Dimensional Codex - Chapter 4
Chapter 4: This is a Dark World of Despair
Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
For Fang Zheng, the transportation didn’t feel comfortable at all.
In the instant he disappeared, he felt the ground beneath him vanish into nothingness. What followed after was the feeling of plummeting downward into more nothingness, without end. He didn’t even know if he was falling downward or upward, it felt as if there were countless stars glimmering all around him, and the world swirled and swirled… And after that, he felt his body plunging high into the skies.
In the next instant, gravity came back to capture his body mercilessly.
A hard slam, and he was on the floor once more. He let out a pained cry, it felt as if his entire body was breaking apart, as if there wasn’t one part of his body left unscathed.
Why was he cursed with this luck, getting thrown onto the ground the two times he was transported? Did he deserve this in some way?
“Fang Zheng!”
Just as Fang Zheng was going complaining to himself, a man’s voice rang in his ear and someone pulled him up from the ground after that, or at least, it felt like someone had. He opened his eyes and looked forward. A man clad in grey armor stared at him intently.
“You alright? Are you hurt?”
“I… I’m fine.”
He wasn’t sure who this man was, but Fang Zheng shook his head and tried to force himself awake before giving an answer. The man seemed so relieved at the response. He followed by letting go of Fang Zheng and raising his longsword.
“Hurry, we must leave this place! The damned monsters are moments away from surrounding us! This is our last chance to leave!”
“Huh?”
Fang Zheng looked to the side, realizing that, within the heavy rain, more than ten tattered, cinema-looking undead were in the middle of a charge toward them. Some distance farther away were more than a couple of soldiers lying in their blood, no longer breathing.
This again?
Seeing this scene before him, Fang Zheng found himself speechless. Was this system messing with him at this point, throwing bloodthirsty people at him when he reincarnated and doing that the very next transportation? Did he have to be attacked every time he switched worlds?
But fortunately, these weren’t those scary holy knights, just some undead surrounding him… It was fine, he supposed. Although, perhaps it wasn’t that fine at all.
With that, Fang Zheng unsheathed Frostmourne in a quick whisp, following the man in front of him as they rushed for the wilderness. The undead weren’t fast, but they were many in number. If they weren’t fast on their feet, they’d never leave that mass of monsters if they managed to surround them.
“Damn!”
It wasn’t until they’d escaped the chase that the man held a fist in exasperation.
“I never thought that there’d be so many undead near a church! A pity, those young lads… I… I couldn’t even give them a proper burial…”
With that, the man sighed and looked at Fang Zheng.
“Alright, let’s go back to Tristram, these damned creatures will attack there for certain. We must defend it!”
“I understand.”
Hearing the man’s command, Fang Zheng didn’t resist, only nodding instead. It seemed that the mission world had already established his identity in the system. Up until now, he still didn’t know what world this was, though from the looks of the man’s outfit it seemed there wasn’t much fundamental difference between this one and the last one.
The rain got heavier, and Fang Zheng managed to struggle back to the small town of Tristram completely drenched. It didn’t look like a big town, and the gates were shut tightly closed, only two bowmen mounted the two towers of the gatehouse. They aimed their weapons at the approaching men.
“Who approaches? State your purpose!”
The man called back.
“It’s me! Rumford! And Fang Zheng! We’re back!”
“It’s Captain Rumford!”
Hearing the voice of this man claiming to be Rumford, the sentry paused and quickly waved his hands to the other side.
“Open the gates! Captain Rumford’s group is back!”
Following that, the door slowly opened as Rumford went in with Fang Zheng.
Just entering town, Fang Zheng could feel a clear tension in the air. In the heavy rain, the town looked especially cold and gloomy. Some distance away was a great sight, with rows after rows of soldier bodies. Rumford frowned at the sight.
“Why aren’t they being burned?”
“The rain is too heavy, captain!”
A sentry wiped away the rainwater on his face and replied.
“We can’t light them up…”
“Then use a cloth to block out the rain! Use fire oil! Do you want them to climb back up and pull you down with them? Go!”
“Yes!”
The militia soldier scurried away after the order. Rumford let out a breath and turned to Fang Zheng.
“Alright, Fang Zheng, it’s fortunate that you were able to come back alive… Go to the Bull’s Inn to rest for a while and get a change of clothes. Get something to eat too and tell the owner to put it on my tab.”
“Yes, Captain Rumford.”
Fang Zheng nodded and hurried away. He needed some time to consider the place he’d arrived in. What sort of world was this? The information Rumford had given was a bit too much, and he had had a hard time taking all of it in. He felt like this Tristram place seemed a little familiar like he’d heard of it before…
He had wanted to ask around for the Bull’s Inn when he quickly realized that there was no need. There was only one inn in this town, with a huge sign on it.
A bell rang as Fang Zheng pushed open the door and walked into the lobby. The first thing that hit him was a piercing medicinal smell. He then saw several wounded soldiers leaning against the walls. Seeing Fang Zheng enter, the owner behind the counter waved to him.
“Yo, Fang Zheng! What good luck for you to come back alive, eh?”
“It’s alright. I guess I do have good luck.”
Fang Zheng gave the owner a smile as a response, and the owner nodded with a smile as well.
“Yeah, you had sixteen or so men with you. Only Captain Rumford and you managed to come back… Alright, let’s cut the chitchat. I’ve prepared some fresh clothes for you in your room, and some hot meat stew and pie!”
Fang Zheng was starving at this point too. He hadn’t had one bite of food after his reincarnation. He quickly went to get changed before coming out to enjoy his dinner. To be fair, the food wasn’t especially good, but any meal tasted good to a starving man, and that included Fang Zheng. Someone was buying him this food too, so he just ate up without much restraint, not forgetting to compliment the owner on his cooking skills.
As someone who lived in this sort of medieval world, the owner naturally never met anyone who had experienced the Great Information Explosion like Fang Zheng, much less received praise from someone like him. A couple of sentences were more than enough to get him in a laughing good mood and not only did he give him extra servings, but outright made the meal free as well. At the same time, Fang Zheng also managed to get info from this inn owner regarding what happened.
“You’re talking about… a comet?”
“Yeah.” The inn owner nodded seriously. “A great comet that fell from the skies blasted right into the church, flattening the entire thing! You weren’t there to see, it truly was a terrifying sight. After that, the kid Leah came, saying that she wanted to gather the militia soldiers to find her uncle… Man, I really didn’t think something like this would happen…”
“Comet?”
Hearing that, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but frown as if he’d thought of something. “Right, what’s the name of Leah’s uncle..?”
“Ah, I think… Yes, Deckard Cain.”
Hearing that, Fang Zheng finally understood what world he’d arrived in.
It was a dark world of despair unlike any other, where all its inhabitants struggled for survival, only to inevitably accept the fate of the world.
Diablo.
