Chapter Ch118.3 - Giant
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
In the Crosson Show’s live broadcast, the scrolling comments and the weapons intersected and exploded.
––“Little Witch aaaahhh! Lord Wei, don’t abuse our Little Witch! ––Wait a minute, holy s.h.i.t, 66666!”
––“The White Rose is powerful! You can even discover this kind of ambush! Contestant Wei Yan, are you capable or not?” Hyacinth Show’s faithful audiences were also clamoring.
The camera perspective had just switched back from Wei Yan to Wu Jin, so the audience had missed the gesture Wu Jin had given to Vera.
Even Blood Pigeon was shocked. He wondered out loud, “This is the most standard open door ambush. The positioning, light, and shadow have all been calculated. How did they figure it out?”
Ying Xiangxiang sighed emotionally and came up with the same guess as the audience, “The Hyacinth’s White Rose’s isn’t any less experienced than our Wei Yan.”
In the corridor to the Royal Chapel.
The sword suddenly swept down from top to bottom. Wu Jin’s arm exerted force, and Wu Jin rolled to the left and dodged while Vera lifted up her sword to parry.
Wei Yan was obviously surprised at Wu Jin’s response, but the tip of his sword remained pointed at Wu Jin. As for his teammate, the little sister from the Hyacinth Show attempted to distract Vera’s attention.
The two people stood across from each other, and Wu Jin instantly reflected on Wei Yan’s layout.
Wei Yan and his teammate were ranked S and C respectively, while Wu Jin and Vera were both ranked A. Wei Yan could ensure that he could escape intact, but he couldn’t fully ensure that he could hold Wu Jin back with Vera’s interference. What Wei Yan had needed was an ambush.
The ambush at the entrance to the chapel had been intended to capture Wu Jin before Vera could react.
He allowed Wu Jin to see the locked box clue, because what he wanted was not only the notes in Wu Jin’s hands, but also Wu Jin’s judgement regarding the instance. He wanted to place the sword at Wu Jin’s neck and force Wu Jin to spit out the entirety of the instance under the threat of ‘elimination’, so that he could win the first instance.
Wei Yan hadn’t expected that his ambush would fail.
Wu Jin’s wrist shook from the force of this human-shaped weapon’s attack, but he soon gritted his teeth and climbed back up to relieve Vera from the onslaught.
According to the big boss, Wu Jin couldn’t match up to others in terms of experience, strength, dexterity, or even brilliance, but with two weeks of continuous training, even though Wu Jin was unable to counter attack Wei Yan, he could still cooperate tacitly with Vera to mount a stable defense.
In contrast, Wei Yan’s teammate had to put in a lot of effort and quickly became the weak point of the opposing side.
Seeing Wei Yan attack Wu Jin again with the sword, Vera didn’t hesitate to aim at the weaker young woman––
The long sword buzzed.
Wei Yan used a backhanded strike to deflect Vera and guarded the young woman behind him. The younger woman fell into a daze, turning red as she looked at Wei Yan.
Wei Yan’s ambush had been unsuccessful, and he wouldn’t remain caught up in it. With one last glance at Wu Jin, he took his teammate with him and left.
From behind him, Vera slowly released her grip on the hilt of the blade.
The inside of her palm and wrist was all red.
Wu Jin’s heart leapt, and he wanted to go and find trauma medicine for her immediately. Vera looked at her hand, then laughed for a long while, “This is much more interesting than bullying Ning Fengbei.”
“k2026;k2026;” Wu Jin choked, but he then watched as Vera clenched her fist and pumped it in Wei Yan’s direction, “One day, I’ll beat him up until he’s crying and wailing.”
Wu Jin couldn’t imagine any situation where Wei Yan would be crying and wailing, but he was certain that Wei Yan was already headed towards some important clues.
“The pace of all the instances is picking up.” Wu Jin spoke carefully, “We’ll follow Wei Yan.”
It was two o’clock in the middle of the night, and the candlelit shadows in the Palace of Versailles were treacherous, yet Wei Yan was unexpectedly unable to hide his whereabouts. Wu Jin explained it briefly, “He’s missing the notebook with the clues, and his ambush failed. The easiest way for him is to wait for us to come for him.”
Vera suddenly understood, “He’s waiting for us to go over… he’s waiting for an opportunity to start a fight.”
In their field of vision, Wei Yan finally disappeared through a small, silver door.
The candlelight shone onto the door panel that had been eroded by rust, the orange halo licking gently at the handwriting on the plate.
––”Showroom VII”
“He’s looking for a painting!” Vera realized instantly. She clenched her sword and asked, “Should we follow?”
Wu Jin looked calmly at the handwriting for a few seconds and finally nodded, “Okay.”
Vera clearly remembered that this showroom had still been locked a few hours ago.
“Give me 15 minutes. I’ll go back to the library to get the notebook first.”
The locked door was now open, and an unknown scene was about to unfold. Based on this arrangement, it seemed that the final battle for the instance would take place in the showroom.
He needed to bring the chips he had in hand.
“The instance clearance conditions. The oil painting and pa.s.sword are both indispensable. Wei Yan has the clue to the pa.s.sword, and we have the painting clues. Unfortunately, the code can’t be cracked by force, but Wei Yan can force his way through the entire Palace of Versailles and find paintings that match the size of the picture frame.”
“We can only try to get the pa.s.sword clue from Wei Yan.”
“The best scenario for us is––”
“Trading chips for chips.”
A quarter of an hour later, Wu Jin brought the notebook with him and ran quickly through the corridor of the Palace of Versailles wing. It seemed that over the course of the day and night, the instances were all advancing towards the end, and all the corridors were bustling.
They sometimes ran into the piano instance contestants who were also wandering around.
Lin Ke saw Wu Jin again, and his expression was delighted, “Hey, Brother Wu, do you want to listen to music?”
“The ghost for our instance is really something! Geez! This round of the task requires us to find 200 listeners for him. If there aren’t enough people, the piano won’t be played! Hey, hey, Brother Wu, help me out a bit! It’s a court concert, your little brother has no other way––”
“The code box is hidden inside the piano. We’ve tried everything! Only when the ghost plays the piano will the lockbox rise up. When he gets angry, he’ll play the wrong tune, and the lockbox will sink back down. Say, what’s the deal with that! Where am I going to find 200 people for him?!”
“Hey, Brother Wu, don’t run! Where are you going? In that direction? The noise from that room was so loud that it sent our piano playing ghost all the way up to the sky on the spot––”
Wu Jin froze, “Noise?”
Lin Ke nodded, “Yes, a booming roaring sound, like a moving train. I don’t know who was inside.”
Wu Jin’s mind felt like it’d been electrified. What was displayed inside the studio should be a static oil painting, not a moving oil painting. Where was the noise coming from? He patted Lin Ke on the shoulder. “Thanks, brother. I’ll go find Wei Yan and them to come listen to the piano.”
Then, he quickly led Vera with him and disappeared through the silver door.
Both of them entered defensive positions the moment they went through the door, but they soon looked ahead of them in amazement.
Inside the door was a long, winding gallery, but it was empty and devoid of people.
Wei Yan wasn’t there, and neither was his teammate.
The air was dull and dreary, and it was so quiet it was suffocating. It seemed that even the sound of a pin falling could be heard, and there was no hint of the ‘noise’ Lin Ke had mentioned.
In the dim lighting.
The ground was covered with a long, scarlet carpet. Countless oil painting frames that held various contents were mounted on the white walls, and the dim yellow candlelight reflected off the various G.o.ds and ghosts on the canvas. There were demons lying in pools of blood while licking their internal organs, Prometheus holding fire, gentle and naked G.o.ddesses, and Poseidon driving a chariot in the sea.
“We’ll first look for the painting.” Wu Jin spoke softly.
A quarter of an hour ago, Wei Yan and his teammate had disappeared into the maze-like gallery and never appeared again.
The two of them controlled the sound of their footsteps and carried the lamp with them to walk deeper into the corridor. The further they walked, the darker the lighting was, until Vera suddenly stopped.
“Fingerprints.” Vera approached the light, “Very powerful ones. There’s been a fight here––”
Wu Jin had to exert a lot of effort to see the handprint that Vera had mentioned. It was next to a golden picture frame, and even the original, 90 degree standard copper mounting had been bent due to the great force.
He frowned slightly. Based on Wei Yan’s fighting skills, there were very few people who could force him into such a situation. Unless it was the big boss…
Wu Jin shook his head. The big boss hadn’t appeared yet. Moreover, he had a long-term att.i.tude of pa.s.sively taking it easy and simply obtaining a spot in the top ten, and wouldn’t hide here just to bully a little contestant like Wei Yan.
From the fingerprints, it didn’t seem like Wei Yan had been anxiously trying to remove the picture frame as a weapon. The painting was about one square meter in size. If he wanted to hold it steady, he should be pulling the frame, and not a corner.
Vera was still studying the handprint, “The grip strength should have been about 55kg. It should be Wei Yan’s, but I can’t see how he did it. It seems like Wei Yan was thrown into the wall––”
Wu Jin held up the lamp and looked at the oil painting in the frame.
The painting was gloomy and gray. Beneath the cloudy skies was a town shrouded in shadow. People were scattered and scared, and above the town––
Stood a silent giant.
At the bottom was a small line of text: 1812.
The style of this painting was closer to the ‘modern oil painting’ that Wu Jin recognized than Lemoyne’s art. It didn’t focus on meticulous brush strokes, and the shadows were dense and strong.
Vera got up and looked at the painting, “What does it signify? The black death?”
Wu Jin shook his head, “Not necessarily. This painting came after Lemoyne’s time. Based on the time period, it can be inferred that not only the Bourbon royal collection, but also the Jacobins’ and later Napoleon’s––” Wu Jin narrowed his eyes, “There’s no painting name and no signature.”
It seemed that none of the paintings in the entire corridor showed any indication of their origins.
While Wu Jin was still thinking, Vera suddenly spoke, “The giant, the giant is moving!”
Wu Jin was shocked, and he looked up quickly. Inside the painting, the static giant seemed to have been awakened by something. It turned slowly and awkwardly, revealing its empty eyes.
“Careful! On the wall––” The second half of Vera’s words were covered by a roar. The entire wall began to shake as the giant turned around, and the wall turned abruptly, even the corridor paved with the red carpet began to tilt. The floor shifted to a right angle, and the wall and the floor became a huge funnel within a few seconds, dumping the two of them behind the wall.
Wu Jin’s heart beat quickly. He instinctively grabbed Vera, who was about to fall, and his left hand tried to reach the corner of the frame with his left hand, but his grip deviated by a few milliliters.
The scattered clues were finally linked together.
––The wall would shift and move, causing the train-like noise.
––The empty gallery and the fingertips on the copper fame.
A quarter of an hour ago, Wei Yan had also been here, and he’d had the same reaction that Wu Jin had intuitively performed. He’d grabbed hold of the frame but finally still fell into the unknown.
The two of them were both falling in a weightless state, but Wu Jin didn’t hesitate to drop down to protect Vera. Then, the back of his spine was impacted by a huge force––
“Wu Jin!” Vera cried out in alarm.
Wu Jin sucked in a breath of cold air and finally climbed up a while later, “It’s fine, there’s a cushion. This place is…”
His field of vision was black.
Then, the lights came on, and a small line of text was projected into the empty s.p.a.ce.
Francisco Goya (Spain). 1808.
The surrounding scenes gradually appeared amidst the light; the jagged hillside, in which the characters and ghosts that were running in a panic––also the 4D projections, speaking a language that Wu Jin couldn’t understand, with iconic weakened consonants and vibrato. Some were running away from the giant, while others walked towards it.
“It’s Spanish.” Wu Jin spoke quickly, “1808 is the year of Napoleon’s most glorious period. This painting belongs to Napoleon’s collection in the Palace of Versailles. In 1808, the Peninsula War began––the French invaded Spain, and the rebels were unable to fight––”
“The giant represents Napoleon.”
The clues were all scattered, and the lights in the dome finally lit up their field of vision.
This was a replica of the scene, but one without borders.
The shadowed town was crying in despair, and the giant was closing in. It was naked, but one of its bare feet was enough to cover up four of five Wu Jin’s.
The giant moved very slowly.
“Run!” Wu Jin led Vera towards the hillside to escape, but was caught by surprise when he heard footsteps headed towards them.
Behind them were the large feet of the giant.
In front of them––
Crosson Show’s Wei Yan, a human-shaped weapon, stood in front of the two of them with no expression on his face.
Juurensha: WY vs. Little Witch round 2???