ex-husband works."
As expected, Cen Xun clenched the document in his hand indifferently: "So what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is that the central business district has now become a strange domain. The location of the rift has been moved by the domain master, and I can't see where it has been moved to." Tong Ming shrugged: "It seems we have to go there in person."
Cen Xun frowned: "Does it appear on the rankings?"
"Yes, it's number 40 on the list." Tong Ming swiped Cen Xun's panel a few times and scrolled to number 40.
In Jingdu Business District, the mortality rate is 60%.
"That's it."
Tong Ming helped Cen Xun open the file: "Brother, take a look, these are the information I found about the Domain Master."
Cen Xun looked at the document. He never expected that what appeared before his eyes was neither a photo nor a personal experience introduction, but a pet hospital examination form?
Fuan Pet Hospital
Customer Name: Mr. Qin
Membership card number: None
Pet name: Mimi
Pet type: Cat
Pet breed: Long-haired cow
Pet age: one month
Pet medical record number: 2xxx0521xxx9
Check the name:
Complete blood biochemistry test
Stool routine
Three-category blood test
Total bill amount: 6532.86]
Cen Xun: “?”
He continued to flip through the pages in disbelief, and saw more cat toy purchase records and cat food ingredient comparison notes, all of which were about cats.
Cen Xun was silent for a few seconds, then he picked up the bill with two fingers and looked at Tong Ming silently: "Are you saying that the domain master of Jingdu Business District is a long-haired cow cat?"
Tong Ming shook his finger calmly: "No, no, no, the domain owner of Jingdu Business District is this Mr. Qin."
Cen Xun: “”
"This Mr. Qin used to be the CEO of an office building in Jingdu Business District." Tong Ming pointed to the client's name on the checklist. "His ability must have something to do with money, because I see that players entering Jingdu Business District are all crazy about making money."
Cen Xun held his chin in his hand, a little confused: "But what role does that cow cat play in this?"
"Cow cat?" Tong Ming said nonchalantly, "Oh, it has nothing to do with it. I just found a lot of information about it and just handed it in to make up the number."
Cen Xun was speechless. It was fine for humans to fool around at work, but why would even monsters use invalid information to fool their superiors?
Tong Ming continued, "This dungeon is a mission-based survival dungeon. Players must stay in the Jingdu Business District for five days. The previous round of players haven't been wiped out yet. If the remaining players don't die, we'll have to wait four days to sneak in."
Cen Xun said without hesitation: "Then wait, we must protect that rift."
"One more thing," Tong Ming snapped his fingers and said with a sly smile, "Brother, you might need to learn how to drive first, because there seems to be a driving escape segment in the Jingdu Business District dungeon."
"Really?" Cen Xun frowned, opened the drawer, and took out the driving school advertisement that had floated into the car window earlier. He patted it in his palm with an expressionless face and said, "Then I'll go learn tomorrow."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
