Forces of TemptationCh85 - Eternal Day

Amidst the barrage of insults to the game officials around him, Jiang Fang lowered his head and looked at his hands. The palm prints that were slightly rigid due to modeling reasons had become clearly visible and extraordinarily realistic. It was actually… exactly the same as reality.

Jiang Fang quickly opened his backpack, took out a low level dagger and ran the blade over the skin of his arm. xNRjQw

In the normal game process, the somatosensory system would give players the basic sensation of cold, heat and pain for the sake of authenticity but in general, the pain would be within the absolute safety threshold by default.

For security reasons, every time the player tried to raise the authenticity of pain, there would be a prompt box reminding players to be careful. It issued a long disclaimer that required the player to handwrite their real name before it could be adjusted.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Let’s take an example. If Player A accidentally had his neck broken by the boss while an instance was in progress. Even if this Player A set the pain value to the maximum, the momentary pain would at most reach the degree of a stiff neck after sleeping.

However, at this moment— ThwbiR

The blade skimmed over Jiang Fang’s arm and he clearly felt the touch and pain of his muscles being cut. The security threshold was also turned off. Now they would experience the exact same pain as in reality?

Jiang Fang’s heart moved. The dagger was placed back in its sheath but not into the backpack. He drew out the shoulder-mounted rocket that he had previously drawn from the prize pool. The cannon was placed on his shoulder and Jiang Fang’s expression became uglier when he felt the real pressure.

The backpack items had even returned to their normal weight.

In the description, the Spear 44 rocket launcher had a barrel mass of 78 kilograms. However, that was just the setting of the item. Thanks to the players’ physical improvement, even a player with a child’s body shape could carry it on their shoulders to play. People who liked to look handsome even played with guns like they were a variety of flowers.

WUFeQ

It was because Jiang Fang knew the weight on his shoulders well that he realized the situation in front of him was sliding and collapsing in a direction beyond his control.

The moment he was filled with an ominous premonition, there was a sense of weightlessness caused by a vortex of huge force grabbing his heart. The familiar urban landscape was twisted and torn apart by a strange gray vortex.

There was a moment of chaos.

A moment of clarity. gSO230

The first thing that entered Jiang Fang’s nose was the rich grassy aroma. The grass was moving and the wind sending a fragrance blew at the hair on Jiang Fang’s forehead. Five cement-colored observation towers stood among the grass like the eyes of shepherds watching over the prey. In the wilderness, someone was whispering and singing the tune of the grassland.

The scene was supposed to be relaxed and pleasant. However, the sudden uneasiness and the open wildness that stretched out for kilometers without anyone being present gave people a particularly creepy feeling.

Jiang Fang recognized it. This was the first scene in the multiplayer mode of the Homeland Island tower defense game, ‘Homeland Island Attack and Defense War.’

Jiang Fang had heard this Mongolian BGM too many times. k69Jzw

It was originally a melodious tune but the mixing of electronic noise caused the notes to be polished and dragged out sharply. There was also a low-pitched voice that was hard to tell if it was male or female hidden in the music, letting out an inconspicuous sad weeping.

Jiang Fang held the dagger and looked around. In addition to himself, a total of 12 people were transmitted here. They hadn’t accepted the panic of being unable to log out of the game when they were suddenly thrown into an instance.

The logout bar for the instance was also gray-white.

A miserable whiteness was on the faces of everyone present. Such a strange mutation inevitably triggered a riot. 5wnBC

“What the hell is going on?”

“How did we get here?”

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“Where is this place?!”

“Can we go back? Huh?” XS1d5R

In the chaos, Jiang Fang tried to concentrate. His fingers hanging by his side moved as he calculated the time they had used up. They had wasted 20 seconds and there were 180 seconds left. He gave an order. “Disperse.”

This was the first opinion and voice that was fairly stable. The tumultuous crowd desperately needed a backbone. Therefore, everyone quieted down and stared at him.

Jiang Fang told them, “The first wave of monsters is coming soon. We have to count what type of weapons we have and what weapons we are used to.”

“There are five towers here. The first monsters will be welcomed by tower 1, followed by towers 2, 3, 4 and the core tower in turn. Our goal is to guard the core tower and prevent monsters from entering the grass warehouse behind the core tower.” cwoJr2

“Three people with heavy firepower will guard the core tower. Two will be at number 1 tower and three at number 2. Each one will guard the three short-range gun positions in the tower. Towers 1 and 2 will cooperate together. I will guard the number 3 high-shooting tower. Give me a secondary shooter. Number 4 is the arrow tower. Two people who have used bows and arrows before will be there. Together with the 3rd tower, we will try to clear up the remnants as much as possible before they reach the core tower. Players in the core tower, save as much ammunition as possible and clean up the enemies that haven’t been killed by the four towers.”

“Now, each person find a tower according to your strength and abilities.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Jiang Fang concisely broke down the tasks so that players understood what to do. However, there were still people who wanted to make trouble at this juncture. A chubby uncle grabbed his wrist. He looked suspiciously at Jiang Fang. “Do you know anything? Why are we here? Why are we playing games?”

“…Tfr, P xcbk.” R3CZUJ

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His right hand was always slyly attached to the dagger at his waist.

His looks and actions made the uncle feel weak for some reason and he quickly let go of his hand. “Yes… that’s fine.”

Eight or nine of the twelve players had played this instance before. After understanding Jiang Fang’s intentions and mission arrangements, everyone immediately scattered to look for a tower. Cicdut

Jiang Fang wasn’t in a hurry to find the 3rd tower reserved for himself in advance. He kept pulling items out of his backpack and testing them quickly. He occasionally looked up to observe the other teammates entering the towers. If possible, he didn’t want to think about the personal consequences of a game failure. He paid attention to them but he needed to preserve as much power as possible in this unknown situation.

After some quick distribution, only one person was left. It was a girl who seemed to be in her 20s. She timidly moved to Jiang Fang’s side and stammered, “Brother, I—”

Jiang Fang gave a hum in response. “Come with me up the tower.”

He had just taken two steps when his expression slightly froze. He saw the snow-white objects that appeared in the distance and quickened his pace, warning the young girl beside him, “Run faster, we’re already late.” h2XtCF

The young girl was obedient and followed him. However, just as the two of them were about to step into the third tower—

“Hey!” A voice was suddenly heard. “Where am I going?”

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Jiang Fang’s eyes became cold and he abruptly turned his head. Why was there someone who hadn’t entered the tower?!

The chubby uncle was obviously very unfamiliar with this instance. He followed the large ground and made a circle around each tower. After observing and running himself breathless, he was exhausted but he still couldn’t find the tower suitable for himself. He stood under the 1st tower, gasping for breath as he waved to Jiang Fang. “Hey, I didn’t use guns or arrows when playing the instances!” WgQnTF

Jiang Fang hadn’t expected someone to be so stupid. He gritted his teeth and raised his voice. “There is a gun in the tower. Hurry and find any of them! There is still a place in the 2nd and 4th! Run back! Get up the tower!”

The uncle was still tangled up in the small details. “However, I don’t know how to use it!”

Jiang Fang clenched his fists. “Hurry up the tower! Do you want to die—”

He hadn’t finished speaking when there was a sudden noise in the grass behind the uncle. The next second, a pair of soft, long ears popped out. What pushed aside the grass and poked out of it was a round… rabbit face. laLPrv

The rabbit opened its mouth toward the uncle. It had a mouth that was like three pink petals and pointed rabbit teeth. It looked particularly cute.

The uncle with the bulging belly hadn’t expected the monster to come out so quickly. He immediately panicked and hurriedly pulled out a long-handled weapon in the shape of a crescent moon. It was his most commonly used weapon.

This purple weapon was definitely powerful in ordinary times. One cut could deal more than 300 damage. However, after drawing the knife, the original setting of the nearly 200 kg weapon caught the uncle off guard. His hands were pressed down and his waist also bent over. He staggered forward two steps. The huge blade fell heavily toward the ground, causing a large amount of green juice to splash. The juice fell into the uncle’s eyes.

Just then, the white rabbit jumped toward the uncle. The uncle only had time to see its cute three petaled mouth pointed at himself. The rabbit pounced. It hugged the uncle’s fat cheek, opened its mouth and bit the uncle’s lips. f0n9R7

The man’s soft lips were soon eaten away by it. It drilled its furry body and went deep into the uncle’s torn mouth.

The uncle howled wildly and miserably under the deadly and sudden sharp pain. He tried to tear the rabbit off himself but the rabbit quickly entered his body through the mouth. It was like a large mass of blood-stained cotton had been forcibly stuffed into his mouth.

His tongue, throat, stomach, intestines—

It went all the way down unobstructed. c1sE7U

There were no simple and artistic bloody fireworks like there was in the game. There was no large ‘game over’ on the screen. The uncle’s figure didn’t automatically disappear from the instance with the shock of death. His strong body didn’t automatically eject from the game room in reality to signal the end of the game.

In front of the other 11 players, he was eaten from head to abdomen to a hollow, bloody gourd.

The young girl who was originally tense but planning to cooperate with Jiang Fang saw this bloody hell scene and her psychological defense line collapsed in an instant. She screamed and completely lost the courage to fight with this man-eating monster.

She turned around and ran. Before she could even run a few steps, she was pulled from behind and fell to the ground. She curled up, waving her hands and feet wildly at the other person. “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” JUBbMm

There was a cold flash against her throat. In his posture of killing a chicken, an inch-long gash was made on her slender neck. Warm blood flowed down her neck, pooling on her collarbone and chest. She realized she was bleeding and the most primitive fear of death caused her wildly boiling blood to drop to freezing point.

The girl’s hair was disheveled as she stared at Jiang Fang holding the knife. Her confused consciousness gradually returned.

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There was no emotion in Jiang Fang’s pale eyes and no warmth in his tone. He asked, “Do you want to die?”

“If you want to die then I’ll kill you now to prevent you from messing up my arrangement and ruining all of us.” dp2cSW

The girl shook her head desperately and a cry of fear burst from her throat.

After the threat, Jiang Fang appropriately softened his voice. “Have you ever played a sniper?”

The girl’s brain was blank after the series of scares and her thinking was led away by Jiang Fang. “I’ve played it… but only twice…”

Jiang Fang patted the girl on the side of the face with a dagger stained with her blood. He looked at her with enough compelling concentration. “That’s enough. You are my secondary shooter. Don’t want to die then come with me.” iAJrK1

The Homeland Island Attack and Defense was the most typical strategy game. The location and type of tower would change with every level that was passed. Sometimes it was a cliff tower and sometimes it was a tree tower.

The weapons provided by the instance were updated as the number of levels passed progressed. At each level, the monster species, habits and attack patterns also varied. It tested the player’s ability to adapt immediately. If the monsters didn’t tear people to pieces, the Homeland Island Attack and Defense in multiplayer mode would be a high quality game that exercised the ability to unite and cooperate.

The 36 consecutive waves of attacks ended.

The moment Jiang Fang cut the throat of the last sugar glider with an ordinary blue weapon and watched it die, his tense spirit still didn’t relax. The sticky blood on his fingers almost made him unable to hold his dagger. dK8Hsn

He fell to one knee, staring at the ground ahead while gasping for breath. Fortunately, his hands never trembled even when gasping like this.

The 10 surviving players surrounded Jiang Fang in silence. This included the young girl whose throat was nearly cut by him and who later partnered with him several times. Her fear, uneasiness and despair had long been numbed by the wave of monsters.

Her face was covered with the dark red blood of the sugar glider. It meandered down the corners of her eyes and condensed the blood into tears of fear. She whispered like she was sleepwalking, “Brother, what the hell is going on with this game?”

“How are we going to get out?” L lP39

***

At that time, Nan Zhou in Eternal Day didn’t know what was happening outside. He waited nearly two months and didn’t see any new players. It was as if everything that happened to Nan Zhou previously was an illusion.

Today, the illusion was gone and he returned to his closed world. However, the apple tree and sugar glider clearly told Nan Zhou that it was all real. Nan Zhou didn’t know whether he was happy or disappointed.

He held his little sugar glider Nanji Star and asked softly, “Where did you come in from?” u35nZS

Nanji Star’s thin claws stepped on his shoulder and he stepped softly on Nan Zhou. Nan Zhou liked him very much. He was afraid that his head was too small to be touched so he turned it into a big, hairy one to be rubbed. He often chased and fought with Nan Zhou, playing with Nan Zhou and consuming the energy that had nowhere to go in the excessive sunlight.

This was the best playmate Nan Zhou had ever encountered in his life. He thought that if he understood how this little guy came to him, maybe he could find a way out. However, the sugar glider couldn’t answer him.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The little guy only moved the tip of his nose and coveted the apple in Nan Zhou’s pocket. Thus, Nan Zhou named him Nanji Star. ‘South Pole Star’, the star closest to the South Pole. This was the limit of the range that could be observed with the naked eye.

Nan Zhou thought it might be the key to the outside world. It was the final point Nan Zhou could see after exhausting his vision. If he couldn’t use this key to open the door of freedom, it wasn’t bad to let it be his end point. oIFDiy

After nearly a month of speculation, on a day of extreme sunlight, Nan Zhou suddenly found a strange team of players in the middle of the town. They were strange because they weren’t the same as the players who came here in the past.

First of all, they actually chose to enter Eternal Day on the day of extreme sunlight. In the past, Nan Zhou basically only encountered hardcore players who wanted to fight against the light demons on the day of extreme sunlight. Thus, they came in with weapons and were extremely aggressive.

This group of players clearly had no intention of that. They didn’t go out to explore. After appearing in town, they quickly found an uninhabited building where they hid collectively. All the doors and windows were locked from the inside but the balcony door of the bedroom with a balcony was left alone.

Nan Zhou could see that this was a relatively unobvious trap. If the players sealed up all entrances of the building, they wouldn’t be able to predict where the light demons would attack from. If they left a flaw, the light demons were likely to choose this point that was easiest to break through. A4 jbV

These players were leaving a door for themselves. This meant there must be a trap in this door of life.

Nan Zhou thought they were very strange. Therefore, he didn’t plan to attack immediately. He wanted to wait and see before making plans. At the same time, he had to beware of the small movements of other light demons. Even if they had enough to eat and drink, there were always some light demons who couldn’t control their restless, aggressive instincts on the day of extreme sunlight.

Nan Zhou sat on the roof of the street with the most sunlight. His slender legs rested on the edge of the raised eaves, slightly apart as he looked down. Beneath him was the hideout of these players. He was sitting here so no light demons dared to easily approach.

Just then, a young light demon jumped to his side. He crouched down and looked eagerly at Nan Zhou. ‘Boss, should we act?’ BghZxa

Nan Zhou shook his head.

The young light demon was a bit reluctant. After all, the nature of the light demon was to eat. Recently, the boss hadn’t given them the freedom to attack. How could they not do anything now? Still, even if the light demon wasn’t reconciled, he couldn’t easily challenge the authority of the boss.

Nan Zhou sent away his restless subordinate and took out a fresh apple from his pocket, wiping it with his sleeve. The apple tree left behind by Ms Apple Tree had a growth cycle. It ripened every 25 days and each cycle would bear 30 fruit. There was a limited number and they must be cherished.

Seeing the fresh apple, Nanji Star greedily stretched out a little paw to grab it. Nan Zhou was the only person in the town who freely had apples. Nanji Star wanted to eat more delicious things so he stuck to Nan Zhou. 8tIeGz

Under Nanji Star’s teasing, the apple rolled out from Nan Zhou’s hand. It fell down the eaves and happened to fall onto the balcony with the door open. The apple rolled through the empty gap in the door and inside.

Nan Zhou, “……” Tsk.

He wasn’t afraid of traps. He just wanted to get his apple back. After all, there weren’t many apples. If he lost one, there would be one less.

On such a day of extreme sunlight, he had no reason to fear the players. Besides, he wanted to meet these players. Rather than thinking about it alone, it was better to ask them what had happened to make them stop coming. In addition, why did they suddenly come here? HYRzN2

Nan Zhou jumped down and landed on the balcony, his steps light and silent like a cat.

Nan Zhou didn’t know what chain reaction would be triggered by his active visit this time.

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The moment his feet stepped on the balcony, Nan Zhou’s memory fell into blackness and chaos. He stumbled blindly in the dark barrier for a long time. Along the way, he seemed to have seen many people, seen a lot of scenery and heard many words. These shadows once existed profoundly but quickly resembled wisps of sand as they were wiped out by a strange force.

Finally, he lowered his head drowsily and hit his head against the window of a moving bus. He opened his eyes and found a brightly colored mushroom standing next to him and explaining the rules of the game. PUjukB

Nan Zhou’s memory stopped at the point where he stepped onto the balcony of Never Town to find the apple he dropped by mistake.

***

As for Jiang Fang, who had been thrown into game instances several times, his most valuable memory had just begun. The moment the apple followed the curve of the floor and rolled into the room, Jiang Fang instinctively pressed his fingers against the apple from where he was hiding by the balcony door.

Jiang Fang’s heart moved slightly when his fingers touched the fresh apple. The next moment, he saw another hand covered with a shallow light probe in through the door and head toward the apple. He stood at the opening of the balcony door and there was a brilliant, tide-like sunshine behind him. Gpv8rM

For Song Haining, the girl who had been following Jiang Fang, this scene was nothing more than the collapse of the sky. This light demon came in too fast! Her boss also didn’t act for the first time. If he delayed like this, they would completely lose the advantage of an ambush!

Her voice trembled and was extremely hoarse like she was dying. “Boss…”

Jiang Fang gestured for her to calm down. After being inexplicably trapped in the game for more than a month, they had been forcibly thrown into various instances and gone through many life or death moments.

He knew the priority. He also knew that these people believed in him and he shouldn’t believe in a false childhood friend, a hand-created instance boss with the highest player mortality rate in Forces of Temptation. SjfqMQ

Even so, the smile on Jiang Fang’s face was brilliant. His hand was still on the fallen apple. The dagger, hidden in his other hand, and his shiny silver hair were swallowed up by the sun and turned into the same color. He gently greeted Nan Zhou. “…Hello.”

Nan Zhou blinked and said softly, “My apple.”

The very alert Song Haining, “……” Huh?

Nan Zhou stressed it. “Apple, mine.” y1wlaj

Jiang Fang let go of his hand and said with a gentle smile, “Okay, okay it is yours.”

Nan Zhou wasn’t in a hurry to leave. He sat down cross-legged, held the apple that had one corner damaged and nibbled on it. He seemed to be declaring that he hadn’t come to kill people. He had come to pick up the apple and would leave after eating the apple. He seemed to be generously waiting for Jiang Fang to tell him why these players who had disappeared for a long time suddenly came back to Never Town again.

The sharp, substance-like sunlight disappeared from his body bit by bit and his true appearance was gradually revealed. It was a beautiful monster youth with black hair scattered over his shoulders and covered with a thin layer of golden sunlight.

His facial features, body, length of fingers, arc of the neck and his shoulders were too standard and beautiful, making him seem like a false beauty that shouldn’t exist. Even if he knew the other person was false and there could be a sharp blade swinging at any time, Jiang Fang couldn’t help being attracted by Nan Zhou’s action of eating an apple and his focused expression. L5vZDO

It was only when Nan Zhou finished eating the whole apple that Jiang Fang finally opened his mouth slightly. Nan Zhou also looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

Jiang Fang couldn’t help saying, “…For an apple, there is no need to eat the core.”

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Nan Zhou who had the leftover apple stalk in his mouth, “……”

The monster fell into deep thought. After a moment, he let out a sigh and drew out the ending sound. “Ah…” C40b7w

It was like this.


The author has something to say: There is gravity between everything, so I met you.

7th anniversary celebration event

Proofreader: Purichan  EI3mNv

Leave a Comment

7 comments

  1. It seems like his memory was cleanly sliced off the moment he met Jiang Fang, could it be they tried to clear the game and game cleared their memories?

  2. The little detail of Nan Zhou not knowing how to eat an apple is so great, he’s been eating food that tastes like paper his whole life, how should he know there’s anything off about the core? He only gets these thirty apples, of course his instinct would be to eat all of it! I love how Jiang Fang lied about knowing what was happening to get troublemakers to listen in the first instance, with a countdown as strict as the one they were under it’s a very good plan

    Thank you so much for translating! <3