Chapter 17: Chapter 17: I am Weak

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation  Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Chapter 17: I am Weak

The strange stir in Ren Suo’s heart finally vanished when he returned home from lunch. He realized what had just happened only after he calmed himself down.

Based on the theory that he had deduced, the stirring feeling in his heart was due to the game’s [Searching for Keys] function. The moment he left his house, anyone whom he could retrieve a key from would cause a stir in his heart.

Although Ren Suo was still unsure of what kind of people he could retrieve keys from, he knew that, at the very least, these people should possess a stronger physical ability than an ordinary university graduate like him who did not make regular efforts to keep in shape. Mo Zhaolong and Li Dan were two examples of such. This implied that “Stealing Armor” was not going to be a feasible method.

Ren Suo figured that he had to find better rewards in the game.

Setting his niggling worry aside, he continued steadfastly in the game [A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters]. Upon reaching the checkpoint at 2048 meters, Ren Suo realized that his rate of ascent had greatly increased. Previously, he could only rise two meters for every minute of jumping; now, he would elevate two meters every 30 seconds.

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However, that required him to constantly keep the Seeker moving.

At the current stage, the platforms on the screen were no longer placed as close to one another as they were in the first 2000 meters. The Seeker had already died once when Ren Suo pressed the game controller with too little strength and caused the Seeker to not jump far enough to reach the target platform. As there were no other platforms beneath it, the Seeker dropped all the way to the bottom of the screen and died. Ren Suo had no choice but to restart from the latest checkpoint.

In another attempt, Ren Suo used too much strength, and this resulted in the Seeker jumping too far. As the Seeker was about to fall to her death from missing the platform, the stickman-like Seeker suddenly turned around and grabbed onto the edge of the platform.

It was only then that Ren Suo recalled it was the effect of the female Seeker’s ability: [Female character: Faster response time when faced with danger]. However, after staring at the stickman-like character for tens of hours, Ren Suo had long forgotten that the character he was controlling was a female one.

When the Seeker reached approximately 3000 meters above sea level, Ren Suo discovered a hidden message: As the Seeker moved around in different directions, specific white markers on the elevation meter would turn grey.

When the Seeker jumped to the left, the 5896-meter checkpoint marker turned grey; when the Seeker jumped to the right, the 6853-meter checkpoint marker turned grey instead.

This meant that there were two split paths at this point of the game; the checkpoint for going left was totally different from that of going right. Furthermore, there would be no way of going to the other checkpoint once the player chose a specific path unless the player restarted from the checkpoint at 2048 meters.

Ren Suo quickly selected a path without much thought. When he reached 4000 meters, he found that the elevation rate increased further. For every minute of jumping at full speed, the Seeker gained 5 meters.

At the same time, however, the journey was getting tougher and Ren Suo finally encountered the first ‘trap’.

It was a grey platform that had a slightly lighter tone than the other platforms. When the Seeker leaped onto it, the platform suddenly shattered into pieces. Ren Suo instinctively pressed to jump again, allowing the Seeker to leap and grab a hold on the edge of another platform. It was such a close shave.

Ren Suo heaved a sigh of relief. Had he dropped all the way down, he would have wasted all the efforts he had put in for the past 10 hours…

10 hours?!

Ren Suo looked up and realized that it was close to midnight. He quickly ordered some food to be delivered to his doorstep, using his mobile phone, after which he resumed his game. He was still feeling rather energized as he had only woken up in the afternoon.

When he reached 4500 meters, Ren Suo saw other people appear in the game.

They were matchstick-like characters.

These matchstick-like characters did not move like the Seeker did. Instead of jumping directly onto the platforms, they took a hidden path that was not shown on the screen. However, they moved upwards relatively slowly.

When the Seeker breezed past these matchstick characters, they stopped instead.

[This is a team of fully-equipped climbers. They are currently talking about you.]

A strange message popped up in the game.

Ren Suo stopped for a short while, but the characters did not continue moving, and he continued on his quest upwards instead.

While there were also similar traps in the path ahead, they were not difficult to handle. When he reached a height of 4800 meters, another group of matchstick-like characters appeared from behind. This time, however, the group sped past him in the blink of an eye, unlike his previous encounter.

These matchstick-like characters seemed to be sitting on some sort of transport vehicle which resembled cars…

“Wow!” Ren Suo exclaimed in amusement and continued, “What sorcery is this?”

Ren Suo was starting to think that he had missed a location in the game and failed to obtain a similar transport vehicle. Just then, the group of matchstick-like characters looped back around in the car.

[Do you need any help?] A message from the matchstick-like characters appeared.

To Ren Suo’s delight, two reply options appeared:

①”No need.”

②”No, thanks.”

…

There were no other options given.

“How the heck do I even make a choice!” Ren Suo uttered in pique. “Both options would mean that I’m rejecting their help!”

However, Ren Suo soon realized that when he chose an option, the game would not proceed with the reply immediately. He had to select [Confirm] before a response was given. Thus, he could still select the other option at this point in time.

Finally, the Seeker said, “No, thanks.”

The car that the matchstick-like characters were riding on did not move from its position. Instead, they left together with Ren Suo when he controlled the Seeker to move forward.

Finally, at 4 a.m. in the morning, Ren Suo managed to lead the Seeker to the 5896-meter checkpoint!

Upon reaching each checkpoint, Ren Suo felt as if he had accomplished a major goal in each stage of his life. He could finally relax his body.

Interestingly, the checkpoint at 5896 meters was different from that at 2048 meters. While all checkpoints had large platforms taking up the entire bottom portion of the screen which was impossible for the Seeker to fall through, there were many other matchstick-like characters on the platform at this checkpoint.

There was also a special name given to this checkpoint: Base Camp.

The other matchstick-like characters crowded around the Seeker in surprise when they saw her. Many speech bubbles appeared momentarily and disappeared very quickly; thus, Ren Suo could not read what they said in time.

Ren Suo put the game controller down and went to bed. He only awoke at 11 a.m. the next day to his usual famished stomach. Hastily, he proceeded downstairs to satiate his hunger. As soon as he arrived, the lady at the stall said, “The usual, two large bowls of Yee-fu noodles with beef briskets in fried bean sauce?”

Ren Suo also felt slightly weird that he was able to stomach so much food recently. Although he enjoyed eating, he was far from being a glutton. But now, his appetite seemed to have doubled.

Once he arrived back home, he continued his quest in the game [A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters]. Ren Suo realized that on the large platform at the 5896-meter checkpoint, the matchstick-like characters were no longer crowding around the Seeker.

After playing the game for two days, Ren Suo figured that the game seemed to have a special appealing power. All the Seeker could do was jump, but the strength and direction of her jump required the player’s finesse and delicate control.

For example, before Ren Suo reached the platform at the 5896-meter checkpoint, he encountered the light grey platform which would shatter upon landing on it. It appeared along a route that he could not avoid unless he took longer and obscured route which was out of the right side of the screen. Embracing the challenge, Ren Suo decided to jump directly onto the shattering grey platform, but just as he landed on it, he jumped again. He managed to achieve a double jump, and successfully landed on a safe platform before the grey platform shattered!

Although the Seeker had almost depleted all her energy, it was an exhilarating challenge for Ren Suo!

The Seeker was now more than halfway through to the 10000-meter summit. Furthermore, for every jump the Seeker made, she gained nearly 1-meter elevation. Ren Suo was thrilled as one can be.

“Great, I must finish and conquer this game today!”