The Trial Game of Life

Soon, Bazz also entered the secret chamber and saw all the things that would have anyone shaking in their boots. He couldn’t help thinking about the time when the wizard mentioned that Bazz himself had died. His face turned as white as a sheet as his legs trembled.

“Theodore, what is going on here?”

Tang Cuo had read almost all the magic books in the school library back in the Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight. Combining that with the things he had seen after coming to the Principality of Flange, he asked: “Bazz, have you ever heard of the necromancers of the Locke Kingdom?”

Bazz shook his head subconsciously, then remembered something and said: “I know! I heard other bards and travelling merchants talk about them. They’ve something to do with the corpses and they can control the undead, and they don’t like to stay under the sunlight. How scary.”

He then realised something and suddenly took a step back: “This, is this the testing ground of those necromancers?”

Tang Cuo shook his head.

This wasn’t necessarily true. The Rose Sect might have their own style of magic, but they never went out of conventional methods. And there was the element of the Well of Time, so this was unlikely to be the magic of a pure necromancer.

Tang Cuo walked to the side of an iron cage and drew his sword to cut a hole into the corpse’s arm. This corpse was relatively well preserved, his face yet to darken and his body yet to rot. More importantly, he could still bleed.

The blood was warm, carrying with it a familiar scent of the Well of Time.

Tang Cuo then returned to the high platform and looked closely at Lisa’s body. Lisa was undoubtedly the most ‘alive’ of all the corpses, with even a rosy shade still left on her face.

As he reached out and touched her body, it still felt warm. Tang Cuo followed the instructions seen in the magic book earlier and once again felt the magic energy of the Well of Time from her.

What would this mean?

If Bazz was the same as them, then he was the only one who had been successfully resurrected and could behave like ordinary people. As he was a successful example, it made sense that the Rose Sect wanted to capture him.

“The Undead King gives the blessing of eternal life” should be the Rose Sect’s faith.

But Aesop The Rebel wasn’t a committed believer. He turned against them at one point and his faith shouldn’t be pure, but it was such a rebel that successfully brought Bazz to life.

Then The Red Priest and his men were the so-called most loyal and committed believers. It wasn’t difficult to understand why they had conflicts with Aesop. Tang Cuo carefully assumed their role and tried to think from their point of view. He felt that perhaps to them, whoever could hold onto Bazz would gain the power of the Undead King.

Eternal life was a forbidden thing that was bestowed only upon gods.  

In the end, necromantic magic was just to manipulate the undead. They might be able to create bone minions, summon zombies or even turn themselves into lichesRefers to a type of undead creature that is often the result of a wilful transformation. For example, a wizard skilled in necromancy wants to seek eternal life, thus he creates a magical ritual to make himself undead and becomes a lich., but neither of those were actually living.

In contrast, Bazz was an experiment so successful that he didn’t even know that he was dead.

“Grrr!” The half-human ‘zombies’ struggled inside the iron cages and growled in their throats, the rotten flesh on their faces falling down, even mixed with their saliva.

Lisa was still alive, but there was no sign of her waking up. In the side mission, her painting was incomplete, and Tang Cuo felt that she would never wake up.

Judging from that letter, Priest Peter had close contact with her and might even have high hopes for Lisa. But Lisa said in the letter that ― Perhaps a rose could fulfill Peter’s wish, but she didn’t need it.

She didn’t want to live.

What was Peter’s wish? To create a kingdom where no one died?

Tang Cuowu stood there thinking solemnly, but Bazz had been shaken to the core and was trying his best to not run away from this place: “Theodore, will I become like them too? I, I just got sick, I didn’t die, right?”

He looked at Tang Cuo pleadingly, but Tang Cuo couldn’t deceive him. The lie would be exposed sooner or later, and now that Bazz had reached the three-way junction of his fate, he would have to make his choice soon.

Amid Tang Cuo’s silence, Bazz’s mental state was collapsing little by little. Tang Cuo looked at him being utterly desperate and helpless, squatting on the ground clutching his head and almost crying. Eventually, he couldn’t help saying: “Bazz, you are still a friend of mine and Lancelot.”

Bazz suddenly raised his head: “Really?”

Tang Cuo was about to answer when the corner of his eye suddenly caught a glimpse of another passage that had appeared on the wall right behind him. Instantly alerted, he turned around ― he was standing face to face with a few men that just ran out of the passage.

“Move back.” Tang Cuo coldly urged Bazz and drew his sword without saying another word.

The enemies were also astounded, as if they didn’t expect a stranger to turn up in the secret chamber. But the moment they finally reacted and caught a glance of Bazz on the ground, they understood at once.

“This is the real Bazz!” One of them shouted and the others rushed forward. Some of them wondered where the others who were supposed to be here had gone to, but Tang Cuo’s sword didn’t give them much time to think. They could only fight him while cursing ―

“That damn blasphemer!”

Tang Cuo didn’t know who they were cursing at, but he knew that Jin Cheng must have acted along with his plan, otherwise the amount of enemies he had to encounter wouldn’t be this few.

The more the two sides fought, the more fierce the battle became.

There were many people on the other side, and Tang Cuo had to rely heavily on the [Sword of Judgment] and ‘Holy Light Shield’, standing firmly like a defender that no other men would be able to take down. But he also had to protect Bazz at the same time and faced a lot of constraints.

Just at this moment, the land from above the secret chamber shook violently.

“What’s happening?!” Someone exclaimed.

Tang Cuo didn’t care at all and took advantage of the enemies being distracted by the strange happening above their heads. He charged into the enemies like lightning, his sword glimmered with a silver light, and instantly took down one person.

“Boom!” The vibration worsened, almost turning into a severe earthquake, and made everyone stagger. Tang Cuo retreated to the back, raised his head to look up and felt that his guess earlier had been solidified.

They must be directly below the church at the moment. What was happening in the church?

Was it Jin Cheng?

“It’s going to collapse!”

“Take cover!”

Amid the screams, cracks appeared at the ceiling of the chamber and sand and dust started to drop down, blurring everyone’s sight. The fight was forced to come to a stop and Tang Cuo immediately led Bazz back into the passage.

Before leaving, he looked back at the high platform again. Lisa’s body was still lying there, perfectly calm and serene. The roof of the shattering chamber was casting light onto her and illuminating her face where a layer of make-up had been applied, making a majestic sight that would move anyone’s heart.

The next second, Tang Cuo turned around and left. Countless rubbles fell down and completely drowned Lisa, whom Tang Cuo would never see again.

On the ground, the fight between the Greenvines Alliance and the Rose Sect had come to its climax.

The angry Rose Sect went all out as soon as they appeared and directly destroyed the entire wall that had been covered with red paint, at which point the church collapsed. But they didn’t expect that Celtic had arranged so many magic circles and traps in the church. The moment the church crumbled, the magic was simultaneously triggered, causing not only the building to fall down but also the ground to blow up, leaving a deep crater behind.

Jin Cheng ran fast. When the church gave in, he had already ran to the roof of the opposite building, holding his small harp and taking the entire scene into his eyes.

All of a sudden, he saw a figure standing alone at the corner of the street. Although the pure white shade of a priest’s robe was hidden in the darkness, it still looked like a light in the dark night, guiding Jin Cheng in its direction.

Priest Peter had finally appeared.

Jin Cheng thought he couldn’t lead Peter out, but unexpectedly, the priest showed up at the very last moment. Jin Cheng chased after him at once.

Peter also spotted Jin Cheng as he stared deeply at the ruins of the church as if trying to see the chamber buried deep below the ruins. Before Jin Cheng approached, he decisively turned around and quickly fled.

But Jin Cheng moved incredibly fast. Although the system had put a restraint on his skills, it didn’t hold back his speed. He looked at the system panel to find the main mission finally refreshed.

Current main mission: Talk to Peter.

“Peter, you haven’t found Bazz yet, what are you running away for?” Jin Cheng waited for the exact moment to jump down and landed right in front of Peter. His expression was relaxed, but his fingers were clasping the strings tightly, showing absolutely no sign of letting down his guard.

“You all seem to like to run after me.” Peter stopped.

“You all?” Jin Cheng pondered these two words and smiled: “Let’s leave that aside first. Peter, you’re in hiding yet you couldn’t help showing up here. What is it that you really want?”

Peter: “Things have come this far and you still don’t understand?”

Jin Cheng: “Of course I don’t understand, but I can see that you are not a loyal follower of the Rose Sect. Just now, so many of them wanted to kill me, but you weren’t angry at all when you saw me. Perhaps you should talk to Aesop The Rebel, the two of you will resonate very well.”

Peter declined to comment. His face gradually transformed from an alert to tranquil expression. When his eyes met Jin Cheng’s again, he had returned to his compassionate and benevolent facade.

“I know you, you’re a friend of Bazz. He came back from the dead, shouldn’t you feel happy? Or is it that your friendship and the care that he’s given you are not enough for you to overlook those worldly prejudices and sincerely accept him?”

Jin Cheng: “Are you preaching to me?”

Peter shook his head, “Aren’t you happy for him? In this White Leaf District, there are people who die silently like Bazz every day. People struggle and despair, but there is no way to stop it, and you can only stand by one side to watch the passing of life. Everyone living person must have someone they consider important, right?”

“So do you see the suffering of all beings, or do you see the suffering of only a certain person?” Jin Cheng keenly noticed something and his eyes sharpened: “Who do you want to resurrect?”

Peter’s smile became more benevolent and he raised both hands to his heart, as if praying to a god, and muttered the word with absolute reverence ― “Myself.”

Jin Cheng frowned: “Yourself?”

“What should I do about the suffering of all beings? I can’t change anything about their flesh and blood, just like the Grand Duke who is restrained in many ways and couldn’t pursue his ideology. But a god can.”

“You want to become a god?”

Jin Cheng could sense that things were getting increasingly absurd.

He didn’t expect Peter’s ambition to be this outrageous. Had he gone crazy?