Chapter 33.1 The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love

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Chapter 33.1 – Protagonist: I really want to make a chain and shackle you to me.

After two days, Violet and Alice returned to Beliard City.

Something strange seemed to be going on. At the demon sisters’ home, all of the guards were silent. They looked like they really wanted to speak but didn’t dare to. When the two sisters saw the monocle-wearing demon, they realized what had frightened their guards.

“City Lords of Belial City,” said Rachel, smiling politely. “I think we should talk.”

***

The inner city of the Gnome Ruins was built according to the pattern of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, with 22 paths and 10 circular plazas that represented the 10 Sephirot. The Gate of Wisdom was situated on the plaza in the upper left corner of the inner city. According to the lore of the Kabbalah, that Sephirot represents wisdom.

Du Ze stayed in the Gnome Ruins for two days. At midnight of the first day, the doujinshi in Du Ze’s hands was restored to its normal appearance – cool, very good!

A mouthful of old blood was stuck in Du Ze’s throat, almost choking him. The time inside the Gate of Wisdom runs faster than the time outside with a ratio of 60:1. That is to say, Xiu has had 1/5th of the doujinshi in his hands for nearly 40 days – 40 days with 8 pages of the doujinshi is enough to make the protagonist fall!

The flowers of the motherland were destroyed by the little yellow (porn) book …¹

Du Ze, forcing himself not to imagine the what Xiu was doing, went out. He liked to look at the inner city’s otherworldly style of architecture. The streets are full of small houses of different styles, like the dwarves’ miniature houses in fairy tales. Du Ze stooped down and entered several of the houses. Without exception, all of the houses have traces of the gnomes who used to live there. The traces were so vivid that Du Ze could even infer what they were doing: they were bathing, eating, and assembling mechanical parts. For some reason, all of the gnomes seemed to have vanished right in the middle of whatever they were doing.

Looking at the empty house, Du Ze shuddered before going back into the street. Although there was some mechanical activity on the street, it still felt deserted due to the lack of gnomes.

The gnomes … What was the reason for their disappearance?

Du Ze is not the author, so he doesn’t know what Yi Ye Zhi Qiu planned to write about this event. The reason for the disappearance of the gnomes seems to be an important story arc for “Mixed Blood,” but when Du Ze was transported into this world, the reader had not yet learned how it happened.²

Du Ze could not help but wonder about Old John who had been accompanying him for the last few days. The ancient-looking mechanical puppet was not written in the novel. Thinking of the differences between the novel and the present, a wild guess suddenly appeared in Du Ze’s mind.

“How long have you been here?”

Hearing Du Ze’s question, Old John stopped playing with the little Phoenix and replied. Lost in thought, as though sinking into a sea of old memories, his voice was full of remembrance: “Nearly forty thousand years, right?”

Old John touched the stars on his chest: “I am of the second generation of mechanical puppets. My master used the best power device for me. That is how I can live until now. But my power device is almost at its limit. In another year, my heart is going to stop.” It looked at Du Ze. “It is great that I was able to see you before I die.”

It seemed strange to hear a machine say “live” and “die,” but the tone of voice as Old John spoke was full of woe.³ The mechanical puppet had been wandering in this empty city for thousands of years and even developed feelings.

Old John’s words confirmed Du Ze’s conjecture. In terms of time, the protagonist in the novel entered the Gnome Ruins four years later. Old John’s power source had died, so he had already been shut down.

Yi Ye Zhi Qiu wrote that the gnome’s fourth era was 30,000 years ago compared to the present day’s seventh era. That is to say, Old John definitely witnessed the disappearance of the gnomes. However, seeing Old John’s solemn attitude when he spoke of the bygone days, it seemed cruel to continue asking about it.

“You look a little hesitant,” Old John said. “Do not hesitate, you can speak freely. I am happy to serve you.”

“The gnomes … Why did they disappear?”

The blue lights in Old John’s eyes were suddenly extinguished when he heard Du Ze’s question, as if it had been through a great shock. After a long time, the blue lights of the machine flared again.

“You’re curious, child.” Old John’s voice was like a sigh: “As curious as they were … But sometimes being too inquisitive is not a good thing.”

Before Du Ze could process what Old John had said, the giant mechanical puppet walked forward.

“Come, what you want to know is in here.”

They walked down the street for a while until they arrived at another circular plaza. In the Kabbalah Tree of Life, this plaza was the location of the Sephirot of Understanding. In the middle of the plaza was a metal building that resembled a bud. Old John inputted several commands in front of the building, which then unfolded its outer shell to reveal its interior.

It looked like a research lab littered with stacks of data. Most notably, in the center of the lab was an enormous wheel. Its outer ring was golden and the disk was made of crystal. It was engraved with a circle of figures and runes along the outer ring. The whole round wheel looked like a giant clock, but without the clock hands.

“This is the wheel of time.”

Old John looked at the wheel and somehow, the blue lights of his eyes looked sad. Du Ze waited for a while but the mechanical puppet was silent, seemingly lost in his memories, unable to extricate himself.

Du Ze hesitated for a moment, then went into the lab and picked up some of the papers on the table. It was probably some research report since it was full of intricate drawings and terms that Du Ze couldn’t understand. Du Ze’s gaze fell on the lower right corner of the paper, which contained some of the researchers’ insights.

[Time is so wonderful, if _____ had not given us the wheel of time, we are afraid that we never would have been able to touch the law of time.]

[The curve is wrong, the time should not be decomposed. The decomposition function will be constructed again tomorrow.]

……

[We made a breakthrough today! With the wheel of time, we achieved the separation of time, the first separation of the ratio of 2:1. ]

[The time separation ratio was raised to 37:1, and the committee said that the separation of time could be put into practice by building the Gate of Wisdom.]

[If we don’t use a part of the wheel of time, we cannot achieve time separation, oh no! So frustrating!]

[We put the second hand of the wheel of time into the Gate of Wisdom, and achieved a 60:1 ratio of time separation. Now, the “time separation without using parts from the wheel of time” was established as a new topic.]

[Plan one: Using parts of the wheel of time to replicate time; Plan two: Finding alternatives to the wheel of time; Plan three: a thorough analysis of the laws of time. Plan one is the simplest but everyone is inclined to follow plan three and I agree.]

……

[We succeeded! It is now possible to separate time from the individual. The gnomes will be immortal!]

……

[No, impossible, it’s out of control! We have clearly rea- …]

The record came to an abrupt halt. The scribbled notes showed the confusion of the person who had written it.

“That day … the clock … shattered … they … broke down⁴ … they … disappeared.”

Behind him came Old John’s voice, which was like playing a broken video, intermittent and messy. Du Ze stared at that half-written “read” character and imagined a small figure writing it as he slowly disintegrated, the pen falling to the table, no one there to pick it up any more.

Du Ze shivered and put down the paper as though it was a hot potato. His line of sight inadvertently swept back to the first page and then paused.

[Time is so wonderful, if _____ had not given us the wheel of time, we are afraid that we never would have been able to touch the law of time.]

Du Ze stared at the blank. Based on the context, a name should be there. Du Ze was just going to ask Old John about it when he saw the baby Phoenix clumsily flying in. It’s goal was … the wheel of time.

Naughty bear child!

“Get back!”

The little Phoenix fell on the top of the wheel of time and then looked towards Du Ze, saying: “Chirp ~”

The wheel of time didn’t have any abnormal reaction. Du Ze just wanted to relax, but then he tripped over a stack of records that was near his foot and he fell down. His whole body fell onto the wheel of time.

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1. What is Du Ze going on about here? It seems he thinks the porn will make Xiu gay… or at least give him ideas?
2. If you recall from the previous chapters, the web novel was not yet finished when Du Ze read the doujinshi and got transported into the world of “Mixed Blood.” He know some details of the ending (like Xiu becoming a god) based on the author’s synopsis and notes but the web novel hadn’t reached that part yet.
3. 违和 – out of sorts, uncoordinated, sick
4. 分解了- broke down in the sense of “they decomposed” (literal translated) but more probably meaning “they disintegrated.”