The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 579: Dungeon Instance Analyst

“In other words, let’s go adventuring unexplored part of the game?”

Thirteenth Fragrance frowned slightly, and subconsciously pushed the bridge of his nose without glasses, “Is it just me and Husky?”

Longjing Tea asked in a low voice, “Is there any problem?

“From my point of view, the two of you should be the most suitable, but your opinions will be given priority.”

“No, I’m interested. I think Husky should be keener than me… But objectively speaking, can the two of us do it?”

Thirteenth Fragrance analyzed seriously and calmly, “I watched the recordings and broadcastings of two dungeon instances, ‘Gallery’ and ‘Unification War’ yesterday. It’s to get a reference for the [Distorted] and [Hard] difficulties. To be honest, they are exciting.

“If you give me a dungeon instance or two to practice, I have the confidence to challenge it. After all, the reaction speed of this body is much stronger than my own body.

“But for Husky, he… No, she may not be able to complete the role.”

[TN: A brief reminder that Husky created a female avatar in the “Mist Continent” game.]

He sighed. He said sincerely and helplessly, “Let me tell the truth. I don’t think Husky can play the role well and clear the nightmare. If it is a test of reaction or mechanics, she can at least play at the upper level. However, she’s more of an intuitive player lacking in logical aspects.

“Nightmare is a dungeon instance that requires brains to play and decipher. It is not suitable for her.

“She’s the type of player who, even in a game of Werewolf, could suddenly start doing stand-up comedy or making herself laugh. Even if I continued to play my role without responding, she could seamlessly switch to doing a comedy routine on her own.”

Of course, I know about this.

Longjing Tea smiled silently.

The veteran comedian’s combination of Husky and Thirteenth Fragrance was considered his childhood.

Although the two had become a duo of a young man and a girl, their style had changed slightly.

“Don’t worry.” Longjing Tea said slowly, “It’s fine to approach the nightmare through metagaming [1]. We even encourage that/

“In ‘Phantom Fever’, the main difficulty is ‘misunderstanding between two people’.”

“Misunderstanding?”

“That’s right. According to our speculation based on the information we have so far, the information everyone knows and the mission they hold in this dungeon instance is completely different.

“But it doesn’t have to be like a role-playing game where you have to continuously play your assigned role and complete tasks… as long as you don’t overdo it to the extent that the core NPCs suspect that this is a nightmare, whether you play your assigned role or not will only have a minimal impact on the final evaluation after the nightmare ends.”

“However, in this nightmare, there may be an enemy ‘disguised as another person’. Then, the ability to quickly distinguish whether the person is a teammate or monster will become critical.”

Longjing Tea explained.

“I see.”

No wonder they came to us.

Thirteenth Fragrance was silent for a moment and subconsciously pushed the bridge of his nose which was empty.

The emptiness of not pushing something made him scratch his fair in embarrassment and cough lightly.

“Don’t be too nervous. It’s just a dungeon instance.” Seeing him nervous, Longjing Tea chuckled. He opened the cigar box and handed over a cigar. Then, he pushed the cigar cutter and matches together.

“I have quit.” Thirteenth Fragrance responded subconsciously, “I’m getting old.”

Longjing Tea smiled, “We’re just virtual avatars here.”

“Oh yes.” Only then did Thirteenth Fragrance react. He took the cigar and thanked him.

This world was too real. He hadn’t died yet, and he hadn’t personally experienced any transcended power. Thus, he would tend to forget that he was in the “game” or appeared in the “other world” as a projection.

“This time, your mission is not necessarily to clear the dungeon. It is to turn on the live broadcast, live as long as you can, and record the dungeon instance in the form of broadcasting format for comprehensive analysis. Here you will be provided with little information.”

As he spoke, Longjing Tea reached out his hand and drew a line in the air.

From his side, Old Goose wrote a detailed guide of about 2,500 words through Annan’s narration. He sent it to Thirteenth Fragrance through a private chat in the friend system.

“Read it first. After reading it, summarize it and send it to Husky. I probably won’t be able to finish reading such a long guide, and she should receive much lesser information.”

“I see.” Thirteenth Fragrance nodded.

To put it simply, it was to go to the dungeon instance analyst to test the mechanics.

In the first adventuring group, this approach was quite common.

There were some “Boss Monsters”, which their core mechanism couldn’t be figured out by just fighting them once or twice. Even if it was to figure out the precise cooldown, there would inevitably be a few particularly crazy bosses where the players would be stuck for a long time.

In this case, having an analyst was necessary.

By viewing the recorded video repeatedly, challenging the Boss Monster repeatedly, recording the health points and behavior, and deducing the damage through the damage record and the tank’s defensive attributes… Such bosses had always existed since the primitive era of video games.

They were termed mathematicians.

Even with unpacking the data through the damage output and mechanics of the “Boss Monster”, it was challenging to craft a walkthrough directly. The strategy to tackle the “Boss Monster” would include strategic damage reduction on each key phase, positioning, movement, and the safe spot. It would these mathematicians a long time to count.

At the researching stage and making strategy videos, it was even more important to understand the game mechanics. Strategy videos could be verbose and redundant… but if the mechanics were overlooked, it would be a shame.

When Thirteenth Fragrance was a student, he was part of the game group in adventuring unexplored parts of the game.

He even had the record of being the first of the whole server in a variety of MMORPG games in clearing bosses. He was also experienced as an analyst while studying.

Husky was the exact opposite of him.

That stupid dog had always copied the homework directly. Sometimes, he made mistakes in copying the work, and he had to ask Thirteenth Fragrance “Did I do something wrong?”

Farming a dungeon instance included getting materials, playing safe, and analyzing the mechanics behind the dungeon. Thirteenth Fragrance was quite familiar with these tasks. He was mainly worried about whether he could control Husky.

As the saying goes, there were bad names, but no inaccurate nicknames.

Husky was a dog who would run wildly once they were out of sight.

On the other hand, the level of tacit understanding between them was superb.

Even a look or a movement could make the other party understand what they wanted.

I hope Husky can live up to it.

I will sort out the strategy for her again, delete the unnecessary parts, and emphasize the parts that need special attention…

Thinking of this, Thirteenth Fragrance sighed.

This cigar tastes a bit average. It’s certainly not as good as the good cigars I have smoked in reality, but this is expected after considering the current era and technological advancement.

“When will we start?”

“Boss’s suggestion is to wait until the two of you are ready to go to bed. Let’s say tonight.”

Longjing Tea smiled at him, “After all, he doesn’t know whether you are busy in the ‘other world’. So to take care of your work and rest, you should give priority to your sleep time—that is, do the dungeon instance guide after 10 p.m.”

“Ah.” Thirteenth Fragrance laughed when he heard the words, “He must not know that young people in our world only go to bed after midnight.”

“Cade doesn’t even go to sleep until after dawn.”

Longjing Tea shrugged, “However, Cade is almost bald now…”

Hearing this, the two of them looked at each other and smiled.

On the other side, Annan had already chosen the person who would share the secret with him this time.