I Became the Blacksmith NPC

He'd slept for five hours, yet Liu Kongkong felt completely refreshed. Or rather, when he'd logged off the night before, aside from being a little hungry, his body hadn't felt tired at all. He glanced out the window — still dark outside. He opened his phone, checked his balance, and spent the next five minutes grinning like an idiot.

Meanwhile, inside the dungeon.

"OK, that run was clearly better than before. Everyone stay focused. Big Bear, record the IDs of everyone who participated in the raid — as guild leader, I'm not going to let my brothers work for nothing. Tonight's late-night snacks and cigarettes are on me."

The moment those words landed, the whole group cheered. Guild members received a fixed salary, but there was also an internal points system — participating in raids or helping others level up all earned bonus points. Getting extra cash on top of that was a pleasant surprise.

Watching everyone perk back up, Night's Gentle Chill kept the encouraging words flowing, but inside he was utterly exhausted. Ye Weinuan, Heart and Soul, and the others had simply collapsed on the ground. Heart and Soul in particular sat there with his head full of bizarre math problems.

A few hours earlier.

After Heart and Soul rejoined the group, all thirty of them descended the staircase.

"Over here." Second Bear had done a full sweep without finding any obvious clues, so he led the party down one of the corridors. The hallway leading to the boss room did have traps, but unlike the Path of Samsara, the traps here were all clearly visible — so they reached the boss room door without losing a single person.

"See that?! This is what a proper dungeon looks like. Whoever made the Path of Samsara should come here and take some notes!" Heart and Soul sidestepped a crossbow bolt and hollered, clearly still nursing a grudge against the Path of Samsara.

They gently pushed open the door. The boss room was clean — no bizarre terrain, plenty of space. It was just the boss inside that gave them pause…

"A level-18 field boss — the Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion?"

Even though everyone had been busy leveling up lately, Night's Gentle Chill, as guild leader, knew about this creature. Unlike previous bosses, the Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion wasn't a single boss — it was a pair, one Yin and one Yang. At first glance it was nearly impossible to tell them apart by gender; you'd have to get close and crouch down to check carefully…

"Guild leader, you know about this one? Give us the rundown." Second Bear had never encountered this creature before, so he pushed Night's Gentle Chill to the front. The latter didn't refuse, though something struck him as odd.

"This thing is called the Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion — but why is there only one? Where's the other one?" Night's Gentle Chill crouched curiously on the ground to examine the Scorpion-Tailed Lion in front of them. Ye Weinuan covered her face and looked away.

"This one's male! Which means there's a female somewhere…"

"Perfect — the female's not here, so let's just kill this male one first!" Heart and Soul was already charging forward, only to be yanked back by Night's Gentle Chill.

"The Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion has to be killed as a pair, and you have to manage their HP carefully. When its HP drops to 80%, it fires a Scorpion Tail Needle. Any player hit by it who doesn't cleanse the Toxic Explosion debuff within 20 seconds will self-destruct — the explosion damage is massive, basically an instant kill." Night's Gentle Chill felt a bad premonition creeping in. "This one, for instance, fires Yang Poison."

"So how do you cleanse it?"

"The Yin and Yang buffs cancel each other out on collision."

"That sounds easy enough. So where's the female?" Heart and Soul asked blankly.

They searched the whole room and found nothing, so the group ran to the next room and opened the door.

"Another male." Night's Gentle Chill stood up from the floor with a resigned sigh.

They went through every single room…

Half an hour later, they regrouped and adjusted their strategy.

"Here's the summary: there are three Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion pairs in total — three males and three females split across six rooms. From our first attempt, here's what we've learned:

"First: the three pairs seem to be linked by some effect and share a single HP bar, so we don't need to worry about managing DPS output.

"Second: someone must be present in front of each boss at all times, or it will disengage indefinitely.

"Third: the bosses can't leave their rooms, so there's no way to pull them together.

"Fourth: the three types of Yang Poison each correspond to their own specific Yin Poison — you can't just use any Yin Poison to cleanse it.

"Fifth: the central hexagonal platform and the corridors rotate, so memorize the trap positions on each corridor.

"Sixth: the bosses swap positions randomly, so there's no point memorizing which boss is where."

Second Bear continued with a pained expression: "Now for the solution. Without using skills, these bosses don't hit that hard, so we split the thirty of us into six teams of five, each team responsible for one Scorpion-Tailed Lion. That way we won't have to worry about disengagement or casualties. The problem is, once the bosses' HP drops to 80%, six of us will get hit with the Toxic Explosion debuff…"

They'd already experienced the self-destruct damage firsthand — it had nearly wiped out the entire floor — so at that point, everyone's face twisted into a wry smile.

"Those six people need to run to the central hexagonal hall within 20 seconds and find the matching buff to collide with and cancel the Toxic Explosion." As he said this, Second Bear suddenly understood what the corridor at the dungeon entrance was meant to convey — it was telling them this dungeon required them to run!

Twenty seconds wasn't short. The distance from a boss room to the central hexagonal hall was only about a hundred meters or so — if someone with fast movement speed like Heart and Soul was doing the running, it would be even easier. The only issue was the traps along the way, which would slow them down.

There was one more wrinkle: to help players identify which two Scorpion-Tailed Lions were a matched pair, when the Scorpion Tail Needle triggered, a math problem would appear above the boss's head. Solving it correctly would reveal which player was carrying the matching buff.

For example.

"80.3% — it's targeting Heart and Soul this time. Get ready!"

"I'm ready!" Heart and Soul locked eyes with the boss, expression dead serious. The next second, the problem appeared: The Royal Court Jade Liquor minus two Heavy Hammer strikes, divided by four, then minus one.

Royal Court Jade Liquor? Heart and Soul froze for a moment.

Second Bear immediately panicked: "Start running! Calculate while you move!"

"Got it!"

180 minus… Heavy Hammer is 80… Holy shit! There's a crossbow bolt — dodge! Wait, where was I in the calculation…

"Where's 1?! I'm negative 1!"

"12! 12, come find me!"

"I'm…"

Boom! A thunderous explosion. All thirty players were instantly wiped out.

Another example.

The Royal Court Jade Liquor minus two Light Hammer strikes, divided by one-quarter.

"180 minus 160 — watch out, there's a fire trap!" Heart and Soul was doing mental math while sprinting, and Second Bear was practically losing his mind: "Read the damn problem carefully! It's a Light Hammer, not a Heavy Hammer!"

Boom! Another full wipe.

After several more attempts.

"Why does it never pick me? Sure, my movement speed isn't as fast as his, but my brain works a little better." Night's Gentle Chill was getting fed up watching — how could anyone get such simple problems wrong?!

So they tried again.

"Guild leader, keep your eyes on the problem!"

"Finally, it's my turn!" Night's Gentle Chill's face lit up with anticipation.

If a bookstore sells 15 books at $8 each and then buys back 5 books at $6 each, what is the store's net profit from these transactions?

"Holy shit, what the hell?! Why is it suddenly in English?!"

"Guild leader, are you someone's grandpa? Then who's the grandma?! Who's the grandma here?!"

"Whoever made this dungeon — just how many problems did they prepare?" Heart and Soul flopped onto the ground with a thud. He was more and more convinced this dungeon and the Path of Samsara were made by the same person — except this time, instead of dirty tricks, they were going straight for the jugular of human intelligence. At that thought, the corners of Heart and Soul's eyes grew a little moist.

"Maybe you should just go call the cops. This time, I support you."

Night's Gentle Chill said in utter despair.

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