Dimensional Codex - Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Red Flags
Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
The difference between a Nephalem and a normal human was evident that instant. While Rumford needed several sword strikes to damage the undead, this Crusader girl’s meteor hammer finished the job in just one hit! Fang Zheng saw her wave her hammer in one stroke before blowing those undead away as if she was sweeping leaves! It couldn’t get any easier!
If Fang Zheng were to see this game-like scene earlier, he wouldn’t have taken the whole situation too seriously. However, he’d been through the experience of fighting these undead himself and he understood now just how insane the Nefalem were.
Even if Fang Zheng were to beat these undead down, it would be using the power of the Crusader’s Strike, but this Nefalem was purely using her own strength! One hammer’s swing and those unlucky undead lost their entire body from the force. The luckier ones were sent flying into the sky! Fang Zheng was quite stunned at the sight. He finally had a direct understanding of what the Nefalem’s strength was like.
Hold on… Why was he here watching the show? He had his own mission!
Seeing the Crusader send undead flying, Fang Zheng realized that he wasn’t here to watch someone kill a bunch of monsters!
Frostmourne still hungers!
With that, he charged with his weapon, not hesitating one bit.
Compared to the game’s mission in the actual game, the undead Fang Zheng and the group were facing were evidently much greater in number. Other than the first wave of undead that climbed out, there were a couple more waves that came, increasing in number to the point where even Fang Zheng and the Crusader girl couldn’t handle it anymore. The militia, on the other hand, was suffering heavy losses. Other than Rumford holding his ground in a struggle, the others were either dead or injured, and wouldn’t live long.
This didn’t make sense!
After slicing down another undead, Fang Zheng took a breath and looked up. Other than the torchlight coming from the gate of Tristram, their surroundings were encased in darkness. He could only hear the low growls of the undead, along with the periodic bursts of light.
“Hah… Hah… Damn… This is too much.”
Holding Frostmourne as he eyed the walking dead, Fang Zheng started panting. He himself didn’t even remember how many he’d killed. All he knew was that two more appeared whenever he cut one down, and four more to take the place of those two. It was endless.
Was this the true darkness of the world?
At that moment, Fang Zheng felt a sense of terror. While playing the game, all he felt was the irritation that came from grinding and grinding all those monsters, that it was a chore. Maybe once in a while, he’d comment on these inhabitants of the world being so gloomy and depressed all the time, but now he understood. Games weren’t reality.
The humans in this world of Diablo were on the brink of extinction and this was why.
“Haah!”
Seeing the undead that kept on coming, Fang Zheng gripped onto Frostmourne and struck with a battle cry. A burst of holy light and the undead split into two, plopping onto the ground. What Fang Zheng didn’t expect, though, was that its body’s torso would jump up with a jerk, crawling toward him!
“Shit!”
Seeing this, Fang Zheng jumped as well, pretty much using his base instincts to strike Frostmourne down again. The sharpness of the blade sliced through its body, followed by absorbing the mist of its soul that went into the blade. The undead, as if it’d lost its source of power, lay there, dead.
“235…”
The number on the system made Fang Zheng take a breath. This type of grinding wasn’t something he wanted, but in the end, it seemed that the mission for Frostmourne could be completed after all. The Diablo world lacked many things, but monsters wasn’t one of them. Plus, Fang Zheng believed that Frostmourne probably liked the evil spirits here.
An eerie crack of voice sounded from deep in the forests. It sounded like a girl’s crying mixed with the sound of some drunkard vomiting and after hearing this, Rumford and the Crusader girl’s faces changed.
Wretched Mother!
“I was wondering why these damned things never end!”
Fang Zheng had come to his senses as well. Wretched Mothers were transformed by the Wretched Queen, and the strongest ability of this monster was its ability to keep spawning undead. Fang Zheng didn’t quite understand how the mechanics of that worked, but he knew that these things vomitted to create undead and these undead were all crawling out from that murky puddle of vomit… Just thinking of it made his stomach churn.
“The Wretched Mother must be slain!”
“I know!”
Fang Zheng replied to Rumford instinctively as he walked into the deeper forest, Frostmourne in hand.
After all, the reason why Fang Zheng was so proactive wasn’t just because he wanted to take care of the threat. When Rumford finished his sentence, a system message appeared.
Setting mission: Guardian II
You sense the source of evil, and find its location. You must use your blade to end this by your own power. (Kill the Wretched Mother. World Points +1)
But Fang Zheng wasn’t the only one to go, the Crusader was right with him, shining in golden light as Fang Zheng watched from a distance, surprised she was just charging into the forest!
With another explosive burst, the radiant Crusader pierced the darkness like a comet, shattering everything from her pure force. What followed was a figure appearing in front of her and without hesitation, the Crusader raised her shield and slammed it onto its face.
The unfortunate Wretched Mother was flung out with a swirl, but the Crusader wasn’t able to press on the attack. Multiple undead were now waddling toward her, blocking her path.
A chance!
Seeing the Crusader halt, Fang Zheng let out a breath. If it had been the Crusader who burst down the Wretched Mother’s head with her meteor hammer, the setting mission would naturally be a failure. He didn’t have much time, but it was enough!
Good job, Wretched Mother!
Glad that the monster managed to hold down the Crusader for a bit, Fang Zheng charged with Frostmourne on the path that the Crusader made. Soon, he encountered the unlucky Wretched Mother, who was trying its best to climb back on its feet.
This was his chance. His eyes lit up. The Crusader was still busy with the undead, and fortunately for him, he’d made it in time to take the kill.
With that, Fang Zheng charged over immediately. He didn’t have the big impact attacks like the crusader, but the Wretched Mother had been blasted to an empty field. It didn’t take much time before he came out of the trees.
With Frostmourne in hand, he lunged…
Crusader’s Strike!
Just as Fang Zheng’s sword sliced through the air, the Wretched Mother lifted its head from the ground all of a sudden, opened its mouth at Fang Zheng and splurted a pile of messy, blurry, and rancid vomit!
Damn!
Fang Zheng instantly cancelled his ability in shock before rolling to the side. With a soft slap, the vomit plodded onto the area beside Fang Zheng, a weak glow of inky green coming from it. Fang Zheng could even see bubbles in it as the ground began to sank around it. One could imagine the ending of anyone who got sprayed with that.
This thing tried to give him a surprise attack!
This pissed Fang Zheng off quite a bit. This Wretched Mother was seconds away from dying because of the Crusader, and now it still tried to take him down. Did he look like an easier target or something?
Wielding Frostmourne, he swung at the monster once more. It opened its mouth as he approached as if trying to scream.
But this time, Fang Zheng struck his blade into its mouth before any sound could come out…
Crusader’s Strike!
An explosion of holy light and the Wretched Mother’s head split before him. Lines of cracks appeared on its skin and more pure light poured out from those cracks in a brilliant burst, ending with a final explosion as the Wretched Mother’s body scattered into tatters, burning into ash under the divine light.
At the same time, the system message appeared in lines once more.
Setting mission – Defender, progression two, complete
World points +1
Soul points +70
Crusader’s Strike, improved to C class.
Crusader’s Strike is now an AOE ability.
“As I thought…”
Seeing the message, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes as he opened the system menu again. As expected, the progression bar under the Crusader Strike ability was now one-fifth of the way lit in an orange tone.
Fang Zheng was speechless at this point. He’d already put in this progression system in the designing process in the first place, with the ability growing stronger as it was used. This was meant to attract the newbies and veteran players so that they would cash in real money. After all, you either grinded or you paid money for points and while it was true that your strength increased after progressing the progression bar, the average player wouldn’t have enough World Points to use. As for the veteran player who used real money… The problem was just how much they’d be paying.
This was the typical shamelessness of video games. It was just that Fang Zheng never thought he’d be on the victim side. Was this bound to happen eventually to him after entering the industry?
But fortunately, the mission this time was comparatively simple. Just killing a Wretched Mother gave him a World Point. If the missions were that easy, then…
A ding sounded before his thoughts finished, more messages.
Setting mission: Guardian III
Looking at the corpse in front of him, he sincerely felt that the Diablo game in front of him was not as easy as it seemed. You felt that feeling of inevitable fate coming at you and all you could do was use the best of your strength to try and change things. (Change your fate. Mission rewards: World points +3. Mission failure will result in forced locking into this world. Time limit: 48 hours).
“…”
Seeing this message, Fang Zheng had only one thing in his heart to say.
He shouldn’t set up red flags for himself!
