The Trial Game of Life

No one spoke a word in this stifling tunnel.

The Grand Duke had the Grand Duke’s pride and seemed to be in a bad mood.

Tang Cuo also had Tang Cuo’s pride. He was a noble and brave knight, one who wouldn’t be friends with a frivolous, carefree bard.

The bard felt a bit wronged today.

Just now, he didn’t mean to just watch the excitement from the side. He actually wanted to help but his bow was sealed by the system, and if he wanted to use something else, the system would give him warnings that shot back and forth before his eyes like bullets, their content along the sorts of “If you dare to make a move then I dare to kill you.”.

Did Jin Cheng dare to make any move? He didn’t.

His main mission was ― Wait for the opportunity to help the Grand Duke.

And Tang Cuo taking the Grand Duke out of the carriage was that opportunity.

The tunnel should be a hint for the mission, and Jin Cheng intuitively felt that they would find something here. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes after walking into the tunnel, he found the familiar Rose Sect crest on the wall.

A golden inverted pentagram with a red rose in the middle.

Tang Cuo looked at the magic lights that would apppear every ten meters in the tunnel, then looked at the rose crest and said: “We must hurry up. If this tunnel belongs to the Rose Sect, the enemy will probably catch up soon.”

Tang Cuo wasn’t sure whether the group who tried to assassinate the Grand Duke came from the Rose Sect. But considering the plot of this dungeon, the Rose Sect undoubtedly played the role of the biggest villain, so the assassins would be connected to them, one way or another, sooner or later. 

The Grand Duke’s expression became even more solemn: “It seems that they are plotting more than just getting my head. Perhaps this isn’t the only tunnel in the city.”

Jin Cheng shrugged. Matters like these weren’t for him, a little bard, to express his opinions on.

The three continued on their way. The White Leaf District seemed to be very far away, because they still hadn’t arrived after half an hour, but the enemy behind was already about to catch up. Tang Cuo, as the brave knight Theodore, must of course be guarding from behind.

“You two go first.”

“Okay.”

Without hesitation, Jin Cheng took the Grand Duke away. The Grand Duke couldn’t help but glance at him, but Jin Cheng wasn’t free enough to leisurely explain to him. A curve emerged in front of them, so he asked the Grand Duke while running: “Your Grace, do you know how far is the White Leaf District from here?” 

Grand Duke said, panting slightly: “At least another half an hour.”

Jin Cheng placed his hand on the strings of the small harp and tried to use his sound wave attack again, but the “Ding, ding” warning came as expected.

“It seems that we have to speed up.” The corner of Jin Cheng’s mouth tugged up but his eyes were becoming colder. As he finished the sentence, he didn’t even wait for the Grand Duke to answer and directly carried him over his shoulders, rapidly running forward.

The Grand Duke was after all the Grand Duke, so even when he was taken aback and the posture was extremely uncomfortable, he didn’t say a word. Looking up at Tang Cuo, who was behind them, he said: “That young man can’t die because of me.”

Jin Cheng: “Don’t worry, as long as you don’t die, he won’t die.”

Tang Cuo was doing well for now.

Not many assassins were chasing, only two people: one wizard and one swordsman. Tang Cuo didn’t know whether he should also call himself a knight. In the world of the nobles like this, he might need to pay particular attention.

Tang Cuo couldn’t cast spells using his sword for the time being, but in addition to his self-taught magic, he also had the skill ‘Fireball’, a small reward given by the system. It was a skill of garbage quality that could launch a fireball with a radius of 2.5 centimeters at a rate of one every two seconds for ten seconds.

This small fireball couldn’t pose any lethal damage, but it was enough to interrupt with other people’s spell casting.

The enemy wizard didn’t expect Tang Cuo to be able to use magic. He stood behind his ally and chanted a spell, with absolutely no expectation that a fireball would suddenly fly his way.

“Pop!” He stepped back subconsciously, raising the wand to cast a Freezing spell. The fireball disappeared before the Freezing spell even took effect, as if teasing him.

His face turned blue from anger.

At this moment, another fireball hit.

“How dare you fool me!” He couldn’t stand this, believing that Tang Cuo was using a fireball to humiliate him, because no matter how bad a magic apprentice was, his fireball skill would never be this bad.

Tang Cuo was expressionless, and he flicked his hand to produce another fireball to seamlessly follow the previous one.

“Clang!” The swordsman stopped Tang Cuo again. He was in a hurry to pursue the Grand Duke, but he needed to be cautious when facing Tang Cuo. This young knight’s sword was strange. It looked unremarkable but the brilliance that appeared every time it struck was too dominating, as if it was some indestructible power. The swordsman was shaken every time that sword hit his own.

Tang Cuo’s combat style was very different. He hadn’t learnt any exquisite swordsmanship, so he could only slash or swing and do a few basic moves. He was entirely relying on this magical sword to look savage in front of the opponent.

He remained offensive and more offensive, completely replacing defence with offence. He used the power of the sword to cover up his own shortcomings and constantly exerted mental pressure on the opponent, and ―

“Keng!” The opponent’s sword cracked and his expression also cracked.

Tang Cuo cornered him step by step, then his staggered footsteps swept by the flabbergasted swordsman and went straight to the wizard. By this point, it was only half a minute after he used the ‘Fireball’ skill. The wizard wanted to use some powerful magic to crush Tang Cuo, but Tang Cuo’s sword greeted him just after the spell left his mouth.

“Whoosh.” Tang Cuo’s sword pierced the wizard’s heart, but the magic that had been released couldn’t be called back.

In a flash, Tang Cuo fled in the opposite direction.

“Boom!” The magic exploded with an earth-shattering impact and shocked even the swordsman. Tang Cuo rolled back to avoid it and struggled a bit as the injury on his arm opened up a bit more, but at least he suffered no new injuries.

After drinking half a bottle of healing potion, Tang Cuo didn’t turn around, rather, he continued to kill in the same direction.    

Because new enemies had arrived.

As for that swordsman, his sword had been broken. If he wanted to chase after Jin Cheng, let him go; he would be looking for death anyway.

The swordsman thought left and right, gritted his teeth and finally decided to chase after the Grand Duke. This tunnel led to White Leaf District, a slum that all sorts of people gathered and was way more happening than the inner city. Even if he couldn’t kill the man himself, at least he had to inform his allies of the Grand Duke’s whereabouts. The Grand Duke mustn’t return to the palace alive.

But a few minutes after he ran out, Tang Cuo came up from behind again.

“Clang!” The swordsman hurriedly blocked the attack with his broken sword, his heart thumping heavily in his chest. He clearly saw that more than one of his allies had also arrived, so how could this young knight catch up so quickly?

He would never know when Tang Cuo saw the crowd coming at him, he turned around and ran away at once.

Although Tang Cuo ran away, he could still fight fiercely.

The swordsman was holding a broken sword, which absolutely couldn’t be any opponent for the [Sword of Judgment]. After being pushed aside, he had to blankly watch Tang Cuo continue to charge forward. He ran fast and even used the ‘Sprint’ skill after his physique had improved, making him faster than any well-trained knight.

After dazing for a second, the swordsman finally started to run after Tang Cuo.

His allies from behind also joined him by this time, but the two groups had no time to speak, and together they continued to give chase.

Tang Cuo fought and tried to retreat at the same time. He was accumulating more and more injuries, and more and more people were chasing after him. There were at least fifteen or sixteen of them now.

Another curve appeared ahead, and Tang Cuo stomped on the wall and raised his sword to cut off the magic lamps. The moment the light went down, his figure vanished from everyone’s sight.

Everyone remained alert, but they were a bigger crowd with several wizards. The darkness was soon dispersed by an Illumination spell and they continued to chase without slowing down at all.

But just as they turned into the corner, a tiny beam of light suddenly magnified in the eyes of the man who was leading the way.

What is that?

That was the last thought of his life. Then, the light grew bigger and bigger in his eyes, until it totally drowned him.

Like the tide under a moonlit night that carried with it the shades of a dream.

Wherever it passed through, everything turned into moonlight and dissolved, without leaving even a trace of dust behind.

Tang Cuo came out from behind the curve, rubbing the ring on his hand thoughtfully. The legendary ring Nightingale was engraved with the skill ‘Moonlight Tide’ that had a cooling time of 24 hours.

The legend was indeed a legend. Its effect was spectacular.

Twenty minutes later, Tang Cuo joined Jin Cheng and the Grand Duke at the exit. Jin Cheng had already gone outside to examine the place, so when Tang Cuo arrived, he discussed the next route with Tang Cuo.

“The situation outside isn’t very good. The exit is a storeroom inside a tavern. If I guess right, this tavern is a secret contact point of the Rose Sect, otherwise, the tunnel won’t lead here. If they find out about us, we’re as good as dead.”

Tang Cuo: “How about we pretend to be guests? They shouldn’t know us.”

Jin Cheng shook his head: “It’s not very feasible, even if we are new faces, there’s still the Grand Duke. Moreover, the storeroom’s location is bad, it’s even further away from the back door than the front door. It’s also not a place where guests will go to, only the tavern staff go there. Unless — one of us leads them away, and the remaining two leave.” 

The two’s eyes met and quickly came to a conclusion — Jin Cheng would go to distract the guests while Tang Cuo would take the Grand Duke away.

The Grand Duke watched silently, wondering how the two young men assigned tasks to each other with just one look. But his life was pinned on them at the moment so he wouldn’t want to ask too much nonsense. He said: “Go to the church. Priest Peter is on our side, he can contact the guard squad.”

“Okay.” Jin Cheng nodded: “See you at the church an hour later.”

Time was running out and no one knew if more enemies were catching up from behind, so Jin Cheng acted immediately. There was a lot of wine in the storeroom. He casually took a bottle of rum, took a few sips and sprinkled some on his collar before pushing the door out with the harp.

His steps swayed like a drunkard, and barely a few steps later, he ran into a waiter that was carrying a barrel. Upon seeing him, the waiter frowned and looked alert.

“Who are you?” He put down the barrel and placed one hand behind his back.

“Who am I? I’m looking for the toilet.” Jin Cheng narrowed his eyes, as if he couldn’t focus because he was drunk. Suddenly, he stumbled on something and almost fell on the barrel.

The waiter didn’t lose his vigilance because of this, and the knife behind him was already revealing a cold light. He didn’t know that his stony expression had been completely engraved into Jin Cheng’s full view.

“Ting!” A note echoed in the air and the waiter dropped dead in his tracks, his eyes struggling.

“Ting, ting!” One after another, a few more notes came, and the waiter’s eyes begun to fade. At this point, Jin Cheng directly knocked him out with a knifehand strike, then he pushed open the door next to him.

Door opened, then door closed. Everything went smoothly.

The melody just now was called ‘Requiem’. At the moment when they split up and left the tunnel, Jin Cheng discovered that his main mission had changed and his sound wave attack could be used.

But the bow was still sealed.

In role-playing games, everything was premised on not violating the settings of the role. Lancelot was a bard who used magic, with his harp being his wand. He never used bows and arrows.

Current main mission: Cover for Grand Duke and Theodore’s escape.

Jin Cheng was fond of missions like this because they suited his preference of holding things in his own hands. So he played the harp and walked all the way from the storeroom to the hall, humming a soft tune. No matter how people looked at it, he was a real bard.

However, Jin Cheng’s ‘Requiem’ has a limited range of effect, and it was the first time that he had played it with a harp, so it was inevitable that the melody didn’t flow extremely nicely. The waiters were evil and saw everyone else in the same way, so they were constantly on guard and wouldn’t be easily tricked.

The tavern immediately became chaotic.

Tang Cuo and the Grand Duke were still in the storeroom at this point. Tang Cuo looked at the wine in the room and wanted to set it on fire, but he heard the movement in front and gave up this dangerous idea.

By now, everyone guarding the back door had rushed to the front, leaving only one guard.

“Let’s go.” Tang Cuo decisively called the shots and led the Grand Duke to the back door.

One mere guard definitely couldn’t stop Tang Cuo. He didn’t care whether this man would attract others with his scream. He struck as he stepped up, then ran away when he was done. When those in front finally arrived, there wasn’t even half a shadow at the back door.

The back door of the tavern led to a narrow alley. One side of the alley was lined up with low-rise houses while the other side was the back of shop houses. There were heaps of scraps everywhere, giving off an indescribable smell in this early summer weather.

A few middle-aged women were sitting on a small bench, washing piles of dishes and cups. They were wary of these two people that suddenly popped up in the alley and looked extremely out of place.

“Your Grace, I think you have to change your clothes.” Tang Cuo said.

A quarter later, Tang Cuo and the Grand Duke, who had changed into civilian clothes, turned up three blocks away from the tavern. Tang Cuo didn’t change but only put on a coat that matched his current style to cover the wounds and blood stains on his body. He must keep his sword for self-defence, and it wasn’t possible for a civilian to have a knight’s sword. It was even less possible to put the sword into the Inventory Bar in front of the Grand Duke.

So their identities at the moment were ― a noble master and his poor servant who came to the slum to find fun.

Current main mission: Go to the church.

As an aristocratic young master, Tang Cuo looked at everything around him unscrupulously and naturally found suspicious people hidden in the crowd.

The closer it was to the church, the more often such people appeared.

“Your Grace, do you have absolute trust in that priest?” Tang Cuo asked.

“People’s hearts can always change.” The Grand Duke looked at the direction of the church with a slightly grim expression. Although he was wearing civilian clothes, the majesty in his face was still there, and he turned to look at Tang Cuo: “But I trust him. He’s an upright and kind gentleman, and his persistence has always been admirable.”

“What is he persistent about?”

“He persists in this soil where suffering breeds.”

“This soil is also your land.”

“Young man, you have to know that some things are not so easy to change. God said that there must be light, and there will be light in the world, but light must exist in tandem with darkness.”

Tang Cuo wanted to imitate Jin Cheng’s shrug, but after all, an expressionless face suited him better. He wasn’t sure whether the news of the Grand Duke escaping to the White Leaf District had reached here. If the enemy knew about it and the relationship between the Grand Duke and the priest, then it was very likely that they would be waiting around here.

It turned out that the church had indeed been targeted, and Tang Cuo could only pray that the priest wouldn’t turn against them ― because he had no way to back down now.

The system was constantly adjusting his direction; once he deviated from the way to the church, it would frantically send him warnings. Tang Cuo didn’t think that Theodore was a man who would stay stubborn when he knew that there was danger ahead. So in the plot of this mission, he must have a reason to go there.

For example, there might be some reliable factor in the church that would help him keep the Grand Duke safe, as long as he entered the place.

There was also the Greenvines Alliance.

Was Theodore rescuing the Grand Duke an act from himself or a plan of the Greenwines Alliance? If it was the latter, why hadn’t others appeared yet?

There were still too few hints for the plot. Tang Cuo thought as he walked, but still ended up unable to see the whole picture. When he saw the church spire from a distance, he felt magic energy that emanated from there like a water ripple, spreading around at an incredibly fast speed.

Not good.

He ignored the system warnings, grabbed the Grand Duke and retreated, but how could a person’s speed be comparable with the spread of magic energy? In a blink, it hit right before their eyes.

Tang Cuo could only protect the Grand Duke behind him as much as possible with the sword raised in front. He used his full strength to call out the Light of Judgment, hoping it could be useful. However, the expected attack didn’t appear, and a translucent halo suddenly fell from the sky, covering the two of them.

“Cling!” The rippling magic crashed into the halo, making a loud buzzing sound that sent a shock wave through Tang Cuo’s mind, but he didn’t suffer any physical harm.

Tang Cuo looked up to find a figure suddenly appear in the air. It was a man clad in a black overcoat and a black cane. Tang Cuo couldn’t see his face clearly because he was turning his back to Tang Cuo, but he could vaguely see the black eye patch in his right eye. The cane seemed to be his magic wand, and the moment he raised it up, the black gem at the tip of the cane shined brightly.

He cast a spell without chanting.

The Grand Duke heaved a sigh of relief: “The Watchman, His Excellency Roger Reeds.”