Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

"I'm finally back, Sali, did you have fun out there?"

Philip's expression instantly softened, his youngest son was his favorite.

Glancing back at the entrance, the newcomer had, let's scratch that, although the phrasing was a bit off, he was a man, or rather a youth, who could be described as bewitching.

Unlike the inherited brown hair of the Bed Family, the young man named Sali had silvery hair like the pale moonlight, casually tied in a ponytail at the back of his head, looking effortless and neat. His traveler's outfit was quite refined, showing the dust of his journeys, and at a glance, he was just a handsome youth.

That is, if you could overlook his delicate features and the height of one meter sixty.

It would not be fitting to call him a cross-dresser since he exuded a manly aura, but calling him a tough guy would be a waste of his beautiful facial features, so he might be best described as a delicate and handsome young man.

Philip grew fonder of the child the more he looked at him. The youth had perfectly inherited his late mother's beauty and the startling intelligence passed down through the Bed family. At a young age, he already had his unique insights into the business and could even lead a caravan on his own, making him seem like the best candidate to inherit the Bed family business.

But it was a pity that he was an illegitimate child.

He was the child of Earl Philip and a commoner woman, brought into the Bed household only after his mother's death five years ago.

Out of guilt toward the boy's mother, Philip always unconsciously favored Sali, which inadvertently made him the object of hostility from his two older brothers, and even the servants held a poor opinion of him in private.

Therefore, after reaching adulthood, Sali often traveled for business and rarely came home, resulting in the establishment of a profitable caravan.

"How much did you earn this time? Come, share your joy with me," Philip greeted warmly.

"Same as usual, not much," Sali tiptoed to hang his coat on the rack and noticed the report on the table, "I heard about the abnormalities in the Dungeon, has Father finished exploring it?"

"Heh, it's going to be tough this time," said Philip with a laugh, pushing a thick stack of reports to Sali, "These are reports from experts and adventurers hired by our family, along with some miscellaneous intelligence. Take a look, and help me figure out how we can gnaw through this tough bone."

"Is it as dangerous as the rumors?"

Sali picked up the report and began to read. The smile on his lips gradually flattened, and at last, he put down the report with an expressionless face, his eyebrows still slightly furrowed.

Seeing the intelligent Sali with such an expression made Philip surprisingly happy; after all, he didn't want to be the only one with a headache.

"So, how is it? Pretty tough, right? No idea where to start?"

"It's different from what I imagined," said Sali, stroking the gemstone ring on his right hand, frowning, "It's too simple."

"What?" Philip doubted if he had heard wrong, "Too simple?"

His instinct told him that his son might indeed have a breakthrough solution.

"Do you remember the letter I wrote to you, Father, where I said I met some friends on my journey and wanted to bring them home as guests?"

"Could it be that your friends can..."

"Right, I haven't mentioned their identities yet," Sali said with a slight smile, exuding confidence.

"They are Heroes."

"Ahchoo—"

Gong Qiying suddenly sneezed, scratching his head and muttering to himself, "Can an Animated Corpse catch a cold?"

He was intently staring into the Crystal Ball; watching the adventurers' strategies for clearing the Dungeon had become his favorite show, more interesting than any TV program in his past life.

Among the adventurers, there were always some incredible beings, clearing levels in the most unimaginable ways.

Some used flying pets to ignite the beacons for them, unlocking the fortress gates without a scratch.

Others used some kind of magic to shapeshift into Fishmen and infiltrated the Monster group. After lighting two beacons, they found themselves surrounded by Fishmen, only to realize they had turned into a female Fishman while all the Fishmen in the Dungeon were male.

As a result, the humiliated adventurer committed suicide.

Some discovered that when skeleton monsters fell apart, there were two outcomes: some always had their skulls facing up when they hit the ground, others faced down. Combining the two, they created a perpetual motion machine!

However, the speed was so fast that it extinguished the soul fire inside the skeleton skull, and the skeleton monster died.

Besides these shenanigans, there was always one group that wouldn't be absent—the brute force players.

A typical example was an adventurer with a slight giant lineage, a Berserker about three meters tall who, after drinking a Fury Potion, carried dual axes and chopped his way from the Teleportation Gate to the fortress gate. He hacked at the door in a mindless frenzy, nearly breaking through by force, scaring Gong Qiying into considering whether to bring the Molten Furnace Knight over for a confrontation.

In the end, it was the brave army of Curse Frogs that solved the problem with Curse Death Spray.

The Curse Frog truly is the greatest creature in this world. Hands clasped in prayer.

"I should really add more Monsters with instant-kill abilities; the brute force players are too scary,"

Gong Qiying's gaze shifted and suddenly made a "Huh" sound

"What is this guy up to?"

The figure on the screen was familiar: slender build, pale face, and meticulous clothing—it was Wild.

"This guy is still alive," Gong Qiying remembered him. Initially, he thought the other party was just a typical arrogant privileged guy and didn't expect him still to be alive. He had entered the Dungeon as soon as it opened and hadn't died yet, even when it was almost closing time?

It wasn't particularly surprising that a privileged gentleman had remained alive until now, but what caught Gong Qiying's attention was what the man was holding—a round object, red and white...

That's an Elf Ball!

"I remember hiding the Elf Ball in a very secluded patch of grass, guarded by Bulbasaurs. How could he have gotten his hands on it?"

Well, getting an Elf Ball is no big deal if you're lucky enough, but—

"Go Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

Wild, with one hand on his hip, suddenly tossed the Elf Ball towards a roaming Animated Corpse soldier and struck a somewhat flamboyant pose.

The next second, there was a flash of light, and a Pikachu really did bounce out of the ball!

"Pika pika—chu!"

Yellow sparks flew, instantly toasting the Animated Corpse soldier to a crispy outside and tender inside, collapsing to the ground with a thud, deader than dead.

"Well done, Pikachu. You're truly worthy of being this young master's partner!"

"Pika,"

While Wild looked excited, Pikachu was indifferent to him and directly hopped onto his head.

"No, how could he have tamed Pikachu? It doesn't look like he could win at all,"

Gong Qiying didn't know where the problem lay. He had considered that Pokemon might be tamed by adventurers, but he never thought they would be tamed by a feeble nobility.

Surely Wild couldn't be the kind of superman who could tame Pokemon at full health with a single ball?

Moreover, to have tamed Pikachu and be able to fight in sync with it immediately, this level of rapport... It feels like even if Pikachu was insta-killed the next second, it would still try to stand up to keep the Trainer from being sad.

"This guy is a good seedling, just in terms of training Pokemon,"

Gong Qiying suddenly wanted to battle Wild as well.