The soldier marched straight ahead, crossed the plain, and finally came into a dark forest.
Hidden among the ancient trees was an extremely dilapidated house. In front of the house was a large, deliberately created open space with wooden stakes of varying sizes standing there, and many broken game consoles piled up in the corner.
"This... looks familiar?" Xiao Cheng carefully examined the game consoles that clearly had a story behind them. "Holy crap! Trials of the Dwarfs?!"
Before he could finish speaking, the leading officer knocked on the door, and a dwarf wearing a clown mask poked his head out from behind the door, letting out a sinister laugh.
"Hehe...you've arrived." The dwarf slowly walked out, circled the soldiers twice, and looked them up and down. "Sure enough, it's another batch. There's no one I recognize at all."
"Has the princess found another satisfying collectible?" He sniffed hard, inhaling deeply with a sense of ecstasy. "Ah, I smell it... What a captivating collectible, but it's not enough."
“If the order of success is not high enough, it will be impossible to properly help the princess and win over those greedy nobles.”
As he spoke, he turned and locked the door, then casually put his hands behind his back: "Let's go, let's go, let me take a good look. The newest forge is ready... one, two, three, four, five, six, hehe, a big harvest, a great success."
Xiao Cheng and Fang He used the thick tree trunk to completely conceal their bodies.
As the dwarf and the soldier walked away, they emerged from behind the tree, exchanged a glance, and saw the same surprise on each other's faces.
"So the reason we ended up like that was entirely because of the dwarf's trial grounds?"
“Obviously, that’s how it is.” Fang He nodded. “And then I’m the only one left as the final winner…”
He then recalled the scene of Xiao Cheng slitting his throat with a knife in front of him, paused slightly, and couldn't help but frown.
"You're really lucky," Xiao Cheng said quietly, picking up the thread. "If I'd known I'd have to suffer like this, I wouldn't have let you win."
"As the final victor, I didn't become the princess's collectible. The system disrupted the storyline of this instance by linking different timelines. You were sent to a pre-set anchor point, where progress was rewound, but this also caused..."
“I don’t know what will happen next,” Fang He said seriously. “Since there’s a final winner, the dungeon… or rather, the princess, must have its own purpose.”
"So we need to break out of her trap and strike before the dwarfs officially open the trial grounds?"
Fang He nodded slightly: "Yes, the Trial Grounds are very important. In fact, you could say that the opening of the Trial Grounds sealed our fate of total annihilation. Whether we become the final victor or the collectible, since we can't find a way to deal with it, let's start from the very beginning—"
"Just destroy them all."
Xiao Cheng raised an eyebrow and looked silently in the direction where the dwarf and the soldier had left.
After a long silence, she finally spoke calmly, "So what now? Go head-on? That's a bit too reckless, isn't it? What if the dungeon shamelessly adds some kind of invincible troop type setting..."
"It's hard to believe that you would ever say such a thing," Fang He said, looking at her earnestly and with a touch of emotion.
Xiao Cheng: "..." How annoying you are!
“Everything starts from the source, and the solution to the problem can certainly be found at the source,” Fang He continued. “So the source of dwarfism lies in…”
Their gazes simultaneously turned to that room.
"Illegal intrusion, breaking into a private residence?" Xiao Cheng became somewhat excited, rubbing his hands together, eager to try.
Fang He had already walked over there first, and kicked open the door without any politeness.
The already dilapidated wooden door was violently flung open, swayed precariously for a while, and finally collapsed with a thud.
Dust flew everywhere.
Xiao Cheng was choked by the dust, coughing as she waved her hand to brush away the spreading dust.
Then you see a square table in the very center of the room, and four little dwarfs are sitting around it...
Playing mahjong.
Xiao Cheng: "..."
Fang He: "..."
The two men's sudden intrusion startled the dwarves so much that they dropped their mahjong tiles and turned to look at the doorway.
They looked at each other, completely bewildered.
"Holy crap, it's you guys?!" the first dwarf shouted, looking utterly incredulous. "How did you find this place?! Didn't you go with that snake?!"
"I want to ask that too! So how did you all end up here?!" Xiao Cheng felt like her DNA was a bit messed up.
We had anticipated all possible scenarios; even if Godzilla suddenly appeared, we wouldn't be completely helpless. But this...
This isn't just about Godzilla anymore, damn it!
There was a completely unfamiliar dwarf they had never seen before, huddled on a stool, trembling. He looked around at the other three, then turned to sized up Xiao Cheng and Fang He, and timidly raised his hand to ask, "I'm dwarf number four, so... who are you?"
At this moment, the first dwarf seemed particularly reliable. He went through the whole mess of looking for his grandfather from beginning to end, and then sighed with heartache: "So how did the seventh one manage to attract them!"
Xiao Cheng: "..."
The dwarf was actually the seventh dwarf who was captured?!
“Number Seven…” the fourth dwarf said softly, “He has been acting very strangely ever since he came back… Judging from what happened before, the two of them don’t seem like bad people.”
Xiao Cheng was deeply moved.
How can there be such a reasonable NPC! A beacon of light for the dwarves!
"Although..." Number Four bit his lower lip, as if he had a fierce internal struggle, and then continued.
"Although they rudely kicked down our door, broke into our home without permission, and even disturbed our mahjong game, they... really don't seem like bad people."
Xiao Cheng: "..." Consider it a waste of my emotions.
Now that you put it that way, how is he not a bad person anymore?! He's completely out of the category of a good person!
"So you came here because of Number Seven's abnormality, right?" Number Three pushed over the mahjong tiles stacked in front of him. "So just tell me, what unforgivable thing did he do?"
“Yes! Although we dwarves are few in number, we would never condone evildoers! For the sake of your past help, please speak frankly!” The second dwarf waved his hand righteously. “What exactly did he do? How can we help you?”
Things progressed unexpectedly smoothly. Xiao Cheng and Fang He exchanged a glance and finally decided to tell each other the truth.
As the four dwarfs listened to their story, their eyes gradually dimmed.
“It’s a curse…” Number One said with a sorrowful expression.
He closed his eyes in sorrow: "We will work with you to completely free him from the devil's curse."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
