[Contestant No. 1018, do you wish to conduct the breakthrough trial?]
Sheyan breathed in deeply. A flame flashed in his eyes as he resolutely uttered:
"Yes!"
[Please choose the battlefield terrain, battlefield size, and duration of battle.]
[The terrain options available are: desert, plain, tropical rainforest, mountain, snowy land, and snowy mountain. The allowed size of the battlefield range from 100 square meters to 20 square kilometers. The default duration for battle is 20 minutes. You can choose the initial distance between you and the clone at the start: between 1 meter and 1 kilometer.]
[Every time you attempt to prolong the battle duration, you have to pay additional utility points. Please note that there is no tie. Once the battle duration is over and your clone is still alive, it will count as a failure.]
Sheyan had long decided on these criteria:
"The battlefield size will be 20 kilometres. The terrain will be a snowy mountain.The slope of the snowy mountain will be no more than sixty degrees. Also, place a plain under the mountain."
The nightmare realm prompted:
[Your request belongs to a composite terrain. It requires 30,000 utility points.]
Sheyan sighed helplessly, then obediently forked out the utility points. He was now deeply aware that although utility points sometimes came fast, they"re spent even faster!
Honestly, if it wasn"t for Zi giving him close to 150,000 utility points because she knew that he was going to face extreme peril, he would really be in an awkward position.
[Payment received. Terrain building in progress....please wait]
[Terrain building completed. Please choose your entry location (this service requires a payment. You can enjoy a 15% discount due to your current military rank). If you do not make a selection, you will be sent to a random spot in the world.]
Sheyan instantly got a headache when he saw the word "payment". He screamed at the realm and called them money-grubbers, what what good did that do? Just like when your wife asked you for living expenses in real life. Do you dare to not pay? For the sake of stability and harmony in the family... it"s a helpless situation.
"Entry location: peak of the snowy mountain. There must be a smooth snow slope next to the spot. Distance to the clone.... Five metres! As the for battle duration, well, I have 97,000 utility points here, deduct the necessary 10,000 utility points, and you can calculate how long I can extend the battle for."
[Contestant"s request confirmed. Your payment has been received. Based on our calculation, you can extend the duration for 1 hour, 17 minutes and 36 seconds.Taking into account the initial 20 minutes, your maximum duration is 1 hour, 37 minutes and 36 seconds.]
[We will repeat the warning: Your maximum duration is 1 hour, 37 minutes and 36 seconds. If the clone is still alive after the duration, it will be regarded as a breakthrough failure....Please proceed with the next step: Selecting the breakthrough attribute.]
Sheyan solemnly said:
"I choose Physique...."
He stopped for a moment to steel his resolve:
"...and Strength! A dual-attribute breakthrough!"
[You have chosen a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough! Your clone will receive extra bonuses! Your breakthrough difficulty will significantly increase! Are you sure you want to do this?]
"Yes!"
By the time Sheyan finished with his selections, the platform reached the bottom. In front of him was an oval portal s.h.i.+ning with a cold red light.
[Contestant No. 1018. When you step into this portal, all your current data will become the blueprint for the clone! The clone will possess everything you possess, except for your innate ability!]
Sheyan asked without much emotion in his voice:
"Will the clone have my servant, Jinkuang?"
[Data checking in progress. The clone will have your servant Jin...please wait. Data error. Data checking in progress. Self-testing program activated!]
[Warning! Warning! Unknown error detected. Follow-up plan initiated.]
[Unfortunately, Contestant No. 1018, you cannot summon your servant Jinkuang after the trial commences."]
Sheyan"s expression showed that he was not surprised. This was the first trick he thought of. If he could summon Jinkuang, he could take off all his belongings, hand them over to Jinkaung, enter naked, then summon Jinkuang in the trial area to take back all his equipments. He believed that Jinkuang was a pretty OP existence, so that was his preferred solution. Unfortunately.... it failed.
However, Sheyan was not discouraged by this situation. His mouth curled into a sneer and continued:
"If my limbs are handicapped before I enter the trial area, will the clone show the same handicap? If I enter the trial area in a near-death state, will the clone be in the same state?"
This was Sheyan"s second experiment. After all, the only advantage a contestant had were the first few seconds. If a contestant entered in a near-death state, they would have very little HP left. The contestant could use an honorary dosage as soon as they entered the area. That way, they could make themselves more powerful.
Even if the clone had a bonus to its HP, but if the base value was small, the bonus would not amount to much. One only needed to attack with a strong burst weapon such as a heavy-duty sniper rifle in those initial 3 seconds to offset the opponent"s advantage by a large amount. With the weapons Sheyan had seen, a contestant could suppress the clone"s recovery effect or even kill the clone in one combo.
Soon, the merciless notification of the nightmare realm appeared again:
[You will be restored to your peak condition the moment you enter the trial world. Therefore, your hypothetical cases are invalid.]
Sheyan"s backup plan was ruthlessly foiled by the realm again.
Logically speaking, Sheyan should be feeling very anxious and depressed, but he actually looked quite calm. He asked with a composed voice:
"Among the items and abilities that I have right now, is there any that can"t be carried or copied into the trial area?"
[Scanning in progress.... Your items pa.s.sed the check. Your ability: Pestilence Monarch/Poison Monarch is something of very minute probability. It can only be partially copied.]
Sheyan visibly got nervous in the process of waiting for the answer. After hearing the answer from the nightmare realm, he nodded hard and without saying anything else, he stepped into the elliptical portal that s.h.i.+ned with a cold red light.
The dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial began now!!
A cold wind blew on the white snow.
He was on a snowy peak. Although the peak was tall, it was not steep. The surrounding slopes were relatively flat with no steep cliff of ice in sight. If it wasn"t because it was covered in snow, it would look quite similar to a sand mountain in the desert.
All around below the snowy peak, he could see large plains being formed. On the plains were short, soft plants - wormwood, fescue, tussock gra.s.s, bentgra.s.s, alpine bistorts, horse wormwood, etc. The ends of the plains were surrounded by a layer of boundless void.
The void had some red patterns in it. It was obvious that falling into the void would not be desirable. Luckily, the edges of the plains had a strong translucent barrier to prevent this.
Sheyan stood at the top of the snowy peak, but he couldn"t move yet. About five meters in front of him, there was a clear red light that was moving rapidly, like an electrical welding torch. Out of the light sprayed out an outline identical to Sheyan in the air. It became another copy of Sheyan that looked no different from him!
A mysterious feeling emerged in Sheyan"s heart as he looked at the clone in front of him. When the clone was completed, his eyes were still closed. At the moment, he was still a fighting machine with no soul.
But soon, a large amount of images floated up from Sheyan"s head. The images contained various memory fragments of his previous battles and thoughts. They were all copied by the nightmare s.p.a.ce and injected into the clone"s mind!
"The clone could even be infused with my past combat experiences and reasoning method?" Sheyan took a deep breath. "As expected of a powerful opponent of a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial."
The series of copying activities came to an end. The merciless voice of the nightmare realm once again resounded in his ears:
[Warning: The battle will start in thirty seconds. Please prepare yourself, Contestant No. 1018]
[Warning: Your opponent, the clone, has double your current base attributes, 1000% of your maximum HP, 100% of your item, 95% of your ability and 90% of your combat awareness, combat intelligence and combat experience. When you feel that you are unable to defeat the clone, you can immediately stop the battle through the nightmare imprint.]
[Hint: Once the clone enters the battle, he needs 5.7 seconds to get familiar with his new body. Therefore, he will be in a stunned state for 5.7 seconds. Please use this opportunity well. However, because you are attempting a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough, if you cause severe damage to the clone, the pain may shorten the stun duration.]
"5.7 seconds, that"s more than what I expected. But causing pain will shorten this duration?" Sheyan sneered. "d.a.m.n, even the only good news had a bad news to it. But do you think that"s enough to take me down? I will decide my own fate!"
[The battle begins in: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!]