Chapter 418: How to Make a Movie in a Wondrous World

After the Ghost, Ling Yaowu, made his request, Duan Fei and the others also heard a system notification.

Opening his mission objectives, Duan Fei saw they were now displayed:

“Dungeon Mission: Assist the cinema’s Earth-bound Spirit in shooting a film. The films will be judged in eight days, and the one with the highest box office revenue wins. Once per day, you will have a chance to see your film’s reviews and projected box office. Additional chances can be obtained through certain means. Within this dungeon, you can acquire various useful items. Please explore on your own to discover them.”

After reading it, Duan Fei stroked his chin, not feeling particularly enthusiastic.

The main issue was that this director, Ling Yaowu, was terrible. The things he filmed were like an over-glorified dish of pig intestines—the kind of thing that made you want nothing to do with him.

But the dungeon mission was already assigned to them, so they had no choice but to participate.

After having Ling Yaowu open the main gate, Duan Fei asked him about the place. He learned that this was a large film studio complex with five distinct areas: the logistics office, the actor training facility, the screening hall, the film sets, and the warehouse. Each area occupied its own floor.

Once he had a general idea of the layout, Duan Fei asked, “Ling Yaowu, is there anything in the other areas?”

“I don’t know,” Ling Yaowu said, looking troubled.

“How have you managed to get by all these years? You don’t even know your own turf.”

“I can’t help it. I burned to death here. The farthest I can go is the film set, where I can control some mannequins to shoot scenes. I really have no idea what’s in the other areas. But I get the feeling they’re pretty dangerous.”

“I see.”

Based on the mission prompt, Duan Fei figured they should first scout every floor to look for useful items. Then, based on the items and information they gathered, they could decide what kind of film to shoot.

With five floors, they could assign two members to each, making it easy for them to provide backup for one another.

After quickly laying out a plan, Duan Fei announced, “Yan Yuan and I will go to the actor training facility. Jinghong, you and your pet Witch can check out the film sets. Flora and the Maid will go to the warehouse, and Cuihua and Little Fatty will take the logistics office. Lone Ranger, you’ll be in charge of staying here with All-Knowing. Take Ling Yaowu and inspect the screening hall.”

“Wait a minute.” Lone Ranger crossed his arms. “Are you telling me to be a babysitter?”

Duan Fei looked at Lone Ranger and said with a sigh, “Lone Ranger, she’s likely a bigger deal than you are. If there’s danger, I’m not sure who’ll be protecting whom.”

Lone Ranger stared at Duan Fei without a word, his eyes filled with doubt.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know I screw you over most of the time, but this is different. All right, that’s the plan. Let’s move out.”

Resigned to his fate, Lone Ranger could only watch as the others departed, leaving him alone with Ling Yaowu and the eight-year-old girl, All-Knowing.

After a moment of silence, Lone Ranger sighed in resignation and said to All-Knowing, “Don’t cause me any trouble.”

“Yes, sir!” All-Knowing chirped excitedly.

“What are you so happy about?”

“How could I not be happy? I get to come out and play with people! Don’t worry, I know your type—cold on the outside, warm on the inside. I’ll stick close to you, and I’ll either protect you or let you protect me when the time comes.”

Looking at All-Knowing’s excited face, Lone Ranger had a feeling this kid was going to be a handful.

Meanwhile, Duan Fei and Yan Yuan had arrived on the second floor: the actor training facility.

This area also bore traces of the fire. Most of the costumes had been burned to a crisp, and computers and cameras were melted into lumps of slag, a testament to the intensity of the blaze.

Everything was charred black. The only brightness came from the windows, where light from the outside world pierced through the gloom, providing the only touch of color.

Although years had passed and the charred debris on the ground had long since hardened, human-shaped imprints still remained in some spots. One, frozen in the pose of a boxer, seemed to be letting out a silent scream that echoed across time.

On top of that, the place was absurdly large.

Duan Fei didn’t know if this was the work of a designer with a “bigger is better” philosophy or if there was some other reason for it.

In any case, it was massive.

Perched on Duan Fei’s shoulder, Yan Yuan looked around for a long moment before speaking. “Master, there was foul play here.”

Duan Fei was flipping through a photo album. Its lower half had been destroyed, but the remaining pages showed handsome men and beautiful women practicing their forms in front of a mirror.

Hearing Yan Yuan’s comment, Duan Fei didn’t stop what he was doing and asked, “What do you mean?”

“The fire spread too quickly. From the way the charring is distributed, it’s obvious someone doused this place with a large amount of accelerant and then set it ablaze. Most people were probably upstairs watching a new film at the time. They were caught off guard and ended up dying.”

Yan Yuan was an expert with fire, so if he saw this, his assessment of the situation was probably correct.

Agreeing with Yan Yuan’s assessment, Duan Fei added, “The culprit must have been an insider here. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known that everyone else would be upstairs watching a film at that specific time.”

“Your analysis is correct, Master… but what’s the use in analyzing this now?”

“It’s useless for now, but we’ll see if it becomes useful later. Hmm?”

Duan Fei stopped in his tracks. Looking into the distance, he thought he heard the sound of crying.

He followed the sound of crying, which grew louder and louder, soon accompanied by the sound of running water.

At the end of the hall, Duan Fei saw a woman squatting in a corner, head in her hands, sobbing. Tears gushed from her eyes, flowing like two open faucets.

Keeping a safe distance, Duan Fei called out, “Miss, what’s wrong?”

“I died such a miserable death…”

“Everyone dies eventually. Try to look on the bright side and pass on peacefully.”

“…Then you can join me!”

The figure whirled around, flames erupting from her body as she lunged at Duan Fei.

Duan Fei, however, simply took a step back, removed his Glasses, and stared directly at the Ghost before him.

The Void manifested. Countless black tentacles shot out from Duan Fei’s eyes, seizing the woman and dragging her into their depths.

Putting his Glasses back on, Duan Fei shrugged. “She overestimated her own strength.”

From his shoulder, Yan Yuan stared at Duan Fei. “Master, there’s something I probably shouldn’t say, but I have to… I feel like you’re getting more and more freakish.”

“My Spirit Attribute is this high, and a whole bunch of my abilities are designed for this type of enemy. If I *couldn’t* one-shot her on sight, *that* would be what’s freakish. Freakishly weak, that is.”

“I suppose you have a point. What’s that?”

Duan Fei turned his head and saw a glittering card where the Ghost had just vanished.

Unlike the NPC Character Cards, this one was clearly of inferior quality, and its texture wasn’t as fine.

Picking up the card, Duan Fei found a line of Description on it:

“Female Lead Card: Uncorrupted, Green Quality, Cannot be removed from dungeon. This card is essential for shooting a film. A film requires one Female (or Male) Lead Card, several supporting character cards, and several Item Cards to be filmed on the set. The higher the quality of the cards, the greater the chance of producing a good film. This card specializes in romance films. This card’s nature is quite greedy. Satisfying its greedy nature offers a chance to improve its quality.”

After reading the card’s Description, Duan Fei had a general idea of how they were supposed to make a film in this dungeon.