Chapter 12: Trial of Competition (1)

「 Permanently increasing your stats using the doppelganger’s soul. 」

「 Strength increased by 7. 」

「 Agility increased by 5. 」

「 Stamina increased by 4. 」

「 Mana increased by 7. 」

The same old, same old.

Until—

「 Acquiring skill ‘Physical Resistance (D)’ 」

“…”

‘Physical resistance…?’

My head emptied for a second.

There was no question as to where this skill came from.

Dumfounded, I reread the messages on the screen.

「 Acquiring one of the doppelganger’s skills. 」

“Was I always this lucky…?”

My life had been nothing but a series of unfortunate events up until now…

It was as if my reality was shattering.

When I came to my senses, I checked the details of my new skill.

「 Skill – Physical Resistance (D) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Effect – Gain resistance to all kinds of physical attacks. 」

I didn’t know what gaining resistance meant but…

I knew one thing for sure.

I’d acquired one of the best possible skills from the doppelganger.

Physical resistance was probably a property that the doppelganger’s body had.

It wasn’t too hard to theorize.

Still, more thoughts swarmed my head.

‘Just how good is this necromancy skill?’

If the E-rank effect was this strong, just what additional effects would it gain later?

“…”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine it.

At the same time, a small voice in the back of my head was telling me:

It would be a waste to stop here.

The impulse I felt when I first chose this difficulty overtook me again.

But…

I couldn’t let it get to me.

Arrogance leads to carelessness and carelessness leads to a mistake.

This wasn’t a game so there would be no respawning if I died.

I needed to be careful.

After checking on all the rewards, I started moving again.

Then…

「 Moving to the waiting area. 」

It was time to get out of this damn cave.

***

「 You have entered the 4th floor waiting room. 」

「 Healing all injuries and status ailments. 」

「 The healing effect is constantly applied in the waiting room. 」

The familiar message welcomed me to the waiting area.

“The 4th floor, huh…”

I got a funny feeling when I thought about the fact that I had gone through this 3 times already…

And how much stronger I’d gotten throughout the trials.

「 You have entered the community. 」

「 Difficulty – Hard 」

Ignoring the nostalgic feeling, my body already knew what to do.

「 Floor 4 Community (880/1508) 」

Complaints burst out as soon as I opened the community.

It makes sense though.

The 3rd trial was crazy difficult.

‘The 2nd floor wasn’t too bad as long as you knew how to use your head… but not the 3rd floor.’

But the mood in the community wasn’t as bad as I thought.

It seems that only the more experienced people were left at this point.

People were even sharing some tips.

A lot more tips came up afterward.

Of course, I already know most of it so I didn’t have to focus as much, but I still learned some good stuff.

‘Skill proficiency goes up after I turn off the auto-healing?’

Same with acquiring new skills.

There was a lot of interesting information.

I was wondering what the heat resistance was about.

‘I guess it’s built into the system.’

A system that rewarded you for achieving something.

There wasn’t any detailed information but I still learned a decent amount.

Even after 3 trials, the tower still managed to surprise me.

“…”

As soon as one person mentioned the 4th trial, the community couldn’t stop thinking about it.

This is what he said:

He’d been using his questions to find out information about every upcoming trial.

And as always, he asked the administrator about the 4th trial.

Basically, all the challengers on the 4th floor would be going through the trial together.

Something unthinkable to the challengers.

There was no collaboration whatsoever until now…

But the 4th trial would be different.

Some people speculated that difficulty would spike because of all the people, while others said that collaboration would make the trials a little easier.

The trial was definitely pitting us against each other.

I didn’t know if this would be an outright battle royale but…

Whether or not the trial made us kill each other or not, anyone who lost would be killed by the penalty anyway.

We’d be fighting each other, even if it was just to stay alive.

We’d be put into teams of 3 and work towards a common objective.

The teams would be formed randomly by the tower.

But people stopped talking after that.

I didn’t know who would use their questions to find out any additional information but…

‘There’s no way someone would share that information like before.’

Everyone must have figured out the situation by now.

I didn’t know why the initial challenger even told us what he knew.

Did he not realize what this information would do to the community?

‘No way.’

Still, there was no point in deliberating on why he told us.

It didn’t seem like a lie but there’s no way to tell.

‘If it’s true, we’d have to fight each other… like it or not.’

This was different from all the other trials where you had to kill monsters.

The gravity of having to commit murder weighed down on the community.

The losers would die and the winners would move on to the next floor.

“…”

I stared at the frozen chat screen and got lost in my thoughts.

Could I really kill someone for my own benefit?

‘I don’t know…’

But that didn’t mean I’d lay down and let them walk all over me.

In the end, I’d have to act to save my own life.

So…

I knew what I had to do to survive.

I had to review my rewards and prepare for the upcoming fight.

Nothing had changed.

I had to prepare for and overcome the next trial.

That was all.

____