Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

The Mad Hand was originally an enemy Faded template character in the Elden Ring DLC.

Now, it was temporarily borrowed by Gong Qiying.

At the moment of the clash with Luluwo, the invader known as the Mad Hand slapped the "Painting World: Sick Village" onto her face.

In the next moment, Luluwo was helplessly teleported to an otherworld, not even able to react to this miraculous move by the invader.

Truly eye-opening.

Witnesses had vivid flashbacks to the Mad Hand slapping the "Painting World: Sain Ancient City" onto faces in the Casas Underground Tomb, something Tami and Elsa deeply understand.

Therefore, when Tami saw the current scene, he instantly had a PTSD reaction, leaping up even though he had just been hit in the chest by the Unbearable Madness Fire. He took a deep breath and charged at the Mad Hand with his sword!

"Wait, Tami, don’t go over there!" Berto reached out to intercept, but it was already too late. He clearly remembered Tami as someone who wouldn’t act impulsively. Why was he behaving like this now? Had the Mad Fire burned him stupid?

Berto experienced a moment of dizziness upon seeing the overwhelming Mad Fire, hurriedly turning to pull Ais and Em to escape, praying in the process that when Tami resurrected at the blessing place, his mental state wouldn’t be affected by the Mad Fire.

Tami’s motive for charging with his sword towards the Mad Hand was temporarily unclear, but he definitely hadn’t lost his mind.

He had noticed from earlier that the fire spewed by the Mad Fire Patients didn’t harm the Mad Hand. It even intentionally avoided the area around the Mad Hand, creating a small "safe zone" nearby.

Tami’s timing for the charge was impeccable. His alternating pace allowed him to dash into the "safe zone" just before the Mad Fire Patients’ next wave of attacks. In the past, he could never have achieved such precise speed control, a testament to his growth during this period.

The Mad Hand’s gloves, capable of driving anyone insane, reached out for him instantly, but Tami nimbly bent down and dodged, slashing at the Mad Hand’s unprotected abdomen with his straight sword held in his left hand.

At that moment, the Mad Hand’s speed suddenly surged, swiftly retracting the hand initially aimed in another direction, intercepting and even knocking away the straight sword!

As the Mad Hand gleefully attacked Tami again, the latter, instead of picking up the straight sword that had fallen to the ground, changed direction, exerting effort towards the direction from which others were escaping, as if ready to dash out any moment.

"?"

A question mark popped above the Mad Hand’s head. Why was this kid able to escape so smoothly? Wasn’t he here to attack him?

The Mad Hand tilted its head and saw the truth.

Tami, utilizing his bent posture, grabbed more nimbly with his right hand directly for the painting that had fallen to the ground!

The truth was revealed: he had specifically come back to take away the Painting World!

Luluwo was in there, and it couldn’t be ignored. What if she got mentally deranged from the torment inside the Painting World? She needed timely treatment!

Perhaps only a kind-hearted, considerate newcomer like Tami would do such a thing. Berto and the others had firmly turned their backs and run, fully confident that their tough leader couldn’t be easily broken.

Is this the gap in experience?

"Got it!"

Tami shouted as he completed the plan, his fingers touching the painting!

However, the moment he touched the painting, it glowed with bright white light. In the next second, with an "owie," he was sucked into it.

"Tami!"

Berto turned back and couldn’t help but shout. This Painting World actually allowed two people to enter at the same time!?

At this, everyone stopped in their tracks, exchanged glances, and took on an entirely different determination from before. They swore to reclaim the painting where Tami was, exuding the spirit that seasoned adventurers should have!

Luluwo, who was sucked into the unknown Painting World, needn’t worry, but if Tami was also sucked in, then the situation would be quite different and warranted serious attention.

"Let’s go, everyone, bring back Tami!"

"Oh oh!"

Berto called the charge, and everyone responded in unison.

A moment later.

One after another, pieces of the "Painting World: Sick Village" gently floated to the ground, the Mad Hand clapped his hands in satisfaction.

Apart from the now non-attacking Mad Fire Patients, the surroundings were empty, with various equipment from the Skyrim Strategy Group scattered on the ground, having fallen when they were sucked into the Painting World.

If the Sain Dungeon truly wanted to target someone or a group, just spawning a Mad Hand would be enough to wreak havoc.

The Skyrim Strategy Group had not anticipated that this naked man, save for some tattered fur, could magically produce an endless series of "Painting World: Sick Village" paintings without pause!

Is he some kind of painting world wholesaler?!

The Mad Hand collected these paintings entered by pairs from the Skyrim Strategy Group and leisurely walked towards the nearest blessing spot.

He seemed to want to thoughtfully place them at the blessing spot, truly heartwarming.

————————————

At this moment, Luluwo felt utterly exhausted.

"What’s with these monsters here, why is each one so resilient?"

She grumbled at a speed comparable to high-speed divine speech while hammering her chain-bound fists onto the fatty monster in front of her, pushing the opponent’s belly in with one blow. It seemed certain that internal organs would be ruptured.

Yet, despite such severe injuries, the fatty monster, almost three meters tall with heaps of gray fat and a stench, still raised its heavy club and smashed down at Luluwo, forcing her to retreat temporarily.

Normal creatures would feel pain when attacked, but these fat creatures appeared unresponsive to external assaults, completely ignoring bodily injuries until they died!

In a game, this would be a typical high-toughness, high-health dung creature.

Yet, there were plenty of such dung monsters in the Sick Village!

In the dim environment where reaching out left one’s hand invisible, only a torch provided meager light. The rickety wooden planks underfoot creaked ominously, as if the wooden structures Luluwo was in might collapse at any moment. Below, the swamp exuded a suffocating stench; just a whiff made it feel like her lungs were infected with a hundred diseases.

Hell probably looked no different!

"Why is this place also called Sick Village? Compared to this, the previous Sick Village was simply paradise!"

Luluwo shouted loudly, knocking down the fat monster in front of her. The monster finally roared unwillingly as it died, its fat body turning into flying ash and dissipating, leaving behind an enticing white light point.

However, after seeing that white light point, Luluwo didn’t feel any happiness at all. Based on her recent experience of taking down a few other fat monsters, this white light point was bound to be just...

She approached with a try-it-and-see attitude and picked it up.

[Lump of Manure]

"I knew it!!!"

Her voice, full of frustration, echoed from somewhere in the Sick Village.

Why do these powerful fat monsters only drop lumps of manure when they die?

Luluwo lost all desire to continue exploring and wanted to keep committing suicide, as the outside world rumors suggest, to escape the Painting World.

Nonetheless, reality wouldn’t allow her to do so. Just as she was about to commit a straightforward suicide, an annoying buzzing sound, like that of flies, came from beside her. When she turned her head, she saw several giant insects, as large as human heads and looking rather terrifying.

"They’re just bugs," she muttered.

She turned her head away, ignoring the bugs. Based on her past exploration experiences, these bugs were invariably distractions thrown in by the Sain Dungeon to divert people’s attention from exploration; they had no real offensive capabilities.

"Splat—"

The next moment, the insect sprayed something mixed with Mad Fire and Poison Water onto Luluwo, unclear whether to call it a liquid or a flame.

"..."

Why would a bug spray Mad Fire?

The mental burns from the Mad Fire and the corrosion from the Poison Water caused her such pain that she cried out involuntarily. At once, fury welled up inside her, transforming her into an enraged Luluwo as she charged at the large insects, swearing to tear them limb from limb!

The big insects naturally turned and ran, the adventurer’s footsteps making a nerve-wracking creaking sound on the wooden planks of dubious quality.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a sound of something piercing through the air came out of nowhere. Luluwo raised her hand to block, firmly catching a sharp needle.

She laughed immediately, muttering to herself, "I knew these bugs were a trap to lure me in. Sain Dungeon, I’m sick of your tactics—ah, ouch ouch ouch—"

The words weren’t even out of her mouth before she hurriedly flung the needle away. It was smeared with a potent poison, causing her hand to feel searingly burning just by holding it.

Looking ahead, she saw several emaciated animated corpses hiding behind the wood planks, each wielding a blow dart, ready to fire poisonous arrows at her!

In the past, she could have easily handled this situation, but now her chains had been heavily damaged by Mad Fire, and the remaining ones couldn’t reach the blow dart enemies from her position; she needed to take a few more steps forward.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

As a barrage of poison arrows rushed toward her, Luluwo raised her focus to two hundred percent, frantically turning the pathetically short chains to block. She finally managed to deflect all the poison arrows, yet at that moment, the big insects made a surprise attack from behind.

"Did you really think I didn’t notice?"

She swung her hand, striking down a swarm of big insects. Another flick of her chain and she scooped up the light point dropped by the insects, as her chain was still able to reach from this distance.

[Poison Purple Moss Ball]

[A moss ball with healing properties, capable of curing poison]

Great! A smile broke across Luluwo’s face. She remembered that this type of moss ball could be used to cure poison; just one would fully cleanse all toxins.

Over at the blow dart monsters, reinforcements had arrived, creating a setup like a machine gun nest. Still, with the antidote in hand, Luluwo felt no worry. She threw her chains forward and charged, dodging as many approaching poison arrows as she could, blocking those she couldn’t avoid, though a few still made it to her.

Almost in an instant, she was poisoned, her Life Force quickly depleting.

If this were a game, a message like [Critically Poisoned!] would pop up right now.

Hmm? Why did this poison seem more potent than before?

No need to worry, she had the Poison Purple Moss Ball!

With full confidence, Luluwo swallowed the purple moss ball, ready to launch an attack on the blow dart enemies.

In the next second, a mouthful of turbid blood spewed from her lips as her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground.

"Eh... eh?"

Luluwo’s eyes were full of confusion. What had happened? Why hadn’t the poison disappeared from her body?

Why was her Life Force depleting faster and faster?

Her body felt so heavy she couldn’t lift her arms; her vision was dimming...

The blow dart monsters surrounded her, as she was losing the strength to counterattack, uniformly drawing out their daggers. With her last bit of strength, Luluwo managed to take down a few, yet she couldn’t escape being overwhelmed and battered.

In the final moments before death, she clutched a light point that a blow dart monster had dropped.

[Poison Purple Flower Moss Ball]

[A moss ball with potent medicinal effects, capable of curing severe poison]

[Moss balls without flowers are completely ineffective against severe poison. Possessing flowered moss balls could be a matter of life or death]

The moment she saw the item description, Luluwo understood everything.

No wonder this time the poison was exceptionally fierce, and no wonder the previously consumed Poison Purple Moss Ball was completely ineffective, no wonder...

"Damn it—"

A ghost, the vengeful spirit of an adventurer, drifted above the Sick Village.