Labrynth's eyes were fixed on the semi-transparent holographic control panel before her, the corners of her lips unable to stop curling upward.
[Absorbed the Complete Breakdown Emotions of a Silver-rank Rogue, Emotion Points +500]
[Current Emotion Points Balance: 10240]
"Well done, little mouse. You've made an indelible contribution to my grand undertaking."
(＾-＾)
Labrynth happily rolled around on the bed, hugging a soft lace pillow and rubbing against it with force.
That Rogue, who had been completely driven mad by the inverted room, had been squeezed dry, producing a massive ten thousand Emotion Points for her.
This hard-earned fortune instantly transformed her from a poverty-stricken bottom-tier lord into a wealthy woman holding a huge sum.
She couldn't wait to extend her fair fingers, swiftly swiping through the blueprint shop interface.
Her gaze immediately locked onto that special structure blueprint.
[Thunder Thermal Furnace]
"In the end, it can be converted into high-tier base materials like refined iron and mithril. It's practically a perfect money-printing machine!"
Labrynth excitedly read out the blueprint's description and pressed the purchase button without hesitation.
"With this treasure, those monsters that die in traps won't be disgusting trash anymore."
"They'll all be glittering gold coins, the absolute foundation for building my dungeon empire!"
She could already envision countless monsters lining up to jump into the furnace, turning into all kinds of precious materials.
A perfect capitalist path of squeezing every last bit of value from monsters was unfolding smoothly beneath her feet.
She had even begun calculating that once enough mithril was refined, she would upgrade the frame of her bed to something more luxurious.
The feeling of lying down and earning money, while also turning invaders' corpses into useful resources, was simply too satisfying.
Brimming with excitement, Labrynth brought up the Holographic Map Projection, preparing to find a suitable location at the bottom level of the maze.
She carefully gestured across the Map Projection with her fingers and ultimately selected a wide open space next to the water prison.
"Build it here. It's close to the trap zone, making corpse transport convenient. Start construction immediately!"
With a domineering motion, she slammed the Thunder Thermal Furnace blueprint heavily onto the designated location on the Holographic Map Projection.
"I want to see my money-printing machine running immediately, burning all those disgusting monsters into cash!"
However, the grand structure she had imagined rising from the ground did not appear. Instead, a prompt sounded.
[Currently, only the design blueprint has been purchased. Physical construction requires an additional 5000 Emotion Points]
[Or provide equivalent high-tier mana crystals as substitute materials. Otherwise, materialized construction cannot proceed]
The blood-red text that popped up on the holographic panel instantly doused Labrynth's blazing enthusiasm.
She stared blankly at the pitiful three-digit balance remaining in the top right corner, her whole body freezing.
Her delicate loli face flushed red instantly, and flames of anger ignited in her eyes.
"What the hell is this?! Buying the blueprint doesn't include construction? This is shameless false advertising!"
(╬▔皿▔)╯
Furious and exasperated, Labrynth grabbed the lace pillow and hurled it viciously at the holographic control panel in midair.
"You black-hearted merchant! Damn bloodsucking system! Give me back my hard-earned money—I'm not building it anymore!"
She rolled wildly on the soft velvet bed in despair, driven nearly insane by the massive five-thousand-point gap.
The feeling of seeing mountains of gold and silver right in front of her, yet not even being able to afford a shovel to dig it out, was more painful than death.
Just as she was about to drag that mad Rogue out for another round of ruthless exploitation, the Map Projection suddenly emitted a buzzing sound.
At the outer edge of the holographic map, an extremely bright red dot was flashing wildly, moving rapidly.
Labrynth abruptly stopped rolling, instantly leaning in close to the map. She extended her finger to zoom in, her vision piercing through layers of snow-white stone walls.
In the dim corridor at the outer perimeter of the maze, a human wearing a tattered mage robe was fleeing in panic.
It was the Silver-rank Elemental Mage who had fled at the last moment in the plaza.
"Well, now, just what I needed right when I was dozing off. I was just worrying about having no fat sheep to slaughter."
The anger in Labrynth's eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by a scheming smile.
"Those five thousand construction points will come from you, you walking ATM. I'll make sure to give you a proper welcome."
Meanwhile, in the dim white corridor at the outer maze, heavy panting echoed continuously.
The Elemental Mage Allen was running for his life like a frightened rabbit through the intricate passages.
His originally luxurious and expensive mage robe had been torn to shreds by sharp stones.
His noble mage image was all gone, his face covered in dirt and dried blood, looking extremely miserable.
The gruesome sight of the knight captain being torn apart by gargoyles, along with the agonized screams of his teammates, replayed repeatedly in his mind.
Extreme terror gripped his heart like an invisible hand, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
"I can't die. I'm a noble mage. I absolutely cannot die in this filthy place!"
Allen muttered neurotically, his violently fluctuating emotions causing his mental power to spiral completely out of control. The fire-element mana within his body began to rampage wildly, like a runaway horse crashing through his mana circuits.
"Ugh-Ah!"
Allen clutched his chest in pain, letting out a miserable scream as he staggered and fell heavily to the ground.
The raging fire element instantly ignited his fragile meridians, bringing a terrifying pain as if his body were about to be torn apart.
He vomited mouthful after mouthful of blood, the warm liquid splattering across the floor tiles in a horrifying sight.
"Calm down, I have to calm down and control my mana, or I'll definitely self-destruct!"
He gritted his teeth desperately, trying to forcibly suppress the violently turbulent, destructive power within his body, but it was completely futile.
The chaotic mana caused him to completely lose his ability to cast spells; he couldn't even stably release the most basic Illuminate.
The large ruby at the tip of his staff flickered a few times before finally dimming completely, powerless.
The surroundings instantly fell into suffocating silence. Endless darkness swallowed him whole, and the fear of being deprived of sight made his entire body tremble violently.
Allen could only clutch the ruby staff tightly, treating it as his only lifeline in the darkness.
He struggled to climb up from the cold floor, one hand bracing firmly against the extremely smooth, stone wall.
Dragging his heavy legs, he stumbled forward, groping his way ahead.
"As long as I find the exit to the fifth floor, as long as I return to a safe area, I'll definitely survive!"
Allen groped forward in the oppressive darkness for a long time before a clear turn finally appeared ahead.
A faint cold breeze blew from around the corner, which in a sealed dungeon usually meant the presence of an exit.
"An exit! It has to be an exit! I'm finally going to escape this damn place!"
A fanatical hope for survival burst into Allen's dim eyes as he rushed toward the corner without hesitation.
He seemed to already see the familiar campfire on the fifth floor, the brilliant dawn of survival.
However, the moment he turned the corner full of hope, it was as if he had slammed into a solid iron wall.
Bang!
Allen crashed heavily into a perfectly seamless and stone wall, the immense recoil force throwing him back onto the ground in a miserable state.
He looked up in shock, only to discover in despair that there was no passage ahead at all, only a completely sealed dead end.
"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! The wind was coming from here… how could it be a dead end!"
Allen lunged at the wall like a madman, pounding and clawing at the hard stone surface with blood-covered hands.
"Open up! Open! Let me out! I don't want to die here!"
His fingernails split and curled back, blood slowly flowing down the wall, yet he felt nothing, as if he had gone insane.
Physical destruction was useless. Allen suddenly staggered back two steps, a ruthless and frenzied glint flashing in his eyes.
"If there's no path, then I'll blast one open! A mere wall thinks it can stop a great mage?!"
Enduring the terrifying pain of mana backlash within his body, he forcibly raised the dim ruby staff in his hand.
"Observe!"
Allen roared hoarsely, his eyes instantly glowing with a faint blue magical light as he stared fixedly at the stone wall ahead.
He attempted to use a mage's expertise to locate magical nodes and subtle structural weaknesses within the wall.
As long as he could find a node, even at the cost of destroying his mana circuits, he would detonate his remaining mana to blow apart the wall.
However, the moment his vision penetrated the surface of the stone wall, the feedback he received left him completely stunned.
There were no magical nodes or mana circuits; there wasn't even the slightest trace of elemental fluctuation.
What appeared in his vision was an utterly suffocating void, composed only of absolute, extreme physical density.
"How is this possible…?"
Allen's voice trembled uncontrollably as the staff slipped from his hand and fell to the ground with a dull clatter.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed into the corner like a lifeless heap, staring blankly at the insurmountable stone wall, completely abandoning all resistance.
In the cozy bedroom at the deepest part of the maze, system notifications rang out like a beautiful symphony.
[Absorbed Extreme Panic Emotion from a Silver-rank mage: Emotion Points +200]
[Absorbed Faith Collapse Emotion from a Silver-rank mage: Emotion Points +400]
"Yes, yes, just like that. Keep up this rhythm of despair~ My Thunder Thermal Furnace is about to be saved."
(☆▽☆)
Labrynth watched the constantly jumping numbers on the panel, happily kicking her legs on the soft bed.
The mage's panic and collapse of faith continuously provided her with a large amount of pure Emotion Points.
To completely drain this mage and gather the expensive five thousand construction cost,
At the same time, she also wanted to test the combat capabilities of the Pure White Doll, which cost 750 Emotion Points to produce.
She wanted to see what kind of brilliant combat data this mass-produced weapon could achieve when fighting a high-level human transcendent.
Immediately, Labrynth put away her smile, her eyes turning cold and profound in an instant, like a lofty deity.
She directly activated her skill, sending her vast mental power across the maze and forcibly linking it to the doll's brain.
"Go, my loyal servant. Deliver the final experience of despair to that lost guest."
The command was instantly transmitted through the mental network.
The Pure White Doll lurking deep within the dark corridor suddenly raised its head, its smooth, featureless face precisely turning toward the dead end.
With a grinding sound, the doll's right arm began to twist and deform in an eerie manner.
In just two seconds, the arm transformed into an incomparably sharp white stone blade, gleaming with deadly cold light.
The doll stepped forward with heavy strides, like an emotionless reaper, completely disappearing into the dense darkness.
At a terrifying speed, it silently closed in on Allen in the dead end.
Collapsed in the corner, Allen was still immersed in overwhelming despair.
Suddenly, he keenly sensed a bone-chilling cold wind blowing from deep within the corridor.
...
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