Who designed this underworld dungeon?.

Chapter 697 is Sain's legitimate self-defense.
"Sure enough, people stop caring about saving face when outsiders aren't around."

Gong Qiying looked at the battle invitations that had flooded the screen, and a smile had been on his face for a very long time.

"No, it should be said that they will immediately break off relations once their own interests are involved."

The first dungeons to send me battle/deathmatch invitations were Blazing Holy Light and White Blood, which I had only recently encountered.

Soon after, a bunch of other dungeons appeared. Gong Qiying had heard of the names of these dungeons, such as Natural Dungeon, Moonlight Dungeon, and Solid Rock Dungeon, but he had hardly ever had any contact with them.

What's wrong with these people?

Upon closer reflection, the reason these dungeons followed suit is probably because the Holy Light Dungeon spread the news that Sien was coming to open a branch city.

Then the news exploded like a torrent of Mentos had been thrown at it.

Gong Qiying opened the world color map, observed the surrounding dungeons with the Fanatic Dungeon as the center, and compared them one by one with the dungeons that had sent him "invitations". Then he showed an "I see" expression.

No wonder everyone reacted so strongly.

They were all neighbors from the same area of ​​the fanatical underground city.

"That's not surprising."

Scammeron, a nation of many religions, is a country known for its diverse community of faiths.

Due to the unique national circumstances, the dungeons here are more or less influenced by religious elements, or have been artificially endowed with religious elements. For example, during his investigation, he heard that the White Blood Dungeon, which clearly had no religious elements at all, was still revered by the sect that worshipped the Blood God.

However, due to the unique national circumstances, the underground cities here lack "enormous structures".

In other words, a player's color occupies a large area on the map of the entire country, making it easy to identify a heavyweight player at a glance.

For example, there's the Sien Dungeon in relation to the Kingdom of Anor and Red, and the Red Fang Dungeon, which once dominated the Warrior Kingdom but has now been overshadowed by the Sien Dungeon.

Without any massive behemoths, the influence of the dungeons in Scammeron is quite dispersed, consisting of dozens of dungeons of different sizes and colors forming a jigsaw puzzle with indeterminate edges.

Even with the support of the Holy Light Church, one of the most influential religious sects in the country, the color coverage area of ​​the Holy Light Dungeon is actually only one or two sizes larger than other dungeons.

In addition, due to the war, the influence of Scammeron's dungeons is fluctuating dramatically every day, and the fighting seems to be quite intense.

You might be the one laughing at the world today, but tomorrow a master might suddenly appear and slap you off a cliff. A few days later, you might have a lucky encounter at the bottom of the cliff, climb up, and kill that master, but you still can't rest because there are other opponents roaming around.

The entire Scammeron is like a bunch of small vendors competing for customers. It might eventually breed a large company, but that's a future possibility. Right now, it's still a fierce business battle.

So, a question arises.

What would happen if a large company, which has been in business for a short time but has already gained a great reputation, suddenly opened a branch in this group of small vendors?

"The result, of course, was that those vendors who didn't have any unique selling points were kicked to death."

It's absolutely impossible to expect believers to continue paying tribute to their dungeon. The Scamerons have a flexible bottom line regarding faith. Just wait and see if they convert after Thane comes and opens a branch city.

It was modified.

The most likely scenario is that the Scameron people hesitated for a while in their own faith and then immediately went to Thane to convert. Their biggest dilemma was probably deciding which religion to follow.

Caught in the same dilemma as the Reids—whether to eat the rice of the Warrior Kingdom or the flatbread of the Kingdom of Anor—they finally decided to eat them all, including the gourmet food area, because that would make them truly well-rounded.

So, what should the local dungeons of Scammeron do in the face of such a hellish and hopeless future?
Of course, we should overturn the stall before the goods arrive in the Sien Dungeon!
Gong Qiying counted, and realized that more than ten dungeons had already sent him challenges.

They're all neighbors from the surrounding area. What happened to being kind to your neighbors? This has turned into treating your neighbors like family!

"So many people are challenging me at the same time. Do they know they can't beat me alone, so they're planning a war of attrition?"

The current Sien Dungeon is different from before; it now has the right to refuse to fight.

However, it's possible that some of the dungeons that issued the challenge still possess the authority to "initiate a battle for the first time and therefore cannot be refused."

Rather than waiting for such people to come knocking on his door, Gong Qiying preferred to take the initiative and retaliate proactively in these underground cities.
Fight them all back, one by one!

Although some people may occasionally act recklessly, I've longed for this generally peaceful situation my whole life. If possible, I'd like to ask you not to take any action.

The voice of Chi Ya came to mind not long ago. It was when Gong Qiying said, "I'll just beat up all those suspicious dungeons."

“Grandpa Red Fang, look carefully. I didn’t start this. They came to me first.”

Gong Qiying clenched his fists, making his bones crack.

"This shows that the city lords have been influenced by the war in Scameron and become warlike. I will help you give them a re-education."

This is his way of protecting himself, and Chi Ya will support him; he might even come to help.

"But thinking about it, it really is an exaggeration."

He looked at the large area of ​​green representing the Sien Dungeon on the world color map. Although he still wanted to complain that the color scheme resembled Nurgle, he had almost gotten used to it by now.

What he found astonishing and exaggerated was that, in less than a year since he took over the Sien Dungeon, he had managed to grow it to its current scale, with three countries vying to pay homage to him.

In another month or so, it will be the first anniversary of the Sien Dungeon, so the current operating time of Sien can be considered as a mere "a few months".

This is pretty scary, isn't it?

Wherever there is a Saen Dungeon, it will attract many people to come in and dedicate their spiritual power, while spreading the color of Saen.

Although its spread speed is not as fast as that of the Nurgle, its dyeing efficiency is still astonishing among city lords.

So it's no wonder that the local lords of Scammeron reacted so excessively; they were all afraid of dying in the business competition.

"But then again, I don't think I've ever resorted to underhanded tactics with my colleagues. I've always relied on my abilities, so my moral character is quite noble."

At this point, Gong Qiying's expression suddenly turned strange again, because he suddenly thought of a question.

It seems that wherever the Sien Dungeon appears, a devastating event will occur in that country, one that could impact the entire nation.
No, we can't think of it that way. We should say that it's fortunate that Saine came to save these countries before the implosion of the nuclear weapons!
The next country we'll be visiting in the Sien Dungeon is the Kingdom of Scammeron.

This country has already experienced such a shocking event as internal strife and war. Even if the Sien Dungeon were to be built, surely nothing worse than war could happen, right?
Probably not?
Gong Qiying shook his head, no longer dwelling on these trivial matters, and turned to look at the challenge letters that had been delivered to him.

He glanced at them, then randomly selected one. [Committed to the battle in the Blazing Dungeon]

Once you've accepted a challenge from one dungeon, invitations from other dungeons automatically become invalid, remaining valid until the battle ends.

Explosive underground city, the city lord is Yan Huo.

Of the three city lords I met, Yan Huo chatted with Gong Qiying the most.

Although Chi Ya said he had a bad temper, and the other person was acting, his words and actions suggested he was a decent person, similar to Pantheon from The Rock Dungeon.

After all, most city lords sent out deathmatches directly, but Yan Huo remained calm and restrained, sending out dungeon battles instead.

Gong Qiying prefers to deal with people of this personality because they don't have to be so careful with their words when speaking.

"Moreover, we can use the flames as a breakthrough point to get information about others from him."

In any case, it is locals like Yanhuo who have the deepest understanding of Scammeron.

In addition to these factors, there was another reason why Gong Qiying chose Yan Huo as the first person to fight.

That is, he really didn't know what the conflict was between his Sien Dungeon and the Blazing Dungeon.

Gong Qiying knew about the Xinghuo Church.

When he first learned from Red Fang that there were traces of the fire god Flame in the Blazing Dungeon, he wondered if the Blazing Dungeon, which outwardly claimed to hate Sain, was actually hating Sain because of religious issues.

The Holy Light Dungeon can be attributed to religion, but he couldn't come up with the White Blood Dungeon. Perhaps the Blazing Flame Dungeon was also due to religion?
However, during a conversation at the party, he learned that the first decline of the Blazing Inferno Dungeon was due to the gradual cessation of visits from those who used to regularly worship the ruins of the Fire God.

He even asked about the time carefully.

During that period, the Church of Starfire had not yet changed the name of the Fire God from Flame to Gwyn. At that time, Leon and his companions had just been killed by the Guardian Ape and were in a state of terror, staying at home in isolation.

At least at that time, the Sien Dungeon did not harm the interests of the Blazing Dungeon.

Therefore, Yan Huo's dislike for Sain might have other reasons besides religion. Gong Qiying wanted to try to explain it clearly in this battle. If he could, gaining a friend would be good.

After all, among the city lords he met at the party, only Yan Huo seemed somewhat like a normal person.

The remaining two are a wealthy, arrogant religious fanatic and a poor, gloomy female servant; neither of them seems like a difficult person to deal with.

Gong Qiying was about to contact Yan Huo, but after thinking about it, he took out some stationery and decided to write a letter, which seemed more formal.

Dungeon battles and dungeon deathmatches are two different things.

A deathmatch is truly a fight to the death; the loser loses everything, including their own dungeon and all resources, which are then at the mercy of the other. The worst outcome is also the most lucrative.

Battles are different; they're more like friendly sparring, except both sides have to wager something before the fight can begin, and the winner gets the treasure wagered by the loser as a reward.

As for what Yan Huo wanted, Gong Qiying estimated that he could probably guess.

Before he could finish writing the letter, news came from the Blazing Inferno Dungeon. The messenger seemed even more impatient than Gong Qiying.

It wasn't a letter, but a direct call request, just like when the Val dungeon sent a projection device directly.

Gong Qiying prepared the projection device, and a moment later, Yan Huo's figure appeared on the projection device, still in the appearance of a fire elemental creature.

"Sorry, Godwin, for suddenly challenging you to a dungeon battle. But judging from your expression, you don't seem angry."

Yan Huo apologized as soon as he appeared, but when he saw the smile on Gong Qiying's face, he swallowed the rest of his apology and reverted to his previous personality at the party.

"So polite? I thought you'd say something harsh as soon as we met."

"Haha, harsh words are for enemies like demons, but you are my friend."

"Who fights with their friends?"

"Sorry, sorry, but I only started the fight because I felt you needed someone to help you."

The flames that make up Yan Huo's body danced more nimbly. Although his facial features were only pockmarked by the flames, the indentation in his mouth showed that he was grinning.

"You must know that as soon as you come here and open a branch city, you will become the target of everyone's attacks. When Red Fang invited you, who is so far away from here, to come and fight the sealed artifact, I guessed that you would probably accept it."

No, I was actually quite surprised and delighted when I saw so many deathmatch challenges, Gong Qiying thought to himself.

It seems that Yan Huo has imagined him to be very powerful.

"So I was thinking, dealing with so many city lords must be a tough job. If someone could help you, you'd definitely gain their favor, right? They could even protect you in the future."

Yan Huo blinked mischievously, his eyes slightly sunken.

Gong Qiying didn't dislike his way of directly stating his needs; such a straightforward manner of speaking seemed refreshing even today.

“Look at the glorious dungeon in the distance. I’m always very generous to my friends,” Gong Qiying replied with a smile.

The flames of the fire flared even brighter. He nodded and said, "Actually, I wanted to be more direct, but in this environment where everyone's issuing challenges, you know, I have to go along with the crowd, besides..."

He extended his hand towards Gong Qiying, as if to shake hands in the air.

"I'm really envious of your flaming giant golem. If I win, how about you give me one?"

He even showed great restraint by not asking for the right to summon the Furnace Golem, but only asking for one.

"No problem. On the contrary, if I win, you'll introduce me to all the dungeon lords in this country. Be prepared to have a dry throat."

Gong Qiying also extended his hand and symbolically shook hands with the projection of Yanhuo.

"It's so easy to talk to such an open and honest person," he thought to himself.

Yan Huo also sighed.

"Those who like playing with fire are definitely not bad people."

(End of this chapter)