I’m seething with rage after missing both of my bus rides back from work, so I’m translating all the on-screen text of the Link Click Map of Dreams video. Keep in mind that I’m hot trash at interpreting semi-formal written Chinese, so read at your own discretion. Square brackets are translator’s notes. Any time you see just straight pinyin are when I’m guessing the text is meant to be a noise or a name that doesn’t have a translation.
Pt 1: The opening page, the paper with text (you're here!)
Pt 2: The protagonists' character sheets
This is another world where superpowered people come together.
The world is made up of different continents, the cultures, traditions, and personalities of the residents of each continent are all unique. The most mysterious, and dangerous, is none other than the Lundinien EDIT: Thank you to @epiphenomenal for informing me that Lundinien is, in fact, a transliteration of Londinium, the capital of Roman Britain! [1] continent, surrounded by the fog of mystery [2]. On this land, there is a tale of the three “Judges from the burning palace.”
The splendid palace of emerald sits on the northern end of the continent, his grace Xierfeiwen [3] is accepting the gift brought by the thirteenth envoy [of the day]. This is a successor whose cloak is embroidered with stars, who washes his mouth with sunrise dew every morning, whose pistol can compel visitors to bow to him and serve up their lifetime’s wealth — those who dare to deny him will be made into crystal statues [4], and become part of his grace the prince’s collection.
In the middle of the swamp of sighs, the potion steam rising in the wizard’s tower becomes eternal rainbow light on its glass windows. The wizard Xavier, who prefers not to go out, likes “equivalent exchange”: for adventures who come to him asking for medicine, exotic alchemy materials in hand, the wizard will gift them the “power” that they deserve — in the labyrinth at the tower’s bottom, rats spend day after day biting at their paws which can no longer pick up swords.
And in the mouth of the volcano, on the boiling mountains of Dragon Bone mountain [5], the Vein Dragon, who can consume all things, beats its wings, letting the blood-red blood vessels on its wings stir up elemental surges. The flame of law, attacking alongside its breath, can instantly shrink the traitor it hits into jade mahjong pieces inscribed with runes, becoming another shrieking piece of decoration in the dragon’s den. It’s said that only an adventurer who has been chosen by the dice of fate can stand against it, and save the world.
On the day that the paths of the stars and the moon of misfortune coincide, the chosen adventurer Charles and his “cute” friends [6] — the sorcerer [7] Lucas and priest Jojo — have finally come together! They will walk this road, full of adventure and mystery, and challenge these three “judges.”
What kind of ending will this battle between light and darkness conclude with? To become the messiah, or turn into a mahjong piece? How will the gears of fate turn…
[1] the name appears to be a Chinese localization, but I can’t figure out what it’s localizing — might just be Generic Fantasy Name That Kinda Sounds Like ‘London EDIT: Translator's note no longer valid
[2] I’m not sure if 迷雾 is a metaphoric “fog of mystery” or a literal fog that surrounds the continent.
[3] The first two characters of Xierfeiwen are the classic “yeah you’re just making noises” characters, but the fei is the fei in Xia Fei, and the wen is the bottom half of the fei character. Might be a play on Xia Fei’s nickname on the Chinese internet, 非文, which is a deconstruction of his 斐.
[4] Technically “sample” or “specimen” as in biology or whatever, but that sounds weird in English so I’m changing it.
[5] I genuinely have no idea what 龙骨山脉沸腾 means? The last four characters are a chengyu, so they definitely go together, but then the first two “dragon bone” is just… dragon bone, without a mountain to pair up with. I’m calling it a writing error, I don’t care.
[6] A Chinese pun on the first character of the word for allies “盟友” sounding the exact same as 萌, the character for “cute” or “moe.” I believe the Japanese kanji for moe is actually the same as this hanzi?
[7] I’ve seen someone translate 巫师 as wizard and 魔法师 as mage, with Lu Guang’s profession being more instinct-based and Liu Xiao’s being more knowledge-based, but I feel like it's actually more the opposite! 巫师 has a very ~mysterious~ vibe to it, with the 巫 in the name being the same one as in witch (巫女) and having a darker, more mystical connotation. On the other hand, 魔法师 translates directly to magician — in this case, literally one who wields magic. I decided to translate it as sorcerer because that makes Lu Guang sound less like he’s pulling Qiao Lings out of hats. You could say the difference between the two is that Lu Guang is a prim and proper, Officially Recognized user of magic, whereas Liu Xiao is more of a “yeah we don’t know what he’s doin up there” user of magic.
