Du Ze stared at his hand. It looked perfectly normal now.
"What happened to your hand?" Xiu's voice came from beside him. "You've been looking at your hand since yesterday."
Du Ze stretched out his hand. His fingers stroked across Xiu's palm then laced themselves through Xiu's fingers – he grasped Xiu's hand firmly, their ten fingers interlocked.
There was no transparency or white shadow. It was as though he had just imagined the sight yesterday.
Du Ze sincerely hoped that it was just his imagination or the instability of the portal. After all, his hand was only transparent for a moment right as they entered the hall and it restored itself to its normal appearance before anyone else noticed. Du Ze thought of a variety of reasons to ease his mind but the thought of the mural in the Time and Space Corridor made his blood freeze in his veins.
——You'll never find him!
Will he disappear?
Not taken away, not hidden away, but truly disappear from this world.
——So what if you become the Supreme God?! In the entire world – you're the only one left!
Du Ze's hold on Xiu's hand tightened. He impulsively blurted out: "..." Don't climb the tower anymore.
He could not speak the words. Du Ze's lips tightened. When he tries to speak the truth about the world or spoilers that may affect the future course of events, an invisible force silently lets him know: You are not the protagonist, you cannot dominate the story; you are not the author, you cannot change the story; you are the reader, you can only watch the story unfold.
Seeing Xiu's attention on him, Du Ze opened his mouth again but the only thing he could say was: "... We'll be on the fifth floor soon."
Xiu probably thought that Du Ze was just counting on his fingers so he nodded and smiled: "Well, let's go in and have a look."
Xiu led Du Ze into the door of light. As they were swallowed up by the light, Du Ze thought: Based on what he saw in the Time and Space Corridor, the person involved in his disappearance is undoubtedly the God of Creation.
He couldn't prevent Xiu from becoming a god, so he must immediately find out why he was going to vanish
Before he opened his eyes, Du Ze heard the rustling of the leaves in the wind, and felt that his feet were treading on a soft, spongy rug. Du Ze looked down and found that he was standing on thick, phosphorescent moss. Walking on the soft moss was very comfortable. Glowing spores floated in the air. Du Ze looked up at the big, round moon in the night sky then he automatically looked at his headphones' charge – the charge was the same as it was in the morning. Therefore, right now it should be morning but this simulation was set in the nighttime.
All around them was magical glowing mist that illuminated the area so that everything could be seen clearly. There were tall hedges that formed walls that stretched out as far as the eye could see. It seemed like they were at the entrance of a hedge maze. Opposite them was a sign that the others crowded around to read but only Ariel and Du Ze could understand the complicated and flowery writing.
It's the elven language.
[Dear Adventurer, this is a fairy illusion.
You can only walk to the maze exit to reach the Elf Kingdom, do not do unnecessary things.
There is a certain danger in the maze; the equipment in the chest can help you.
Watch out for the vines.]
Du Ze translated for the others. When Xiu heard him out and asked: "Vines?"
Everyone was quite confused. Even Ariel's face showed bewilderment. There was a chest below the sign which Enoch opened. It contained a bow and a quiver of arrows. Enoch took out the bow and randomly tested it out.
"This bow is not as good as my dagger!" Enoch shot another arrow and was surprised to find that the arrow was made of mercury iron.1 "Hey! This arrow is good."
Among them, Ariel was the best archer so the bow and arrows were given to her. Du Ze read the sign again. According to the information on the sign, this was the trial of the elf race. The Tower of God was very generous, telling them the way to pass customs and even kindly provided the equipment. A silly, cute person, who had been abused so much by the Tower of God that he became a masochist, could not help but be suspicious – this time the maze trial shouldn't be difficult, right?
"Muir, fly up and take a look at the entire place," said Xiu.
Du Ze then understood the difference between him and Xiu. While he was obediently thinking about the first "rule of the maze," the Moe Lord had already thought of a quick way to cheat his way past customs.
Silly, the master can fly ~
Muir changed into his dragon form and took off. When Muir tried to fly, however, the hedges that formed the maze walls suddenly shot upwards – no matter how high the black dragon flew, the hedges gew to match his height. Muir hit the hedges with his tail but they were unscratched. Thus, they understood that the hedges are in an invincible state, immune to all attacks.
If you can't cheat your way through, you can only go through it honestly.
The maze was quite large and the pathways were wide enough for 10 people to walk side by side. Du Ze walked on the sponge-like, phosphorescent moss and everything in front of him in the maze was clouded by a hazy glow. This would have been a really enjoyable time if he was not in the dangerous Tower of God. At first the simulation was quite easy but after they had walked for a long time, they found a fork on the road.
Now is the time to test one's character. Du Ze was going to rely on Xiu's protagonist halo when he saw Ariel crouching down at the place where the two paths met. She seemed to be examining something. Before the others could approach her, Ariel excitedly jumped up, pointing to a knot of grass. She gestured to Du Ze using the elf language.
"She said, go right. The mark is there," said Du Ze, relaying Ariel's words.
According to Ariel, this knot of grass is what the elves commonly use to mark the paths in the forest, indicating that there was something up ahead. Du Ze couldn't help but want to call Ariel "little angel" – with this little angel, my mom will never have to worry about me getting lost in the forest.2
With the elf princess' help, navigating the maze was as easy as strolling through a garden. Every time Du Ze was happy, the Tower of God would always give some silly, cute person a blow to let him know how cruel life is. When the group had passed the third fork in the path, Xiu suddenly stopped and looked back cautiously.
Even though the soles of his feet were cushioned by the thick moss, Du Ze could feel rumbling vibrations coming from afar, as though a newly awakened beast was rushing towards them. Soon, Du Ze knew what the sign meant by "watch out for the vines."
Du Ze and the others were stunned to see vines rushing toward them like a green flood. Xiu's reflexes were the fastest. He quickly cast a spell: "Firewall!"
Five walls of fire three meters high each shot up but the vines easily passed through them without pausing. Not only were they not harmed by the fire, they even seemed to have grown larger. When Xiu saw this, he immediately removed the last two walls of flame and issued a warning to the others: "Do not use magic, it absorbs magic energy!"
The vine that was in front stretched out like a tentacle towards them. Violet and Alice cut it but, to the amazement of everyone, vine swiftly grew until it was as long as the original. Its healing time was almost instant.
More and more vines rushed towards them and, because of the small space, Muir could not transform into a dragon. He used his right claws to tear off parts of the vines. Under the groups' concerted efforts, more and more vines were cut off until the sliced parts were piled up high but the vines' offensive did not slow down. Everything they did had no effect, as if they were trying to empty an ocean with a few cups.
Du Ze was behind Xiu. The reader thought of the hint that was written on the sign at the maze's entrance. However, Du Ze could see that Ariel's arrows could break the vines but they simply grew back and even multiplied.
Both magical and physical attacks were useless; the vines were incredibly powerful. Du Ze thought that this was probably one of the Tower of God's checkpoints. It was like a maze chase game,1 how brutal!
The ground was wet with the vine's juice that flowed down when they were cut. Ariel failed to notice where she was stepping and almost slipped on the juice. Enoch used his shadow shifting ability to grab Ariel and move her away from the vine's attack. Watching them take on the vines in a hopeless battle, Xiu issued the order to retreat. He and Rachel will stay to beat back the vines while the others escape.
Du Ze was just about to turn around when a vine that was as thick as his wrist rose up from under a pile of cut vines and wrapped around his ankle. Some silly, cute person was raised up in the air by the vine.
"Du-"
Du Ze heard Xiu shouting the first half of his name then the vines pulled on his headphones' wires. The vines ran away with him like a scammer running away with his ill-gotten gains.
Du Ze, who was now without his headphones, tried to grab a vine and escape but he was pulled into a tangle of vines.
Countless vines came from all directions and wrapped themselves around Du Ze tightly. The friction of the rough vines sliding over his body made his skin tingle. Du Ze was dragged deeper into the depths of the vines; he tried to struggle but his whole body was covered in vines with no room to move, much less escape.
A flash of light split the vines around Du Ze. He looked up and saw that Xiu had rushed into the midst of the vines. In spite of the vines that completely surrounded him, Xiu determinedly reached into the mass of vines enveloping Du Ze and grabbed Du Ze's hand, trying to pull him out. However, Du Ze's skin was slippery with the vine's juice so his hand slipped off Xiu's.
The vines had restored themselves so Xiu had to cut them up again. Du Ze tried to pull the vines off and go to Xiu but a vine wrapped itself around his waist and pulled him back. Du Ze, randomly waving his arms around, accidentally grabbed a green fruit and squeezed it by reflex.
"Snap."
All of the vines suddenly trembled as though they were in great pain. They hung limp then finally began to wither. The people outside were startled to see the vines dying but they did not have time to think and just hurriedly pulled Du Ze and Xiu out of the mass of vines.
Enoch asked curiously: "What happened?"
"There was a fruit. That should be their weakness." Xiu spoke this sentence then went to see how Du Ze fared.
Du Ze cut a sorry figure. His whole body was covered in the vine's juice. Although it was not unpleasant and even smelled a little sweet, the slippery feeling felt very weird. Du Ze walked away from the others and found a more private place. He pulled up his clothes to check his body. Xiu saw at a glance that Du Ze's back bore the mark of the vines. The bright red stripes were printed messily on his white skin, making it look as though he had been abused, but giving off a weirdly pleasant fragrance.2
Xiu couldn't help but stretch out his hand, wanting to touch Du Ze's back, but the vines that had been motionless until now suddenly made a strange noise.
Du Ze pressed on the red marks on his belly. In some places the vines had broken through his skin. The marks were itchy and sore.
His headphones were on strike so he didn't notice anything strange until Xiu patted him on the shoulder. Du Ze found that a strange situation was unfolding right in front of them. A group of porcelain people were climbing out of the withered vines. If not for their lifelike expressions, Du Ze would have really thought that they were a bunch of figurines and not real, living creatures. Each porcelain person was about half a meter high and as soon as they saw the people outside, they began to wail and say something.
Seeing that Du Ze was not wearing his headphones, Xiu knew that Du Ze could not hear anything so he wrote on Du Ze's hand: [They say that they are the porcelain people that were caught by the vines. They are begging us to escort them home.]
It looks like one of the Tower of God's side quests. According to the porcelain people, their home is right not too far away and sending them home will not take a lot of effort.
After the group had tidied their clothes, they escorted the porcelain people back to their home. However, after a short time walking, they found that the porcelain people were quite troublesome. They were only half a meter high which meant that their walking speed was very slow. In addition, since they were made of fragile porcelain, they did not dare to run in case they crashed into something and were broken into pieces.
Xiu summoned his cute pet team. He wanted each of them to carry a group of porcelain people, only to find out that the seemingly small and fragile porcelain people were extremely heavy.
Because of these reasons, they were considerably slowed down and it took them half a day to walk to the next fork in the path. This revealed another problem. The elf mark Ariel read said they should go to the right but the porcelain people said that their home was on the left.
Du Ze looked at the pitiful porcelain people, they have gone this far and sending them home shouldn't be bad. Maybe this is a side quest and if they escort these porcelain people home they might get information and items that can help them fight the BOSS.
Thus Du Ze and the others turned left. After a bit of rest, they finally reached the porcelain people's home after one day. The group of porcelain people cheerfully thanked them then disappeared into their homes without a trace.
This is... No?!
What a good reward! They didn't get anything except a good guy card! They escorted the porcelain people for such a long time, they could have given them a sip of water at least, bas***d! OMG!
(TN: 好人卡 – literally "good guy card." Either it means proof that you are a good person or it means you got friendzoned with the other person saying "you're a nice guy... but I don't like you that way.")
The empty grass in front of them seemed to be laughing at them but there was nothing they could do. Though they felt a lot of resentment, all they could do was to backtrack and return to the original path. Du Ze and the others spent half a day to return to the fork in the path, only to feel the familiar vibration from the ground again. The vines came rushing at them.
"Destroy its fruit."
Compared to the last time they fought the vines, now that they knew its weakness, they were much more calm. The fruit was deep inside the mass of the vines and must be attacked with ranged weapons. It was then that the bow and arrows provided by the Tower of God showed their worth.
Ariel aimed at the green fruit. The vines seemed to understand the danger and pulled back, wrapping the fruit with layers of vines to protect it. The elf princess loosed the bow string and the arrows pierced through the dozens of layers of vines and hit the center of the fruit with great precision. The fruit immediately burst.
It was as though the vines' pause button had been pressed. They fell limply and withered. Just as Du Ze and the others were about to walk away, a group of porcelain people climbed out of the dead vines again. History repeated itself and those half-a-meter-tall people cried and begged Xiu to escort them home.
********
Xiu thought it over for a while, then decided to escort the porcelain people home again; he seemed to want to see if they would get a different result this time.
The result: they got another good guy card.
The group was silent as the porcelain people disappeared into their homes. In order to send this batch of porcelain people home, they once again turned away from the right path. Before Enoch could even begin to complain, the vines appeared again. Du Ze wasn't sure but he thought that this time there were more vines and each vine was bigger, around two feet in diameter. Ariel immediately nocked an arrow, found the location of the fruit, and shot at it.
"Thunk."
The arrow pierced the vines that protected the fruit but was stopped before it could stab the fruit. Ariel looked at it with amazement. She had used all of her strength but could not penetrate all of the vines – the green plants seemed to be twice as tough as before.
"Give me the arrow!"
Xiu caught the arrow that Ariel threw over to him. He changed Qian Bian into a bow, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. When they opened his blue eyes had turned green. The silver-haired elf drew his bow and loosened his finger at almost the same moment he aimed.
"Boom."
The vine trembled then fell limp, withering and shrinking.
When they analyzed the situation, everyone knew what it meant: The vines are getting stronger.
Enoch glanced at the vine, then focused Xiu's body. He was unusually excited and circled around the silver-haired elf: "Hey, you're back! Is this an illusion or a martial arts technique? Teach me!"
"..."
Xiu's face was cold. Du Ze looked apprehensively at the Moe Lord. Xiu in elf form was not the amiable type like the human form. Therefore some silly, cute person was afraid that Xiu will lift his bow and shoot that rash fellow. However, perhaps because fools have good luck, a group of porcelain people appeared and drew the Moe Lord's attention and hate.
The porcelain people cried but Xiu just glanced at them once then coldly turned away.
"The vines are terrible, please don't leave us."
"Please help us, escort us home."
...
The cries of the porcelain people gradually faded away. Du Ze heard some smashing sounds as though a group of panicked porcelain people tried to run towards then but accidentally fell and were broken. Their voices mixed together and it was very hard to bear.
"Don't think too much. It was a trap," said Xiu, who seemed to perceive Du Ze's repressed feelings.
Du Ze knew that all this was a trial by the Tower of God, so he felt a little depressed but did not object to Xiu's choice.
At the entrance to the maze, the sign written by the Tower of God said: "You can only walk to the maze exit to reach the Elf Kingdom, do not do unnecessary things."
Du Ze finally understood the "unnecessary things" part meant. Based on their two encounters, helping the porcelain people out does not benefit the tower climbers. Escorting them home is a very time-consuming and thankless task. If they were to help the porcelain people, it would only be because they enjoy helping others.
Du Ze's nature is such that he would like to help them out but doing good deeds here is not advantageous for them. This is the Tower of God which is trying to mold the tower climbers into the shape that it wants. On the contrary, doing good deeds might even get them killed.
The tower already hinted that they should ignore the porcelain people. Therefore, if the tower climbers spend time on "unnecessary things" then there will be more and more vines and fewer arrows to use, leading to the tower climbers' death.
This is a rule that is really worthy of the elf race's trial – those beautiful people that gave away their passion and received the gift of archery.
When they arrives at the path, Xiu lost consciousness due to his transformation. Muir carried Xiu and they followed the correct path according to Ariel. No matter the time, it's always night in the fairy illusion. Though the scene was still as dreamy as before, Du Ze now wants to rush through the maze and get out of it so that he can stop feeling so depressed.
One day later, Xiu had not woken yet and they were attacked by the vines again. First they were attacked after two days, then it was a day and a half, now it was just one day. It seems like the interval between attacks is getting shorter.
Compared to the first time they were attacked, this time the vines were not only bulkier, they even started to grow some thorns scattered over its length. Ariel was at a loss; even though she could aim at the fruit, her strength was not enough to pierce through all of the vines. Muir, Old John, and the others have the opposite problem; they have the power to break through the vines but their archery skills are not good enough to hit the constantly moving target.
The group thus decided to use a more dangerous method to fight the vines. Muir rushed right into the middle of the vines. When he was surrounded, he suddenly changed into his dragon form which stretched the vines out until there were gaps in between them. Rachel and Old John used this opportunity to open up a path to the fruit and allow Ariel to shoot it.
It was a close call, but in this way, they were able to finish off the third vine attack. They did not wait for the porcelain people to emerge and walked off right away. Based on the progression, the vines might attack again in half a day. Along the way, Xiu finally woke up. He quickly took charge of the situation and took the quiver of arrows from Ariel.
With the Moe Lord awake, Du Ze immediately felt relieved. He saw the ferocious Moe Lord solve the fourth vine problem with just one shot and a certain silly, cute person realized that, for the vines that have a weakness to long-distance attacks, Xiu's elf form is their nemesis.
The Moe Lord made a double kill;1 the Moe Lord went on a killing spree.
Even though the interval between attacks was shortened from half a day to a few hours, even though the vine was much stronger and had thorns all over its length, and even though the juice was replaced with a strong acid, the vines's role became that of an actor who appears on stage for a second before he is immediately killed off.2 They can't even get within 10 meters of Xiu before they are killed.
Vine: I used to be a powerful fighter like you, then I took an arrow in the knee ... I mean,an arrow in the fruit.3
With the Moe Lord who was at the level of a false god, they finally found the maze's exit. The scenery beyond it was like the elf kingdom that Du Ze had seen before. There were lakes surrounding the Tree of Life and the wind whistled through the trees, like an invitation – apparently this was the endpoint of the elf trial.
Enoch and the demon sisters had never seen such a beautiful place so they wanted to stay for a while. The Tower of God had recreated the elf kingdom exactly, hence Ariel was quite at home and was able to guide them to an elven tree house. The house was fully furnished but there were no people inside. It seems that the Tower of God only copied the scenery but not the people.
They were in the maze so long that everyone was tired. They all found rooms to rest in. Du Ze and Xiu naturally found a room for themselves. Du Ze felt very tired because every time they killed the vines, the porcelain people would turn to them for help. The first refusal, he didn't take it to heart. The second refusal made him feel guilty. By the third and fourth times ... he had become numb and learned to ignore them.
All kinds of thoughts whirled around in Du Ze's brain. The Tower of God, "the rules," the Creator God, ... even though he was very tired, he did not want to go to bed. He stood inside the room blankly for a while then walked out of the house
The huge moon seemed to fill the entire night sky. He was in this place of eternal night for such a long time that his body clock was a bit confused. Du Ze had just sat down on a branch when he heard someone come to his side. Even without looking, Du Ze knew that it was Xiu.
The branches trembled slightly as Xiu sat beside him. Du Ze suddenly felt that this scene was quite familiar. The shining lake, the glowing spores floating in the air, and even the person beside him, it was exactly the same as that night.
Xiu stretched out his hand and gently touched the back of Du Ze's neck. When Du Ze turned his head, the corner of Xiu's lips turned up and he smiled.
"Do you want to hear me sing?"
A breeze ruffled the elf's silver hair, disrupting time and space, and Du Ze seemed to return to that night at the elf kingdom. At that time, a silly, cute reader heard his favorite protagonist confess to him and he was so scared that his soul almost escaped from his body.
When he thought of that scene, Du Ze turned his head to the side, unable to stop himself from smiling. Xiu looked at Du Ze's profile and lowered his head to kiss the upturned corner of Du Ze's mouth.
"I like you, Du Ze," Xiu whispered. His voice was very light and each word he said was imbued with a bottomless emotion.
"I like you very much, I like you a lot, I like you so much that I'm a bit ... I don't know what to do." The elf's voice was like fine wine; after listening to it for a long time, one will become intoxicated. Xiu took Du Ze in his arms. The elf sighed in satisfaction, as though he had received the best gift in the world.
"In one month's time I'll have you."
The thought of that one-month agreement suddenly made Du Ze realize that Xiu was always the one who took the initiative, while he was always passive.
He likes Xiu so why not take the initiative?
Du Ze reached out to embrace Xiu.
Just like now, he wants the two of them to be closer and it's better for them to act as equals. Then, shouldn't he do something to dispel this bit of uneasiness?
Du Ze pushed Xiu away. A silly, cute person wanted to take the initiative. He wanted to speak but did not know what to say; because he cares so much, he became too nervous and tongue-tied.
What should I say? "Come at me right now?" That doesn't seem quite right ...This young man has seen a lot of things online. In this case, well, he should say, something like –
Gazing into Xiu's eyes, Du Ze, with an impassive face, uttered the first line that came to his mind.
"Give it to me good."
...
...
... WTF!!!