The efficiency of the Central Research Institute was astounding. In just a few days, news related to the joint event of Dark Souls had already spread all over the world in various forms.

Ocean Dream Media had support from the country behind them. Despite the obstruction from the American government, the promotional news about the joint event was still stuffed into the mouths of every fan of "The Giant and The Little Bee," "Lion Heart Workplace," and "The Great Crossbow Catcher."

However, the accumulation of Dark Souls' popularity was slower than Qiu Ren's expectations.

Qiu Ren had underestimated Dark Souls' ability to scare ordinary people away after it became a Nightmare Dungeon.

After the news about the joint event was released, some fans came to see their idols, "boyfriends and girlfriends," and their "babies," regardless of the danger of the Level S Nightmare Dungeon.

Most people who participated in the "family visit" this time couldn't even meet the Fire Keeper in the Firelink Shrine.

Many of them were smashed with the hammer during the battle with Iudex Gundyr. "You still want to go on a date with your idol? Just go back to the graveyard to be a dead body!"

Even the Dream Makers at the Central Research Institute came to discuss with Qiu Ren about… lowering the difficulty?

However, the normal players were already in the little biscuit mode. If they were willing to work hard and fight with the Gundyr, who had no self-consciousness, ten times, they could complete the level no matter how weak they were.

This Lord of Nightmare fed on people's realization of wanting to keep moving forward after suffering and defeating powerful enemies, the strong sense of achievement, to be exact.

It turned out there was indeed a small number of them who were good at playing action games. Players who had a strong mind or those who really went at Iudex Gundyr successfully passed its test.

And this small number of players also became addicted and started fighting on the High Wall of Lothric day and night.

So, two extreme situations were happening among the newcomers in the Nightmare Dungeon of Dark Souls right now.

The first was that the players never entered this Nightmare Dungeon again after they were frightened by Gundyr.

The second situation was that the players defeated Gundyr and were drenching in the strong sense of achievement, turning into some bloodthirsty hunter-like fanatics and indulging in the hunt of Dark Souls. They craved to defeat the powerful nightmare guardians one by one.

Dark Souls became popular among a small number of core player groups, but Qiu Ren still wasn't satisfied with it.

On the other side, even though a whole team of the Dream Eaters was beaten paralyzed in bed by the guardians of Dark Souls, this didn't scare them away.

They came up with all sorts of ways to weaken the power of the Lord of Nightmare and its children.

Taking down all the drama series related to the children from the Internet was the most vicious way. Once the power of the children was reduced to a level they considered appropriate, it would be a matter of time before their full invasion…

By then, Qiu Ren and the Lord of Nightmare wouldn't only have to face the team members of the Dream Eaters but also the Level S Dream Dungeon that supported them, "Dark Side."

So, Qiu Ren must come up with a way to make more people stay in this pit of Dark Souls… He and the Central Research Institute had already done enough to attract players. Now, the key was to make them stay.

For this, the country had provided a massive amount of support to the Central Research Institute and Qiu Ren.

This included dispatching a few elite teams from the Dream Exploration Bureau. Their job was the same as that of the Dream Eaters: they were responsible for battles in dream worlds.

Someone Qiu Ren knew, Xiao Zhou, was also in one of the elite teams.

He seemed to have been transferred here by his immediate supervisor, Kan Shaoni.

Xiao Zhou had been spending too much time in Battle Royale recently. Kan Shaoni was probably worried that he would be too addicted to the killing atmosphere in the game, resulting in some mental health issues.

That was why she had transferred him to this operation of Dark Souls.

However, after watching Xiao Zhou's report, he felt like Xiao Zhou had fallen in love?

In Xiao Zhou's most recent dream exploration reports, he had been playing Battle Royale with the same person.

But Qiu Ren wasn't in the mood to gossip right now.

As the commander of this operation, Kan Shaoni was assigning missions to the elite teams dispatched here and telling them their roles in Dark Souls.

Qiu Ren was assigned to "serve" those drama production crews who came to discuss things about the upcoming joint event.

"It's too difficult to make the fans stay in that Level S Nightmare Dungeon with the joint event. Not everyone would choose to stay after suffering in this Nightmare Dungeon."

The director of "The Giant and The Little Bee" expressed his thoughts after reading the report on the retention rate of the Nightmare Dungeon of Dark Souls.

Their crew responded to the call of the Central Research Institute and had already been working wholeheartedly for the joint event.

However, most fans who were attracted here were scared away at the door of Gundyr on their way to chasing their idols.

"So, the Central Research Institute has gathered Dream Explorers from the Dream Exploration Bureau to help those… players who give up after getting killed by Gundyr several times," said Qiu Ren.

"Help… How are they going to help?"

While that director was still asking, the senior who had talked to Qiu Ren before and was one of the screenwriters of "The Giant and The Little Bee," Xia Lian, slowly raised her hand.

"Can I go inside that Nightmare Dungeon to have a look?"

Senior Xia Lian's suggestion silenced the crew. After a short few moments, voices that discouraged her from risking her life sounded in the room.

Even though the safety of the normal players during the joint event was guaranteed… it was still a Level S Nightmare Dungeon. Perhaps only students from the Nightmare Purification Major like Xia Lian would volunteer to go inside for a look.

"Of course. You must be worrying about what the giant and the little bee were doing in the Nightmare Dungeon, right?"

Qiu Ren could see that Xia Lian didn't make this request out of courage only. She also had the worries of an old mother. For these crew members, those dream consciousnesses were like the children they had raised with a lot of effort.

Needless to say, all the screenwriters and directors here had similar feelings as parents-to-be when they looked at those Dream Seeds.

Other members of the crew also wanted to go inside. They were willing to stay with the characters they created day and night, even if only for once. However, no matter how deep their relationship was, they dared not risk their lives to enter a Level S Nightmare Dungeon to see what their children looked like right now.

This was also the thought of most fans being invited to the joint event.

"Hm… I don't know how long I can survive in your Nightmare Dungeon as well, Qiu Ren."

Xia Lian was looking at Qiu Ren with a slightly weird gaze.

This feeling was like the well-behaved junior she knew a few days ago was, in fact, the person behind a terrorist organization that kidnapped her children.

Xia Lian even had the thought of taking care of this junior at first. Now, though, she thought that she was already lucky he didn't catch her.

"You don't have to worry about this. If you really meet a nightmare guardian that you can't defeat, the righteous Warriors of Sunlight will come to help you," Qiu Ren put up his thumb and said to Senior Xia Lian.

The Warriors of Sunlight? Who were they?

Xia Lian assumed Qiu Ren was just saying that to encourage her. She smiled cooperatively and adjusted her breathing.

Under the gaze of everyone else in the crew, she lay on a dream-entering device as a volunteer. She touched the appropriate options on the device, including one for connecting the drama series, "The Giant and The Little Bee."

"Choosing to connect to 'The Giant and The Little Bee' means joining the Covenant of the Watchdogs of Farron as the initial covenant when entering the Nightmare Dungeon. This is the role they play in this world?"

Xia Lian didn't care what the Covenant of the Watchdogs of Farron was. Her desperation to see her children made her choose yes… Then, her consciousness was dragged into that Nightmare Dungeon.

At the same time, the elite Dream Explorers from the Dream Exploration Bureau also lay on the dream-entering machines prepared by the Central Research Institute under Kan Shaoni's command.

Most of them had joined the world of Dark Souls as a member of the Covenant of the Warriors of Sunlight at the beginning. A small number of elites were also arranged by Kan Shaoni to choose the Covenant of Rosaria's Fingers.

The Dream Explorers who chose the former covenant were responsible for helping and encouraging new players to defeat the enemies they couldn't compete with, while those who chose the latter were specialized in hunting down those invaders.

Nevertheless… When Qiu Ren looked at the increasing number of posts about Dark Souls on the forums of foreign websites, he felt like this depressing, dark, and lonely world was starting to flourish gradually.

…

Willa was also looking at the largest game forum in Europe and the United States, 2AG, right now like Qiu Ren.

The live broadcast platform, Twitch, had gone crazy. They banned all the content on Battle Royale during the daytime!

Under the government's pressure, Twitch was forced to make such a crazy move of banning Battle Royale. Yet, the problem was that the toxicity of Battle Royale had already spread all over the world.

Even if Twitch banned Battle Royale, the other live broadcast platforms would stream those contents. This led to a tremendous visible drop in the rate of flow and the number of users on Twitch.

So, to reduce the loss, Twitch decided to ban the live broadcasts during the day and allow them to stream during the night.

However, this still caused a drastic loss of popularity of full-time live streamers like Willa.

The effect of Willa's live broadcasts on eating the chicken was too good. This made the taste of her fans become pickier because of the chicken.

During the day, they all betrayed Willa and went to other live broadcast platforms, which caused her daytime popularity to be way lower than that of the nighttime.

Still, based on her popularity in Battle Royale and chicken-eating skills, she was a live streamer on the top of Twitch. Even during the day, her popularity had risen quite a lot compared to the past.

Willa would browse the forums and watch drama series during the day to kill her time so that she could save energy for the chicken-eating battle at night.

When Willa looked at the 2AG game forum recently, she found the discussions on the forum confusing.

"The dancer who protected the old lady of the Way of Blue is definitely not the Lothric Knight, and not Bordeaux either. Judging from the description of their souls, they should be from a force called Boreal Valley."

"We're talking about why the butt of the Dancer of Boreal Valley can be this round (picture). What are you talking about?"

"The background of this Nightmare Dungeon of Dark Souls seems to have repeated a lot of times."

"What's the relationship between the mad spirit in the Undead Settlement and Sirris of the Sunless Realms in Firelink Shrine?"

"According to their conversation, I guess they're grandpa and grandson. I still haven't gone further. There seems to be a storyline between them."

"Where can I save the saintess? Can someone tell me?"

"Don't you Dark Souls experts have your own forum?"

What were those things?

Willa looked at these discussion posts on the forum. Most netizens on the forum were confused like her. They had no idea what this group of people was talking about.

However, those dark, depressing but gorgeous and posh screenshots they sent on the forum and the plot they discussed, like the undeads, Ashen One, firelink reincarnation, felt very high-end.

Willa seemed to have heard of the name of this Nightmare Dungeon, Dark Souls.

She was a diehard fan of "The Giant and The Little Bee." Even though "The Giant and The Little Bee" was banned, she had received a push notification about the joint event of this drama and Dark Souls a while back.

At that time, she was too busy eating chicken, so she didn't give it much thought.

Thinking of this, Willa found the push notification she had received before once again.

"'Dark Souls'

"Level: Level S Nightmare Dungeon

"Description: Ashen Ones who are invited to come, please go on a firelink journey under the protection of the giant and the little bee."

It was another Level S Nightmare Dungeon. Willa was a bit hesitant when she saw the risk assessment, but reading the discussions on the forum, it seemed that people entering the Nightmare Dungeon through this joint event could be protected from the harm inside?

Should I go and try?

Willa's hand held the mouse and stopped at the option of "Enter."

"Another Level S Nightmare Dungeon? Willa, do you really want to die?"

"I've seen the live broadcasts of another live streamer in this Nightmare Dungeon. That person couldn't even complete the first level. Willa, don't go in there and embarrass yourself."

Willa ignored those real-time comments on the pop-up screen that were trying to convince her not to go inside. She started asking around on the forum what kind of a Nightmare Dungeon Dark Souls was.

Those guys on the forum were unexpectedly enthusiastic. They were so passionate that they seemed a bit like fanatics. They kept telling Willa what was so interesting about the Nightmare Dungeon of Dark Souls.

With the sincere recommendation from the Dark Souls experts, Willa roughly figured out the rules of Dark Souls. It was just an action game in which players used swords and shields to defeat the enemies!

"As a technical live streamer, I think it's necessary for me to give it a go."

Willa had quite a lot of experience using swords and shields, at least better than using guns.

There were three hours until Battle Royale opened anyway. Her partner would only be free at night too.

Taking this time to wander around in this Nightmare Dungeon of "Dark Souls" might be able to increase her live broadcast popularity during the day?

In fact, Willa's decision was correct. When she decided to enter the Level S Nightmare Dungeon, "Dark Souls" to explore…

Someone posted something on the 2AG forum. "Willa is going to suffer in a new Nightmare Dungeon again. It's even a Level S Nightmare Dungeon!"

Perhaps it was interesting for the netizens to see Willa suffer from all kinds of torture in a Nightmare Dungeon. Her live broadcast popularity, which didn't usually increase during the day, suddenly soared at an extreme speed.

Willa thought she was going to disappoint these fans, who were "attracted here by her reputation," because she was too bad at it, but she felt pretty good. She was only going to wander around this Level S Nightmare Dungeon for three hours to kill time anyway.

Even if she really met a monster she couldn't beat, she could find an excuse to leave. She would then eat the chicken with someone else at night.

Perfect! Thinking of this, Willa chose to enter the Nightmare Dungeon of "Dark Souls" as a member of the Covenant of the Watchdogs of Farron.