Chu Lian had actually considered using Blood Points to summon creatures from the Bloodstained Reward for a long time. She had simply never acted on the idea and kept putting it off.
First, she had been far too busy lately. If she started dealing with these things, she would have no time left for anything else. Second, she had not possessed enough points to summon very many creatures.
She had barely possessed enough to summon a single race, but once she tried to summon two or more, the numbers became impossible to manage. Yet when it came to personnel for designing a game, having only a few was practically no different from having none. Thus, the matter had been postponed until now.
Because of the attack, school had gone on vacation early. This meant the period from June until September 1 would be extremely free. Even if she cultivated and handled other matters every day, she would still have more than enough time left over.
Thus, after spending several idle days with truly nothing else to do, Chu Lian summoned those creatures.
Through all her battles, her Blood Points had risen to around fifty thousand, allowing her to summon quite a considerable number. She planned to spend forty-five thousand Blood Points in one large round of summoning and retain the remainder for emergencies.
The three races she summoned in the greatest numbers were the ones she imagined would inevitably erupt into all-out war if gathered together: the Consorts of Painting, the Witches of Books, and the Science Girls.
She then exchanged for four Witches of Books, four Consorts of Painting, and four Science Girls, creating a group of spirits who would begin designing the game.
The first Witch of Books cost 3,500 points, with each subsequent one costing 100 less, for a total of 13,400 Blood Points. Just as she had imagined, this race truly consisted of large-breasted girls. They included everything from mature women to young girls and lolis.
The first Consort of Painting cost 3,200 points, with each subsequent one costing 100 less, for a total of 12,200 Blood Points. Just as she had imagined, this race also consisted of large-breasted girls, and they dressed rather revealingly. Mm, every last one of them was a mature beauty.
The first Science Girl cost 3,000 points, with each subsequent one costing 100 less, for a total of 11,400 Blood Points. Mm, once again, they were exactly as she had imagined. Every Science Girl wore a white lab coat and glasses, looking solemn, tall, and... flat-chested.
The three races possessed racial traits that produced spectacular results when combined for game development, yet those same racial characteristics caused them to quietly oppose one another.
According to Chu Lian, it was a war between flat chests and enormous breasts, a war between text and pictures, and a war between technology and fantasy...
She did not care about any of that. What she cared about was whether her house would become a battlefield, and whether these nonhuman girls, who had cost her a total of 36,800 points, could properly finish developing the game.
What happened afterward truly was as terrible as she had imagined. Mm, perhaps she could take up prophecy as a part-time job.
The races were practically as incompatible as fire and water. The moment they appeared and saw one another, they started trading barbs, and a single disagreement was enough to trigger a fight. Since every member of these races possessed Beginner Spirit Rank strength from the moment they appeared, their battles were anything but quiet.
Chu Lian had no idea how to resolve the situation and could only watch helplessly. The other girls who came after hearing the commotion also stared blankly as they fought. This continued until Mom appeared and settled everything at once.
Perhaps it truly was a matter of presence. Simply standing there was enough to make the entire group of nonhuman girls afraid to speak out of turn or even make a sound.
Mom did not care who any of them were. She punished every last one, ordered them to put everything they had disturbed back in place, then made them clean the house for three days before finally letting them off.
Now, they feared Li Mingxue even more than Chu Lian. Whenever she appeared, they obediently stayed put and completed their work.
The game Dreambound was the result of those three days of labor. Aside from initially giving them a collection of Eastern and Western myths and legends, several standard action role-playing games, and all kinds of novels, Chu Lian and the others had left them entirely alone.
They later received the finished product, along with a complete series of strategy guides explaining how to complete certain important quests.
The quest Chu Lian and the others were currently attempting concerned the class-change certificate obtainable after level ten. In other words, it involved the legendary hidden classes and special classes.
The reason they had included a system that somewhat disrupted the balance of online mode was entirely because it had been modeled after the class system within Chu Lian's own system. Although most hidden classes were somewhat stronger than ordinary classes, their flaws were equally obvious, so it was not too serious.
After playing for an entire day, they had become stuck on this quest, but they still felt that... the game was quite fun.
The game did not divide the world into Eastern and Western continents. Instead, everything existed on the same continent. Perhaps this was because the three races that designed the game were not native to Earth and did not care about such distinctions. Or perhaps they simply thought it would be more interesting that way.
When creating a player character, one could choose almost any race. Only certain special races required numerous quests, opportunities, specific skills, and attribute conditions to unlock. Apart from those, the system could satisfy practically everyone's preferences.
Classes depended on personal choice and the attribute tendencies of the chosen race. That did not mean members of the shaman race or barbarians could not become mages, nor that elemental races could not become warriors.
The greatest pleasure of this action role-playing game was its freedom. As long as players found the correct method and path, they could explore almost anywhere.
Players could play however they pleased. At certain points, the distinctions between mages, warriors, assassins, and other classes became extremely blurred.
As for why Chu Lian and the others had chosen these Western-leaning races and classes, it was entirely because... the Eastern ones had not been finished yet...
Still, thanks to the rapid development of this game, or rather, this half-finished game, Chu Lian and the others finally had something else to occupy their spare time.
After all, they had agreed to rest for a month, so they would rest for a full month. They did not need to accomplish anything during this period. They only needed to relax.
However, they had already repeated the quest several times without clearing it, which was what had led to the earlier scene.
"Let's try one more time. If we succeed this time, there shouldn't be any major problems. If we fail, we'll give up for now and wait until they improve the game before starting over with different races and classes. Tassel and the others said they haven't finished designing the plot after level fifteen yet. Falling Blossom said they were dissatisfied with the previous character designs and redrew them. Mo Li and the others wanted to add science-fiction elements to the fantasy world, but Falling Blossom and Tassel rejected the idea, so they're currently on strike..."
"Honestly, I really think their war is nothing more than a battle between enormous breasts and flat chests. The Science Girls are only acting like this because there are fewer of them and they're at a disadvantage. They're probably striking because they want me to summon more Science Girls. Even summoning another entirely flat-chested race would work. Unfortunately, the girls from the other two races I summoned are all large-breasted without exception..."
"You truly can't blame me for this. I don't know why nearly all of them have enormous breasts either. Maybe I can search for some shared trait that differs between large-breasted and flat-chested races. Then I might be able to summon something different next time."
As Chu Lian spoke, she explained why she had summoned so many large-breasted girls. If summoning the Witches of Books and Consorts of Painting had been necessary for designing the game, then what was the point of summoning Spider Girls and Flower Youkai?
"Fine, I'll tell you, all right?" The others had interrogated Chu Lian about this for several days. This time, under their relentless stares, she finally had no choice but to answer. "I summoned the Flower Youkai to protect the area around our home. After spending even more energy, the Advanced Spirit Rank Flower Youkai I summoned are absolute nightmares for weaker intruders. Mm, those intruders will become flower fertilizer. Besides, the Flower Youkai have greatly improved the environment here. Haven't you noticed all the flowering vines growing over the house lately? Every kind of flower is blooming without caring about the season at all."
Of course, Flower Youkai started at the Intermediate Spirit Rank. The first one cost 4,000 points, and raising her to the Advanced Spirit Rank required another 5,000. The same applied to the Spider Girl, forcing Chu Lian to increase her Blood Point expenditure by another 1,800 points to satisfy those requirements. Now she had only around 3,500 Blood Points left, making her feel as though she had nowhere near enough.
"Fine, summoning Flower Youkai makes sense, Big Sis. But what about the Spider Girl? It's not like our house has any insects or anything, right?" No one resented this matter more than Chu Chu. Before these nonhuman girls appeared, she had possessed the second-largest bust in the household. Incidentally, Chu Lian ranked last. In other words, even Anna and Tina were more well-endowed than her. It simply was not obvious.
Yet as one nonhuman girl after another appeared, Chu Chu's position as one of the household's bustiest members had plummeted. She might not have fallen to the very bottom, but she was no longer even among the top five. The appearance of these two monster girls had nearly dragged Li Mingxue down from first place as well. Chu Chu was only worried on her mother's behalf. She definitely was not bitter for her own sake!
"Sisi is the same as Cornus. They're both here to guard the house. The Flower Youkai protects the outside, while she protects the inside. Even with Blackie around, we can't afford to be careless. She can also prevent miniature cameras, trackers, and other devices produced through advanced technology from entering. Within the area she guards, nothing can escape her senses unless it is vastly stronger than she is. Most importantly, she appears and disappears unpredictably. For example..."
As Chu Lian spoke, she raised a finger and pointed toward the ceiling. The girls looked up and immediately jumped in fright.
A woman dressed in tight, provocative black-and-red leather was standing there. The outfit exposed the upper halves of her breasts, while a pair of unusual high heels covered her incomparably slender legs. The tips of her shoes rested against the ceiling, yet she stood upside down as effortlessly as an ordinary person standing on the floor, quietly listening to their conversation.
"Sisi, when did you get here? Why didn't I notice?" Chu Chu reacted strongly and immediately questioned her. Perhaps she also felt guilty. After all, she had just spent quite some time speaking badly about Sisi. Even though she knew Sisi would not care, it still made her uncomfortable.
"I've been here watching since you started playing the game. Things haven't been very peaceful lately, so we need to be more vigilant." Sisi's voice was cold, yet carried a strange allure and temptation. Combined with her proud, frost-covered beauty, it inspired an urge to conquer her.
"All right. Just pretend you didn't hear anything I said earlier." Chu Chu chose to brush the topic aside before anyone could pursue it further.
"Hm?" Just as they were about to continue talking, Chu Lian's elegant brows furrowed, and she murmured softly, "A guest has arrived."
The guest she spoke of had just reached the door and knocked...