The Trial Game of Life

Jin Cheng took the mouse McCaw and walked along the bottom of the trench all night. He almost circled the entire Royal Palace, but found no path to go up. 

He tried different ways but just couldn’t leave by going upward. No matter what equipment he used, when he approached the edge of the cliff, the items would stop working, as if a force had sealed off this place.

If there was no way to leave by going upward, there must be a way to leave from down here, otherwise the bottom of this trench wouldn’t be so clean. Jin Cheng had walked for a while but hadn’t seen even a single bone.

The Elf King’s Royal Palace had existed for so long. Even if they hadn’t tossed any corpse down here, it was impossible for not even a bird to have died here, unless the place had been entirely cleaned up.

He asked McCaw, but McCaw would only ‘squeak’.

Only when dawn was approaching that McCaw suddenly began to panic. He hysterically waved his limbs in a flying posture and blocked Jin Cheng from moving forward.

“You mean we should fly out?” Their cooperation was so concerning that Jin Cheng started missing Tang Cuo even more, so much so that he wanted to write a poem about it.

And just as McCaw was finally able to clearly show what he meant through various strokes, the sunlight stared seeping through the horizon and the thick mist had slightly dispersed.

Jin Cheng looked up and spotted a vague figure of a huge bird nest hanging on the high cliff where the mist had dissipated. A huge creature with golden feathers was sleeping peacefully in it, its head buried in its wings, but its long tail was hanging outside, reaching up to two to three meters long.

“Squeak!” McCaw slid down and lifted the hem of Jin Cheng’s pants to hide, then his whole body shivered as he held tightly onto his head. This poor little guy might’ve seen the opponent’s strength a few days ago.

Jin Cheng stroked his chin thoughtfully.

If the nest was that big, there might be bird eggs in it, which could be used to cook breakfast or raise some hatchlings. There was always this sort of ‘plot armour’ in a Western Fantasy story, and as the protagonist, it wouldn’t be cool to not possess a unique pet for him to ride on.

“Flutter.” The bird seemed to perceive something and shook its wings even in its sleep. Just such a small movement could already blast a strong gust of wind.

McCaw was shaking more vigorously, secretly wishing that he could hide his whole body inside Jin Cheng’s pants.

The next moment, the huge creature slowly raised its head, revealing an eagle-like beak and mesmerising golden irises. Its intense gaze swept down, filled with an incredible sense of arrogance and dispassion.

As the two pairs of eyes stared at each other, Jin Cheng couldn’t help letting out a whistle.

Unsurprisingly, this act of his angered the opponent. The creature roared into the sky and spread its huge wings, calling upon a strong wind that nastily messed up Jin Cheng’s hair.

Jin Cheng immediately put McCaw into his pocket and made several jumps up and down the cliff, and while moving in mid-air, he took out his mechanical bow. He raised his hands and an arrow flew out, but it wasn’t aimed at the creature, rather, it was aimed at the middle of the cliff to give Jin Cheng a new foothold.

As the wind whipped by, like an eagle, Jin Cheng also spread his arms and landed on the arrow shaft before retracting both arms. He simply squatted on it with much ease and even a smile on his lips, but his eyes were icy cold and his overwhelming battle-ready aura was unconcealed.

Raising his hand and drawing yet another arrow from the air, Jin Cheng stared sharply at the opponent hovering in mid-air, as if they both had turned into the same kind.

The battle was thus kicked off.

The creature adjusted itself into a vigilant stance and stretched out its whole body, looking almost like a griffon. It had the body and claws of a lion, yet the beak and wings of an eagle. Jin Cheng was clueless as to where this beast ranked in the food chain of the continent of Sicilit, but it was certainly not a low position.

And he had no idea whether this was a neighbour of the elves? Or someone’s pet?

The beast’s shriek interrupted Jin Cheng’s thoughts. As the beast dived towards him, he immediately hooked the arrow shaft with one leg and leaned back to avoid its piercing claws. At the same time, another arrow was quickly shot out, this time towards the beast’s soft belly.

But after all, this beast was gigantic, ferocious and moved extremely fast. Moreover, as its wings flapped, the strong wind sent Jin Cheng’s arrow to slant to one side and land diagonally on the cliff wall.

In this first battle, the closest distance between the man and the beast was only a few meters. The beast’s huge body almost covered all the light above Jin Cheng’s head as its menacing breath enveloped him, making him feel both tense and excited at the same time.

Ten minutes later, Jin Cheng’s arrows were scattered all over the cliff. They looked messy at first glance, but they were actually all planned out. They weren’t placed too close to each other, made to provide him a foothold every dozen meters.

Jin Cheng trotted on this man-made arrow ladder as though he was walking on land, and even the two to three hundred meters width of this trench couldn’t give him any hindrance.

“Boom —” A huge shock wave hit the cliff and Jin Cheng dodged just in time. Thrown up high by the powerful aftermath of the attack, he raised his bow and mounted an arrow smoothly in mid-air.

“Swoosh!” The metal arrow pierced the sky and suddenly split into three as it got near the enemy. The beast roared as two arrows hit its wings and the remaining one hit its forelimb.

At this time, with a beautiful front flip, Jin Cheng settled on the opposite cliff. Turning around, he neatly sent out another arrow that swiftly split itself. 

No, it was a series of split arrows!

Each split arrow could be divided into three separate ones. Now, with a series of them, Jin Cheng recreated the scene of ‘ thousands of arrows fired at once’Refers to the famous scene at the end of the movie Hero (2002), in which the main character who tried to assassinate Emperor Qin Shi Huang got killed by thousands of arrows fired at him at the same time. with only one bow by himself.

Unable to hide from so many arrows at once, the beast’s eyes turned completely bloodshot, its anger provoked to the peak. With another strong wind and long roar, it jumped into the battle again and summoned a terrifying sound wave, shattering all the rocks at the bottom and the protruding slabs on the cliff wall.

In an instant, the air was filled with flying gravel and dust.

At this critical moment, Jin Cheng’s index finger quickly moved across the bowstring. As soon as the bowstring cut his finger tip, with a “Ting —”, a sound wave so formidable it almost felt like it was tangible pushed back all the gravel and dust that was flying Jin Cheng’s way.

“Bang!” The beast, which had been shot by the mass of arrows, lost its caution for a second and dangerously rammed against the cliff wall, forming a huge pit on it. There was also a cracking sound, but no one knew how many bones were broken.

But Jin Cheng also suffered a cut at his neck by a slab that slipped through the reach of his sound wave attack. His blood ran down the wound, tracing all the way to his collarbone, but he didn’t care at all, because the beast was already getting ready to attack once again. 

The impact earlier gave it a certain extent of damage, but it couldn’t affect the beast’s movements at all. It now moved even faster, and the gust of wind produced by its wings flapping could be felt from more than 50 meters away.

With such fierce, cruel attacks, no matter how fast Jin Cheng reacted, he would inevitably be hit.

“Bang!” Immediately before landing, he forcibly adjusted his posture and bent his knees to relieve some force, then he dismantled the mechanical bow and stabbed it into the ground, allowing him to slide for more than ten meters along the ground before coming to a stop.

It was clear that against such a powerful creature, if he had really been caught by that pair of razor-sharp claws, the only outcome for him would’ve been to be torn into pieces.

Jin Cheng panted hard. As his sweat glided across the wound, a tingling pain crept up his neck. He wiped a trace of blood from his lips, shook his arms and smiled once again.

This big bird truly could attack until he was in pain yet delightfully provoked.

But it was almost time.

The beast swooped down again, its bloody claws shining brightly in the sun. Jin Cheng dodged as fast as he could, then he stomped on the uneven rock slab next to him and returned to the cliff wall.

His speed was mind-bogglingly fast. Taking advantage of the beast’s huge inertia that wouldn’t easily come to a brake, Jin Cheng made several up-and-down jumps and ran far away. Fully enraged, the beast chased after him. Jin Cheng was running against the cliff wall, yet the beast totally ignored the hard rock slabs that would scratch its wings and continued to give chase. It almost scratched Jin Cheng’s back a few times.

As the gravel fell down, Jin Cheng turned back for a quick glance and suddenly stomped on the cliff wall. With a backflip, he jumped up high before descending towards the creature’s back.

The beast also sped up and chased after Jin Cheng by flying upwards, but in the end, it couldn’t move as dexterously as Jin Cheng. The moment the beast jumped up, Jin Cheng grabbed its fur and hung his whole body on its back with one hand.

Aggravated, the beast flapped its wings violently and shook its body while constantly changing directions, hoping to shake Jin Cheng off. Seeing that it couldn’t get rid of this human, the creature directly bang its back against the cliff.

Jin Cheng raised his brows and a bright light flashed in his eyes, then a dagger was conjured in his free hand, which he used to firmly stab the beast on the back.

“Roar —” Suffering excruciating pain, the beast shrank its wings, but it was unable to stop its momentum of smashing against the cliff. Jin Cheng couldn’t afford to care about pulling out the dagger, so he immediately let go, rolled a few rounds and landed on the ground.

This wasn’t a good feeling. Jin Cheng’s HP had directly dropped below 20, and there were now even more wounds on his body.

That said, the beast was in a worse state than him.

After hitting the cliff wall, it slammed into the ground, causing all the gravel on the ground to bounce. It roared in pain and desperately tried to stand up again, but as soon as its forelimbs wobbled up, they swayed to a side and its whole body collapsed.

This wasn’t because of its wounds, but because it had been poisoned.

Jin Cheng wasn’t a knight. A knight wouldn’t poison anyone or anything, but he would. What people liked to call a ‘battle’ was, after all, a struggle to survive. He would never use a poison arrow when fighting with ordinary players, but inside a dungeon, things were different.

It was just that the beast’s body was so big that the poison arrow took a little longer to work, and the effect was just about enough.

Taking out a healing potion and gulping it down, Jin Cheng quietly observed for a while and confirmed that the beast had no more powers to attack, then he cast his eyes at the bird nest in the distance.

When it came to stealing bird eggs, Jin Cheng was a professional.

On the other side, at the Secret Lake.

Several human adventurers insisted on leaving, but Don didn’t stop them. The team had now scattered and the seven remaining adventurers were divided into two factions. The group of five chose to leave and the other group led by Don chose to stay. The people of the Greenvines Alliance all chose to stay. The dwarf was still sleeping, while the two druids wanted to follow the five adventurers to leave.

“Druids are a race that stay close to nature. Our combat skills aren’t strong. It’s better for us to get out of here and report the situation early.”

Tang Cuo declined to comment.

The people from the Pinwheel Harbour frowned slightly, but didn’t say anything.

Eventually, there were only ten people left by the lake.

Everyone dispersed to investigate, but Tang Cuo sat beside the dwarf Hammo, staring at him in deep thought. Celtic asked: “What are you thinking?”

Tang Cuo: “I’m thinking about how to wake him up.”

Celtic: “Why do you have to wake him up? Is he important?”

Tang Cuo didn’t answer. He untied the alcohol flask left on Hammo’s waist and tried to wake him up with the smell of wine but failed. Then, he made a cut in Hammo’s arm to attempt to wake him up with pain, but he failed again.

Finally, he turned his gaze to the black iron furnace and the iron colossus. These two things were said to be two sacred artifacts of the Dwarf race.

Tang Cuo strolled to the lake. After the adventurer’s death, everyone kept a certain distance from the lakeshore. Tang Cuo was the only one who stood that close.

Holding up his elbow, he thought for a few seconds then began to rummage through his Inventory Bar. In this dungeon, in order to conform to the character settings, items that existed beyond this era couldn’t be used. The only functional ones were — the [Nightingale] ring, the [Greenvines Alliance Badge], the [Sword of Judgment] and a few others. He wanted to find a weapon that could be used for long-range attacks.

None of them seemed appropriate.

[Nightingale]’s engraved skill ‘Moonlight Tide’ might be useful, but Tang Cuo wanted to keep it as his trump card.

Tang Cuo walked a few steps backwards and decided to use ‘Water Balls’. Soon, a small water ball quickly smashed into the black iron furnace. As it hit the furnace with a “splash”, it turned into white smoke and dissipated.

A single water ball wouldn’t be useful. One after another, dozens of water balls were released by Tang Cuo, all banging at the furnace with the fastest speed, and the sound of “splash splash” attracted everyone’s attention.

“Did his brain get invaded by a Slime?” Hawk looked puzzled.

“Don’t pay attention to him. What can a hillbilly from the Principality of Flange figure out?” His teammate commented, then he continued walking along the lake nonchalantly.

“Can we really find it? Is it a person or an item?”

“I’m not sure now, but we’ll find out.”

After hundreds of water balls from Tang Cuo, the black iron furnace remained completely unscathed. He turned around to ask Celtic: “Can you destroy it from so far away?”

Celtic shook his head: “Not possible.”

At this moment , the twin brothers walked over. Hearing Tang Cuo’s words, they asked suspciciously: “Why do you want to destroy it? The black iron furnace is a sacred artifact. The dwarves may not have a second one.”

Tang Cuo put up a cold expression: “It’s a battle against forgery.”

Heimen and Hayes couldn’t understand the sense of humour of a man from the modern age, but they could guess something from his words. Heimen frowned: “You’re saying it’s fake?”

Hayes: “Are you sure?”

Tang Cuo: “I think everything we see is fake.”

Celtic was slightly surprised.

Tang Cuo looked at him and asked: “Don’t you think it’s weird? At first, we clearly couldn’t find the Secret Lake, so we put up a bonfire and sat down to rest. But after the dwarf fell asleep, the Secret Lake suddenly appeared, and everything inside the lake is from the Dwarf race.”

Heimen’s eyes shone lightly: “You mean — it’s an illusion? Right now, we’re all inside an illusion created by Hammo?”

Hayes immediately followed: “And destroying the black iron furnace can break the illusion?”

“Maybe you can also try to kill Hammo.” Tang Cuo sincerely suggested this method, thinking to himself that it might actually be the fastest way.

As his words faded, the other three stared at Tang Cuo with wide eyes full of disbelief. Tang Cuo only shrugged. He said the words, yet the system didn’t send him any warning, so he was still safe then.

“Cough.” Heimen broke the silence: “Let’s try to destroy the furnace first.”

The twin brothers consisted of one swordsman and one wizard, and they both were quite competent. A wizard was the most proficient in long-range attacks, so after a few intense-damage magic strikes, the black iron furnace finally cracked.

By this point, the three from Pinwheel Harbour had already walked out of sight, but no one knew where they had gone.

Hayes continuously put in his best effort, but Tang Cuo suddenly thought of something and turned his head to look in the direction they came from and slightly narrowed his eyes. The druids and human adventurers had walked away for a long time. Based on what Tang Cuo could guess, they wouldn’t be able to get out of this forest smoothly or even go too far, because they were still trapped inside this illusion.

But the forest remained quiet and there was no movement at all.

Did something happen?

Right at this moment, the black iron furnace finally exploded into pieces. The whole iron block sank into the lake, sending large waves rippling out and disturbing the lake surface’s calmness for a long while. Heimen looked back and caught sight of a frown on the sleeping Hammo’s face, following which he immediately asked Hayes to continue attacking the iron colossus.

Soon after, the iron colossus also collapsed.

The dwarf on the ground groaned, and the mist instantly began to flow, covering everyone’s eyes. When their vision came back again, the scene in front of them suddenly changed — they were all standing in the forest and surrounded by towering ancient trees. There was no Secret Lake or black iron furnace at all.

Everyone was a little shocked, and they could hear shouts and exclamations coming from Don and the others in the distance. Earlier, these men had walked off a bit too far, so they didn’t catch the conversation between Tang Cuo and the twin brothers.

Tang Cuo didn’t pay them any attention, rather, he gazed at Hammo, who was slowly waking up, while walking towards the direction that they came from. He walked fast and found an extinguished bonfire within a few minutes.

Moving on further, he ran into two panicking druids.

“They’re all gone! We got scattered in the mist, and in a blink of an eye they’re all gone!” The druid shouted.

Tang Cuo frowned and was about to question the druid, but his eyes caught a glimpse of a black lake in the direction to the south. His heart trembled, and he ran over at once.

The Secret Lake, a completely different Secret Lake, had appeared again.