Chen Wei managed to survive breakfast through a combination of nervous smiles and strategic silence. His grandfather, Chen Tianming, had the kind of presence that made the air itself feel heavier—like sitting next to a barely contained nuclear reactor. The old man's disappointment was palpable, but thankfully, he seemed too preoccupied with clan business to interrogate his worthless grandson about recent activities.
Now, safely back in his isolated courtyard, Chen Wei could finally focus on the glowing interface that had been hovering at the edge of his vision like an impatient notification.
[TUTORIAL QUEST: CREATE YOUR FIRST DUNGEON CHAMBER]Time Remaining: 22:47:33Current Creation Points: 100WARNING: Tutorial failure may result in system rejection
"Alright," he muttered, settling cross-legged on his bed. "Let's see what my old code looks like from the inside."
The moment he focused on the quest, new windows cascaded across his vision:
[DUNGEON ARCHITECT SYSTEM - TUTORIAL MODE]
BASIC CHAMBER CREATIONStep 1: Select LocationAvailable Spaces: 3 detected within host territory
Bedroom basement (Hidden, 12x15 feet)Courtyard storage (Visible, 8x10 feet)Garden shed (Semi-hidden, 6x8 feet)
Chen Wei blinked in surprise. "The system can detect architectural spaces?" He focused on the basement option, and detailed information appeared:
BASEMENT ASSESSMENT:Structural Integrity: ExcellentSpiritual Resonance: Low-MediumPrivacy Rating: MaximumExpansion Potential: HighCurrent Contents: Storage boxes, old cultivation manuals
Perfect. Wei's borrowed memories confirmed that the basement existed—a forgotten storage space beneath his room that he'd discovered as a child. No one else even remembered it was there.
"Privacy rating maximum," he murmured with satisfaction. "Just like designing a test environment."
[TUTORIAL STEP 2: CHAMBER DESIGN]Basic Templates Available:
Stone Cavern (Cost: 50 CP)Wooden Training Room (Cost: 40 CP)Crystal Cave (Cost: 80 CP)Custom Design (Cost: Variable)
Wei immediately selected Custom Design. Eight years of game development had taught him that players always wanted to tinker with the options, and he'd built the system to accommodate that urge.
A 3D interface materialized before him, showing a wireframe representation of the basement space. It felt exactly like using his favorite level design software, except the floating menus responded to thought rather than mouse clicks.
"Incredible," he breathed, manipulating the virtual environment with his mind. "The neural interface integration actually works."
He started with basics—stone walls for durability, but not the rough cavern aesthetic. Instead, he opted for fitted stone blocks that suggested ancient craftsmanship. The floor received similar treatment, with subtle drainage channels carved along the edges.
[MATERIAL SELECTION CONFIRMED]Fitted Stone Construction: 35 CPAtmospheric Lighting: 5 CPBasic Ventilation: 5 CPRemaining Budget: 55 CP
"Now for the fun part," Wei grinned, accessing the Monster Catalog.
[BASIC MONSTER CATALOG - TUTORIAL EDITION]
Slime (Level 1): 10 CPSkeleton Warrior (Level 3): 25 CPStone Golem (Level 5): 45 CPCustom Creature: Locked until System Level 3
The slime was obviously the tutorial choice—low cost, minimal threat, perfect for a first-time dungeon delver. But Wei's programmer instincts kicked in. He'd always believed in scalable difficulty, even for beginners.
He selected the slime but spent time configuring its properties:
[SLIME CUSTOMIZATION]Base Intelligence: Minimal → Basic (Free upgrade)Aggression Level: Low → Adaptive (Tutorial bonus)Elemental Affinity: None → Water (Synergy with stone environment)Special Trait: Regeneration (Slow)
[TUTORIAL STEP 3: CHAMBER FEATURES]Available Options:
Basic Treasure Chest: 15 CPSimple Trap: 10 CPPuzzle Element: 20 CPEnvironmental Hazard: 5 CP
With 45 CP remaining, Wei could afford multiple features. His game design experience screamed at him to create a balanced experience—challenge, reward, and a learning curve that wouldn't frustrate new players.
He placed a simple pressure plate trap near the entrance (10 CP), a basic treasure chest containing low-grade cultivation pills in an alcove (15 CP), and spent his remaining points on atmospheric effects—dripping water, luminescent moss, and the subtle sound of distant winds.
[DUNGEON CHAMBER DESIGN COMPLETE]Total Cost: 100 CPEstimated Challenge Rating: BeginnerCompletion Rewards: Basic cultivation enhancementReady to manifest? Y/N
Wei hesitated. This was the moment of truth—the first real test of whether his theoretical system could actually manipulate reality. In his old life, pressing 'Y' would have just rendered a level in a game engine. Here, it might create an actual pocket dimension.
"Here goes nothing," he whispered, and selected Yes.
The world exploded into sensation.
Spiritual energy—something Chen Wei's body had never been able to sense before—suddenly flooded through him like liquid lightning. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it was overwhelming. Every cell in his body tingled as power flowed through channels he'd never known existed.
The basement beneath his feet began to change.
Stone materialized from nothing, growing like crystalline formations but following his exact specifications. The air shimmered as dimensional space expanded, carving out a pocket of reality that was somehow both part of his room and separate from it. Water condensed on newly formed walls, and bioluminescent moss spread across surfaces with impossible speed.
In the center of the chamber, a small puddle began to bubble and coalesce. The slime was forming—a translucent blue creature about the size of a basketball, with primitive eyes that actually seemed to regard Wei with curiosity rather than hostility.
[DUNGEON CREATION SUCCESSFUL]First Chamber: "Initiate's Trial" - OnlineMonsters Active: 1/1Traps Armed: 1/1Treasures Available: 1/1
Wei staggered as the energy flow subsided, leaving him drained but exhilarated. According to the system interface, he'd just created a genuine pocket dimension connected to his basement. The entrance appeared as a subtle shimmer in the air near his bedroom's far wall—invisible unless you knew what to look for.
[TUTORIAL QUEST COMPLETE]Rewards Granted:
+50 Experience PointsBasic Monster Catalog (Permanent)Dungeon Management Interface (Unlocked)New Quest Available: First Delve
But before Wei could examine his new abilities, urgent knocking erupted from his door.
"Wei! Open up immediately!" The voice belonged to his second brother, Chen Feng, and it carried the particular tone that meant trouble.
Wei quickly dismissed the system windows and tried to look like he'd been meditating. "Just a moment!"
The door burst open anyway. Chen Feng stormed in, his Foundation Establishment cultivation making the air pressure spike noticeably. At 22, he was everything Wei wasn't—tall, muscular, radiating the confidence of someone who'd never failed at anything important.
"What are you doing hiding in here?" Feng demanded, his eyes scanning the room suspiciously. "Father's been looking for you."
"Cultivating," Wei lied smoothly, gesturing to his cross-legged position. "Trying to sense spiritual energy."
Feng snorted. "Still pretending you have potential? Wei, you're eighteen. If you had spiritual roots, they would have manifested years ago." His voice carried genuine frustration rather than malice. "Father wants you in the main hall. The family's conducting spiritual assessments for all the younger generation, and Grandfather insists you participate."
Wei's stomach dropped. The annual assessment—where every family member under 25 demonstrated their cultivation progress for the elders. It was designed to identify promising talents for additional resources and training. For someone like Chen Wei, it was an annual humiliation.
"Can't I just... skip it this year?" Wei asked weakly.
"Absolutely not." Feng's expression softened slightly. "Look, little brother, I know this is hard. But you can't keep avoiding reality. The family needs to know where everyone stands, especially with the sect trials coming up."
Sect trials. Wei's borrowed memories supplied the context—the Heavenly Sword Sect's annual recruitment, where promising young cultivators could earn positions as outer disciples. It was the Chen family's primary method of maintaining their alliance with the sect.
And Chen Wei, with his complete lack of spiritual sensitivity, had about as much chance of passing as a goldfish had of climbing a tree.
"I'll be there in a few minutes," Wei said, his mind racing. The system had mentioned that dungeon mastery could enhance cultivation. If he could somehow demonstrate improvement...
"You'd better be," Feng warned, but his tone was more concerned than threatening. "And Wei? Try not to embarrass yourself too badly. Grandfather's patience isn't infinite."
After Feng left, Wei stared at the shimmer that marked his dungeon entrance. The tutorial had been completed, but a new quest was blinking insistently:
[QUEST: FIRST DELVE]Objective: Successfully complete your own dungeon trialReward: +25 CP, Basic Combat Experience, Cultivation InsightTime Limit: NoneNote: Recommended before facing external evaluation
"The system wants me to test my own dungeon," Wei realized. "Before the family assessment."
It made sense from a game design perspective—always let players practice in a safe environment before facing real challenges. But the thought of actually entering a space filled with monsters and traps, even ones he'd created, was terrifying.
Still, what choice did he have? The family assessment would expose his complete lack of progress anyway. At least this way, he might gain something useful.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Host spiritual energy detected at minimal levels. Dungeon trials will enhance energy sensitivity and circulation. Recommended approach: Treat as cultivation exercise rather than combat encounter.]
"Right," Wei muttered, standing up. "It's not a death trap, it's a learning tool. I designed it to be beatable."
He approached the dimensional entrance, his heart hammering. The shimmer intensified as he drew near, and he could feel a subtle pull—like the dungeon was inviting him in.
[WARNING: Dungeon challenge scales to participant ability. Current host power level: Negligible. Difficulty adjusted to: Tutorial]
Wei paused with his hand inches from the entrance. In his old life, he'd spent countless hours designing the perfect new player experience—challenging enough to be engaging, but not so difficult as to be discouraging. He'd programmed the system to be fair.
The question was: did he trust his own code with his life?
"Only one way to find out," he whispered, and stepped through the shimmer.
The world shifted around him like walking through a vertical pool of warm water. For a moment, he existed in two places at once—still in his bedroom, but also stepping onto worked stone in a chamber lit by ethereal blue moss.
Then reality snapped into focus, and Chen Wei found himself standing in the dungeon he'd created.
It was beautiful.
The chamber stretched before him, larger than the basement space should have allowed. Stone blocks fitted together with mathematical precision, and the moss provided just enough light to see clearly without being garish. Water dripped musically somewhere in the distance, and the air carried the clean scent of underground springs.
And in the center of the room, the slime waited.
It was larger than he'd expected—roughly the size of a small dog rather than a basketball—and its blue transparency revealed fascinating internal structures. Definitely more sophisticated than the simple monsters from his early mobile games.
[DUNGEON TRIAL INITIATED]Objective: Defeat chamber guardian and claim treasureCombat Tutorial: ActiveNote: Death within tutorial dungeons results in ejection, not mortality
"Thank god for that," Wei breathed, then louder: "Okay, little guy. Let's see what you've got."
The slime's response was immediate. Instead of the mindless aggression he'd expected, it moved with purpose—circling to cut off his retreat while staying just out of easy reach. Its primitive eyes tracked his movements with unsettling intelligence.
Wei had never been in a real fight in either of his lives, but years of designing combat systems had given him theoretical knowledge. Stay mobile, manage your stamina, look for patterns in enemy behavior.
The slime lunged with surprising speed. Wei threw himself sideways, barely avoiding contact. Where the creature landed, the stone floor sizzled slightly—apparently his water-elemental slime had mild acidic properties.
"Note to self," Wei gasped, scrambling to his feet. "Check all ability descriptions more carefully."
The fight became a dance of patience. The slime was faster than Wei but not by much, and its attack patterns were predictable once he figured them out. Lunge, pause to reorient, circle for better position, repeat. Wei used his reach advantage, staying just outside its attack range while looking for opportunities.
The breakthrough came when he noticed the slime's regeneration ability had a rhythm. Every thirty seconds, it would pause to consolidate its form, becoming slightly less mobile for a few moments. During the third pause, Wei struck.
His kick wasn't powerful—he had no martial arts training—but it was well-timed. The slime's disrupted form splattered against the far wall, then began slowly pulling itself back together.
[COMBAT VICTORY]Experience Gained: 25 pointsCultivation Insight: Basic spiritual energy circulation unlockedTreasure Chest: Available
Wei felt the change immediately. Where before his body had been spiritually numb, now he could sense faint currents of energy flowing through his meridians. It wasn't much—barely a trickle compared to what his brothers could channel—but it was real.
"Holy shit," he whispered. "It actually works."
The treasure chest waited in its alcove, looking exactly like something from his old RPG designs. Inside, Wei found three small pills that his newfound spiritual sensitivity identified as basic Qi Condensation aids.
[DUNGEON TRIAL COMPLETE]Overall Performance: SatisfactoryRewards: +25 Creation Points, Basic Combat Experience, Spiritual Sensitivity (Minimal)Next Recommendation: Create additional challenge rooms
Wei emerged from the dungeon feeling like a different person. The spiritual energy flowing through his body was barely perceptible, but after eighteen years of complete numbness, it felt like a miracle.
More importantly, he now had proof that his system worked. The dungeon had enhanced his cultivation just as designed, providing measurable progress through controlled challenges.
A soft chime from his door interrupted his celebration. "Young Master Wei? Your grandfather requests your immediate presence in the main hall. The assessment is beginning."
Wei's stomach clenched, but for the first time since awakening in this world, he felt a flicker of hope. He had spiritual energy now—not much, but enough to register on whatever tests they used.
"I'll be right there," he called back, then quietly addressed the system interface.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Current host cultivation detected. Spiritual assessment survival probability: 67%. Recommend preparation for follow-up questions regarding sudden improvement.]
"Just sixty-seven percent?" Wei muttered. "I need a better cover story."
But as he headed for the door, he couldn't suppress a grin. The tutorial was complete, his first dungeon was operational, and he'd just proved that his game development knowledge could revolutionize cultivation.
The real test was about to begin, and for the first time in either of his lives, Chen Wei felt ready to surprise everyone.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Spiritual assessment detected approaching. Recommend immediate dungeon trial completion before exposure to external evaluation.]
The system's warning made him pause, but it was too late—heavy footsteps in the corridor announced that his escort had arrived. Time to find out if a minimal cultivation breakthrough was enough to avoid complete family humiliation.
Outside his door, Chen Wei could hear the sounds of the gathering crowd in the main hall. His grandfather's voice carried clearly: "Where is that boy? The assessment begins now, with or without him."
Wei took a deep breath, checked his appearance in the bronze mirror, and opened the door. The family servant waiting outside looked surprised to see him moving with confidence instead of his usual slouch.
"Ready, Young Master?" the servant asked.
"Ready," Wei confirmed, though his heart was racing. He'd created his first dungeon and gained his first taste of cultivation power. Now came the hard part—convincing everyone that the family's greatest disappointment had somehow found a path to strength.
As he walked toward the main hall, the system interface flickered with one final message:
[TUTORIAL COMPLETE. MAIN SYSTEM FUNCTIONS UNLOCKED.][WELCOME TO THE DUNGEON ARCHITECT SYSTEM, CHEN WEI.][YOUR REAL JOURNEY BEGINS NOW.]