Chapter 14: A Discovery That Defied Heaven’s Will

Chapter 14: A Discovery That Defied Heaven’s Will

Sun Fei deliberately mussed the little Lori’s hair with his hand, turning her golden locks as messy as a bird’s nest. He grinned. “Of course it’s true… haha! Oh, and thank you, little kid!”

“You’re the little kid!”

“Hahaha…”

Angela stood off to the side without interrupting. She smiled as she watched Alexander and Gemma playing and roughhousing. Her heart felt lighter than it had in a long, long time. Just how long had it been since she’d felt this happy? Angela didn’t know herself. The look in her eyes as she gazed at Alexander grew brighter and brighter…

…

The injured soldiers were quickly arranged within the front courtyard of the King’s Hall.

Under the organization of Angela and Gemma, clean water, food, and warm blankets and clothes were distributed to every wounded soldier. Sun Fei even generously handed out some of the royal hall’s wealth to encourage his men. In this desperate hour, their morale needed to stay high. Besides inspiring them with courage, he knew he needed to offer some tangible rewards. As someone who had read plenty of history books in his previous life, Sun Fei understood this principle well enough.

Sun Fei’s actions indeed won the soldiers’ respect.

Cries of “Long Live the King!” once again echoed throughout Shampoo City. Some of the wounded soldiers were so moved they shed tears, vowing to ‘loyally serve His Majesty Alexander’. In these chaotic times where life was as cheap as grass, it was surprisingly easy for a Noble to win the hearts of his subjects.

Having seen to the wounded soldiers, Sun Fei left the other tasks – like mobilizing the citizens of Shampoo City to join the defense, or organizing the city guards – to the ‘military expert’ Brook. He himself returned to the King’s Hall.

Ordering everyone not to enter the hall without permission, Sun Fei began to check his own injuries.

The injuries weren’t too severe. His performance in his first battle hadn’t been bad. He had dispatched both the Shade and the men in black unscathed. Only during his fight with the Three-Star Warrior named Lund did he get hurt. He had forcefully endured one use of Lund’s warrior skill ‘Blazing Flame Slash’, which had made him cough up blood at the time, but that injury wasn’t serious.

The worst injury actually happened later, when Sun Fei deliberately let Lund’s thrust pierce his left shoulder. Lund’s fire-attribute Battle Qi swept through his body, jolting his heart and lungs. That was the real problem Sun Fei faced.

And Sun Fei had done that gamble.

He was betting that since he could bring the Barbarian’s skills into reality, the defensive properties of the leather armor that added +13 defense, along with the Barbarian Character’s own defense stat from the level 5 Barbarian character, should also carry over into reality. That way, he minimized the damage Lund’s thin sword could inflict.

And in fact, his gamble had paid off.

The terrifying Battle Qi contained within the Three-Star Warrior’s sword should have instantly shattered Sun Fei’s internal organs. But supported by the Barbarian character’s insane defensive capabilities, it only caused minor damage.

It posed no fatal threat.

Of course, Sun Fei had felt he had no other choice at the time. Without a trick, he saw no way to defeat Lund. If Lund, a Three-Star Warrior, had been given just a little more time on the city wall, Sun Fei would have become a corpse skewered on his sword.

He wasn’t unafraid of death.

No, because he was deathly afraid, he fought desperately.

Sun Fei had won his bet.

Finished checking his injuries, Sun Fei prepared to do another crucial thing—

Sitting upright on the bed, he tried to re-enter the Diablo World.

If he wanted to save those wounded soldiers, he had to go back into the World of Diablo.

Sun Fei’s idea was simple—

Since he could bring the abilities of a World of Diablo character into reality, what about items and equipment from the game? Could he bring those out too?

For instance, items like the World of Diablo’s [Health Potion]. If he could bring out magical potions that could instantly restore a nearly dead game character to full health into the real world… then perhaps White-Haired Pierce and the other wounded soldiers really might be saved.

This thought made Sun Fei impatient to dive back into Diablo World instantly.

He sat on the bed, settled his mind, and concentrated intensely, recalling the scene the first time he entered the Diablo World. He focused his Mental Power with unprecedented intensity, trying to contact that mysterious voice in his mind.

The result thrilled him.

There was a response very quickly—

“Gamer Sun Fei requesting access to the Diablo World… Soul scan confirmed… Verifying game time… Remaining game time detected, access granted… Countdown… 3… 2… 1, enter!”

That mysterious, cold voice arrived right on cue.

A strange, mysterious sensation instantly enveloped his entire body. Sun Fei felt once more like those brave souls stepping through the Star Gate in TV shows, traveling through a time tunnel…

…

…

Seeing the scene before him, Sun Fei was stunned.

Based on his memories of the computer game in his previous life, he had last logged out while inside the [Den of Evil] cave in the [Blood Moor] wilderness. Logging back in should have placed him back inside the [Den of Evil]. But reality was completely different from what he imagined.

The scene before him wasn’t the [Den of Evil].

Nor was it the [Rogue Encampment].

It wasn’t anywhere within the Diablo World at all.

Instead… it was like a three-dimensional, fully projected simulation screen.

But Sun Fei was very familiar with the imagery on this screen—it was the character selection screen before starting a Diablo game. The seven playable characters of Diablo – the Amazon Warrior, the Eastern Assassin, the Necromancer, the Barbarian, the Paladin, the Sorceress, and the Druid – appeared on the screen. They stood before a raging bonfire, each character rendered so vividly that he could almost feel their breath. To Sun Fei, it felt like seven living, breathing people stood right before him.

“This is… the character selection screen? Why am I here? Could it be…”

Sun Fei was deep in thought when he suddenly spotted, below the 3D projection screen, an option box labeled with Chinese characters—

[Create New Character].

Sun Fei froze. In the next instant, he was overwhelmed by wild joy.

“Create New Character? Does this mean that besides the Barbarian character, I can choose another character to play? Does that mean I can bring the abilities and skills of other characters, like the Sorceress or the Paladin, into reality too?”

Instantly, a door flung wide open in Sun Fei’s mind.

He saw limitless possibilities.

What if… What if he leveled every Diablo character to the Hell Difficulty Level, reaching level 99? What if he brought all of those abilities into the real world? What would happen then? Rule the world? Become the most powerful expert on the continent? Build a massive harem? Grab any princess he wanted? Curse any King he felt like?

Anything seemed possible.

The hundreds of skills from Diablo’s other classes could create tidal waves in this world. No one could withstand them.

This practically defied heaven’s will itself!

Sun Fei stared at the virtual holographic projection in front of him. His penchant for daydreaming took hold again, and drool trickled unnoticed onto the floor below.

After indulging in his reverie for a while, Sun Fei decided to test this idea.

His brain whirled. On a thought, he chose the much flashier Sorceress class in his mind.

Sure enough, the beautiful lady Sorceress MM on the holographic screen took a step forward. With an elegant flourish of her gorgeous staff that crackled with terrifying power, blinding electrical currents danced in her hand. The Sorceress MM struck an extremely flashy pose, giving Sun Fei a slight bow.

The characters beneath the screen changed: [Select, Yes/No?]

Sun Fei mentally confirmed [‘Yes’].

The holographic projection in front of him began to blur—a sign he was finally entering the game world.

However, just at that moment—

Sun Fei suddenly thought of a very serious problem: “The Sorceress character is female! Once I’m really inside the game world… I won’t turn into a woman, will I? That would be disastrous! I refuse to be castrated by the game system!”

The game system didn’t give him much time to regret.

The very next second, everything began to change.

Whoosh—!

That familiar, weightless feeling of traversing a tunnel through space arrived quickly.

Sun Fei felt only a blur before his eyes.

Almost zero point zero zero zero one second later, sensation returned to his body. Sun Fei looked around, discovering he had indeed returned to the Diablo World, specifically the character starting point in the newcomer village, the [Rogue Encampment].

The sky remained bleak and overcast, with rain drizzling endlessly.

The [Rogue Encampment] felt desolate and quiet.

Sun Fei found that switching to the Sorceress class had effectively reset everything within the Diablo World. It all seemed to restart from the beginning. When he approached Sister Acarra, the intelligent woman treated him like a complete stranger, again assigning him the mission to clear the monsters from the [Den of Evil].

After accepting the quest, Sun Fei drifted back to the newcomers’ starting point.

He suddenly remembered something very important and immediately lowered his head to inspect himself. He stuck a hand down his robes into his pants.

A moment later—

“Whew… whew… fine… fine. Didn’t turn into a girl. Otherwise, I’d have become the legendary Thai national treasure…”

Sun Fei was both relieved and delighted to discover that although the fixed character model for the Sorceress class in Diablo was female, his own character within the game was based on Alexander’s appearance from reality, with only minor, subtle adjustments. It wasn’t much different from his Barbarian version of himself.

He currently wore only a simple, coarse grey robe. In his hand was a flimsy, staff-like branch about two meters long – the cheap, practically useless starter gear handed out by the game.

Soon, the slightly dodgy-looking NPC Warriv, sporting a golden question mark on his head, came over to strike up a conversation. Reminded of his previous experience, Sun Fei ignored him and walked straight past.

Sun Fei could now be certain. His earlier speculation was true.

He could select every single Diablo role. As for whether he could bring their skills and abilities out into reality like the Barbarian, he would only know after logging out this time.