The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love

Chapter 70.1 – Reader: People who do not court disaster will not die

(TN: The title of this chapter is 人不作死就不会死. The 人 just means “people” while the 不作死就不会死 part is actually a very popular meme in China and it is normally said/written as “no zuo no die” in Chinglish because it’s meant to be funny. It means “if you don’t do stupid things, they won’t come back and bite you in the ass. Likewise, if you do stupid things, they most certainly will.” It’s from Gundam Z (1985) Episode 12.)

600 years ago, a Lich named Louis came out of the Lost Land, spreading pestilence, killing creatures, and forming an army of the undead. In that period, if the undead “ate” a town there would be no survivors. The panicked humans couldn’t stop the undead; it was like a natural disaster and the only way they escape the undead was to flee.

Therefore, this wholesale slaughter was called the “Undead Scourge” and the Lich Louis earned the title “god of death.” Because of the Scourge, the three empires lost nearly half their population and about one-third of the towns were destroyed. Later generations, regardless of where they came from, would pale when they talked about Lich Louis.

The reason that Du Ze knew so much about it was because the author had written about it in detail. In the original standard YY novel “Mixed Blood,” Yi Ye Zhi Qiu spent almost three chapters introducing the Undead Scourge and Lich Louis. At that time Du Ze was still very silly and naïve so he did not understand the author’s good intentions. When he read about the Moe Lord being arrested because of his relationship to Louis, the silly, cute reader finally understood his family’s author’s great lunacy – that introduction was entirely for the sake of paving the way for the Moe Lord to be abused.

Author, you’re begging for a beating! Q口Q

Thinking of the original plot, Du Ze still felt indignant. Although Xiu did get Qian Bian from Louis’ Magic Tower, it also indirectly led to the awakening of his undead bloodline. To prevent Xiu’s fate of being hunted all over the continent and suffering from betrayal and inhumane treatment, Du Ze would rather that Xiu had not gone to the Magic Tower trial and that he did not have the slightest relationship to Louis.

The skeletons soon cleared the village. They poured out of the houses then formed a neat formation in front of Xiu. Once again, the skeleton mage stood in front of all the skeletons and said to Xiu, [Lord Commander, please lead us to the Chaos Continent.]

Except for the skeleton mage, they have no other sources of information. They do not know how to clear this level of the Tower of God.1 Xiu’s group looked at each other, but from the bottom of their hearts they believe that this is the Tower of God’s trial. Even though the situation seems very real, Du Ze has not forgotten that they are now inside the Tower of God – it was able to remake the demon god arena from the first era, therefore it can also be able to recreate a simulation of the scourge of the undead from 600 years ago.

In the demon god arena they needed to fight the demon gods. This time the tower did not make them fight the undead but instead made them lead a group of undead to become the Undead Scourge?

Du Ze glanced at the silent village then looked at the skeleton army. If not for the sudden increase in the number of the undead, it looked as though nothing has happened. He felt the absurdity of their situation keenly; during the time of the Undead Scourge, they were on the side of the undead, playing the part of the invaders.

Du Ze looked over to Xiu. Xiu must have clearly understood what was happening but his face gave away no hint of his thoughts. When Xiu saw Du Ze looking at him, Xiu grasped some silly, cute person by the back of his neck, and said soothingly: “Let’s take a break here first.”

The group temporarily settled down to rest in the village but the Tower of God was not so kind as to let Xiu relax and recover from his wounds. The next day, Du Ze was awakened by the sound of weapons clanging. When he walked outside he saw that there was fighting all over the village as the skeletons were brawling with a group of militia wearing very simple equipment.

Someone embraced Du Ze from the back. He turned his head to look at Xiu behind him and asked: “What happened?”

“Not far from here is a small town. The people who escaped from this town brought the news to them. They assembled a force of over 100 people to attack the undead,” said Xiu casually.

Speechless, Du Ze looked at the humans fighting the skeletons. Individually the humans were stronger than the skeletons, but they were outnumbered by the skeletons. The two sides were deadlocked for a while but when the humans had some casualties, the balance of power tilted to the undead’s side. The skeletons can still fight on even when their bodies are injured or cut up, as long as their skulls were not crushed. Also, when the humans died their bodies were soon converted into skeletons and they joined the undead team to begin killing their former companions. As the number of humans decreased, their plight become more and more desperate until, finally, they started fleeing.

Xiu stopped the undead from chasing after them. He looked bored by this farce.

Du Ze examined the battlefield. After this battle, the number of skeletons was almost doubled and the village was now crowded with undead soldiers in formation. Old John grabbed some of the former militiamen to ask for information but these new undead could not speak; the only thing that came from their mouths were screams.

Du Ze thought this would be the end, but on the third day they spotted another group of around 500 militiamen. It looked as though all the men in town had come out to fight. The humans and the undead clashed and this time the humans easily prevailed. Their leader was a Swordsman; every time he swung his sword he killed one or two skeletons. He tore through the skeleton’s line of defense and rushed towards Xiu – the news from the men who escaped from the previous battle reported that the leader of the undead was a horned and winged figure.

Seeing the Swordsman hurrying towards Xiu, a sentence came to Du Ze’s mind: People who do not court disaster will not die

Xiu’s patience has been exhausted and his slightly narrowed eyes were full of killing intent. With one blow of his hand, Old John crushed the swordsman’s heart. This action was like a start signal and the demon sisters also started fighting. With the addition of Old John and the others, the enemy was quickly annihilated.

The skeleton mage shook its bony staff and clicked out a rather long spell. Black smoke enveloped the whole village. All the corpses turned into undead and rose from the ground. The Swordsman also staggered to his feet. The flesh of his body was not melted; under the spell of the undead, the Swordsman-level warrior became a walking corpse.

After the black mist had dissipated, nearly 700 undead stood before them. The speed of the undead’s growth rate made Du Ze shudder with fear. The skeleton mage came to Xiu and rattled out the same sentence from before: [Lord Commander, please lead us to the Chaos Continent.]

This time, Xiu finally replied. He looked in the direction of the town, his vertical pupils fathomless, and said: “Advance.”

The undead immediately carried out Xiu’s instructions and began to move toward the town with Xiu walking at the back of the army. The town was not far, just half a day’s walk away. By the time they arrived, the undead army had already killed off the town’s populace. The men of the town had mostly been killed in the previous encounters, so the remaining humans were the old and the sick. Although they knew that this was just the tower’s simulation, Du Ze still felt a little uneasy listening to the screams all around him.