Chapter 91.1 – Reader: This world is a novel
Now- where is he?
Du Ze opened his eyes and his field of vision was filled with pure white. He was alone. All of the wounds on his body vanished as if they had never been.
After a brief interval while he was befuddled, Du Ze began to look around to try to quickly sort out his current situation – why did he suddenly arrive in this place? Du Ze’s thoughts were still on the god of light’s unexpected self-destruction. He hadn’t thought that the god of light would have such a surprise up his sleeve. Some silly, cute person thought that the so-called Final BOSS fight was just a formality, but the god of light used his ultimate skill “verdict” to wipe out their entire party.
“You are dead.”
Du Ze looked at the boundless whiteness around him – is this the afterlife?
White, white, white, white and white. It was like falling into a vat of milk, or like being on a piece of white paper where he was only thing painted in color on it.
Du Ze examined his surroundings then had to close his eyes. He found out that all this whiteness was more uncomfortable than complete darkness. If he looked at the intense whiteness for a long time, not only were his eyes dazzled, he also felt like vomiting.
“…. If I had known that I could meet you ahead of time, I would have let the god of light kill you.”
In the next moment, Du Ze heard someone sigh. A silly, cute person’s first reaction was happiness – just when he was wondering what had happened, the subject in question appeared – but once he understood the meaning of what that voice had said, he was dismayed.
Du Ze took a short breath of air; his heart seemed to spasm and his whole body seemed rigid as a block of stone. He opened his eyes and looked at the speaker. The moment he saw that other person, it was as though a bolt of lightning hit him on the top of his head. The one in front of him was totally beyond his imagination.
In that pure white space, “that one” greeted Du Ze.
“We meet at last, I am the Creator of this world.”
When he heard this introduction, Du Ze felt as though his whole body was poked by needles until it was numb. The person who claimed to be the creator of the world had short black hair and was wearing a white shirt, black trousers, a pair of glasses and blue hearing aids – that other person looked just like him!
“Don’t worry about that.” He seemed to understand Du Ze’s blank stare. “I have no fixed appearance and usually take on a form that is familiar to you.
****! You scared me! Du Ze’s heart was like a TV screen that was filled with ****ing strong expletives. For a moment there, he thought that this was going to be a cliché plot development1, like that person had a relationship with his mother and that he and the god had a relationship – but it was just the Creator God using his image.
Finally, I knew the truth and my tears fell.2
After the initial shock, a certain silly, cute person realized that “Creator God = life-sized mirror.” Du Ze thought that this was actually quite consistent with the novel’s setting. As the god who created the world, the Creator of the world of “Mixed Blood” wasn’t well-known among the people. He had no idols or temples and the information the people of the Chaos Continent knew about him was pitifully sparse.
Now that he saw the God, Du Ze conjectured that it was because the God had no fixed appearance and therefore one can’t build an idol of him, which means building a temple for him was also problematic. Thus there was almost no information about the God except for legends.
How hard did this little student have to search just to find information about you?
Du Ze stared impassively at the Creator God who was his mirror-image. Perhaps because of this appearance, Du Ze’s social barrier did not act up much – what sort of person was scared of confronting his own face in the mirror? At first, a cute, silly person was shocked by the visual impact of the God, but now he had gotten used to it. Though he wondered why he suddenly met the Creator, he was more concerned about Xiu. But is the Creator the best person to ask about this?
“How is Xiu?”
When he heard Du Ze’s question, the Creator did not answer and asked: “What happened?”
Ah, the Creator God did not know what was had happened to them in the Tower of God?
The God of Creation saw that Du Ze was somewhat startled. The God of Creation’s face, which looked the same as Du Ze’s face, suddenly had a self-deprecating expression.
“The Creator God is omniscient and omnipotent. Every living person, including you, thinks so. But I’m just a prisoner now.” He spread out his arms as if he was showing off his jail cell to Du Ze. “I’ve been cooped up here, with nothing to see and nothing to do, except wait for my death.”
His intuition told Du Ze that the God of Creation was not lying, but Du Ze couldn’t help but refute him: “You said earlier that you should have let the god of light kill me earlier. If you don’t know what happens outside of this place, how did you know that I died at the hands of the god of light?”
“It’s because I can’t get out of here, so I can only do what I want with someone else’s help,” he said. “The god of light is my best pawn. He has my scepter and I can tell him what needs to be done through that artifact.”
The Creator looked at Du Ze and deduced what had happened: “Were you killed by the god of light? You asked about Xiu, so you two must have been together when you suffered that fatal attack.” The God seemed quite familiar with the god of light’s skills. “I think I know the cause of your death – he used ‘verdict’, right?”
Du Ze involuntarily nodded. He listened to the God speak of verdict in an admiring tone: “Verdict is truly an ultimate skill; it can convert the user’s body into pure attack energy. The more he sacrifices, the more powerful the skill becomes. If the user fully sacrifices himself, the skill will have unparalleled strength. It’s the most suitable weapon for an angel. Before I gave the scepter to the god of light, he didn’t have verdict. During his battles with Bael, the god of light was like a little mouse that the demon played with; he couldn’t do the slightest harm to the demon.”
“But the verdict isn’t the most powerful thing in the world. ‘The rules’ are more terrifyingly powerful compared to verdict.” The Creator looked at Du Ze. “Do you know about ‘the rules’?”
Du Ze nodded then changed his mind and shook his head. Although at first, he thought that he knew about “the rules,” when he thought more deeply about it, he couldn’t really find the words to describe its exact nature.
“Life and death, the alternation of day and night, what makes them work the way they do is because of ‘the rules’.” The Creator understood Du Ze’s head shake and explained it to him: “It’s the order of the world and eternal law. We must abide by the rules and even if we don’t know how it functions, we are forced to obey the rules. This type of coercion is irresistible.”
In order for Du Ze to understand it better, the God gave an example: “Suppose that there is a ‘you can’t see me’ rule. Even if you and I are only separated by a wall, you will never be able to see me. ‘The rules’ will make sure that even if you trip over a pebble and fall down, bleeding from the head, even if I come to you, there will be good Samaritans passing by who will help you and take you away before I can get to you … In this way, we will miss each other many times and the rule that ‘you can’t see me’ is always followed. We think of it as ‘fate’ but it’s actually the way that ‘the rules’ work.”
Du Ze listened to the God of Creation explaining that “the rules” are not just laws that must be obeyed but more like a mysterious existence. It has its own operating mechanism, like a “heavenly law” that creates the balance of the world. It’s a sort of law of cause and effect – before this, he had seen the effect of “the rules” many times before. He had thought of it as “the plot god.”
“The rule of verdict is an absolute hit; no one can avoid its attack.” The Creator’s gaze swept over Du Ze. “If the sacrifice’s energy is strong enough, the result of the verdict’s attack can only be ‘death’.”
Du Ze’s heart sank as though it was filled with lead. Cold fear spread throughout his body. Until now they have been lucky because the novel’s plot has been following the “protagonists can’t die” law. The protagonist can’t die because the plot has to move forward. Therefore, the protagonist can be cruelly hurt and suffer but some fantastic event always happens and the protagonist always survives.
But this law can be broken if the story demands it. If it was a different author, Du Ze wouldn’t worry, but the author of “Mixed Blood” is that ****er Yi Ye Zhi Qiu! Du Ze isn’t sure whether or not Yi Ye Zhi Qiu will write an ending that will make readers want to go home and hang themselves. The author’s moral integrity has been a negative value since the beginning.
According to the God of Creation just now, once the rule is set, events will move along according to its predetermined path. Just like Xiu destroyed the elves and attacked the Sky City, the plot will always go towards the direction written by the author.
The God of Creation watched as Du Ze’s face drained of blood. The black-haired youth’s face had been impassive before. Only a few slight changes in his facial expression had revealed his emotion so his face becoming pale was the biggest sign of emotion he had revealed since he arrived here.
He reacted not because of his own death, but because of his fear of that person passing away. Although he had long known of the relationship between the two men from the god of light, the Creator was still unhappy when he saw with his own eyes that it was true.
“You don’t have to worry about Xiu.” The God said to Du Ze, “That person will not die.”
He was not comforting Du Ze. He merely wanted to keep the conversation going.
“The world has established a rule that ‘Xiu can’t die’.” A slight trace of regret flashed through the God’s face. “The rule of the verdict is nothing compared to laws that ‘the rules’ set for this world.”
Life is like a rollercoaster full of exciting ups and downs.3 Du Ze shed bitter tears over the author’s almost nonexistent conscience. The Moe Lord’s life has been hard enough, don’t add a fatal blow at the end!
When he learned that the Moe Lord was safe since the “protagonist can’t die” rule was still in effect, some silly, cute person’s heart became tranquil. He began to focus on the God of Creation. Previously, the Creator God referred to the god of light as his “pawn.” Although his conjecture about the god of light and God of Creation’s relationship was thus proved, Du Ze wasn’t happy at all since it meant that it wasn’t just the god of light who wanted to kill Xiu. The Creator also had the same goal.
“You want to… kill Xiu.”
“Yes.” The God calmly admitted it. He looked at Du Ze. The black-haired youth’s expression did not change but, through careful observation, the God was keenly aware that Du Ze was on guard against him, which made the God feel even more displeased. “You should not regard me as an enemy, because you and I are in the same position.”
The Creator of the world suddenly came closer and Du Ze saw his own face magnified in front of him, so close that he could even feel the other’s cold breath on his skin.
“In this world, I am the one who has the closest relationship with you.” The two faces had only a slight difference between them. The God of Creation’s fierce eyes firmly locked onto Du Ze’s. When he spoke, his voice was full of complex emotions: “Do you know why you came to this world?”
Du Ze involuntarily took a step back, avoiding the God’s aggressive action. He had heard this question before from the same person when he broke the god of light’s scepter. At that time, he hadn’t had much time to think about it; the reason for his unscientific travel into this world was beyond his abilities to figure out.
Although he retreated, Du Ze did not avoid the God of Creation’s eyes. The God was hinting at something; he obviously knew the answer. Therefore, even if Du Ze scented the trap, he still had to jump into it.
“Why?”
“That’s what I’m going to talk to you about – you, me, Xiu, ‘the rules’, this world.” The Creator sighed: “I know you have many questions. It’s the same for me. I have a question to ask you, too… person from above.”
Above …?
