The scale of Slay the Spire 2 wasn’t very large.
Even with the heavily optimized graphics of Slay the Immortal Spire, if Lu Ze went all out on production, he could finish it in just a day.
Lu Ze deliberately slowed down the pace of development, spending an extra two days refining the details. His main intention was to give Zhong Yi some experience and build his confidence.
Otherwise, if both of them released their games around the same time, Zhong Yi probably wouldn’t even get a share of the pie...
“Junior Brother Lu, your illusion realm hasn’t been released yet?”
Zhong Yi refreshed the illusion realm several times but still couldn’t find Lu Ze’s new creation, so he asked anxiously.
“Take it easy... It’s probably under ‘review.’”
Lu Ze cracked open one eye and answered calmly.
In Slay the Immortal Spire, he had reserved a spot for the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao. Usually, he would stop by the remnant spirit’s illusion realm world to notify it, but since he was using the Illusion Alliance’s illusion tower this time, he didn’t want to reveal too much about the Heaven Dao remnant spirit and chose not to proactively inform it.
Right now, the remnant spirit was probably examining its position in the illusion realm and weighing whether to take on a role.
“Junior Brother Lu, don’t underestimate Han Xian. His Linglong Tower Wonderland...”
Before Zhong Yi could finish, Lu Ze cut him off.
“Relax, that illusion realm is no match for yours... It’s just a patchwork of shoddy materials.”
Lu Ze said with a smile.
In just a few moments, he had already roughly analyzed Linglong Tower Wonderland.
His conclusion was: It was an ordinary action game stuffed with too much content.
It relied on lengthy storytelling and endless levels to stretch out players’ online time. He could already guess that later stages would be filled with boring repetition.
The ten thousand players claiming involvement probably had a fair amount of padding.
“Junior Brother Lu, your illusion realm is online!”
Zhong Yi exclaimed in delight and eagerly immersed himself into the realm.
“Let me give it a try!”
With that, Zhong Yi immediately entered Slay the Immortal Spire and turned on his livestream at the same time.
“...There’s a trick like this?”
Lu Ze blinked.
The Illusion Alliance forbade self-promotion, but it didn’t say you couldn’t promote others, right?
With that thought, he cheerfully started his own livestream as well. The content was Zhong Yi’s Boldly Charge the Demon-Sealing Tower.
......
......
Zhong Yi’s livestream room.
“Let me see how you climb a tower with board games...”
Zhong Yi eagerly entered Slay the Immortal Spire.
A sinister, eerie tower appeared before him.
“Single-player mode? Multiplayer mode?”
Zhong Yi stared at the two options on the screen, momentarily stunned.
Combining board games with tower climbing was one thing, but could you really have multiple people climbing the tower together while playing cards?
No matter how hard he tried, Zhong Yi couldn’t picture such a scene, and his anticipation only grew.
“Once I get the hang of it, I’ll call Lao Zhou and Junior Brother Mu to climb the tower together!”
After a moment’s thought, Zhong Yi selected [Single Player Mode] and entered the illusion realm.
With a flash of the screen, five character options appeared before him.
On the far left was a white-haired sword-wielding cultivator wearing a golden mask with blood-red eyes.
[Iron Armor Sect Cultivator]
[HP: 80/80]
[Spirit Stones: 99]
[The last disciple of the ancient sect, the Iron Armor Sect]
[Here not by his own will; skilled in the way of sword, blade, and fire spells.]
[Divine Power: Golden Crow Bloodline (Restores 6 HP at the end of battle.)]
The connection between character selection and card-playing was easy enough to grasp; Zhong Yi was a veteran of Three Kingdoms.
Besides the Iron Armor Sect Cultivator, the other four characters were darkened and still locked.
“Three Kingdoms is about multiple people playing cards together. How is this going to work here? I can’t wait to find out!”
Zhong Yi carefully studied the description of the Iron Armor Sect Cultivator, his excitement growing.
After selecting his character, a sheepskin scroll appeared in his hand.
Strictly speaking, it was a map.
A long map of a tower with three distinct paths.
[Tip: Choose a room to proceed]
[Once you complete a room's challenge, you may proceed to the adjacent room above and continue climbing!]
“Oh? What kind of design is this?”
Zhong Yi’s interest was immediately piqued.
Lu Ze’s illusion realm was always extraordinary—right from the start, he introduced a brand-new map concept: a tower with multiple independent routes to reach the top.
Each route had overlapping paths that players could choose between as they went.
The rooms on the paths included [Monster Room], [Elite Monster Room], [Shop Room], [Treasure Room], [Campfire], and [Random Room].
“What’s the campfire and random room for?”
Zhong Yi’s curiosity only intensified.
Unlike other players, he keenly sensed that each route had a deep significance—choosing a path was a skill in itself!
After a moment’s deliberation, he carefully examined the map.
“I definitely gotta take on more elite monsters... Surely I can beat them, right?”
“What can a campfire do? Roast meat? Skip it!”
“Random? Let’s try my luck, I guess? Not like I’m Lao Zhou, hahaha!”
“Alright, I’m taking the middle path!”
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
