Dimensional Codex - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Test Mission

[Main Mission: Test]

[As a mage traveling between different dimensions, you need to have keen observation and judgment. And every world had its own core value. Find and obtain the item which you think is of the highest value in this world. You can obtain a random reward for completing this task (The reward depends on the evaluation after the mission). All attributes will be decreased by one if you fail in this mission.]

This mission is really hard.

Fang Zheng couldn’t help but frown as he looked at the mission introduction floating before him. On the surface, this mission seemed pretty free and easy. As long as Fang Zheng obtained the item he believed to be most valuable in the world, he would complete the mission. But after he gave it a second thought, he discovered that things weren’t that simple.

Because this task itself had two difficulties.

First, the value had to be high.

Second, he should have been able to obtain it.

If it was just about what Fang Zheng believed to be of high value. There were more than enough in this world. Any satellite, nuclear bomb, mech-suit, were items of extremely high value for Fang Zheng. But unfortunately, even if he knew about this, he could not get them. Of course, if it was a luxury car, Fang Zheng could still find a way to grab one. But even if Fang Zheng was thinking through his butt, he could say for sure that even if he completed the mission with these things, the mission evaluation wouldn’t be that high.

After all, this mission had already stated that it was testing his ability as a dimensional mage, quite obviously.

And in light of this, the goal had been determined.

As far as Fang Zheng was concerned, there was only one thing more valuable in this world. And that was the boss of these aliens. After all, the doctor in the movie had said that this alien boss could manipulate time! And because the protagonist was infected with the blood of the boss’ clone, he had gained the ability to continuously save and read the walkthrough. Even when he had died with the boss at the end, he had returned to the beginning of the movie because of the boss’ blood.

This was the ability to manipulate time!

It should be mentioned that the ability related to time manipulation was absolutely treasured and rare. And what quickened Fang Zheng’s heartbeat even more so was that if things weren’t that different from the movie, then this boss would have no combat effectiveness. All it could do was call its own little brothers and rest for some time. If that were the case, it would be much easier for Fang Zheng to get the boss.

The only problem was that the aliens had occupied the entire Europe already. And obviously, Fang Zheng had no way to search through the entire occupied area and directly capture the boss.

But this problem wasn’t entirely unsolvable for Fang Zheng.

But before that, I have to enjoy modern cuisine first!

Of course, Fang Zheng didn’t have any money in this world, but fortunately, the three good-natured gangsters were very willing to loan him some funds for himself. So, he accepted it unceremoniously and then found a fast food restaurant to have a hearty meal. Fang Zheng, relishing the familiar delicacy, could not help but burst into tears. Although the junk food isn’t healthy… I miss the taste of my hometown.

So, the next course of action was to plan his next move.

While eating the burger and watching the TV in the fast-food restaurant, Fang Zheng thought about the problem.

He had a vague understanding of the concept of time in the Edge of Tomorrow. He remembered that the hero went to the battlefield for a few days without training but the subsequent time point was a bit strange. Regardless of how many times he loaded the save back and forth, when the two went to see the general in the latter part of the movie, the general told Tom that he didn’t expect a deserter to come back with the best hero. So to say, Tom had won the battle with the aliens at the beach at least once, and this time point was difficult to estimate. After all, a battle wasn’t that easy to finish, let alone Tom returning to London after the battle. This time point was difficult to judge. Since the focus of the movie was Tom’s continuous loading of the save point, there was no clear account of time at all.

[TLN to ED: There were some inconsistencies with the movie, so I made some changes in the para.]

Besides, there was another problem that was giving Fang Zheng a headache. And that was, whether Tom’s reload would affect him? If it didn’t affect him, then he would be facing a completely unknown future after Tom’s death. But as a matter of fact, there was nothing unknown at all. In fact, it would be a lot better if it didn’t affect him. After all, this kind of reload might have been great for the concerned parties, but it wasn’t that wonderful for people like Fang Zheng who had been swept in.

It would have been a problem if it affected him.

In fact, Fang Zheng had always been unable to figure out one thing about this movie, and that was that the protagonists believed that the alien boss was using its power to manipulate time to gain victory by constantly resetting time. But Fang Zheng expressed his doubts about this because, on the surface, the alien creatures seemed much stronger than the humans. Both sides had shown no fighting strategy. The alien boss’ IQ seemed very limited, at least in the movie. The only thing shown in the movie was the opposite party preparing an ambush for the humans on the beach. But in Fang Zheng’s opinion, this was nothing. “Damn it, the enemy actually intends to attack the beach. You just wait and see, I will just reload and release the troops here.” It was basically a reaction that any player with a normal IQ would have.

There was another problem, and that was how to catch that alien Boss.

Fang Zheng didn’t plan on following the protagonist because Tom had relied on his ability to reload to death. In any case, he could resurrect if he died but it was a little dangerous for Fang Zheng. The best way was to control an army by himself. This would solve most of the problems.

As for the source of this army… Thinking of this, Fang Zheng glanced at his soul stones.

Since the aliens are already here, then another Zerg wave should not matter, right?

Fang Zheng wasn’t teleported to London but a small city by the border. Since the entire Europe was occupied by the aliens, naturally it was impossible for Fang Zheng to go to London to find the hero. But he didn’t care about it much either. To be honest, the aliens were very strong but they didn’t seem to have an air force. This was another thing that Fang Zheng couldn’t figure out. Although the aliens in the movie did have a means of air attack, there was no air force… was that really okay?

But these were the problems that Fang Zheng didn’t really need to worry about. The weaker the enemy was, the easier it was for him. So after he ate and drank to satisfaction, he secretly found an opportunity to leave the town. This small town was located behind the front lines of the battle with the aliens, so the security wasn’t that strict. It wasn’t that difficult for Fang Zheng to leave the town.

“Well, let’s see what’s the use of this soul stone is.”

Fang Zheng, standing in the dense forest, took a deep breath. At this moment, he had replaced the previously equipped Arthas’ soul stone to Kerrigan’s.

The moment he switched to Kerrigan’s soul stone, Fang Zheng felt as if the world before his eyes had changed. Some peculiar knowledge appeared in his mind, about a mysterious power which he had never heard of or used before. And the scene before him had also begun to change. Although it might have seemed no different from before, when Fang Zheng focused his attention, he found that the entire world seemed to have been covered in a dark red shroud, and the edges were also vague. What’s more, he could also see several lights and shadows moving at different distances.

When Fang Zheng closed and opened his eyes again, the world had returned to its original state.

“It’s different from the game…”

Fang Zheng furrowed his brow, moving his fingers. Then, he stretched his hand out towards a bush in the distance and closed his fists.

“—!!!”

Immediately, a deer floated up from the bush with a low bleat, desperately trying to break free. However, the psychic energy held its body firmly, making it impossible for the deer to escape. Then, Fang Zheng made another gesture as the deer flew in front of him. Fang Zheng then stretched his right hand out as a mass of green took form in Fang Zheng’s hand before he placed it on the deer.

“—!!—!!!”

Soon, the deer began to swing its head frantically, shaking its limbs hard. And with its throes, blood vessels bulged from under its skin where Fang Zheng had placed his palm, gradually spreading up and down across its entire body. And just when the bulging of blood vessels spread to the deer’s head, the deer suddenly burst with a bang. Its body twitched a few times before it stopped moving completely.

“What the F***!”

Fang Zheng was also taken aback by this sudden explosion. He hurriedly withdrew his hand and took a few steps back. Soon, the psychic energy also dissipated as the burst deer corpse fell on the ground with a bang. In the next moment, Fang Zheng noticed something squirming inside the corpse. Soon, a parasite bit its way out of the deer.

Fang Zheng was rendered completely speechless at the sight of this larva crawling happily around his feet. He was curious about how Kerrigan created an army of Zergs without the Zerg. But he didn’t expect that it would be through this kind of method.

I guess, this is also okay!?

Fang Zheng also didn’t know what to say, looking at the parasite squirming on the ground. This little worm wasn’t as terrible as he had thought. On the contrary, it looked rather cute. And just as Fang Zheng was trying to communicate with the parasite, a gunshot suddenly rang behind him.

BANG!