Chapter 17 "I Am the Weak"
After finishing his noodles and returning home, that wonderful throbbing in his heart had finally dissipated, and Ren Suo finally calmed down enough to understand what had happened.
If Ren Suo hadn't guessed incorrectly, it must have been because of the "Key Search System." When he was outside, the person who gave him that throbbing sensation must have been someone who could acquire a key.
Until now, Ren Suo was still unclear about which people could produce keys, but from the examples of Mo Zhaolong and Li Dan, he knew that the individuals capable of generating keys were at least stronger than him, an ordinary college student who hardly excelled in any areas—this indicated that the "Armed Seizure" route was practically unfeasible.
Unless he could obtain some better rewards in the game.
Thus, Ren Suo didn't dwell on it, and instead continued to progress in the game "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters." After reaching the checkpoint at 2048 meters, Ren Suo realized that his speed had increased a lot, previously he could only move up to 2 meters in a minute, but now he was able to ascend 2 meters in half a minute.
The prerequisite was that the Seeker kept moving.
At this stage, the platforms on the screen were not as dense as the first two thousand meters had been, and Ren Suo had already died once—he hadn't used enough force, and the Seeker didn't jump to the correct platform, there was no platform below either, so the Seeker went straight down to the bottom of the screen, straight to a game over, having to start again from the checkpoint.
Another time, Ren Suo controlled the Seeker to jump, this time he used too much force and overshot, just as the Seeker was about to fly out and fall off due to a slight overshoot, the stick figure Seeker suddenly turned around and grabbed the edge of the platform.
Ran Suo then remembered that the Female Seeker had a setting "Female: Can react quickly in a crisis," but having watched the stick figure for dozens of hours, he had forgotten that he was controlling a female character...
When the Seeker had climbed to about 3000 meters, Ren Suo discovered a hidden piece of information: as the direction of the Seeker's movement changed, some of the white markers on the altitude bar would turn gray.
When the Seeker jumped to the left, the marker at 5896 meters would turn gray; when the Seeker jumped to the right, the marker at 6853 meters would turn gray.
This meant that there were two diverging paths: the checkpoints when moving left were completely different from those when moving to the right, and once one path was chosen, the checkpoints of the other path could not be activated unless he returned to the checkpoint at 2048 meters.
Ren Suo arbitrarily chose a path, and when he reached 4000 meters, his speed increased again, and if he moved at full speed, he could climb 5 meters in a minute.
However, the journey became increasingly difficult, and it was the first time Ren Suo encountered a 'trap'.
It was a gray platform with a color not as deep as the other platforms, when the Seeker jumped over to it, the platform suddenly crumbled, Ren Suo instinctively pressed the jump again, and the Seeker managed to jump up, just able to grab the edge of another platform, narrowly surviving.
Ren Suo took a sharp breath, if he had fallen, then these ten hours would have been for nothing...
Ten hours!?
Ren Suo looked up and realized it was almost midnight, he quickly took out his phone to order some takeout to continue playing—after all, he had only woken up in the afternoon, so he was still very alert.
By the time he reached 4500 meters, Ren Suo saw other people.
Other stick figures.
These stick figures didn't move like the Seeker, jumping directly on the platforms, but rather were walking another path not displayed on the screen, moving upwards at a slow pace.
The Seeker passed by them, but when the Seeker crossed paths with them, these stick figures stopped.
"This is a fully equipped team, and they are discussing you,"
the game prompted with this strange message.
Ren Suo paused for a moment and seeing that they were not moving, he decided to continue jumping upwards.
The path behind also had those gray platform traps, but they were not especially difficult to deal with. But when he reached 4800 meters, he saw another group of stick figures coming from behind, but unlike the previous group, this group of stick figures moved very quickly, whizzing past Seeker.
Ren Suo saw that these stick figures seemed to be seated on some kind of vehicle, apparently a car...
"Meow meow meow?" Ren Suo was flabbergasted, "Is there such an operation?"
Just when Ren Suo thought he might have missed some location and failed to obtain this type of vehicle, the group of stick figures drove back.
'Need help?' a dialogue box from the stick figures popped up.
Then, the dialog options that Ren Suo loved to see appeared:
① 'No need.'
② 'No, thanks.'
...
That was all.
"What kind of options are these!" Ren Suo rantend wildly, "They all mean 'no'!"
However, Ren Suo found that after selecting a dialog option, it wasn't executed immediately; he still had to press [Confirm], and he could choose another dialog option at this time.
So the Truth Seeker said: 'No need, no thanks.'
The stick figures' convoy remained stationary, but as Ren Suo guided the Truth Seeker to proceed upward, they left as well.
Finally, at 4 AM, Ren Suo managed to control the Truth Seeker to reach the 5896-meter record point!
Reaching a record point felt like completing a major life goal for Ren Suo, which relaxed him completely.
Interestingly, the record point at 5896 meters was different from the one at 2048 meters; the platform at the record point—spanning the whole screen, ensuring no one would fall off—had many other stick figures.
This record point had its own unique name: Base Camp.
Those stick figures seemed to be very surprised to see the Truth Seeker, coming over and continuously popping up speech bubbles. However, the speech bubbles appeared and vanished so quickly that Ren Suo couldn't see what was written.
Ren Suo put down the controller and went to sleep. He didn't wake up until 11 AM the next day, only to feel so hungry he could eat himself, so he hurried downstairs to grab a bowl of noodles to satisfy his stomach. The lady downstairs saw him and immediately said, "Two large bowls of beef brisket zhajiangmian, right?"
Ren Suo was also a bit surprised at how voracious his appetite had become recently. Although he was a bit of a homebody, he wasn't overweight, and his appetite had skyrocketed lately.
Returning home to continue the challenge in "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters," Ren Suo found that at the 5896-meter record point's large platform, the stick figures were no longer crowding around the Truth Seeker.
After playing for two days, Ren Suo realized that this game seemed to possess a unique kind of magic power. Although the Truth Seeker could only jump, how hard and in which direction to jump required skill.
For example, before reaching the platform at the 5896-meter record point, Ren Suo encountered a brittle gray platform that was in the way. If he wanted to ascend safely, he would have to detour a bit into the unknown to the right. However, Ren Suo chose to take on the gray platform directly. He made the Truth Seeker jump onto the gray platform and, before it shattered, he immediately prepared for the next jump, achieving a Double Jump!
The physical energy bar was barely enough, but this challenging method was indeed exhilarating!
Now that the journey was more than halfway completed, and each of his jumps almost certainly raised him a meter in altitude, Ren Suo was very excited:
"Good, I'm going to master this game today!"