Ch5 - Escor (1/2)
When Yu Hao left the village, he was extremely surprised to see a shepherd by the road. The shepherd shot him a suspicious look, and Yu Hao turned around to look at him as well.
The shepherd passed right by him.
“They are the NPC residents in your dreamscape.” General said, “Don’t greet them right now.”
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
After they left the village, the sound of an elephant’s call from the vast prairie startled Yu Hao. There was a lake within the prairie not too far away them, and an elephant was drinking water from it.
“Why?” Yu Hao faced General and asked.
General answered, “Every time someone dreams, their dream will take place in this huge world. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that has a new piece fitted onto it — a new section will be added to the puzzle with each piece. For example, if you dream of lying in a plain today, then that plain will become part of your newborn dream. Whenever you dream of someone, that person will be added to your dream as a NPC, and these NPCs are permanent — they are the impressions you have of the people in the outside world. If you talk to them now, we might run into some trouble.”
“What trouble?” Yu Hao said, “Why would there be trouble?”
General suddenly stopped walking and said, “Did you hear that?”
Yu Hao didn’t hear anything. General stood in front of him in a protective stance, his palm flipped over as he reached behind his back and pulled out a broad sword. Yu Hao noticed that his sword was much bigger than when they first met.
“Somebody’s here to capture us.”
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He hadn’t finished speaking when the sound of hooves striking the earth could be heard in the distance. A contingent of soldiers were rushing towards the village.
“There! Found them!” A familiar voice roared.
Soon after, hundreds of people were rushing towards the village. General made a prompt decision and shouted, “Run!”
Yu Hao was bewildered1. This place was an open plain, they would be discovered no matter where they escaped to. But in the next instant, a sharp arrow flew towards him and grazed the side of his face! General quickly turned around and pushed Yu Hao onto the floor to protect him with his back. Arrows rained down on them like a torrential downpour and made a bunch of clanging sounds as they landed on General’s armour; this rain of arrows had created numerous dents in his armour.
When this wave of arrows ended, General shouted, “Go to the lake! Hide!”
In the next moment, soldiers who rode war horses2 rushed towards them. When Yu Hao fled, he took a quick glance and saw that more and more cavalry were closing in on them from all sides. All of them were covered in black leather armour from head to toe while their bodies emitted pitch black fumes, and the one leading them was actually……
“Go!!” General shouted, then immediately swung his broad sword ruthlessly at the one who was leading the group!
Both the leader and his horse were thrown off their feet, General swept away all the weapons in his way and actually single-handedly went head to head with hundreds of cavalry!
Yu Hao fled to the lake where there was a forest nearby. General had asked him to “hide”, but he looked around nervously as he kept feeling like he should try to help in some way. The elephant who had been drinking water from the lake heard the commotion, so it turned around and looked at him.
More and more cavalry were appearing on the plain. General wanted to retreat while he fought off the cavalry in front of him, but it was to no avail as hook ropes suddenly shot towards him from all sides and wound around his wrists, then dragged him onto the floor. The cavalry steered their war horses to step all over him viciously, General forcefully grabbed one of the horse’s legs and overturned the war horse.
Then, with a single whistle, the earth shook.
An elephant came rushing through the plain with the force of a thunderbolt as it headed towards the cavalry. Everything in this world appeared to vibrate with each step the elephant took, and Yu Hao was riding on its back.
“Get out of the way!” Yu Hao shouted.
That elephant’s cry sounded like the blow of a bugle used to signal an assault, and with just one bump, the cavalry was instantly defeated as they scattered in all directions! General rolled sideways on the ground to avoid its huge leg that was as thick as a pillar and roared, “You almost trampled me to death!”
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Yu Hao shouted, “Come up!”
General seized a lone war horse, jumped onto its back and rushed out of the encirclement. The elephant stomped about wreaking havoc which caused the cavalry to fall off their horses and flee. All of them held a halberd in their hands, but just as they were about to fight again, the elephant turned around and rushed towards their leader.
Their leader was in a terrible state as he shouted, “Yu Hao! You thief!”
Yu Hao, “……”
General shouted, “Who’s that?! Get rid of him!
Yu Hao, “That’s our grade’s counsellor!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktf tfiwfa bo atf mjnjigs’r ifjvfg rilqqfv boo jcv gfnfjifv tlr ojmf — la kjr Te Ljb’r mbecrfiibg, Wef Obcu……
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“Qtb mjgfr jybea tlw!” Xfcfgji gbvf tlr tbgrf jcv ygbxf atgbeut atf qfglqtfgs. Lf erfv ybat tlr ifur ab mbcagbi tlr tbgrf, atfc iloafv tlr ygbjv rkbgv jcv gertfv lc jujlc jr tf rtbeafv, “Vabwq tlw ab vfjat!”
Yu Hao, “……”
The elephant didn’t wait for Yu Hao’s command. After it let out a prolonged cry, it stepped on Xue Long. Xue Long screamed, and the cavalry instantly cried out in panic as they fled helter-skelter.
“Go!” General cut down a few more soldiers as he urged.
More pursuers could be seen in the distance, but they didn’t know who their leader was this time. Yu Hao patted the elephant’s head, and without waiting for his instructions, the elephant turned around and sprinted away. General chased after them on his horse and their mounts ended up running side by side, then he flipped his hand and returned his sword to its hilt on his back. Yu Hao stretched his hand towards General, but General abruptly leaped onto the back of the elephant instead.
The war horses fled. General sat securely behind Yu Hao with both his arms around Yu Hao’s waist.
The elephant had left their pursuers in the dust, but Yu Hao never looked back. Both of them heaved a sigh of relief.
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General said, “The totem’s owner has discovered us. The moment it’s alerted, more and more pursuers will chase us.”
“And who’s the owner of the totem?”
“You’ll have to answer that yourself.” General answered, “But I don’t think you know either.”
Yu Hao said, “I don’t know why this elephant was willing to help me. When I reached the lake, it appeared to know that I was in danger so it knelt down and let me ride on it……..”
“Everything appears in your dream for a reason.” General said, “Along the way, try your best not to talk to the NPCs in your dream, or else you’ll alarm the totem’s owner.”
Yu Hao asked again, “Why do you know all these? General, are you human?”
General didn’t answer.
Yu Hao recalled how General said before “I’m not part of your consciousness”, that is to say, General came from outside his dream.
“Why did you come into my dream?” Yu Hao relentlessly pursued, “Why did you save me?”
General answered, “I don’t want to see you die.”
“Are you human or a……”
“Ghost?” General was quite self-aware.
Yu Hao placed one hand on his forehead. He felt like he was asking too many questions which might be a little annoying, but General had always been very patient with him.
General finally said, “Don’t ask anymore. The more you know, the more easily it would influence your dreamscape in a complicated way, and it won’t be anything good.”
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Yu Hao nodded, then suppressed his curiosity and didn’t ask any more questions.
At the end of the road, a magnificent mountain had blocked their way, so they walked along the mountain road instead. A gust of wind blew and the sky began to darken. Their elephant mount started to become restless, the rugged mountain road was difficult to traverse as it was filled with thistles and thorns. Yet, the elephant kept moving forward steadfastly until they reached the mountainside where a thoroughfare came into sight.
Yu Hao and General dismounted their elephant and faced the narrow path. It had steep cliffs on one side of it, and a bottomless abyss on the other. General said, “I’m heavy, I’ll carry you across.”
Yu Hao let him carry him. General turned around with his back to the cliff as he faced the abyss, then stretched both his hands out and moved along the path carefully step by step.
He really wanted to know what General looked like. Judging by his tone, General shouldn’t be very old. He would occasionally act cute like a youngster, but he was trying to make himself sound more mature.
Yu Hao suddenly asked, “General, can I see what you look like?”
“No.” General answered without thinking.