Chapter 5

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

Diablo. Naturally, Fang Zheng was quite familiar with this title. The breathtaking magic, the dark visuals, and setting, as well as the endless grinding and grinding. This was what most players remembered when thinking of this game, but anybody who’d actually went deep and researched this world understood, that this world… It only looked cool.

In truth, just like its name, this was a dark world full of death and destruction, a world where making a comeback couldn’t happen. All that human resistance and struggle was only rewarded with a brief period of peace, and this peace did not last long. Everything would be destroyed just like every day the sun would rise.

The most important thing was, this wasn’t a world that was kind to the main character.

While in the game the main character blasted through monster after monster like some godly being, in truth, all three Diablo games had only bad endings for the main characters.

TLN: Big Pineapple sounds like Diablo in Chinese

The first Diablo game had three main characters. The warrior put the Soulstone of Diablo into his own brain, trying to use his strong will to hold down that evil spirit, only to be eventually corrupted by Diablo, falling from grace and becoming a tool for the Diablo’s revival. The other two didn’t have that great a time either. They either became evil spirits themselves after death, or they submitted to the corruption of Diablo, becoming the next BOSS of the second game for the main character to kill. Of course, the following main characters didn’t have good endings either… Killing the demon king and marrying the princess didn’t work in this world. Either these people went missing or they were killed off.

In a different world, the main character always had plot armor, but here, the main character’s plot armor was made to kill him off!

Though, it was exactly because of this that Fang Zheng’s first reaction was to breathe out in relief after learning what this world was. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t the main character!

If he remembered correctly, he’d transported into Diablo 3, and this was still the first act, where a comet fell from the sky and destroyed Tristram’s church. Deckard Cain’s niece Leah was trying to gather the militia to go look for her uncle, and just then the main character came into the scene, stepping onto a path he would never come back from… Yes, a permanent path.

Fang Zheng didn’t remember the plot clearly, but he believed that this unlucky main character wouldn’t have a happy ending. So what if he defeated Diablo? The world had plenty of ill intent toward him. Either an old friend would send assassins at him, or he’d die from severe injury caused by losing control of his magic, or he’d get corrupted and become a BOSS for the main character of the next game to loot from…

A main character’s plot armor that got himself messed up like that? Others could have it if they wanted, but Fang Zheng didn’t want anything to do with it.

Some rushed footsteps interrupted his thoughts as he finished his meat stew and a militia soldier barged into the inn.

“Fang Zheng! Captain Rumford asks that you move forward to the main gate! The damned undead are here again, we must stop them!”

“Got it!”

Hearing the soldier’s words, Fang Zheng got up hurriedly and left with him, not hesitating at all. The rain had already stopped, and there were still a couple of people around, albeit worried and tense. He had no time to concern himself over these people, however, he walked to the gate only to see Rumford in a fresh change of clothes, commanding the militia to create barricades for the monsters. He waved to Fang Zheng.

“Hurry, Fang Zheng, come help! We’ve just pushed back a wave of the dead, they… Damn bastards!”

Before Rumford could finish, Fang Zheng saw the barricade to his right get destroyed with a crash. What followed was countless undead walking over slowly, their eye sockets glowing as they waddled over to the gate. Seeing this, the other militia all tensed up, their breathing becoming rapid as they held on to their weapons.

At the same time, a “ding” sounded beside Fang Zheng’s ear, followed by an message in front of his eyes.

Setting mission started: Defender

The power of darkness and evil has descended. The fire of civilization flickers in the wind, and the test for humankind has arrived. All you can do is to accept the challenge and face the wave of dark future head-on. (Defend against the undead attack, protect the town. Mission rewards: Learn Skill +1, Dimensional Points +1)

The mission was here!

Seeing the mission in front of his eyes, Fang Zheng pulled out Frostmourne, though he was still a little troubled at the reactions of the others as the enemy approached. Fang Zheng’s only knowledge of this world came from the game itself, so he didn’t quite understand the plot and setting, or even just how strong these monsters actually were. But from his perspective, there wasn’t much to feel threatened about when it came to the undead. They moved very slow and weren’t the type of zombies from games like Resident Evil where the zombies mutated and evolved. If it were those leader type elites, then perhaps there was reason to be worried, but these were dead men that swung their arms about. Was that really enough to make someone as accustomed to battle like Rumford tense and nervous?

He was confused, but Fang Zheng still focused his attention and looked at the dead men before him with alertness. He knew that he’d just arrived here and he didn’t understand the situation as well as the veterans like Rumford. Since everyone looked so nervous, there was no reason for him to ease up.

No harm in being careful.

The dead walked slowly, but their goal was clear. They simply kept walking to the gate, and even Fang Zheng held his sword tightly with a gulp. He felt his heart beat faster. This was his first real battle after transporting to a different world, and he didn’t know how it would end. 

He could still activate the Lich King’s Soulstone four more times, but he wouldn’t use it now. These were the smallest and lowest level monsters of the game, he wasn’t going to use the damn Lich King on these things! That’d be like using guns on bugs!

“Charge!”

Just as the dead men stepped into the attack circle, Rumford gave out a battle cry and slashed down on one of the dead men. Fang Zheng clenched his jaw as well, holding onto Frostmourne and swiping down at one of them.

A clang sounded.

Oh god.

Fang Zheng’s jaw dropped as he felt the blow and he finally understood why these undead that walked slower than old women were making veterans like Rumford so tense.

One word – hard!

These guys were super hard-bodied!

Fang Zheng didn’t activate the Soulstone of Frostmourne, so that meant most special abilities couldn’t be used. But as a sword itself, it was a top tier weapon! When he was fighting those silver-white knights, Frostmourne sliced through their armor like butter, yet on these undead, he felt like he’d hit his sword on a tire! He only felt a slight sense of muscle that he’d cut through, and then it got stuck!

What the hell was with these hard as hell undead?!

What shocked him even more, however, was what followed.

With a roar, the undead moved to grab Fang Zheng with both his hands. He was slow, but he was no target. Fang Zheng quickly pulled back his blade and blocked it in front of him, only for him to grab the sword with both his arms. Fang Zheng then felt a strong surge of power hit him, sending him flying!

“Ah!”

Fang Zheng crashed his head on the gate, feeling his entire body dislocated. He finally understood why this slowly moving undead could destroy an entire militia team!

They were slow, but these guys didn’t have any weaknesses!

After all, the Nephalem was killing two with one sword blow in the game and Fang Zheng assumed that these undead were all soft as hell. Great, now they turned out to be tough and strong! They may not be as fast and creepy as those from Resident Evil, but this was some serious trouble he was in!

“Fang Zheng, stand up quick! Don’t let them surround you!”

Hearing Rumford’s call, Fang Zheng gritted his teeth and rolled back out, facing the enemy with Frostmourne once more.

But this time he’d learned this lesson. He didn’t go head to head with the undead anymore. He’d discovered that, while these guys were strong, and had high defense, they had one fatal flaw; their slow speed. He waited until the undead came forward and attacked him first with both his hands before dodging and he brought down his sword, chopping off both hands.

Frostmourne finally showed its strength as a high tier weapon. While this dead man’s arms were equally hard as well, Fang Zheng had landed a perfect downward blow.

An undead without arms was a tiger without teeth.

It swung its head once more and tried to attack Fang Zheng, but Fang Zheng was ahead of him this time, slicing off its head with one swing. The undead twitched a bit before falling to the ground, silent.

There was hope after all.

Seeing the undead fall, Fang Zheng let out a breath of relief as he quickly raised his weapon and ran towards the other undead.

Rumford and the other militia were struggling with them as well, and one look from Fang Zheng was enough to figure out why they couldn’t beat them.

The weapons didn’t work!

Fang Zheng was using the Frostmourne, after all, and it still took him much effort to deal with the undead. These guys were using standard weapons, so of course they’d have an even harder time. Fang Zhang saw that Rumford used an entire four or five cuts before any visible damage was made on the undead. It was as if he was attacking a rock!

“Captain Rumford!”

Hearing Fang ZHeng’s shout, Rumford looked over to him. After seeing the undead beneath his feet, his eyes lit up and he nodded before taking half a step to delay the undead before him. Fang Zheng, on the other hand, took the chance to move behind the undead and with a swipe of his sword, he chopped the head off.

The militia were experienced men as well. Seeing how Fang Zheng was wielding a weapon that could deal with the undead, they naturally all took their roles to cooperate with Fang Zheng’s killing blows. Not long after, the horde was wiped out completely.

‘Fuu…”

After putting down the final undead, Fang Zheng wiped off the sweat on his forehead. He could see at the same time that there were white mist-like objects exiting the bodies of these vanquished undead, swirling and turning into forms of human faces. What followed seemed to be a magnet like absorption pulling the mist into Frostmourne’s blade, and, at the same time, prompting lines of information in Fang Zheng’s eyes.

Soul Strength +10… Soul Strength +13… Soul Strength +12…

Done!

Looking at the system information, Fang Zheng took a deep breath. He was still wondering how he should handle that quest of Frostmourne’s, but from the looks of it, it wasn’t a very hard quest at all.

A ding sounded beside his ear just as Fang Zheng was absorbing the souls and more lines of text appeared.

Setting mission “Defender”: First progression complete

Mission rewards:

Dimensional Points +1

Learn Skill +1 

Please select a skill

-Frost Strike

-Crusader Strike

A choice?

Fang Zheng paused at this sudden option. Aren’t these the skill abilities of World of Warcraft’s Death Knight and Holy Knight? The Death Knight one made sense, but what was the Holy Knight doing here?

He couldn’t help but pat his head. The Soulstone was the stone of Arthas. Arthas used to be a paladin before he became a Death Knight, didn’t he?

But… What should he choose?