Chapter 77.1 - Tower of God: Fairy Illusion

Du Ze stared at his hand. It looked perfectly normal now.

“What happened to your hand?” Xiu’s voice came from beside him. “You’ve been looking at your hand since yesterday.”

Du Ze stretched out his hand. His fingers stroked across Xiu’s palm then laced themselves through Xiu’s fingers – he grasped Xiu’s hand firmly, their ten fingers interlocked.

There was no transparency or white shadow. It was as though he had just imagined the sight yesterday.

Du Ze sincerely hoped that it was just his imagination or the instability of the portal. After all, his hand was only transparent for a moment right as they entered the hall and it restored itself to its normal appearance before anyone else noticed. Du Ze thought of a variety of reasons to ease his mind but the thought of the mural in the Time and Space Corridor made his blood freeze in his veins.

——You’ll never find him!

Will he disappear?

Not taken away, not hidden away, but truly disappear from this world.

——So what if you become the Supreme God?! In the entire world – you’re the only one left!

Du Ze’s hold on Xiu’s hand tightened. He impulsively blurted out: “…” Don’t climb the tower anymore.

He could not speak the words. Du Ze’s lips tightened. When he tries to speak the truth about the world or spoilers that may affect the future course of events, an invisible force silently lets him know: You are not the protagonist, you cannot dominate the story; you are not the author, you cannot change the story; you are the reader, you can only watch the story unfold.

Seeing Xiu’s attention on him, Du Ze opened his mouth again but the only thing he could say was: “… We’ll be on the fifth floor soon.”

Xiu probably thought that Du Ze was just counting on his fingers so he nodded and smiled: “Well, let’s go in and have a look.”

Xiu led Du Ze into the door of light. As they were swallowed up by the light, Du Ze thought: Based on what he saw in the Time and Space Corridor, the person involved in his disappearance is undoubtedly the God of Creation.

He couldn’t prevent Xiu from becoming a god, so he must immediately find out why he was going to vanish

Before he opened his eyes, Du Ze heard the rustling of the leaves in the wind, and felt that his feet were treading on a soft, spongy rug. Du Ze looked down and found that he was standing on thick, phosphorescent moss. Walking on the soft moss was very comfortable. Glowing spores floated in the air. Du Ze looked up at the big, round moon in the night sky then he automatically looked at his headphones’ charge – the charge was the same as it was in the morning. Therefore, right now it should be morning but this simulation was set in the nighttime.

All around them was magical glowing mist that illuminated the area so that everything could be seen clearly. There were tall hedges that formed walls that stretched out as far as the eye could see. It seemed like they were at the entrance of a hedge maze. Opposite them was a sign that the others crowded around to read but only Ariel and Du Ze could understand the complicated and flowery writing.

It’s the elven language.

[Dear Adventurer, this is a fairy illusion.

You can only walk to the maze exit to reach the Elf Kingdom, do not do unnecessary things.

There is a certain danger in the maze; the equipment in the chest can help you.

Watch out for the vines.]

Du Ze translated for the others. When Xiu heard him out and asked: “Vines?”

Everyone was quite confused. Even Ariel’s face showed bewilderment. There was a chest below the sign which Enoch opened. It contained a bow and a quiver of arrows. Enoch took out the bow and randomly tested it out.

“This bow is not as good as my dagger!” Enoch shot another arrow and was surprised to find that the arrow was made of mercury iron.1 “Hey! This arrow is good.”

Among them, Ariel was the best archer so the bow and arrows were given to her. Du Ze read the sign again. According to the information on the sign, this was the trial of the elf race. The Tower of God was very generous, telling them the way to pass customs and even kindly provided the equipment. A silly, cute person, who had been abused so much by the Tower of God that he became a masochist, could not help but be suspicious – this time the maze trial shouldn’t be difficult, right?

“Muir, fly up and take a look at the entire place,” said Xiu.

Du Ze then understood the difference between him and Xiu. While he was obediently thinking about the first “rule of the maze,” the Moe Lord had already thought of a quick way to cheat his way past customs.

Silly, the master can fly ~

Muir changed into his dragon form and took off. When Muir tried to fly, however, the hedges that formed the maze walls suddenly shot upwards – no matter how high the black dragon flew, the hedges gew to match his height. Muir hit the hedges with his tail but they were unscratched. Thus, they understood that the hedges are in an invincible state, immune to all attacks.

If you can’t cheat your way through, you can only go through it honestly.

The maze was quite large and the pathways were wide enough for 10 people to walk side by side. Du Ze walked on the sponge-like, phosphorescent moss and everything in front of him in the maze was clouded by a hazy glow. This would have been a really enjoyable time if he was not in the dangerous Tower of God. At first the simulation was quite easy but after they had walked for a long time, they found a fork on the road.

Now is the time to test one’s character. Du Ze was going to rely on Xiu’s protagonist halo when he saw Ariel crouching down at the place where the two paths met. She seemed to be examining something. Before the others could approach her, Ariel excitedly jumped up, pointing to a knot of grass. She gestured to Du Ze using the elf language.

“She said, go right. The mark is there,” said Du Ze, relaying Ariel’s words.

According to Ariel, this knot of grass is what the elves commonly use to mark the paths in the forest, indicating that there was something up ahead. Du Ze couldn’t help but want to call Ariel “little angel” – with this little angel, my mom will never have to worry about me getting lost in the forest.2

With the elf princess’ help, navigating the maze was as easy as strolling through a garden. Every time Du Ze was happy, the Tower of God would always give some silly, cute person a blow to let him know how cruel life is. When the group had passed the third fork in the path, Xiu suddenly stopped and looked back cautiously.

Even though the soles of his feet were cushioned by the thick moss, Du Ze could feel rumbling vibrations coming from afar, as though a newly awakened beast was rushing towards them. Soon, Du Ze knew what the sign meant by “watch out for the vines.”

Du Ze and the others were stunned to see vines rushing toward them like a green flood. Xiu’s reflexes were the fastest. He quickly cast a spell: “Firewall!”

Five walls of fire three meters high each shot up but the vines easily passed through them without pausing. Not only were they not harmed by the fire, they even seemed to have grown larger. When Xiu saw this, he immediately removed the last two walls of flame and issued a warning to the others: “Do not use magic, it absorbs magic energy!”

The vine that was in front stretched out like a tentacle towards them. Violet and Alice cut it but, to the amazement of everyone, vine swiftly grew until it was as long as the original. Its healing time was almost instant.

More and more vines rushed towards them and, because of the small space, Muir could not transform into a dragon. He used his right claws to tear off parts of the vines. Under the groups’ concerted efforts, more and more vines were cut off until the sliced parts were piled up high but the vines’ offensive did not slow down. Everything they did had no effect, as if they were trying to empty an ocean with a few cups.