Chapter 16: Chapter 16: A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“This game is hardcore as h.e.l.l…”
It was only when the first glimmer of dawn shone through the balcony onto Ren Suo’s restless face that he realized he had stayed up the entire night.
After purchasing the game [A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters] the day before, he had been playing it continuously and never once stopped except the times when he had to eat or sleep.
While the name of the game sounded tacky, Ren Suo realized the graphics of the game were almost as realistic as that in [The Hitman]. He too could create his own character in the game, and it was possible to even create a female character!
Ren Suo was instantly mesmerized by the default female character. She had an exuberant aura with a pure, holy look, and flowy, golden-colored hair which she had tied back into a ponytail. The black full-body training suit she wore could barely even hide her killer figure…
Holy cow! Why isn’t there an option to fine-tune her bare body!
Ren Suo selected the female character straightaway. If given a choice, which fool would prefer seeing an old man moving around on the screen anyway…
Do you think men who select female avatars in online games are weird freaks with malicious intent? No, they just want better visuals when they are playing their game.
Furthermore, in this game, the male and female characters each have different strengths.
[Male character: Shorter health recovery time.]
[Female character: Faster response time when faced with danger.]
Due to the above reasons, Ren Suo felt it was a reasonable choice to play as a female character. He was too lazy to further customize the fine details of the character. Thus, he decided to use the default female character.
It was definitely because he just wanted a good visual to look at every day, and not because he had any other romantic thoughts…No, he was indeed attracted to her.
There was no option to name the character. However, it was preset as “The Seeker”.
When the game began, Ren Suo found that it was nowhere close to what he had initially expected. There were no exciting, thrilling and enticing actions made by the character which he could look forward to.
Instead, the realistic graphics turned into a patchwork immediately, with a brown ground and a blue sky. Yes, the game simply used the two colors to draw a distinct difference between the sky and the ground!
Most importantly, the girl in the game had turned into a stickman.
It was strange that the standard of the graphics dropped miserably, from the deceivingly real scenes in [The Hitman] to that of the game of Tetris. This could well have caused the game developers to be sued for fraud and taking advantage of customers.
On the screen, the stickman Seeker stood at the bottom, with many platforms above her. Ren Suo could control the Seeker and make it jump onto the platforms.
The game was simple. At the bottom left corner of the screen, there was a bar indicating the amount of elevation above sea level. It was 0 meters. At the tip of the bar was a green marker indicating 10000 meters. That was the target of the game.
At the top left-hand corner of the screen, there was a green-colored strip that was equivalent to a health indication bar. When the Seeker jumped, the bar decreased but also recovered quickly.
The game was as simple as that and there was nothing else apart from the above. The only thing Ren Suo needed to do was to lead the Seeker to jump upwards continuously.
It was simple enough at first. The Seeker did not even need to ‘jump’ since the entire screen was filled with platforms that almost formed a continuous staircase. All the Seeker needed to do was walk across it.
However, after an hour, Ren Suo realized that something was amiss. The elevation meter was increasing too slowly.
On average, for every minute Ren Suo jumped, the elevation meter only rose 2 meters. Even though it was just a simple game, the increment rate was simply too slow…
At the end of the first hour, Ren Suo reached 102 meters.
At the end of the second hour, Ren Suo reached 240 meters.
At the end of the third hour, Ren Suo was exasperated. An in-game message suddenly popped up on the screen: [Do you wish to use 5 merits to skip to the first checkpoint?]
Apart from the green marker at the top, there were many white markers in between the elevation bar. That had to be the checkpoints that the player could restart from should he fail in the game.
The first checkpoint was at 2048 meters. At the rate that Ren Suo was advancing, he would need at least 20 more hours before he could reach the first checkpoint…
It was no wonder he only needed to spend 8 merits to buy the game after the 50% discount; it was too d.a.m.ned difficult!
If he were to spend just 5 merits, he would be able to skip 20 grueling hours. When would such a good opportunity present itself again?
Without question, Ren Suo picked—No!
He had 14 merits at the start, and after buying the game he had 6 merits remaining. If he were to spend another 5 merits, he would only be left with 1 merit!
Ren Suo could not bear to be left with just 1 merit; mainly because he knew the Mini Worlds Gaming Console was full of surprises beyond his imagination. Perhaps, it was a mystical game console, or perhaps, it was an alien’s gift or even a gift from the future…Regardless, he had to be careful.
If he had 0 merits left, would the game console disappear?
Or worse, if he had negative merits, would he be killed instead?
20 hours of his time seemed insignificant in comparison with these inherent threats. Either way, time was what the young had most…
Ren Suo looked at the in-game purchase list again.
[Skip to the checkpoint at 5896 meters: 10 merits];
[Skip to the checkpoint at 6853 meters: 12 merits];
[Oxygen tank: 1 merit];
[Escape rope: 1 merit]…
Merits could only bring the player as far as the checkpoint at 5896 meters or 6853 meters; the rest was up to the player. Instead, it was the other items in the purchase list which had Ren Suo scratching his head. Does the Seeker actually need these items?
Ren Suo was determined not to spend a single merit—no matter what happened!
At the break of dawn, Ren Suo finally managed to reach the first checkpoint and could no longer resist sleeping. While he had the option to pause the game, Ren Suo was far too engrossed in it, given that the distance the Seeker jumped each time had to be controlled by him.
If he pressed harder, the Seeker would jump further; if he pressed with lesser strength, the Seeker would jump a shorter distance. In addition, there were many split paths that led to new and different paths. This was a game that would require the player’s full attention and Ren Suo could not bear to put down the game controller unless he urgently needed to go to the toilet.
The game was actually pretty decent if one looked past the appalling graphics.
By the time Ren Suo awoke 8 hours later, it was almost 2:00 p.m. A great pang of hunger rushed over him…
“Two large bowls of Yee-fu noodles with beef briskets in fried bean sauce! I’m famished!”
“Alright!”
There was barely anyone patronizing the food stall at the time, and Ren Suo found a seat with no difficulty. As he waited impatiently for his noodles, he suddenly diverted his attention to the teenage girl who was standing on the opposite side of the road.
The girl had silky, creamy-white skin, wearing a red tutu and white stockings with her hair tied into two ponytails. She appeared to be on her way home from grocery shopping, evidenced by her hands that were full of bags. Even for Ren Suo who had many years of experience watching s.e.xual scenes on the internet, it was undeniable that the girl was one of the best five he had ever seen.
Although Ren Suo had been known for being a restrained, role-model senior in university, he nonetheless, felt an urge to go forward to ask the girl for her contact, such as her WeChat account name.
However, he quickly realized that it was not her beauty that attracted him the most. Instead, it was because he felt his heart stir when he saw her!
That stirring feeling was no different from what he felt when he saw Li Dan, the man in the black vest, and Mo Zhaolong. It was as if he was salivating upon seeing sumptuous food!
“Your noodles are here.”
Ren Suo turned back to see his fragrant bowl of piping hot noodles being served to him. He licked his lips as he tucked in eagerly.
For some unknown reason, however, all that filled his mind while he ate his noodles were Li Dan, Mo Zhaolong, and the spectacularly breathtaking girl, whom he just saw…