The Trial Game of Life

After all had been said and done, Jin Cheng found Wen Xiaoming disguised as a mushroom and sitting in a corner outside East Cross Street. He asked Wen Xiaoming: “Why aren’ you going in?”

Wen Xiaoming pointed to the red number above his head: “Doesn’t that mean going straight to jail? I’m still from Zone A, boss.”

Fifteen minutes ago, Wen Xiaoming went all out on the entire East Cross Street, blowing up each and everything that could be blown. But now he himself didn’t dare to enter.

Jin Cheng was a bit surprised: “You only work in the background, where do you get that number?”

Wen Xiaoming jumped up: “I followed you all the way to Zone A, boss, don’t look down on me!”

Jin Cheng touched his nose and looked at Wen Xiaoming’s teary eyes, then he stretched out his hand: “Where is the vaccine? Have you gotten it?”

“I have it.” Wen Xiaoming sighed resignedly. He had vowed his loyalty to this boss, and even if he had to kiss the ground, this was the man he would want to conquer the world with. He took out the vaccine and continued to dig out some other stuff while muttering: “I can’t come to see you at East Cross Street anymore, boss. You have to take good care of yourself. You take these things first, if in the future they aren’t enough, I will come to find you at the end of the street.”

You say it as though I’m the one in jail!

Jin Cheng exploded on Wen Xiaoming, then put away the items that were handed over and waved his hand. He walked away as casually as the wind. Wen Xiaoming covered his forehead and looked at Jin Cheng’s back, then he sighed as a thought crossed his mind, He’s like a dad.

Chi Yan took care of distributing the vaccines. The amount of vaccines Wen Xiaoming brought wasn’t much, but players in Zone F generally weren’t so big-built that they needed a lot, so one person wouldn’t use a whole vaccine and everyone shared together.

Jin Cheng liked to cover up for his people, so Tang Cuo got one whole vaccine to himself.

“Just be prepared. Who knows when you will hurt your own HP again?” Jin Cheng said.

Tang Cuo declined to comment. He took the vaccine and drank another healing potion. Eventually his HP went back to its max value, but he succumbed to his low blood sugar again and had to rest.

Although Jin Cheng wasn’t infected, he still suffered a lot of injuries due to all that acting and needed a good timeout. The destroyed Yong Ye City needed some time to repair itself so the two of them couldn’t go back to their own places. They simply continued to stay in the borrowed room.

Only Chi Yan was left to do the labour work.

He had no idea why the two big brothers both went to rest, while he, the weakest one, still had to hold up a speaker to deliver vaccines along the street. “Come over and take a look, there are fresh vaccines. Those who have been infected should come out quickly. With one shot of this vaccine, you won’t suffer, you won’t be fooled. This is totally free of charge, first-come-first-served, and East Cross Street reserves all the rights for final explanation.”

Under Chi Yan’s passionate call, the players finally plucked up the courage to step out of their room. Slowly, more people started to appear on the street. East Cross Street gradually stabilised itself, but outside Zone F, the turmoil brought by the 11th movement had just started to bubble.

Amid the repeated curses of “f**k” and “damn brutal” or a combination of the two, “f**king brutal”, the name Jin Cheng once again was glorified around Yong Ye City, ranking first among the players whom one really wouldn’t want to mess with .

Zone A, the place with the fewest players in the whole Yong Ye City, now seemed even emptier. Desolation filled the villas where its members had gone missing.

Miao Qi blatantly carried his cannon gun right before the judging, questioning eyes of all the players on the roads. He walked into a garden full of roses, where, under the flower pergola, a man was sitting and reading a book. He was about 32 or 33 years old, dressed in pure white cotton and linen home clothes, with a handsome face and a gentle aura.

“Sir, why are you reading a book again?” Miao Qi poured himself a glass of water and sat down on a small stool, even though there was an armchair just beside it.

“You’re back?” Lin Yandong looked up, closed the book and said: “Did everything go well?”

“I haven’t even talked to Jin Cheng. The moment he commanded the laws, I couldn’t go into East Cross Street anymore.”

“It’s okay then.”

Lin Yandong stroked the book’s gold-plated cover, pondered for a moment and said: “The area of effect this time is smaller than that of the three laws that were commanded earlier. It seems that he has made some changes to his plan. The authority of the 11th movement isn’t high enough, so he’s right to be cautious. Following this incident, no matter whether it’s Zone A or Zone F, things should calm down for a while. You and other people should take advantage of this time to head to a few dungeons and save some points. Don’t spend them all.”

Miao Qi asked with curiosity: “Sir, are you an ally of Jin Cheng now?”

Lin Yandong shook his head: “No, he just used this to test me.”

Miao Qi: “Test you?”

Lin Yandong smiled and patted his head: “You will understand later.”

Miao Qi pouted. He hated the way clever people played the game and sprouted words with deep meanings like this, for it made him seem like an idiot. After that, Lin Yandong asked more about the situation at East Cross Street, so Miao Qiyi recounted all the details, one after another.

At the end, he asked: “What is it that Jin Cheng wants to do? Does he want to be the saviour?”

Lin Yandong smiled: “No, this is called setting off the wheel of fate.”

In the central area, a ‘Closed’ sign lay in front of the izakaya, but there were still two people drinking inside.

The owner of the Ruby Bar, clad in in his usual purple suit, shook the small wine cup in his hand and said: “If you like to come all the way here for a drink, then I like to stay in Zone F to watch the fun. What’s wrong with that? Look at yourself, even the lady boss doesn’t want to give you any attention.”

The person sitting on the other side wore a black wizard hat with its brim covering his eyes, his complexion pale and his smile gloomy. He remained silent, so Purple Suit continued to drink in boredom.

A heavy sound of meat being chopped, occasionally accompanied by a cold snort, came from the kitchen at the back, which seemed to suggest that the lady boss was extremely displeased with them being here. 

“What’s the number of your movement?”

“Five.”

“What’s your plan?”

“Heh~”

Black Hat smiled slightly, but still didn’t speak.

As Lin Yandong had expected, a brief period of peace came to both Zone A and Zone F. If these two zones stayed out of trouble, the other zones would naturally have their peace time.

Among them, the most talked about was the famous Extreme Luck of Zone B, No. F66666 Yu Yiyi. He had not only a very European number, but also a very European amount of luckThis is a wordplay. His nickname is 欧皇 [ou huang], which is lit. translated as ‘European Emperor’. At the same time, 欧皇 is a Chinese gaming slang that refers to an extremely lucky player. His number 66666 also bears a European feel because of its reference to the Devil’s number.. That day, he actually turned up at East Cross Street, but he left just one minute before the laws were issued and luckily escaped in the nick of time.    

So far, none of those who went to jail had been released.

At East Cross Street, Tang Cuo was also asking Jin Cheng: “What are the criteria of imprisonment?”

Jin Cheng comfortably sipped tea in his chair and said: “I don’t know. I only give the framework. How to judge and how long should their sentence be? That’s all up to Yong Ye City. The authority of the 11th movement is still too low, so I can only compromise accordingly to make sure that nothing could possibly go wrong, else it’ll be a waste of so much preparation.”

Tang Cuo didn’t ask any further.

Jin Cheng said: “Let’s prepare for the next dungeon. Wen Xiaoming just told me that the repair of the ring is almost done, he only needs to find one more material. For hidden missions, we don’t need to go to the game hall or team up with strangers. When the time comes, how about two of us go in? Then after we leave, Chi Yan can return to Zone E to find An Ning.”

Tang Cuo had no comments on Jin Cheng’s arrangement.

A day later, Wen Xiaoming delivered the repaired ring to them. It was a simple bronze ring, carved with the pattern of a nightingale and a certain flower, its size fitting Tang Cuo’s index finger just nicely.

Jin Cheng watched the ring being put on Tang Cuo’s slender finger and thought it looked pretty on him. Thinking so, he stretched out his hand to Tang Cuo and said: “Shall we?”

Tang Cuo gave him a strange look: “To do what?”

Jin Cheng: “Take my hand, of course. How else are you going to take me into the dungeon?”

Tang Cuo: “Actually, I can do it by myself.”

Jin Cheng smiled. Taking advantage of his height, he raised his elbow and put it on Tang Cuo’s shoulder, teasing him: “Are you still feeling shy?”

Tang Cuo felt the urge to beat up someone, his face expressionless.

Seeing his stern face turning blacker, Jin Cheng finally stopped teasing him. The truth was, it wasn’t necessary to hold hands; as long as the two of them had some physical contact, they could enter the dungeon together.

“Ding!”

“Congratulations to the players for starting the hidden mission [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]. This is a serial mission. The first round is [Death of The Poet]. Current number of players: 2, triggering two-player mode.”

“Please check the Mission panel at all times and follow the instructions.”

“Happy surviving!” 

The darkness faded away and an unfamiliar city appeared before Tang Cuo’s eyes.

In the rosy sunset, the golden desert embraced the collapsed wall of the city. The huge crimson sun bestowed its light onto a gap in the wall, making the white roses that were blooming in the gap blush like a beautiful lady against the sunset, looking all timid and graceful.

In the city sitting behind the circular wall, there were such beautiful flowers everywhere, as though the whole place was a forgotten back garden of this desert. Despite being eroded by the golden sand, the flowers were stubbornly blooming, showering a distinct shade of life on this melancholic place.

Perhaps the scene was so beautiful that Tang Cuo suddenly forgot where he was standing. When he came back to his senses, he found himself in a tall tower on the west side of the city.

The highest part of the tower was hollowed on all sides, a bronze bell engraved with a half-moon symbol hung on its spire. A half-moon symbol and a kingdom hidden in the moonlight ― was there any connection between them?

“This looks like a dead city.” Jin Cheng’s voice came from his side.

Tang Cuo had a look at the Mission panel.

The first round of [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]: Death of The Poet

Main mission: Find the bard Lancelot

Side mission: —

This hidden mission was divided into a main one and side ones, truly different from an ordinary dungeon mission. When Tang Cuo heard the name ‘Death of The Poet’, he thought it was another reasoning dungeon, but now it seemed more like an exploration type.

Tang Cuo glanced through the city again and indeed couldn’t see anyone, then he touched the balcony and didn’t feel any dust on it. The city looked run down, but it probably hadn’t been abandoned for a long time.

The tower had a spiral staircase leading to the ground floor, where there was a door with no lock on it. Pushing the door open, they found themselves on a stone street. Probably because of the small size of the city, the streets here were rather narrow, its width only enough to fit two horse carriages at any point.

This was a typical Western Fantasy style city, but it was difficult to tell which era it belonged to. The walls had all faded and their details couldn’t quite be distinguished.

The only vibrance that existed in this place was the white roses blooming at every corner. But how they grew here remained unknown, for there seemed to be no water source nearby.

“Let’s walk around, maybe we will trigger something. In any case, there’s no time limit for this mission series, and we’re not in a hurry to get out.” Today, Jin Cheng went back to his free-spirited, rugged look with his leather jacket and motorcycle boots on.

Tang Cuo had the exact same plan. The two walked and made frequent pauses along the street, coming  across many small shops. The doors and windows of the store were mostly open, so they could see what was inside without going in.

There were bakeries, taverns, blacksmith shops… pretty much very common places. After they passed by these, a magic store suddenly appeared in front.

Tang Cuo stopped and walked in without hesitation.

The store wasn’t big and had a counter on the left side. Behind the counter was a whole wall filled with all sorts of potions and scrolls, as well as some strange little items whose uses were not easy to guess.

On the right was a small table with a crystal ball on top. The remaining three walls were covered with the usual accessories of a wizard, such as wizard hats, cloaks, wands and many others.

Jin Cheng casually took a magic wand, played with it in his hand and said: “It seems that this is a world of magic and swords. Do you want to be a wizard? Or a knight?”

Tang Cuo asked: “What’s the difference between magic and abilities?”

Jin Cheng said: “In essence, there is no difference. Whether it’s magic, special abilities or martial arts qi, their energy source all comes from Yong Ye City. The difference lies only in their manifestations. Say, fire magic and fire-type abilities may actually look the same.”

Tang Cuo understood.

But he would leave it to one side for now. What was important to him at this moment was something that he could grasp with his own hands.

Without saying a word, Tang Cuo walked around the counter and picked up a potion on the shelf. After a bit of trying, he discovered that it couldn’t be put into the Inventory Bar. Seeing his deflated mood, Jin Cheng smiled and said: “There are so many of them. If they can actually be taken away, won’t Yong Ye City go bankrupt very soon?”

Tang Cuo: “If we can’t take it away, at least we should use it.”

Looking at all the medicines on the shelf, in addition to ordinary healing potions, there were also sleeping potions, antidotes, hallucinogens and plenty of other types. The bottles were all clearly labelled with Chinese characters.

It was rare for Yong Ye City to be so considerate. But Tang Cuo’s pocket wasn’t big enough to hold many things at once, so he picked up some potions that he found most practical, thinking that he would come back to take the rest later if the need arose.

Jin Cheng studied the crystal ball with keen interest. However, it was a pity that he couldn’t find any potion recipe or magic spells after looking around in the store for a while.

The scrolls on the shelf all seemed similar to each other, but they couldn’t be opened. Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng didn’t want to risk destroying these scrolls and left them untouched.

“It’s scientifically impossible that such a shop doesn’t trigger any mission.” Jin Cheng said.

“There is no science here, there is only magic.” Tang Cuo pointed out bluntly.

They talked and walked to the next store. Unexpectedly, the familiar chime of “Ding” came as soon as they stepped foot into the place. The mission had arrived.

“The side mission has been triggered ― [Cecilia’s Bakery].”

“Travellers from a faraway land, welcome to Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight. The annual Flower Festival is coming again, so the beautiful Cecilia has gone to the Well of Time to fetch water and is unable to take care of her shop at the moment. Please help her deliver the bread that the customers have ordered. She would be immensely grateful.”

Hearing this, Tang Cuo looked at the store. There were layers of fragrant bread on the shelf by the window and three bamboo baskets on the counter, all covered with blue floral cloths.

Walking forward, they found the oven where the bread was baked, its fire still burning and the smell of freshly baked bread still lingering inside.

Tang Cuo opened the Mission panel.

First round of [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]: Death of The Poet

Main mission: Find the bard Lancelot

Side mission: Cecilia’s Bakery

Deliver the bread in the bamboo baskets to its respective customers (0/3). 

This was especially simple and clear. Jin Cheng swore that he had never encountered a simpler mission than this since he entered the Yong Ye City. Bread delivery, or basically food delivery, was just running errands.

 Jin Cheng: “Are there really people in this city?”

Tang Cuo picked up the small notes in the bamboo baskets and memorised the name and address of each customer. Little Jack, Aunt Anna and Mr. Gilbert.

“We’ll know if we go now.” He said.