Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 35: Down and Out, the Fall of Black Sir
When I was an ordinary guard at the gate of Campanavia, I often stared at the moat outside the city in a daze. To be exact, I stared at the moat for most of my life during that period. To most people who traveled on the river every day, it was just an ordinary, shallow stream of water. The breeze kept blowing on the surface of the water, creating a series of shimmering waves. At noon every day, the sun would always shine on the shimmering water, and then splash back into the air by the rippling water, filling the river with golden colors. These small and warm rays of light would sometimes shine into the eyes of some passerby, casting a layer of dazzling brilliance.
The breeze, the sunshine, the water waves, the pedestrians… not a moment earlier, not a moment later, everything just happened naturally. The pedestrians whose eyes were dazzled would just think it was a random accident, blink and walk away, and would never stop for a moment.
And in my eyes at that time, in the eyes of a guard whose life and soul were imprisoned in the corner of the city wall by a fate, all of this was actually very different from what others saw:
Every day at noon, the sun leaps into the water from the southeast at an angle of 73 degrees. At the same time, the trade wind that blows from the southwest at an angle of 60 degrees, which remains unchanged all year round, pushes the ripples on the water surface at the same angle every three seconds. The first layer of ripples I can see appears from under the sixth willow tree every three seconds. One second later, 72 semicircular water ripples just fill the width of the entire moat, and then ripple forward at a speed of half a step per second. Seven seconds later, two small waves that were originally unrelated overlapped with each other and arched up a slightly larger wave at the west two-thirds of the moat. At the same time, a ray of light from the noon sun just fell on the top of this wave.
Then, as the waves poured forward, the most wonderful thing happened: this reflected brilliant light shot right into the pupil of my left eye, instantly dyeing half of my vision with a brilliant color, and then this strange light disappeared in a flash, making it impossible to capture it.
Two minutes later, all this strangeness will be replayed before my eyes. Two minutes later, when the hazy halo in my left eye socket has not yet dissipated, that naughty light will appear again.
Then it disappeared, ending its three naughty provocations of me that day, until the sun god's chariot rose to the zenith from the east again and another bright noon arrived. The strange sunlight would appear again at the same time and in the same way, and then reflect brilliant colors into my eyes three times in a row.
What I want to say is that this seems to be a world where "accidents" do not exist. Everything in the world - whether it has life or not, whether it has wisdom or not; from the changing of seasons and the cycle of day and night to the landing point of a stone and the destination of a speck of dust - is moving according to a predestined fate: the wild wolf on the bank of the Silver Star River will walk through an ellipse every 270 steps, and then accurately print its left front paw into its original footprint; the old sycamore tree in the Moon Creek Forest will drop a yellow leaf every 63 seconds, and this yellow leaf will definitely be bounced into the stream beside by a branch...
It seems that there is an invisible thread of fate attached to everything, and the ends of these countless threads are connected to the same spinning wheel of the goddess of fate. These "fates" are often so hidden that you can't even detect their existence, but once you occasionally discover them, you will inevitably marvel at how cleverly and delicately all of this is arranged.
Perhaps only these "space travelers" that I know are truly free, not bound or restricted by fate, and able to break away from the predetermined end and choose their own way forward; perhaps there are also us - me and the old troll Carlson - the natives who have awakened from the shackles of fate, and we are also a "free" group who have mastered our own destiny.
However, are these "freedoms" real? How do I know that I have not escaped from a narrow bondage, but have fallen into a larger, hidden bondage of fate that I cannot discover? How do I know that everything I am facing now is not also guided by the spinning thread of fate, and as the spindle turns, it moves towards a certain destined destination without stopping? Not only me, but also those who dabble in space - those "free" dabble in space - do they really get true freedom?
Regardless of how all this happened, there is no doubt that we live in a world that is structured by countless laws and rules. The gods who created this world and formulated these laws control everything in the world, which is a great blessing for many religious fanatics. "God created everything, God controls everything, and God takes care of everything." How ideal is such a world?
So, is this world really as impeccable as the legend says?
"This is not a perfect world!" said my fellow alien from a foreign country, the awakened native, the wise old troll, the troll witch doctor Carlson.
"If everything in this world is operating perfectly according to fixed laws strictly..." he said to me, "...then I would not exist, you would not exist, and this room we are in..." He pointed with his cane at the inner wall of this room that was "cheated" from the Supreme God, "...it would not exist either."
"As long as you are willing to look, there are flaws everywhere in this world. In fact, in my eyes, the gods have made more mistakes in this world than their creations." Carlson's words were like a hammer chiseling through rock, strong, powerful and resounding.
He was criticizing the gods, accusing them of making mistakes. Such blasphemous words made me panic, and I jumped up from my seat as if I was stabbed by a steel needle in the buttocks. I subconsciously looked around in a cold sweat - of course, in this room where I couldn't even find a door handle, I saw nothing but walls - and then I couldn't help but want to reach out and cover the big mouth of this impudent old troll - you know, I am one of the few people in the world who have actually seen a god descend with my own eyes - although it may be just a very low-level GM god - but his glorious and tall image, profound wisdom - and sexy and resolute leg hair - all left such a deep impression on me, how could I not feel sincere awe?
"Calm down, my friend, I have my reasons for saying this..." Old Carlson stretched out his cane and touched my shoulder, gently pushing me back to my seat. His expression at this moment did not seem to be secretly mocking the gods behind their backs, nor did he deliberately contradict and slander the gods. Instead, he smiled as always, as if he was calmly narrating a fact - in fact, it was his calm attitude that gave me enough courage to continue listening to his rebellious words.
"You asked me if we could find other ways to deal with Blackadder. I tell you, theoretically, it is possible." Carlson continued methodically, "and the basis of this possibility is that the gods made a small mistake."
He waved his arm lightly, and the magic scroll in the air changed into the scene on the top of the command tower. In the picture, I saw Lady Black Sir Dengot standing alone in front of the broken wall, looking down at the entire fortress solemnly.
"A lonely old virgin..." Old Carlson said with disdain, "...her ears are so short, and her teeth are wrapped in her lips. She is not sexy at all...Creating such an ugly woman is certainly one of the biggest mistakes the gods have made..."
It turns out that there is no direct correlation between "wisdom" and "aesthetics".
"…But this has nothing to do with your life or death. What I want you to see is the gap in the wall in front of her. How about it? Have you discovered their characteristics?"
"Hmm... let me think about it..." I widened my eyes, trying to find something mysterious among these broken walls, "... Oh, that's interesting, all these gaps appear on the wall, it's a wonderful coincidence, but I don't see how much it has to do with me..."
"Ahem..." Old Carlson glared at me angrily with a gloomy face.
“Okay, okay…” I raised my hands awkwardly, “…I’m sorry, I admit I didn’t see anything, please tell me quickly, I’m almost suffocating with curiosity.”
Although my words were so insincere, Carlson still smiled smugly: "I already knew that you couldn't see the difference..." Then you still want me to see it? "...At this time, using your ordinary eyes, you can only be deceived by the illusion. So, you have to look at it this way..."
…
"Carlson? Mr. Carlson? I'm tired of swimming in the digital ocean of the true origin. If you have anything to tell me, please tell me directly, okay?" I said helplessly in the endless rows of green "0" and "1" symbols. This weird old troll seemed to like showing off his ability to restore everything to its digital origin, and he liked to do this at any time.
"Please pay attention to this section of symbols..." I don't know how he did it. I saw a long row of irregular numbers flashing in my eyes. Although I didn't know what they meant, I just knew that they were what Carlson asked me to see.
"Originally, these gaps on the top of the tower would not block intruders from entering or leaving. For example, you just jumped out of the tower through this gap; but Black Knight himself could not pass through. Do you know what this means?"
"If this old woman wanted to, she could drag our bodies out by our legs and throw them away whole, but we can only chop her into eighteen pieces and throw them away piece by piece." I thought about it and then answered.
"Well... basically it's correct. At least I've seen no less than sixty unlucky guys being pushed against the wall by this woman and knocked off the tower with a hammer. But you need to pay attention to the fact that compared with the other symbols representing gaps in the wall, this one has a small flaw. Perhaps the gods forgot something, and it lacks an important field - a field that protects Black Knight from falling off the building."
"That is to say..."
"That is to say, if you can seize the opportunity, you can push her off the tower from here. At this height, unless her health points are quadrupled, there is no chance of survival."
This is probably my favorite thing that the old troll has ever said.
"That sounds like a good idea."
"...The prerequisite is that you are still alive at that time, and she happens to be standing right in front of the gap, and you happen to be on the inside of her, and you happen to use a skill that can produce a 'knockback' effect, and she happens not to interrupt your skill at that time..." Carlson said incessantly.
"Wait..." So many "coincidences" gave me a bad feeling. I decided to skip all his assumptions and go straight to a simple result: "...What are my chances of success?"
"Slightly more likely than you to be struck by lightning twice in your life."
"Thank you for telling me this. It has increased my chance of survival from one in infinity to one in infinity minus one. I feel much safer now." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Hey, I'm not done yet!" Carlson quickly added, "What if I tell you that I can increase this probability to more than 90 percent?"
"What should I do?" I immediately carefully hid the disrespectful whites in my pupils and looked at the old guy with admiration on my face.
"If I were you, I would stand in this gap before her and lure her to attack you..." The unfathomable smug smile on old Carlson's face never faded, "...Remember, you must not dodge, nor block, and certainly not be hit by her at this time. You can only pray that her attack fails. After an attack, she will be stiff for 0.5 seconds. You must get behind her within this time, and then use skills such as 'sprint' and 'raid' to repel the opponent, and then... do you understand?"
"I think I understand, but..." From his explanation, I discovered a very important problem, "...how can I dodge her attack?"
"This is something only I can do," Carlson said to me. "You know, Black Jazz's attack error rate is about 0.3%, which means that she will make a mistake once in every 300 attacks. What I can do for you is to make her make a mistake during that attack..."
"Increase her error rate to 100 percent?" I asked with shining eyes.
"Bullshit!" Carlson hit me hard on the head with his staff - I actually lost twelve life points for this - "I told you that modifying the laws of the gods is easy to be discovered, and the punishment will be devastating. Such an obvious modification that increases the error rate cannot be ignored. Do you want me to die with you?"
"...Then what do you want to do?" I asked with my hands covering my head and grinning.
"This is a difficult move. I must dive deeper into the rules of the world and make more subtle adjustments so that the 3/1000 chance of error will happen by chance when I attack you."
"'By chance'?" I felt like my brain was not enough.
"Yes, it's an accident. To the gods who are watching over this world, the mistake that occurred at this moment is a random and uncontrollable accident. But to us, it is a premeditated necessity."
"It sounds very profound..." I looked confused, and then I felt relieved. "...But no matter what, you will make her hammer miss, right?"
"A little trick to deceive the eyes of the gods. I have never done this, but it does work in theory. It must be admitted that this kind of thing is very dangerous. But if you decide to go back to your dabbler friends now, I can indeed help you in this way." Old Carlson looked at me eagerly.
I know this is a difficult choice, for him and for me. However, just as he could not give up a human being with the same fate as him in the long loneliness after waking up, I could not give up everything in the world and the people who walked with me all the way.
No matter what choices we make, our whole life is actually an adventure, isn’t it?
"I really don't know how to thank you." No matter how many misunderstandings there were between us in the short time we knew each other, this was the first time I solemnly expressed my innermost gratitude to this old man from a different race.
"Who would care about your cheap gratitude?" Carlson lamented, "I would rather you give up this adventure..."
…
The bloodthirsty storm stirred up by the cruel weapon kept roaring behind my head. I could no longer tell whether I was purposely luring the enemy deeper or was really driven into a panic by fear. Thanks to the "footprints of the wind elves" on my feet, as my level increased, it could increase my movement speed by an additional 7%, which allowed me to always escape the capture of Black Knight by a hair's breadth at the critical moment of my life. The gap that Carlson denounced as "the mistake of the gods" was right in front of me. I had to use my life to verify whether it was the gods who were always right, or Carlson himself, who made the mistake.
"Yes, it's in this direction. When I say stop, you must stop immediately, otherwise you will be the one falling down. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen..." Carlson's voice kept chattering in my ears. I could tell that although his tone was still relaxed, he was as nervous as I was - after all, if our little trick went wrong, no one could guarantee that the punishment of the gods would not fall on him.
"Be careful, Jeff, she's about to catch up with you!" The fairy came down to earth and shouted at me in a shrill voice, very inappropriately.
"Keep going, ten, nine, eight..." I felt that Carlson's vocal cords were filled with nervous sweat.
"Turn, turn, if you go any further you will reach a dead end..." The fairy's vocal cords seemed to be about to break.
"What the hell is this idiot woman yelling about... Damn it, how many times have I counted? Can you run another lap?"
"Are you serious? Stop kidding me!" Carlson's words scared me to death, and I couldn't help but yell at the sky.
" What did you say?" The fairy screamed at me in confusion.
"Shut up, too!" I said this to the elven druid girl.
"Stop!" At the same time, I finally heard Carlson's loud signal - in fact, at this moment I didn't hear clearly what he said, the thunderous noise had made me see stars and unable to move - in order to fight against the screaming elf girl, he suddenly turned up the volume of the call to me.
I turned around subconsciously, and the hammer of Black Knight fell from the sky like a meteorite, instantly covering the sky above my head with a black shadow. I saw a huge darkness falling from the sky with the sound of whistling wind, leaving me no room to dodge.
If you were in my current situation, you would know that human life is so impermanent that it makes people sigh: a battle is over in a flash, and a lifetime is over in a flash...
"Ah..." Black Knight opened his eyes angrily, full of cruelty.
"Ah..." The fairy came down to earth and covered her eyes, her face full of fear.
"Ah..." I don't know whether the old guy Carlson had his eyes open or closed. Who knows what he was screaming about?
My eyes light up...
suddenly see the light!
The bright sunshine hangs high in the sky, everything in the world is full of vitality, and every broken brick and stone under the feet seems to be singing, singing a hymn to life.
I'm alive!
With the bright red word "MISS" on his head, he is lucky to be alive!
In the face of an irresistible enemy, he chose to fight to the end and live bravely!
It’s great to be alive.
The heavy hammer somehow fell on the broken wall beside me, splashing a string of flying gravel.
Perhaps it was such a powerful blow that Black Knight lost his balance in an instant, making it impossible for her to attack again immediately; or perhaps she couldn't figure out how this fatal blow could go so wrong, making her dazed for a moment. In short, after this blow, I had 0.5 seconds.
The 0.5 seconds to turn defeat into victory.
I have never experienced such a long half a second.
I have never seen Blackadder so dull.
Take a step, turn around, raise the shield, reach out...a low-level skill called "impact".
I even had enough time to smile goodbye at Blackadder's back.
Then, I saw a beautiful and enchanting figure losing its balance and falling forward helplessly.
Ahead is the endless and vast horizon.
Do you want to know what is the thing I am most proud of doing in my life as a man?
Blackadder, a beautiful woman, at this moment, I pushed her down.
