And just as the voice said, Eulers trial began.
Michael watched as the barren world before him transformed. The gray ground turned into solid earth, and several rivers and lakes began to emerge in between. The shape of the world remained relatively flat, without any mountains or hills. Despite the abundance of fertile soil and water, no vegetation could be seen around the world. The display that Michael used to choose his planet and scriptures also started to disappear and was replaced by a small wooden house. All around, the world resembled a custom-edited planet from a video game.
And the world wasn't the only thing changing. In the sky, another giant display emerged.
Participants left: 1.000.000
Michael was unable to move and could only watch as the changes occurred. But he still felt the wonder of the changing world in front of him. He could not fathom the authority of the aliens who brought him here.
Wow, that is the power of the people behind the scenes. Changing the entire world with probably a snap of their fingers. Powerful enough that I'm completely at their mercy. Well, that was already clear from the moment I got teleported here.
As Michael was lost in his thoughts, the world finally stopped changing and Michael could finally breathe in the air of the world where he would be staying for possibly the rest of his life.
What is that? The air here seems so refreshing. After growing up away from the city I thought I knew what fresh air feels like, but this is an entirely different level. The air felt like it could strengthen Michael's body and soul, it felt like just breathing was the most comfortable thing imaginable.
And so, overwhelmed by the comforting air, Michael just stood still in one place and breathed slow and steady. I have all the time in the world anyway I will enjoy this moment for a bit, and then start to get my crops ready.
About one hour later:
Michael felt refreshed and as calm as ever after enjoying the comforting air around him. While standing around, he could finally think calm and clear about what had happened to him, and how he would try to overcome this trial. He also took a good look around his environment.
This world looks perfect for my ambitions. Enough water from the lakes, fertile land to sow my crops and hopefully all the tools needed to farm and cook.
First things first, I have to locate all the belongings I chose, as well as my supplies provided by choosing this planet.
So Michael headed to the best option to store his belongings: The small house roughly 400 meters away.
He walked through the crumbly, loose soil and a river that flowed beside him. There was only the sound of his footsteps through the earth and the faint whisper of the light wind.
It seemed as if there was no life on his planet. Just him and the seeds he was going to plant.
With his newfound motivation, he arrived at the wooden house and opened the small wooden door. The house seemed mostly empty except for a bed, a kitchen and a small table with a ring on it. Even the kitchen was strange, as it only contained a stove and an oven.
Overall the house was big enough for him to live in comfortably, but there was no sight of his chosen scriptures, as well as his other surplies.
Where is all my stuff? I only have a kitchen but no crops or everything else I selected. Without my food supplies for the year, I won't even survive three weeks.
Michael started to look around the house for his items but found nothing except the ring on top of his table. Why is there even a ring here? I understand table and bed, but a ring just doesn't make any sense.
Michael grew more and more agitated and panicked as he couldn't get his supplies. Maybe there was some error regarding my world. I should try to ask someone, maybe the voice who explained the trial will answer. "Where are my chosen surplies and scriptures?!", Michael shouted into the air. And although an answer came, it wasn't from the voice he anticipated. "The supplies are as per rule 34, sector c, inside the provided storage ring."
Michael was surprised as a female robotic voice answered his question. "In the ring?" Michael questioned himself. "No first of all who are you?". "I am the world spirit of the Immortal Spirit World and will be responsible for answering all of the participants questions regarding Eulers trial. Please keep in mind, that answers will be limited to the rules of Eulers trial, and won't contain any information about cultivation, or other knowledge. The participant will only receive an answer if the participant asks a question regarding the rules of the trial." the world spirit answered.
"What is a world spirit? Are you saying that you are the world itself?", Michael asked but after waiting for a bit there was still no answer. Michael asked once more but soon realized that the world spirit would only answer questions regarding the trial.
"Hmm, so can you tell me how I get my stuff out of that ring?", Michael questioned.
"Answering participant: Normally this information would not be given, as it is helpful information to the participant, but after checking the regulations, as per rule 341 sector f, participants who never practiced any sort of cultivation are eligible to receive an instruction manual of how to access the storage ring."
Just after the end of the answer, a piece of paper appeared in front of Michael. On the paper were the following instructions:
Step 1: Hold the ring in your hand or wear it.
Step 2: Concentrate on the ring.
Step 3: Choose to retrieve a specific item by concentrating on it.
Note: Only works when the participant has spiritual energy
Spiritual energy? Do I have any? Well, I need to try and find out anyway.
And so Michael held the ring in his hand and tried to concentrate on it. Surprisingly just a few moments later Michael could somehow sense the contents of the storage ring and selected to retrieve some food. That was easy, Michael thought. As things were going so far I expected to not be able to get anything out of that thing. What a great technology, a simple ring to store all your stuff.
Now as Michael knew how to access the storage ring he started by unloading everything inside it, except the food and water supplies. He got all three of his scriptures, which were massive books, his alchemy oven, some cooking utensils and some apparatus that looked like a slot machine. Ah, this has to be my seed generator, Michael thought as he looked at the machine.
The machine had a display with "known plants", which showed every plant available to Michael and a button "create seed". Michael skipped through all available plants and quickly understood that just as expected, the only plants shown were all already completely known by Michael.
He saw that potato was one of his known plants so he tried to create a seed. He pressed the button, and like a vending machine, a seed got thrown out at the bottom.
Perfect, now I can plant my seeds to survive. After planting my seeds I can look into the books about plants and alchemy, learn new plants, learn how to cook something great with my alchemy oven and live a great life. When I'm bored I can read this cultivation thing and try to learn something new.
Everything considered I made all the right choices. I always knew it, I'm a genius.
With his optimistic approach, Michael started to sow his first potatoes and a new time in his life began.
One year later:
Michael could be seen sitting outside, his house and in front of an enormous farm, of only potatoes. It was in the evening and the display on the faraway horizon still showed that there were still 1.000.000 participants left. Unsurprisingly in this death game, no one dropped out yet.
Michael didn't look too different from the way he started, except for growing a beard and now having long brown flowing hair, he still looked like himself, with even some more muscle on his body.
I'm an idiot, Michael cursed himself. Everything I chose is garbage.
As the year passed and Michael tried out all of his different scriptures, things started to get more difficult than expected.
The plant manual has some useful plants, but to find them I need to read through, 99,9% useless garbage, that is either not edible or some sort of spirit plant I can only use in alchemy. And if I found out one thing in the past year, it is that alchemy has to be a scam. First of all, it is extremely difficult to make a pill. I needed twenty tries to concoct a pill after farming some ingredients, while all of the failed tries turned to unusable, burned, garbage. And the worst part was the pill I did manage to concoct didn't even taste good. It was more like the worst thing I ate in my life.
Maybe other pills will taste good, but if learning just one of the easiest pills takes me this long, I can't imagine how long it will take me until I find something edible. In the alchemy book, it was said to increase my cultivation but I don't even know what cultivation really is, so instead of going through all the stress of concocting pills I will just stay with potatoes.
And the worst choice of all was this cultivation manual. I thought I could learn some interesting alien technology, but all this book said so far was to meditate and let the spirit energy circulate through my body, how incredibly boring. I won't sit the whole day while meditating. This life is even worse than my old life.
But at least I am still alive and have a lot of time left to live. The other participants only have five years of food and water. After those years are over, I can gauge my chances of survival a lot better. If there are around 10.000 people left, I think I might have a chance with my tactic. Although surviving 100 years of only eating potatoes and counting seconds will feel like hell, I still want to get through this and survive.
His thoughts were still optimistic, but at the same time, he grew more mad at the aliens every second. They transported him to this trial where he would die most likely, and now he has to cheer for the death of one million others.
Five years later
Well, that's it, I'm screwed, Michael thought as he looked up to see how many players were left. It had been six years since the start of Eulers trial and Michael hoped that only a few people would cross the five-year barrier, as their food should run out by then. But the harsh reality that was displayed sent Michael into depression.
He looked a bit older but still as lively as ever. One could say that he was in the best shape of his life body-wise. But his mentality after another five years of isolation slowly spiraled downwards.
Participants left: 736.159
Only a quarter are out? How are they surviving? Did they all choose the same world as me?
No, it probably has to do something with cultivation. Cultivation here, cultivation there, cultivation everywhere. Alchemy pills are for cultivation, all these manuals I saw while browsing the books are for cultivation. The announcement talked about cultivation, even the plant book talks about cultivation. I think I should start to take cultivation seriously.
In the past five years, Michael slowly understood some things about his scriptures and the trial. Everything is somehow tied back to cultivation, and cultivation can strengthen his body and mind. The spirit energy from the air could be absorbed and strengthen his cultivation, and it seemed like cultivation could somehow substitute even water and food. It probably could even increase the lifespan of oneself.
But this was not a good thing for Michael, he could guess by the words of the world spirit, that most people participating in this trial already knew cultivation and would of course be better at advancing their cultivation and therefore living longer.
Thank god that I brought this cultivation manual, now I can at least try to cultivate and live longer. Also, I don't even know how much more lifespan I can get with cultivating. Maybe I can make myself some pills to cultivate faster and see how long I survive. I will just have to wait and cultiwait.
And so Michael started to cultivate while of course still farming potatoes, as well as other herbs for his cultivation. He waited and waited for more people to drop out, for him to get older, for something to happen. But nothing happened.
94 years later
Participants left: 736.157
It had been 100 years since the start of Eulers trial and on one of the planets there said a man, looking around 25 years of age in front of a field of plants. Over the last 100 years he matured, but retained his youthful appearance. His long brown hair waved in the wind and with a now muscular toned body, and silky smooth skin, he looked like a model from Earth. His name of course was Michael and he lost hope of surviving years ago.
In the last 94 years, he familiarised himself with more plants, concocted pills and trained in cultivation.
At this time he also realized that cultivation could do much more than increase life span. It also granted power unimaginable to humans. Although within his cultivation manual, there were only ways to increase cultivation and use the spiritual energy absorbed, even without any martial techniques Michael's body still felt unbelievably strong.
He could run 100 meters in under one second. He could destroy his house with just one punch. The only problem was, he knew that the other participants were cultivators way before him.
It took Michael twenty years until he could live without food and water, while everyone else did it in five. He knew there was no way he could keep up with every single participant in increasing his cultivation. Eventually, he would die just like that, with probably still 700 thousand people left.
But that was not the worst thing for him. Everything he learned in the past 100 years, cultivation and alchemy, was just too boring. He could not imagine doing the same for possibly the next 1000 or more years without breaking.
At the same time, he also thought a lot about his old self back home. It almost felt like a dream after 100 years of this trial.
Yes, he had a home, a loving family and even some friends. Although his parents wanted him to do something against his will, and his friends were mostly not real friends they still existed. Also thinking for all these years he realized, that he was the core issue behind all of his problems back home. He made fake friends because, he did not want to be alone, and never really tried to convince his parents to change their minds about him inheriting the farm. Sure, it was possible that even after the argument the parents would stay stouburn, but he of course could still easily escape his fate if he really wanted to. He was just too lazy and scared to even try, so he blamed it all on outside factors instead of putting any sort of responsibility on himself.
In the past 100 years he swore to himself that if he ever made it back to Earth, he would finally stand up for himself and not for others.
Sadly the current condition made his wish almost impossible.
But although he was sure he could not be the last to survive, he still had one trump card left, one that would be more potent than he ever thought.
They are finally ready! This is finally my way of enjoying this terrible time. I spent 100 years alone in this torture chamber, waiting for something to happen, but only two people dropped out?! And it seems like I won't die anytime soon as well. I don't know how long I will survive but I finally got my ticket to enjoy this.
After around fifty years of cultivating farming and reading his scriptures about plants and alchemy, he found a very interesting plant.
Immortal Spiritgrass of Infinite Enjoyment (ISIE)
Growing Conditions:
....
Maturity Grades and Age:
....
Consuming Effect:
Upon consumption, the spirit grass of enjoyment puts the consumer in a high state. The consumer will feel dazed and happy. It acts like a drug comparable to cannabis, just about 1.000 times stronger. As a side effect, it also strengthens the consumer's cultivation and longs their lifespan.
Note: The effect becomes lesser the higher the cultivation level.
This is it! My ticket to enjoyment and longevity. And it's finally ready after fifty years of growing. This is the perfect plant for me. I get everything I want from this, and after I grow numb to the effect, there are even some pills I can concoct out of this to strengthen the effect.
It does not matter whether my food does not taste good, or I am bored to death by cultivating every day. I still like farming, and now every time I feel bad or bored I just take another dose and will be fine.
Michael quickly harvested the first stalk of ISIE and held it high above his head. The excitement of ending his boredom and the fear of trying a drug for the first time made him tremble a little.
"To all cultivation geniuses out there: Outlast this! And more importantly to whoever did this to me in the first place Fuck You!!!"
Just like that Michael ate his first stalk of ISIE and instantly blacked out, as time around him still passed.