Chapter 77.3 – The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love

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Chapter 77.3 – Tower of God: Fairy Illusion

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 arrived 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 was 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!!!

********

Translator’s Notes:

• The line that Du Ze said to Xiu was actually quite vulgar and it’s a CN meme. I did not translate it since the meme is not even known outside of China. I guess a G-rated version of it would be “Do me from the front” or something like that. However, such a literal translation seemed weird, therefore I translated it as “Give it to me good.” That is the actual meaning or something like “Take me now” … but as a funny meme. Sorry, idk any similar meme in English.
• What do you think is going to happen next? *smirks*

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1. 双杀 – double play, in baseball this means the act of making two outs during the same continuous play, also used in video games
2. Ugh, this uses the 便当 meme/reference which is super hard to describe in just a few words. It literally means boxed lunch but it’s from Stephen Chow’s King of Comedy. The main character of the movie is an aspiring actor who works as an extra and when his character is killed off, the director sends him off with a lunchbox. So it’s understood to mean a character’s death.
3. From Skyrim, the line “I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee” became a meme.