IWOL Chapter 56: First Battle

Dong Linhai was so hungry that his chest was practically pressed against his back, but now he had no appetite at all. He cursed and hurriedly went to help the two girls up.

A witch doll with long, orange hair banged the door open. Seeing the chaos in the dining hall, there was a trace of panic on her face. She waved the broom in her hand and said, “Take the master to rest!”

“No, I’m fine.” Agatha’s face was pale. She stood up with the maid and Wang Que’s help and finally looked at Dong Zheng for the first time since they’d arrived. Her eyes were full of fear, and she said weakly, “Please, the castle has a secret room with five boxes stored inside. You may need the things inside those boxes. No matter what, please help me save this place.”

The guards came and quickly cleaned up the things on the table. Agatha was taken to rest. The witch said, “I am the astrologer in Paradise. Come with me, and I will take you to the secret room.”

The secret room was in a corner of the castle. The room was made of Lego bricks and had random, arbitrary doors. As Agatha had said, inside the room were five boxes.

“The boxes were already here when Paradise was first built and had always been here. If you can come here, it means that you must have one or a few of the keys,” the astrologer said. “I don’t know what’s in the boxes, but it will definitely help everyone protect this place.”

It turned out that the real purpose of the five keys was for this. Dong Zheng didn’t waste time. He immediately took out the four keys in his hand and tried to open the boxes one by one.

The first box contained a manual. Dong Zheng scanned through it. This thing could display various information about the enemies they’d encountered. If a large-scale confrontation occurs, it will be of great help.

In the second box lay a Tang knife, its dark red scabbard engraved with complicated gilt lines. Cui Zuojing’s eyes lit up, and he immediately took the knife in hand. He held the handle, which was the same dark red, and slowly pulled the blade out.

The knife’s dark blade reflected a cold metallic luster, and it seemed that one could almost hear the clang of gold metals when it was being unsheathed. Cui Zuojing couldn’t help but praise in a low voice, “Good knife.”

He stroked the back of the sharp blade. After slamming the knife back into the scabbard with a chuckle, he asked Dong Zheng with bright eyes, “Can you give it to me?”

Cui Zuojing’s attitude obviously didn’t allow Dong Zheng to say a word at all. Dong Zheng had no doubt that if he refused, the Tang knife would be placed on his throat in the next second to force him to agree.

“Yes.” Anyway, the only one in the team who specialized in melee combat was Cui Zuojing. This knife would be used to the most advantage in his hands.

Cui Zuojing immediately lovingly held the knife and moved to the side. After so many years, he finally got another weapon that looked very easy to weld.

Due to his [Killer] ability, Cui Zuojing had no great need for weapons. In a critical moment, he could attack with anything on hand, such as stones, chopsticks, or cat hairs. But, if he wanted to utilize his true strength, he needed to use sophisticated weapons.

This Tang knife looked good, but who knew how long it would last in his hands.

Dong Zheng opened the third box, which had a beating heart made of cloth and cotton.

The astrologer next to him exclaimed, “Oh my God, there is a heart here!”

“What can this do?” Dong Zheng was unsure, so he held the heart in his hands. It obviously felt like ordinary cloth, but it was warm and pulsating in his hands.

The astrologer explained, “The heart can give our dead compatriots a new soul and usher in rebirth.”

“Can you die too?” Dong Linhai asked curiously.

“Of course. When we get wounds that cannot be healed or sutured, we will die.”

Dong Zheng thought for a moment and put the heart away to open the next box.

The treasure in the next box was a mini-terrain model. The moment Dong Zheng touched it, the instructions on how to use it came to mind.

As he was thinking about how to use it, Wang Que opened the last box with her key and received an herbal medicine.

“Get ready to fight.” After collecting all the treasures, Dong Zheng asked the astrologer, “Do you have an army to resist foreign enemies? Who is the commander?”

“We don’t have an army, but whenever disaster strikes, all of the town’s citizens will pick up a sword and defend Paradise. If you want the commander, General Bear and Mickey will usually come. The general will guard the city wall on the front line and Mickey will defend the castle. I’ll take you to see Mickey.”

The group had just returned to the castle hall when they saw Allen rushing in from outside. He’d used his abilities and was very tired. He leaned against the wall and panted breathlessly as he said, “Something is coming! Just outside the town!”

Although they’d prepared in advance, when the dolls heard this news, they still went into a panic. Dong Zheng immediately said, “Take us to the city wall.”

The crows in the sky were already an omen of the things to come. Everyone set off and rushed through the streets. The lights were on in the windows of every house, and the dolls stood worriedly in front of their windows, looking at the dark night and out into the distance.

A chicken doll took off its glasses, shirt and suit, found the knife hidden under the bed, and walked out of the house. More and more dolls brought weapons and headed to the city wall, guarding this pure land spontaneously as they did countless times before.

When Cui Zuojing and everyone arrived, the first round of war had already begun.

They were taken into the command post, which was temporarily set up in a restaurant near the city wall. The commander at the front line, General Bear, was quickly dispatching soldiers. Similar battles had occurred too many times. He and the dolls were already familiar with each other, and they quickly found their respective positions, responding to the enemy with the highest efficiency.

The astrologer told General Bear about the situation. When he learned that Agatha had specifically sought their help to defend Paradise, the two-meter-high bear was very surprised. He wore a black eye patch over his left eye, was dressed in pirate clothes, and had a scar on his side. He might have looked cute if he was normal doll size, but with his current body shape and size, he looked too fierce.

Since it was the master’s decision, he would not violate her orders. General Bear looked at the group of people inquisitively. When he saw the small white figure on the ground, he was taken aback and said, “I saw you before.”

Victor jumped on to the chair so he wouldn’t have to tilt his head too far back to look up and said, “Yes, I’ve been here before.”

In the Labyrinth of Time, Victor and You Yuetong had once entered the doll’s house to collect a book fragment and ended up receiving a clue about this box.

“I remember there was another little girl at that time.”

“She isn’t with us this time.”

General Bear nodded. No longer wasting time on inconsequential things, he walked to the table and pointed to the city wall on the map. He said, “Those things outside are trying to climb up the city wall and enter the town. The intensity is about the same as the previous disaster, and they can handle it.”

Dong Zheng said, “This should be just the beginning.”

General Bear explained, “That’s the reason why we’re trying to resist this first wave of attack with the least amount of loss.”

The command post fell silent. Cui Zuojing stood at the door, looking outside and listening to the clear echo of weapons clashing as the dolls fought and yelled. Intermixed was the mournful scream of crows, making everything chaotic like the end of days.

Dong Zheng asked, “Can we look at the city wall?”

General Bear agreed and led them up the city wall, where the lingering wind blew from an unpredictable distance in the darkness, bringing with it an unknown stench. Next to them was a pink dinosaur doll temporarily adorned in armor, brandishing a long sword and cutting down a monster who wanted to climb up the wall using a ladder.

The monster was shaped like a human but it was covered with pustules. Its eyeballs were muddy. It had no lips, leaving white teeth and blood-red gums exposed. It moved slowly but at an unending stream. Every time one was smashed down, there were more to replace it.

When the pustules on their bodies were pierced, a cloud of brownish-yellow viscous liquid would burst out, accompanied by an unbearable stench and a chaotic sound. If one listened carefully, one might recognize that the sound was an insult too dirty to be heard.

☐☐. (1)

Slut.

Loser.

A bitch that nobody wants.

These words intertwined into unbearable voices, floating in the ears of the dolls and everyone on the city wall. Even Cui Zuojing frowned and covered his ears uncomfortably, looking at General Bear.

“These things are the most common. Basically, every catastrophe will have them.” General Bear drew the knife from his waist and chopped down the monster who was stepping on his companion’s head and was about to break through the line of defense. Pus and curses screamed out.

He took a step back without changing his face and said, “Be mindful of your safety. If something happens to you, I won’t care about you.”

Wang Que stood at the end, pressing her lips together and looking at everything in silence. A giraffe doll could not dodge so a monster grabbed its neck. It screamed and tried its best to lift up its two front legs to kick heavily at the monster. Then, it used its own weight to overwhelm the monster and fell into the darkness below with it.

Immediately, other dolls filled the vacant position, ignoring their own grief and fear for their companion’s sacrifice. For the moment, they threw away their entire being in order to try with all their might to guard the home behind them.

Dong Zheng opened the manual obtained in the box, and a monster slowly appeared on the first page.

[Name] Evil Talking Beast
[Attack] 31
[Defense] 12
[Skills]? ? ?
[Threat]? ? ?

It would be necessary to collect enough samples to display all the data. Cui Zuojing was holding his precious Tang knife and standing close to Dong Zheng to read the manual. He said, “Give this to me. I’ll collect data and practice at the same time.”

Dong Zheng knew that Cui Zuojing was merely telling him, not asking for consent. He nodded and gave the manual to Cui Zuojing, not forgetting to say, “Pay attention to safety.”

Cui Zuojing hummed lazily and took the manual. He looked at the dense crowd of Evil Talking Beasts under the city wall and rolled his shoulders and wrists to loosen them. Under the horrified gazes of the dolls, General Bear, and Wang Que, he held the knife with one hand, propped his other hand on the wall, and jumped down quite handsomely.

The city wall was more than 20 meters high so Cui Zuojing only jumped off after finding the correct position. After falling five meters, he directly stepped on the head of a monster who was climbing the ladder, causing the head to explode under his landing.

He drew out the Tang knife. The knife tip streaked under the sky, slicing through limbs.

When the youth’s figure disappeared from his sight, General Bear ran to the city wall and looked down but he could not locate Cui Zuojing.

His face was shocked, not understanding why that person rushed out to die.

Dong Zheng patted his arm and said, “Don’t worry, he… is very strong.”

“There is something else coming.” Wang Que, who’d been silent thus far, suddenly spoke up.

She frowned, pressed her right hand on her forehead, as if she was sensing something, and muttered in a low voice, “So many…”

“What?” Dong Linhai didn’t understand.

Wang Que closed her eyes and endured the nauseating calls deep within her mind. Those disgusting and hair-raising things squirmed closer to the region where everyone was defenseless.

“They…are underground!”


Translation Notes:
(1) Censored by author.

 


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Kiki
Kiki
4 years ago

Ty for the chapter!

myu
myu
4 years ago

egh, underground hairy creatures

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Reading the things those monsters were saying I feel all the more sorry for Agatha >.< I can't wait for Cui Zuojing to kick their butts. I wonder what new threat is coming now.

Dreamer
Dreamer
3 years ago

You know at first I thought this “Doll House” horror type box is about ghost and the like. But now I understand that in this novel, horror doesn’t usually refer to the supernatural but it could be a dark fantasy or something grimdark.

Qi Qi
Qi Qi
3 years ago

Huhu, Dong Zheng showing care for Cui Zuojing since last chapter owo
When Cui Zuojing was ‘asking’ for the knife with bright eyes, I thought maybe Dong Zheng’s heart would go doki doki or he’d be moved, but who thought he would imagine the knife on his throat xD
I guess it’s too soon for little doki dokis! owo
And let’s give a silent bear hug to Agatha 🙁

Last edited 3 years ago by Qi Qi
QutiePie
QutiePie
6 months ago

I hope the paradise dolls will survive. They seem like good people.